Your Letters Helped Challenger Shuttle Engineer Shed 30 Years Of Guilt

On Jan. 27, 1986, the former engineer for shuttle contractor Morton Thiokol had joined four colleagues in trying to keep Challenger grounded. They argued for hours that the launch the next morning would be the coldest ever. Freezing temperatures, their data showed, stiffened rubber O-rings that keep burning rocket fuel from leaking out of the…

Mizzou professor who pushed reporter away from protesters is fired

“The board believes that Dr. Click’s conduct was not compatible with university policies and did not meet expectations for a university faculty member,” Henrickson wrote. “The circumstances surrounding Dr. Click’s behavior, both at a protest in October when she tried to interfere with police officers who were carrying out their duties, and at a rally…

The Boat (Graphic Novel)

My mother had a cousin who served in Viet Nam. In the late 70s, he brought dozens of Vietnamese refugees to America, and one summer there were 30-40 Vietnamese men and boys living in my house, sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the floor of our rec room, as Cousin Jim worked out places for them to stay,…

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg strides past fettered drones at Mobile World Conference.

I’d like to think that all these people were actually blogging well-researched self-aware essays about the absurd spectacle. Similar:On the Trail of the Memex: Vannevar Bush, Weblogs and the Google Galaxy”Hypertext as mediated by the Web browse…CybercultureRing Theory Helps Us Bring Comfort In … and “dump” our own stuff out.I spent some time listening to…

This image of Mark Zuckerberg says so much about our future

A billionaire superman with a rictus grin, striding straight past human drones, tethered to machines and blinded to reality by blinking plastic masks. Golden light shines down on the man as he strides past his subjects, cast in gloom, toward a stage where he will accept their adulation. Later that night, he will pore across…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu Logo

Those shoggoths hacked from lungs unspeakable

1) Last night, I’m fairly certain some of the shoggoths I’ve been coughing up had achieved sentience. But today, fewer are chasing me shrieking “Tekeli-li!” 2) Those shoggoths hacked from lungs unspeakable Last night evolved to sentience; yet this noon Their chasing shriek “Tekeli-li!” doth wane. Similar:One Does Not Simply: An Introduction to the Special…

Facebook Instant Articles Are on Their Way

Tons of large new media operations produce cool and slick videos on Facebook, and the viewership numbers are skyrocketing! Also skyrocketing: Low-quality rips of poorly compressed videos originally upload to Instagram (themselves stolen from Vine). The freebooting world of Facebook  is largely untamed, and one might assume, decently profitable as well. It’s not hard to…

Video Game about Cancer and Grief

On my list for the next time I teach “Video Game Culture and Theory.” The “extra life” was a fixture of early video games, a reward for skilled players that was imbued with the language of reincarnation. Players would not say they earned additional time to play, or a bonus turn, upon reaching a certain…

I felt a great disturbance in the Fandom

“…as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.” Similar:The six wives of Henry VIII, in pie chart formIf you’ve ever wanted to see the reigns …AmusingAPNews.com Photo Still Says Sam Smith "declared his pronouns 'they/them'" a Week LaterThe Associated Press was widely criticiz…CultureStudent Journalists…