IFComp 2006

The games are now available for downloading. —IFComp 2006 Mmmm…. interactive fiction. Similar:A.I. 'Completes' Keith Haring's Intentionally Unfinished Painting After learning of his AIDS diagnosis…AestheticsGambit Part 1 (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 4) Artifact Raiders Raid Artifact…Rewatching ST:TNG I didn’t for a minu…MediaDaughter doing a thing. Interviewing the Pittsburgh Dance Council’s Randall Miller for…

Disney retools its 'School'

Bryan Louiselle wrote two new songs, “Cellular Fusion” and “Counting on You,” … —Disney retools its ‘School’ (Variety) I don’t get cable, so I haven’t seen the TV version of High School Musical. But it turns out that the two new songs that are part of the stage version were written by someone I knew in…

Colleges coveting home-schooled students

After years of skepticism, even mistrust, many college officials now realize it’s in their best interest to seek out home-schoolers, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “There was a tendency to kind of dismiss home schooling as inherently less rigorous,” he said. “The attitude of…

As We May Think

Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified. The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities. The patent attorney has…

Sony Reader Is a Work in Progress

Having used the device for many hours, I found it to be a comfortable, pleasing way to read, after initial hesitance. And it’s a sharp-looking, techno-wow device with a durable feel. Its size, its screen, its general “thingness” were all appealing. But I love the feel, heft and smell of books, the tangible touch of…

Quotation Marks

One further use, according to the Chicago Manual of Style: in philosophical discourse, key concepts may be set apart with single-quote marks. When such concepts are set off in this way, periods and commas go outside the single-quote marks: * Sartre’s treatment of ‘being’, as opposed to his treatment of ‘non-being’, has been thoroughly described…

Asskicking Device

—Asskicking Device (YouTube) Amazing. A…ma…zing. Thanks for the link, Karissa. Similar:Actually, this post really *is* about ethics in journalism.People – journalists and non-journalists…Current_EventsKids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class. Twelfth-grade reading scores are a…BooksProto iPads and Paper Coexist in Classic Star TrekRewatching the classic Trek episode “The…CybercultureWhat blogging wasI’ve maintained this blog since…

Ibsen's Relevance and Influence Endure

Today Ibsen’s wedding of tragedy to the ethical dilemmas and unadorned rhetoric of middle-class characters seems like the necessary prelude to modern drama, from George Bernard Shaw to Arthur Miller. Within his stuffed Victorian living rooms, the Norwegian playwright championed free-thinking, if flawed, heroes over both the conformist masses and self-aggrandizing authorities. His signature metaphors…

Global warming?

The words “global warming” provoke a sharp retort from Colorado State University meteorology professor emeritus William Gray: “It’s a big scam.” And the name of climate researcher Kevin Trenberth elicits a sputtered “opportunist.” At the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where Trenberth works, Gray’s name prompts dismay. “Bill Gray is completely unreasonable,” Trenberth says. “He…

Hitler and the Sea-Monkeys

Nobody ever doubted that Harold von Braunhut was one twisted dude. What else can you say about a man who transformed a dinky, transparent species of crustacean into “Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys,” peddling billions of the creatures under fantastically false pretenses? A man whose 194 other patents included those other unforgettable staples of comic-book advertising, Invisible…

The Mythical 40-Hour Gamer

The 40-hour gamers are able to play in a way that I used to when I was a teenager, but can’t anymore. They devote full evenings and entire weekends to marathon play-sessions. They get into the zone — that Csikszentmihalyian state of “flow” where all distractions drop away, and you focus with lizard-brain survival intensity…

White and Nerdy — Weird Al Yancovic

—White and Nerdy — Weird Al Yancovic (YouTube) E-mailed to me by a student who knows me well. P.S. Kirk, definitely. Similar:What Grammar and Style Checkers MissTeaching students to write does not mean…AcademiaIce Cream and Sharks Scene: writing classroom.   …AcademiaThe Hidden Feminist Messages in 'Schoolhouse Rock!'Hidden? Sure, but certainly not accident…AcademiaBogus hit-and-run story about Vice…