[T]he Internet has dramatically changed the role of the cultural critic. Albums and movies “leak” far in advance of their due dates, entire libraries of music or television shows can be torrented and hoarded in a matter of hours, and as quickly as terabytes of .mp3s and .avis are transmitted, so too are all of…
These are shoe-holding racks at a local indoor play area, where I took my daughter and a friend for a few hours. Why buy six different rainbow-colored shoe-holding racks, if you’re not going to arrange them in the proper order? I really wanted to pick up the purple one and at least put it in…
Next up: Stage Right summer musical theater camp starts Monday! Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.Is AI making us less intelligent?January 6th … the board game?Letter to the editor: Setting record straight on Seton Hill newspaperDon't Be a Sucker (antifascist film from 1945)Hey there, chaotic world in academia and beyond, could you settle down just…
For me, summer vacation means spending hours modeling shelves full of antique books in Blender-3D, so that the library adjacent to the bridge in my steampunk ship-of-the-line looks more lived-in. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.January 6th … the board game?Hey there, chaotic world in academia and beyond, could you settle down just a bit…
Because apparently I am not already nerdy enough, the universe presented me with this version of Star Wars, written in the style of a Shakespeare play. William Shakespeare’s Star Wars® | Quirk Books : Publishers & Seekers of All Things Awesome. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season…
The headline is hype. How about “Lego faces are getting more diverse?” That would be just as true, and less misleading. Many of the recent sets come with heads that you can rotate — a happy face on one side, a scared or angry face on the other side. So it’s also true that Lego…
“Scratchy Cloak of Darkness” is based on the “Cloak of Darkness” specification — a very simple pattern, designed to help programmers compare the strengths and weaknesses of various coding environments. “Cloak of Darkness” is not going to win prizes for its prose, imagination or subtlety. Or scope: it can be played to a successful conclusion…
Wonderfully detailed analysis of two ground-breaking works of interactive fiction. I regularly assign “Photopia” and “Galatea,” but in our media projects course we never have time to analyze the works in this detail. I never did use a walkthrough for “Galatea,” so I am sure I missed lots of it. Last time I looked at…
With a big Hollywood movie now in theaters, some recent printings of the book have abandoned the classic cover in favor of one that ties in more closely with the film. So high school students working their way through the summer reading list this year will be hard pressed to find a copy without Leondardo…
This nerd’s geek heart grew three sizes today. Ubernerds are restoring the Gallileo set piece from the original Star Trek. Dedicated fans are giving new life to the shuttlecraft used in the original “Star Trek” television series. Two “Star Trek” fans are a couple of weeks away from fully restoring the last surviving large set…
Several of my journalism students have gotten interested in infographics. I’m not finished with the spring term yet, but I can’t help thinking about the fall. When we look at our reading habits and our daily interaction with all this digital data that surrounds us day and night, it becomes clear that Kress point does…
Be still, my nerdy heart. Steampunk — which has inspired books, art and fashion — hinges on the idea of a future in which we use steam, rather than oil or electricity, as our primary source of energy. Still confused? Think 19th-century fashion and technology, but applied to a futuristic world. Or check out bing…
The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own…
Open Culture. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer t…Is AI making us less intelligent?The press lobby is going feral—ignore itJanuary 6th … the board game?
Amusing visual representations of the color references in a handful of literary works. These are my colour signatures, an ongoing collection which are basically graphs of all the visual content in the books. For example when it might say ‘yellow brick road,’ ‘yellow’ gets a tally, or when for example in The Road it says…
On a scale of 1 to 10, this definitely rates a WTF. Seriously, has no one in GE ever seen The Matrix? Literally any other robot in the history of film would have been a better choice — even RoboCop would’ve made people feel more at ease, because at least he’s a police officer. Agent…
Great video about subatomic particles, from Piled Higher and Deeper. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer t…Is AI making us less intelligent?The press lobby is going feral—ignore itJanuary 6th … the board game?
Very insightful…. A reminder that even the much-praised Dove “we are exposing their advertising techniques” campaigns are just that — campaigns, designed to sell a product. (The parent company of Dove also owns Axe, which is blatant in its use of demeaning sexual stereotypes.) Brave, strong, smart? Not enough. You have to be beautiful. And…
Some of my happiest memories of fatherhood include introducing my kids to the Richard Scarry books. Featuring a huge anthropomorphised cast, with recurring characters such as Sergeant Murphy, traffic hound and pursuer of miscreants, and solid, cheerful, lederhosen-wearing Huckle Cat, Scarry’s tales of mishap, derring-do, industry and shopping always feel deeply, richly safe. Some aspects…
Nobody has to twist my arm to get me to reblog someone’s interactive fiction post. As gamers, we know perfectly well that the graphics is not everything that counts. The story, the immersion, the memorable characters – those are the things we really dig. So what would we get if we leave those and eliminate…