Happy V-Day: Valentines for Journalists

Valentines for Journalists. Similar:Police, citizens and technology factor into Boston bombing probeIn addition to being almost universally …Current_EventsIs your child texting about recursive acronym palindromes? Is your child texting about recursive …AmusingAdorable Dolphin encounter makes Texas sloth video go viralMy social media feed just featured adora…AmusingSummer Theater Camp Photos: "Patrice" in "13" My 11yo performed…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:Wendy's Bests Internet Troll, Then Unwittingly Posts Completely Unrelated, Obscure Racist …I fixed the clickbaity title for you. A …BusinessAs Twinkle Twinkle is to Suzuki musicians, so is a wooden shipping crate to CGI modelers. …https://youtu.be/diQF9buONqY I…

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…

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:Another delightful caricature by Rebecca ScassellatiAestheticsI may or may not make a zapping sound under my breath while phasering your ticket. @prime_… AestheticsTraces of ScribesBook historian Irene O’Daly notes that t…AcademiaBecause words matter,…

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:Report to bay 3, where tea will be served as the gondola delivers you to the planet's surf… AestheticsPICT Classic Theatre brings The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll to the airwavesI’m proud of the daughter for her involv…CultureHow to create a magazine: 5 tips from top designersCreative…

Doom Iphone code review.

Fascinating software study of the Doom iPhone port.http://fabiensanglard.net/doomIphone/index.php Similar:Good example of ‘do NOT remove things from photos.’Hat tip to my former student Kiley Fisch…BusinessMake America Meme Again! Create your own Trump executive order.Now all the powerful visual rhetoric of …AmusingEven in the U.S., Chinese Students May Have Tiananmen ‘Amnesia’But now that he was at college…

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:A picture of puffy white clouds floating in a blue skyAestheticsWhy I disagreed with my students who said, "That was easy!" “That was easy!”   Today th…AcademiaWhat Grammar and Style Checkers MissTeaching students to write does not mean…AcademiaFirst Evidence That Social Bots Play a Major Role in Spreading…

"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…