“Organized religion was a primary target of every one of the twentieth century’s regimes of terror. But as is evident in Nazi and Communist terrors alike, organized irreligion (to put it in Royal’s sharp formulation) has proved far more dangerous than organized religion ever was.” Alicia Mosier Similar:Create Joy with Content Management System Hexcodes for…
You might assume there could not be a worse time for a field calling itself “Internet studies.” You would be wrong. The Chronicle of Higher Education Similar:Verification HandbookOne of journalism’s most treasured clich…Current_Events'Our worst nightmare': New legal filings detail reporting of Rolling Stone's U-Va. gang ra…The court documents, submitted as eviden…AcademiaWhy do academics dress so…
“Lambert received the e-mail in December, a piece of scrap in the vast electronic junkyard that is the World Wide Web. Regrettably, she says now, she removed the letter’s forwarding markers and unintentionally put her name at the bottom, making it appear that she was the author.” Washington Post —Don’t forward that e-mail just yet!…
“[W]hat could be more scholarly than a nice, authoritative statistic, quoted from a professional journal in the student’s field?” The Chronicle of Higher Education —Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics Similar:At the Johnstown Flood Museum. (May 31 1889 the neglected dam at the South Fork Fishing an…At the Johnstown Flood Museum. (May 31…
The longer the company’s annual report, the less successful the company. This isn’t really a technical writing issue — usually companies with bad news to report need a lot of words to explaining themselves. But if this is what it takes to get some pinhead CEOs to appreciate brevity, so be it. Wired Similar:GIFs, memes…
Danielle Preston —You Know You’re a Technical Writer When… Similar:Allergic to Grammar ErrorsSource: Cyanide & Happiness (Explosm…Amusing'Inappropriate' dance moves lead to calls for student lessons in Peters Mr. Merrell said the students told h…AmusingA former student working in SEO shared this. I miss Google classic.AmusingFrodo Baggins, A.B.D.When I had pneumonia a few years into my…AcademiaRobot…
A student of mine makes comments on interactive fiction, garish colors, and dancing text. Jan Carroll —Just For the Record Similar:The Internet Archive Is Digitizing & Preserving Over 100,000 Vinyl Records: Hear 750 Full …These people do important, amazing work….CultureMe waiting for students to drop by during office hours. AcademiaSTEM Education Won't Solve the World's…
learns something from my freshman comp students. On March 13, 2000, I e-mailed web guru Jakob Nielsen to tell him that six of my freshmen spent 8-30 minutes on his site without finding a plain-text “search” link on the home page. A week or so later, I noticed that Nielsen changed his page, making the…
“[W]hen it comes to writing, whether you’re a seventh grader, a college student, a professor, a beginning copywriter, or an accomplished novelist, a B isn’t good enough.” Kathy Henning —For Writers, Writing Is Never a Waste of Time: Part 2 Similar:Why We Forget Most of the Books We ReadIt was pleasurable to encounter a famili…BooksStudents…
“[A] society without literature, or a society in which literature has been relegated–like some hidden vice–to the margins of social and personal life, and transformed into something like a sectarian cult, is a society condemned to become spiritually barbaric, and even to jeopardize its freedom.” Mario Vargas Llosa Similar:Two stunning hugs end Amber Guyger's murder…
The creator of Cliffs Notes has died. Here’s his obituary — although I know you probably won’t bother to read the whole thing. Similar:Lighten Up (an illustrator explores the racial politics of skin color in comics)Lighten Up — The Nib — Medium.Aesthetics'Wear a mask.' Trump predicts coronavirus will 'get worse' as he returns to briefings…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:Looking in on the officers' wardroom (conference and dining) one deck above the main … I thought of the interior as “Missisip…AestheticsHow exactly do bridges bridge? How do rivers rive? How much detail does my model of #medie…How exactly…
“It is our duty, as responsible citizens, to stop the rot. Next time someone touches base with you or moves your goal posts, punch them in the face.” Clint Witchalls —Business and the English Language Similar:Scrooge Is My BrotherMy daughter delivered the opening “Marle…CultureWhat's next in game narrative, with Emily Short Something that I tended…
“Europe once sought to bring enlightenment—literacy, civil society, modern technology—to benighted parts of the world. It did so in the name of progress and civilization. The ethic of Third Worldism dictates that yesterday’s enlightenment be rebaptized as today’s imperialistic oppression.” Roger Kimball Similar:The difficulty is the point (teaching critical thinking skills differs from teaching facts…In…
Imagine yourself creating a game with a world for other people to inhabit on your own computer. It is a world without sounds or visuals. Now, put yourself into the textual world and imagine yourself in that world and living through the game. Laura L. Hogue —Text-based computer game lets players interact with story. Similar:Writing…
The point is not that we should add stories to our sites to ensnare narrative-starved readers. The point is that the reader’s journey through our site is a narrative experience. Our job is to make the narrative satisfying. Mark Bernstein —The Narrative Web Similar:I Made a Cheerful Maze Game in Scratch Well, it’s cheerful unle…CybercultureBoston…
“Roget’s Thesaurus… should be roundly condemned as a crucial part of the engine work that has transported us to our current state of linguistic and intellectual mediocrity. Simon Winchester What’s another word for “thesaurus”? Similar:Pen Pals (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 15) Data Hears a WhoRewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…EmpathyBias Check! Consult different sources…
Look for an “escape from frames” or “turn this frame off” link. Right-click on a link (or, on a Mac, hold down the control key while clicking) and select the command that will let you “open link in new window.” —Frames: Finding the URL of a Framed Document Similar:How’s newsgathering during COVID-19 at the state…
“Writers, pause and think what your purpose is. Sure, you have to earn a living, but does it disgust you to write over-simplified articles that tell a partial truth, or even worse, lie, because your editor and publisher won’t buy anything with more depth. Does it frustrate you that readers know you’re lying, and seek…
Why computer games sacrifice story for graphics: “Often great graphics can enhance a game, but just as often, graphical emphasis — whether in a game or the review thereof — is a result of developers and journalists taking the easy way out. When that happens, we all lose, especially as long as game publishers think…