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…
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…
Two years after the release of ChatGPT, it may not be surprising that creative work is used without permission to power AI products. Yet the notion remains disturbing to many artists and professionals who feel that their craft and livelihoods are threatened by programs. Transparency is generally low: Tech companies tend not to advertise whose…
My older siblings say they remember our mother sitting them down to watch a new TV show called Sesame Street. A running gag was that Big Bird’s friend, the huge, gentle wooly-mammoth-like Snuffleupagus somehow always disappeared before anyone else on Sesame Street could see him, leading the adults on the show to believe “Snuffy” was…
I played hooky to go see Wild Robot this afternoon, so I went back to the office to mark more papers. Plenty more to go, but I put a good dent in things. The story and characters of Wild Robot were not as engaging as those of Wall-E, and the problem of “how do predators…
I first started teaching with this handout in 1999 and posted it on my blog in 2000. Like the Ship of Theseus, I’ve made gradual changes so it’s not really the same document, but just now I spotted hilariously out of date references to bringing along transparencies with you as a backup. Similar:Meet the 12-year-old…
Back in 2003, shortly after I moved with my wife and two young children to take my current job, I was eager to make new friends and rebuild my social network. One evening, my wife agreed to watch the kids so I could drop by the local branch of a national service organization in which…
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. @thepublicpgh Similar:Students present their research for the Celebration of Writing @setonhilluniversityPersonalNot bad for a couple hours of work. #blender3d #blender3dart #steampunk #neovictorianNot bad for a couple hours of work. #ble…AestheticsThose emails can wait.PersonalDuring a modest snowfall, I’m passing the time in a public place where…
Journalism is not a crime. It’s not a crime if it offends the powerful. It’s not a crime if it doesn’t offend them enough to suit you. Yes, journalists make mistakes. Yes, you should take a break from doomscrolling for your mental health. But the First Amendment freedom of the press is crucial to democracy.…
As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name…
Predatory publications are not concerned with writing quality (or even coherence), and thus also do not care about writing tools (although we could, perhaps, include generative AI as a tool that replaces those used by human authors). The rules change pretty radically as the predatory version does away with nearly all of the rules in…
Our family has seen David Whalen in the persona of Sherlock in five or six different shows. So happy Carolyn will be on stage with him this time. Similar:How reading fiction can help improve our mental healthIn general, I avoid clicking on any head…BooksAs Twinkle Twinkle is to Suzuki musicians, so is a wooden shipping…
“While my dad has always spoken lovingly and fondly of his old Camaro he sold for my ‘diaper money’ he was never sour about it,” Jared confesses. “There wasn’t negativity about it. He wasn’t sad. He wasn’t angry. He talks about the selling of the car like it was a duty.” This diaper money Camaro…
“While my dad has always spoken lovingly and fondly of his old Camaro he sold for my ‘diaper money’ he was never sour about it,” Jared confesses. “There wasn’t negativity about it. He wasn’t sad. He wasn’t angry. He talks about the selling of the car like it was a duty.” This diaper money Camaro…
I may have mentioned that I have a daughter who does things. @frontporchtheatricals Similar:The girl's modern dance choreography workshopAestheticsSomewhere out there, somebody is working really hard to come up with a meme to blame this …Front page of the Miami Herald newspaper…BusinessIgnorance Meets an Invisible DisabilityI’m sure my young, healthy-looking frien…CultureFacebook Announces $300 Million Project,…
My mother-in-law invited me to try out the 60- year-old tape machine that belonged to my father-in-law. When I worked in radio news in the late 1980s, we were still loading reels and splicing tape, so it all came back to me pretty quickly. Similar:In October, 1999 I was blogging about college application essays,…
About 30 years after I first saw John Speed’s 1676 map of York, today I was working on a region labeled “Z.” Or is that a “2“? There’s both an X and a 3 nearby… confusing context! A glance at the legend shows how brilliantly Speed handled the ambiguity. #usability #ux #ui #design #medieval #cartography…
Talkback session after the matinee and my brother and faculty colleagues after the evening performance. Audiences were gasping, laughing nervously, exclaiming sotto voce about “fingerprints!” and “the key!“ and “Was that *supposed* to happen?” and “This is *good*!” @thepublicpgh #dialm #understudy (We knew well in advance Carolyn would be performing yesterday.) My daughter informed me…
She’s on her way to the @thepublicpgh for two shows today as Margot in Dial M for Murder. Similar:Fox lawyers Convince Judge that Fox's Tucker Carlson is "not stating actual facts" and "an…To defend Fox personality Tucker Carlson…CultureMythbusting UX design: 7 misconceptions about user experiencePerhaps the most common mistake of any b…BusinessU.S. Press Freedom TrackerIt’s…
Support the arts in your community! #augustwilson #radiogolf Similar:The Cabaret Theatre (Latrobe) presents Shakespeare's popular Midsummer Supernatural pranksters! mismatched …CultureHow Fake News Happens: It's simple! A governor tweets a Fox News graphic from a story that…How dare President Biden be invoked by a…CultureGame Design Program for Education & TrainingI haven’t tried GameSalad yet… and won…AcademiaThe…