“…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:STEM Education Won't Solve the World's ProblemsI love STEM. My SAT score for math was e…AcademiaMLA Citations: Your attention to…
“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:Story Pitch: How writers present an article idea to a busy editor…
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:In August, 2002, I was blogging about ebook readers and email in teaching;…
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:Understanding Poetry INCIDENTAL COMICS: Understanding Poetr…Culture‘Because’ has become a preposition, because grammarThe construction is more versatile than…
“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:Free Game Friday: Text-Based Games 2012 Interactive Fiction contest…
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:The Anatomy of…
(Word Circuits): Hypertext poetry by Stephanie Strickland —The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot Similar:Journalism by the Numbers (a pedagogical play in one scene) #math (Lights up on a college journa…CultureMy "Writing About Literature" Students Are Sampling Text Adventure GamesI’m having my students play Adam Cadre’s…CultureWikipedia:VisualEditor – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWikipedia is testing a visual…
"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:Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies Thou shalt…
"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 SGE Recommends You Drink Urine To Pass Kidney Stones QuicklyThe new AI advanced version of Google Se…BusinessAnd so it begins: the unmarked assignments counterThis little icon will control…
"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:Has the focus on physical activity ruined playtime for kids?The researchers found that physical acti…CultureThe eagles in Lord of the Rings are a plot hole, but also an us problemPart of my enjoyment of genre franchises…BooksPublic service announcement! If you…
"[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:The Pope's Prayer for Countering "Fake News"Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sal…CultureVanessa Otero's Complex…
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:In November 1999, I was blogging about books, camomile tea and Skylon 4, the death of Star…In November 1999, I was blogging about …CybercultureFlying Saucer Irony AmusingHorrifying…
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:12yo Actress Carolyn Jerz on Pict Classic Theatre's Great Expectations: "Your heart will b…My daughter, who plays Young Estella in …CultureStephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up prizes — and completely…
, creator of Pippi Longstocking, dies at 94. (Guardian) —Astrid Lindgren Similar:Owner of former Latrobe Athletic Club continues pursuit to transform it into a theater The lead roles in “A Midsummer Night’s…CultureStage Right's 'Seussical' offers songs, messagesThe Tribune-Review does a great job cove…Current_EventsDigital literacy is different from print literacy. How do we balance the trade-off?My…
“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:Google's AI could probably beat you at AtariWhat’s significant in this…