Things Past #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 8) Odo confronts his reputation as a hero of the resistance

Rewatching ST:DS9 Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak return from a conference on the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, where Garak got flak for his pro-Cardassian bias, and Odo is uncomfortable with his own reputation as a hero.  They’re in a runabout, so it’s no surprise that a plot contrivance particle field hits them before the opening…

Trials and Tribble-ations #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 6) Trivial Time Travel Tribble Tribute

Rewatching ST:DS9 Strait-laced time cops arrive on the station to demand “just the truth, Captain.”  Sisko’s voice-over informs us that on a trip to recover a Bajoran Plot Contrivance Orb, the Defiant picks up a passenger who would be strangely familiar to anyone who had seen any of Paramount’s extensive promotion for this episode, scheduled…

Couples in successful relationships always use these 6 phrases: ‘You’ll grow stronger both individually and as a unit,’ therapist says

“If you and your partner regularly use these phrases, it’s a sign that you’re already a mentally strong couple,” (psychotherapist Amy Morin) says. “And if you don’t yet, you can start implementing them and find that you’ll grow stronger both individually and as a unit.” —MSN “I’m going to tell you something that may be…

Students are trusting software like this to do their work.

  The technology will continue to improve so that that simulated gymnastics videos will look less and less bizarre, but people who can use AI to create flawless gymnastics videos aren’t actually learning gymnastics. No human being will become a better gymnast thanks to a better AI simulation of a gymnastics routine. More convincing AI-generated…

‘People are rooting for the whale’: the strange American tradition of Moby-Dick reading marathons

When I went off to college to be an English major, my father (who passed last December at 90) told me a story about how his respected professor at Northwestern University spent a whole lecture on the seven levels of symbolism in Melville’s Moby-Dick. Being of an analytical mind and precise mind, my father copied…

Googling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.

When I ask my students to use the library database to find scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles, some students stick with the search methods they’re already familiar with, and they submit works cited lists that include articles written by undergraduate interns, or articles from low-value pay-to-publish ecosystems like “Frontiers.” While I don’t read every article students…