How to Teach Physics to Your Dog

A reading from a chapter of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Similar:Do the Best Professors Get the Worst Ratings?To summarize the findings: because they …AcademiaFBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decadesSo what if a WaPo story about huge flaws…Current_EventsIn April 2000, I was blogging about HTML frames, the future of reading, grammar,…

The Buzz on Electronic Writing: Fiction Goes Digital

In the late-eighties and early nineties, electronic writers wrote hypertext fiction and poetry, the classic example being afternoon, a story by Michael Joyce. In hypertext literature the narrative unfolds through a long series of links that produce different outcomes — but now the shrapnel of the technological explosion includes hundreds of sub-categories, each completely unique.…

Emulators — Good and Otherwise

I’m gearing up to teach a Video Game Culture and Theory course this January.  The first time I taught it, in 2006, it didn’t occur to me that students who were looking for information on, say, Space Invaders, would just play any old flash clone, without being discerning about whether it was a faithful port,…

Handheld Learning 2008 – Steven Johnson, Author

Good overview of the concepts Johnson explores in his book Everything Bad is Good for You.   Similar:The Child –Antoine Bardou-Jacquet –The Child…AestheticsIn January 2000, I was blogging about dancing paperclips, the transience of literary judge… In January 2000, I was blogging abou…BooksWhat’s an environmental issue? — Gus SpethI don’t know the provenance of this…

Is it time for 'The Simpsons' to 'g'oh'?

The CNN story about The Simpsons limping on after jumping the shark is pretty much what I expected, but I’m blogging it for the infographic. Not quite as epic or information-dense as Minard’s famous map of Napoleon’s march to and from Russia, but still breathtaking. Similar:'Robot Journalist' Out-Writes Human Sports ReporterSports journalism is full of…

Interview: Michael Arnzen

Research is probably where most new writers fail, because it takes a lot of time. You have to research not only the background of your stories — but the whole literary landscape. It takes a full immersion in the culture you hope to address as a writer to join the wider literary conversation of our…

Bizarre Spiral Lights in Norway's Skies

My wife’s theory about the Norway spiral lights is that, during a practice run, Rudolph had a bit too much eggnog, sending Santa’s sleigh into a death spiral. Similar:Your Brain Does Not Work Like a ComputerThe brain-as-computer is a powerful meme…HealthBlood Oath (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 19) Glory to Dax and her three…

Ada Lovelace Origin Story

In honor of my spilling spiced wine on myself at a faculty social, while excitedly responding to a question about Charles Babbage, Matt Hoy sent me a link to this awesome Ada Lovelace webcomic. Similar:Scrape, Scrape, Spam Blog, Have You Scraped My Site?http://youtu.be/GFk8hEQ-jNI Below is …BooksWAOB Audio Theatre Interview — Dennis Jerzhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRMW-77O…CultureNo, Dr. Seuss is…

The Tetris God

I would have trimmed about 20 seconds, or given the two lackeys more to do. Still, “The Tetris God” is worth a chuckle. Similar:Cave Gave Game: Subterranean Space as Videogame Place | Electronic Book ReviewElectronic Book Review just published an…AcademiaStory Pitch: How writers present an article idea to a busy editor I hoped this slide…

Fugard's 'Have You Seen Us?': Looking Within Again

In literature classes, students sometimes privilege author intent to an extent that hampers their ability to interpret literary works. Yes, it is possible to over-analyze anything. And just because there are many possible interpretations of a literary work, that doesn’t mean that every possible interpretation is well-supported by the text. (Occam’s Razor still applies, for…

Google – from friend to foe?

It’s an open debate whether the plan to scan millions of books and make them searchable online will prove the benefit to humanity that Google promises – or hand it a monopoly over certain digital works, as opponents allege. But the consensus is the company fomented an avoidable backlash by forging ahead with its controversial…

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (30 Years Ago)

Yes, it was pretentious, sterile, and overblown, but it did rejuvenate the franchise, re-introduced us to the Klingons (love their theme music), and the warp effect was awesome.  Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out thirty years ago, Dec 7 1979. I was 11. I had tape-recorded nearly every episode of the series (and I…