About a boy

Born with a rare syndrome that left him profoundly autistic, seven-year-old Luke was trapped in his own body. But then his dad took him surfing. —Paul Solotaroff —About a boy (Guardian) I’m sick with a virus, and I can’t do much but read. Oh, and try to find out why my division chair can’t log into…

Getting It All Wrong: Bioculture critiques Cultural Critique

Until literature departments take into account that humans are not just cultural or textual phenomena but something more complex, English and related disciplines will continue to be the laughingstock of the academic world that they have been for years because of their obscurantist dogmatism and their coddled and preening pseudo-radicalism. Until they listen to searching…

Virtual Reality for Five Dollars a Day

Humans communicate with each other through voice inflection, timing, and gesture. “Those capabilities are hard-wired into humans,” Pausch explains. “You wouldn’t put up with a person who makes you learn how to type commands to him; why should you have to talk to computers that way? Ultimately, we’d like to be able to read facial…

Dear Soldier

I love you very much. You’re so cute. I like the way you talk. You’re very very nice to me sometimes. And sometimes you don’t talk to me at all. You’re my best guy in the whole world. You are loving all the time, and you are so sweet. I think you are in the…

One School Frog Writing on His Blog

It’s one school frog,   writing on his blog,Two school bees,   writing on their blog,Three purple snakes,   writing on their blog,Four bunnies that are green,   writing on their blog,Five pink monkeys,   writing on their blog. —Carolyn Jerz, age 4 One School Frog Writing on His Blog (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Similar:Spring 2023 Grades: Submitted! (I only had 3 last-minute submissions to mark today.)AcademiaIf…

Comments are Back Up

Comments are Back Up …. just in case anyone was wondering. Similar:Last night I dreamed I was a stagehand during a metatheatrical number called “Butts in Sea…I saw Seton Hill’s production of The Dro…DramaUnfinished pine and not so ornamented, for the workshops and service areas of my fantasy #…PersonalPesky journalists, always showing up to document…

Vintage Mobile Phones

—Vintage Mobile Phones I’d love to see one with a rotary dial… how cool would that be? Similar:Share a Coke with "Pepsi"AestheticsWhat It Was Like to Watch the Beatles Become the BeatlesBeyond their music itself, their greates…CultureHow iPhone Apps Steal Your Contact Data and Why You Can't Stop ItNothing really new in this article, but…

Hammer Dream

Hammer Dream (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) This morning, I heard my daughter stirring in the next room, and I fell back asleep, knowing I only had a few minutes before I had to start getting her ready for preschool. In those few minutes, I had a dream. I was showing my daughter a hammer. It had a…

Living Room Physics

I’ve blogged before about my eight-year-old son’s interest in science. His knowledge at this point is mostly made up of isolated facts, which he strings together in a stream of consciousness that often does not require much input. A few weeks ago, when he told his four-year-old sister that a feather and a rock would…

Approaching Brand New Markets

In the established magazine category, it’s a buyer’s market. That is, the publishers control it. In the new magazine category, it’s still a buyer’s market, but it’s as close to a seller’s market as magazines will ever get. And you’re the seller. Whether you’re new or well-published, you’ve got more power when dealing with new…

The Child

—Antoine Bardou-Jacquet —The Child Now there’s an interesting idea for a text-based mod of Half-Life 2. Hmm…. Similar:The Assignment #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 5) Keiko is not herself after a t…Rewatching ST:DS9 On a bustling morning…DramaBetween static hand-coded HTML pages and modern content-management systems, there used to …When I started my blog in…