This fascinating essay, by the grandchild of a Nigerian slave trader, explores a complex cultural legacy. At least as provocative as “Did Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson Love Each Other?” and the stunning, bitter “Molasses to Rum (to Slaves)” from the otherwise cheery musical 1776. African intellectuals tend to blame the West for the slave…
My wife Leigh received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant towards producing the small-cast drama Full Bloom. She’s found a good space and found the right cast, and so we’re doing the whole crazy “Hey, let’s put on a show” thing again! If you’re within shouting distance, and you think the arts should matter…
This is why journalism matters: The Atlantic offers a good overview of the confusing fact that the official transcripts published by the White House and the Russian government don’t match the video. Compare this transcript, of what actually happened, to the White House’s version. Here is the record of what took place, starting with the…
We’re all still reeling from Trump’s statement yesterday that he “didn’t see any reason why it would be” true that Russia had meddled with the US election. Standing there next to Putin, he publicly rejected the positions of multiple US intelligence authorities. Today, in the face of blistering criticism from foes and friends alike, including…
I have always taken a neutral stance in my journalism classes, modeling the objective nature of reporting the news “without fear or favor.” I shall continue to uphold reporting designed to publish objective truth, and criticize and expose exaggeration, rumor, wishful thinking, and outright lies presented in the guise of truth. This fall, I…
When a Facebook friend asked for tips on teaching a large class, I inventoried what I’ve learned about the flipped classroom. For the classes I teach on a regular basis, sometimes online and sometimes in-person, I’ve had many opportunities to develop stand-alone resources that I reuse. For example, I’ve recorded some stand-alone audio lectures on…
Journalist Sam Husseini, who had been holding a sign that said “Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty,” was forcibly removed from the Trump/Putin press briefing in Helsinki today.
10 points to CNN’s Oliver Darcy for working both “when asked about” and “this reporter” into a news story that was not written by a supporting character in a 1940s gangster flick. When asked by this reporter how the company could claim it was serious about tackling the problem of misinformation online while simultaneously allowing…
Similar:My daughter was five or six when she created the character “Moonbot” for the #steampunk be…https://youtu.be/GoWiNB_tlJ8 AestheticsThoreau's Cellphone ExperimentWhen I teach “Intro to Literary Study,” …AcademiaHearing "Godzilla on My Mind" author Wiliam TsutsuiPersonalPippin! Last show today at 2pm.CultureWe are all of us works in progress. Sometimes progress looks messy.PersonalEnjoying an ice cream cake, apple pie,…
Similar:Celebration of Writing — a big presentation day for freshman writing classes.PersonalGreat energy at our Comp & Culture poster paper session. So proud of these students an…AcademiaA brief respite from grading. A brief respite from grading. PersonalLiving Room PhysicsI’ve blogged before about my eight-year-…EducationMe (glares in iambic pentameter)Me: I need to post the opening lecture…
In my lit and writing classes, I regularly encounter STEM students who are frustrated because I won’t deliver a lecture that tells them “what the poem means” and then give them points for spitting back the “correct answer.” Likewise, when I teach a math unit in my journalism class, I regularly encounter word-oriented students who…
I don’t click on headlines that use words like “might be” or “possibly.” Journalists are not in the business of reporting what might happen. Neither do they repeat rumors. A thing is not necessarily true just because a source — such as the neighborhood busybody, a crook caught red-handed, a prankster, or the President of the…
At the Carnegie Museum of Art. Similar: The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley Because what he never managed to grok …BusinessEditorial: Video Games and The Great Train Robbery Through the development of crosscuttin…AestheticsThe automatic doors on my fantasy steampunk cruiser do work… kinda TThe automatic doors on my fantasy stea…PersonalCalifornia Political Cyberfraud Abatement…
This painting was inspired by the scene from Henry VI Part 2 that Carolyn used for her Shakespeare monologue last year. Similar:Today's 10sq cm of #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blender3dartAestheticsChess tournament final pairing. (He’s currently tied for 2nd.)PersonaliMovie Glitch: Unplug Removable Media before Using iMovieI spent a few hours today working on a v…CyberculturePresidential RhetoricCultureEmpty…
Journalism matters. Educated citizens who understand and appreciate the role of the free press in a democracy are a threat to authoritarian figures who benefit by sowing mistrust. It’s perfectly reasonable to point out errors and bias in specific news stories. (News organizations love reporting about when their competitors get a story wrong, and journalists…
This is how the President of the United States spends a day when flags are flying at half mast to honor journalists murdered by a white male citizen with a legally purchased shotgun. Similar:I am not really sure why I have kept it up this long. I have no immediate or foreseeable p… CultureWhere the…
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Nick Anderson reflects on the recent firing of former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff cartoonist Rob Rogers. Getting a string of cartoons killed is generally not a good harbinger of things to come, and going public with it is a risky gambit. But, there is absolutely no reason to be an editorial cartoonist if…
At the Geyer Peforming Arts Center in Scottdale, Aug 9-12. Similar:Star Trek: "Wink Of An Eye"/"The Empath"Amusing, if cynical, reaction to some of…AmusingDo television and electronic games predict children’s psychosocial adjustment?Wow… what a drab, unquoteworthy, unsou…AcademiaWhy Study Humanities? What I Tell Engineering FreshmenWisdom from science writer John Horgan.[…AcademiaHalf a Life (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 4,…
For my summer project, teaching myself the Unity Game Engine, I’m updating the texture atlas I created for control consoles for the flagship of the steampunk bedtime stories I used to tell my kids. My designs are now a lot less blocky and more visually interesting. When I showed the girl, she was impressed. Then…
Similar:Just submitted final grades for the compressed course that began the day after fall grades…PersonalLysistrata live.Current_EventsI am a dog and I am a good boy and I am prepping my Spring courses.AcademiaThose mean fake news people at the Washington Post are at it again, this time publishing a…Those mean fake news people at the Washi…Culture‘Broken…