The Photographer's Right

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…

This Course Brought to You By….

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…

Sparking the texts instead of reading them

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:Fake News Is Not the…

''You Can Always Look It Up''… or Can You?

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…

Esme by H.H. Munro (SAKI)

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…

Creationist Diorama-Rama

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…

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain

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,…

A Real Swinger

It probably only makes sense if you pay attention to Lego sets, but its made my kids and me all laugh. Similar:Bar Association #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 16) Rom Inspires Quark's Employe…Rewatching ST:DS9 As The Defiant return…Median+1: The Stupidity of ComputersComputers are pretty dumb, but they’re d…CybercultureNo, This Beach Photo Doesn't Prove The…

Passage: a Gamma256 video game by Jason Rohrer

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:More #steampunk control panel goodness. #blender3d #blender3dart #aestheticsAestheticsGoodby big Android… hello little budget iPhone SE 3rd.I just removed from my syllabus template…AcademiaWe Got A Look…

Retro Sabotage – True Self

Retro Sabotage remixes Pac-Man.  Lots more where that came from. Via MetaFilter. Similar:FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules For 'Open Internet'Verizon and Comcast lobbyists hang their…BusinessSenior Tech #1: How To Master TextingIt’s funny because it’s true. http://…AmusingTonight's Supermoon.AestheticsFrisbee is a brand name, but how newsworthy is that?What would you do? Today I wrote 192 …AcademiaJust remember:…

Star Trek – Video Episodes on CBS.com

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:NASA: No, The Eclipse Won't Blind Pets I once heard a fellow grad student s…Current_EventsBeam me up, Chewie!Awesome'Jane Austen, Game Theorist' by Michael…

Aardvarchaeology : Ruins of Childhood

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…