It’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount of disinformation being spread by elected officials and partisan agitators with lots of followers. FEMA is not out of money, it’s not confiscating damaged property, and it’s not biased for against any ethnic groups or political affiliations.

It’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount of disinformation being spread by elected officials and partisan agitators with lots of followers. FEMA is not out of money, it’s not confiscating damaged property, and it’s not biased for against any ethnic groups or political affiliations. Similar:Cry from a Far Planet by Tom Godwin (WAOB Audio Theatre; read…

Bogus hit-and-run story about Vice President Kamala Harris created by Russian troll farm, Microsoft says

A healthy respect for the free press and the institution of journalism is absolutely crucial for a healthy democracy. Media literacy matters, while a jaded “I don’t trust journalists, I do my own research” DIY attitude is easily co-opted. A false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was involved in a June 2011 hit-and-run incident…

Bury Berry Family Members – a review of “Very Berry Dead” – ‘Burgh Vivant

The cast of comical, quirky characters are most enjoyable. Marigold (Carolyn Jerz) is hilarious as the new age, love child who always sees the best in everybody and everything. Jerz floats, whirls, and glides across the stage. She’s delightful and believable in her role. Her presence on stage brings lightness and spreads joy. —Burgh Vivant…

Very Berry Dead Makes a Big Impression at Big Storm Performance Company

Carolyn Jerz lights up the stage from her first entrance, almost literally. Dressed in bright colors and elaborately coiffed, with her face made up so pale white that it glows (think Björk meets Catherine O’Hara in Beetlejuice), Jerz imbues the role of spiritualist and yoga enthusiast Marigold with an outsider energy that is otherworldly, larger than life,…

The Blood and the Blame

Moments after Donald Trump was rushed to safety following a failed assassination attempt at a Saturday night rally, some of his supporters turned toward the press pen with obscenities as they fingered reporters for blame. “This is your fault!” one attendee emphatically yelled, pointing at individual journalists as he approached the fence line separating them from attendees.…

The daughter is in “Very Berry Dead,” a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two weekends in Pittsburgh.

The daughter is in “Very Berry Dead,” a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two weekends in Pittsburgh. Similar:The Outrageous Okona (TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 4)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…PersonalIn discord with its own rules, the AP refers to an 18yo mass-shooting suspect as a "teenag…The AP’s own rules say…

Journalism has become ground zero for the vocation crisis

When scholars of journalism study the effects of the shrinking press corps, they usually focus on how it hurts civil society. Vast swaths of the country are at risk of becoming “news deserts,” with limited access to reliable local journalism. This state of affairs makes it harder for people to make educated decisions and is…

Paramount Erases Archives of MTV Website, Wipes Music, Culture History After 30 Plus Years

I was never really a fan of MTV, I assume because I grew up without cable TV as a teenager in the 80s, and because I was very busy with grad school and starting a family in the 90s. I didn’t really feel like I had much in common with my “Gen X” cohort (most…

A journalist shot by police while covering the 2020 protests is dying of her injuries

Cops gotta cop, and that means keeping pesky journalists under control. Tirado was 38 in May 2020 when she drove from Nashville, Tenn., to Minneapolis to cover the unrest unfolding after the murder of George Floyd. He died when a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes. The city became an epicenter…

Travel trouble, gun restrictions and no more ‘Mr Trump’: the trials of life as a felon

It’s unlikely to be at the forefront of the former president’s mind as he reflects on the verdict, but one immediate consequence is that Trump will probably lose the honorific title of “Mr” in the news pages of the UK’s Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph’s style guide states: “Defendants in criminal court cases … are to be referred…

The Washington Post Tells Staff It’s Pivoting to AI: “AI everywhere in our newsroom.”

Already facing scandal, the Washington Post‘s new-ish CEO and publisher, Will Lewis, has announced that the newspaper will be pivoting to artificial intelligence to turn around its dismal financial situation. […] The paper’s chief technology officer, meanwhile, announced to staffers that going forward, WaPo is to have “AI everywhere in our newsroom,” according to Tani. It’s unclear,…

Google’s broken link to the web

I guess now we know why for the past decade or so Google doesn’t seem to be valuing what used to be magical about Google — the ability to rank pages so effectively and connect users to web pages that met their needs. That’s just not what’s driving Google these days. With AI search results…

NASA reconnects with Voyager 1 (after months of confusion)

NASA says it is once again able to get meaningful information back from the Voyager 1 probe, after months of troubleshooting a glitch that had this venerable spacecraft sending home messages that made no sense. The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes launched in 1977 on a mission to study Jupiter and Saturn but…

NASA Communicates with Ailing Voyager 1 Spacecraft

I remember staying up well past my bedtime in the late 70s and early 80s, watching the local PBS station where experts sat around a table, poring through freshly-printed glossy photos of mountain ranges, rings, and craters. I remember them holding up one photo and discussing whether they were looking at the disk of a…

Looks like somebody’s webmaster accidentally preloaded a headline that would be easy to edit either way, and that placeholder headline got (at least briefly) published.

Looks like somebody’s webmaster accidentally preloaded a headline that would be easy to edit either way, and that placeholder headline got (at least briefly) published. Similar:My brother set my parents up for a Mother's Day video call.AmusingContext matters. Trump called MS-13 gang members “animals,” but critics say he was talking…There are many, many legitimate, evidenc…CultureAlways…

Princess of Wales photo furore underlines sensitivity around image doctoring

Catherine’s attempts to adjust a family photo, amid frenzied social media speculation about her wellbeing, have run straight into widespread concerns about trust in images, text and audio in a year when half the world is going to the polls. “This photo is a prime example of why 2024 is a crucial year for spotting –…

Duke stops assigning numeric values to essays, test scores

This story is about the admissions process, not about academics. Duke University is no longer assigning numerical ratings to applicants’ standardized test scores and essays, a university spokesperson confirmed in an email to Inside Higher Ed. The change was made earlier this year and has been in effect for the latest round of applications. […] Dean…

I just tried Open Shot Video Editor, a free open source tool

For years I used ScreenFlow, which offers a paid upgrade every couple of years, and doesn’t update the old versions when OS upgrades break them. There was a time when I was making promotional videos almost every week for a nonprofit, and at the time I thought some of the specific features of ScrenFlow were…

A Merry Look at Journalism in “The Year Without a Santa Claus”

Similar:Jeff Bezos Plan for News: The Washington Post Becomes an Amazon ProductFor the past few months, a group inside …BooksMidterm Grades Submitted.AcademiaPope calls Argentine kiosk owner to cancel paper deliveryThis is a very cute story, further illus…AmusingOminous Darkness Descending On Webpage Portends Grim Age Of Autoplaying Ad To ComeFortune’s fool, I wagered I would…

Happy ice cream turkey cake day.

Similar:As Mount St. Mary’s Offers to Reinstate 2 Professors, Faculty Demands President QuitThe president of Mount St. Mary’s Univer…AcademiaI'm honestly not sure where that came from.For my summer project, teaching myself t…AestheticsIt’s been a while since something got me into a movie theater. Obviously I wasn’t in a rus… It’s been a while since something…

Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)

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