Disney to buy Marvel in $4bn deal

Is your Spidey-sense tingling? Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men.–BBC Similar:R.I.P. Blogging, Killed By Screenshorts Are screenshorts slowly killing bloggi…CybercultureThe CRAFT of News Writing (Clear, Relevant, Accurate, Fair, Timely)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwEZPWSE…CultureThe A.V. Club's AI-Generated Articles Are Copying Directly From IMDbI’ve enjoyed human-written A/V Club arti…BusinessHow to Lie with…

Mugged Shadyside man tracks suspects by GPS

A technology win from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Rather and Potter emptied the victim’s pockets of his cell phone and wallet and told the victim to “get out of here,” police said. The victim ran off while Rather and Potter headed toward Fifth Avenue, police said. When officers showed up at the victim’s home, he was…

Radio News Delivery: How to Sound Like a Radio Broadcaster

Listen to a short news broadcast, such as the NPR Hourly News Summary. These stories will typically include audio clips from newsmakers, and perhaps the noise of crowds or nature. But we’re just focusing on the sound of the radio journalist’s voice. Don’t try to sound like “an announcer.” Forget the barking style of voice that radio announcers always…

Birdhouse: Existential Philosophy, Biology, Aesthetics, and Re-enactment of a Literary Entombment

Similar:Sobering data; stunning visualization.This NYT story on the effects of race on…CultureKinetic Theatre's "Hound of the Baskervilles" was hilarious. Kinetic Theatre’s production was ful…Books“Save the date for the 2024 eclipse,” the young teacher told his students back in 1978. De… AwesomeI’m really enjoying the embossed labels. #Blender3D (Making props for my fantasy #steampun…AestheticsRay Harryhousen, visual effects…

'Reading Workshop' Approach Lets Students Pick the Books

[L]ast fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign “Mockingbird” — or any novel. Instead she turned over all the decisions about which books to read to the students in her seventh- and eighth-grade English classes at Jonesboro Middle School in this south Atlanta suburb. Among their choices: James…

Verizon, you are so amusing.

I’ve long been annoyed by the fact that Verizon hijacks my URL typos and sends me to its own lame search service. The opt-out instructions are designed to look pretty ominous, so I decided I’d call Verizon customer support, and have them do a remote connect to my computer and perform the procedure for me.…

Sports hooligan evolves advanced stadium camoflage skill

Dude! Your shirt looks just like the blue walkway and the brown sand! How do you do that? From the MailOnline, via. Similar:Google Favors Good Reporting, Not Liberal Views: StudyIt’s a logical fallacy to suggest that w…CultureBureaucrats Put the Squeeze on College NewspapersFew school newspapers are financially in…AcademiaEnjoying a peaceful fall moment while it's possible.…

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

OMG! The prez is in ur internet, killin ur freedomz! The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the…

Tonight… "Slowly the news spreading…" on TV

Tonight on Channel 4 Action News at 11, Seton Hill University students reflecting on what they learned by watching a half hour of local Channel 4 Action TV News. We go now to Channel 4 Action News at 11 reporter Dennis Jerz, with this live Channel 4 Action News at 11 report. I had my…

Ominous Music Heard Throughout U.S. Sends Nation Into Panic

A couple days ago, I posted to Twitter about hearing a strange whining noise, which didn’t seem to change in volume when I moved inside or outside. Later I realized it was my voice recorder in my fanny pack. So this story hit home with me. Ominous Music Heard Throughout U.S. Sends Nation Into Panic…

Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

With this Wired article, Clive Thompson put me into a happy place, and I wanted to share it. He’s quoting Andrea Lunsford: “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” she says. For Lunsford, technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving…

Wikipedia Will Limit Changes on Articles About Living People

Although Wikipedia has prevented anonymous users from creating new articles for several years now, the new flagging system crosses a psychological Rubicon. It will divide Wikipedia’s contributors into two classes — experienced, trusted editors, and everyone else — altering Wikipedia’s implicit notion that everyone has an equal right to edit entries. That right was never…

Student writing is getting worse- or wait, it's getting better!

Wonderful stuff from Steven Krause. Representing the world champion, the “going to hell in a hand-basket,” the eternal the youth are getting worse and worse, and carrying on the tradition of complaining about students that dates back in western culture to at least Isocrates, I give you Stanley Fish’s “What Should Colleges Teach?” on his…

About the Golden Rule for Ed Tech Vendors

Last week, I spent a little while doing the rounds, trying to drum up some advertising customers for the student paper. Ordinarily there’s a student who carries the role of business manager, but when we’re in between student workers, or outside of class time, I try to push things along. There were twenty different things…

Idea to Implementation

I’ve been sitting on a particular interactive fiction work-in-progress for ten years. Ten years! Every so often I dust it off and add a little more, but I still haven’t finished the chore of converting it from Inform 6 to Inform 7. And while hiding from this project, I went and released a different project…

In Memoriam: My Manual Typewriter: Observatory: Design Observer

I bought my Olympia Monica S in Croydon, south London, from an office supply shop when I was 20. It was a decisive moment. I wanted to write and a typewriter was the essential tool of the trade, an instrument every bit as vital as a paintbrush is to a painter or a guitar to…

Why did I put away that wireless mouse?

A few years ago, I bought a wireless mouse, used it for a few days, then put it away in favor of my old mouse. Every so often, like when I’m not feeling the course-prep love and I’m desperately looking for an excuse to procrastinate, I remember that wireless mouse, but can’t remember why I…

Auto-Tune the News #7

People on the road can turn an LOL into a great big O-M-G. — Katie Couric, advocating a “designated texter.” Similar:Two Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots Talk and Argue with Each OtherSounds like a typical grad school semina…AmusingI did not bother to click on the llama story or the dress story, and now you don't have…

First cyberbully jailed after Facebook death threats

A teenager who posted a death threat on Facebook, yesterday became the first person in Britain to be jailed for bullying on a social networking site. Keeley Houghton, 18, said she would kill Emily Moore, whom she had bullied for four years since they were at school together. —Daily Mail Similar:Computers and Writing 2020 Funding…

"You don't understand our audience": What I learned about network TV at Dateline NBC

A reprint of a good article that has since disappeared behind the Technology Review subscription firewall. Probably too dated to assign to my news writing students this year, so I guess I’ll just refer to it in lecture. The informational edge was perilous, it was unpredictable, and it required the news audience to be willing…