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:When she…

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:Beautifying the exterior of the fantasy cruiser from the bedtime stories I used to tell my…PersonalIn April,…

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:I just tried Open Shot Video Editor, a free open source toolFor years I used ScreenFlow, which offer…Current_EventsWhat My Journalism Class Looks Like on Election DayMy journos are out there, gathering news…AcademiaFamily, I Hear You.…

Any excuse for a song. Plot? We don’t need no steenkin’ plot. #AnythingGoes

3/2/11 8:48:24 About to start livetweeting the musical #AnythingGoes. 3/2/11 8:51:09 Bing Crosby, Donald O’Connor. #AnythingGoes 3/2/11 8:51:56 I saw the Gonzaga High School production in the 80s. Haven’t seen is since. #AnythingGoes 3/2/11 8:52:58 Any excuse for a song. Plot? We don’t need no steenkin’ plot. #AnythingGoes Similar:HTML5 Boilerplate: The web’s most popular front-end…

Best Film on Newton’s Third Law. Ever.

I just subscribed to this guy’s YouTube channel. Similar:Headlines matter. Were they migrants, people who happened to be at a migrant center, pedes…Do the headlines encourage empathy, or d…Culture"I’d never heard of this play before now, but I love it." — World Drama studentA gifted graphic design major in my Worl…AestheticsAbout that Cough, Rough, Pony,…