I love it when technology coughs and the rest of us have to clear our throats. Sometimes the onus is on us, and our tricksy ears, and sometimes the blame for the bits is placed squarely at the feet of our invisible mechanical overlords like Skype and Google Voice.
Continue reading → Google Voice: Doctor Maryland Calling from Beverly Hill
One of the most dangerous things you can ask a person is this: “What are you thinking?” You’ll either get an honest answer you may or may not like or you’ll get fed a reply the person thinks you want to hear. If you really want to know what’s on America’s mindless minds, just point your web browser over to the new “Google Hot Trends” website and get an eyeful of the mush that is satiating our middling mindsets. Here’s what “Hot” this morning: Sports, Lotteries, Entertaining Abusers, Holidays and Dead Actresses.
Continue reading → The Demise of American Thought Recorded in Google Hot Trends
In the history of literature, there are many examples of writers changing the spelling of America to have an artistic effect. The spelling can be changed for reasons ranging from strong sarcasm to political commentary. Ice Cube, after all, released an album called AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted — an astute criticism of racism in the United States. It is like how sometimes the United States is spelled with a dollar sign (United $tates) to reflect the power that money has in the United States political process.
Continue reading → Thanks for Giving Us "Amercia," Mitt Romney
When I was in graduate school, one of the most important things I divined from the teaching was the massive hole in published scholarly research that doesn’t report what wasn’t found. Too many educational journals only report new research or confirmed findings. What’s missing is the public sharing of failures: “This is what we thought, and here’s how we tried to prove it, but it didn’t work out, and here’s why.”
That lack of “failure to find” in scholarly publications can be deadly to an academic reputation and so there is tremendous pressure to “find something!” that will be meaningful and dramatic and history-staking so you can get that tenure appointment or research grant or university award you so truly covet.
The sad fact of academia is that some researchers are not honest. They fudge findings and manipulate studies to prove “what they thought” was, indeed, correct and not a failure. Too many of us make the mistake of believing everything we read in print — we must always be cynical and question proven thought — and that’s why the Retraction Watch blog is one of the most vital tools we have in our thinking arsenal for setting the scholarly record straight after a malicious manipulation of what we think we know makes it in print.
One of my favorite parts of the late night talk show “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” is a segment that is called, “Slow Jam the News.” During this segment, Jimmy talk / sings the news while the house band (The Roots) plays an excellent backing melody. I have to say that if I am going to hear that the economy is in turmoil, I would rather hear about it while it is being slow jammed.
Continue reading → The Ridiculous Critique of President Obama's Slow Jam
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