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:Twenty-Six Old Characters, The (1947)Sheaffer Pen celebrates the art of writi…Aesthetics'Island of the Blue Dolphins' woman's cave believed foundFor more than 20 years, Navy archaeologi…BooksPast Tense, Part 2 (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3,…
The HD version actually came out better than I thought it would. More photos after the jump… Similar:Star Trek: Voyager Premiered 20 Years AgoI remember wanting to like Voyager a lot…CultureCrabby 9yo Constructs a Head-mounted Frump-amplification Isolation CubeMy 9yo was ordered not to leave the kitc…DesignFacebook, Now You Remind Me of a Half-Drunk Cocktail Party…
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:My 10yo Launches a Soda Bottle Rocket http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbNu8…AestheticsAn Experimental Autism Treatment Cost Me My MarriageInteresting essay challenging the notion…EssaysJack Rollins-Frosty the Snowman I voiced Jack Rollins, writer …HistoryLimit child TV viewing to an hour each day, study urgesThe study followed about 1,000 people fr…HealthNicholas Winton, “Britain’s Schindler,” Dies at 106Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker…
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:Teaching “The Odyssey” at San QuentinThe opening of “The Odyssey” describes O…BooksDennis Jerz, R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots), Karel Capek's "Fantastic Melodrama" – YouT…”In which the origin of the word “robot”…AestheticsCaptive Pursuit (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 6) O'Brien Befriends a Nervous,…Rewatching ST:DS9 Sisko is listening …Design'Atari Dump' Will…
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 Decline and Fall of the English MajorThis essay is yet another reminder of ho…AcademiaThou shalt not commit logical fallacies …
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:The Defector (ST:TNG Rewatch; Season Three, Episode 10) Cold War Brinksmanship, via Shakes…(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break…CultureDespite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the …[A] popular type of generative AI model&…CybercultureMeet…
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:Ave atque valeWhat is a liberal education and what it …AcademiaStudent Newspapers Scurry to Make Ends Meet“After 112 years as The Daily Emerald, t…AcademiaThe Hubble spotted this smiley face in spaceReading each…
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:What Does the Demise of Cursive Mean?Are you aware that our children aren’t b…CultureHow Copyright Law Gave Us STAR WARSIn an alternate universe George Lucas…
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…
A roundup of the initial reactions, via BBC: “One of Google’s major goals is to take Microsoft out, to systematically destroy their hold on the market,” said Mr Enderle. “Google wants to eliminate Microsoft and it’s a unique battle. The strategy is good. The big question is, will it work?” At the popular blog, TechCrunch,…