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,…
Good overview of the concepts Johnson explores in his book Everything Bad is Good for You. Similar:15 Times "Filler Text" Became a Journalist's Worst EnemyIt doesn’t happen often but when filler …AmusingToo Short a Season (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 15) When an old admiral youthens, shows…Rewatching ST:TNG. I was underwhelmed…HistoryTimes photo staffer's invention:…
I completely missed this, which I stumbled across via the Reeves Library blog. Previously, we only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition…
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:Samaritan Snare (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 17)(Rewatching Star Trek:…
Some interesting synergy in my feed reader this morning. The hidden story of the 3D engine – by the people who write them Videogames are beautiful now. It’s not the figurative beauty of yore – the iconic charm of Pac-Man, the elegiac simplicity of the vector-mapped space craft in Elite. Modern games are edging toward…
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…
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:Korean News Station Pokes Fun at KTVU with Fake American Pilot Names After Southwest Airli…This is certainly a joke, but it’s funni…AmusingFathers' Day: Showing "The Princess Bride"My…
Santa, enraged, kills Ensign Jones and attacks the Enterprise in his sleigh. As Scotty works to keep the power flowing to the shields, Kirk and Bones infiltrate Santa’s headquarters. With the help of the comely and lonely Mrs. Claus, Kirk is led to the heart of the workshop, where he learns the truth: Santa is…
You can mute the sound during the annoying advertisement. The delivery of this segment is as good as the premise, but as you can tell from the picture, Palin gets her chance in front of the bongos, too. Similar:If You Check the Source of an Inspirational Prayer You Shared on Social Media, You Might B…I…
I just got an e-mail from the university saying that Bob Mendler, a regular guest speaker of our National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, has died. At age 13, he was forced into Nazi slavery, and survived the death of dozens of his immediate family members. In 2008, a blogger posted a detailed account of…
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:You have 20 minutes before the sun blows upThis charming game focuses on exploring …AestheticsHow it feels to watch a user…
Rhetorician and ethicist Stephen E. Toulmin has died. While I haven’t been able to fit his full system into my freshman writing courses, I did create a brief handout on the Toulmin method. Arguing against the absolute truth advocated in Plato’s idealized formal logic, Toulmin said that truth can be relative. Historical and cultural contexts,…
I would have trimmed about 20 seconds, or given the two lackeys more to do. Still, “The Tetris God” is worth a chuckle. Similar:What It Was Like to Watch the Beatles Become the BeatlesBeyond their music itself, their greates…CultureAdobe Shockwave interfereres with my system, blocks my attempts to remove it, and replaces…Does Adobe Shockwave fit…
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…
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…
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…
“The idea that a lot of people have of Wikipedia is that it’s some emergent phenomenon–the wisdom of crowds, swarm intelligence, that sort of thing… like we’re a lot of ants, working in an anthill,” Jimmy Wales, the site’s co-founder, has said. “It’s kind of a neat analogy, but it turns out it’s actually not…
These dandelion children–equivalent to our “normal” or “healthy” children, with “resilient” genes–do pretty well almost anywhere, whether raised in the equivalent of a sidewalk crack or a well-tended garden. Ellis and Boyce offer that there are also “orchid” children, who will wilt if ignored or maltreated but bloom spectacularly with greenhouse care…. Gene variants generally considered misfortunes (poor Jim, he got…
In Pensylvania, homeshool kids have to take standardized tests every few years (at grades 3, 5, and 8). When he took the grade 5 exams last year, Peter did very well in all subjects, including math, though he 1) often says he hates math and 2) wastes a lot of time not doing math (staring…
I can’t say I understand, but someone invented every symbol and bit of notation that we use from emoticons to the alphabet. It’s cool to see the story of the need to invent new symbols. via Wired. Similar:Don’t Want to Fall for Fake News? Don’t Be LazyFake news is not a problem caused by tho…CultureAfter…