Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

“I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain…

A Discussion Between Vannevar Bush, K. Eric Drexler, Dennis Jerz, Mr. T, and TJ Chapp

I don’t get to say much, but I’m honored to find myself associated with such company. The following dialogue was fabricated in order to illustrate the viewpoints of Vannevar Bush, K. Eric Drexler, and Dennis Jerz, and how they relate to the website created by TJ Chapp for Engineering Professional Development: Engineering applications to web…

Secret Mouthwash Dance Exposed as Fraud

Recently, while getting the kids ready for bed, my wife picked up the mouthwash, twisted off the lid, and handed the bottle to our daughter. Carolyn, 8, stared in shock. “You didn’t do the dance!” Carolyn has dexterous little fingers that love to pry things apart. When we added mouthwash to the bedtime routine a…

Stop Close Reading

Students almost universally hate close reading, and they rarely wind up understanding it anyway. Forced to pick out meaning in passages they don’t fully grasp to begin with, they begin to get the idea that English class is about simply making things up (Ah yes–the tree mentioned once on page 89 and then never again…

The Poets (Companion to Anthology of Modern American Poetry)

A great collection of bite-sized interpretations. On “Richard Cory”On “Miniver Cheevey” On “They shut me up in Prose”On “Because I could not stop for Death” Similar:Ungrading after 11 weeksMathematics professor Robert Talbot repo…AcademiaWhat Critics of Student Writing Get Wrong  [T]o improve as writers, student…AcademiaBack in the MLAAs the humanities decline in the United …AcademiaSet design…

Mark Twain Celebrated in Hannibal, Missouri

I keep forgetting that I can’t use my iPad to blog with MovableType. The WYSIWYG editor does not work, and I can’t even seem to paste a URL when using the text editor. At any rate, this is a Flash video from USA Today. Similar:Rossum's Universal Robots (Act 2)https://youtu.be/XfOONrGsf2I For my b…CultureThe cultural implications of…

Paedomorphic flightlessness and taxonomic affinities of an enormous Recent bird

  Similar:The world's oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about 'seven sisters' stars may rea…In cultures around the world, myths abou…CultureThe 7 things new college students don’t know that drive professors crazy  While secondary schools pour the…AcademiaConspiracy (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season One, Episode 25) Parasitic Bug Doppelgängers on…Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaReading-Is-Fundamentalists Slaughter 52…

Kings Quest fansite says Activision has un-canceled the fan-produced sequel

Graham of Daventry posted to my blog, with news that the fan-produced Kings Quest, non-commercial sequel has risen from the dead. http://tinyurl.com/2em59… The first release date is scheduled for mid-July. Similar:Bill Murray Admits A Painting Saved His LifeDuring a February press conference in Lo…AestheticsWhat Can You Do With a Humanities Ph.D., Anyway?Victoria Blodgett, director of…

First set of Seton Hill University students get their iPads

Tomorrow afternoon, about 110 full-time students in SHU’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program will be given their university-provided iPads.  In addition, the Seton Hill University Griffin Technology Advantage program includes MacBooks for all incoming undergraduates, as well.  I’ll be observing WPF student teaching demonstrations Thursday through Saturday, so I’ll get an early look at how…