“[O]nce you have observed that the other is typically portrayed as lazy, dirty, stupid, crafty, womanly, passive, rebellious, sexually rapacious, childlike, enigmatic and a number of other mutually contradictory epithets, it is hard to know what to do next apart from reaching for yet another textual illustration of the fact.” London Review of Books —The…
Too much information? “[T] this weed in our informational landscape has just sprouted–it is only about 50 years old. Up until then, more information was almost always a good thing.” David Shenk —Data Smog Similar:Twitter / Search – "couldn't remove your contacts" – All Tweets Twitter / Search – “couldn’t remove …AmusingDeadline seems to have…
“Log onto almost any college Web site and you’ll see the same beautiful students talking about their beautiful campuses and how much they learn. But there are no numbers, no studies, no objective measurements.” —Wash. Monthly —What Do the US News Rankings Measure? Similar:The Piano Lesson ( #AugustWilson #CenturyCycle, 4 of 10)August Wilson’s Century Cycle…
“Hey, all you crafty, capable women wearing chunky, horn-rimmed glasses (this year) and doing your brainy chick thing…” Hank Stuever, Wash. Post —Velma Rules — Jinkies! Similar:I felt a great disturbance in the Fandom”…as if millions of voices suddenly cr…AestheticsGoogle responds to streaming report with shruggie GIFThe Daily Dot proceeded to shrug the GIF…AmusingBy Inferno's Light…
Failed to Practise What It Preached The magazine that chronicled the excesses of the dot.com revolution did not spot the extravagances that led to its own downfall. Mark Tran —Industry Standard Similar:In July, 2000, I was creating handouts on the sounds of poetry, prototypes, and writing fo…It seems that an unusually high percenta…AcademiaGame Design Program…
Include Your Children when Baking Cookies New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half —Real Headlines Similar:The Importance of PunctuationFrom Yahoo! News: Update: T…GamesWhat My Classroom Looks Like During Today's Video Journalism Workshop Within one minute of being placed in…AcademiaA hedge fund’s ‘mercenary’ strategy: Buy newspapers,…
Despite the technological hoopla, nobody’s paying attention to e-books but the courts. “Digitizing the printed page has put the very nature of books up for grabs, unleashing heated battles among writers, readers, librarians and technologists over who should control electronic books.” Chicago Tribune —E-Books Solving a Problem Consumers Don’t Have. Similar:Motivation Amid Crisis (Autotrophic Bat)As…
Not-Work: “CNN acts like they’re the network of record in Millennial America, just because of their award-winning Gulf War coverage. That was so 10 years ago, and people only watched because there was no MSNBC back then.” The Onion —CNN Should be Named the Crappy News Similar:A trend story about millennials, by The New York…
At first, Huck Finn said “as if” instead of “like,” “wasn’t” and not “warn’t,” and described a night sky “sprinkled”–not “speckled”–with stars. A new edition of the American classic traces Mark Twain’s efforts to refine the speech of his most famous character. LA Times —A New Read on Huck Finn’s Distinctive Voice Similar:Peer Review Paranoia:…
(Watch them instead.) “Create a few alternative designs, show them to a group of users, and ask which one they prefer. Wrong. If the users have not actually tried to use the designs, they’ll base their comments on surface features.” Jakob Nielsen —First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Your Readers. Similar:Unity3D Maze Game…
At a graveyard near where Beatrix Potter (author of the “Peter Rabbit” stories) spent her youth: “Names on headstones included Mr Nutkin, Mr McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Tommy Brock – and even a Peter Rabbett.” BBC —But what about Jemima Puddle-Duck? Similar:Anne Of Green Gables Blond On Book CoverEr.. no. This is not Anne of Green…
“A modern language changes when we change it, and the metaphor that makes it autonomous only obscures our real task, which is to consider just how and why we change it.” Mark Halpern Similar:"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster (a reading)https://youtu.be/mppsaL4MEXU https://…BooksThe Skin of Our Teeth Panel Discussion (Seton Hill University, October 2021; Carolyn Jerz,…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k03kQ7Ot…AcademiaA…
“Author Jessica Kingley expressed regret Monday that she had ‘pretty much used up all the hardship‘ from her early life in her recent first novel Bitter Root, leaving her nothing to write about for her follow-up book.” The Onion Similar:My semester with the snowflakesInsightful essay from a US Military vet …AcademiaThings that have made me…
That said, we’ve decided to acknowledge our very favorite Web sites—five each in 10 subject areas—with the Scientific American.com Sci/Tech Web Award. It is an eclectic mix—from the practical to the academic to the downright silly. Among this year’s winners are sites that decode computer acronyms, explain group theory, unravel the genome, track chemistry in…
The second most popular form of entertainment after television, video games have rapidly become the largest segment of the entertainment industry. Mounting evidence lends support to what parents have suspected all along — violent videogames encourage violent behavior. Contemporary Pediatrics Similar:About the Sinkhole in the Adjunct Faculty Lounge, and Other Mid-Semester AnnouncementsI recently spoke with…
: “Every report you ever write from this day until the day you die should start out by saying something nice about the product or service you are reviewing. Then you can get down to business.” Tog —How to Deliver a Report Without Getting Lynched Similar:Classroom Vignette: MLA StyleStudent (shouldering backpack and headin…AcademiaTwitter Cheat Sheet…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:The Declaration of IndependenceI recorded a recitation of the Declarati…CultureViral App FaceApp Now Owns Access To More Than 150 Million People's Faces And NamesViral app FaceApp has been giving people…BusinessMobile is a "really punishing format" for indies, says inkle's Jon IngoldMobile…
“If anything, the recent expansion of literacy and educational opportunities has increased our access to literature and our enjoyment of it.” J. Peder Zane —What Good is Literature? Similar:English teaching: Johnson: Talking past each otherWhen I got to college, I had already lea…Academia11 Tips H.P. Lovecraft Had for Novice Writers”Avoid reading so as not to…
“Today, I’m one of the world’s leading anthropologists, an accomplished archaeologist, and an award-winning novelist. And, at 41, I’m only now becoming aware of the globetrotting rut I’ve been in my entire life. Looking back on everything I’ve seen and done, I can’t help but ask, ‘Is that all there is?’” more satire from The…
Microsoft Word requires at least 30% more keystrokes and 100% more mouse moves to accomplish certain editing tasks than would an optimal word processor. Forbes —Bad Design Can Be Costly Similar:Page Weight MattersUnexpected consequences, when a develope…CybercultureSchisms (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 5)Rewatching ST:TNG Riker is having troub…DesignThere’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood…