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:Modular support craft from the #neovictorian #steampunk bedtime stories I used to tell my …Modular support craft from the #neovicto…AestheticsResults of the 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition The 18th Annual Interactive Fiction…

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:Everybody Dies (Shakespearean Tragedy Infographic) The image (by Magee and Griffin) is an…AestheticsFor News Outlets Squeezed From the Middle, It’s Bend or BustHundreds of thousands of people on Faceb…BusinessTrektacular Google DoodleAmusingPortofess”If people can confess on Oprah, Phil an…EthicsJournalists dream of puns like this.AmusingRethinking TV news, Part III: First, kill the stand-upI’ve told…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:Source: Wenner Declined Resignation from Rolling Stone Deputy EditorAccording to a source inside Rolling Sto…Current_EventsCarolyn will portray Cosette Saturday at 2pm with 70 talented Stage Right castmates.The teen summer camp production of Les M…CultureLocal News in 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…

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:When He Clicked the Link, You Won't Believe How Disappointed He WasAuthors of overhyped link text are like …CybercultureThere's nothing…

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:Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, dies aged 89Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a M…BooksLego goes steampunkBe still, my nerdy heart. Steampunk —…AestheticsMore rehearsing. More dancing. PersonalWhy are sports in trouble in the U.S.? Because we didn’t do the work. Hard-hitting column from Sally…