Via News on the Rialto we find an article about comic book versions of Shakespeare’s plays with updated simplified language:

Shakespeare’s plays are being rewritten as comic strips for pupils who find his poetry boring, it emerged today.

Thousands of teenagers are to study cartoon versions of famous plays such as Macbeth which reduce finely-crafted passages to snappy phrases.

The publishers hope the comics – illustrated by artists who have worked on the Spiderman series – will inspire disaffected readers with a love of the Bard’s plays.

No disrespect to Spiderman, but this won’t instill anyone with a love for anything, and certainly not the Bard’s plays. Shakespeare writes using the language of poetry, which means that every word choice is significant. The interplay, music, and structure of the language is fundamental in Shakespeare’s development of plot, character, and theme. You can’t just use your Spidey sense to paraphrase this stuff and call it Shakespeare.

The Shakespeare Geek demonstrates why.

I actually like the idea of comic book versions of Shakespeare plays, as long as they use the original language. You can even abbreviate the language in comic book form. But once you take away the language, you are no longer reading Shakespeare. It’s not even dumbed-down Shakespeare. You may as well just read something else.

For example, you may wish to read these comic books that deal with delicate problems for children. It seems that even Spiderman has a secret.

That’s what you get for messing with Shakespeare.

From The Taming of the Shrew:

This is a way to kill a wife with kindness;
And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour.
He that knows better how to tame a shrew,
Now let him speak: ’tis charity to show.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Society’s firm laws today would arraign him as a spousal abuser, but the times had no sense to think that women had inherent worth, which wilts the world with KKK hate.

Archimedes once tested me in a gold crown;
I’m one book of the seven in J.K.’s renown;
When I’m low, I could cause a whole sales force to frown;
But when music’s too loud, you just might turn me down!

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Brian. See comments for answer.

The KnowledgeWorks Foundation has a map of future forces affecting education that attempts to lend some insight into the trends, dilemmas, and hotspots facing the educators of tomorrow.

The form of this map seems to overshadow the content, but the matrix does offer some food for thought once you delve into it.

From Henry V:

O! for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Be kind now and forgive this, our feeble enhanced figments of normal historical events, a great tale confounded with hotshot actors among cheap sets.

Campaign chairman for Fred Thompson? Little League coach from hell? James Bond villain?

What’s next for Karl Rove?

This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across.

You can view the high-resolution image and more on the NASA website.

From Julius Cæsar:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Marc Antony’s memory turns sour; oration is remembered for us in the encyclopædia.