The Tale of the Mechanical Virus

Sean McBride: The problem I discovered was that one of the thin walls between the holes had broken and bent down, forming a ramp. When I plugged the DVI adapter into my computer, two of the pins went into the same hole, and the projector could no longer understand the output from my computer. However,…

Full Moon Rising

This evening, I was out in the yard playing with the kids, when they noticed the full moon rising above a house a little ways down the street. Similar:In August 1999 I was blogging about Poohsticks Bridge, penmanship, Archimedes, and ebooksIn August 1999, I was blogging about …BooksUndergrad Danielle Sidoti Nails an Oral Interpretation/Analysis of…

YouTube – Short Letterpress Documentary (Wonderful)

  Similar:Those Were the Days: On 'Nostalgia' When missing home was a diseaseAlthough we now associate nostalgia with…CultureModular low-poly medieval buildings. Ground-level storefronts have more detail than the up…Modular low-poly medieval buildings. Gro…AestheticsJournalists who are doing their job by reporting fairly on a controversial topic often get…Americans can fairly and legitimately di…EthicsCombating Fake News: An…

Colossal Cave Adventure — History

Couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d do some more work on the Wikipedia entry for Colossal Cave Adventure. Similar:CNN's Chris Cillizza on Trump's definition of "Fake News"Here’s some excellent analysis of Trump’…Culture''The Balloon Hoax'' by Edgar Allan PoeWhen steampunk was speculative fiction, …AmusingEco-critical Code Studies: Reconfigurations of nature in the born-digital artifact “Coloss… Video game history is…

YouTube – The Wilhelm Scream Compilation

The Wilhelm Scream is a sound effect that appears in many action films, as an in-joke among sound designers. Similar:Rossum's Universal Robots (Act 1) Artistic ProsperityThe first act of Artistic Prosperity’s v…CulturePlay-Doh was Originally Wallpaper CleanerThe story of Play-Doh began when Kutol, …BusinessUnderstanding The Fake News Universe The fake news universe is vast and eph…CultureI…

Going South

It’s funny, because it’s true…. David Galef satirizes the humiliation humanities professors have to go through when requesting research funds: To Professor Michael Wall, Chair, English Department: This has to do with the travel budget for the coming academic year. As we discussed last spring, I need something on the order of $700 for the…

Is There Anything Good About Men?

Roy F. Baumeister One can imagine an ancient battle in which the enemy was driven off and the city saved, and the returning soldiers are showered with gold coins. An early feminist might protest that hey, all those men are getting gold coins, half of those coins should go to women. In principle, I agree.…

One in four read no books last year

One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole,…

First Day Fun…Everday (Pedablogue)

Here’s a collection of teaching tips for the first day of classes brought to us by Honolulu Community College (check their reference lists for more good sources, too). The Pig Personality Profile [try here — DGJ] is frivolous fun, but probably a good icebreaker and something I might even use when I teach Memoir Writing…

BBFC Video Games Report

A large majority of video games sold in the UK receive a rating under the voluntary Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system, but some games, about 6-7% of the total, are referred to the BBFC. In determining what classification to give, the BBFC employs much the same approach as it does to films and DVDs. However,…

Thunder Mountain Lenape Powwow

Today we drove to the Thunder Mountain Lenape powwow, which was full of color and music. There were two drums — that is, groups of singers who sat around the same drum, chanting in rhythm. Dancers mostly moved around the circle. The younger the dancer, the fancier the footwork and the more the likelihood of…

Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther’s Original ”Adventure” in Code and in Kentucky

Because so little primary historical work has been done on the classic text computer game “Colossal Cave Adventure”, academic and popular references to it frequently perpetuate inaccuracies. “Adventure” was the first in a series of text-based games (“interactive fiction”) that emphasize exploring, puzzles, and story, typically in a fantasy setting; these games had a significant…