>> 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…
A student in my “History and Future of the Book” class today referred to how some students in a different class got caught “sparking the texts instead of reading them.” I knew she was referring to Spark Notes, but I’d never heard the name being used as a verb before. Similar:I'm really enjoying seeing how…
E.D. Hirsch (2000) The progressive theory that students should gain knowledge through a limited number of projects instead of by taking courses in separate subjects is based on the following reasoning. If you learn a bunch of facts in separate, academic courses you will passively acquire a lot of inert, fragmented knowledge. You will be…
H.H. Munro (SAKI) Esme “The hyena hailed our approach with unmistakable relief and demonstrations of friendliness. It had probably been accustomed to uniform kindness from humans, while its first experience of a pack of hounds had left a bad impression. The hounds looked more than ever embarrassed as their quarry paraded its sudden intimacy with…
Bennett Gordon, Science and Technology blog (Utne Reader): Every diorama in the Home School Science Fair, which took place inside a shopping mall in Roseville, Minnesota, had a biblical quote attached to it. A young woman whose project involved teaching her dog how to run circles between her legs decorated the words: “If you love…
Stephanie Rosenbloom, NYT: Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits resembling the Lone Gunmen of “The X Files.” On the contrary, the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls. “Most guys don’t have patience for this kind of thing,” said Nicole Dominguez, 13,…
It probably only makes sense if you pay attention to Lego sets, but its made my kids and me all laugh. Similar:The girl’s first day on set filming for “The First Day of Summer” Carolyn plays a teenager who’s outsi…CultureSmall Changes in Teaching: The Last 5 Minutes of ClassI just ordered the book Lang mentions in…AcademiaJerry…
Grand Text Auto introduced me to the excellent indie mini-game Passage. Play it. It takes a few minutes to download and about 5 minutes to play. I’m misty-eyed. Play it! Similar:Superman Comic about Sympathy and HopeJust in case someone out there could use…AestheticsThe Incredible Shrinking Ad [The Future Web Is Mobile]Is higher education ready for…
Greg Costikyan on Play This Thing! A review is a buyer’s guide. It exists to tell you about some new product that you can buy, and whether you should or should not buy it. A good review goes beyond that, and suggests who should buy it, since not everyone enjoys everything. (E.g., A romance novel…
ABC News: In the comic, Dilbert asks, “Why does it seem as if most of the decisions in my workplace are made by drunken lemurs?” “I wanted to try to boost the morale for the employees,” Steward said. His bosses, however, didn’t find the joke so funny. They didn’t like the implication that they were…
Retro Sabotage remixes Pac-Man. Lots more where that came from. Via MetaFilter. Similar:Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed [a Certain Political Slant] NewsOne day when I was an undergraduate work…BusinessMystery Science Theater 3000: The Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece The show was awash in quick, smart wis…HistoryA Quick and Comprehensive Guide to Type…
CBS makes up for canceling Star Trek almost 40 years ago, by publishing the full video of every episode on their website. (Sigh. Yet another cool thing I won’t have time for.) Similar:Into the depths of code. Algorithmic archaeologies and cave fantasies in video gamesThe full article (by Angelo Careriis) in…Academia4 writing lessons from the…
Lisa Zyga, Physorg.com: The basis of the 2×4-inch “Digital Tattoo Interface” is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the…
Aardvarchaeology has a fascinating piece on abandoned suburban treehouses. These sites and their formation processes reflect children’s psychological characteristics. Kids have little sense of order, short memories and strange rationality. They also have no idea that childhood is brief and transient. They will happily fill their treehouses with junk without any thought that they might…
Politico: Wolfson made the explosive charge in an interview with Politico after suggesting as much in a conference call with reporters. On the call, Wolfson said: “Sen. Obama is running on the strength of his rhetoric and the strength of his promises and, as we have seen in the last couple of days, he’s breaking…
Elia Powers, Inside Higher Ed: What plays into coverage of violence, both on campus and elsewhere? The answer, most experts agree, is a confluence of factors. The obvious starting point — and one that media analysts say weighs heavily on the minds of editors in all tragedies, not just school shootings — tends to be…
American Literature.com The Short Story of the Day features works by Anton Chekhov, Jack London, Louisa May Alcott, H.H. Munro (SAKI), Guy de Maupassant, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, O. Henry, Ambrose Bierce, and many others. An archive of all the stories featured to date can be found here. Similar:How Humans Respond to…