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:I try to create one brand new element, modify one existing element, and reuse existing ele…AestheticsIn July, 2002, I was blogging about military close reading, weblogs in journalism, UX evan…In July, 2002, I was…
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:Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a lot of focused attention. I… Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engi…AestheticsUsing a Typewriter Simulator to…
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:Air miles be damned. I say the best way to find out about the joy and complexity of our wo…Essays like this remind me why I picked …BooksAppreciating the production values and so-stupid-it-might-be-brilliant comedy in Avatar: T…The daughter is showing my wife and…
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:Melora (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 6) Bashir floats a relationship with an …Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir shows off an…EmpathyCrowther's Adventure: Tough Memes…
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:Why Drag It Out?The…
From The Boston Globe:= College administrators say that intense pressure to gain acceptance to selective schools has compelled parents to turn to high-priced essay editors and coaches. “The euphemism we use is polished,” said Parke Muth, an admissions dean at the University of Virginia. “If you’re paying someone that much money, there shouldn’t be fingerprints.…
The BBC appended this to its coverage of the Mexico City explosion: Are you in Mexico City? Were you in the area when the explosion happened? Send us your comments using the form below: Send your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to +44 7725 100 100. If you have a large file you can…
NPR’s In Character treatment of Willy Loman (from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman). “I can tell you anecdote after anecdote after anecdote of men — men, 50-year-old pinstripe-suited men dissolved in tears and shaking,” Dennehy says. “And telling me story after story about themselves, about their relationship with their sons, and so forth.” I…
Christian Science Monitor: During his first 70 days in Charleston, Shepard lived in a shelter and received food stamps. He also made new friends, finding work as a day laborer, which led to a steady job with a moving company. Ten months into the experiment, he decided to quit after learning of an illness in…
Up Right Down already features over a dozen versions of the same story. What’s yours? (Via) THE PLOT: In a bistro in Paris a young woman (A) tells her three girlfriends (B, C, and D) about the affair she had with an American tourist, who returned home promising to write, and hasn’t. It’s been over…
A great series hosted by Heidi Ruby Miller, a recent graduate of Seton Hill’s Writing Popular Fiction program. She has asked writers of genre fiction (fantasy, crime, etc.) to tell the story of their first publication. I’m just starting a career track unit in Introduction to Literary Study, and several of the students want to…
I just noticed that Google Maps has added Greensburg to its street view service. How long has this been available? Here’s a look up Seton Hill’s lovely sycamore-lined driveway.View Larger Map Similar:Real college classes have writing assignments and required reading.While I can imagine teaching a course th…AcademiaBlewsMicrosoft researchers discuss Blews, whi…CybercultureAnd Now for This Breaking…