The Silver Lining

A fan-produced Kings Quest sequel is shut down. What a way to treat your brand’s most loyal followers. Recently, however, ownership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not…

The Internet Bible: The Fall of Eve

Via Similar:Hidden Spaces, New Possibilities I’ve often had dreams about returning …CultureSTEM Education Won't Solve the World's ProblemsI love STEM. My SAT score for math was e…Academia"Chores" — Clip from Snow White: The Musical (Stage Right Greensburg, Sept 2012)Here’s what it sounded like at our first…CultureHow Daydreams and Videogames Can Make Us Confident In Real…

Doyle Redland Says Goodbye

I’m still mourning the loss of Herman T. Zwiebel.  And now this? Similar:In Defense of DistractionIf you’re a fan of lifehacking, you’ll a…CultureVideo-Game Violence Is Now a Partisan IssueScholar and essayist Ian Bogost traces t…CultureFeature: History Lesson: the treasured past of LucasArts point and clicksI played more of the Sierra point-and-c…CultureRequiem for the NewsroomWhen I…

"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:News Feed FYI: Click-baitingIt’s hard for me…

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:This Is How Tyranny Begins (Robert Reich)As the faculty advisor to a college jour…CultureShould you trust media bias charts? – PoynterTraditional journalism values a focus on…CultureThe Unstoppable Rise of the Digital…

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:Jeff Bezos Plan for News: The Washington Post Becomes an Amazon ProductFor the past few months, a group inside …BooksI survived my first day teaching in a masked, hybrid classroom. I survived the first day teaching in…AcademiaOpinion | Defiant, Now Infected: Trump Is a Morality TaleFrom Frank Bruni, NYT It’s a measure…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:Why I Was Wrong About Liberal-Arts MajorsIt’s a little bit shallow and solipsisti…AcademiaI Made My Friends Test the 19th Century’s Hottest Dating Tactic: Reading AloudThere are perfectly good reasons to read…BooksHow Russia’s Disinformation Apparatus Ran Aground in…