Steampunk Submarine Room

Yes, please, I would certainly like one of those. Thanks for asking. Steampunk Submarine Room » Geeky Gadgets. Similar:Obamacare's broken website cost more than LinkedIn, Spotify combinedMuch of the criticism of Healthcare.gov …CultureInnovative journalism: A game about the rising sea, a podcast about fire, a 20-year Colum…How do you tell a story that people know…CultureAnother…

NASA prepares a Mercury probe for orbit

NASA’s Messenger probe is about 10 days away from parking in an elliptical orbit around Mercury, the innermost planet of our solar system. Messenger has been en route since 2004, making a crazy Spirograph-looking series of orbits around the sun, taking the craft past Venus, and past Mercury three times, and finally heading for orbit…

Define “Digital Humanities”

Digital Humanities is the deliberate, critical application of emerging technology to the study of traditional subjects such as literature, art, philosophy, and language, often (but not always) with a focus on how those traditional fields are now using emerging technology. We are deliberate and critical when we foreground the study of our own digital tools…

Will future generations understand “The Simpsons”?

“Krusty Gets Kancelled” is one of the greatest of all “Simpsons” episodes, but if it were a poem, it would need to have nearly as many footnotes as “The Waste Land” — and the further away from its original air date we get, the truer that’s going to be. "Krusty Gets Kancelled" is one of the greatest…

Doctorow’s take on HarperCollins self-destruct ebooks

What if each ebook came with a black box with wires and a red LED.. Or maybe a computer voice intoning a countdown… HarperCollins has informed libraries that henceforth, ebooks will be sold on the condition that they can only be circulated 26 times before they self-destruct. HarperCollins argues that this reflects the usage characteristics…

Why Twitter’s Quick Bar on iPhone Doesn’t Work

Twitter started out, years ago, as a social service for a common techno-clique who all attended the South by Southwest music conference, so trending topics made sense. But since then, it’s expanded and fragmented into a mass medium made up of non-overlapping micro-communities. Everybody uses Twitter differently, but almost everybody consciously or unconsciously cultivates their…

Sledding in Spring Break Snow

My wife suddenly decided I should be a Good Dad (TM) and take the kids sledding. (I said okay, as long as she was coming along, too. There she is at the bottom of the hill, way in the background.) Our hilly campus was almost deserted, since we’re starting our three-day spring break. Similar:One of…

Did scientists discover bacteria in meteorites? : Pharyngula

I’m looking forward to the publication next year of the discovery of an extraterrestrial rabbit in a meteor. While they’re at it, they might as well throw in a bigfoot print on the surface and chupacabra coprolite from space. All will be about as convincing as this story. Did scientists discover bacteria in meteorites? :…

Feeding a Neighbor’s Lambs

A neighbor invited us over to help feed the lambs they are raising in their garage. (The mother sheep died, and her lambs needed more care than the owners could manage.) The lambs are Piccolo and Brown Sugar. Similar:The geekling is 14 today.PersonalProfessor teaches class of 300 students from his phone while trapped in elevator…

Students Looking for Course Pages

I’ve redesigned my site a little. If you are looking for a course website, please click the “Teaching” menu item. Similar:Man arrested in DC with weapons is released; says he made a mistakeA man arrested at DC checkpoint yesterda…CultureSweet Lenten RegretsThis Lenten evening / Your orphaned feas…AestheticsDonald Trump's chilling escalation of his war with the…