Pressure-cooker kindergarten

Our decision to homeschool began when we moved from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania with a five-year-old, and found there was no option for half-day kindergarten. We decided the move was stressful enough, and since school attendance wasn’t mandatory until age 7, we decided to handle the afternoon naps, storytimes, and playing-with-blocks ourselves. As long as our…

Sweaters from Rover?

From Awful Library Books. For more schadenfreud, see Cake Wrecks, Photoshop Disasters, and Fail Blog. Similar:ifMUD IF discussion | Emily Short's Interactive StorytellingEmily Short on the limitations of parser…CybercultureAre Grading Trends Hurting Socially Awkward Kids? One might argue that the new emphasi…CultureIt started with a ride down an escalator and ended with a press conference…

On the Edge of Math and Code

Great stuff from Mark Marino… not only is the content fascinating, but the blog-sized presentation, for discusison, of a fundamental theoretical concept is a great example of what the blogging medium can do for (and to) scholarship. Item for today: = In Donald Knuth and Luis Trabb Pardo‘s article on the history of computers, the…

Margin of Error

I’m gearing up to introduce my journalism students to a news project that requires a basic knowledge of math. I don’t want to make it too frustrating to them, but I do want to emphasize how easy it is to be misled by the math. Margin of Error deserves better than the throw-away line it…

Teaching the Holocaust

I assigned book one of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale to a “Writing About Literature” class, the designated writing-intensive course for our English majors. The students discussed the abrupt ending, the use of ethnic stereotypes, and of course the comic book medium itself. One student’s “Hearing through Yiddish… Seeing in Ink…” is particularly thoughtful. About a…

Does anyone like 3-D?

Movie critics are sometimes asked why all movies cost the same to view, even though some may have cost $100 million to make, and others $500,000. It’s a reasonable question. I suppose the reasoning is that you get about two hours of movie either way. Now 3-D has provided exhibitors with a subterfuge to force…

Balloon Boy Dad: "Absolutely No Hoax"

When Heene appeared, he instead simply displayed a box into which he invited the media to submit questions, to be answered this evening. —CBS Well, he’s managed to extend his fame by another 15 minutes. Similar:Family, I Hear You. I Love You. Go Away. This Weekend, I'm Marking Papers.No, I don’t want to see the…

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Jaw-droppingly cool– though it probably helps if you’ve ever worked with Flash. Animator vs. Animation Similar:Seton Hill Student Journalists Launch Local Election Coverage Students in my journalism class are pu…AcademiaProgress on a customizable "[E] to Activate" system (Visual Scripting, Unity3D)https://youtube.com/shorts/-X8eBT5QoPY …CybercultureMake a date with #HeartOurArt at The Westmoreland Museum of American ArtWhile our daughter is…

Alright, already! Sheesh.

  Similar:Facebook Spot-tests New Local News FeedI have no reason to trust Facebook to fi…BusinessDatalore (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 12) Data's bro wants to be with a big crystal tr…In “Datalore,” an encounter with Data’s …CultureInteresting use of A.I. in a radiology journalMedical doctors and scholars Raneem Bade…AcademiaI am at that stage of life…

The End of the Email Era

When people can more easily fire off all sorts of messages–from updates about their breakfast to questions about the evening’s plans–being able to figure out which messages are truly important, or even which warrant a response, can be difficult. Information overload can lead some people to tune out messages altogether. Such noise makes us even…

The first action heroine

In the figure of the coltish, resolute Sigourney Weaver, Alien may just be the film that overhauled the old, unreconstructed horror genre and dared to put a woman centre-stage. Because make no mistake: a horror movie is what Alien is. “It’s basically a haunted house film,” explains the critic David Thomson. “The only difference is…

Tips on Writing a Literary Book Review

I’ve asked students in my “Writing about Literature” class to write a book review, in order to establish a connection to the literary world outside the classroom. The Purdue Online Writing Lab has a brief handout, Writing a Book Review, which begins by explaining the difference between a “book report” (written for the teacher who…