Please Use This Door

More cruel jokes to play on literal-minded people. Similar:So We're Supposed to Be "Amazed" or "Surprised" That Tween Boys Won't Slap a Girl?What Happens When Clickbait Headlines Av…CultureDuring a modest snowfall, I’m passing the time in a public place where someone else has tu…Stay tuned for more live footage of Stor…CultureAdvice to a recent journalism…

Lego's latest brick trick: a virtual world | Technology | Internet | Reuters

Reuters: To launch next year as a massively multiplayer online game, or MMOG to those in the gaming community, Lego Universe will let players create online versions of themselves and interact with each other. Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:Reporters say White House sometimes demands changes to press-pool reports The decades-old White House press pool…CultureSesame…

Spoof of Get Lamp Trailer

Not the best spoof I’ve ever seen, but if you really want to see a spoof of a trailer of a documentary about text adventure games, you might be somewhat amused. (Here’s the original.) I’m mocked in this, if that’s any incentive to anyone… Similar:Bing's AI chatbot helped me solve a technical problem, then showed…

U.S. Spies Use Custom Videogames to Learn How to Think

Wired: The U.S. Army Intelligence Center is using a custom game to train interrogators, or “human collectors,” as they are euphemistically known. Known by the staggering title of Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer Human Intelligence Control Cell, the simulation was designed by General Dynamics from the shooter Far Cry. The Army game features…

Making Wikis Work for Scholars

Inside Higher Ed: “Information on computer science subjects in Wikipedia is likely to be accurate and informative, often using unique resources to illustrate concepts that are not available to print media,” wrote de Medeiros in an e-mail. “This probably derives from the fact that computer scientists use the computer as their main form of access…

Tests Confirm T. Rex Kinship With Birds

NYT: T. rex shared more of its genetic makeup with ostriches and chickens than with living reptiles, like alligators. On this basis, the research team has redrawn the family tree of major vertebrate groups, assigning the dinosaur a new place in evolutionary relationships. Similar molecular tests on tissues from the extinct mastodon confirmed its close…

Victorian All-in-One PC | The Steampunk Workshop

Geeky awesomeness from the Steampunk Workshop. Similar:The problem with blog comments, in 5 images.After I read Mark Sample’s blog post “Wh…AcademiaThat’s water under the bridge! Crowds of NPCs charge across, sweeping the player along. G…That’s water under the bridge! Crowds of…AestheticsPerchance to Dream: LARPing Hamlet at Castle ElsinoreThis is the concept of Inside Hamlet, an…Culturen+1:…

Of Hitchhikers, Hard Drives, and Happenstance

Imagine that, since childhood, you’ve been a fan of a now-obscure genre of computer games called interactive fiction. Imagine that, since 1999, you’ve kept a weblog. Imagine that, since 2003, you’ve taught journalism and new media courses, in which you have introduced students to weblogs and interactive fiction (among other topics, of course). Recently, after…

Professors Gone Paperless

Inside Higher Ed: 1998 was the last time that John Gallaugher, an associate professor of information systems at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, used a traditional print textbook. He assigned it to his graduate-level introductory course in information systems. The book cost about $150. He also assigned supplemental reading — trade press articles, online…