Agent Marks and I were uncertain how to end it, but thankfully, our undercover agents came to our rescue. They mounted a joke insurgence and effectively re-took the NJZ. It started off with each undercover agent coming into the zone, one after another, telling jokes in a town-crier fashion. —Guerilla Improv: No Joking Zone (Improv-Abilities) A…
In my review of Once and Future, I made the erroneous statement -“Just like video killed the radio star, graphics killed the parser,” and embarrassingly called interactive fiction a “dead genre.” I was wrong. Five years after I typed those lines, interactive fiction games continue to be produced, even commercially. —Terrence Bosky —Something about Interactive…
A member of a WOW guild suffered a stroke in real life and died. Her guildmates, knowing her only through the game, but nevertheless wanting to offer some remembrance for one of their own, decided to hold a memorial service in the game. A rival guild decided that would be a great time to show…
—Dad shoots at computer, saying son spends too much time playing games (Tampa Bays 10 News) Guns don’t kill video games. Angry parents with guns kill video games. Similar:Perspective | After a stunning news conference, there’s a newly crucial job for the Americ… I have always taken a neutral stan…CultureEnglish Is the Language of Science. That…
Worried that I would not like him, my victim had used his humor to engage me, to make me laugh, to join in his witty barbs, and because I did like him, I had joined in. But we were not on equal footing and my comments contained a much more powerful threat because I did…
A recently-published novel by Harvard undergraduate Kaavya Viswanathan ’08, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” contains several passages that are strikingly similar to two books by Megan F. McCafferty — the 2001 novel “Sloppy Firsts” and the 2003 novel “Second Helpings.” […] Little, Brown signed Viswanathan to a two-book, $500,000…
As founder of the tech meet-and-greet dorkbot events, and the annual robot talent show ArtBots, Repetto has organized exhibits and meetings that have made it easier for geeks everywhere to learn about new, cool tech projects in their communities. —The Geek Mind Behind Dorkbot (Wired) Similar:Oh dear, George Lucas! Why the Star Wars universe is going…
In his decision, Spooner wrote: “It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.” He added: “For this reason, city agencies permit workers to…
The gathering was the monthly meeting of “Dorkbot,” a loose forum for the exchange of creative technological ideas that is developing a cult following around the world. […] Repetto has finished a project called “foal table.” The idea originated in a request from a friend working on a theater production to design a table that…
This week I am going to ask you to participate in a media fast for TV Turn-Off Week, as part of the Media Fasting Reflection due on May 3. If you give up TV, but watch DVDs on your computer, are you really making any progress? If you turn off the TV, but turn up…
Project, to be penned by Abrams and “MI3” scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto OrciRoberto Orci, will center on the early days of seminal “Trek” characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission. —Trekkies have a new leader: ‘Star’ treatment for J.J. (Variety) The fans, captain!…
I happened upon this page years after I posted it, and thought I’d look up the quote, which turns out to be fake. “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” —Hunter…
One item to discuss today is the final project for the class, your blogging portfolio. And among the items we need to consider are these: * What should it include? (Will it highlight your best blogging, be an overview of what you tend to blog about and/or how you tend to blog, or a combination,…
“We cannot determine whether the addition to the letter was made by someone within the office or by someone with access to the office, but it is on my letterhead and the responsibility for it lies with me. A valuable lesson has been learned and new procedures will be adopted as a result.” —Lawmaker Puzzled…
McClure said that some students seem to feel “that e-mail is a casual form of communication, where professional relationships somehow do not exist as they do in the classroom — students feel comfortable saying things in an email that they would never say to you in person.” —David Epstein —Be Polite, E-Polite (Inside Higher Ed) Nothing…
Don’t think you’re addicted to TV? Then why not prove it by going cold turkey for a week? You’d be surprised how difficult it can be to disconnect — and what a profound week of self discovery it can be. —TV Turnoff Week April 24-30, 2006 (Adbusters.org) I’m planning to ask my Intro to Literary Study…
Video game studies? Yes, please. And I don’t just mean in gaming schools. Critical perspectives have been developing as well. Metafilter is already wise to ludology,but what about its mother discipline, ergotics? Don’t forget narrative and storytelling. Of course, if cultural studies, or education is your thing, that’s covered too. Other programs focus on application…
You can like a poem before you understand it, and be moved by it, and in fact, that is a sign that you’re starting to understand it, that you’re reading the poem in a good way. Being moved by a poem — laughing or feeling sad or full of longing — or being excited by…
CHERYL: Wait a minute! Did you see that? An apple fell out of that tree! [dramatic music; slow motion shot of falling apple] This means there must be some sort of FORCE! DARREN: A force — a gravitational force! CHERYL: Yes — and wait a minute — suppose the force stretched all the way to…
The system’s software goes beyond tracking simple emotions like sadness and anger to estimate complex mental states like agreeing, disagreeing, thinking, confused, concentrating and interested. The goal is to put this mental state inference engine on a wearable platform and use it to augment or enhance social interactions, said Rana el Kaliouby, a postdoctoral researcher…