We’re called to think about writing better, not about following the rules of writing. Your writing must be valuable. It is when it helps readers to change what they think about the world.
Academic writing too often is not valuable. Instead, academic writing is only ever considered by those who have motivations other than seeking to change their own minds.
Paul Ricoeur famously said, “the duty of memory is the duty to do justice.” We are our memories, both as individuals and as a society.
I and a dear friend experienced David Strathairn’s performance of this one man show about another man at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, October 9, 2021. It was touching, deep, and disturbing. It speaks as much to our time as to our history.
I commend it to you: remember this.
Being right isn’t as important as being willing to be wrong.
Matthew Shepard is one of uncountably many LGBTQ+ individuals murdered each year for having the temerity to be themselves. While the circumstances of Matthew’s last day are complicated, the perpetrators claimed at trial that their actions were in large part motivated by their hatred of Matthew simply because he was gay. On a remote stretch of pasture in Laramie, Wyoming, they stripped, beat, and tortured Matthew, tied him to a fence , and left him there to die, alone, freezing, slowly.
This is a selection from Considering Matthew Shepard by Craig Hella Johnson in which a part of Matthew’s story is told from the perspective of the fence to which he was tied.
Nod to the Resonance Women’s Chorus of Boulder, Colorado, for introducing me to this work through their performance of All of Us.
Learn more about The Trevor Foundation. Save a life.
Visit https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
If you are in crisis or know someone who is, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HELLO to 741741
I had the pleasure of seeing this performed in 1997 with dear friends from my days at Hampshire College. It was performed by Ossie Davis, Susan Sarandon, Mandy Patinkin, Pete Seeger and others. Quite a thought provoking night.
https://www.rfc.org/celebratethechildrenofresistance
The full playlist of the 2007 performance can be found: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAA3F8AF3C23133B2
Richard Hamming was a 20th century mathematician who contributed greatly to our understanding of information and information encodings. In this talk he shares his thoughts on how to be good at what you do. In short: work on the right problem, at the right time, and using the right methods. Were it so easy!
The book itself is an impressive compendium of how the field of computing education research got here, where it stands, and where it might go. If only all mappae mundi were so clear!
This video summarizes the book’s contents in a short 55 minutes. You’ll hear chapter authors—each an established researcher in their own right—in their own voices.
I’m often taken in by restoration and conservation stories. Recently, the thoughtful machine learning algorithms at YouTube suggested to me a set of videos related to Alec Steele and company’s efforts to install an industrial power hammer in their steelwork shop.
This is industrial equipment at a scale with which I have no experience. Yet, the sheer joy and curiosity exhibited by this crew as they work to address practical, physical, and design issues with making this equipment functional is glorious.
The Machine Stops, a story ahead of its time being published in 1909, foretells of a society in which individuals are almost completely physically isolated from one another in an underground enclave where communication is achieved only with technology and all life’s necessities are attended to by a vast, unseen network of tubes.
What happens when, as always must happen, the machine stops?
Continue reading The Machine Stops ~ E.M. ForsterI like this recent GOTO conference talk about the role of linguistics in understanding the language of coding. It touches upon many issues I’ve noted over the years as well as newer-to-me issues in non-English programming.
In the early days of the universe, 9 or 10 years ago, I remember being impressed by this young man‘s musical and video creations.
Worlds collide and memes cross, and that’s how I recently ran across Charlie again in the context of a tomato risotto recipe on the SORTEDFood feed. Sorted.
Here, Charlie speaks to an issue that’s near to my heart and that too many people have forever gotten far too wrong: sex & consent. He speaks well and he speaks honestly. I commend you, lend an ear.
In this age of people doing awful things to one another and yet somehow justifying it to themselves, consent is fundamental. As humans, we should be able to discuss it and manifest it in meaningful ways.
If you’ve experienced non-consensual sex at any age, I hope you have or will find your way to talk about it with people you trust. RAINN—the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network—is available, if you need assistance.
To the list of books mentioned in the video, I would add:
Bryan Cantrill, a leading technologist and CTO of Joyent, outlines the vital differences between principles, values, and buzzwordy vacuousness.