I’ve been on Seton Hill’s summer reading committee for the past couple years. (My suggestion a couple years ago of Little Brother did not make it, and I was rooting for another colleague’s recent suggestion of Ender’s Game. This year we considered The Kite Runner and The Last Lecture, but rejected them as downers. So…
NPR has a story on Emily Dickinson’s local reputation as a gardener. Similar:I'm really enjoying seeing how my students are responding to Hamlet.As part of a class assignment, one stude…AcademiaWho Watches the Watchers (ST:TNG Season Three Episode 4) Rationalist, talky mythbustingRewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….EthicsShen Yun Chinese dance troupeOne of seven touring groups devoted…
I am still looking for a good iPad ebook app. I was frustrated that neither Apple’s iBook app nor Amazon’s Kindle app let you do all of the following: Highlight in multiple colors Type annotations Look up words in a dictionary The B&N app lets you highlight in a single color (gray), and permits both…
One of my students, who is double-majoring in new media journalism and creative writing, is spending a few weeks on a dinosaur dig in Wyoming. She’s turned her academic blog into a travel journal. So far she has written: Thermopolis in Black and White What’s in my Dino Pack? dinoTravel Time dinoTaxi-ing dinoTravel I like…
Let’s begin not with humanity’s love for games, but rather its love for stories. Certainly we can see a trend in certain kinds of art toward the telling of stories in ever deeper and more immersive ways. A few hundred years ago the novel came along, introducing the interior monologue; as time went on, novels…
http://i.imgur.com/P0qkj.jpg Via Jason Scott’s Facebook page. Similar:As a student journo, naturally I covered the visit from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry…I recall just sort of telling the editor…AcademiaTeacher suspended after pro-Trump yearbook photos alteredFree speech is valuable. It’s dangerous …CultureFacebook Hired Journalists to Train Its Trending Topics AlgorithmRecently I noticed an unusually incendia…BusinessTrump Briefly Glanced…
Authors and publishers have besieged Google’s plan to digitize the world’s books, accusing the company of copyright infringement. The legal limbo that has tied up a settlement of their lawsuits is hanging a question mark over universities’ plans to build centers for research on the books Google scanned from their libraries. Another complication: Worrisome questions…
“We’re trying to detect a crime before it has occurred.” OK, roll the sci-fi thriller “Minority Report,” in which Tom Cruise and other “pre-crime” cops use psychic visions to arrest murderers before they kill. Or maybe “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” a George Clooney comedy inspired by real military experiments with supposedly psychic soldiers.…
I’ve been using a Kindle DX for about a year, and an iPad for about a month, with both Amazon’s Kindle app and Apple’s iBook app. (Update, June 2: I posted about the Barnes & Noble iPad app, as well.) I’m excited that all full-time SHU students will have iPads next year, though I’m frustrated that…
Reblogging this excellent set of ProfHacker productivity tips on Evernote. Similar:I Hate Your BlogI hate your blog. Your recipe for vegan …AmusingBack in the MLAAs the humanities decline in the United …AcademiaLego TimelineThe Lego brick system was patented 50 ye…AestheticsBackground for Trump's remarkable pivot to a pro-mask stance; via right-leaning Forbes and…Background for Trump’s remarkable…
I am the opposite of a foodie. As I’ve aged, I have had to discipline myself to fill up with a plate of salad before I go through the buffet line, but if it stops me from being hungry, it’s good. Nevertheless, I did stop and look twice at this story. “The table is very…
After hearing that the 16th-century astronomer Copernicus was to be reburied with honors in a Polish ceremony, I checked the Wikipedia entry. Woah! Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist,[3] Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Among his many responsibilities,…
Using my iPad, I can’t seem to copy and paste an excerpt, so I’ll just recommend Ian Bogost’s essay. http://www.bogost.com/writing/we_think_in_public_1.shtml Similar:Emily Short's advice on writing great game protagonistsAt GDC 2015, noted interactive fiction g…CybercultureMr. President, stop attacking the pressReagan recognized that as leader of the …CultureWhy I disagreed with my students who said, "That was…
The death of my father-in-law, a hard-working and devoted family man who dreamed of retiring near a Civil War battlefield. The leak in the roof. (The roof is still under warranty, but the roofer will have to climb into the crawlspace while it is raining in order to see what he needs to do.) Submitting…
Attending a memorial service for my wife’s aunt, Julia Young, whose backyard and swimming pool were the heart of my wife’s extended family. Visiting Bushy Run Battlefield with the family. My daughter falling in love with the Drawing Pad app, which costs about as much as a package of cheap markers. Waking up Sunday morning…
I’m still learning the quirks of the iPad, which has turned out to be mostly fascinating, and a little frustrating. Mike Arnzen sent me a link to Jakob Nielsen’s recent column on iPad usability. Yes, the iPad works intuitively, but each designer’s intuition is just a little different. With my brand new gadget, I don’t…
I just donated the cost of a cafeteria meal. I’d rather have my stomach be grumbling a little over a missed lunch than sick over the latest Facebook shenanigan. Similar:I let her tend the rabbits.Great production of a very moving story….BooksIndiscretion #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 5) Kira teams up with a rival to…
Jason Scott continues teasing us all as we await the delivery of Get Lamp (and the inventory of goodies to be found within). Coin 0001 is about to be shipped to Don Woods. Similar:The secret history of “Y’all”: The murky origins of a legendary Southern slang wordThe Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is u…CultureModular components to…
Burdened as they are with these “legacy” print costs, newspapers typically spend about 15 percent of their revenue on what, to the Internet world, are their only valuable assets: the people who report, analyze, and edit the news. Varian cited a study by the industry analyst Harold Vogel showing that the figure might reach 35…
From Thrilling Tales (where the future is retro). Ambushed in the Unknowable Vacuum Tube Preserved in the Ultimate Star The Women of Pohl’s Meteors The Satellite from the Equation Hovering Artifact The Poisonous Cat of Space The Comet of Gernsback’s Pool Captives of the Eldritch Behemoth Creature that Blasted Phobos Men of the Unlikely Doctor…