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:How To Escape The Procrastination Doom LoopInstead of being lazy or disorganized, p…CultureThe Best…
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…
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:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reducing print edition…
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:And so it begins.BooksNichelle Nichols, ground-breaking Star Trek actor and NASA recruiter, 1932-2022 https://twitter.com/CNN/status/15538337…Current_EventsTevye from Fiddler on the Roof, Now a Rich Man, Receives a Letter from His HOADear Tevye, This letter is to…
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:The Problems of Real-Time Feedback in Teaching WritingSometimes my students get nervous becaus…AcademiaThe AI revolution is powered by these contractors making $15 an hourStudents who…
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:Google Books ruled legal in massive win for fair use (updated)Update in a legal battle that’s been goi…BooksThe Man Who Photographed GhostsThis review of a book about early photog…AestheticsA friend asks: "Would it be bad form to point out the typos in my…