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:A former student working in SEO shared this. I miss Google classic.AmusingOpt Out of Pre-approved…
: “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:Seven reasons why blogging can make you a better academic…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:Unpopular grammar rulesLanguage is a fluid, living social const…CultureThe Staying Power of "A Christmas Carol" — Dennis Jerz, for WAOB Audio Theatrehttps://youtu.be/_US-PnhJ5FU What mak…BooksWhat Grammar and Style Checkers MissTeaching students to write does not mean…AcademiaVisiting my parents. Admiring their original Hallmark…
“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:How Daydreams and Videogames Can Make Us Confident In Real Life (Yes)Is there a daydreamer in your life? Ther…CultureVideo games 'teach dyslexic children to read' Playing games…
“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:Nerdy Rainbow Loom CraftingMy wonderfully geeky tween made these Bl…AestheticsThe Trouble With Online EducationI’ve taught an online “Video Game Cultur…AcademiaMy Tween Preps to Program a…
“We are the Gist Generation. We have acquired a taste for hit-and-run, cut-and-paste knowledge. We expect a home page or e-mail correspondence to give us the gist and only the gist—time is money and you’re a click away from an iconographic trash can, so get to the point.” Jeff Barbian Similar:Pagers, Pay Phones, and Dialup:…
This computer game tries something new. “If a character tells you he’ll call you tomorrow, he’s not kidding. You’ll have to wait a day to get his information. Faxes may arrive without warning, and instant messages may pop up onscreen when you least expect them — maybe even while you’re at work.” Wired.com —“Majestic” Invades…
“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:Maybe I'll start a cover band, cleaning up…
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:Getty makes 35 million photos free to useIn essence, it is admitting defeat. By o…BusinessA tiny bit of rogue news leaked through the ads.Hey, Newsweek, alert your webmaster. I…
“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:No, the AHCA Doesn't Make Rape a Preexisting ConditionA Republican Facebook friend posted a li…BusinessIn Defense Of Metaphors In Science WritingWe live in…
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:Controlling behavior…
Danielle Preston —You Know You’re a Technical Writer When… Similar:The Royale (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 12)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…BooksWe Had No Idea What Alexander Graham Bell Sounded Like. Until Now | History & Archaeology”Hear my voice. Alexander Graham Bell.” …CultureShe doesn't have keys or a phone or an ID. Why does my…
A student of mine makes comments on interactive fiction, garish colors, and dancing text. Jan Carroll —Just For the Record Similar:Twine: the program that’s democratised the video gaming worldTwine games look and feel profoundly dif…CybercultureWhat’s Wrong With Being From the South? Just Ask an Academic in the NorthAs an American studying in Toronto durin…AcademiaAnnoyed and…
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:Grading the MOOC UniversityThe MOOC classrooms are growing at Big B…AcademiaUniversities must stop presuming that…
“[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:Out of the Zuckersphere, (back) into the…
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:BuzzFeed plagiarism, deleted posts: Jonah Peretti explains.In 2012 my former Slate colleague Farhad…BusinessStephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up prizes — and completely misled you about the Mid…Recently on Facebook I made some…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:About 30 years after I first saw John Speed’s 1676 map of York, today I was working on a r…About 30 years after I first saw John Sp…CultureReading Game/Text: EverQuest, Alienation, and Digital Communitiesthough Limbaugh is wrong to decide…