[Hand-made Star Wars]

—[Hand-made Star Wars] (YouTube) Very dorky, but in a totally awesome, very cool way. Similar:Somewhere out there, somebody is working really hard to come up with a meme to blame this …Front page of the Miami Herald newspaper…BusinessHarvard revokes admission of several students for posting "offensive" memesThe First Amendment of the constitution …AcademiaThe Most Toys (#StarTrek…

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope

Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn’t. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there’s no way he can tell her that. —A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope (Mornignstar) A great little detail that really helps this…

Of thought and metaphor

Even something as seemingly straightforward as asking for the salt involves thinking and communicating at two levels, which is why we utter such convoluted requests as, “If you think you could pass the salt, that would be great.” Says Pinker: “It’s become so common that we don’t even notice that it is a philosophical rumination…

New Model 500 height adjustable workstation: ideal for standing, seated or supine work positions.

—New Model 500 height adjustable workstation: ideal for standing, seated or supine work positions. (Office Organix) Strap me down, slap an IV in my arm, and I’ll get all my work done — all of it! Similar:The Digital-Humanities BustDinosaurs evolved into birds. Not all of…AcademiaIs this why oldsters love nostalgia? I’m 50. I’m in my office…

Pac-Man Bathroom

—toxickaty —Pac-Man Bathroom (Flickr | toxickaty) Awesome. Similar:We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack UpOur provost sent this link to English fa…AcademiaTrees (an "Interpretive Travesty")A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed Ag…AestheticsRejoined #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 6) Dax confronts a Trill taboo about th…Rewatching ST:DS9 At the bar, Dax perfo…EmpathyToilet paper isn't selling out because…

Aztecs vs. Greeks: Those with superior intelligence need to learn to be wise.

The encouragement of wisdom requires a special kind of education. It requires first of all recognition of one’s own intellectual limits and fallibilities–in a word, humility. This is perhaps the most conspicuously missing part of today’s education of the gifted. Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through…

Pong: The Text-Based Game

The nefarious enemy of all that is good, the right paddle, has performed an act of agression against our sovereign right side by hitting the ball back in our direction.If we act fast, we may be able to intercept the ball. It is aimed for directly above our paddle! Move the great paddle up!Hold the…

Age of Wonders

The science fiction drug is available everywhere to kids, in superhero comics, on TV, in the movies, in books and magazines. It is impossible to avoid exposure, to avoid the least hint of excitement at Marvel Comics superheroes and Star Trek reruns and Star Wars, impossible not to become habituated even before kindergarten to the…

Why Video Games May Be Hard to Give Up

The researchers found that the games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn’t keep gamers as interested. Players reported feeling the best when the games produced positive experiences and challenges that connected to what they knew in the real…

Clooney, Others Develop SCI FI Shows

Diamond Age, based on Neal Stephenson’s best-selling novel The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, is a six-hour miniseries from Clooney and fellow executive producer Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions. When a prominent member of society concludes that the futuristic civilization in which he lives is stifling creativity, he commissions an interactive book…