“…I think the wonder of our aesthetic or religious sense, or musicality, is increased by the fact that it depends on three pounds of jelly in our head.” —Interview with Oliver Sacks (neurologist and novelist) Similar:Unpopular grammar rulesLanguage is a fluid, living social const…CultureHow Common Core Testing Damaged High School English ClassesHelping my students understand…
“I was eight years old when my parents bought these for me, and I can still remember those chewy little peanut butter sticks more vividly than almost anything else from my childhood. I’ve wanted more of them for three decades!” —Space Food Sticks Similar:The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (workshop premiere of a new musical by…
Kathleen, I wanted to do this in this most potentially embarassing way possible, and I figured doing it here and now, in front of a quarter of a million strangers was as good a way as any. CmdrTaco —Geek in Love (Slashdot) Similar:How to promote your laser skin clinic effectivelyI rather miss teaching HTML and…
A short series of philosophical exercises, in a futuristic setting, which asks you to evaluate different definitions of personal identity. (Do you step into a spacecraft that has a 50% chance of killing you, or have your whole body scanned, destroyed, and re-constructed somewhere else three minutes later?) At the end, your choices are analyzed.…
“I have lost all touch with reality, and only live to comment on the comments that other bloggers have made in reference to my notes about their comments. Is anybody out there?” —Blog ad Nauseam (The Weekly Standard) Similar:Flannery O'Connor: "I am in a state of shock"There’s often a moment in a lit class wh…BooksStanford…
“It may sound far-fetched, but a U.S. federal court will hear preliminary arguments next week to determine if this most elemental of Internet activities is the business property of a lone company, protected in the form of a patent.” —British Company Claims Patent on Hyperlinks (Wired) Similar:Half a Life (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 4, Episode…
What’s it like interviewing college students at job fairs? "What a snooze. By the sixth interview of the day I vow that I’ll hire anyone who can make me remember their name, and I’ll sign over my 401(k) to any candidate who can make me laugh." Erin Cronin —Honesty, Shining Throughb> (WashPost) Similar:Death of NFL…
(Word Circuits): Hypertext poetry by Stephanie Strickland —The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot Similar:Verizon's $4.4 billion deal for AOL sends AOL stock on a tearVerizon has experimented with journalism…BusinessA Successful Failure: The TI-99/4A Turns 40My family had one of these when I was 12…AwesomeThe Surprisingly Savvy Weird Al Internet Machine When he talks about…
"Calling the theological giant’s stranglehold on the religion industry ‘blatantly anti-competitive,’ a U.S. district judge ruled Monday that God is in violation of anti-monopoly laws and ordered Him to be broken up into several less powerful deities." —Judge Orders God to Break Up into Smaller Deitiesb> (TheOnion) Similar:NBC's Chuck Todd takes aim at CNN”The big…
"Write simply. Keep headings, summaries, sentences, paragraphs and documents short. Get to the point. Then stop." Gerry McGovern —The Need for Simple English on the Web Similar:Google: "how can u" vs. "how can an individual" is not really about grammar Yes, I got a chuckle over this, but …CultureTom Jones, librettist for "The Fantasticks," dies…
"Poor sad Mac, born in a plastic age. / A time when the world still thought in beige. / Crafted and molded just like a piece of art. / An orphan, abandoned. It’s enough to break your heart." [Which column would you put this one in? Sometimes I wonder why I continue to split my…
Kaycee Nicole, an attractive student dying from leukemia, shared her ordeal via on online diary. Her mother started a companion diary. Web surfers became close friends with this family through email, chatroom, and even phone conversations. The New York Times even quoted Kaycee about college life. When she finally died, her online friends grieved like…
Yahoo recently ran a story about a man suffocated by a stripper’s breasts… but it was a hoax first published in a tabloid. You may have heard recent reports about the airliner passenger stuck to a toilet seat. (MSNBC, BBC, CNN) Note that no names or dates are given. It’s a hoax. (Unless it’s a…
What is life like for a person who has trouble recognizing human faces? —Face-blindness Similar:Medea at Seton Hill University.CultureStart writing your novel. Journey with Seton Hill University t…AcademiaFirst Contact (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 15)Rewatching ST:TNG This flipside episo…Empathy▶ Taylor Mali on "What Teachers Make"I find that re-watching this every year …CultureThe Value…
"[T]he search and directory firms have put their futures in question by flouting time-tested business practices that require an absolutely clear separation between editorial content and advertising." Hal Plotkin —Doom Ahead for Search Engines That Charge (SF Gate) Similar:Two stunning hugs end Amber Guyger's murder trial on a merciful note Chants of “no justice, no…
When congressional Web sites are good, they’re really good. But most aren’t, says a nonprofit group that rated more than 600 of them. —Congressional Web Sites: Not So GoodCNN) Similar:Adventure | T.M. CampGreat story of nerdiness and discovery a…Cyberculture‘Aims’: the software for hire that can control 30,000 fake online profiles At first glance, the Twitter…
found after 165 years. The watercolors were prototypes for engravings that the impoverished poet hoped would pay his bills. (Daily Telegraph) —Watercolors by William Blake Similar:What Grammar and Style Checkers MissTeaching students to write does not mean…AcademiaCommentary: What My Struggling Students Wanted Me to UnderstandI haven’t taught a developmental course …AcademiaI gave my class a…
, creator of Pippi Longstocking, dies at 94. (Guardian) —Astrid Lindgren Similar:Why Computers Will Never Write Good Novels If it were possible to build a digit…BooksCOVID denial: ‘You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car’“If you’ve got a gunshot wound or stab w…Current_EventsScammer tricks YouTuber who exposes…
“The Web has decentralized the control of ideas, as A&LD proves. A few years ago the exchange of opinions and theories had to be managed by people living in great metropolitan centres, the intellectual world’s version of imperialism. But with the Web it can be done anywhere.” Robert Fulford —I Want my Arts & Letters…
"Don’t let anyone tell you that as a programmer you don’t have to make moral or ethical decisions. Every time you decide that making users feel stupid is better than fixing your code, you’re making an ethical decision." —Programmers Make Ethical DecisionsJoel on Software) Similar:Kairos: Open Since 1996As a plucky new faculty member I wrote…