Jenna Wortham (Wired): Wednesday is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day, an online protest geared at uniting users eager to ditch the popular social networking site. Similar:I'm amused by the quirky way the "Thin Bread Crust" meme remixes the remix.I’m interested in the way the “Thin Blue…BusinessMy mother-in-law invited me to try out the 60-…
While walking an introductory class through a close reading of “The Defense of Fort McHenry” (better known as “The Star-Spangled Banner,”) I noted that a student had wondered whether the appearance of “In God We Trust” on US currency had anything to do with the inclusion of a similar phrase, “In God is our Trust,”…
This message arrived in my in box today. The author gave me permission to answer it here. It must have been fate that led me to your site which I perused with great interest. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a 57 year old male, separated after nearly 27 years of marriage, now…
Non-Gamer: Why is it called “Dance Dance Revolution?”Me: Because the demographic wouldn’t go for “Dance Dance Establishment.” Similar:Shen Yun Chinese dance troupeOne of seven touring groups devoted to s…ArtMy new inspiration as I work on my syllabuses I applaud you, person who, halfway …AcademiaCrying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship EverI’ve felt a…
A close professional contact who regularly takes on student interns shared this list of guidelines, which she has found necessary to include when orienting a new intern to the routine of office work. Although the site is a non-profit educational organization, and thus the environment is more relaxed and forgiving than it might be in…
The Lego brick system was patented 50 years ago today. Gizmodo offers this timeline. Similar:No, Kirk and Uhura didn't share the first interracial kiss on televisionSee Also: Star Trek: The Next Gener…CultureMurder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained DeathSimulations are powerful tools for under…AestheticsReport: Many U.S. Schools Can’t Afford…
Some thoughtful development of a powerful meme in cyberculture studies, from Henry Jenkins: Talking about digital natives and digital immigrants tends to exagerate the gaps between adults, seen as fumbling and hopelessly out of touch, and youth, seen as masterful. It invites us to see contemporary youth as feral, cut off from all adult influences,…
Great satire from The Onion. Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot Similar:The Left has a post-truth problem too. It's called comedy.As I gear up to teach about memes and fa…CultureComfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. –Mr Dooley on the function of journali…“Comfort the afflicted and afflict the c…CultureI created…
Filed away to read on a rainy day (after I’ve cleared some big projects from my to do list): Jonathan Bate The original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s works do not survive: the sole extant composition in his hand is a single scene from Sir Thomas More, a multi-authored play that cannot really be described as ‘his’.…
WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??!!!!! Wired Gulf Middle School resource officer John Nohejl didn’t have porn on his MySpace profile, and he didn’t link to porn. But one of the 170-odd people on his friends list, which seems mostly populated by students at his school, had a link to a legal adult site. Now…
Of course it’s not scientific, but it’s fun. Virgil Griffith: Ever read a book (required or otherwise) and upon finishing it thought to yourself, “Wow. That was terrible. I totally feel dumber after reading that.”? I know I have. Well, like any good scientist, I decided to see how well my personal experience matches reality.…
Lauren Collins (The New Yorker) Teen-age identities mutate so quickly online, and can be masked so easily, that by the morning after Megan was pronounced dead Josh Evans had vanished from MySpace. It wasn’t until a month after her death that a neighbor named Michele Mulford told the Meiers that Curt and Lori Drew, who…
Via Language Log: It is a small but not insignificant recent change in written English that in Britain the newspapers have started spelling acronyms in lower case with capital initial instead of all in caps. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association and the the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are not UCEA and…
Interesting historical anecdote of an early attempt to make an artistic statement with photography, using visual elements that were acceptable in painting, but considered controversial in photography: Rejlander’s “Two Ways of Life.” (via Metafilter). Useful, perhaps, as a point of comparison for what happens when video games cross the line, and attempt to make serious,…
When steampunk was speculative fiction, not charmingly retro… Edgar Allan Poe pulbished this mock news story in the New York Sun. The Atlantic has been actually crossed in a Balloon; and this too without difficulty — without any great apparent danger — with thorough control of the machine — and in the inconceivably brief period…
Jeffrey R. Young (Chronicle): The idea was to tap the wisdom of his crowd. Visitors to the blog might not read the whole manuscript, as traditional reviewers do, but they might weigh in on a section in which they have some expertise…. “We are a peer-review press–we’re always going to want to have an honest…
On Jan 21, 3:47 pm, Conrad <conradc…@gmail.com> wrote:> I’m supposed to not know what direction I can walk in?> > This is fun? Play Adventure it to appreciate the big jump from Hunt the Wumpus and mainframe Trek. Play it, not merely seeking conformation for your own definition of “fun,” but rather to understand…
Robots gloating, and occasionally philosophizing, over their decision to destroy the humans. Love the binary solo. The guy on the left does an excellent imitation of a standard PC speech synthesizer voice. Overall, this is a great send-up of the “arrogant humans create robots who turn on them” meme (which was first widely spread by…
Michael Bracken offers practical tips to new writers. Later this week I’ll begin teaching Seton Hill’s “Intro to Literary Study” class again… it’s often the first class in which the English majors get a taste of what it means to write fiction for a college-level class. That means I emphasize basic stuff such as how…
Leigh Alexander tries to quit gaming for a week. How long does she last? What I did learn – and this was the primary aim – was just a little bit more about why I play, and what gaming means to me, does for me. I thought that without games, the world might open up…