Happy V-Day: Valentines for Journalists

Valentines for Journalists. Similar:Soldiers of the Empire #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 21) Worf joins General Ma…Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir scolds Marto…AmusingCaptain’s Holiday (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 19) Picard’s Archeologica…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….AmusingMy Parents (aged 72 and 78) Demonstrate a Ballroom Dance PoseThis is how my parents finish their Arge…AestheticsMy understanding…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:Kitchen utensils for my steampunk villain's hideout. #Blender3D. There’s nothing particularly steampu…Aesthetics‘Broken Age’ ReviewThis will be my self-reward when I finis…CybercultureShatoetry iPhone app lets you put… words… in… William Shatner's… mouthWilliam Shatner and technology go way ba…AestheticsMy…

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:Why Teachers, Parents, and Society at Large Have Destroyed Kids’ Love of LearningI have experimented with rewarding stude…CultureThe Crucible, Geyer…

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:Is Google Making Us Stupid?Nicholas Carr, in The Atlantic: As the …BooksBlewsMicrosoft researchers discuss Blews, whi…CybercultureThe Secret Power Of Black TwitterA recent Pew study (Smartphone Ownership…CybercultureGames as Text and K12 Social Studies Rather…

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:Flying Saucer Irony AmusingI just bought Diamond City.GamesHarper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, dies aged 89Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a M…Books“Thank you for being kind.” —Friday afternoon email from a student who’d been a little sal…PersonalThe problem I just learned about calls for…

Doom Iphone code review.

Fascinating software study of the Doom iPhone port.http://fabiensanglard.net/doomIphone/index.php Similar:Deadline seems to have briefly published, then taken down, story that says Pence has teste…Deadline seems to have briefly published…Current_EventsThe Other 21st Century Skills User Generated Education.AcademiaMy meme about the distracted boyfriend memeAmusingThe problem with blog comments, in 5 images.After I read Mark Sample’s blog post “Wh…AcademiaWhat…

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…

Pee-wee Gets an iPad

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman Similar:Another 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blender3dartAestheticsHiggs and Englert Are Awarded Nobel Prize in PhysicsBeautiful, beautiful science writing by …Current_Events"Know that I glory in this nose of mine."Was browsing YouTube for a few of my fav…AestheticsFacebook Ad Refreshes Interrupt the Composition ProcessSo I’m trying to…

"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…