http://readsomething.edublogs.org Another excellent Edublogs.org weblog Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:29:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The novelist John Updike has died.  One of the most acclaimed writers of the past fifty years, Updike was celebrated for his novels set in suburbia, including the "Rabbit" tetralogy (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; and Rabbit at Rest).  He also wrote poetry, essays, and book reviews. Here is ... http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2009/01/27/john-updike-1932-2009/ Students, An assessment of an artist's body of work is a nice thing to put in your critical journal.  Here is one man's take on Billy Joel.  Note how the writer's tone and diction reflect a seething anger that Joel even exists, much less that he writes and performs mediocre music. http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2009/01/27/a-takedown-of-billy-joel/ Here is the Word file with Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." emerson-self-reliance Interestingly, our new President says this essay is a big influence.  See if you can figure out why. http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2009/01/26/ralph-waldo-emerson-self-reliance/ Recently, Karl Rove wrote a column for The Wall Street Journal about the competition he and now-former President Bush held every year to see how many books they could read. Today, New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani has an article about the books that have influenced Barack Obama.  Nice to ... http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2009/01/20/presidential-reading/ Here is the Thoreau piece you need to read by Tuesday: "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" Feel free to tweak the Word document however you like.  If you want to read more Thoreau, you can find more of him here. And here is your Wendell Berry reading for Thursday: Wendell Berry, ... http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2009/01/16/a-couple-of-readings-for-next-week/ Here is a review of an interesting new book about how presidential speeches have focused less and less on logos and more and more on pathos--to America's detriment. http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2008/11/28/the-decline-of-presidential-speeches/ To my students: What does it say about our culture if a mob of shoppers tears the doors to a Wal-Mart off their hinges and tramples several people, killing one of them?  Another one of the victims was a woman who was eight months pregnant.  Happy shopping, everybody. http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2008/11/28/black-friday-turns-deadly/ I just got back from seeing The Dark Knight a second time, and something struck me, not just about the film itself, but about Gotham City's ongoing problems with crime.  Batman has been around for almost seventy years now, but his home turf still looks pretty sketchy.  Sure, there is ... http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2008/11/27/is-batman-effective/ Consider seeking Lemony Snicket's wise counsel. http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2008/11/25/need-advice/ ...if you can find a way to improve Cinematch's accuracy by ten percent.  Cinematch is the program that matches customer ratings with recommendations, and Netflix's own programmers have hit a wall in trying to improve it.  The New York Times has a great piece about the teams of programmers (many ... http://readsomething.edublogs.org/2008/11/21/netflix-will-give-you-1-million/