The Definition of Reverse Racism
We all know, and can generally identify, what “Racism” is and what it means and how it hurts all of us — but what is that thing some people call “Reverse Racism?”
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Learning English via SMS in India
Nokia are doing interesting things with cellphones like providing Braille SMS on their phones. However, the plan to teach English to poor rural children in India using cellphones seems like a bad promotional gimmick rather than an honest effort at education.
Mishmashed Writing as Performance
Some ideas are born to be expressed — while other infantile
thoughts should be considered but never uttered or placed into action.
We
are confused by the meaning and intention of this “digital writing”
course where computers are given the odd requirement of inventing new
stories:
This course
introduces the Python programming language as a tool for writing
digital text. This course is specifically geared to serve as a
general-purpose introduction to programming in Python, but will be of
special interest to students interested in poetics, language, creative
writing and text analysis. Weekly programming exercises work toward a
midterm project and culminate in a final project. Python topics covered
include: functions; object-oriented programming; functional programming
(list comprehensions, recursion); getting data from the web; displaying
data on the web; parsing data formats (e.g., markup languages);
visualization and interactivity with Python. Poetics topics covered
include: character encodings (and other technical issues); cut-up and
re-mixed texts; the algorithmic nature of poetic form (proposing poetic
forms, generating text that conforms to poetic forms);
transcoding/transcription (from/to text); generative algorithms: n-gram
analysis, context-free grammars; performing digital writing.
Prerequisites: Introduction to Computational Media or equivalent
programming experience.
What Makes a Word Ugly?
Why is it some words and phrases out there are pleasant to hear, while others just grate on the nerve like fingernails scratching against chalk? Am I the only person who has such a passion for certain words and a disdain for others? I surely am not. Let’s look at some of these words, expressions — bon mots — shall we?
Wall-E is a Deaf ASL Meme Movie
Wall-E is now out on Blu-ray DVD and it is a spectacular movie experience. The story is timeless, universal, and humanistic in devotion and intention. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association rightly named Wall-E Best Picture of 2008.
No Word for Depression
We rely on words to define us. If we try to express a specific condition without the right words attached, we become lost and we are unable to clearly understand each other. While teaching one of my Public Health courses, a group discussion about clinical depression led us into an examination of the word “depression” and how the home cultures of some of the students’ parents did not allow, or define, the concept of “depression” in a serious, medical, sense.
sosASL.com for the Deaf
Sometimes technology expands just enough to cogently clear the way for expanded communication opportunities.
When Janna and I created sosASL.com as a portal for emergency communication between the Deaf and fire, police and EMT first responders, we realized it would not have been possible to create the site without the rise of technology and its seeping into every niche of the American psyche.
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