IFComp 2006

The games are now available for downloading. —IFComp 2006 Mmmm…. interactive fiction. Similar:Merry Christmas 2013Current_Events“Your resume is not about you:” Insights from a journalism hiring manager on how to succee…Your resume is not about you. It’s about…BusinessMan Infected with Ebola Misinformation Through Casual Contact With Cable NewsOn the other end of the link, the New…

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:You're not going to read thisI ask my students to contextualize links…BusinessIf I don’t design the sign for the pub on my #steampunk space cruiser, who will? #prioriti… AestheticsAllergic to Grammar ErrorsSource: Cyanide & Happiness (Explosm…AmusingOut for a walk during some downtime. Paused to appreciate this…

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:Wonderfully Detailed Tribute to 1970s British TV Show Space: 1999″A middle aged geek” puts it well: “Utte…AestheticsAs CRT Supplies Vanish the Classic Arcade Machine is Virtually DeadIf you understand the environment in whi…CultureMSU asks faculty…