20 Sided Fuzzy Dice Danglers

—20 Sided Fuzzy Dice Danglers (Think Geek) Now those are my kind of fuzzy dice. Similar:Colorful variations of an upholstered desk chair for my fantasy #steampunk #blender3d proj…AestheticsMeet octobot, a soft-bodied robot that looks like the futureOur future robot overlords never looked …AestheticsStudents Don't Read Syllabi, Exhibit 58623https://twitter.com/ConnorMEwing/status/…AcademiaTevye from Fiddler on the Roof, Now a Rich…

Atari Candleholder

—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:Male Supporting Characters in Recent Disney Princess Films Dominate the DialogueThe silly click-baity headline in…

Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting: A New Method to Enhance Online Reading

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…

Americans and Japanese Read Faces Differently

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:What employers really…

Teaching through Text Message; Cell Phones Emerge as Learning Tool

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…

Calif. Student Arrested in Shooting

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:No, you’re not going crazy – package sizes are shrinking It’s the inflation you’re not suppos…BusinessFormer student:…

The Monetary Economics of Thurston Howell III

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…

Slouching Toward Something

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:Why Drag It Out?The ways that the informal speech of wom…CultureDetails from the author's life are not the magic ticket to "correct" interpretations in li…Students who are new to college…

The readiness to deconstruct is all

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

—atari-and-controllers (jackrabbit.etsy.com) Via join the dots. Similar:You are standing in a field. There is a meme here. Via David ThompsonAmusingSobering data; stunning visualization.This NYT story on the effects of race on…CultureThe Key To Better Work? E-mail Less, Flow MoreWhat the researchers found was that the …BusinessGrumpy Gamer – Happy Birthday Monkey IslandI guess Monkey Island turns…

To Do

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…

LOL Trek

—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…