“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.” — Abraham Lincoln —Tribute to Mothers Similar:Happy retirement celebration to two dear colleagues.AcademiaShakespeare on EclipsesPrepping for tomorrow’s first meeting of…AcademiaSo glad to be attending another live theatrical production. @quantumtheatre never disappoi…Projections, live music, sounds, props, …Business"I'm a geek. Deal with…
“FACT: A 1987 survey found that Canadians have the worst handwriting in the whole world. They also frequently misspell the word ‘sauce.’” —The Truth about Canada Similar:Trying to Tame Huck FinnAdventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of…AcademiaToday's unexpected but welcome moments of grace She waived a fee. He accepted a…AwesomeI let her tend the…
“What if a dispassionate computer had been making the decisions about [Andrea] Yates’ care, rather than a human doctor sitting across a desk from her? Would a computer have left her on medication? Would her children still be alive?” Ivan Oransky —Robo-docs (Salon) Similar:Study finds AI tools made open source software developers 19 percent slowerCoders…
Geek website Slashdot was reporting, as of about 20 minutes ago (6:20 EST), that the actor best known for his role as Chief Engineer Mongomery “Scotty” Scott from the original Star Trek series, was in a coma and not expected to recover. In the time it took for me to post this message, Slashdot posted…
“I have too many books. I have begun to hate their mess and reprimand (“You haven’t read me in a long time,” or even, in the case of Silas Marner, “You have never read me”). Many of them are crap….. And yet…” Ian Jack —Throw Out All My Old Books? I Don’t Have the Spine…
Humans appear to have a hard-wired internal resistance to persuasive arguments. “Scientists are uncovering ways of making messages more persuasive. Politicians and salesmen use such tricks already. Who can afford not to read on?” —Persuasion (The Economist) Similar:West Side Story — 50 Years AgoWhen West Side Story opened on Broadway …CultureI asked my geekling whether…
A National Science Foundation survey reveals that 60% of Americans believe in ESP, and 51% feel that science is a dangerous profession. [The online presentation of the report is an excellent example of the effective use of blurbs.] —Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding Similar:Updated a "Gender Neutral Language" handoutMTV recently ditched the…
When writing Copenhagen, playwright Michael Frayn saw science only as a metaphor. But the play fanned the flames of a smoldering debate among science historians about the events surrounding the invention of the atomic bomb. —Unraveling the Drama of Science (Wired) Similar:I ordered a box of composition books. Low-tech response to AI.I felt like a…
“[H]is predictable language and trite sentiments lend the piece an incredible tedium. Formulaic phrases like ‘the cause of’ and ‘is survived by’ sound like they’re straight out of a Microsoft Word obituary template…” Noam Weinstein [Thanks, Matt!] —Death Critiqued: An Obituary Reviewed (Modern Humorist) Similar:Don’t Want to Fall for Fake News? Don’t Be LazyFake news…
“Bad names have played a tremendously powerful role in the history of the world and in our own individual development. They have ruined reputations, stirred men and women to outstanding accomplishments, sent others to prison cells, and made men mad enough to enter battle and slaughter their fellowmen.” — Institute for Propaganda Analysis (1938) —Propaganda…
See 1,247 vibrant engravings—many in color—from the classic 1918 publication, as well as a subject index with 13,000 entries ranging from the Antrum of Highmore to the Zonule of Zinn. —Gray’s b>Anatomy of the Human Body (Bartleby.com) Similar:When an Eel Climbs a Ramp to Eat Squid From a Clamp, That’s a MoraySomewhere today a headline…
A follow-as-you-go tutorial, the Inform Beginner’s guide creates three small games of increasing depth. No previous experience of computer programming or interactive fiction design is assumed. This book (available for free as a PDF) concludes with helpful summaries and reference tables. Firth and Kesserich (edited by Jerz). —Learn the Text Adventure Programming Language Inform(IF Library)…
—Blue Moon e-zine is looking for a literary blogger. Similar:Into the depths of code. Algorithmic archaeologies and cave fantasies in video gamesThe full article (by Angelo Careriis) in…AcademiaKristin and Haley's Discussion on Poe's "The Raven"I gave my literature students 30 minutes…AcademiaAmusing Reference to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ Imagine a scenario in which circumstan…AestheticsWhy ‘Cats’ the Movie…
>open curtains As you part the curtains, you see that it’s a bright morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the meadows are blooming, and a large yellow bulldozer is advancing on your home. —The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (DouglasAdams.com) Similar:Violations (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 12) Telepathic Memory Assaults Beset…Rewatching…
is — besides being further evidence that the Internet spells the end of society as we know it — a novelty service that allows customers to e-impregnate a person of their choice. The recipient will receive an e-impregnation notice and learn who e-impregnated them, as well as an update on their virtual pregnancy every two…
“Although Internet resources may be freely available, there is a lack of certainty that they will be available for students next month, next semester or next year.” Markwell and Brooks —Broken Links: Just How Rapidly Do Science Education Links Disappear?via Wired) Similar:Google Pledges $300 Million to Clean Up False NewsThis is a welcome step, but…
(autistics.org) This web page is a step-by-step set of instructions advising autistic boys how to manage an important social ritual. Janet Villar —Asking a Girl on a Date Similar:Self-referential capitalism; paradoxical fusion of idealized pop culture and mass-produced…Aesthetics"What Teachers Make" Sequence of AssignmentsEvery year I rewatch Taylor Mali’s passi…AcademiaFive myths about daylight saving timeNo, Daylight…
Women’s magazines regularly fabricate stories about you-know-what: “Many writers, editors and fact-checkers involved with these sex articles (most of whom asked that their identities be protected with the top-secrecy accorded CIA sources) agreed that the editorial standards for them are abysmal.” —Faking It: Sex, Lies, and Women’s Magazines (Columbia Journalism Review) Update, 13 Oct 2005:…
: Is environmentalism a science or a political movement? “The world’s ecosystem is breaking down. We are fast approaching the absolute limit of viability, and the limits of growth are becoming apparent. We know the Litany and have heard it so often that yet another repetition is, well, almost reassuring. There is just one problem:…
Online waiver forms are not very useable. “Real users, not lawyers, need to write the forms. Then they need to redesign the sites so that the consent forms are visual, not legalese text blocks.” Interview with readability expert Mark Hochhauser. —Stop! Look Before You Click! (C|Net) Similar:The Amazon Mystery: What America's Strangest Tech Company Is…