“…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:Education: Teaching teachers how to teach readingI’m definitely seeing students in my fre…BooksThe Sacramentality of Teaching and LearningFor the one-credit…
“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:Second Skin (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 5) Is Kira a…
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:Digital literacy is different from print literacy. How do we balance the trade-off?My…
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:"seriously, the guy has a point" — on the Charging Bull and Fearless Girl ControversyArt conveys significance;…
“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:The Six Things That Make Stories Go Viral Will…
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:Stapler jam during…
(Word Circuits): Hypertext poetry by Stephanie Strickland —The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot Similar:Talk with us about books! English as a minor or second major @setonhilluniversityAcademiaAll About Those Facebook 'Like' Scam PostsWhen you click “like” for a cause in Fac…BusinessTwitter is testing a tool for reporting fake & offensive contentIt’s risky to get your…
"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:'Fontgate': Microsoft, Wikipedia and the scandal threatening the…
"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:"Daddy, I'm sick of your tears."”Daddy, I’m sick of your tears.” –my 11…CultureRereading “Writing to Learn”Rereading “Writing to Learn,” William Zi…AcademiaAP Style tips on "neurodiversity"EmpathyMy 10yo Created Bookmarks to…
"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:Humanities and STEM Can and Should Get Along BetterIn my lit and writing classes, I regular…AcademiaHappy Winnie the Pooh Public Domain Dayhttps://twitter.com/textfiles/status/147…CultureWhat's a Snollygoster? Even lexicographers are wrong sometimesThis is an amusing little story about ho…Culture"Why are you throwing out all…
"[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:My students seem increasingly confused by the difference between journal title vs. article… Sometimes students will submit…
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:Why Do People Share Fake News? A Sociotechnical Model of Media EffectsVerrit, like Snopes, Politifact, and a h…CultureThe Irreversible Damage of Mark Zuckerberg’s SilenceWired, obviously having…
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:Schisms (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 5)Rewatching ST:TNG Riker is having troub…DesignLearn to code? No: Learn a real languageI don’t see learning to code as a substi…CultureHomage to PoeMichael…
, creator of Pippi Longstocking, dies at 94. (Guardian) —Astrid Lindgren Similar:Why Drag It Out?The ways that the informal speech of wom…CultureHumanities research is groundbreaking, life-changing… and ignored Most arguments for “saving” the humani…AcademiaThe Visitor #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 3) Old Jake Reflects on the life-cha…Rewatching ST:DS9 On a dark and storm…BooksHow Bad…
“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:Diamonds Are Bullsh*tI did propose with a diamond ring, for w…BusinessTo…