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:I just looked up the context for the bald guy dropping the chili. I guess I was expecting something like…DesignWriting Tips for Critical Thinking Critical Thinking Matters Pers…AcademiaOn this date in 1999 I…
The HD version actually came out better than I thought it would. More photos after the jump… Similar:More rehearsing. More dancing. PersonalThe girl on Halloween 2018. (The boy and I were watching the 1931 Frankenstein at the libr…PersonalThey both reached for the gun.PersonalCulture Desk: My Life in PencilsDevotees of the Blackwing had been payin…AestheticsMany of these…
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:Student Newspapers Scurry to Make Ends Meet“After 112 years as The Daily Emerald, t…AcademiaBeautiful, meditative video shows how books are madePretty sure you can’t do this to a Kindl…AestheticsMicrosoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"This is what we have to look forward to,…BusinessBoston Bombing Survivor Dances Onstage for First TimeTechnology…
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&DÂ to all of the many storygames that have followed it.…
A bit predictable, but still enjoyable. Similar:Nerdy Rainbow Loom CraftingMy wonderfully geeky tween made these Bl…AestheticsThe Ensigns of Command (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 2) Data plays MacGyver to sa…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….MediaKing Hedley II ( #AugustWilson #CenturyCycle, 9 of 10)August Wilson’s Century Cycle > Spoi…BooksMan of the People (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season…
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 Enemy (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 7) — LaForge and a Romulan Cooperate to …Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year…
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 July 1999, I was blogging about Dante's ashes, Apollo 11, gender-neutral language, and …In July, 1999, I was blogging about: …CultureHow America fell in love with crazy amounts of air conditioningBy the 1950s, as air conditioners became…BusinessListening…
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:The Piano Lesson ( #AugustWilson #CenturyCycle, 4 of 10)August Wilson’s Century Cycle > Spoi…BooksShades of Gray (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two Episode 22) Forgettable low-budget clipshowRewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….MediaRt Covid-19 –…
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:On Their Last Day, Student Newspaper Editors Cover a Shooting on Their CampusTHREE HOURS BEFORE A SHOOTING WAS FIRST …AcademiaHow Technology Has Changed The Way…
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…