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:Riding on Square WheelsStan Wagon, a mathematician at Macaleste…DesignPracticing my Unity3D design skills. Forgot to turn on gravity.https://youtu.be/PkxxiPAmTFg I’m brus…Amusing80 Days: "1872, with a steampunk twist. Phileas Fogg has wagered he…

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:What Each Side of the COVID-19 Debate Should Understand About the OtherI’m very conscious that my lockdown expe…CultureThe Media Bubble is Real — And Worse Than You ThinkIn the early 20th century, print journal…CultureFraternity Announces "Legal Action" Against Rolling Stone”The Rolling Stone article viewed by mil…AcademiaFacebook Announces $300 Million Project, Allegedly to…

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 Vengeance Factor (ST:TNG Rewatch Season Three, Episode 9) Sovereign's Chef Beguiles Ri…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….PopCultUp the Long Ladder (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 18) — The Enterprise Visits the Pl…(Rewatching Star Trek: TNG after a…

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:Games Without Frontiers: Victory in VomitWired reviews Mirror’s Edge When you ru…AestheticsPopcorn MakerI’ll have to look into this. Popc…AestheticsRequiem for the NewsroomWhen I worked at a radio news station in…CultureBihar Boards: An annual…

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:I baked pools of light into the wallpaper, so I can quickly suggest background lighting, s…AestheticsA professor examines why her students seem to act so helpless (essay)This essay on college students acting he…AcademiaCovfefe chaos: What Trump’s typos say about his administrationMisspelled tweets and typos in press rel…CultureHooded…