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:In May, 2000, I was blogging about the 'I Love You' virus, hacking URLs, PG Wodehouse, and…In May, 2000, I was blogging about …AcademiaWhy do journalists use "allegedly" when they report on obvious…
The HD version actually came out better than I thought it would. More photos after the jump… Similar:No filter October mist as I walked up from the parking lot. Not a bad view. AestheticsCarolyn made it to the next round of the 2017 PPT Shakespeare Monologue contest. Finals ar…CultureA serious summer activity.Once classes start again,…
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:Making a villain's lair in #Blender3D (this weekend's relaxation)AestheticsThis history of video game graphics is a walk down memory laneBlogging this so I can assign it to my “…AcademiaThe Backstory: A reporter arrested while covering a protest faces trial Monday. Here's why…Journalists are human, humans make mista…CultureHappy St. Crispin's DayHere’s my rendition of the…
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:Canadians Love Poop, Americans Love Pizza: How Emojis Fare Worldwide The company SwiftKey analyzed more tha…AestheticsSyllabusing Like a BossAcademiaIs your child texting about recursive acronym palindromes? Is your child texting about recursive …AmusingContext for Hayles, My Mother was a Computer (Ch 3 & 4)My undergraduates are working their way…
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:You Can Smell Trump's FearLike all successful demagogues, Trump ha…CultureFake News Remains Top Industry Concern in 2017“In the past, people…
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:Incoming Seton Hill Students Pick Up Their MacBooks and iPads TodayI find it impossible not to be cheerful …AcademiaThe Sentence That Knocked Down the Berlin Wall (But Almost Didn’t)Words that defined Ronald Reagan’s presi…CultureI’ve been teaching with…
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:NYC sent non-police teams to respond to mental health calls for a month. Data shows that m…Remember that meme that shows two cops s…CultureRemember That Class Assignment I Hated? The One That…
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:I'm Gradually Losing My Hearing. (It’s Part of Aging.)During a department meeting today, I not…AcademiaWashington Post Cartoonist Who Quit Over Bezos Cartoon Wins Pulitzer PrizeFormer…
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…