Happy V-Day: Valentines for Journalists

Valentines for Journalists. Similar:Citizen Journalist Thrown Out of City Council Receives $200,000 SettlementKnow your rights as a journalist, and yo…EthicsNASA Just Found a Lost SpacecraftIf movies about space have taught us any…Current_EventsReal or Fake? (News Game)Real or fake? At a time when the reading…EthicsGawker Media Files for Chapter 11 BankruptcyThis is fallout from losing an…

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:Narrow ParsersCreating n00b-friendly interactive ficti…CybercultureComment: Why women taking their husband's name could be about biologyI’m somewhat interested in the topic,…

Google’s Super Bowl Ad: A Romance in Search

I didn’t watch the game, but I did catch the buzz about this ad. Yes, I did tear up. (Wired has details.) Similar:Did you put enough donuts in the elevator shaft of your #steampunk #neovictorian cruiser t…https://youtu.be/lSgv5L0sXtc &nbs…AestheticsNo, this Jeopardy! contestant was not making a white supremacist hand gestureConspiracy theories, knee-jerk tribal th…Current_EventsFacebook Updates News…

The great global warming collapse

It is dangerous to use local weather events (such as a heavy or light winter) to make judgments about global climate. With that caveat, I’m blogging the following because I’ve noted a shift in the online discussion about “global warming,” or the more general “climate change”. This essay does a good job exploring the events…

Obligatory Snowpocalypse Photo

Here’s hoping I left gas in the snow-thrower. Similar:Elsa at noon. College “Intro to Chemistry” in the afternoon. Amy March at night.PersonalFurnished a random nook in the #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser I'm building. Not ha…PersonalDid you like or share that social media post about two Camp Mystic girls found in a tree? From an article in…

Doom Iphone code review.

Fascinating software study of the Doom iPhone port.http://fabiensanglard.net/doomIphone/index.php Similar:Checking sources back in 2006 involved using this *steampunk* contraption.Research Before Google Books AcademiaI can probably remove that link to LycosOn a web page that I posted in Nov 2000 …BusinessDesk trays, with procedural wood materials by Blendermada. #blender3dAestheticsSpace Shuttle Challenger (Destroyed 28 Years Ago Today)I was…

ENG 111: Pop Up Scholarship

Our first few readings in my freshman writing course were personal essays, with a clear narrative.  We read an academic paper today, and there’s another assigned for Friday.  A few students are already reporting feeling a little lost in the detail. I gather this is because they are used to reading textbooks, where all the…

The Videogame History Timeline (beta)

I wish I’d seen this a few weeks ago, before my Video Game Culture and Theory class ended, but it’s still a welcome find. Similar:Mechanical innards for a Steampunk set piece. #Blender3D #greebleshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oChXOu8C…AestheticsLiterature Is Not Data: Against Digital HumanitiesMean technology. Mean, mean technology. …BooksWe Got A Look Inside The 45-Day Planning Process That Goes Into…

Pee-wee Gets an iPad

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman Similar:Why do academics dress so badly? (Answer: they are too happy)I used to wear a suit and tie when I tau…AcademiaBeam me up, Chewie. AmusingAll Sheep MatterCultureNASA | A View From The Other SideA number of people who’ve seen NASA’s an…AestheticsEveryone Should Get an ADoes a bus-driver-training school rank…

"Can We Tape?"

I usually carry a digital voice recorder with me.  In most states it’s legal to record a conversation if all parties consent, although Pennsylvania law requires that all parties to a conversation be notified that a conversation is being recorded. “It is always legal to tape or film a face-to-face interview when your recorder or…