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:Actors Fail to Distract Audience from Prop Newspaper HeadlinesMy daughter and I were talking about pro…AmusingIn June, 2000 I was blogging about anagrams, 1750 Paris, ambiguity, a hyperlink patent cl…In June, 2000, I…
The HD version actually came out better than I thought it would. More photos after the jump… Similar:Renata, Carolyn and Alex in a scene from this weekend's Pippin.CultureAssembling wall units to bake into a texture atlas. Teacup is a freebie from polyhaven.co… AestheticsBehind the bar in the officers' pub, from the #steampunk bedtime stories I…
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:Dog and TP WallAmusingAI researchers find AI models learning their safety techniques, actively resisting trainin…Researchers had programmed the various l…CybercultureMany things in the world are awful, but my latest #Blender3D work on my #steampunk control…One of many steampunk control panels I’v…AestheticsSmall Business Social Media 101: How To Get StartedUseful skills for anyone hoping to…
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:I'm Asking My Students to Be Deliberate about the Word "Novel"In the past few years, I have noticed mo…AcademiaOpen Source College Math BookOne day last year, David Lippman got an …AcademiaHow One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s LifeA PR professional should have known bett…Business[E-Mail is for Old People]…
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:The joy of text – the fall and rise of interactive fictionAlthough the IF community first formed a…CybercultureConfuse Students to…
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:In November 2000, I was blogging about the US Presidential election, mirrors, Arts & Lette…In November 2000, I was blogging about …BusinessGoogle Pledges $300 Million to Clean Up False NewsThis is a welcome step, but we cannot…
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:Hexagons Are the Bestagonshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOifuHs…AmusingLawyers who won Happy Birthday copyright case sue over “We Shall Overcome” “We Shall Overcome,” a song that was the…BusinessThe U.S. government and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for…
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:The Minecraft GenerationIt’s a world of trial and error and cons…AestheticsPersonality Profiles: Prize-Winning Student Journalism SamplesThe personality profile is a staple of i…CultureIs Breakfast Necessary?The…
The gradual, and almost invisible, transformation of many “liberal arts colleges” to more comprehensive institutions is similar to another gradual trend that has reshaped the composition and the work of the American academic profession. Over the past three decades, colleges and universities have replaced tenure-track faculty positions with part-time and full-time term-contract positions — a…