He said, “Mr. Moio, I have something that I would like you to have.” Without hesitating, he handed me an old, leather-bound book with an embossed title reading, “English Poems.” I thanked the student and opened the front cover to discover that the book was published in 1902. Explaining to my student that the book…
—20 Sided Fuzzy Dice Danglers (Think Geek) Now those are my kind of fuzzy dice. Similar:Added a splash of color to this section of a #neovictorian #steampunk control panel (for m…Aesthetics''Uh…''And yes, Liz’s face registers the shift …AestheticsPoetry Writing: 10 Tips for Writing PoemsIf you are writing a poem because you wa…AestheticsBusy NYC Restaurant Solves Major…
—Atari Candleholder (Wonderland | Mixko) Wonderland credits a designer called Mixko, but I couldn’t find it on that site. (And even I did find it there, I couldn’t link to it, because the site uses Flash in a horribly user-hostile way.) Similar:Umberto Eco and his legacy in open-world gamesI read “The Name of the Rose” during…
The VSTF process converts display of text such as this first sentence from the U.S. Declaration of Independence into this: —Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting: A New Method to Enhance Online Reading (Reading Online) Fascinating. The indented version really does seem a lot easier to read, perhaps chiefly because the first word in each line is often a…
According to Marmor, Monet’s work began to show a yellowish cast as his cataracts developed. To reveal how Monet saw the world, Marmor darkened images using Photoshop and reduced the levels of blue to replicate a yellowing effect. He also used blurring filters. The results suggest that Monet’s vision corrupted his ability to see colors…
In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). “After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles,” he said. —Americans and Japanese Read Faces Differently (Live Science) Similar:In the Era…
The Pentagon is setting up a civilian Language Corps, a cadre of some 1,000 foreign-language speakers who can help the government in times of war and national emergencies. In a three-year pilot program, the Defense Department will recruit volunteers and do testing to see if such a program would work. If successful, a permanent corps…
They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety. —Bo-Mi Lim —Skywalkers in Korea cross Han solo (Yahoo! | AP (will espire)) This is a news…
Some linguists are worried that the proliferation of text messaging among students may hurt the development of formal English. Johnson does not agree. “I don’t buy it,” Johnson said. “I think students can distinguish between different contexts. What they would say with their friends is different from what they would say to an instructor.” Text…
Police arrested a college student Tuesday suspected of opening fire in an off-campus apartment during a dispute over a video game console, killing one man and wounding two others. —Calif. Student Arrested in Shooting (AP | MyWay (will expire)) Similar:A Book Itself Is a Little Machine: Emily Short's Interactive FictionWords do some things much better than…
But I should have expected that. The IF Comp, an annual contest to see who can write the best text-based game, offers a vast treasury of interactive fiction, and many of the entries over the past 13 years are truly fantastic. Some, like Vespers, are lit-geek works of art, putting the bulk of commercial games…
Imagine Gilligan’s Island without the Howells and their paper dollars. Without money, commodities exchange directly: coconuts for fish, fish for bamboo, etc. But even with barter, some commodities are more “marketable” than others. Perhaps one of the castaways might eventually buy one of the Professor’s books, but they will more often purchase Mary Ann’s coconut…
Why can’t anything fun ever be slouched toward? I mean, what about Slouching Towards Deliciousness, or Slouching Towards Balloon Animals? —Slouching Toward Something (Why Not Sneeze?) Similar:Text, Speech, Machine: Metaphors for Computer Code in the Law : Computational CultureOn my to-read list once I post midterm g…BusinessAPNews.com Photo Still Says Sam Smith "declared his pronouns 'they/them'"…
When we refuse to “budge an inch,” excoriate “rotten apples,” or admonish slackers to “sink or swim,” we speak in his voice. Although the arts sections of newspapers teem with products from self-anointed “artists” who will not survive their publicity budgets, Shakespeare after roughly four centuries still pleases general audiences, challenges intellectuals, and provokes academics.…
—atari-and-controllers (jackrabbit.etsy.com) Via join the dots. Similar:Remember Who The Enemy IsGood article on Catching Fire. (I haven’…BooksWithout ComPUNction: Doing verbal battle at the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships. “It doesn’t have to be good. It just ha…AestheticsSyllabusing Like a BossAcademiaHaiku'da Been a Spam FilterLatest weapon against junk e-mail: poetr…CybercultureThe Schizoid Man (TNG Rewatch: Season 2, Episode…
To Do (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) 5: The number of proposals I’ve sent off in the last 24 hours. (Well, one I had drafted weeks ago, and another consisted of me answering the phone and saying “Yes,” but still…. ) Feels like a pretty good day. To do: Share with colleagues draft of revised senior portfolio for…
This article from The Week has statistics that bolster and weaken arguments frequently used by people on both sides of the debate. —How other countries deal with gun control (BoingBoing) Blogging this for future reference. I’ll be teaching a news writing course in the fall, and one of the most challenging units involves getting students to…
Vetting Comments Strangers Post to Class Blogs (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I always enjoy telling my students when I start noticing comments that people who aren’t in our class start posting comments on the course weblog or individual student weblogs. Sometimes the poster is someone who took the course in the past and is recalling with fondness…
“You present an engineering problem, like a fighter plane that’s returned to base shredded by antiaircraft fire, and ask students where they would put extra armor,” said Mr. Tront. Students circle various parts of the plane that took a lot of hits. “You can show their solutions one by one and discuss them,” he said.…
—Stephen Granade —LOL Trek (Live Granades) I was vaguely aware of the lolcats phenomenon, which involves remediating the famous “Hang in there, baby” cat poster as if the cats themselves were writing the captions. Never did I expect it to be unleashed on the beloved Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” (which has earned it…