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…
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…
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…
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…
Our future robot overlords never looked so squishy. A team of Harvard University scientists has built an entirely soft robot — one that’s inspired by an octopus. The octobot, described this week in the journal Nature, could pave the way toward more effective soft robots that could be used in search and rescue, exploration and…
Similar:Proto iPads and Paper Coexist in Classic Star TrekRewatching the classic Trek episode “The…CyberculturePythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than PythagorasTranslating the markings from base 60 – …CultureThe Wedding PresentI’m approaching day 900 in my Duolingo a…CultureLoki's Loop Escape RoomGreat concept for a virtual escape…CultureUmberto Eco and his legacy in open-world gamesI…
This short film documents an early attempt to use hypertext to help students study poetry. A fascinating early collaboration between computer science and the humanities. Similar:“We hate math,” says 4 in 10 – a majority of AmericansIf 30% love math, and 30% are neutral ab…AmusingDon't Be a Sucker (antifascist film from 1945)https://youtu.be/CXm3WxU–fM?si=E1BHac8J…CultureImpact of One-size-fits-all Web…
Similar:Is this Wonka's factory, or the presidential picnic @setonhilluniversity ? PersonalUneasy Lies the Head — Tyrant: Shakespeare on PowerJohn Stubbs reviews Stephen Grenblatt’s …Academia“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Very glad I got my son interested in 2001: …PersonalUnpopular grammar rulesLanguage is a fluid, living social const…CultureFrisbee is a brand name, but how…
If movies about space have taught us anything, it’s that no one can hear you scream. If you get lost in space, nobody’s going to find you. Unless you’re a spacecraft with a direct link to NASA. Then, there is hope for you yet. STEREO-B, from the Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission, went missing on…
Today my son asked me to take him shopping for his favorite foods. He’s tired of fast-food take-out. I told him I was busy today running the spotlight for and videotaping yet another one of Carolyn’s performances (this time her voice teacher’s summer revue).
The poor boy has been left at home a lot while the rest of us did so much theater over the summer. He competed in a chess tournament last week. I fell asleep in the next room. He came in second place. (I have no pictures. I’m a bad father.)
While secondary schools pour their resources into helping students get into a good university, and adults rush to teach teens how to behave well socially, no one’s covering what kids need to know for, you know, the actual classes. I have a clear picture of what’s missing from their preparation. Here’s what to tell your…
AFTER A 14-YEAR run, Gawker.com is shutting down next week. Gawker Media’s new owner, US Spanish-language TV network Univision, made the decision to shut down the site after bidding $135 million for the web publisher’s seven-site portfolio in a bankruptcy auction earlier this week. (A bankruptcy judge is set to approve the final sale later…
Helen Keller, rendered blind and deaf after an infection as a toddler, learned the gift of language from her patient and determined teacher, Annie Sullivan. Their story is told in the play The Miracle Worker (and my daughter plays Helen in three more shows this weekend at Latrobe’s Cabaret Theatre). As a young woman Helen Keller…
Similar:Leftovers from the food my colleagues brought in to bribe/reward those few students who sh… Leftovers from the food my colleagues b…AcademiaGetting there.Getting there.PersonalCome see Carolyn as “The Girl” in The Fantasticks, Oct 18-27. CultureMemories of Toronto Yonge Street EncountersI arrived in Toronto in 1992 as a 22yo g…CultureI don't expect any but the largest…
Business Insider calls this article an “anecdote… provided by linguist and cross-culture studies expert Richard Lewis.” The article provides several direct links to other works by Lewis, including an Amazon link for his book and an advertisement for the services he offers to businesses. The article makes many unsourced claims, and assumes that all Americans…
Similar:CEO’s brutalist office, for a Zoom-based production of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)….AestheticsBeautiful. No Data / Lore opposition required. AestheticsA #steampunk control panel in context. #blender3d #design #aesthetics #blender3dartAestheticsI am not really sure why I have kept it up this long. I have no immediate or foreseeable p… CultureTake a look at the moon tonight!I wish…
Similar:Fanciful Fun in Theatre Factory’s “The Fantasticks”A great review from Pittsburgh in the Ro…CultureA Tribute to a Journalism FavoriteAs my news writing students work on seve…Aesthetics8 (Short Halloween film by Josh Reardon)My daughter and I appear in this short f…AestheticsGathering background objects to create cluttered shelves. This Baby Gund “Rainbow Hector” …AmusingFaculty lining up for…
Similar:Many of these individual steampunk control panel elements are repeated, but I've arranged …AestheticsEnjoyed making a 3D print of the captain’s chair from the #steampunk bedtime stories I use…Enjoyed making a 3D print of the captain…PersonalWhen we play Star Trek Monopoly, I am the Captain’s chair. GamesThe Offspring (StarTrek:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 16) Data Experiences…
Similar:Father David Hudgins RIP | In His Own Words My friend from high school passed away…DramaSteampunk flag for the United States of Britannia (from the alternate history my kids and …In the steampunk world my kids and I mad…AestheticsYesterday my wife took this last known picture of our two teenagers. The boy is 20 today.PersonalMe:…
Trump offers plenty of opportunities for his detractors to criticize him. In the case of BabyGate, it does appear that the media were quick to spread an unflattering story without confirming some key facts. From a reporter seated one row behind the crying baby: “Mom and baby, very much not kicked out, came back to their seat a bit later. The baby was sucking a pacifier, silent.” There’s a little more to the story than the transcript and video suggest.