Literature is defamiliarizing the ordinary, making us see even the most quotidian things in a new way. And games? We might describe them in several ways, but they are certainly ritual spaces in which rules that are not the ordinary social and cultural ones apply. So perhaps the concept of the literary game — a…
It is not surprising that the feminization of the television industry would give female characters more prominence, but it is a little disconcerting to see how men have waned in the process. Suddenly, sensitive shows are dealing with men as an oppressed minority group. Television writers who once focused on women’s dilemmas are now exploring…
A while ago, I lamented that, when copying and pasting from an online source, it’s a pain to have to re-create the links and other HTML embedded in the text. DrWeb sent me this e-mail, and gave me permission to post it here: Just a note.. saw your post on the Kaironews site, and decided…
“We now have a greater understanding of why biscuits develop cracks shortly after being baked.” — PhD student Qasim Saleem, quoted in an article by Christine McGourty —Broken Biscuit Breakthrough (BBC) A biscuit in the UK is what Americans refer to as a “cracker”. Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:Downloading Great ExpectationsA few weeks ago, I…
[M]ore than 1,000 fans [were] turned away from turnstiles for up to 1-1/2 hours over a bizarre ticket snafu.|The fans – many of them season ticket holders – were forced to wait on line until as late as the fourth inning to get replacement tickets after accidentally tearing their ducats out of ticket books without…
In other words, a White House leaker is leaking to the Washington Post about Novak’s White House leakers, but the leaker to the Post draws short of dribbling out the identities of who leaked to Novak and whom else they tried to leak to. The Post source does, however, pass stern judgment on Novak’s leakers,…
Lower standards and grade inflation make campuses safe for students who have little hunger for knowledge, little love of learning, and almost no appetite for hard work. Although students have many reasons for going to college, a very large number–71.3 percent of the entering class of 1995–do so not to enrich their minds but their…
Something has been bothering me all day. Either the front-page flap over the ‘outing’ of a CIA operative is a farce, or sloppy reporting is contributing to the FUD factor. The controversy involves the charge that someone in the Bush administration leaked the identity of CIA operative (undercover agent currently serving in a hostile country?…
A new Brookings Institution report debunks the popular notion that U.S. schoolchildren suffer from a growing homework load, and do not have enough time to play and just be kids. According to data analyzed by the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, the great majority of students at all grade levels now spend less…
For the last nine years, the readers of the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction have held a yearly interactive fiction competition. For fans of the old Infocom games as well as for newcomers to the genre, the competition is a chance to enjoy some of the best short adventure games available anywhere. —9th Annual Interactive Fiction CompetitionIFcomp.org)…
Being of the generation that wanted to both bring home the bacon and fry it, I didn’t plan on going back to part-time work, and neither did many of my friends and colleagues who have done so. But we all had an eye open for opportunities and were willing to go out on a professional…
Fingers in this cyber-saddled age are more dexterous with computer keyboards and Pavlovian mouse clicks than with the ragged edges of a new hardback’s pages, with the satisfying heft of a book about to be cracked, with the spooning feel of its spine in your palm. Lost, too, are the inky smell of a book’s…
Over three decades of teaching has taught me that it’s impossible to teach students. I can only teach English literature to students. And to do that I need to know a lot more about English literature than I ever plan to teach. —Nils Clausson —How to Tell the Good Teacher From the Bad. (Irascible Professor)…
—Battlestar Galactica ‘Launch When Ready’ Bridge Girl Fan Page (Wayback Machine’s archive of SarahRush.com) Today my five-year-old son was watching one of my wife’s old Battlestar Galactica videotapes, and I remembered that when I was about 11 I had a crush on the cute bridge crewmember who told the Viper pilots stuff like “Transferring core command to…
A trend for naming children after favourite possessions is accelerating in brand-driven America. | The records show that in 2000, 49 children were named Canon, followed by 11 Bentleys, five Jaguars and a Xerox. —John Harlow —Branded anything but Unique (news.com.au) The title refers to the fact that there were 24 children named Unique in 2000.…
Welcome to the Bowling For Columbine TEACHER’S GUIDE. The lessons and activities in this GUIDE are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills, historical analysis, and open their minds on many universal issues. —Bowling for Columbine: Teachers’ Guide (Bowling for Columbine) 1) Moore is a very talented filmmaker. 2) I am personally in favor of…
The Internet has become a grossly commercialized Wild West in so many ways. But the community spirit on which it was founded is alive and well. The Net depends on the same spirit that motivates volunteers in the physical world: a commitment to solve problems and make life better for those who might otherwise not…
“Detective Brown’s death is a great loss,” said Idaville Police Commissioner Rupert “Bugs” Meany, a longtime critic of Brown’s unorthodox investigative technique who nevertheless appeared to be shaken by the murder. “Thanks to him, Idaville has the highest arrest-to-conviction-due-to-obscure-trivia rate in the nation. I believe I speak for everyone in Idaville when I say that…
In his new book, War Against the Weak, investigative reporter Edwin Black makes the case that 20th century American proponents of eugenics — the belief that controlled breeding can improve humanity — had substantive ties to the architects of Hitler’s racial extermination machine. — Dan Vergano —Book explores eugenics’ origins (USA Today) A student in my…
In an elaborate scheme to dupe security companies and journalists, McWilliams acknowledged last night that he purchased the domain name last March and registered it under the name of “Abdul Mujahid of Karachi.” He also left a legitimate mirror site in place on a server in Pakistan and by his own admission has been receiving…