—atari-and-controllers (jackrabbit.etsy.com) Via join the dots. Similar:Ben Franklin Sings about Your Rights as a PhotographerIf you’re legally present on a public st…AmusingI can’t fix this broken world but I guess I did okay using #blender3d to model this wedge-… AestheticsCarolyn Jerz featured on Tap Titans TodayI love watching my daughter perform. Her…AestheticsThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the…
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…
A Chinese student was transferred from his high school to an “alternative education center” (?) after his parents found he had designed a Counterstrike mod with maps based on his school. Two parents learned of the map he made from their kids, and they informed his parents, who in turn reported him to the Fort…
Digg Takedown, Obama Takeover, Army Blog Squeeze (Jerz’s LIteracy Weblog) This is the last week of classes, and I’ve got deadlines galore (3 conference proposals, an annual report, a departmental proposal, and an article submission that I’ve been sitting on for a week). So I won’t have much to say, but I still thought it was…
Getting shot hurts. — Ronald Reagan —Reagan diaries reveal president’s private musingsYahoo! | Reuters (will expire)) As an American who started drinking tea the English way while in Canada (brewed in a pot and poured into the cup, not made in the cup with a single-serving tea bag), I enjoyed the anecdote about Prince Charles.…
On the night of Monday, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. The backup server failed to back up. —Richard Pérez-Peña —Business magazine fails to heed its own tech advice (International Herald Tribune) What makes this a “dog bites man” story is the…
—Map of Online Communities (XKCD: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language) Thanks, Josh, for the suggestion. (This is just an excerpt from the full map.) I’m going to have to give this site some attention when grades are in… I wish the artist could draw people instead of stick figures, but the jokes are…
A cameraman for the NBC affiliate in Houston was captured on home video sporting a Mexican flag on his camera while covering a rally in the Texas city that supported illegal immigrants, drawing angry shouts from counter-protesters. In the first of two clips posted on YouTube.com, a counter-protester with a bull horn can be heard…
“We believe the victim was assaulted after hours Friday by an unknown individual or individuals,” a Columbia County sheriff’s departmaent spokesman said. “Though autopsy results are still pending, we believe the victim suffered fatal head trauma after his face was immobilized against the glass of a photocopier and repeatedly struck with the machine’s cover.” —White-On-White…
One thing that I feel very strongly about since I began my post-secondary literary studies, is that high school teachers tend to teach the students all sorts of things that need to be un-taught when they get to college. It drives me crazy! Shouldn’t we be teaching students skills they can build on when they…
I Think, I Want, I Know, I Feel, I Google (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Google Hits: I think (369,000,000) I want (275,000,000) I know (257,000,000) I feel (128,000,000) I hate (51,200,000) I love (270,000,000) Similar:Students are trusting software like this to do their work. The technology will continue t…CultureA Matter of Time (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5,…
The picture shows Stacy Snyder of Strasburg wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic “Mr. Goodbar” cup. The photograph taken during a 2005 Halloween party was posted on Snyder’s MySpace Web page with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” “The day before graduation, the college confronted me about the picture,” Snyder said Thursday. “I was…
Surely, Cho’s diseased mind was prepped and primed to commit mass murder, at some point. But did NBC’s show, the night before, serve as his prompt? In his afflicted state, did that “Dateline” installment push him over the edge? It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know. Yet, the numerous similarities between the Hyde and Cho stories…
“So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone?, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did.” Umm, yeah, what to wright about?? I’m leaving to join the Marines and I really don’t…
One Iota of Difference (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) *Sigh.* I’ve already fixed the one I found on Wikipedia. Similar:My meme about the distracted boyfriend memeAmusingCelebration of Writing Fall 2018PersonalI broke the garage door when I left for work this morning. Fixed it when I got home.PersonalI apologize for this one. R2-D2 stars in Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical…
Floyd Collins was a caver who became trapped in Sand Cave on January 30th, 1925 50m from the entrance by a 26 1/2 pound rock. He was found and provided with food and media attention until February 4 when a further collapse cut him off, leading to frantic tunneling attempts, but he was found dead…