Statetris

—Statetris (mapmsg.com) Like Tetris, but with American states. Similar:'Jane Austen, Game Theorist' by Michael Suk-Young Chwe Is a Joke When [Chwe] says that Austen was a g…AcademiaAdded an overhead minimap to my #medievalyork #unity3d simulation. #mysteryplayAdded an overhead minimap to my #medieva…DesignR.I.P. Blogging, Killed By Screenshorts Are screenshorts slowly killing bloggi…CybercultureBlender 3D UpdateHoly ray-tracing, Batman, it’s…

Beginning Reporting

As I see it, a good reporter is like a pinball in play, always gathering, writing, revising, gathering, writing, revising–until time runs out. The job is as simple, and as hard, as that. The advice here is based on the teachings of reporters I admire. It is also based on conclusions I have drawn during…

Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks

There once was a horse-riding chap Who took a trip in a cold snap He stopped in the snow But he soon had to go: He was miles away from a nap. —Lore Sjöberg —Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks (Bad Gods) Similar:Journalism Tips: Newsworthy vs SnoozeworthyA newsworthy story is recent (rather tha…CultureSights, Sounds, and Smells of…

Echochrome – the Escher Game

—Echochrome – the Escher Game (YouTube, Via Game Girl Advance) What a hypnotically simple interface! This is a PSP game. Since I’m not a platform gamer, I’ll have to admire this one from afar. Similar:Common Sense Media's AI Initiative When the kids were little, my wife…CybercultureMy son showed me Seven Samurai. I had never seen it…

AFP

A string of publishers failed to spot blatant plagiarism of one of English literature’s most famous authors, in a cheeky test to see if she would have secured a book deal today, a report said Thursday. David Lassman, head of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, sent manuscripts to 18 editors seeking a publishing contract,…

Adventures in ostrich suits….

I never thought that I would spend my fifteen minutes of fame dressed as as ostrich. —Megan Ritter —Adventures in ostrich suits…. (Megan Ritter) A member of Seton Hill’s College Republicans posts a brief reflection on her appearance on a Time.com front-page feature, as one of the 10 weirdest YouTube questions posted for the upcoming Democratic…

What do ombudsmen do?

Interest in ombudsmen has increased in response to all the polls showing that readers do not hold newspapers in particularly high regard. This problem is hardly a novel one. Similar circumstances led Ralph Pulitzer to establish a Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play at his New York World in 1913. According to a 1916 issue…

They Just Don't Care

And as far as I know, no other news outlet in the world got this point wrong except the BBC — not even the tabloids. People often accuse the BBC of agenda-driven falsification of stories. Perhaps that’s sometimes true, I don’t know. But in the cases of science mis-reporting that I’m familiar with — and…

Confusing ''b'' and ''d''

Confusing ”b” and ”d” (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Hold your hands like this, and imagine an “e” in between them, and you’ve got the word “bed”. My five-year-old daughter was having so much trouble telling the difference between her ”b” and ”d” that my wife urged me to look up dyslexia on the internet. Along the way,…

Taylor Mali Poetry Slams (”What Do Teachers Really Make?” and ”The Impotence of Proofreading”)

Wow. I needed that. The summer’s more than half over, and I’ve got to start focusing on getting things off of my summer “to-do” list. Similar:The Pointlessness of UnpluggingWhat sex was for the Puritans, technolog…Current_EventsA Pedestal, A Table, A Love Letter: Archaeologies of Gender in Videogame HistoryA thoughtful, informative article on the…BusinessArsenal of Freedom (TNG…