The British people have a different type of English language. In some ways it’s the same as yours, but in other ways it’s quite strange. Learn here how to communicate with British people. You may have heard some British people talking in movies. The men are the posh baddies who often drink to much; the…
Your retro, old-skool little song enshrinesThe unrelenting jackboot five-stress beat Of heel-toe thumping heel-toe bumping feetIn fourteen rigid rhyming goose-step lines.What talent’s there? I’ll never march; I swarm!I curse your foolish rules, your chains that bind,That dare to organize my off-beat mind;For truly I don’t need no steenkin’ form.Why pack and prune, revise, rework, rephraseMy…
For a good many decades, thick fumes of incense have been wafting from the English literary establishment in the general direction of TS Eliot. The latest offering by the acolytes to the high priest is this study by Craig Raine, which admits that some of Eliot’s drama isn’t up to much but otherwise won’t hear…
—The Steampunk Workshop Link via boingboing. Reminds me of Thomas Jefferson’s PAA (personal analog assistant). Similar:My son just handed me my serving of noodles in the butter substitute container. Recycling.AmusingTrump, Obama seem equally disinterested in portrait unveiling — but journalism takes hits…On social media recently I saw people mo…AestheticsAcademics want to preserve video games. The…
Still, what could be better than a crocheted stuffed Dalek, the greatest nemesis of Doctor Who? —EXTERMINATE! (Shigella) Via boingboing — though it’s described there as a “cozy” (that is, a decorative insulator that keeps a teapot warm). Similar:Windows 3.1 Turns 30: Here’s How It Made Windows EssentialAfter watching all the episodes of the 8…AestheticsMy 10yo…
My tenure story is the all-too-familiar tale of the assistant professor hired to start a new program. That program becomes wildly successful, beyond anyone’s predictions. Someone has to administer the needs of the program, so the new assistant professor (aka me) handles it. As the program grows, she handles more of its administration. She and…
While computer and (especially) console games are just discovering the delights and benefits of community, board games have always been a social experience. And unlike the enormous teams required today for game development, board games can still be created by one or two people at a cost of next to nothing. (Admittedly, board games have…
About one in seven of the Shakespearean atoms in your body originated from his excrement. —An Estimate of the Number of Shakespeare’s Atoms (Jupiter Scientific) Deep thought of the day. Similar:Exodus From an Elsevier Neuroscience JournalOne of the world’s largest scientific pu…AcademiaEnglish Teacher Re-Titles Classic Poems As Clickbait In Last-Ditch Effort To Trick Student…Funny and clever.…
I had not expected students to care only about their high grades (A or A- are the only acceptable “good” grades) and about getting work done so they can get on with their partying or video games (“relaxing”) or even sleeping. I had not expected that students would dash off a first draft and think…
[W]e all know that many actual rappers and hip-hop identities are in fact middle class computer geeks from nice suburbs (or indeed public school educated sons of bishops). Is the converse true? —Rich —Armed and dangerous (ObservatioNZ) An interesting reflection on nerdcore hip-hop. (I prefer geeksta rap, but that’s just me.) Similar:Zork: The Great Underground EmpireA…
— Matthew White —[White]-o-Glyphics:Introduction (White-o-glyphics) These glyphs translate as “It was a dark and stormy night.” Fascinating stuff. It reminds me of a long bus ride that I spent sitting next to a hearing-impaired woman. I had learned the American Sign Language alphabet in third grade, but after spending several hours with this woman I figured…
My barely-used, barely-2-year old SCD103 is giving me the black screen in Camera mode but appears operational in Playback mode. I have called Samsung twice and was fed much the same story as I’ve read on this post. Please add us to the lawsuit too! —Another SCD103 victim (Camcorderinfo.com) My camcorder recently went out while I…
Step Afrika, the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping, performed at Seton Hill on Thursday, February 8. Step Afrika is critically acclaimed for its efforts to promote an appreciation for stepping, an art form born in African American fraternities and based in African traditions. Step Afrika serves as a…
Magazines – like television and other Old-Guard media – are seeing readers and advertising dollars follow consumers online. —Paul Tharp —Mags’ Circ Sags: Top Titles Down (NY Post) While “Mags’ Circ Sags” is a very efficient headline that lets the typesetter print it out in huge, eye-catching letters, a more informative title doesn’t take up any…
—Introducing the book (YouTube) New media anxieties are nothing new. Similar:Fancy iPad Holder with Compartment For Storing Your BabyFisher-Price enters the Apple aftermarke…AestheticsBlind-accessible audio adventure Grail to the Thief seeks crowdfundingGrail to the Thief stars a thief from th…CultureD&D-Themed movie Zero Charisma pits Nerds vs. HipstersMy wife usually gives me nerd-themed DVD…CultureMy 13yo homeschooler had no…
The space-age technology of mobile phones has allowed us to return to the more natural and humane communication patterns of pre-industrial society, when we lived in small, stable communities, and enjoyed frequent ‘grooming talk’ with a tightly integrated social network. In the fast-paced modern world, we had become severely restricted in both the quantity and…
With the ides of February comes lots of snow and Teaching Carnival #20. —Teaching Carnival #20 (Revisionspiral) I just noticed that Revisionspiral included my to do list in Teaching Carnival #20. I’m still not finished with that list, but I’ve made good progress. Similar:In Ferguson, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery gives account of his arrestComedian Robin…
“MySpace knows its Web site is a playground for sexual predators. Because of that, MySpace should be doing some very basic safety precautions.” In a statement, MySpace officials applauded the judge’s decision that the company isn’t responsible for “wrongdoing committed by individuals who visit our site.” The lawsuit was brought by the Austin girl, who…
—Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson —2014 EPIC, by Google”Museum of Media History”) Via cac.aphony.org. A great companion piece to Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us. Similar:Life would be so much better if all the interfaces we encountered looked like #Steampunk c…AestheticsIn July 1999, I was blogging about Dante's ashes, Apollo 11, gender-neutral language, and…
Even if the animation of Star Trek was limited, it becomes clear that the creativity of the animators working under such conditions was not. In fact, there are more than a few instances where the animators managed to turn their weaknesses into strengths in some unexpected ways. In this article, we’ll take a look at…