Sinetic's Hamlet: The Rest Is Silence

Review of a production of Hamlet told with no dialogue: "like a beautifully choreographed nightmare, it fuses movement, music and light into a haunting series of images that summon the very heartbeat of the story." —Sinetic’s Hamlet: The Rest Is Silence (WashPost) Similar:Carolyn as Dolly Levi (Arts4Homeschoolers / Stage Right)I loved listening to her practice…

Design for Stupid People

Don’t let the harsh title turn you off — Gerry McGovern is absolutely right when he points out that the Internet needs simpler design: "[T]here is a much greater need for simple web design today than there was in 1996. Back then we had pioneers and early adopters who tended to hunger for the new…

In the world of Web logs, talk is cheap

"Welcome to Blogistan, the Internet-based journalistic medium where no thought goes unpublished, no long-out-of-print book goes unhawked, and no fellow ”blogger,” no matter how outre, goes unpraised." Alex Beam —In the world of Web logs, talk is cheapb> (Boston Globe) Similar:Journalism students guiltily ignoring the "no electronic devices" note in the program duri…That moment when…

Sullen Time-traveling Teen Reports 23rd Century Sucks

"’Ah, it was a bunch of boring stuff,’ said a slouching, mumbling Geremek, 17, at a press conference shortly after his return from the future Monday. ‘It totally blew.’" —Sullen Time-traveling Teen Reports 23rd Century Sucks (The Onion) Similar:Hanging with the rude mechanicals @setonhilluniversityA Midsummer Night’s Dream.CultureIntroduction to The Cherry Orchardhttps://youtu.be/8o_4Bjcfl0Y   …AcademiaThe daughter is…

Online Games Go Multicultural

(Wired)  Multiplayer online games face a barrier in Europe and Asia: many people who live in the same time zone don’t speak the same language, so it’s hard for them to interact with each other. A universal translator may be the solution. (I linked to this article mostly because I was amused that, this article…

"EthnoQuest takes students to Amopan, a fictional eastern Mexican village… The game starts with students’ assuming the roles of grant-writing ethnographers and follows them as they complete reports detailing their anthropological research." Similar:Rediscovering History’s Lost First Female Video Game DesignerRCA’s console never rivaled the impact o…CybercultureHypertext as a Teaching Tool — Brown University Poetry Classroom…

OldComputers.com

I spent some time today getting reacquainted with some old friends: the Texas Instruments 99/4a (1979), the Atari 800 (1980), and the Commodore C 64 (that I took to college with me my freshman year, 1986).  (Thanks for the link, Bruce.) —OldComputers.com Similar:It's a Didactic Day in the Neighborhood: Mister Rogers and Educational IdeologyI recently…

Borg Journalism

“When all is said and done, what is the role of journalists in breaking news? Are journalists relics of a golden era, now useful only as a conduit to pass along the whispers of the hive-mind to the unplugged masses? Or have we been reduced to Stamps of Approval, as we validate blog-based trends with…

Preparing for the Coming Era of Participatory News

"Storytellers – specialists in the art of conveying human emotions — rule this future. And in this future, everyone is a storyteller. Everyone creates the collective experience. Everyone creates the collective intelligence." Dale Peskin —Preparing for the Coming Era of Participatory News (Online Journalism Review) Similar:Wander (1974) — a lost mainframe game is found!Interesting news…

Worst Manual Contest

“The instructions in this manual explain more about how to get fired than about how to succeed at work…. For instance, employees are asked to follow ‘rules’ that include stealing, disobedience, and excessive absenteeism (or should they have been termed ‘actions that may result in termination’?).” (Suggested by Jason Amdor.) —Worst Manual Contest (Technical Standards,…

100 Best Fictional Characters since 1900

(NPR) —100 Best Fictional Characters since 1900 Similar:Omaha schoolgirl dresses as a different historical figure each day Voilà, she is Billie Holiday, in a b…AestheticsNot attempting historical accuracy but still had to learn a heck of a lot to model the ste… Later I need to add spokes to those …DesignLong Live The English Major—If…

Don't talk on the phone while driving.

2-year-old Morgan was broad-sided by a man who admitted he was distracted by his cell phone. Morgan was killed; the guy on the phone got a $50 fine and 2 tickets. —Don’t talk on the phone while driving. Similar:A news site used AI to write articles. It was a journalistic disaster. Artificial intelligence has been…

Merchants of Cool

(PBS)  A report on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers (teens talk back). —Merchants of Cool Similar:Cost of Living (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 20) Alexander's Jolly Holodeck H…Rewatching ST:TNG Who’d love to see ano…EmpathyJournalists should not amplify the ableist biases of untrained sourcesBeing a cop, lawyer, patriot, protestor,…CultureMedia Bias Chart…

Digital Divide Basics

There has always been a gap between those people and communities who can make effective use of information technology and those who cannot. Now, more than ever, unequal adoption of technology excludes many from reaping the fruits of the economy. —Digital Divide Basics Similar:Vincent Connare, Inventor Of 'The Most Hated Font,' Defends HimselfA typographic engineer,…

Debunking the Digital Divide

It may turn out that the “digital divide”—one of the most fashionable political slogans of recent years—is largely fiction. —Debunking the Digital Divide Similar:Figured out how to configure my iPad as an external monitor for my laptop. Much more effic…CybercultureDo you get your news mostly from social media? I check NPR, Drudge, and news.google.com.Do you…