Modem Madness

“The pundits are blogging. The journalists are blogging. And now the candidates are blogging.| Who needs television? Let’s just eliminate the middleman….Candidate gives speech. ABC News reports speech. ABC’s Note blogs speech. Then candidate blogs his own speech, knocking down any negative interpretation by other bloggers. And we blog the whole incestuous process.” —Modem MadnessWashPost…

Prevention Programs And Scientific Nonsense

“The anti-science movement in health promotion has arisen as part of the humanistic perspective within the discipline that positions itself in direct opposition to a science-based approach that it terms ‘positivism.’ According to this view, the application of the scientific method — that is, an approach to the world founded upon experimentation and hypothesis testing…

What is the best search engine?

That’s a good one. Via Microdoc News. —What is the best search engine?Ask Jeeves) Similar:Games as Text and K12 Social Studies Rather than training students to ident…CultureBrother Stuck in the BathroomThe girl posted this story on Instagram …AmusingWordPress duplicate images driving me crazy I’m using the Atahualpa Theme with WPT…HomeIn education, Apple must augment the…

High Score Education: Games, not school, are teaching kids to think

“Forty percent of students lack basic reading skills, and their academic performance is dismal compared with that of their foreign counterparts. In response to this crisis, schools are skilling-and-drilling their way ‘back to basics,’ moving toward mechanical instruction methods that rely on line-by-line scripting for teachers and endless multiple-choice testing. Consequently, kids aren’t learning how…

Fisking as a Rhetorical Construct

fisk (v): debunk via critical annotation, typically with heaping doses of contempt. Recently Jill Walker lamented that it was hard to teach her students to blog critically. Perhaps we should first teach them to fisk. Over the past month, I’ve seen the verb “fisk” pop up in weblogs discussing media coverage of Iraq. The eponymous…

Blogger vs. Movable Type

Google: “switch[ed] to Blogger“: 165. Google: “switch[ed] to Movable Type“: 534Blogger vs. Movable TypeLiteracy Weblog) Similar:Blender 3D UpdateHoly ray-tracing, Batman, it’s a Blender…AestheticsJustine Sacco Is Good at Her Job, and How I Came To Peace With HerJustine Sacco is the PR exec whose tweet…CultureContext for Hayles, My Mother was a Computer (Ch 3 & 4)My…

Authors Plan 'Fastest' Book

“Forty German authors are hoping to set a record on World Book Day on Wednesday by conceiving, writing and printing a book in 12 hours. | Each of the authors has two hours in which to write two pages of the book.” —Authors Plan ‘Fastest’ BookBBC) Similar:In August, 2002, I was blogging about ebook readers…

Notable Quotes

“Whoo whoo whoo oogh oogh oogh oogh oogh oogh oogh oogh ooh ooh oooh oooh.” — Primatologist Jane Goodall imitating a chimpanzee in the U.S. State Department, yesterday. —Notable QuotesABC News) Similar:Fascinating observation on Trump's ability to drive the "Spygate" story Within the span of five days, Trump we…CultureHospice/Honeymoon “Hospice.” Once the word is uttered…

BBC Screws Up Again

“With regard to the article by David Whitehouse posted Friday, 18 April, 2003, 13:45 GMT 14:45 UK: Does anyone actually read these BBC stories before they are posted? It would be polite to to spell Mr. Rutan’s name properly (‘Burt’ not ‘Bert’). Moreover, this is not the ‘world’s first manned sub-orbital space programme’. I cannot…

The End of Human Nature

“By ordering up athletics-enhanced, music-enhanced, optimism-enhanced children, you are not merely urging them in some direction – all parents do that; you are wiring your own tastes into their genes, literally twisting their minds and bodies into the shape you have chosen. And this staggering arrogance is bound to be futile because the technology will…