I think and post about fake news a lot. Just the other day, I came across a Tweet that seemed to show evidence that a very public figure had flip-flopped on a divisive cultural issue. First I had an emotional reaction, then I checked who shared the post I was reacting to. I didn’t recognize…
There’s never enough time to cover Emily Dickinson in an AmLit survey course. Only ten of her poems were published in her lifetime, all anonymously; publication was, as she put it, as “foreign to my thought, as Firmament to Fin.” Not that she intended her poems to go unread—she often sent them in letters to…
I started my American Literature class by assigning students to listen to 40-minute audio lectures that provided context and walked them through the literary texts we were to discuss in class. As the semester drew on, I had students write podcasts to introduce texts to each other, and by the end of term I was…
The Times played it right…. Off-the-record was a mistake for the TV people, and it would have been a mistake for the Times. The paper successfully called Trump’s bluff. As much as he professes to despise the Times, he remains in some ways the Queens boy who lusted after Manhattan success and acceptance. In many…
My high school physics teacher, Admiral Peebles, showed us episodes of this nerdy, awesome science video, which demonstrated what various common motions (a falling ball, a rolling ball) look like from fixed and moving frames of reference. The 1969 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey featured a huge rotating set, a realistic representation of artificial gravity in…
Instead of being lazy or disorganized, people usually put things off because they aren’t in the right mood to complete the task. Doing so places you firmly inside the procrastination doom loop. Since you’ve decided that you aren’t in the right mood to work, you distract yourself with other tasks—checking email, checking the news, cleaning…
I very much appreciate that nobody spoiled Star Wars: A New Hope, or Star Trek Beyond. But even after we learn for the first time what happens to Ebeneezer Scrooge, or Bilbo, or Alice, or Jesus, the good stories still retain their cultural power. Stories are much more than plot. [A]rtistic appreciation, which reviewers are…
Similar:My colleague @crissycp offers warm soda bread and tea every year, as part of her authentic…AcademiaI love my students enough to teach them the difference between passive voice and past tens…If a goggles-for-brains Lego character c…Education"Oliver Twist" is a story of redemption for PICT Classic Theatre.Carolyn started rehearsals for PICT Clas…BooksWhat if I design a…
Facebook is designed to keep your attention, not inform you with an unbiased view of the truth. If you follow people who think like you, that will affect your social media feed. If you block people who infuriate you, that will also affect your social media feed. I hope FB develops a way that lets responsible…
Practicing empathy through drama and poetry and art and games and face-to-face conversations and human acts of all kinds matters. This article covers the specific social benefits that come from reading literary fiction. Film critic Roger Ebert called movies the most powerful empathy machines, but someone with the right knowledge base can say pretty much…
The premise sounds quite interesting. Realistically I doubt I’ll have the chance to see a movie until Christmas, but this is something to look forward to. So it’s time to move onto written language, and the most thrilling elements of the film are the geekiest ones: when Louise gets to explain what she’s trying to…
More on how their desire to control the narrative led journalists to ignore alternative voices: That’s the fantasy, the idea that if we mock them enough, call them racist enough, they’ll eventually shut up and get in line. It’s similar to how media Twitter works, a system where people who dissent from the proper framing…
Instead of delivering a formal speech for my approval, my students are off in groups, listening to each other. I should note that I don’t let all my students go off like all semester long. They’ve worked hard to get to the point where they know what they need to do, and they are ready…
If we were surprised Tuesday night, it was because journalism failed us. As reported in the NY Times, every major source forecasted the Clinton win for which the establishment desperately hoped. No one predicted a night like this — that Donald J. Trump would pull off a stunning upset over Hillary Clinton and win the presidency.…
My journos are out there, gathering news. I’m asking them to submit whatever they’ve gathered by the end of our 75-minute class, and then polish the story before midnight. Similar:The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise shipLast year, three cryptocurrency enthusia…BusinessHow To Talk To Babies About Semiotics (and Marxist Theory)BABY: read dog…
Jurors awarded a University of Virginia administrator $3 million Monday for her portrayal in a now-discredited Rolling Stone magazine article about the school’s handling of a brutal gang rape a fraternity house. The 10-member jury’s decision came after they concluded Friday that the magazine, its publisher and reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely were responsible for defamation,…
World Series: Chicago Tribune & the Sun-Times. Staff Photographers v No Staff Photographers. Any questions? #photojournalism @briancassella pic.twitter.com/LHLQ1VFl1o — Jim Colton (@JimmyColton) November 3, 2016 Similar:The girl as the Spanish Soloist in @laurelballettheater & @westmorelandsymphony The Nutcra…AestheticsPost-publication review as an efficient alternative to pre-publication peer reviewAndrew Gelman of “Statistical Modeling, …AcademiaWhen is Donald Trump kidding?…
Lots of good live advice in these slides. My favorite applies to taking risks of all sorts. When my students ask me “what should I pick for my topic” or “what do you want me to write about?” they are not thinking of how much they will learn by coming up with their own topic…
My daughter and I appear in this short film, one of a series of 13 Halloween movies created by Josh Reardon. Similar:The daughter was invited back to perform at this year’s Shakespeare Monologue and Scene Co… The daughter was invited back to perfo…AwesomeSee The Nutcracker!@laurelballetperformingco dancers and full @westmorelandsymphony orches…DanceCelebration of Writing Fall 2019PersonalMisaligned interior…
Similar:Preemptive Strike (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 24) Lt. Ro's loyalties are te… Rewatching ST:TNG The newly promo…EthicsEncounter at Farpoint (Season 1, Episode 1: ST:TNG Rewatch) Picard gathers his crew, hates…Rewatching ST:TNG after almost 20 years….CultureAbout to DM a journalism class role-playing exercise. Surprises coming! AcademiaBattlestar Galactica 'Launch When Ready' Bridge Girl Fan Page (updated…