The first man on the moon doesn’t feel his life is defined by being the first man on the moon? As if the world would remember much more than Armstrong’s “one piece of fireworks”? Would his name belong beside Magellan’s or Marco Polo’s if not for Armstrong’s singular achievement? —Paul Farhi, Washington Post Similar:Firstborn (#StarTrek…
This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for–thought they owned.–David Pogue, NYT The citizens whose Kindles needed rectification had purchased unauthorized George Orwell books. So 1984 disappeared down the…
It might sound like a logical extension from the likes of Buzz and You Don’t Know Jack, but you’ll have to believe that this [Xbox Live] game is ringing the death knell for game shows as loudly and vigorously as it possibly can. Why watch a game show, when you can participate? Why shout at the TV,…
Walter Cronkite, the CBS News anchor who famously became the most trusted man in America, died Friday at the age of 92.–NPR Similar:Mother 3: My Mom, and MeThoughtful, powerful, personal analysis …AestheticsGoogle Favors Good Reporting, Not Liberal Views: StudyIt’s a logical fallacy to suggest that w…CultureUpdated Syllabus for Journalism 101By the end of the semester…
The HD version actually came out better than I thought it would. More photos after the jump… Similar:Just submitted final grades for the compressed course that began the day after fall grades…PersonalI had a blue checked shirt in my hand this morning, but she nailed the khaki pants.PersonalAt Home In Fantasy's Nerd-Built WorldsIn other words,…
The LA Times technology blog critiques the new Google Reader interface. For example, let’s say we have a news article that we like. Well, might as well click the “like” button, right? OK, now we’ve told the Internet that we think it’s cool, and we can see a list of strangers who also think it’s…
Talk about penny wise and pound foolish! NASA admitted in 2006 that no one could find the original video recordings of the July 20, 1969, landing. Since then, Richard Nafzger, an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, who oversaw television processing at the ground-tracking sites during the Apollo 11 mission, has been…
Amazing! Similar:If I don’t hang my own artwork on the walls of my #steampunk fantasy ship-of-the-line, who…AestheticsDC Art Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER)Live in the DC area? June 19 I’ll be spe…CultureThe Post drops the ‘mike’ — and the hyphen in ‘e-mail’When I announced these style changes, an…CultureIn 2019, I have a college student who annotates…
A great interview, on Adventure Classic Gaming. Was something like Adventure inevitable? That’s a tough question, but I think probably so. I’d say that the real wild-card here is not Adventure but rather Adventure‘s inspiration, Dungeons and Dragons. You just can’t exaggerate the importance of D&D to all of the many storygames that have followed it.…
A bit predictable, but still enjoyable. Similar:Drumming Kid Is Epic. That Is All.https://youtu.be/MRvHI8tgx8A AestheticsLong Live the LARPers — My daughter plays the antagonist in this award-winning 48 Hour Fi…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku7wzUtO…AestheticsTraces of ScribesBook historian Irene O’Daly notes that t…AcademiaHemingway: The First Draft of Anything… Facebook.AmusingGil Gerard (1943-2025) I built a model of the two-pronged Sta…CultureI came of…
Wired has a good piece about the value of local reporting. “In every town in America, almost, you have reporters going out and doing humble jobs and turning over rocks every day and seeing what’s under them,” says John Carroll, the former editor-in-chief of The Los Angeles Times, a man who led his newsroom to…
And you thought the secrets to academic success would involve sensible stuff like “Study for two to three hours for every hour of class” or “Keep up with the readings” and “Meet all the deadlines your prof sets.” But those won’t help you game the system, which is the strategy Don Asher presents as the…
Clearly by “Them” the sign means “dogs,” but the since the sign refers instead to “Your Dog,” so it was already in need of some attention even before this alteration took place. Via Bryan Alexander. Similar:FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decadesSo what if a WaPo story about huge flaws…Current_EventsViolations (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season…
The following started out as routine e-mail feedback on a freshman essay, but I thought it came out well enough that I might want to use it again. I don’t want this to get buried in my existing handout on thesis statements, so I figured I’d just post the good bits here. A good academic…
I missed this when it came out a few weeks ago. At Hopkins, Knudson uses Twitter as an extension of the classroom, asking students to raise questions, hold discussions online, keep up with breaking news and share links to interesting stories. She believes the limited number of characters allowed is a useful way to remember…
A website will re-create the 1969 moon mission in real time (allowing for the 40-year time lag). http://wechoosethemoon.org/ Similar:Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare course / Propos'd in blank verse like the Bard would w…Verses Proposing a New Course: “Shakespe…AcademiaHow a billionaires boys’ club came to dominate the public squareThe world’s richest man, Elon Musk, atta…Business'Star Trek': The…
First, there is a general increase in use of Facebook and a general decline in use of MySpace across the board. In 2007, 79% of the study participants were using Facebook while in 2009, 87% of the sample reports doing so. In contrast, while in 2007, 55% of the group reported using MySpace, in 2009,…
She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer. “It was just really gross and it was shocking and…
Post office boxes! Post office boxes! My face hurts from laughing. New Live Poll Allows Pundits To Pander To Viewers In Real Time Similar:A Liberal-Arts Education for Business MajorsThe world needs well-rounded leaders. A …AcademiaHow Social Media Silences DebateThe Internet, it seems, is contributing …CultureHow Finland Keeps Kids Focused Through Free PlayNormally, students and teachers…
Older words also making their debut as a result of renewed interest online: sock puppet (a false identity used to manipulate opinions in online forums) and fan fiction. (Via Guardian) Similar:'Island of the Blue Dolphins' woman's cave believed foundFor more than 20 years, Navy archaeologi…BooksEmily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap PoetryThere’s never enough time to cover Emily…CultureWhy…