“The passion, if not the logic, of her argument is clear and perhaps casts a new light on the deliberate destructiveness of the motives that lay behind her literary innovations. She was nothing if not a great hater of all that had gone before her.” Theodore Dalrymple —The Rage of Virginia Woolf (City Journal) Dalrymple is…
"Before the Internet, the only opportunity most students had to speak with their professors was during scheduled class sessions or office hours. Now, more professors can be in touch with students at any time — morning, noon, and night, seven days a week." [The article focuses mostly on courses that meet only online, but this article…
"First released in 1989, HyperCard still has a fiercely dedicated following despite no meaningful update in about 15 years." —HyperCard Forgotten, Not Gone (Wired) Similar:Two Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots Talk and Argue with Each OtherSounds like a typical grad school semina…AmusingFantasy football and the cold future of robot journalismFor fantasy football players, the servic…BusinessThe Minecraft…
The second issue of Game Studies is out. Similar:The Declaration Of Independence, 240 Years Later (NPR)When in the Course of human events, it b…CultureDisruptions: Texting Your Feelings, Symbol by SymbolBeing a word-oriented thinker, I don’t h…Aesthetics14 Machines That Were Brilliant in 1985I used something very similar to this sh…CultureA Box With A Hidden Video Camera…
“D[ungeons]&D[ragons] sort of came about after a monster marathon week of reading Conan novels, eating popcorn until it was coming out of my ears-no I was not on drugs-and we got the idea to do something in a dungeon.” —Dave Arneson Interview (GameSpy) A “monster marathon”… ha, ha. Similar:The Hut Where the Internet Began -…
“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:Go Ask AliceFrom the tangled tale of mass…
"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:The Most Epic Demo in Computer History Is Now…
"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…
“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:A Career-Aligned Major Isn’t…
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:Rhinoceros in Love (World Drama — China, 1999)The blurb for a 2011 English version of…
"Mr. Storch has found that the ease, speed and accuracy of writing with a computer keyboard have vastly reduced the occasions on which he might turn to a pen or pencil. As a result, he and many others who spend hours a day using computers say that the penmanship they learned in school is deteriorating…
"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…
“Soon. Like in the next half hour or so. Given that I can’t do anything about it, I thought it might be interesting to stay online as long as I can and tell you what transpires…. I taste salt and something else. I exult in these moments. it’s the payoff for the bad times, the…
"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:King Hedley II ( #AugustWilson #CenturyCycle, 9 of 10)August Wilson’s Century Cycle > Spoi…BooksHow…
: 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:Spam: In Your E-Mail and on Your BlogSpam: In Your E-Mail and on Your Blog&nb…BusinessSecond Sight (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 9) Sisko…
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…
In light of the above, it might be appropriate to mention Don’t Link to Us!: “Stupid Linking Policies.” Thanks, “paheil”. Similar:Predatory Journals Hit By 'Star Wars' StingI’ve been contacted by editors who would…AcademiaTales from the Antiquities Theft Task ForceA shot of Kim Kardashian leaning ag…Aesthetics"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster (a reading)https://youtu.be/mppsaL4MEXU https://…BooksLooking for Par'Mach…
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:Big Calculator: How Texas Instruments Monopolized Math ClassMy math education predated the…
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:Why Hoboken is Throwing Away All of its Student LaptopsUntrained teachers. Damage-prone machine…CybercultureOpinion…
"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:Spam:…