textual genre [spammed to hell]
—textual genre [spammed to hell] To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke… “
The Comfort Zone: Growing up with Charlie Brown
On the eve of Schulz’s induction into the Army, his mother died of cancer. She was forty-eight and had suffered greatly, and Schulz later described the loss as an emotional catastrophe from which he almost did not recover. During basic training, he was depressed, withdrawn, and grieving. In the long run, though, the Army was…
Shoot JFK from your own computer
The objective is to fire three shots at Kennedy’s motorcade in Dallas from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s sixth-floor perch in the Texas School Book Depository, all of which has been digitally re-created. Points are awarded depending on how accurately the shots match the official version of events as documented in by the Warren Commission, which…
Unwanted Spotlight: When private people become part of a public story
Frequently with murder stories, reporters must balance the need to collect information with the feelings of survivors, who invariably endow the martyred loved one with a saintliness that blots out not just the negative but even neutral reality. —Unwanted Spotlight: When private people become part of a public story (Journalism Ethics Gallery) Similar:Summer Project: Responsive Web…
Everyone Should Get an A
Does a bus-driver-training school rank its graduating drivers? No, it ensures that all attain the standard required of a bus-driver. Would you like to be treated by a C-grade doctor? No, everyone wants an A-grade doctor! So doctors and drivers are (I hope!) trained and trained and not let out until they are A-grade in…
Introduction to Object Oriented Programming through Interactive Fiction
Purpose: To introduce the fundamental concepts and methods of object-oriented programming, source code compiling, and creating executable files; to promote the art and science of interactive fiction; and to have fun in a creative and novel way. —Byron Philhour and Albert Boyle —Introduction to Object Oriented Programming through Interactive Fiction (St. Ignatius College Preparatory) Similar:Can't upload…
‘American Gods’ in a High School Classroom
The first day, when they went to the bookstore and bought the book, I thought most of the kids would try to transfer out of the class. “There is no way I’m going to read a book this thick,” more than one student said to me. Another student told me the longest thing he’d ever…
The Columbia University 'Miracle' Study: Flawed and Fraud
It must be emphasized that, in the entire history of modern science, no claim of any type of supernatural phenomena has ever been replicated under strictly controlled conditions. The importance of this fact cannot be overstated. One would think that all medical journal editors would be keenly aware of this fact and therefore be highly…
Pupils scared by asteroid spoof
Pupils were left in tears after a teacher told them that an asteroid was about to hit Earth and kill them all. The spoof announcement was designed to teach 14-year-olds the importance of seizing the day but backfired after they became visibly frightened. —Pupils scared by asteroid spoof (BBC) I think I’ll quietly scratch this idea…
The Labyrinth Unbound: Weblogs as Literature
Calling a weblog ?literary? does not require content that is about literature or even content that aims to be literature. It is not an attempt at categorizing one weblog and its author as more worthwhile in a canonical sense than any other. To the contrary, I propose that every weblog can be considered literary in…
A Quick Review of Google Scholar
Just as with Google Web Search, Google Scholar orders your search results by how relevant they are to your query, so the most useful references should appear at the top of the page. This relevance ranking takes into account the full text of each article as well as the article’s author, the publication in which…
Way Back When
One of the really good web resources for internet researchers is the wayback machine maintained by the Internet Archive. I have to admit I am not good at using it, but I really should. This was pointed out by David Brake, PhD researcher in London: You suggest in Personal Publication and Public Attention that “the…
Is Discourse Human Research?
When I teach “memoir writing” to what degree am I “intervening” with human subjects when I grade their personal essays and confessional writing? It’s not research that I would ever report, but I wonder to what degree I am treading on fuzzy privacy matters as a teacher when it comes to grading my “human subjects”?…
Gauging, and Improving, How Colleges Teach
Colleges have good reasons for not exposing their flaws, scholars said. Mark D. Soskin, associate professor of economics at the University of Central Florida, said, “Establishing standards or even publishing measured learning would reveal that the emperor, if not naked, has a much skimpier wardrobe than commonly presumed.” Once inadequate teaching and learning are revealed,…
Computers and Writing
—Computers and Writing (George Mason University) The online syllabus for what appears to be a graduate level course — that’s a hefty weekly reading list, that covers a broad range of topics. The next time I can’t think of a blogging topic (which is admittedly rare), I’m coming back here. Compiled by Byron Hawk. Similar:The Religious…
Writing (in) Cyberspace Hyperpacket
—Writing (in) Cyberspace Hyperpacket (Arizona State University) A good collection of resources, compiled by Katherine Heenan. Similar:Ethics of standardized testingA blogger who had a much worse day than …AcademiaFathers' Day: Showing "The Princess Bride"My kids have never seen The Princess Bri…Current_EventsThe Declaration Of Independence, 240 Years Later (NPR)When in the Course of human events, it b…CultureJournalist…
A ''Waist'' of Time?
Meetings are often routine if not downright boring. How many journalists have counted up the number of hours wasted in a career sitting at night week after week, month after month, with a bunch of dull politicians? As opposed to the worthwhile hours they might spend in a local tavern engaged in lofty conversation over…
Irony
As Cicero put it, Socrates was always “pretending to need information and professing admiration for the wisdom of his companion”; when Socrates? interlocutors were annoyed with him for behaving in this way they called him eiron, a vulgar term of reproach referring generally to any kind of sly deception with overtones of mockery. The fox…
The Faith-Based Encyclopedia
The combination of prolificacy and inattention to accuracy that characterizes this process is highly suggestive of the modern pedagogic technique known as “journaling.” For decades, (following, we are probably meant to assume, some breakthrough research at a school of education somewhere) young students have been not merely encouraged but required to fill pages of their…
The Powerpoint Anthology of Literature
–Daniel Radosh —The Powerpoint Anthology of Literature Via KairosNews. Similar:Tapdance / jazz music outing with the girl. Tapdance / jazz music outing with …AcademiaSweaters from Rover?From Awful Library Books. For more schad…BooksLighten Up (an illustrator explores the racial politics of skin color in comics)Lighten Up — The Nib — Medium.AestheticsI create five color variations of…