Okay, a lot of the world is pretty awful right now, but here’s an uplifting video about the “success kid” meme.

Similar:Myths about "Learning Styles Persist in SocietyI first heard the formalized theories ab…AcademiaWhy teens need live theater in the age of YouTubeA good article from the Boston Globe. T…CultureFrom The 'London Times' of 1904A Mark Twain short story, written in 189…CybercultureBurgh to Burg, episode 2.AcademiaA Message from Hester Prynne (Student Video)Have I mentioned lately that…

No, Trump’s tweet about “Heritage, History, and Greatness” is not a quote from a speech Hitler gave in 1939

Trump really did tweet “This is a battle to save the Heritage, History, and Greatness of our Country!” Plugging those words into Google Translate yields “Dies ist ein Kampf um die Rettung des Erbes, der Geschichte und der Größe unseres Landes!” I could be wrong, but I think Größe in German just means “physical size,”…

After a pretty crappy day, I found shreds of joy in this clip of socially distanced salsa.

In my discipline, teaching small seminars typically depends on students sharing their weaknesses and vulnerabilities in pairs and small groups, gradually building trust while the teacher moves through the room, listening and joining in and backing away as appropriate. Masked students who are 6 feet away from each other will have to shout their failures…

Post-publication review as an efficient alternative to pre-publication peer review

Andrew Gelman of “Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science” writes: Peer review is fine for what it is—it tells you that a paper is up to standard in its subfield. Peer reviewers can catch missing references in the literature review. That can be helpful! But if peer review catches anything that the original authors…

Liberal arts college professor assaults alt-right group member

Carefully choosing language that fits your slant is a powerful form of persuasion. I try to teach my students to recognize and avoid biased language, which is a more difficult process than simply firing back with different biased terms that support your own slant (“You’re an anti-choice woman hater,” “No, you’re an anti-life baby killer!”).…

A Matter of Perspective (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 13) Multiple-POV Courtroom Drama

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. An agitated Riker, beamed off of a research station just before it explodes, finds himself charged with murder. Testimony from Riker, the victim’s widow, and (indirectly) the victim tell conflicting stories. A solid storytelling concept, which somewhat freshens a mishmash of already-familiar TNG tropes: a brilliant male scientist, his…

Synchronous Online Classes: 10 Tips for Engaging Students

Every time I have taught an online class, I have made it asynchronous. I’m blogging these synchronous teaching tips so I can find them again when I’m prepping my fall classes (which will likely be HyFlex). The tips offered here won’t miraculously eliminate the initial awkwardness of virtual class sessions, but they’ll help. And over…

Leveling up my skills in #blender3D.

Using invisible shapes to cut holes in the hull, and a shrinkwrap modifier to align the cockpit frame and the glass. Similar:I Felt a Great Disturbance in the Font. And the Margins.You don’t want to use Courier New and 1….AcademiaLego faces are getting angrier, study findsThe headline is hype. How about “Lego fa…AestheticsMe: Carolyn, are…

Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting

Thoughtful essay from Julio Vincent Gambuto. Get ready, my friends. What is about to be unleashed on American society will be the greatest campaign ever created to get you to feel normal again. It will come from brands, it will come from government, it will even come from each other, and it will come from…

Dog and TP Wall

Similar:Helvetica Bold Oblique Sweeps FontysHelvetica Bold Oblique was the big winne…AestheticsCombating Shakespearean shrinkage – Shakespeare & BeyondThe worst reaction to Shakespeare’s comp…CultureOn Their Last Day, Student Newspaper Editors Cover a Shooting on Their CampusTHREE HOURS BEFORE A SHOOTING WAS FIRST …AcademiaMy Ouya arrived.My Ouya arrived — a Kickstarter-funded …CybercultureI assume the police report didn't specify…

Fake Graph: The Actual “Dunning-Kruger Effect” Is NOTHING Like I Thought It Was

For years, I’ve been teaching a fake graph. In pretty much every course I teach, on some day when students seem discouraged or distracted, I’ll draw an X axis labeled “Experience” and a Y-axis labeled “Confidence,” and sketch out the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” curve, as preparation for an informal pep talk. (Update, 27 Nov 2021: My…

MoonBot is back. This time he fights a new adversary. #Blender3D physics practice.

I submitted midterm grades at about 11 last night, quickly modeled a new object, and let the animation render overnight.   Similar:Texture WriterI’ve only glanced at TextureWriter, but …CybercultureFULL BLOOM at Latrobe’s Olde Main, Aug 30-Sep 2.CultureWhy Textbooks And Education Are To Blame For Fake NewsThe way we teach it at Seton Hill, as a…

Coronavirus Tribute to Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” (1942)

I found this image on Facebook (where it was being shared without attribution). Similar:What the police really believe: Inside the distinctive, largely unknown ideology of Americ…“That whole thing about the bad apple? I…CultureNewsworthy vs snoozeworthyJerz > Writing > Journalism JournalismLooking in on the officers' wardroom (conference and dining) one deck above the main … I thought of the interior…

Toasty Warm Bed (designed by drunk AI neural net)

Similar:New NASA Astronaut Wrote a Limerick to Get Hired “There was a lot of writing involved…AmusingHow to lie with charts, by the @NYTimes I tend to defend journalism when sho…Current_EventsSalman Rushdie: how Cervantes and Shakespeare wrote the modern literary rule bookBy a set of strange coincidences, compli…BooksMedia Companies Are Getting Sick of FacebookAll of us…

Musician uses computer algorithm to compose every melody possible in C, releases them for free online to fight copyright trolls

  A lawyer and hobbyist musician collaborated with a computer programmer to generate every possible 12-note melody in the key of C. The final compilation includes 68.7 billion melodic combinations, which the pair uploaded to the Internet Archive through a Create Commons Zero license, meaning they reserve no rights of ownership to any of them.…

Computers and Writing 2020 Funding Request: Submitted

My contributions this year are a workshop on #Inform7 and “Fixed It For You: Modding Memes, Maps and Minds”. Similar:Chess tournament.PersonalThe quest to save today’s gaming history from being lost forever “If you want to know how the game was pl…CybercultureA brief respite from grading. A brief respite from grading. PersonalMy meeting was cancelled, so I…