EmBee

Elementary students at Elmwood Franklin School in New York recently put their education to practical use…

(via Deadspin)

This video from the SPCA of Wake County in North Carolina is pretty freaking adorable and maybe a little corny (in an endearing way, of course). They’re all so excited, it’s hard not to feel it, too…

(via The Presurfer)

A little bit of fanciful romance to make you feel all warm and fuzzy…

When I began my studies at Southeastern, there was a vague notion lingering in the back of my mind that one day I would like to teach in the college, seminary, or university. This notion drove me to begin evaluating … Continue reading →

Selections from Ilona Szwarc’s series “American Girls”…

(via Behold)

Carcassonne–a popular game created in Germany–has quickly become a personal favorite as well. Photo (cc) flickr user Darren W

Today the International Toy Fair is opening in Nuremberg. You can read more about it and games in Germany here.

Though international board game lovers may not be familiar with the name, German game publisher Hans im Glück has created some of the world’s favorites. Their creations–eleven of which have been named “Spiel des Jahres”–are put out abroad by other companies, but the fact remains: some of the world’s favorite board games come from Germany.

Take Carcassonne.  Named after the city in France that its board resembles, this Hans in Glück creation has been published in over 20 countries and hundreds of thousands of people have purchased it since its initial release in 2000. In the 13 years following eight add-ons, six mini-add-ons, and a multitude of special editions and user-created add-ons have entered the market. The principle is simple: players draw a card and add it to the playing field–resulting in a different visual effect during each game–and gain points by “building” castles and streets.

I played this game for the first time during my third year in Germany.  Friends of mine were fans, and once I finally understood all the rules involved in their set (which included five or six add-ons as well as the original game) I was completely addicted.  Since then four years have passed and now my husband and I have a Carcassonne set of our own–one so huge we need two tables to play it–and it has quickly become my favorite game.  After a trip to America where we brought it along as a gift, we left a lot of other new addicts in our wake.

The beauty of the game lies in its variability and its simplicity.  The basic move is easy, and the “building” of the play landscape has an element of the puzzle in it.  The board looks different every single time you play, and there is a lot of tactic to be considered, especially when playing with multiple additions.  You can mix and match add-ons, and each has a hint of the historical.  For example, one add-on involves the plague, and faithfully imitates how it would have broken out across the country and how it spread.

Carcassonne was created by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, a teacher of religion, composer, and resident of Cologne. Though he had never had anything formally to do with the game industry, he has been a fan since he first visited a Spieltage in Essen as a 20-something. Carcassonne was his first creation. Now 50 years old, Wrede has created a dozen mores games and Carcassonne add-ons.

If you’d like to give Carcassonne a try, you can play it online here or here.  Happy building!

I was at a party when a client’s business partner approached me. 

Client: Hey, [Client] tells me you could answer a computer question for me.

Me: Depends. What’s the question?

Client: My computer stopped working the other day. The light comes on but nothing happens.

Me: Well, it’s hard to say what might be the problem from just that. It could be something simple, it could be that something needs replacing.

Client:  Pfft! That’s the best you can come up with? What a waste of my time. 

A Redditor recently noticed that extra bacon at McDonald’s is its own item and therefore doesn’t necessarily have to be an extra on the burgers it was intended for. So she did this…

So simple, so obvious. Yet so amazing.

It turns out that bilingualism does not influence when children begin to speak. Photo (cc) flickr user deanwissing

If you are planning on raising bilingual children, you will hear it from friends and find it on the pages of books: bilingual children start speaking later than monolingual children.  But it turns out this is a myth with no basis in scientific fact.

When we decided to raise my daughter bilingually (German-English), I did a lot of research on the subject, and I saw this myth being passed around both in books and on the Internet.  I believed it, but it didn’t bother me.  So what if my daughter started talking a few months later than her peers?  This potential disadvantage seemed tiny in light of the advantages that being bilingual would bring her throughout her entire life.  Unfortunately, the idea that their children might start speaking later than other children their age can be confusing and frightening for parents, and some may decide not to pursue a bilingual upbringing because of it.  Well parents, worry no more!

Colin Baker, a researcher in childhood bilingualism has this to say in his book The Care and Education of Young Bilinguals: An Introduction for Professionals (2000):

Raising children bilingually is sometimes believed to cause language delay, though evidence does not support this position. Raising children bilingually neither increases nor reduces the chance of language disorder or delay.

A 2006 report from the Center for Applied Linguistics confirms this finding:

Although many parents believe that bilingualism results in language delay, research suggests that monolingual and bilingual children meet major language developmental milestones at similar times.

And if that information is not current enough to convince you, listen to what the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab had to say on the subject in 2009:

Although some parents and educators may have concerns about the potential for confusion, bilingual children do not suffer language confusion, language delay, or cognitive deficit.

So, for all the parents out there considering raising their children bilingually: don’t worry!  Your child’s language acquisition is unique as he is.  Some bilingual children will be “early” and some “late,” and they are all normal.  I for one am glad to know that whenever my daughter begins to speak, the time will be just right.

Are you raising bilingual children?  Have you heard this myth before?  Leave us a comment below or drop by our facebook page to tell us about your experiences!

Source.

