Robotic Iguanas

“A gentle waterfall pours from the cliff into a large aqua pool. The rocks are molded concrete and the pool reeks of chlorine. Under clear resin, our tabletop bears a colorful design of the Mayan alphabet and calendar. Down one level to the right is an area with carpeted steps and a large video screen…

In Defense of Play

“Children don’t go to work in either family businesses (which are fewer and fewer), nor do they go to work to help support their families as in the past. These are small-scale examples but they speak to a larger societal issue: we have taken away nearly all of the ‘traditional’ past-times of children and replaced…

Digital Divide: Looking for Controversy

A student writes: “I’m not quite sure how I could make the topic of ‘digital divide’ into something controversial that allows the reader to form their own opinion.” Digital Divide: Looking for ControversyLiteracy Weblog) I did a Google search: “digital divide” controversy and came up with a few good leads. While links from the first…

Random Act of Gratitude

After my 1:00 class today I saw a colleague at the other end of a hall, struggling with a load of books that was about to drop. I momentarily interrupted a conversation with a student to try to pick up the items my colleague was dropping. The colleague looked at me with that familiar “I’ve-got-the-flu-please-kill-me-now”…

Cybernudity — Now You Don't See It, Now You Do

Technology may solve problems, but it also spawns new technology to solve the new problems caused by recently-spawned technology. While one group of upright entrepreneurs works to protect the privacy of victims targets of clothing-penetrating 3D holographic body scans (marketed for airport security), a group of hackers works just as hard to remove the digital…

Website Hoax Fans Virus Panic

“A teenager’s website hoax about a killer virus that is sweeping Hong Kong sparked panicked food buying and hit financial markets on Tuesday, forcing the government to deny it would isolate the entire territory.” —Website Hoax Fans Virus Panic Wired) Similar:Filmmakers Find Section of Destroyed Space Shuttle Challenger on Ocean FloorInstead of World War II-era…

New Media Studies

“The academic institutionalization of New Media Studies is happening in several disciplines simultaneously – you’ll find it in fine arts programs, communications programs, computer science programs, rhetoric programs, journalism programs, literature programs, and perhaps (finally) even creative writing programs. One of the milestones of the past year was Brown University’s announcement of a graduate fellowship…

When a Free Download Isn't Free

“Last week, writer Glenn Fleishman offered his book, Real World Adobe GoLive 6, as a free download. | But instead of the few hundred downloads Fleishman expected, the book was downloaded about 10,000 times in just 36 hours. And because he’s charged incrementally for bandwidth, Fleishman estimates he could be billed $15,000 at the end…

Language Inspired by Orwell set to Fool Hackers

“Dubbed NewCode, the [programming] language promises to revolutionise software development, as the language makes it impossible to express a security vulnerability in a program’s source code. ‘We were inspired by Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which there is a language called NewSpeak which made it impossible to express political dissent,’ says the group’s leader, Julia Jones….…

Misfired Messages Roil Businesses

“Today’s on-the-go workers are sending e-mails and instant messages containing derogatory comments and jokes, risqué images or sensitive information in droves — to the wrong people…. One woman bad-mouthed a recent job candidate as a ‘suck up’ in an e-mail she then accidentally sent to that prospective employee. He was hired to be her boss.…

Surprise, Mom: I'm Anti-Abortion

“Miss Dahl was one of numerous students in her class who chose to make speeches about abortion, and most took the anti-abortion side. | ‘I was shocked that there were that many students who felt strong enough and confident enough to speak about being pro-life,’ said Nina Verin, a parent of another student in the…

Going Nuclear over Nucular

“Language bullying… advances a stuffy and old-fashioned view of language, the rules of which it considers set by supposed experts, such as the authors of grammar books, rather than common usage. It is deeply anti-populist and snobby, not to mention just plain wrong and cranky…. I suspect many of Bush’s critics would want to avoid…