Jay Dixit, in Psychology Today, surveys research that considers dreams to be the brain’s training grounds for real-world emergencies. The idea that dreams are a dojo for perfecting waking activities fits well with what is already known about practice. Mental rehearsal through visualization improves skills, enhances learning, and changes the brain, polishing performance in almost…
I’m putting the final touches on materials for my Video Game Culture and Theory course, which starts tomorrow. But earlier today I took a break so that the family could say goodbye to my Christmas break by catching a movie. We saw The Water Horse, which is a great family film (in that the kids…
John Hockenberry, a former NBC journalist who now works at MIT, reflects on what he says is the increasing irrelevance of TV journalism. Some of my most promising “New Media Journalism” students are interested in a broadcast journalism career, taking on internships and entering graduate school, and they all know why I prefer to get…
Similar:Am I a Bad Father Because I Let My Daughter Eat M&Ms in Her Mashed Potatoes?[poll id=”2″] AestheticsSo long, Newsweek Reaction to the cover: – Newsweek’s …BusinessCookies. That is all.AestheticsSome new locations for my #neovictorian #steampunk personal project. Created in #blender3d…AestheticsThree more performances of Jane Eyre. Closes Saturday night! @pictclassictheatrePersonalAnother delightful section of #steampunk…
Philip Kennicott (Washington Post) reflects on what we might learn about ourselves when we notice that the photographer who snapped the iconic image of a young girl crying in terror after a napalm attack in Viet Nam 35 years ago also snapped the iconic image of Paris HIlton weeping in the back seat of a…
In Reason, David Harsanyi reviews The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture, by Andrew Keen. “Can a social worker in Des Moines really be considered credible in arguing with a trained physicist over string theory?” he asks, referring to Wikipedia, the online, user created encyclopedia. “Can a car mechanic have…
1up: Ten years ago, Westwood released its point-and-click adventure game adaptation of Blade Runner. Blade Runner was, if nothing else, a towering achievement in terms of evoking the original film’s memorable aesthetic. The game’s mo-cap sprites moved against dim, smoky noir backdrops; every exterior shot felt exhilaratingly accurate, while interior locations were ominous and claustrophobic.…
Video games didn’t start with Pac-Man (1980), Space Invaders (1978), or Pong (1972). Similar:Excessive Copyright Strikes Again in 2016Current US law extends copyright for 70 …BusinessBen Franklin Sings about Your Rights as a PhotographerIf you’re legally present on a public st…AmusingMy 20-year-old Java Program Is Was Broken!So a harmless little Java program I wrot…CybercultureI,…
Great 1972 Rolling Stone article about a foundational computer game. Reliably, at any nighttime moment (i.e. non-business hours) in North America hundreds of computer technicians are effectively out of their bodies, locked in life-or-Death space combat computer-projected onto cathode ray tube display screens, for hours at a time, ruining their eyes, numbing their fingers in…
The new clip improves on last night’s version, I’ve added blinking eyes, improved the nose glowing effect, and moved one of the legs a bit. Update: Here’s the file if you’d like to use it. Reindeer.blend Similar:Summer Theater Camp Photos: "Patrice" in "13" My 11yo performed the part of “Patrice…Current_EventsThe Miller of the Dee; by…
I’ve been using Blender3D for about two years now. Here’s a little Christmas animation I whipped up. That’s supposed to be sparkly glowy things coming from his shiny nose, but it looks more like a puff of breath. I’m pleased with the head motions. I’ve got the eyes rigged up so they can blink and…
AP: A baby Jesus statue here is getting a Global Positioning System for Christmas. The statue, part of a nativity scene, will be equipped with the device after the previous statue went missing, even though it had been bolted down. “I don’t anticipate this will ever happen again,” said Dina Cellini, who oversees the display,…
Spokesman Review: “Our editors (Wednesday) night noticed the similarities in the two photos,” said Paul Emerson, Tribune managing editor. “We are not crime-stoppers here. It is just a weird coincidence. If it did solve a crime, I’m glad it happened. I have seen nothing like this in my 26 years as Tribune managing editor.” A…
The New Statesman: With only few days remaining in 2007, the indications are the global temperature for this year is the same as that for 2006 – there has been no warming over the 12 months. But is this just a blip in the ever upward trend you may ask? No. The fact is that…
In 2002, David Winer bet Martin Nisenholtz that In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times’ Web site. According to Workbench: So Winer wins the bet 3-2, but his premise of blog triumphalism is challenged by the…
I just got this e-mail. Scratch is an amazing tool designed to teach programming to kids. My nine-year-old loves it. I’m planning to use Scratch in my “New Media Projects” class next fall. Because of your interest in Scratch, we thought you would like to know about the Scratch@MIT conference that we are hosting next…
NY Times Elizabeth has nearly eight years to go yet before she would overtake Victoria’s other noteworthy place in the monarchical record books, the length of her reign — 64 hugely eventful years, from the abolition of slavery to the Boer War. But the chances look pretty good: Elizabeth is thought to be fairly healthy,…
News Digest: After a 2006 shake-up at Yum, an executive named Hearl rose to the top position. But now Hearl is out, replaced by someone named Eaton. Yum executive Hearl will retire Eaton to be new development chief By Alex Davis alexdavis@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal Yum! Brands announced yesterday that the company’s chief operating and development…
The special coding Wikipedia has developed for its user-edited pages is powerful. Some shortcuts are simple and elegeant — you just put [[square brackets]] around words to make them into links, and clicking on the link will automatically either take you to an existing page, or let you create a new one. But as Wikipedia…
A student sent me an e-mail asking for advice on how to write a letter to the editor. I found plenty of web resources that are designed to help volunteers write letters designed to get a particular message out — that is, Citizens for the Defense of Rutebegas offer specialized tips for how to write…