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:Yahoo, You Nagged Me Too Many Times; Bye!I have a Yahoo account that I use…
: “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:Impact of One-size-fits-all Web DesignI don’t particularly miss the splash…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:AI is better at writing poems than you’d expect. But that’s fine. Even the most rebellious poets follow …CultureFarewell Internet Explorer: You Weren't All BadThe main reason I still dislike Internet…BusinessGraphic Design Pun Cards Sara Heffernan designed these wonder…AestheticsR.U.R. (Rossum's Universal…
“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:Bloopers from my monologue for @pictclassictheatre 's Shakespeare Webinar this Friday at 2… View t…AmusingPen Pals (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 15) Data Hears a WhoRewatching…
“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:This is what the techbros are excited about? Really?Some 2300 years ago in ancient Greece, P…AcademiaMicrosoft is once again asking Chrome users to try Bing…
“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:Scientists should be goggled and…
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:Justin Bieber and the Beatles: They both liked…
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:Copy Of The Scarlet Letter Can't Believe The Notes High Schooler Writing In MarginsBaffled that the young reader for some r…AmusingOk, never mind Dusgcxms2… buddy, you can keep your…
“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:William Shakespeare’s Star WarsBecause apparently I am not already nerd…AestheticsA spooooooky post about predatory journals for this Halloween season.Predatory publications are not concerned…AcademiaFirst…
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:The Lost…
Danielle Preston —You Know You’re a Technical Writer When… Similar:"I don't view Shakespeare's work as intimidating anymore." — midterm reflection from coll… “It has made me more confident in my…AcademiaTime article with clickbaity headline: Web users annoyed by marketing tricksThis Time magazine article is a good one…CybercultureIncoming Seton Hill Students Pick Up Their MacBooks and…
A student of mine makes comments on interactive fiction, garish colors, and dancing text. Jan Carroll —Just For the Record Similar:"I might be putting a little too much effort into designing the cravat for the captai…AestheticsThe Real Reason Why You Can't WriteHave you ever stopped to think about wha…AcademiaMore #steampunk control panel goodness. #blender3d #design…
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:Code is not literatureA literate programmer describes his atte…CybercultureSorry, Wrong NumberNumerical errors usually occur for…
“[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:Knee-jerk sharing of memes denigrates the truth.Trump…
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:Necessary Evil (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 8) Odo revisits his first case -…Rewatching ST:DS9 On a stormy night o…EmpathyCreationism dismissed as 'a kind of paganism' by Vatican's astronomerBrother Consolmagno, who…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:War via TikTok: Russia's new tool for propaganda machine “This is the way they go to war; it’s …Current_EventsFirst Evidence That Social Bots Play a Major Role in Spreading Fake News Shad and co say bots play a part…AcademiaAdding…