Doyle Redland Says Goodbye

I’m still mourning the loss of Herman T. Zwiebel.  And now this? Similar:Scratch StatsScratch is a kid-friendly programming sa…CybercultureAttribution, Editorializing and DefamationIn the Nightly Noodle Monthly, former No…Current_EventsThose #fakenews people are at it again. #freepress #journalism #payattentionJournalist Sam Husseini, who had been ho…CultureCan you tell the difference between factual and opinion statements?I got a perfect score. How…

"By Their Sidewalks You Will Know Them"

There are no sidewalks where I live, but if there were, my sidewalk, and my conscience, would be clear. Here’s the first stanza of a five-stanza poem by TImons Esaias. Originally there were eleven CommandmentsMoses, perhaps confused by the unfamiliarsnow, ice, and sidewalk,botched one, and left it out. Similar:The Hidden Subversive Messages of [MGM's Screen…

The ABCs of Adventuring

Thanks for this find, Mark Sample (via Twitter). The ABCs of Adventuringby Admiral Jota, Dylan O’Donnell, G. Kevin Wilson, and Dan Shiovitz.A is for Adventure, the first of them all;B is for Brass lantern, so you don’t take a fall.C is for Compass, an unseen one you keepD is for Drinking, eating and sleep.E is…

What Makes a Great Teacher?

Gripping story of an effort to use data to predict teaching excellence. As Teach for America began to identify exceptional teachers using this data, Farr began to watch them. He observed their classes, read their lesson plans, and talked to them about their teaching methods and beliefs. He and his colleagues surveyed Teach for America…

Why Google Has Become Microsoft's Evil Twin

Google Buzz combined the openness of Twitter with the “whoo-hoo look at me!” aspects of Facebook. The result? A total face plant. —PC World Similar:Should you trust media bias charts? – PoynterTraditional journalism values a focus on…CultureWhat Do Happy Teens Do? Hint: It doesn't involve their phones.I was surprised to see how closely happi…CultureThe Way…

Critical Code Studies Working Group — Colossal Cave Adventure Annotation

This week, I’ll be facilitating a week-long collaborative annotation project, as part of the Critical Code Studies Working Group online conference, on the source code to Crowther’s original Colossal Cave Adventure (a classic text-only computer game from the 1970s). According to Donald Knuth, designer of the “literate programming paradigm,” Colossal Cave Adventure is the “ur-game…

Happy V-Day: Valentines for Journalists

Valentines for Journalists. Similar:See How Vaccines Can Make the Difference in Delta Variant’s ImpactHere’s a great NYT “interactive” story t…DesignTrump and JFK: Masters of New MediaI didn’t use Newsweek’s clickbaity headl…CultureThe Irreversible Damage of Mark Zuckerberg’s SilenceWired, obviously having worked on a thin…BusinessThat's it my boy, throw the clickbait into the water, cast it wide.AmusingCOVID-19…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise shipLast year, three cryptocurrency enthusia…BusinessApple’s new diverse emoji are even more problematic than beforeThis author did a great job articulating…AestheticsAn Hour of Monastic Silence in Media Studies…

Peter West, Trying the Dark: Mammoth Cave and the Racial Imagination, 1839-1869

Interesting examination of role-playing, illusion, identity, and power in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, one small branch of which was the inspiration for the 1976/7 computer game Colossal Cave Adventure. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave was a popular tourist destination for travelers from around the United States and beyond. The cave…

Typography and Textuality

Zach Whalen is turning his dissertation into a blog-web-thing, in the hopes of developing a book-thing. In whatever form it takes, it’s an interesting approach to a textual study of video games. This study asks how the design and configuration of text in videogames contributes to their textuality. I argue that videogames are texts in…

The Superbowl, Technology, and the Police State (1984-2010)

There’s a dissertation in here. All I have the energy to do today is imply a connection. Using a police state to market technology in 1984: Using a police state to market technology in 2010: Similar:Heart of Glory (TNG Rewatch, Season 1 Episode 20)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaAn Academic Conference Where YOU are the…