Bloggers have been making fun of the examples Google’s lawyers deem acceptable. They included: “Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party. Inappropriate: I googled that hottie.” Web veterans have also been taken aback by Google’s suddenly humourless approach. The eight-year-old company has previously cultivated an image of youthful…
Some have appealed to Gingerich’s group not to downgrade Pluto, saying it would disappoint children and throw our understanding of the universe into chaos. Others say let the chips fall where they may and seem to relish the idea of overturning our current view of the universe. –Alan Crosby —Pluto’s status attacked (Boston.com) The debate over…
More than a dozen accusations of staged or doctored photographs have made their way through various Web sites in the past several weeks. None has been treated by the news outlets as seriously as the original Reuters incident, which saw the photographer Adnin Hajj fired and over 900 of his photos removed from the Reuters…
It’s important to understand that there is not just a single fraudulent Reuters photograph, nor even only one kind of fraudulent photograph. There are in fact dozens of photographs whose authenticity has been questioned, and they fall into four distinct categories. The four types of photographic fraud perpetrated by Reuters photographers and editors are: 1.…
I’ll also mention that “mute point” is an “eggcorn” — a new category of writing mistake that linguists have identified and my fellow college teachers might find useful in responding to student writing. I’m certainly glad to have a new tool that helps me climb down from the high horse I have occasionally mounted in…
You could cure a toothache or make snowshoes using the original Britannica, of 1768-71. (You could also imbibe a lot of prejudice and superstition. The entry on Woman was just six words: “The female of man. See HOMO.”) If you look up “coffee preparation” on Wikipedia, you will find your way, via the entry on…
Dodge Intrepid is hammy and satirical, following the adventures of a Beaver County librarian and his Sancho-like intern. The mode is decidedly retro, and the company has eschewed any kind of seriousness. If there’s a blue note, Rubino says it’s this: “My ulterior motive is to promote the library system, really.” —Radio Serials Revived Via…
Computers & Composition: An International Journal invites contributions for a special issue, Reading Games: Composition, Literacy, and Video Gaming While video gaming has been a strong cultural force since the advent of the popular coin-operated arcades of the 1970s, it is only within the last few years that video/computer gaming has been an academic focus:…
The following list is made up of a few things I’ve noticed in a lot of the interactive fiction games I’ve tested or tried out. I’ve tried these games for reasons I can’t entirely fathom; admittedly, it’s easier and leaves fewer disfiguring scars than self-flagellation. It is not necessarily any less painful though. —Michael J.…
You rarely see, for example, a faculty member from an Ivy League university alongside one from a community college on a Modern Language Association panel, regardless of any research interests they might share. That shows the dangerous classism that pervades academe, something I admittedly did not see for myself until I began teaching at a…
Until recently entertainment reporting was in the hands of respectful, publicist-friendly titles such as Vanity Fair and The Los Angeles Times. Indeed, the latter recently opened one of its celebrity articles with this gem of a sentence: “One doesn’t so much interview Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne as sit back and watch as their friendship,…
The blog hurt the administration in two key ways: First, administrators were unable to focus on correcting the problems that led to the creation of the blog, and second, the administration’s clumsy and futile efforts to combat the blog simply compounded the anger and contempt on campus. —Daniel W. Barwick —The Blog That Ate a…
—Wintergreen ”When I Wake Up” (KeithSchofield.com) Is this for real? I’m not so sure the song goes with the images, but it’s still awesome. Similar:Spring and Fall, by Gerard Manley HopkinsMárgarét, áre you gríeving Over Goldeng…AestheticsFlying Saucer Irony AmusingHow Poetry Helps You Improve Your WritingWhile I’d rather see a reminder that we …AestheticsEnjoyed watching "Queen of Katwe"…
“It would have been a major oversight to ignore this portentous anniversary,” said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, whose site now boasts over 4,300,000 articles in multiple languages, over one-quarter of which are in English, including 11,000 concerning popular toys of the 1980s alone. —Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence: Founding Fathers, Patriots, Mr. T.…
Infocom, king of the text adventure and the first behemoth of American computer game development, began not with a bang, but with an internet meme. —Lara Crigger —The Short, Happy Life of Infocom (The Escapist) There are some details about Infocom culture that are nicely placed. I like what Jeremy Douglass wrote about the genre of…
Capitalizing on youthful passion for video games, school leaders hope to keep more kids in school by offering the chance to conceive, design, build — and sell — their own video game. “That’s what they love,” said David White, the school’s chief academic officer. “That’s the hook.” —Scott Elliott —Reading, writing and video games (Dayton Daily…
—Blender Basics, 2nd Ed (pdf) (Central Dauphin High School) Where was this book during the last 3 weeks when I was struggling with random half-finished tutorials? Thank you, James Chronister! Similar:Never use very. Write the word damn instead. Your editor will strike out the damn.CultureWhen In Academia – WHEN A COLLEAGUE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT ‘DIGITAL HUMANITIES’:When…
In hiring, I look for individuals who demonstrate insatiable intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and analytical skills as well as firm control of the English language. Today, it is important for journalists also to have a sound grounding in science and business/finance. Sadly, I find that it is common to find journalism grads that lack all…
RideMax is a computer software program guaranteed to help you save time waiting in line at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. RideMax allows you to specify the attractions you wish to ride during your visit, then uses a sophisticated scheduling algorithm to order your attractions so that the amount of time you spend in line…
The report, written by Senior Research Specialist Amanda Lenhart and Associate Director Susannah Fox, says that bloggers are avid consumers and creators of online content. They are also heavy users of the internet in general. Forty-four percent of bloggers have taken material they find online — like songs, text, or images — and remixed it…