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:Elly Noble Reflects on Stage Right's New "Snow White"What’s it like on your first day rehears…CultureMy 20-year-old Java Program Is Was Broken!So a harmless little Java program I wrot…CybercultureThe woman…

Paedomorphic flightlessness and taxonomic affinities of an enormous Recent bird

  Similar:FULL BLOOM at Latrobe’s Olde Main, Aug 30-Sep 2.CultureOh the Overthinks You Can Overthink: Horton the Elephant, the Wickersham Brothers, and Mas…Yesterday, I performed in a school matin…AcademiaCreative writing majors getting rich as demand skyrocketsSee, it’s funny, because poets need to s…AmusingThe Most Epic Demo in Computer History Is Now an OperaThis is nice,…

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:Giving Obsolete Books an Afterlife as Theatre PropsOnce, someone really cared about these o…AestheticsThe Six Things That Make Stories Go Viral Will Amaze, and Maybe…

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…

Apple iBook Reader Lacks "Go Back" Button

Since Seton Hill is giving iPads to all full-time students, I have been looking at the comparative features of several eBook readers. Right now, the Kindle app for the iPad looks good, because it offers notes and highlighting, but it lacks an iintegrated pop-up dictionary, which severely hurts is usefulness to student readers. I like…

LCARS GuideLine

Insanely detailed analysis of the computer interface designed for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bracercom.com The LCARS Frame Here are the common fame structures, notice I did not segment it but kept it continuous for the number of segments in a frame is up to the number of options you want your application to display…