More in this gallery.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Teaching Technique: Inform your students you will tell one lie each class
This was an insidiously brilliant technique to focus our attention - by offering an open invitation for students to challenge his statements, he transmitted lessons that lasted far beyond the immediate subject matter and taught us to constantly checksum new statements and claims with what we already accept as fact. Early in the quarter, the Lie of the Day was usually obvious - immediately triggering a forest of raised hands to challenge the falsehood. Dr. K would smile, draw a line through that section of the board, and utter his trademark phrase "Very good! In fact, the opposite is true. Moving on ... "
As the quarter progressed, the Lie of the Day became more subtle, and many ended up slipping past a majority of the students unnoticed until a particularly alert person stopped the lecture to flag the disinformation. Every once in a while, a lecture would end with nobody catching the lie which created its own unique classroom experience - in any other college lecture, end of the class hour prompts a swift rush of feet and zipping up of bookbags as students make a beeline for the door; on the days when nobody caught the lie, we all sat in silence, looking at each other as Dr. K, looking quite pleased with himself, said with a sly grin: "Ah ha! Each of you has one falsehood in your lecture notes. Discuss amongst yourselves what it might be, and I will tell you next Monday. That is all." Those lectures forced us to puzzle things out, work out various angles in study groups so we could approach him with our theories the following week.
Read more.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Bumblebee-Riding Snipers Shooting Down Spacecraft
Lots of great images recently posted at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.
Eddie Van Halen and Toto were key components of Michael Jackson's Thriller
A new cd with various bonus tracks was recently released to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Thriller.
Southern California wasn't icy during the Ice Age
The current issue of Natural History magazine had some interesting information: even when great ice sheets blanketed much of North America, the climate in Southern California (except for snowcapped mountain peaks) can best be described as Mediterranean.
Even during the Ice Age, Southern California looked something like this:
Image by William Stout.
I.D. Magazine Tested The $15 Starbury Sneakers Against The $130 Nike Zoom Kobe III
And named the Starburys as the winner. They also compared the Pleo ($350) and the WowWee Robosapien V2 ($140), the Krups XP7230 Fully Automatic Espresso Machine ($1,250) and the Bialetti Moka Express ($25), and the Braun Pulsonic ($270) and the Gillette Fusion Power ($13).
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Flash takes on some evil cloud monsters
Found at the tremendously well-named "Fortress of Fortitude."
*Buy Flash toys at eBay.
Students expelled for cheating at Harvard-Westlake
A story my local readers will appreciate:
Six sophomores were expelled and more than a dozen other students faced suspensions Tuesday in a cheating scandal that has rocked Harvard-Westlake, a top-tier Los Angeles private school with a national reputation for its academics.
Administrators said students conspired to steal Spanish and history tests by distracting teachers in their classrooms. The tests were then shown to several other students before midterm exams last month, said Harvard-Westlake President Thomas Hudnut.
Tuition to Harvard-Westlake is approximately $30,000 a year.
Contest: Write a power ballad
It's to promote the book Rock On: An Office Power Ballad.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Advertising: Most memorable Christmas ever
I have no idea what they're saying, but this ad for Found Magazine is awfully funny. (NSFW)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Toycutter Updates
Recent updates at my action figure, vinyl toy, and miniature customizing blog include a Kim Possible Stikas, X-23 (X-Force) action figure, The Bride (Kill Bill) Munny, and Lockjaw statuette.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
British hospitals meet goal of serving ER patients within four hours...
Unfortunately, they did it by:
keeping thousands of seriously ill patients in ambulance 'holding patterns' outside accident and emergency units to meet a government pledge that all patients are treated within four hours of admission.
Those affected by 'patient stacking' include people with broken limbs or those suffering fits or breathing problems. An Observer investigation has also found that some wait for up to five hours in ambulances because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can guarantee to treat them within the time limit. Apart from the danger posed to patients, the detaining of ambulances means vehicles and trained crew are not available to answer new 999 calls because they are being kept on hospital sites.
Via.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Contest: Come up with the title for the next movie in the Bring It On series
The entries pulled me out of a bad mood. Here's a few of my favorites:
I Bring It On Your Grave
Bring It On V: The Bringening
Hey, Godzilla! Bring It On!
Here's the best I could come up with:
Bring It On Some More
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
WTF? Microsoft Developer Action Figures
Microsoft is so lame. There's lengthy "bios" for the characters here, plus games and episodes (which I did not try out). They're not going to be easy to acquire, although I doubt there's many that really care.
Salacious Crumb bomber nose art
It appears on the new Lego Star Wars Republic Gunship. More photos here.
Desktop Wallpapers: Marvel Comics Solicitations for May 2008
The Punisher wallpaper is huge. The others should look fine on a 1024x768 monitor.
Punisher #57 cover art by Tim Bradstreet
Ultimate Spider-Man #122 cover art by Stuart Immonen
King Size Hulk #1 cover art by Frank Cho
Franklin Richards: Not So Secret Invasion cover art by Chris Eliopoulos
Logan #3 cover art by Eduardo Risso
Guardians of the Galaxy #1 cover art by Clint Langley
Immortal Iron Fist # 15 cover art by Khari Evans
Cover art found here.
More D.C. Comics Desktop Wallpapers
JSA Classified #38 cover art by Freddie Williams II 
The Flash #240 cover art by Freddie Williams II 
The Flash: The Wild Wests HC cover art by Daniel Acuña
All art found here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
