Order and Respect in the Classroom

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…

Letters from California: Jumpers

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

—Muppet Terror Alert (Geek and Proud) Found on Sarcasmo’s Corner Similar:Love Online”The exchange of love letters was centra…CultureNature walks 2012 and 2018.AestheticsCanadians Love Poop, Americans Love Pizza: How Emojis Fare Worldwide The company SwiftKey analyzed more tha…AestheticsThe Real Reason Why You Can't WriteHave you ever stopped to think about wha…AcademiaOperation War DiaryOne hundred years ago today,…

Interactive Fiction

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,…

Grading Papers

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:Trees (an "Interpretive Travesty")A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed Ag…AestheticsOpen…

Neil Postman, Mass Media Critic, Dies

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:I’m a High Schooler. AI Is Demolishing My Education. AI has transformed my experience of ed…BooksCollege Professors Hate Sharing These Mind-Blowing Study Tips (#3 Made Me Cry)…

High-tech targets bad bar customers

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…

Rael's Clones a Hoax?

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:NASA | A View From The Other SideA number of…

Are the News Media Too Liberal?

Forty-five percent of Americans believe the news media in this country are too liberal, while only 14% say the news media are too conservative. These perceptions of liberal inclination have not changed over the last three years. A majority of Americans who describe their political views as conservative perceive liberal leanings in the media, while…

Keeping a Lid on Your Blog

A very outgoing young man in my class (“Troy”) keeps a blog (Internet diary) about his schoolwork, partying, and politics. As I read his entries, including his grousing about my class, I tell myself that I am not eavesdropping, and that he is entitled to write whatever he likes in a public forum. Yet his…

Grading Congress

[T]he recipients of higher education (along with the parents whose experience is 30 years out-of-date if they had one) do not know in advance what they need. If they did, they wouldn’t need it, and what they often want, at least at the outset, is an education that will tax their energies as little as…

Wanted: A Legible Voting Ballot

A study carried out by USA Today and seven other newspapers in 2001 concluded that faulty design, not punch-card machines, was responsible for voters’ confusion in Palm Beach County in 2000. Despite this finding, states have focused their election-reform energies on upgrading old punch-card machines to optical-scan systems or on implementing electronic voting. They have…

Mental Ability Linked To Survival Age

A person’s mental ability as a child could well be an indicator of their chances of surviving to a ripe old age, according to a landmark study which has followed up on surveys carried out in the first half of the last century. —David Salt —Mental Ability Linked To Survival Age (Discovery) Similar:Flannery O'Connor reading "A…

Blog has become former actor's portal into new career

News makers have always had ways of getting their news and views before the public. Often with the help of public-relations professionals, they’ve held press conferences, issued statements, offered interviews. In the past decade, they’ve created Web sites, though those pages have usually contained public-relations puffery, not candid communications.|Recently, a few forward-thinking news makers have…

Proto-Indo-European Culture

Dear Dennis: Rosemary asked me to pass on the following passage from J.P. Mallory’s “In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archeology and Myth” (which is actually a good book). “Our review of Proto-Indo-European culture omits volumes that have been written about the reconstructed vocabulary, since much falls under the category of predictable phenomena or else…

Movie Posters Redone in Lego

—Movie Posters Redone in Lego Similar:Just wrote the first ending to my in-progress journalism game (created in Twine)3,486 words, 120 links, 57 lexias, and c…DesignRules for Civility: 14-Year-Old George Washington's 110 Commandments for Cultivating Chara… Every Action done in Company, ought…CultureRichard Scarry unfinished manuscript to be publishedSome of my happiest memories of fatherho…AestheticsDigital Storytelling: Empower…