Subscriber Marije Martijn graciously sent suggested the following Visual Thesaurus learning activity for students, after she read our "Wanted" posting from a teacher:

"In response to the teacher's query: I was thinking it might be nice to give kids an association assignment, telling them to get from, say, tree to society in four steps. Entering tree in the VT would get you, among others, wood. Clicking on wood gets you club, and from club you get to society.

If this is too difficult, you can just ask them to find two words that are entirely unrelated in a small number of steps. This kind of assignments will make them think about synonyms (e.g. "club") and in general about relations between words. And to tell you the truth, I think it is also just fun to do. Best, Marije"

In his excellent blog, 2 Cents Worth, noted educator, author and speaker David Warlick argues for "an education system that is challenged to prepare children for their future -- and it's not their father's future." To meet this challenge, he says, a flat classroom is imperative. What does David mean by a "flat classroom?" To find out, read his post here.

Two of the science fiction authors that our colleague Robert recommends in the latest "Dog Eared" book picks also write regular... well, don't call them "blogs." Check out Neil Gaiman's Journal and George R.R. Martin's Not a Blog.

The Sports Closet - an area of the Lounge hitherto closed to visitors - is thrown open this month as we examine some linguistics curiosities brought to light by the recent World Cup.  Continue reading...

It goes by any number of rubrics: Science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy. Whatever you call it, a software developer here at the VT named Robert W. is a huge fan. When he's not busy fine-tuning our visualization technology, he's nose-deep in the genre. We asked Robert to tell us about his favorites:

The Uplift War by David Brin. What constitutes sentience? At what point does a species deserve rights?

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Honor, betrayal, sibling rivalry, Machiavellian machinations, lust, and completely unpredictable plot changes. Who could ask for anything more?

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. What would time travel do to the world of academics? Well, it would let historians work more like anthropologists.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. A hilarious, heart-warming, enjoyable look at the apocalypse. No, really.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. A glimpse of the near future. Funny, entertaining, and disturbingly plausible.

I am not an identical twin. Before writing TWINS, I had started another novel about a young woman in San Francisco and then I realized that the last thing I wanted to do was write a book about myself. Instead, I set out to amuse myself. I started with a new, outlandish voice (Sue) and then countered her voice with a quiet, controlled opposite (Chloe).

I have always been fascinated by twins. I'm also drawn to coming of age tales, stories of troubled teens, confused college students; the stories of disaffected, young women always pull me in. I made Chloe and Sue blond and beautiful because I could, and smart, too, because I'm only interested in intelligent, sensitive suffering characters.

 Continue reading...

What's in a name? According to expert Nancy Friedman, who writes a blog called Away With Words, everything: "A name is the title of your story. You may think you're naming your company or your product. But in fact you're putting a title on the story you're telling investors, shareholders, customers, and employees. If you're smart and lucky, the name you choose will be the title of a great story. A saga. A legend. A tale told around the campfire for generations." Read the entry here.