Man found after weeks in cave

A man who went missing five weeks ago in south-western France has been found alive in an underground cave system where he had got lost. —Hugh Schofield —Man found after weeks in cave (BBC) What’s French for XYZZY? Similar:Chapbooks — the latest assignment in my “History and Future of the Book” class.Students have already done a…

Phaedrus

Is not rhetoric, taken generally, a universal art of enchanting the mind by arguments; which is practised not only in courts and public assemblies, but in private houses also, having to do with all matters, great as well as small, good and bad alike, and is in all equally right, and equally to be esteemed-that…

Slayer Slang

Buffy has introduced new slang terms and phrases in nearly every episode, many of them formed in the usual ways, some of them at the crest of new formative tendencies. The show incorporates familiar slang, too; the familiar and newly coined slayer slang together compose a particularly vivid snapshot of current American teen slang. —Michael…

Professor's Saturn Experiment Forgotten

“If you’re looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn’t it.” — David Atkinson, scientist whose 18 years of work on a space probe experiment were trashed when someone forgot to turn the thing on before the probe’s 1997 launch. —Professor’s Saturn Experiment Forgotten (AP/My Way) Similar:Twitter, after 10 years, hasn't been a…

Welcome Back, Blog

Welcome Back, Blog (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Dear blog, I missed you while you were down. Let’s take this opportunity to thank Will Gayther for helping me bring you back, and to thank those who e-mailed me to let me know you weren’t well. Welcome back. Similar:Judge rules Jim Acosta can have his White House pass back…

Data Analysis

You wouldn’t buy a car or a house without asking some questions about it first. So don’t go buying into someone else’s data without asking questions, either. Okay, you’re saying… but with data there are no tires to kick, no doors to slam, no basement walls to check for water damage. Just numbers, graphs and…

Web Site Usability

—Web Site Usability (Mind Tracks) A good collection of links introducing usability and web design. I’ll keep it in mind for the next time I teach “Writing for the Internet“. Similar:A day after using an apparently altered hurricane map, Trump defends his Alabama claimIt was Mr. Trump who used a black Sharpi…Current_EventsAcademics want to preserve video…

Production and Overproduction

Administrations and faculties need to stop caring how much someone writes or publishes or says, or even how important what they?ve published is according to some measurable or quantifiable metric. Not only because trying to measure productivity in terms of scholarship destroys scholarship, but because it detracts from the truly important kind of productivity in…

Religion is Big News on the Net

The Internet has been providing people who have religious convictions — the vast majority of Americans — with a home long denied them in mainstream media. But there are signs of change in the MSM. —Daithí Ó hAnluainedia —Religion is Big News on the Net (Online Journalism Review) The other day I spoke briefly with a…

Writing Interactive Fiction (a.k.a. "Text Adventure Games") with the Inform Programming Language

A great introduction to a medium near and dear to my heart. —Writing Interactive Fiction (a.k.a. “Text Adventure Games”) with the Inform Programming Language (IndieGameDev) Similar:My big acting moment in this scene is declining a drink. #indie #filmAmusingMy son showed me #PacificRim.My son showed me #PacificRim. Liked the …CybercultureThe Current War (Quantum Theatre Musical)Waiting for The…