Sunken boat raised by pingpong balls

A 24-foot sailboat was raised Thursday from the murky depths of Monterey Harbor by divers who filled its hull with pingpong balls. —Kevin Howe —Sunken boat raised by pingpong balls (Monterey Herald) Similar:Blender 3D UpdateHoly ray-tracing, Batman, it’s a Blender…AestheticsMy second greenscreen test.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d-LPwKQ…CybercultureNew book: basic skills for the multimedia journalistLooking forward to this promising resour…CybercultureIn October,…

SHU Blogs Down

SHU Blogs Down The SHU blogs are down. I exchanged three e-mails with the sysadmin yesterday, who described the problem as something minor, that a reboot would fix. I haven’t heard back from him since yesterday afternoon and don’t know what to say. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed. Update: The sysadmin writes, Argh! The…

What If… There Were No IF? An Alternative History of Games, sans Crowther's Colossal Cave

What If… There Were No IF? An Alternative History of Games, sans Crowther’s Colossal Cave (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) During a break in the Princeton video game conference a few months ago, David Thomas asked me, what would computer games be like today if Will Crowther hadn’t created Colossal Cave Adventure? I pulled Nick Montfort into the…

Birds Learn to Operate Automatic Doors

They circle in front of the motion detector, the doors open, and the birds fly through and take lunch up to the kids that are nesting in the building. Then it’s back to the door, buzz by the motion detector — and fly through again to hunt for more food. —Birds Learn to Operate Automatic…

Apollo moon rocket to get face-lift

The 363-foot-long behemoth has lain on its side in front of JSC since 1977, a favorite sight of tourists, but also a victim of the elements. —Apollo moon rocket to get face-lift (CNN) The Houston Space Center was one of the places I visited on my honeymoon (10 years ago next month). If I recall correctly,…

Spite! It Wins Votes!

Rich, beautiful, coastal types are liberal precisely because their lives are so wonderful. They want to preserve their lives exactly as they are. If I were a rich movie star, I’d vote for peace and poverty relief. War and domestic insurrection are the greatest threats to their already-perfect lives?why mess with it? This rational fear…

Tips for Office Hours

The way that desks and chairs are arranged in a professor’s office send subtle signals. If you use your desk to block your doorway with a confrontational barrier like they do at, say, a police station, well then you’re not only being uninviting, you’re also responsible for all those nervous tics the students make when…

Thousands of Blogs Fall Silent

Winer, who has offered free hosting to bloggers for the past four years, has promised to make exportable copies of blog contents available to the blogs’ owners at their request. He says it will take at least two weeks to provide copies of the blogs’ contents. Meanwhile, the affected bloggers cannot access their work, a…

Slow-motion Nightmare

Slow-motion Nightmare (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I had a busy day yesterday, with adventures that included diving fully-clothed into a large kiddie pool to retrieve my 2-year-old daughter, who had slipped and was floating face down, unable to straighten herself out. An older girl had taken my daughter’s hands and lured her to the center of the…

The seven-year-old bloggers

Children as young as seven in one British school are using weblogs as part of their normal routine, and are doing better than non-webloggers as a result, their teacher says. Weblogs, easy-to-use personal journals published on the internet, get children more interested in school work they might otherwise have disliked, says junior school teacher John…

Net games lure 'bored housewives'

While hardcore online gaming remains the preserve of young men, research firm Screen Digest found that “bored housewives” are fuelling the growth of other games offered on the net. —Net games lure ‘bored housewives’ (BBC) It’s not clear from the article whether the term “bored housewife” is used in the report, or whether it was just…

Sheep like smiles say researchers

Researchers at Cambridge University have discovered sheep prefer smiling or relaxed human faces, over angry or stressed ones. — Sheep like smiles say researchers (BBC) What about sheepish grins? Okay, that was a ba-a-ad joke. The news story says this research took place three years ago. What is the “news hook”? Is this article discussing recent…

The Pedagogy of Programming

I couldn’t have been less interested. The pedagogical approach was entirely vocational. Just as my French and Spanish courses revolved around hypothetical trips to Paris or Madrid (like I was going to get there any time soon), my programming courses were filled with unlikely scenarios that read like a cross between an inter-office memo and…

Mars rovers arrive at long-awaited sites

NASA’s Mars rovers have completed their long cross-country quests and are now at two very different sites that scientists have been restlessly waiting to reach. —Mars rovers arrive at long-awaited sites  (New Scientist) Similar:Commentary: The unbearable smugness of the pressMore on how their desire to control the …CultureA comic about Seagulls. If you feel like…