If rhetoric is the art of persuasion, one might see lying as one of the most sophisticated – though not noble – rhetorical activities. Lying is, after all, persuading someone to believe in something that the speaker knows not to be true. How do we do that? (more…)
A visit to uncanny valley
In a post last semester, we used a digital archive to create new objects by designing a little tweeting machine. This technique - using an archive to create an "intelligent" machine - is not only useful for such coding exercises or publicity stunts like the Next Rembrandt. These computational methods are also...
Reviving the archive: Aristotle re-animated
In this post, we present a way of reviving digital archives. (more…)
When Democrats debate: Analyzing Clinton versus Sanders
Here, we present a computational analysis of language use in the Democratic debate, looking at each candidate's rhetorical style. Turns out that Bernie Sanders asks a lot of questions and Hillary Clinton just loves the word support. (more…)
Cool Tools: Online Mind Mapping
Mind maps are a useful tool for students to organize their thoughts, papers, or both. There is a wide variety of mind mapping software now, among them Novamind and Vue that are installed on our lab computers. (We also have several lesson plans that involve mind maps). (more…)
Talking Republican: Analyzing the GOP debate
Here, we present a computational analysis of language use in the Republican debate, looking at each candidate's rhetorical style. Donald Trump, it turns out, is a man of many, but short words; John Kasich loves asking questions; and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz rely a lot on emotionally charged language. (more…)