April 2008
28 posts
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School computer wipes out grades | IndyStar.com |... →
stumbled:
Two thoughts on this one:
That sucks.
LOL.
Ouch.
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“This secondary scam isn’t run to defraud money from banks, it’s run...”
– slacktivist
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“How odd that the rich should so often be able to shield themselves from the...”
– Whatever
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Foreign Affairs - How Biofuels Could Starve the... →
fuddmain:
This might sound like nirvana to corn producers, but it is hardly that for consumers, especially in poor developing countries, who will be hit with a double shock if both food prices and oil prices stay high. The World Bank has estimated that in 2001, 2.7 billion people in the world were living on the equivalent of less than $2 a day; to them, even marginal increases in the cost of...
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If God Is Dead, Who Gets His House? →
Some within the New Atheism movement are trying to create atheist social organizations to replace the theist ones they rail against. I hear Hazel Motes is doing great things with his Church of Christ Without Christ.
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Worst Campaign Idea Ever? →
Apparently a Congressional candidate spoke at a celebration of Adolf Hilter’s birthday. But don’t worry! He’s no Nazi!
Zirkle confirmed to The News-Dispatch on Monday he spoke Sunday in Chicago at a meeting of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party, whose symbol is a swastika.
When asked if he was a Nazi or sympathized with Nazis or white supremacists, Zirkle replied he...
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“…industrial agriculture is not only unsustainable, but, on the basis of...”
– Wendell Berry has a letter to the editor in The New York Review of Books
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TypeRacer →
asprettyasasong:
amwelles:
mirza: Best game for increasing your typing speed As a lover of touch-typing, I find this quite addictive.
Why did you have to introduce me to this? I’m supposed to be studying!?
Argh and I’m just needing to get back to work, too.
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“But in the very best novels the animals want to talk, or the humans wish the...”
– Jonathan Lethem, via The Mumpsimus
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The Ampersand →
ideas:
“When creating a new typeface, a designer can inject the most artistic flair into the ampersand character.”
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Why Obama is no elitist →
This one drives me crazy. Call Obama what you want, but the man is not an elitist.
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“…my Bible year taught me something that I wish I had known for the first 38...”
– A.J. Jacobs (via azspot)
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Fairuse obliteratus: Rowling to testify in Harry... →
This is a case to watch. If Rowling wins in her argument that a fan-made lexicon of her novels does not, in fact, constitute fair use, fans may lose a large degree of their ability to create “transformative works” based on their favorite stories.
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Other Dangerous Historical Events Hillary Clinton... →
“I remember landing under sniper fire.”
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The Irrational Atheist →
Vox Day, writing on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, describes writing The Irrational Atheist, a book which takes apart recent books which “take apart” religion in ridiculous ways.
There was a single thought that repeatedly entered my mind when slogging through the interminable morasses of The God Delusion, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, God is Not Great,...
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Mead Releases New Grad-School-Ruled Notebook →
Thank goodness. I was wasting way too much room.
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Shift-Cmd-Cover →
People would ask, So what do you do for a living, and I’d reply, I’m a book designer, actually, and they’d nod and squint a little and say something like, So … that’s the covers?
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How to argue →
Re-express your opponent’s position
List any points of agreement
Mention anything you have learned from you opponent
Then criticize
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Happy Blog-iversary
Today marks the one-year anniversary of this blog. I’ve had many, many blogs over the years; most were infrequently updated and few lasted longer than a couple of months. (Even though this blog was originally called “The J-School Daily News,” this is one whole year that I’ve been publishing on Tumblr.)
To coincide with this date I’ve completely redesigned this...
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Disraelia: A Counterfactual History, 1848-2008 →
Long but interesting overview of an alt-history Middle Eastern state that wasn’t.
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Is theatre sci-fi's final frontier? →
io9 links to this rant about theatre and SF:
Perhaps this is part of the reason that sci-fi so rarely makes it onto the stage. As well as being regarded with a certain warmth, there’s also a sense of mistrust around the genre. Writers fear that it’s somehow a bit uncool - a bit 70s - and so we get interminable plays about Urgent Contemporary Issues rather than coolly...
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What Every American Should Know About the Middle... →
Brief little two-minute overview of the Middle East. At the book store the other day I saw The Middle East for Dummies — this is like that book, for dummies. (Via kottke.)