Being able to think materially about material goods, hence critically, gives one some independence from the manipulations of marketing, which typically divert attention from what a thing is to a back-story intimated through associations, the point of which is to exaggerate minor differences between brands. Knowing the production narrative, or at least being able to…
Welcome to the thirteenth edition of the Teaching Carnival where we discuss all things academic, from teaching to college life, from HigherEd policy to graduate school research. Last time, I separated the Two Cultures in a way. This time I want to keep them mixed – both sides of campus often deal with the same…
The games are now available for downloading. —IFComp 2006 Mmmm…. interactive fiction. Similar:Looking in on the officers' wardroom (conference and dining) one deck above the main … I thought of the interior as “Missisip…AestheticsJaz Parkinson "Colour Signatures"Amusing visual representations of the co…AestheticsThe disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise shipLast year, three cryptocurrency…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 (YouTube) Amazing. A…ma…zing. Thanks for the link, Karissa. Similar:I can't believe I'm fact-checking a viral story about the gender of a plastic potato with … I can’t believe I’m fact-check…BusinessBabel (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 5) Virus Garbles Everyone's SpeechRewatching ST:DS9 Overworked O’Brien …DesignTake a look at the moon tonight!I wish I had…
Who doesn’t wish to keep a record of a beautiful sunset that particularly impressed us in childhood, our first kiss or, for that matter, an important conversation with the boss that took place a few months back? One of our shortcomings is a constant struggle to remember. How difficult it can be sometimes to recall…
“It was then decided that a tactical solution needed to be done in an effort to save the two hostages,” the sheriff said, his voice breaking. “Entry was made. The suspect shot one of the hostages, then shot himself.” —Chase Squires —Colo. Gunman Shoots Hostage, Kills Self (ABC News) Fascinating example of the usefulness of the…
Mike Edwards had himself a pencil. Weighed about forty pound. Every time Mike Edwards drew a squiggly edit mark Drove his pencil two inches in the ground, Lawd, Lawd, Drove his pencil two inches in the ground. Mike Edwards’s blog was named Vitia. The logo looked the same upside down. He’d sharpen up his pencil…
In my discussions with opponents of [plagiarism detection services], it’s unclear that any methods of plagiarism detection at all are acceptable. Too much zeal to trust students can lead to a tacit “look the other way” practice which is naive, irresponsible, and just as likely to breed resentment among students who do the writing as…
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…
Truth is: The flow goes both ways. We don’t move invisibly through the links, we leave a fine trail, much more real than pixie dust, but as intangible. Gathering information, we leave a trail of information. The ivory tower does not protect us here, and there are no sets of information gathering ethics protecting the…
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…
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 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 (YouTube) E-mailed to me by a student who knows me well. P.S. Kirk, definitely. Similar:Shatoetry iPhone app lets you put… words… in… William Shatner's… mouthWilliam Shatner and technology go way ba…AestheticsDear Google: You Should Have Talked to Me FirstTeacher Jen Marten responds to Google’s …BooksLocal news is the building…
“(Video games) are a little bit like documentary films were in say the ’60s or ’70s,” says Suzanne Seggerman, co-founder of Games for Change, a support organization in New York for makers of video games dealing with social issues. “Film had been a popular medium for a long, long time, (but) it took quite a…