Author Archives: jbj

Be sure to check out the article on Twitter in the Chronicle this week (permalink | free short-term link) , which features a cameo appearance by your humble blogger.  (Personal interest aside, Jeff does a good job explaining Twitter for … Continue reading →

You *may* not be done with your paper on King Solomon’s Mines if the first sentence includes this parenthetical: (INSERT NAMES OF WHITE MEN) Apparently using all caps isn’t always a sufficient reminder-to-self . . .  

A is on the board of directors of the preschool our son attends, which has been . . . interesting.  Apparently, the last time the inspectors (I think attached to this program, which gave the preschool a nice grant this … Continue reading →

A very long time ago, I wrote a column for InsideHigherEd.com arguing that assessment isn’t just makework; done right, it can provide useful information to departments and other interested parties about what students actually learn.  By coincidence, Horace wrote a … Continue reading →

This probably only funny because I saw it after walking to campus through 11 degree weather on a particularly gusty morning, but I did enjoy this typo: A screening of this video is what was meant, though it is amusing … Continue reading →

Remember Sandy, the nifty e-mail personal assistant from Values of N? (Not just e-mail, of course: You can also send commands to Sandy via Twitter.) If you’ve been holding off on giving the service a try because you already have … Continue reading →

Look at this: The 1937 version of King Solomon’s Mines, with Paul Robeson as Umbopa! Streaming right to your desktop . . .

My column at Bookslut this month has a slightly misleading title: I’m not really against dream interpretation in psychoanalysis, but I do think it is widely misunderstood.  As far as I can tell, the point of interpreting dreams is not … Continue reading →

Interactive timelines can be a handy reference for students (or faculty! or researchers!) in almost any course.  Their relevance for the humanities and social sciences almost goes without saying, but one could easily imagine an interesting timeline about human development, … Continue reading →

As I’ve mentioned before, this semester I’m teaching a shiny new class in, more or less, humanities computing–“digital literary studies.”  Back when the course was scheduled, I asked to teach in a smart room–not just a room with a multimedia … Continue reading →