When I am old and crotchety, one of these will sit on my desk. But probably not till then.
Month: April 2006
The Asia Pages: In Defense of the White Boy
Jodi’s recent banning from some kind of alleged racist message board is discussed at great length in her post (and the comments appended to it) titled In Defense of the White Boy. I’m not going to get into my opinions of the specific case, but just say that I’ve been frustrated with the kind of thinking that runs behind this. Young guys, mostly, who like to think themselves political, strong, militant, and so they get all vocal about racial issues without thinking, without reasoning, without seeing that what they themselves have adopted is racism. I think people have a right …
Robo-Furniture
Tables and chairs that follow you around and self-assemble? See them. Via Roxanne on the Culturelist.
Porno euros
No, really.
McMurder?
This is just bizarre.
The Memory Hole > CIA Films at the National Archives
I noticed a line in a post at The Memory Hole about CIA Films at the National Archives that grabbed my attention: US Germ Warfare in Korea Anyone out there interested? I don’t think the Freedom of Information Act extends to Canadians in Korea, but any American who wants to check this out has the legal right. I’d love to know more, for one.
EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea – Teacher Dude’s Grill and BBQ
I quite like The Die Hard Lesson plan, which is a lesson plan posted at Teacher Dude’s Grill and BBQ. He explains the inspiration for the lesson plan here. If you check out the comments section to the latter, you’ll see me going on about related lesson plans I’ve used in the past: terrorist plots, terrorist hunting, bank heists, and alien-invasion-planning. Via EFL Geek
Stupid Questions
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very interesting piece titled There is Such a Thing as a Stupid Question, and while some would think it’s more applicable to a classroom in which students and teacher interact in their shared mother tongue, I disagree. There are, in an EFL classroom, questions that are helpful to students, and questions that hurt students. More importantly, the idea that we can teach students to ask (and answer) the questions that will help them really progress is one I’ve written about before. I feel slightly vindicated seeing it written about in this way by …
Quizzery
Julia did a few quizzes lately, and this one caught my eye: What Disease Are You? You Are Heart Disease! You are one of the various varieties of Cardiovascular disease, which means you are lovable and make people laugh. You are genuinely a great person, charitable and playful. It’s hard to not be your friend. But seriously, please cut down on the saturated fats, I only mention this because I’m worried about your health.Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code sigh. I am not surprised. Ah well, this is perhaps a …
The Weird World of Coming Entertainment
Japundit on smell-o-vision being introduced to Japanese cinemas. Let’s hope a few cinemas remain free of this for those of us with respiratory problems, like me. And Marginal Revolution on two new trends: Want to play video games against your pet? And how will online availability change TV?