Happy Friday ProfHackers, and happy March Madness for those of you enjoying the tournaments! If basketball isn’t your thing, you can still get in on the fun. This year Out of Print clothing has a Book Madness tournament--their bracket pits heroes vs villains so Moby Dick takes on Humbert Humbert; can Tom Buchanan best Lady MacBeth? Is Voldemort the big bad? Over Satan? For the hero team, can Bilbo Baggins beat Natty Bumpo? Does Scarlett O’Hare stand a chance against Katniss Everdeen? And what’s Othello doing there--surely there is a Shakespearian hero who doesn’t nuder his wife (King Henry perhaps?).
Or if classical music is more your thing, head over to Tone Deaf Comics to make your picks. Its bracket features 64 pieces by 64 different composers from Bach (Toccata and Fugue in D Minor) and Mozart (Requiem) to Bartok (Concerto to Orchestra) and Barber (Adagio for Strings)--there are also composers which last names begin with letters other than “B.”
Malaysian Air flight 370 is still missing and theories continue to abound. A pilot names Chris Goodfellow speculated that the plane tried to land in Pulau Langkawi. Forbes speculates that the plane went down in Central Asia. Aviation enthusiast Keith Ledgerwood has offered another theory, which has been dubbed “the radar shadow theory,” which argues that the Malaysian flight was lost because it followed directly behind an other plane (Singapore Airline flight 68). BBC News examines ten of the most popular theories. Even Courtney Love is in on the search, joining, according to The Daily Beast, a circle of celebrity conspiracy theorists, which also includes Mos Def, Marion Cotillard, and Charlie Sheen. Personally, I think we should remember that it too 108 days for the Oceanic Six to find their way back to society . . .
In more academic news, the MLA Executive Council approved new guidelines on letters of recommendation that include sections for graduate students applying for assistant professorships and lectureships, for faculty writing letters for their students on the market, and for search committee members and others involved in the hiring process as well as for Human Resources personnel and administrators of application tracking systems. Inside Higher Ed covers the story here.
In case our Apple-using readers were wondering why iOS enables bluetooth every time you update it, Yahoo! offers this answer: basically it’s an essential part of iBeacon, which is software that “emit signals iOS 7-powered devices will automatically react to when they come within range of the beacon.” According to this post on econsultancy, it allows “a user to be greeted on their device as they walk into a store, to be guided through the store’s layout, to be shown product information and promotions and to pay without being in a queue (and without tapping anything).” But while this might be a great tool for retailers, it might also be not-so-great for users. Cult of Mac asks “Why aren’t people freaking out about iBeacon?” ZDNet argues “With great power comes great potential to annoy?” It’s worth pointing out, however, that iBeacon one transmits data; it does not receive.
Earlier this year, The Guardian ran an article proclaiming 2014 the Year to Read Women to counteract the bias towards male writers identified in a 2013 study. For the facts, go to VIDA, which analyzes media coverage of male and female writers in 2013. To help readers find more authors, the Huffington Post recently published a list of female authors in genres other than literary fiction. To supplement the HuffPo, readers might also check out Madeleine L’Engle, Tana French, and Alice LaPlante, who just published a new novel, A Circle of Wives (her debut novel, Turn of Mind was one of my favorites in 2011). For more great suggestions or to just follow along, check out #ReadWomen2014.
Our video of the week is from Fatboy Slim and features the moves of the inestimable Christopher Walken. We hope you have a great weekend, and whatever you do, we hope it includes a little dancing whether that means watching basketball, busting a move in a hotel lobby (4C’s attendees--I’m looking at you!), and simply bobbing your head to to beat on the bus.
[Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user Conrad & Peter].
