Archive for June, 2009
notes from the interblags: post RSA edition
Yesterday concluded the RSA Summer Institute, held here at Penn State. Participants from around the country came to discuss rhetoric in either a week-long seminar or a weekend workshop (or for some, both). I was in the Queering Rhetorical Studies workshop, which was a fantastic experience. I walked away with new connections, friends, and colleagues, [...]
more auto-tuning the news: smoking lettuce
I’ve post autotune the news before, but I love it so much, here’s another episode. My favorite part is the questioning of American Exceptionalism toward the beginning (exceptional fast food!):
h/t Oregon Robot for this video.
“the more we write and the great variety of genres…”
As usual, Alex Reid delivers with a smart response to this Chronicle article. Reid:
Why ask whether writing on the Internet makes you a better academic writer? Why not ask whether academic writing makes you a better user of social media? I suppose it is understandable that academics might want to value a particular kind of [...]
Iran: A Nation of Bloggers
from too many sources to h/t:
IRAN: A Nation Of Bloggers from ayrakus on Vimeo.
the trouble with [the acceptance] of normal
Cord Jefferson at The Root (h/t Queerty):
The annual marches ultimately accomplish two things: They entertain those of us—gay and straight—who already wholeheartedly support the cause of equal rights for the LGBT community, and they feed into the rotten stereotypes of bigots, the same people who fear gay Boy Scout leaders and consider same-sex marriage “deviant.” [...]
“we’re wrong, and Glenn Beck proves it”
Eric at The Philosophist blogged about Glenn Bleck and his ilk, and makes an important pedagogical point at the end. I don’t normally quote an entire blog post, but Eric’s is short and makes a good point:
The one essential point that Beck, O’Reilly et al absolutely must understand and yet insist on dismissing is that [...]
a rose by certain (gendered) names would smell differently
NPR has an interesting report about gendered language. Lera Boroditsky, an assistant psychology professor at Stanford University, studied how people understand things differently based on how words are gendered. The main example is a bridge, which was described differently by Spanish speakers, for whom bridge is a masculine noun, from German speakers, for whom the [...]
too many books
Perhaps I own too many books. I have five bookshelves overflowing with them. Tonight, I decided I don’t read enough fiction, and thought, hey, I want to re-read Lucy Corin’s Everyday Psychokillers, which I first read in a grad level creative writing class I took while teaching middle school. I couldn’t find it — and [...]
on the internet, no one knows you’re not Tony La Russa
EDIT/UPDATE: After reading Collin’s comment, I decided to research further. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but part of the issue was distasteful references to players who had died of heart conditions or driving accidents. Bad taste! I’d sue if I were La Russa too, in this case — but because I’d be serious [...]
pseudonymously writing in public
As you may well be aware by now, pseudonymous blogger Publius, who writes at Obsidian Wings, was outed as law professor John Blevins by Ed Whelan on his TNR blog. The NY Times has a post with various opinions about blogging pseudonymously, which is worth reading.
Whelan writes that not signing your name in public is [...]
