Best of SkyMall

The one rule of teaching

May 5, 2011

Pauline Kael is regarded to be one of the best film reviewers to have ever lived. Sam Sacks has a piece on Kael in which he describes her style of film review, one based less on academic nitpicking and the presence (or absence) of directorial flourishes than on her...

Walking away from Happy Valley

Nov 14, 2011

I have been haunted the past week or so with the scandal enveloping Penn State. Much as been written about it already - and I really have nothing fundamentally new to offer to this discussion. What I did want to share was a parallel that struck me recently about these...

YouTube & Research

May 7, 2008

In a previous post I mentioned a new study on children and the internet recently completed by Warren Buckleitner for Consumer Reports Web Watch. Anyway, towards the end of the post I mentioned how the final report includes links to YouTube videos of the actual data...

Creativity is greatly valued: A poem

May 12, 2019

Creativity is greatly valuedCreativity is greatly valued For his sharpness His ability to look beyond The surface And willingness to Give it a shotTo break Out of the box The cubicle And jump When the towers burnt Who knew Box cutters Had...

The commodification of ugly

Sep 23, 2008

Noah, one of the students in my design doctoral seminar sent me this video by Ze Frank. Check it out.

On breaking the rules (and words)

Jul 11, 2010

My daughter on her blog has a new poem / haiku called Sweat, a haiku with one glich. She is in India right now where the temperatures are easily in the 90's - which I guess explains the genesis of the poem. What was more interesting, to me however, was the manner in...

Teaching design, some ideas

Jan 22, 2010

I recently received an email from a teacher in Poland, seeking advice for a curriculum outline for their Design Technology Section. They said, and I quote: Unfortunately, I have minimal experience with the subject as a teacher or as a student in my younger years,...

Barcode yourself

Oct 7, 2009

Now that all of us are commodities, with personal brand names (and brand value) it is time to take the next step. It is time to get your own barcode! A quick scan with a barcode reader and your worth will be known to one and all. I was prompted to thinking of this...

Following up on lunar distance

Mar 27, 2009

A followup to my previous posting about the Italian kids calculating the distance to the moon using recordings from the Apollo Space program. As I read the story on the technology Review website, I came to the comments made by readers. One stuck out. This is what...