“Ebonics may be an inferior dialect of English (contributors vilify that notion), but communicating that to students won’t encourage them to practice [Standard English]. The cultural roots run too deep, and for every student who masters SE there are are a dozen who tune out, react in anger, and disappear.” Review of The Skin That…
“We despised the Dockers-wearing advertising-executive manqués who somehow scammed enough money to start up Web sites that gave license to appalling ideas, chief among them convergence….It seems that online content has fossilized. Online ventures doing exactly the wrong thing or the right thing the wrong way are no longer the norm…” —Has Online Content Jumped…
“Playing IF is the first thing I remember doing on a computer actually, on my Commodore 64 (with cassette drive!). I suspect that I called it something other than ‘interactive fiction’ at the time, but I’m not sure what that was.” Steve Himmer —I was trying to familiarize myself with the current state of Interactive…
“The last natural blondes will die out within 200 years, scientists believe. A study by experts in Germany suggests people with blonde hair are an endangered species and will become extinct by 2202.” —Blondes ‘to die out in 200 years’ (BBC) Two comments. First, this reminds me of the game theory scene in A Beautiful Mind,…
“He appeared to be able to manipulate atoms with amazing grace. He seemed to be able to force electricity to do seemingly impossible tricks, and claimed he’d found ways to make working molecule-sized electronic components.” Jan Hendrik Schön was also, apparently, a plagiarist. —The Undoing of a Star Scientist (AP/Wired) From this site: more about plagiarism…
Google scans thousands of online news sites and automatically assembles what it thinks are the most newsworthy items. —Google News (Google) Similar:My "Writing About Literature" Students Are Sampling Text Adventure GamesI’m having my students play Adam Cadre’s…CultureSHU Community Lines Up to Honor JoAnne Boyle's Final Trip Up the HillJoAnne Boyle liked talking about traditi…AcademiaThey Smiled Too!Victorians…
“A neighbour – an eminent retired politician, philanthropist and keen ornithologist – has just acquired an owl whistle, beautifully crafted from wood. When blown, it makes a most realistic toowooo…. The next day, another neighbour – a retired military man and also an ornithologist – showed me his latest toy, coincidentally also an owl whistle….…
“For the first time ever, information and pictures of all ACME products, specialty divisions, and services (from 1935 to 1964) are gathered here, in one convenient catalog. For more information about any ACME product, simply click on the thumbnail picture.” G.P. Markham —The Illustrated Catalog of ACME ProductsLooney Lyrics) Similar:Wikipedia:VisualEditor – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWikipedia…
“British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, ‘A One Minute Silence,’ on an album for his classical rock band The Planets. He was accused of copying it from a work by the late American composer John Cage, whose 1952 composition ‘4’33″‘ was totally silent.” —Composer Pays…
Pacemakers: “Batteries must be replaced, at further risk and expense, every 5-10 years, and patients must avoid strong magnetic fields, such as metal detectors and some medical scanners. The new approach instead adds a gene that changes the flow of chemicals in and out of heart cells.” —Gene Therapy Could Replace PacemakersNature) Similar:Vienna State Opera,…
“Are any biotech companies or researchers putting animal DNA into human embryos? Nobody knows. But, unbelievable as it may sound, some bioethicists and philosophers explicitly endorse engineering animal DNA into human embryos as one method of producing the ‘post-human’ race.” Wesley J. Smith —The Transhumanists: The Next Great Threat to Human DignityNational Review) Similar:Stop sharing…
“The chromosome unique to men is a microscopic metaphor for those who bear it. For it is the most decayed, redundant and parasitic of the lot… From sperm count to social status, and from fertilisation to death, as civilisation advances those who bear Y chromosomes are in relative decline.” Steve Jones —End of Sperm ReportGuardian)…
“This paper proceeds first by reviewing literature on bullshitting. I then provide the definition of bullshitting that guides the subsequent analysis, and include a description of its key features. A brief discussion of the ubiquity of bullshitting also is provided. Drawing on related research, illustrations from everyday life, and social theory, I next explore the…
“Japanese never touch. It’s not even customary among themselves when they meet to shake hands. So how to explain why this woman would so casually reach over and adjust my collar? In public! And yet, not exactly…. My moment of contact, I concluded, could have only happened in an elevator, and then perhaps only in…
“Florida found itself in another voting debacle during last week’s primary election: Tens of millions of dollars spent to abolish hanging chads and they still can’t get it right.” Lauren Weinstein —A Vote for Touch and Go Away [Florida Ballots]Wired) Similar:Geometry and color maps for wooden desk tray. #Blender3D #practiceThe blue image is a “normal…
No charges will be filed against Buzz Aldrin for allegedly punching a man who called him a liar for claiming that he’d been on the moon. —Update: Moon Hoax Conspiracy Theorist Punched by Buzz Aldrin (Space.com) Similar:Pitching a Magazine Article: Resources for Beginning Freelance WritersJerz > Writing >&nb…BooksMemory of Wrestler Yukon Eric”The year is around 1952, the dead…
“Mel Gibson is set to direct a movie about Christ’s last 12 hours played out entirely in two ancient tongues – Latin and Aramaic – with no subtitles. The formula hardly sounds like the recipe for a hit movie but Gibson thinks language should be no barrier for the film, titled Passion.” —Mel Gibson to…
“[S]tudents with low GPAs who were quizzed weekly outperformed their counterparts by 18 percent… ‘Students hated me. They raged in front of the whole class. They hated being quizzed, and yet, it worked,’ Tuckman said.” —Students Get Better Grades When Tested Frequently In ClassOhio State) Similar:A professor examines why her students seem to act so…
“The results show that procrastinators don’t work better under pressure, but it may be the only way they work… They don’t have any idea how well they might do if they didn’t procrastinate.”Bruce Tuckman —Procrastinators Get Poorer Grades in Class, Study FindsOhio State) Similar:In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure Since new…
“If you ask people why they procrastinate, you possibly may hear the real reasons. More than likely, though, you will hear their excuses. When an excuse sounds believable, it has a name – rationalization.” —Reasons and Excuses for Procrastination (Ohio State) Similar:Winners Chosen in Annual Shakespeare Monologue and Scene ContestMichael Henninger took this wonderful ph…BooksThe Wedding…