Not attempting historical accuracy but still had to learn a heck of a lot to model the steering mechanism for a #medievalyork #mysteryplay pageant wagon. #blender3d #blender3dart

Later I need to add spokes to those wheels. In my simulation most of this will be hidden by curtains, but I still wanted to get it right. Similar:Academic study concludes that teaching kids to touch-type can make them better writersImproving students’ handwriting skill di…EducationA Message from Hester Prynne (Student Video)Have I mentioned lately that…

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Like digging ‘your own professional grave’: The translators grappling with losing work to AI

While workers worldwide ponder how AI might affect their livelihoods – a topic on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week – that question is no longer hypothetical in the translation industry. Apps like Google Translate already reduced the need for human translators, and increased adoption of generative AI has only accelerated that trend.…

Academia / Personal

Just reminding myself that these moments do and will exist. I’ve evaluated every student submission in my queue.

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Personal

10 years later it’s so much worse.

Similar:In April, 2001 I was blogging about interactive fiction, Roget's Thesaurus, John Lennon, H… A student newspaper article about in…BooksA serious summer activity.Once classes start again, we will all ha…CultureShe’s on her way to the @thepublicpgh for two shows today as Margot in Dial M for Murder.She’s on her way to the @thepublicpgh fo…AestheticsMore #steampunk…

Business / Cyberculture / Personal / Technology / Usability / Weirdness

I’ve spent 8 hours with 24 different Verizon agents who keep transferring me back and forth

It’s not a Verizon Wireless issue. It’s not a Verizon Fios issue. It’s a problem linking my 5G Wireless and Fios accounts. The technology is working fine, but I can’t log in to pay my bill for the 5G service I purchased in July; I only see my bill for the landline account my wife…

Alphabet in Motion: How Letters Get Their Shape: pop-up book by Kelli Anderson

A fascinating concept. (Thanks for the suggestion, Mom!) Ever wonder how we ended up with so many different styles of letters? Open any text editor, email client or design app and you will immediately be bombarded with a buffet of typographic choices. Serif or sans serif? Display or text? Classical or contemporary? Formal or casual?…

News organizations held off on reporting Venezuela raid

The New York Times and Washington Post learned of a secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin Friday night — but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops, two people familiar with the communications between the administration and the news organizations said. The decisions in the New…

The daughter introduced me to this wonderful Martin Freeman comedy. Kind of like School of Rock, but with an elementary school Christmas play. Painfully funny. The kids were so authentic.

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I didn’t ask for the AI icon on my Kindle app. I can’t turn it off.

I really hate that little sparkly icon which reminds me of all the human labor that was stolen to create a product that enriches the tech barons while contributing to the environmental destruction of the planet. I absolutely to NOT want to ask my book questions. I’m reading a book precisely because I want to…

Gil Gerard (1943-2025)

I built a model of the two-pronged Starfighter (a really sleek and elegant vehicle that deserved a better name) and the one-engined Draconian fighter. I recall being impressed by the two-hour pilot I knew the series that followed was silly fluff. I was 11, so perhaps at the time I didn’t quite appreciate Erin Grey…

Fall 2025 Grades Submitted!

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The daughter is home from London.

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Misleading to suggest that because I have nothing left to mark that I have nothing to do, but this is progress.

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Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.

Twelfth-grade reading scores are at historic lows, and college professors, even at elite schools, are increasingly reporting difficulties in getting students to engage with lengthy or complex texts. Perhaps that is to be expected in the era of TikTok and A.I. Some education experts believe that in the near future, even the most sophisticated stories and…

The Moral Authority Of Animals

Chimpanzees in Arnhem’s Royal Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands had learned zookeepers’ rule that meals wouldn’t be served until all had assembled. But one day, as reported by Time magazine in 2007, two teenage chimps were more interested in staying out to play than coming in to eat. The others had to wait for hours,…

Serving at Christmas on the Hill 2025

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A lost generation of news consumers? Survey shows how teenagers dislike the news media

More than half of the teens surveyed believe journalists regularly engage in unethical behaviors like making up details or quotes in stories, paying sources, taking visual images out of context or doing favors for advertisers. Less than a third believe reporters correct their errors, confirm facts before reporting them, gather information from multiple sources or…

Here are some real statements from Pope Leo that many people who have been sharing fake memes seem to have been looking for.

Pope Leo XIV, who has made peace and unity priorities of his pontificate, emphasized that “the more we are reconciled, the more we Christians can bear credible witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a proclamation of hope for all” and, in the words of Pope Francis, “a message of peace and universal…

Pie, anyone?

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A student who is writing her research paper on Taylor Swift made a passing reference to Kanye West and offered to explain herself. Her jaw dropped when I showed her this meme I created around 15 years ago.

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I Set A Trap To Catch Students Cheating With AI. The Result Was Deflating

My classes are generally small enough that I have time to get to know each student’s writing. When a student who confuses “bias” and “biased” in a hand-written response later that day sends me an email later that day that uses “whom” and “betwixt,” I notice. I can’t prove a student is abusing AI, but…

AI Agents Are Terrible Freelance Workers

AI is getting better at rote tasks, but it still takes a human to do 97% of typical freelance tasks (according to research published by a company that sells the services of humans who tag material to train LLMs). Last year I went through part of the training process for a job that offered “up…

Goodbye, Google Search. I’ve switched to search.brave.com …for now.

I can’t stand Pinterest. I hate when Google sends me there, because Pinterest isn’t a source, it’s just a way to collect images from sources. I don’t want to interact with Pinterest, I want the images. For years I used a Chrome plugin called “Unpinterested,” which filters out the Pinterest results. Just now,…

‘History has treated her badly’: Hamnet and the 400-year-old mystery around Shakespeare’s wife and son

Anyone seen “Hamnet”? I was not too impressed by “Shakespeare in Love,” which perpetuated the biographical fallacy — that the key to unlocking the one, true meaning of a literary work is listing how each detail in a literary work “could represent” some detail in the author’s life, and that once you’ve constructed that list,…

Connecting the Dots…

Madeline Cash reflects on her boomer mother’s use of ellipses. When I texted to thank her, she responded, ‘Enjoy . . .’ Why not Enjoy period or Enjoy exclamation point? Did she resent the gift? Are the treats poisoned? There’s an extensive online discourse on the Baby Boomer generation’s penchant for ellipses. ‘OK . . .’ ‘Thanks…