Attending the Texture Contemporary Ballet.

Similar:Living Room PhysicsI’ve blogged before about my eight-year-…EducationPart of my daily routine is practicing German for about 15m per day. With no particular pr…EducationLook how the box leads your eye down to the car, then the two signs lead your eye up to th…PersonalBlender 2.8 Released. Please leave us alone together for a few days.I’ve…

On this date in 1999 I first added a date to the list of web links I had been curating. (The image has long since broken.)

On this date in 1999, I first dated an entry in the collection of web links I had been curating since at least that January. Similar:AP reporter’s mistake: Did the punishment fit the crime? Reporters have been sometimes fired …EthicsThe girl’s first day on set filming for “The First Day of Summer” Carolyn plays a…

Handwritten, all-caps note on printed script from which Trump read: "THERE WAS NO COLUSION"

Fascinating details in reports about Trump’s Russian retraction

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…

Perspective | After a stunning news conference, there’s a newly crucial job for the American press

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…

A historic picture of a classroom from the 1800s, inverted, so that the pupils are head-downwards.

Flipped Classes: Omit Housekeeping Mechanics from Recorded Lectures to Lengthen Their Shelf-life

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…

Facebook logo (white sans-serif lowercase letter "f" on a blue background).

Facebook touts fight on fake news, but struggles to explain why InfoWars isn’t banned

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…

The girl will be Mrs Lovett in Stage Right’s Sweeney Todd at the end of July. #3week #musical #theatre #summer #camp

Similar:Little green owl, if your emotions depend this much on how often I practice, that’s defin…Little green owl, if your emotions depe…PersonalTaking the Lid Off the McDonald’s Coffee CaseHave you heard the story about the lady …BusinessSuddenly Human (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 4) Picard Bonds with Human Te…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break…

Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe. —Thomas Jefferson

Similar:So, What's in It for Me?All in all, I enjoy my job very much, an…AcademiaHow Television Covered the Kennedy Assassination – a 1964 TV Guide ArticleIt was a new, shocking, traumatic thing …CultureThe barbican at Mickelgate was pulled down in the 1800s but I made a rough approximation f…The barbican at Mickelgate was pulled do…PersonalPen…

In journalism, nuances such as “sources tell us…” “reportedly…” “it appears…” “confirmed…” matter.

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…

Yesterday we took advantage of a rare free day.

At the Carnegie Museum of Art. Similar:Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.First runner-up for the girl’s Halloween…AestheticsKate Upton and Ryan Gosling Explain the SequesterApparently these are two famous and phys…AestheticsThis Is Not a Book: Thomas Jefferson & Apple's App StoreHumanities professors from the Universit…AcademiaA Tribute to…

The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, by Edwin Austin Abbey.

This painting was inspired by the scene from Henry VI Part 2 that Carolyn used for her Shakespeare monologue last year. Similar:"Moorish girl" in Man of La Mancha. (Vulcan Moorish girl.)PersonalOne of the Sadder Lost and Found Messages You'll Probably See TodayNot my item, but the pathos caught my ey…DesignJournalism, Fake News, and "Clickbait Defamation"Sometimes…

Screen shot of a Globe and Mail news article that uses an anonymous source, with an expandable inline explanation of how and why journalists use anonymous sources.

Canada’s Globe and Mail Uses Expandable Inline Meta-articles to Explain Its Coverage

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…