That’s your lot. That’s the movie we’ve been waiting 26 years for. And let me tell you, it was not worth the wait, not for this. The whole film is true to neither the letter nor the spirit of Douglas Adams’ books and scripts. And it really seems that many of the changes have been…
In all honesty, how many informed analysts in the early 1980s believed that Soviet Communism would evaporate within a decade, or that Reagan’s confrontational nuclear policies would really lead to a massive reduction of global tensions? Yet Reagan believed these ridiculous things, and on both points, he was ridiculously right. Troy’s readable book is impressive…
In the service, a penitent Charles will acknowledge and solemnly bewail his “manifold sins and wickedness” and promise to be faithful to Camilla. —Paul Majendie —Charles, Camilla Finally Tie Knot After 35 Years (Yahoo!) Awkward grammar. While the author obviously meant “promise” as a verb, if you take “promise” as a noun, it seems to be…
It’s easy to propose edits to Encarta. To start editing, just click the Edit this article link on any article page. After you enter your changes to the article, summarize them in a brief sentence in the Summary of Changes field. Then cite your sources of information in the Sources and Comments field. After you…
This year, the prize went to the Associated Press staff for, as the Pulitzer organization’s site says, “its stunning series of photographs of bloody yearlong combat inside Iraqi cities.” I looked at the twenty photographs and broke them into groups on the basis of content. Here are my results: U.S. troops injured, dead, or mourning:…
The picture of gravitational collapse provided by classical general relativity cannot be physically correct because it conflicts with ordinary quantum mechanics. For example, an event horizon makes it impossible to everywhere synchronize atomic clocks. As an alternative it has been proposed that the vacuum state has off-diagonal order, and that space-time undergoes a continuous phase…
Another project, called Second Future, was undertaken by nine adults with cerebral palsy, and seeks to provide a forum in which they can share in the everyday personal interactions that most people take for granted. The group of nine, who share a single Second Life avatar known as Wilde Cunningham, get to experience being around…
It is important that you understand that the concept of Toothing – beaming a sexual text message to a random phone on a commuter-packed tube train – is a bit like going into a crowded nightclub, throwing a brick at the dancefloor with a love letter attached, and hoping that the person it hits will…
I fancy myself a pretty good sadist when it comes to generating shame and self-loathing in the tardy. If I spot a repeat offender in the hallway before class, and find that they’re not in attendance even after I’ve given them a comfortable buffer of time, I might push trashcans and desks in front of…
US scientists have designed a bionic eye to allow blind people to see again. It comprises a computer chip that sits in the back of the individual’s eye, linked up to a mini video camera built into glasses that they wear. Images captured by the camera are beamed to the chip, which translates them into…
11. We are faced with three fundamental options: formation, participation and dialogue. In the first place, a vast work of formation is needed to assure that the mass media be known and used intelligently and appropriately. The new vocabulary they introduce into society modifies both learning processes and the quality of human relations, so that,…
Conservatives and too many liberals view video games through a jaundiced lens: they are sources of violence and mayhem that destroy the minds of impressionable teenagers. But, as Rejeski points out, “policymakers have spent far too much time focused on the effects of a small number of violent video releases and lost sight of the…
Welcome to the world of professional paper-writing, the dirty secret of the tutoring business. It’s facilitated by avaricious agencies, perpetuated by accountability-free parents and made possible by self-loathing nerds like me. For three-hour workdays, the ability to sleep in and the opportunity to get paid to learn, I tackled subjects like Dostoevsky while spoiled jerks…
For years, the Vatican has had an arrangement with major agencies, including Catholic News Service, whenever there is big news: A cell-phone alert tells them to check their e-mail inboxes for an urgent Vatican statement. So after the pope died, reporters’ cell phones beeped and the e-mailed death announcement began appearing less than a minute…
—Reading, Writing, Plagiarism, and Academic Honesty (CharlesLipson.com) Nothing really quotable on this page — it’s a very useful portal designed to promote Charles Lipson’s book, Doing Honest Work in College. Similar:I know stuff must be important to people who don't spend their evenings generating 1400-wo…In my defense, I broke that long email d…AcademiaHad a rough day.…
Another traditional tipoff that a pope has died is the ritual closing of the shutters of the two windows at the side of the pope’s apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Some say the closing of the shutters can be the first tangible sign of a death. Despite those arcane traditions, first official word that John…
Shizzam! This, my friends, is entry #201! Hard to believe that only 8 months ago, I wrote my very first entry here on the Seton Hill University blog system. I don’t think I could say enough positive things about blogging: 1) I get to be part of a large r community of like-minded individuals –…
The Pope has died at the age of 84, after becoming one of the longest-serving pontiffs in history. —Pope John Paul II dies in Vatican (BBC) Similar:Essay on how much a professor learned about teaching from his mentorI had a similar experience, with a mento…CultureAttribution, Editorializing and DefamationIn the Nightly Noodle Monthly, former No…Current_EventsEncyclopedia Smithsonian: Star-Spangled Banner and…
For the first three days of April, celebrations will be held in Denmark to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the country’s most famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen. —Malcolm Brabant —Enduring legacy of author Andersen (BBC) The Ugly Duckling… The Little Mermaid… The Princess and the Pea… The Emperor’s New Clothes… You know Hans Christian…
They Took It Sitting Down (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) The other night, about a third of my American Lit survey class insisted on sitting on the floor. They pushed the chairs aside and clumped together in the front of the room. The weather was nice, but we couldn’t go outside because a student was using her blog…