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:Why Hoboken is Throwing Away All of its Student LaptopsUntrained teachers. Damage-prone machine…CybercultureThe Hidden Signs…
: “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:ChatGPT Can Be Broken by Entering These Strange Words, And…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:We are the product that Facebook has been testingUp to now, I refrained from posting anyt…BusinessLighten Up (an illustrator explores the racial politics of skin color in comics)Lighten Up — The Nib — Medium.AestheticsStephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up prizes —…
“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:The false link between Amy Coney Barrett and The Handmaid’s Tale, explainedOne of the weirder ways this debate has …BooksStage Right's Alice in WonderlandMy daughter shared the…
“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:Facebook is predicting the end of the written wordFacebook’s video push threatens the edit…BusinessLike digging ‘your own professional grave’: The translators grappling with losing work…
“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:Writing Tips for Critical Thinking …
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:No Money, No Time We tend to assume…
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:Imma Let You Integrate QuotationsIn the poem “Imma Let You Integrate Quot…AcademiaVerizon's $4.4 billion deal for AOL sends AOL stock on a tearVerizon has experimented with journalism…BusinessShall I Encode…
“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:Playing God (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 17) Dax mentors a too-eager-to-plea… Rewatching ST:DS9 In a nice long …AmusingA Video Game About…
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:A Pedestal,…
Danielle Preston —You Know You’re a Technical Writer When… Similar:How to Use the Feynman Technique to Identify PseudoscienceSimon Oxenham quotes physicist Richard F…CultureTies of Blood and Water #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 19) Kira re-evaluates a …Rewatching ST:DS9 Kira is excited to …BusinessPerseverance lands on Mars today! Here's what you need to know Today,…
A student of mine makes comments on interactive fiction, garish colors, and dancing text. Jan Carroll —Just For the Record Similar:My son showed me #PacificRim.My son showed me #PacificRim. Liked the …CybercultureRIP Metaverse, we hardly knew yeI am curious enough about cockatoos that…AcademiaFYI, 13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpNContestants had to stand…
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:Busy NYC Restaurant Solves Major Mystery by Reviewing Old Surveillance Restaurant studies surveillance foot…BusinessSurprise: Humanities…
“[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:Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare course…
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:President JoAnne Boyle Announces Plans to Retire from Seton Hill University in June 2013An amazing, inspiring set of accomplishm…AcademiaFired for Making a Game: The Inside Story of I Get This Call Every…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:Popcorn MakerI’ll have to look into this. Popc…AestheticsOne deck below the bridge, the chief engineer coordinates with his technical heads here at…AestheticsAdding random objects to the bookshelves for a fantasy #steampunk project. #blender3dAestheticsPrincess of Wales photo furore underlines sensitivity…