A new ad for Internet Explorer creatively reminisces about the 1990′s…

(via Between Letters)

Almost too true to be funny…

(via Tastefully Offensive)

170 firefighters battled a huge warehouse fire in Chicago yesterday…

(via NBC)

it made sense at the time

From Doghouse Diaries…

Hey, at least there are coupons on the back.

In the spirit of Clients from Hell, several Irish creative companies joined forces on a series called “Sharp Suits”…

Ad creatives, designers, animators, directors, illustrators and more took time out to dress up their favourite worst feedback from clients, transforming quotes that would normally give you a twitch, into a diverse collection of posters.

As a non-designer, I think the popularity of mocking the people that keep designers employed is kind of petty and patronizing…but that doesn’t mean it isn’t funny.

So…here are lots of the best examples. And there are even more at their site…

No nudity…No touching…and NO Captain Kirk! — From a listing on the city of Edmonton’s Craiglist which just keeps getting better and better as you read through it…

(via Between Letters)

Comments are a vital part of making code readable, but they’re more than just documentation. They’re communication between one developer and another. They tell us what the code does, but also how we feel about it.

Scott found this, which conveys a most fervent hope for this block of code:

catch(Exception ex)
{
  // Please don't crash
}

Perhaps Martin's co-worker was proud of solving such a difficult problem:

/**
   * Please be carefull when modifying this function. This is really advanced code.
   * @return bool
   */
   public static function initResources()
   {
       return true;
   }

I hope Francesco appreciated this note, full of vulnerability and honesty:

if (type == "radio") {
// Too much complex to validate
}

And some comments are nothing but a warning to others:

</tbody></table>
       <!-- DON'T TOUCH THE LINE BELOW !!! -->
       <!-- INFERNO -->
</form>

This past Sunday, a dress rehearsal was held in Washington D.C. for the presidential inauguration later this month. In order to get everything right, clearly labeled stand-ins were used to represent the president and vice president and their wives…

(via BuzzFeed)

In this Major League Baseball team photo of the 1886 Boston Beaneaters, pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn extends his middle finger for the photograph, immortalizing himself in the trivia books as the first person to be pictured flipping the bird…

Update: Some commenters have suggested that it looks like a cigar. It does, that’s true. However it seems relatively well-documented that it’s him flipping the bird. And, it turns out, this isn’t the only time he did it.

Here’s the story of the two incidents as told by Edward Achorn in his book Fifty-nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had…

Charlie dutifully rested his right hand on the shoulder of the teammate sitting in front of him. But at the last minute, wearing a straight face…he lifted his left hand above his teammate’s other shoulder, firmly thrust out his middle finger, and held it rock steady so that it would remain sharp and clear in the captured image….

Charlie was seemingly the first man in history whose use of the obscene gesture was preserved on film. He may well have been the second, too. The following year, posing for his photograph on an Old Judge Tobacco baseball card, Radbourn placed his hands on his hips and, wearing a bland expression, subtly extended the middle finger on his left hand. Click.

Here’s that second pic…

(via Retronaut)

Here’s a painting by Van Gogh that we’re all familiar with…

And here’s a remarkably accurate replication of Van Gogh’s work by photographer Tadao Cern…

Check out this clip to see the two pieces overlay each other for comparison…

(via This Isn’t Happiness)

George R.R. Martin has a new Winds of Winter preview chapter up. I REPEAT: GRRM HAS A NEW WINDS OF WINTER PREVIEW CHAPTER UP. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. IT'S ABOUT ARIANNE AND DORNE. YOU SHOULD READ IT ANYWAYS. More »

2012’s Best of Ordinary Batman Adventures!

(Top 6 are based on note count.) View all the Ordinary Batman Adventures here!

Zombies, Run! isn’t the only thing receiving a new look - we’ve also been working hard to improve and enhance our free ZombieLink service. Don’t worry, you won’t need to wait until the Spring to get your hands on ZombieLink 2.0 - it’s available right now!

ZombieLink 2.0 is a complete redesign and, we hope you agree, looks pretty stunning. We’ve laid out your run data in a much clearer format and the statisticians among you will be glad to see a dedicated stats page, which shows off your data in all sorts of varied graph forms.

Click for full size image

Run maps are clearer, look prettier and have improved timeline views and the monthly run log lists on your profile page allow you to see how you’re improving month-on-month. Not only that but you can now also delete (not just hide) individual run logs - perfect for those accidental 3-minute long runs which wreak havoc with your stats.

Click for full size image

We’re also happy to announce that we’re releasing another oft-requested feature for ZombieLink: You can now export your run data to your RunKeeper account, so users no longer need to have both apps running simultaneously! You can also export the data in GPX format, for plugging into other mapping software, like Google Earth. It’s your data, we want you to use it in whatever way you see fit!

Click for full size image

ZombieLink 2.0 runs a lot faster in your browser and we’ve also made efforts to make it completely compatible with mobile browsers. It looks great and works perfectly on most tablet browsers. We’ve also made some important behind the scenes improvements that mean we can update and enhance the website far faster in the future.

This isn’t the end of our updates to ZombieLink. We have lots more planned as we approach the release of Zombies, Run! 2 in the Spring. In the meantime, be sure to let us know what you think of the new design!

From Nedroid…

Yup, you guessed it, I just got a haircut.  -Raf

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