Colleges and universities must inform students about the particular dangers they face online. But if schools actively monitor their students’ online activities and students are aware of this policy, they may have a duty of care that includes preventing any illegal acts committed as a result of information posted online. Thus, schools should inform their…
The potential caves were spotted near a massive Martian volcano, Arisa Mons. Their openings range from about 330 to 820 feet (100 to 250 meters) wide, and one of them, Dena, is thought to extend nearly 430 feet (130 meters) beneath the planet’s surface. The researchers hope the discovery will lead to more focused spelunking…
The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework. The report said teachers feared confronting ‘anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils’. It added: “In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils. “But…
I’ve been hunkering down in my little home office here more often than ever recently, all because I’m on a quest. No, I’m not crossing swords with evildoers or standing defiant before a salivating dragon while searching for some sacred bauble (well, not unless you count the occasional bouts in Bethesda’s Oblivion). I’m penning my…
Grand Theft Auto and its progeny — nearly a dozen sequels and spinoffs, including this fall’s GTA IV — let players live out their fantasies. But few videogame fantasies match the real-life adventures of Rockstar Games. Almost a decade ago, a gang of young prep-school-educated Brits invaded New York with a then-outrageous dream: to make…
—Maraka (YouTube | Saturday Night Live) “Pump your hands to make the balloon fill up. Pump them harder. Come on! Harder! What’s wrong with you? There! You did it!” “Can you help me decide if Robert Blake was innocent?” “Don’t question it, just do it!” Wonderful spoof of “Dora the Explorer.” Similar:Brilliant, Troubled Dorothy Parker by Robert…
White House Secret Service Agent Anthony Panucci is being called a hero after intercepting what could have been a critically damaging question aimed directly at President Bush during a press conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday. —Heroic Secret Service Agent Takes Question Intended For Bush (The Onion (Satire)) I love the graphic that indicates the question…
Someone, somewhere created the very first Web log. It’s just not quite clear who. It may not be one of the Internet’s grandest accomplishments, but with the number of active bloggers hovering somewhere around 100 million, according to one estimate, there are some serious bragging rights to be claimed by the first person who provably…
Jim Towey is writing a blog to communicate with Saint Vincent students and to share the fruits of his experiences as their leader. These will be posted from time to time as his schedule permits. Click on this link to reach the archive and the latest posting. —President’s Blog (Saint Vincent College) The president of St.…
Star Trek / Mission Impossible Prop Mash-up (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) While riding the train back from a conference, I spent some time watching early episodes of Mission Impossible. This screen capture shows the characters prepping for a mission. Because I recently designed 3D models of Star Trek furniture in order to teach myself Blender 3D, my…
We walked out of the dealership, but not before learning that none of my personal data which was copied and recorded would be returned to me or destroyed. It’s going to be kept on file for 7 years. Policy, you see. It goes in the same file where they keep the fingerprints. So now I’ve…
With presidential campaigns now poised to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising that will blanket television before November 2008, this seemingly home-produced video — created with software and a laptop, and likely without the benefit of a team of expensive political consultants — opens a new window, Rosenberg said. It has dramatized a…
The researchers then studied 68 men and found that those who played even one racing game took more risks afterward in traffic situations on a computer simulator than those who played another type of game. Then the researchers had 83 men play either a racing game or another type of game, and found that those…
By presenting us with a limitless number of nonstopped stories, the narratives that the media relate – the consumption of which has so dramatically cut into the time the educated public once devoted to reading – offer a lesson in amorality and detachment that is antithetical to the one embodied by the enterprise of the…
Mars’s southern polar ice cap contains enough water to cover the entire planet approximately 36 feet (11 meters) deep if melted, according to a new radar study. —Mars Pole Holds Enough Ice to Flood Planet, Radar Study Shows (National Geographic News) Awesome news. I had no idea there was that much water — but apparently the…
MYTH: Frankenstein, the most famous work of English Romanticism, was written by an uneducated, teenaged girl, who took part in a ghost-story contest in Geneva, had a nightmare, and was inspired to write a story “which would frighten my reader as I myself had been frightened that night!” REALITY: Frankenstein is a work of profound…
— Building a MAME console inside a TARDIS (STAR WARS ASCIIMATION) Awesome. I particularly like the image with the caption “Another famous folding design.” Similar:Narnia board game — enjoyable family activity (but it's weird that the Pevensies compete …It’s weird that in the Narnia board game…BooksOklahoma Was Never Really O.K. (Frank Rich, Vulture)”Oklahoma! was greeted as…
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit–General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess. —William BlakeBlake on Generalization (The Poetical Works of William Blake) Jotted in the margins of his copy of another author’s work. Similar:Paleo-Future: robotsThis is from the robots category of Pale…AestheticsWhen she's grown and flown,…
Why did Lord Vader decide to break all protocols and personally pilot a lightly armored TIE Fighter? Conveniently, this placed Lord Vader outside of the Death Star when it was destroyed, where he was also conveniently able to escape from a large-sized rebel fleet that had just routed the Imperial forces. Why would Lord Vader,…
The fantastically-colored star is our own sun as STEREO sees it in four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. The black disk is the Moon. — Stereo Eclipse (NASA) A movie sequence shows the sun slowly turning from left to right, while the disc of the moon approaches from the left and crosses the face of the…