Tales of the Plush Cthulu

“Once upon a time, in a part of the house where grownups rarely visited, there was the Land of the Stuffed Animals… But Professor Blue Smush DinoBaby’s warning came too late. First a slight tremor came from within the box.” Jon Hansen —Tales of the Plush Cthulu Similar:Finished Reading "Deathly Hallows" for the First TimeWhem…

Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology?

"The true link between technology and art, regarded in modern times as something shameful, is becoming increasingly apparent, and the evidence suggests that artists’ dependence on machines has been not only extensive but long-lived…"  Charles Paul Freund —Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology? (Reason) Similar:This Is Not a Book: Thomas Jefferson & Apple's…

Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out There

"Debate has raged in recent years whether it was even fair to call Pluto a planet, given its newfound status as one object among many in the Kuiper Belt — which actually contains more mass than the better-known asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter." Steve Kettman —Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out…

Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College

“Instead of a library, the school has a resource center equipped with computer workstations that can access the Web, e-books and online journals. The resource center also houses several meeting tables, audio-visual materials and a few paper magazines — but no books.” Katie Dean —Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College (Wired) Similar:How to Get Boys…

Aussie Suicide Bags Delayed

Is this for real? "The controversial suicide device will be promoted under the name "Aussie Bags" and will be shipped with the warning ‘DO NOT put this bag over your head. It could kill you.’" —Aussie Suicide Bags Delayedb> (AAP) Similar:The GE Mascot That Proves They've Never Seen 'The Matrix'On a scale of 1 to…

The Power of Portals

"Several years ago, the State University of New York at Buffalo took stock of its proliferating Web sites and found more than 250,000 pages spread out across 17 different servers. Not surprisingly, students and faculty members were having a hard time finding information they needed, even though they knew it was probably online — somewhere." Florence…

Father's Poem, Son's Conviction

"After posting his father’s poem — a bitter reflection on the state of Egyptian society and culture after Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war against Israel — Shohdy was arrested in November 2001." Sergey Kuznetsov —Father’s Poem, Son’s Conviction (Wired) Similar:There are two factions working to prevent AI dangers. Here’s why they’re deeply divided.…

Marilyn Monroe Died 40 Years Ago Today

: The Smoking Gun features a small trove of scanned images of Monroe artifacts, including her will and a love note to Joe DiMaggio. Marilyn Monroe Died 40 Years Ago Today Similar:Love Online”The exchange of love letters was centra…CultureCarolyn at about 7yo drew Titania in love with Bottom. #tbt #midsummerArtRobot wars: 100 years on, it's…

How first-year college students read Popular Science

When asked to read a magazine article, 40% of college students thought that the author had performed the research reported in the article: "The willingness of students to believe that anyone who writes is an expert and authority was striking." Kate Manuel —How first-year college students read Popular Scienceb> (Studies in Media & Information Literacy…

Don’t Link to Us!

In light of the above, it might be appropriate to mention Don’t Link to Us!: “Stupid Linking Policies.”    Thanks, “paheil”. Similar:Trying to Tame Huck FinnAdventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of…AcademiaCivil Defense (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 7) O’Brien accidentally triggers …Rewatching ST:DS9 Although some time ag…EmpathyApple threatens to remove Parler social networking…

Who Needs Dr. J? [Journalism-school reform at Columbia]

At Columbia, students "play pretend-journalism" for 10 months and leave with a master’s degree.  "It’s striking how small has been the influence of J-school graduates on the upper reaches of American journalism." Tunku Varadarajan —Who Needs Dr. J? [Journalism-school reform at Columbia] (WSJ) Similar:Yellow Journalism Did Not Cause the Spanish-American War (Role of Sensationalized Headlin……

Flogged by Bloggers

Weblogs are vehicles for debunking inaccurate, biased reporting–exposing the media giants like never before. "A favorite target is the [New York] Times, which has developed the habit of running front-page editorials posing as news reports." John Leo —Flogged by Bloggers (U.S. News) Similar:Professional or college Shakespeare productions in the Pittsburgh area this fall?Does anybody know…

Children's text messages are 'the key to their future'

"Researchers examined how different professions wrote text messages and divided them into four groups – creatives, jugglers, controllers and facilitators." —Children’s text messages are ‘the key to their future’ (Ananova) Sounds like a lazy journalist paraphrasing a press release rather than actually doing journalism, but the basic idea presented in the article seems interesting. Similar:Do…

This Promotional Pen Works So Great…

"I’m far too busy to seek [new drugs] out by reading medical journals and research papers or by talking to my fellow doctors. It really is a huge help to get great drug recommendations by way of hats, T-shirts, coffee mugs, pencil holders, clipboards, and fanny packs that I randomly encounter or that are sent…

Austin Powers Hijacked My Weblog

Through the website http://www.austinpowers.com/, AOLTimeWarner seems to be hosting an altered version of my weblog, with the background colors changed, an advertisement added, and all the links changed — as if my weblog is affiliated with Austin Powers. I checked out the first movie from the library and won’t bother with any of the sequels.…

Action Comics #1, 1938

Somebody who apparently doesn’t care much about copyright laws scanned in all the pages from the first appearance of the comic book hero Superman. —Action Comics #1, 1938 Similar:Wondermark: In Which There Is a TauntingWondermark  AmusingDr. David von Schlichten honors the spectrum of motivations (not always financial) feature…Dr. David von Schlichten honors the spec…AcademiaWe don’t…

Blogging: Electronic postings and links…

"John Robb, Userland president and COO, has coined a new term for the business blog — K-log, the ‘K’ denoting knowledge. It is so named because it is a tool for capturing and leveraging the knowledge contained in the minds of individual employees…" George Partington   —Blogging: Electronic postings and links…nbsp; (WorldCom) Yes, that WorldCom.…