“Jewish priests do this. It’s where Leonard Nimoy got the Vulcan sign,” says the geekling, who is excited for Fiddler on the Roof auditions.

Similar:Why typewriters beat computersThe BBC offers a pleasant bit of retroph…AestheticsLiz Fosslien's insightful comic on unhealthy conflict vs. healthy conflict.PersonalFirst Day in the Theatre for Twelfth Night (May 3-12) Daughter: (is sad her “first day in …CultureDate a girl who reads.I earned a +8 or +9 spousal bonus when I…AmusingThe Better Angels of Our WritingCopy…

“What Teachers Make” Sequence of Assignments

Every year I rewatch Taylor Mali’s passionate defense of “What Teachers Make.” As part of a sequence of assignments designed to help students write a more engaging personal literacy narrative, I use Mali’s speech. Yes, it’s my job to teach composition, but composition is a term that applies to music, photography, choreography, athletics, etc. Students…

The Rhetoric of Anthems and the Drama of Kneeling

I don’t follow sports, so I don’t feel fully equipped to comment on the issue, but when a friend raised it via an email I thought I’d share my thoughts about the rhetorical and dramatic nature of patriotism and protest. I have often wished I could attend a concert/literary discussion where singers performed the national…

World Trade Center Literary and Cultural Reflections (first posted September 11, 2001)

Not knowing what else to do, in the numb hours after the towers fell, I made a web page that explored the World Trade Center in literature and culture, as well as urban technology in general. I updated it a bit over the next few weeks or months, but have mostly left it as an…

Facebook’s Censorship Problem Is What Happens When a Tech Company Controls the News

Facebook makes editorial decisions that affect its presentation of news through its “news” (?) feed. But Facebook is in the business to make money for Facebook, and the trending topics feed is just a tool to keep people on Facebook. Someone needs to assign Facebook a faculty adviser. In the space of a single day,…

#setonhill remembers 9/11/2001.

Similar:What Critics of Student Writing Get Wrong [T]o improve as writers, student…AcademiaDeath to high school English”There’s such an emphasis on keeping stu…AcademiaBusy with Midterm GradesPosted midterm grades for the most labor…AcademiaThe Dish (2000 Australian comedy)I try to watch this every July to commem…CultureForgive and Remember: How a Good Boss Responds to MistakesI’m thinking about risk.…

That’s what’s been bothering me since yesterday’s #AirPod reveal. #manamana

Number of times one of my $9.99 headphones fell out of my ears while I was mowing the lawn this morning: 3. Likelihood I might spend $159 on AirPods: 0%. Likelihood I might spend $15.90 on AirPods: 0%. Similar:Cat-sitting. Hello, Blue.PersonalMarketers package female empowerment to sell productsThis article makes an excellent point. T…BusinessClassic. So good!…

The End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRM

When you plug an audio cable into a smartphone, it just works. It doesn’t matter whether the headphones were made by the same manufacturer as the phone. It doesn’t even matter what you’re trying to do with the audio signal—it works whether the cable is going into a speaker, a mixing board, or a recording…

Why Are Babies So Dumb If Humans Are So Smart?

Fascinating theory. The hard work of raising helpless babies is part of the natural selection process that made us as a species so intelligent. Natural selection favors humans with large brains, because those humans tend to be smarter. This may create evolutionary incentives for babies that are born at an even earlier developmental stage, which…

Breakfast Battle from “The Miracle Worker” (Pamela Lee as Annie Sullivan and Carolyn Jerz as Helen Keller)

Update: Here’s a clip of the whole breakfast scene (recorded during a performance). A few weeks ago, my 14yo played Helen Keller in the Latrobe Cabaret Theatre’s production of The Miracle Worker. This clip is from a rehearsal of the epic breakfast scene, a wordless battle of wills between young Helen (who has been blind…

BREAKING: All ITT Campuses Will Close

All ITT Tech campuses will be shut down, its parent company announced today. — Inside Higher Ed Similar:Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral FactsIndeed, in the world beyond grade school…CultureAnother student matinee. So many excited kids for Frankenstein. @prime_stage BooksPast Prologue (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 3) A renegade seeking asylum test…Rewatching ST:DS9…

Crowther’s Adventure: Tough Memes to Squash

Will Crowther, an RPG-er, created the first text-based adventure game for computers Colossal Cave Adventure in 1975.6 When Don Woods developed it into Adventure in 1976-1977 he added the Tolkienian elements of trolls and elves. —Helen Young, Journal of Tolkien Research Well, yes, but Crowther had already started with the Tolkenian elements of underground dwarves,…

Woah there, online tech site. Let’s not set that bar too high, now.

I just saw the following clickbait for an ongoing non-story in the technology world: “All the latest speculation about [topic X] in one place.” That’s less like a news headline and more like the punchline to a New Yorker cartoon. No, I did not click the link. Similar:Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies Thou shalt…

She was the PTA mom everyone knew. Who would want to harm her?

Great reporting from Christopher Goffard of the LA Times. Now she watched as her ruin seemed to unfold before her. It was enough to send her to jail, and more than enough to destroy her name. Source: She was the PTA mom everyone knew. Who would want to harm her? Similar:Iffy "Cloak of Darkness" on…

Seeing Floyd Collins, a musical about caving and journalism. Front Porch Theatricals.

Similar:Come see Carolyn and her talented castmates in The Fantasticks (Theatre Factory, Trafford …PersonalStage Right's Alice in WonderlandMy daughter shared the role of Alice thi…CultureWhen your January term starts Dec 18. #partylikeaprofAcademiaMore #Blender3D practice. Additional details for a steampunk control panel. Just because.AestheticsA support sloop on deck and in the landing bay. #steampunk #neovictorian #aesthetics…

STAR TREK’s Still as Relevant on the 50th Anniversary

In situations of change, it is natural for human beings to look for touchstones. As a human being, I had always sought a center to my life, an example to follow. What I hadn’t realized was that I was already following a path into the future. It was pointed out to me at a business…

Facebook does not care about truth. Facebook wants to sell your attention to the highest bidder.

Don’t trust your Facebook feed. All Facebook wants is for you to spend time on Facebook, so that they can sell your attention to the highest bidder. Facebook recently fired 18 employees whose job was to write headlines for and monitor the “Trending Topics” list. When that list fell under scrutiny for an alleged…

How to Think Like Shakespeare

Saving this for the next time I teach Shakespeare. All well and good, you say, but my parents are worried about what I’m going to do after I graduate. There, too, Shakespeare can be a model. When he was born, there wasn’t yet a professional theater in London. In other words, his education had prepared him…

Rip Van Winkle

Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles, and never failed, whenever they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children…

Facebook Removes Human Curators From Trending Module

Today, Facebook announced that human curators will no longer write short descriptions that accompany trending topics on the site. Instead, the company will rely on an algorithmic process to “pull excerpts directly from stories.” The company also said it will stop using human curators to sort through the news…. It’s important to note that Facebook originally…