When Musicians Play Interactive Fiction

Nick Montfort, Grand Text Auto: Leonard Cohen Manhattan: Taken. Berlin: Taken. Similar:Vincent Connare, Inventor Of 'The Most Hated Font,' Defends HimselfA typographic engineer, Connare was work…AestheticsCode of Honor (ST:TNG Rewatch — Season 1, Episode 3) Rehashed Amok Time plot that gets ra…Rewatching TNG after almost 20 years. (Y…CultureThe boy wins once again. #chessGamesWinners Chosen in…

John Henry was a steel-drivin' bastard

Via MetaFilter: You’ve got just over two weeks to make it to the John Henry celebration in Leeds, Alabama, where some folks believe the legendary steel driving contest actually took place. Maybe you already made it to John Henry Days in Talcott, West Virginia (or read a fictionalized account), where some more folks claim the…

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:The Abomination of Ebooks: They Price People Out of Reading Random House, which jacked up its eboo…BooksHow to Keep Students Writing in the Age of AI Tools…

YouTube – Short Letterpress Documentary (Wonderful)

  Similar:"Only You" — 11yo Carolyn Sings a Power Ballad from "Starlight Express"The observation car Pearl sings of her l…AestheticsAI is better at writing poems than you’d expect. But that’s fine. Even the most rebellious poets follow …CultureShakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests It has long been assumed that…

Colossal Cave Adventure — History

Couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d do some more work on the Wikipedia entry for Colossal Cave Adventure. Similar:I’ve been teaching with this handout for over 25 years, updating it regularly. I just remo…I first started teaching with this hando…AcademiaA former student working in SEO shared this. I miss Google classic.AmusingKelly Gallagher on "Readicide" I am reading…

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:Twitter is testing a tool for reporting fake & offensive contentIt’s risky to get your news from a socia…Current_EventsFree Game Friday: Text-Based Games 2012 Interactive Fiction contest we’ll…AmusingBabylon 5 redefined TV science fiction, so why isn’t…

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,…