While the Church gets a lot of guff for its skeptical responses to Galileo’s astronomical findings, some Jesuit astronomers not only listened to his ideas but repeated his observations, and some university faculty members flatly refused to look through a telescope. Simplistic representations of scientific issues, with heroes and villains, make good stories, but rarely…
Spring 2009 LA101: Seminar in Thinking & Writing EL200: Media Lab & Setonian EL267: American Literature 1915-Present EL312: Literary Criticism Fall, 2008 LA100: Basic Composition EL200: Media Lab & Advising of The Setonian EL236: Writing for the Internet EL405: Mew Media Projects Spring, 2008 EL150: Intro to Literary Study EL200: Media Lab & Advising of…
The “serious gaming” community is abuzz over Raid Gaza: in which you take on the role of the Israeli military, building tanks, fighter planes and missiles in order to pummel the Palestinian territory and kill as many people as possible within three minutes. Bonus points are awarded for hitting hospitals and police stations. Meanwhile, the…
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project announced Wednesday that it plans to downsize half of its staff and reduce the salary of the remaining employees. OLPC will also halt its development of the open source Sugar environment and focus on building its next-generation hardware device. These plans are part of a major restructuring effort…
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has released a major study that aims to establish benchmarks for assessing the humanities. Assessment was one of the major issues that arose during last year’s English program review, so this is worth a view. Here’s a quote from the press release: “Until now the nation has lacked…
Fall, 2006 LA 100: Freshman Composition EL 236: Writing for the Internet EL 405: New Media Projects EL200 & Advising of The Setonian Spring, 2006 EL 150: Intro to Literary Study EL 250: Videogaming Culture and Theory EL 267: American Literature, 1915-Present Advising of The Setonian Fall, 2005 EL 266: American Literature, 1800-1915 EL 227:…
Austenbook (Pride and Prejudice, as it would appear if all the characters interacted on Facebook.) Similar:The Formation of LoveRelationships start with a period of cou…CultureGranting a Student SuperAdminGoddessOMGWhatHaveIDone Network PrivilegesI should probably not grant a student su…AcademiaTechnology's Impact on Education Technology’s Impact on Education | V…AcademiaWhat Grammar and Style Checkers MissTeaching students to write does not…
Are you a politician? a candidate for real political office? an MP in the UK? A Senator or member of the House of Representatives in the US? or the equivalent anywhere in the world? If so, I…a humble games programmer from the UK would like to give you a free gift. a FREE copy of…
A wonderful post by Whitney Anne Trettien, who examines the reception of a feminist spoof of Pepys famous diary, in order to explore the strange human desire to trust those who reveal shameful private failures. (That is, unless her whole blog is just another learned example of a literary spoof, and I’m being too trusting…
Now maybe the Huffington Post could be worth more if it further cut its burn rate. For instance, rather than not pay its bloggers, it could charge them — for the privilege of getting to help maintain the jetsetting lifestyle of the Great Arianna, of course. As for some of the people the site does pay, like its tech…
I was digging through my archives and came across this e-mail from caver and author Roger Brucker, responding to my request for anything he might remember about the well house — described so vaguely in Will Crowther’s 1976 game “Colossal Cave Adventure,” but such a real-seeming place. The wellhouse was one of a series of…
A nicely done feature on the closure of the last player-piano roll manufacturer. One machine dates back to the 1880s when it was used to make shoes, and for the past 100 years has made the tabs with brass eyelets used to hook the roll into a piano. There are also aging machines to perforate…
Another article that’s on my mind as I consider how to integrate group work into an unusually large literature class. In an undergraduate genetics course, students were, on 16 occasions during the course of a semester, asked a pair of “isomorphic” questions, which have different facts but require students to apply the same principles or…
Journalism is changing. Watchdog journalism — the perusal of thousands of pages of official records in search of anomalies and other signs of abuse and corruption — is much harder to do than reporting on celebrity shenanigans or fashion trends. John Mecklin writes: On a disaggregated Web, it seems, people and advertisers simply will not…
Nick Montfort just e-mailed a link to his brilliant textual interpretation of Star Wars. Great use of characters in a purely linear narrative environment. Similar:Am I a Bad Father Because I Let My Daughter Eat M&Ms in Her Mashed Potatoes?[poll id=”2″] AestheticsAfter 10 Years of Blogs, the Future's Brighter Than EverIn Wired, Jenna Wortham focuses…
Gaah! Is there anyone out there who’s experienced with Wikipedia templates, who can help me resolve this mess? I uploaded a screenshot of Will Crowther’s original Colossal Cave Adventure (freeware, c. 1976), but the Wikipedia copyright-protection policies are written for current programs (where the visuals are much more important). Licensing This is a screenshot of…
A former student writes: I need to find a simple book that sort of explains the trends of Web 2.0. Nothing too techy, but something that would talk about what makes it special, what people are doing with 2.0, and the best ways to utilize its philosophies. Basically, my company is moving towards plenty of…
Admissions officers are looking for the “silver bullet” to uncover the secret to social networking. But, as this latest controversy illustrates, there is no magic solution in a space whose content is controlled by users, and policed by a community. To be part of the conversation of any social network to the point you can…
Let’s face it–each new stage in life brings dramatic changes that are difficult to anticipate. No matter how smart you can be in college, you will still get surprised by the working world. I faced these surprises myself. I thought the working world would be hard since it lacked the freedom I had at Stanford. I was wrong.…
I like to think of the cosmos as a theater, yet a theater cannot exist without an audience, to witness and to celebrate. Robot craft and mighty telescopes will continue to show us unimaginable wonders. But when humans return to the moon and put a base there and prepare to go to Mars and become…