John Corcoran was slow to talk as a child and then when he got to school, he didn’t learn to read right away. Or in the years following. He graduated from high school and college not being able to read or write…and then got a job teaching high school.
So I graduated from college, and when I graduated there was a teacher shortage and I was offered a job. It was the most illogical thing you can imagine — I got out of the lion’s cage and then I got back in to taunt the lion again.
Why did I go into teaching? Looking back it was crazy that I would do that. But I’d been through high school and college without getting caught — so being a teacher seemed a good place to hide. Nobody suspects a teacher of not knowing how to read.
I taught a lot of different things. I was an athletics coach. I taught social studies. I taught typing — I could copy-type at 65 words a minute but I didn’t know what I was typing. I never wrote on a blackboard and there was no printed word in my classroom. We watched a lot of films and had a lot of discussions.
I remember how fearful I was. I couldn’t even take the roll — I had to ask the students to pronounce their names so I could hear their names. And I always had two or three students who I identified early — the ones who could read and write best in the classroom — to help me. They were my teaching aides. They didn’t suspect at all — you don’t suspect the teacher.
This story is not very complimentary about the US educational system (or society for that matter). BTW, I’m not sure it mattered very much that Corcoran taught while illiterate. For all we know, he was a good teacher whose discussion-based methods and empowerment of student-teachers were more effective than multiple choice tests in fostering learning. I’m much more bothered that he didn’t get the help he needed as a child…and about all the assumptions about reading and learning that are built into our educational system.
The team at Kapwing has collected a lot of images from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and presented a history of how the homepage of popular websites like Google and the New York Times have changed over time. It’s super interesting.
I particularly love how Amazon has evolved from a super high information dense webpage that sort of looks like a blog to basically a giant carousel that takes over the whole screen.
Coby McDonald writes about a new film by a deaf director, Emilio Insolera:
On April 13th, Insolera’s first feature film, Sign Gene, will make its United States debut at the Laemmle Theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The plot centers on an international band of deaf people, who, thanks to a genetic mutation, can channel superpowers through their use of sign language. The independent film is a fast-paced, genre-bending romp, shot on three continents with a cast made up entirely of deaf actors and CODAs (meaning children of deaf adults). Insolera has created the movie for both deaf and hearing audiences, and says he hopes that hearing audiences will come away from it with a broadened understanding of the richness of deaf language and experience. […]
While in school, Insolera conceived of the idea of deaf superheroes who derived powers from sign language. The idea was rooted in research showing that sign language can actually boost certain mental functions, such as facial recognition and processing spatial information.
“Of course the film is a bit fantastical,” Bauman says, “but sign language does have power in a very literal cognitive sense.” […]
Sign Gene is replete with coded references to a history and culture that most hearing people know nothing about. Q.I.A. stands for QuinPar Intelligence Agency, and QuinPar refers to the five phonological components in sign language linguistics that form signs: handshape, movement, location, orientation, and non-manual signals. Agent Tom Clerc shares the surname of a famous figure in deaf history, Laurent Clerc, a deaf educator who brought sign language to the U.S. And 1.8.8.0. is a reference to the Second International Congress on Deaf Education, which took place in Milan, Italy, in 1880. It was there that educators codified their recommendation to eliminate sign language from deaf education.
Hearing viewers of Sign Gene are likely to feel like they’re being dropped into the deep end of the pool. But Insolera—who writes, directs, and stars in the film—is OK with that. He hopes the experience of auditory and visual disorientation will give hearing people a window into the deaf experience.
Sounds well worth seeing, and I’m glad it managed to get made. Thanks, Trevor!
How much is a gold coin worth? I always wondered that.
A United States' quarter weighs 5.670 grams. The price of gold is roughly $40 a gram. So if the coins in the Mushroom Kingdom were the same weight and size of a quarter they would be worth over $225 each. BUT...Mushroom Kingdom gold coins are like the size of Mario's head. So were are talking at least a thousand quarters to encompass the same area. That makes each gold coin worth over $200,000 each. Damn...
I am willing to bet that The Game Theorists did a video about this, I just never checked.
Natalie Houlding Photography captures these adorable photos of newborn babies and turns them into famous geek icon superheroes, villains and sci-fi characters...
Google is planning to redesign Gmail for web to bring it more in line with the features and design offerings of Inbox and the Gmail mobile app. The Verge has obtained screenshots of the new UI, giving us a look at what Google has in store. The design now features elements of Google’s Material Design standard along with plenty of new features that bring Gmail up to date.
Smart replies, a carryover from Inbox, are being added to Gmail. Incoming emails will automatically be analyzed and Gmail will suggest replies or starting notes for messages. Another feature from Inbox that’s making its way to Gmail is the ability to snooze messages until a specific date and time. This makes it easy to avoid the distraction of an email thread until you’re ready to reply.
Another major change is the addition of a sidebar. This sidebar can display your Google Calendar, Google Keep for taking notes, or a list of your tasks. This should simplify scheduling via email, as users will be able to view their agenda and available time slots without switching tabs.
