The researchers presented a group of vervet monkeys with a selection of toys, including rag dolls, trucks and some gender-neutral items such as picture books. They found that male monkeys spent more time playing with the “masculine” toys than their female counterparts did, and female monkeys spent more time interacting with the playthings typically preferred…
The movie wasn’t perfect, but there was a lot to like and a lot to laugh at. I so enjoyed myself that I became even more puzzled than I was before about the handfuls of invective that many reviewers of the film have been flinging at it, risking damage to their digital watches in the…
DEAR ABBY: I have lived with my boyfriend for five years. “Brian” is a good man and a decent boyfriend. I get along well with his family and particularly his mom. Brian is sweet, sensitive and, for the most part, very laid-back. My problem is Brian’s temper. Although he has never physically abused me, when…
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would…
None of these dedicated reporters and editors is paid for their efforts. In fact, most of them don’t know the first thing about professional journalism. All however are as passionate about their craft as the top earners at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News or the BBC. What’s more, they’re…
Professors see the world in terms of experts and students: “We are smart; you are dumb.” That’s the Infantile American Principle in a nutshell. Now go play with your toys and don’t bother me. —David Gelernter —The ‘We’re Smart, You’re Dumb’ Principle (LA Times (will expire)) The article is really a critique of Democratic philosophy, but…
Robert Pittman, who created MTV, attributed the station’s success to the ability of viewers in their late teens and early 20s to process multiple facets of information simultaneously. In television, success brings imitation…. “When Mary Lynn Ryan, who was CNN’s producer at the time, did this the news ratings skyrocketed,” Grimes said. “So it appeared…
AP started as a cooperative. Today, it is a cooperative in name only. It’s time to take a lesson from music swappers and invent the new AP – a digital cooperative, a Napsterized news service. The 21st Century news business needs a peer-to-peer network that lets local operations drive cost out of their non-local news…
Pick Up Ax Link-O-Rama (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) This year, I’ve taught Anthony Clarvoe’s play Pick Up Ax in two of my courses — Intro to Literary Study and Media Aesthetics. If you’re just itching to find out what my students had to say about this play about geeks who listened to rock music that was recorded…
A gauzy Skein of Propylene — That sways with slightest Breath — This bag holds smocks — and Bread and Milk But — in its folds — lies Death. It sways and puffs — this Thistledown, Balloonlike in its joy — Each tiny mouth a perfect fit — This bag is not a toy. —…
Books are also tragically isolating. While games have for many years engaged the young in complex social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. These new ‘libraries’ that have arisen in recent years…
The game scene is resorting to faddish ideas from years ago to try to appear original. I’m surprised they haven’t come out with Pet Rock software yet. None of this will save a doomed industry. The business is going to attempt to sustain growth and creativity by making game players buy newer and newer machines.…
Telling ourselves we have “so much” to do and that it is “so hard” and that we’ll “never get done” is conterproductive. Instead of talking about these things we should just haul off and do them! And don’t let friends that don’t get this concept to drag you down with them. Let them list their…
Adams had a knack for describing thorny space-time problems and then squeezing them until they sprayed out juicy absurdity. The novels could be silly — Adams was a comedy writer — but they also made dark sport of humans’ self-importance. We look pretty small, he constantly reminded us, against the backdrop of a nearly infinite…
In the minority are those teachers who have setup their blog/cms as the main home page for their site, integrated into their blog or CMS or at least provide obvious links to their CV, teaching experience, etc, off of the main page of their blog. The blog/CMS is thus positioned as the main public face…
Nowadays, news consumers have an almost unlimited choice. They don’t sit down with a newspaper for an hour to read it cover to cover. Instead, they bounce from site to site, story to story, link to link, customizing their newsgathering experience, clicking on whatever stories from whatever publications appeal to them. They don’t stick around…
Professors, in general, have the luxury of appearing moderate and open to competing ideas, but insecure students often research the opinions of faculty members to ensure that they will be on the correct side of any apparently open dialogue. The powerless seize on small expressions of political opinion from the powerful and embrace these views…
For decades, we’ve worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ”masses” want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want. But as that ”24” episode suggests, the exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively…
It’s cute that those friends think the academic job search is anything at all like other job searches, in which you have a reasonable hope of living in a region you find desirable and getting work commensurate with your qualifications. They don’t realize how someone intelligent, competent, and disciplined enough to earn a Ph.D. can…
Incredibles DVD Freezes in My Player (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) The other day, my wife picked up a copy of the widescreen, 2-disc DVD of The Incredibles. The movie disc loaded, played the FBI warning, then froze on the screen that threatens our little family with legal action if we ever offend The Mouse. I’m used to…