Here’s a suggestion that has worked for me: After leaving an employer, send your former boss and some co-workers very polite and thankful e-mails. Mention how much you enjoyed being there, knowing them, how much you learned and so forth. | Most of the time, you will get a reply. Bingo! There’s your letter of…
At the height of the Internet boom, e-books were hailed as the shining new tomorrow for publishers and paper books were heading for the scrap heap. | But the bubble has burst and electronic books are still the poor relation to the printed word with consumers preferring to turn the pages themselves when they curl…
“The entire ideology of information technology for the last 50 years has been that more information is better, that mass producing information is better,” he says. | But the net is now so much an machine with all the answers instantly, it has mutated into a “procrastination apparatus”, which spews information without much prioritisation Dr…
Many people, especially secular liberals, misunderstand the nature of religion in politics—which is, to be fair, ever shifting. To them, if it’s not about Jerry Falwell or Joe Lieberman, it’s kind of a blur. So, just in time for another religion-packed election, here is a guide to sorting through some common myths about God and…
—Facing and Fessing Up to Old Age (MetaFilter) A pleasant, if late, birthday present… a reminder on MetaFilter that I am not alone. Similar:Prophet Motive (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 16) The Nagus's eccentricities a… Rewatching ST:DS9 Quark is enjoying a…BusinessThe Dog and the Oyster (Aesop Fable)I always enjoy my visits to the studio. …SpeechDaughter…
Monkeys can control a robot arm as naturally as their own limbs using only brain signals, a pioneering experiment has shown. The macaque monkeys could reach and grasp with the same precision as their own hand. —Duncan Graham-Rowe —Monkey’s brain signals control ‘third arm’ (New Scientist) Similar:Another delightful section of a #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #design…
Without getting into the politics (other than to say I find Sept 12 to be a useful, thought-provoking piece, and exciting new genre for games), I’m not sure why Greg and some of his commenters are so vitriolically opposed to calling Sept 12 a simulation. —Simulation Aggravation (GrandTextAuto) “Sept 12” is an interactive political cartoon —…
Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours. | And all the letters are the same….Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a letter that ran in the Snohomish Herald, said Friday that his platoon sergeant had distributed the letter…
These are your panel questions. You will be asked some of them, not necessarily in this order: Is our fate in our genes or in our stars? Explain. What are the potential injustices or misuses of DNA information? Will the human genome diminish humanity by taking the mystery out of life? Jurassic Park was a…
In a few hours, my TV will care less about me. A show might attract relatively few viewers, and be panned by the critics, but if it attracts enough people in the magic age group of 18-34, it can pull in a lot of advertising dollars. In a few hours I will turn 35. Our…
Order and Respect in the ClassroomLitreracy Weblog) [Note: I’ve changed the title of this entry and edited it slightly — mostly by changing which words I used to link to Mike Arnzen’s blog. The previous version the previous version implied an association that I didn’t mean to create.] On his PEDABLOGUE, Mike Arnzen confesses he…
In a statement, SunnComm Technologies Inc. said it would sue Alex Halderman over the paper, which said SunnComm’s MediaMax CD-3 software could be blocked by holding down the “Shift” key on a computer keyboard as a CD using the software was inserted into a disc drive. —Ben Berkiwitz —Princeton Student Sued Over Paper on CD…
On the bridge, Baldwin counted to ten and stayed frozen. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed the chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable–except for…
—Muppet Terror Alert (Geek and Proud) Found on Sarcasmo’s Corner Similar:How to Keep Students Writing in the Age of AI Tools In a writing-intensive class, studen…AcademiaMy Ouya arrived.My Ouya arrived — a Kickstarter-funded …CybercultureBoston Herald Guild Members Boycotting Twitter After Reporter SuspendedMembers of the Herald’s editorial guild …Current_EventsThe daughter (giving the piggyback ride in pic 2) doing…
Barriers are being destoyed at the same time as bridges are being built within the literary community just as in almost every other field affected by the almighty computer. Arguments fly on all sides especially as to what constitutes art. Progress constantly changes the determination–even when it may be that it is a subjective view,…
It must be that time of the semester (no, no, Michelle, not that time): people are talking about grading student papers. —Ron Vitia —Grading Papers (Vitia) I don’t understand the in-joke referring to Michelle, but the conversation that ensues is good. Via Clancy on KairosNews. Similar:Students whom I haven't met yet… Students whom I haven’t met…
A note from C.M. Worth reminds me to blog that Neil Postman, author of Amusing Ourselves to Death died this weekend. —Neil Postman, Mass Media Critic, Dies (NY Times) Similar:Happy Father’s Day One of my favorite pictures of my fa…Current_EventsDisruptions: Texting Your Feelings, Symbol by SymbolBeing a word-oriented thinker, I don’t h…AestheticsWhat Each Side of the…
Once the system is in place, patrons will be asked to stand in front of a camera to have their picture taken and will then swipe their drivers’ licence, or possibly show some other form of identification, that will automatically give the establishment the patron’s name and age and show if he or she has…
Raelians have made fun of the media that gave such extensive coverage to their cloning story. —Brigitte McCann —Rael’s Clones a Hoax? (Calgary Sun) This article refers to the burst of media attention this odd sect got over claims that a human had been successfully cloned. Similar: The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley Because…
A self-taught bear expert who once called Alaska’s brown bears harmless party animals was one of two people fatally mauled in a bear attack in Katmai National Park and Preserve – the first known bear killings in the 4.7-million-acre park. —Rachel D’Oro —Bear enthusiast, companion fatally mauled in Katmai National Park (Ancorage Daily News) Just in…