Three layouts will be offered. The default layout highlights photos and attachments, a comfortable view doesn’t highlight attachments, and a compact view increases the amount of messages visible on a single page. The compact view is most similar to the current Gmail layout.
Gmail has long been in need of a refresh. When Google launched Inbox in 2014, it introduced a radical transformation that left many wondering where Gmail stood. But the two services remain separate from one another and Inbox may be a testing ground for new Gmail features. In any case, Gmail users should be pleased to finally see a refresh of the web app.
The redesign is currently being tested an will likely be launched at Google I/O 2018, which begins on May 8.
It's pretty hard to imagine a single business being run continuously for 1300 years. That's pretty amazing.
From visual journalist Fritz Schumann, a short, poignant documentary on Hoshi Ryokan, a Japanese hotel built on a hot springs that has been run by the same family for 1300 years, making it the oldest running family business in the world.
This ryokan (a traditional japanese style hotel) was built over a natural hot spring in Awazu in central Japan in the year 718. Until 2011, it held the record for being the oldest hotel in the world.
Houshi Ryokan has been visited by the Japanese Imperial Family and countless great artists over the centuries. Its buildings were destroyed by natural disasters many times, but the family has always rebuilt. The garden as well as some parts of the hotel are over 400 years old.
The ryokan is now on its 46th generation of ownership. As you might expect, the changing role of the family in Japanese society has put the future succession of the hotel to the next generation in jeopardy. (via open culture)
Gmail has had the same user interface for quite some time, but it looks like Google is looking to change some things around.
As noted today by Android Police, Early Adopter Program users have been notified by email that a change is coming and that Gmail will be getting a cleaner UI along with new features like snooze, smart replies, and more. The new UI and features will be rolling out over the “coming weeks”, but Google didn’t include any screenshots that show what we can expect to see.
The ability to snooze emails is nice, which will let users pick and choose which messages appear in their inbox at a later date. It’s a similar feature to Inbox, Google’s other email client. The update will also better access to built-in G Suite amenities, like Google Calendar. Native offline support is also part of the update as well.
On the one hand, a Foundation series is possibly the most exciting TV news I've heard in a really long time.
On the other hand, does Apple make good TV? Have they ever made any other TV shows? I just don't know.
I'd feel a lot better about this if it were being produced by Netflix, Amazon, or Fox. If Apple ruins Foundation, I might just be devastated.
Mike Fleming Jr. and Nellie Andreeva, writing for Deadline:
In a competitive situation, Apple has nabbed a TV series
adaptation of Foundation, the seminal Isaac Asimov science
fiction novel trilogy. The project, from Skydance Television,
has been put in development for straight-to-series
consideration. Deadline revealed last June that Skydance had
made a deal with the Asimov estate and that David S. Goyer and
Josh Friedman were cracking the code on a sprawling series based
on the books that informed Star Wars and many other sci-fi
films and TV series. Goyer and Friedman will be executive
producers and showrunners. […]
Even the Game of Thrones’ creative team would marvel at the
number of empires that rise and fall in Foundation. Asimov’s
trilogy has been tried numerous times as a feature film at Fox,
Warner Bros (with Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, who greenlit The
Lord of the Rings), and then at Sony with Independence Day
director Roland Emmerich. Many top sci-fi writers have done
scripts and found it daunting to constrict the sprawling saga to a
feature film format. Most recently, HBO tried developing a series
with Interstellar co-writer and Westworld exec producer
Jonathan Nolan, but a script was never ordered.
I haven’t read the Foundation series since I was a teenager, but I remember being absolutely enthralled. A TV series is definitely the way to go with material like this. I don’t even think a trilogy of feature films could do justice to a story this sprawling — Foundation calls for the megamovie treatment.
I’d never seen this stunning aerial photograph of Edinburgh taken by Alfred Buckham circa 1920. Buckham was a pioneer of aerial photography, a profession he continued after getting discharged from the Royal Naval Air Service after crashing nine times and being declared “a hundred per cent disabled”. Very little slowed him down apparently, as Buckham himself wrote about his working setup:
It is not easy to tumble out of an aeroplane, unless you really want to, and on considerably more than a thousand flights I have used a safety belt only once and then it was thrust upon me. I always stand up to make an exposure and, taking the precaution to tie my right leg to the seat, I am free to move about rapidly, and easily, in any desired direction; and loop the loop and indulge in other such delights, with perfect safety.
But back to that photograph, it looks like a dang painting! Instant favorite…I can’t believe I’d never seen it before. (via sam potts)
Don?t let his pretty eyes fool you, this Flying Spaghetti Monster Colander is a straining master. And if you?re planning a spaghetti dish, this noodly prophet will grant your wish! Whether you want to build an altar to Pastafarianism at the center of the kitchen, require a more interesting colander to wear as a hat, or just want to enjoy some spaghetti-and-meatballs for dinner, this thing should serve as a viable tool for each of those tasks, all while looking so attractive!
After reading this comic, I am reminded of this Friday 4Koma.
I hate going to the doctors. It must be a man thing.
Thanks, Dad...
How much is a gold coin worth? I always wondered that. 
I've never been a fan of that show.
