How broadcast journalism is flawed in such a fundamental way that its utility as a tool for informing viewers is almost nil. (Steve Salerno, Skeptic) The mythical Red State/Blue State paradigm is just one of the more telling indications of a general disability the media exhibit in working with data. A cluster of random events…
The Tribune Review published this story about an incident at my local library. The director of the Greensburg Hempfield Area Library was injured Wednesday afternoon while blocking a married couple who allegedly tried to steal a Christmas novel. […] Muccari said he was near the entrance for the 4:22 p.m. incident because he was posting…
They’re definitely stressed. They’re sleep-deprived. They may be furious (at me!). But they’re still riding the intellectual buzz that comes from finishing a research paper. I love what happens in the classroom on the day a major assignment’s due. Students come to class after having wrestled a mess of free-write drafts and marginalia and Post-It-Notalia…
Of course I don’t know what kind of back story there might be between these two, but keep it off camera, okay, boys? Comically unprofessional. glumbert – Anchor vs Reporter (I’d never heard of this site before… at first I thought it had something to do with journalism, but it seems to be a random…
According to Bloomberg, the Vatican has announced a new list of “social sins.” Consistent with much of the church’s social teachings in the modern age, the list is an interesting mix of traditionally conservative and traditionally liberal ideas. It seems to me that 6 and 7 are already contained in 5, but the Bloomberg article…
From Michael White, of Adaptive Complexity: There is a particular narrative about science that science journalists love to write about, and Americans love to hear. I call it the ‘oppressed underdog’ narrative, and it would be great except for the fact that it’s usually wrong. The narrative goes like this: 1. The famous, brilliant scientist…
From the introduction to a great list of common errors in English (Paul Brians). The concept of language errors is a fuzzy one. I’ll leave to linguists the technical definitions. Here we’re concerned only with deviations from the standard use of English as judged by sophisticated users such as professional writers, editors, teachers, and literate…
Lindsay Waters, Inside Higher Ed: [T]he first step to re-establishing the essay as the standard in humanistic writing is to reinvigorate the sentences we write, so that, when one reads an essay, one feels it. One feels it the way one tastes — and here I’m going global — a good curry. It really sets…
Times Online: In December 2005 a study in the journal Nature offered the observation that the circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, which sustains the Gulf Stream, had weakened by up to 30 per cent over the previous few decades. This figure and its juxtapositioning alongside the melodrama of films such as The Day after…
Satire from The Onion. While it’s difficult to imagine what compelled Meyer to read more than just the back cover of To Kill a Mockingbird, friends and family members claim the strange behavior goes all the way back to his childhood. “I remember when Phil was a little kid, instead of picking up a book,…
Great satire from The Onion. [W]hat kind of pathetic loser would actually enjoy something that’s so incredibly not among my personal preferences? Not me, that’s for sure. Maybe my standards are too high, but if you like any of the hundreds upon hundreds of things that are too multifaceted for my attention span, you should…
Times Online: The slow death of the book may be with us. That was an incredibly painful sentence to write. Most bibliophiles balk at the merest hint that digital e-books could replace “real-books”. But vinyl-lovers sneered at CDs. Those who lovingly categorised their CD collections were seduced, in turn, by the iPod. The ancient poets…
The Independent has a good tribute to Gary Gygax. If D&D is a nerd’s pastime, then there are a lot of nerds around. Guesstimate calculations – it’s impossible to reach a precise total – suggest that Dungeons & Dragons has about 25 million regular players worldwide. Certainly Gygax made more than $1bn in sales since…
Gravitation: an autobiographical video game. I’m sick right now, or I’d give a better description. Not quite as emotional for me as the same designer’s Passage, but another short game that illustrates the possibility of packing games with an emotional argument. Similar:Planet of the Blind: Oprah, If Only You Had Read the Book!I can’t wait…
Chronicle (subscription) Each year Ms. O’Connell, a former dean of admissions at McDaniel College, in Maryland, gives between 35 and 40 presentations, during which she urges parents to stay calm despite the “scary headlines” they have seen in newspapers. Ms. O’Connell often tries to reassure students by telling them that if they have conducted a…
Toronto Star: Avenir said he joined the Facebook group last fall to get help with some of the questions the professor would give students to do online. As the network grew, he took over as its administrator, which is why he believes he alone has been charged. “So we each would be given chemistry questions…
>> Hello.How do you do. Please state your problem.>> I’m sad that another hero of geekdom has passed away.I am sorry to hear that you are sad.>> You knew him, Eliza.We were discussing you — not me.>> Ah, but you wouldn’t be here if it werent for Joseph Weizenbaum.Do you think its likely that it…
Krages.com (PDF) In the event you are threatened with detention or asked to surrender your film, asking the following questions can help ensure that you will have the evidence to enforce your legal rights: What is the person’s name? Who is their employer? Are you free to leave? If not, how do they intend to…
Wired: Gygax designed the original D&D game with Dave Arneson in 1974, and went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels. “I don’t think I’ve really grokked it yet,” said Mike Mearls, the lead developer of the upcoming…
Scott Jaschik (Inside Higher Ed) At Hunter College of the City University of New York, some professors are asking those questions — and a Faculty Senate committee is considering a formal complaint about violations of academic freedom — over a course sponsored last year by the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition (known as the IACC), an organization…