Rewatching ST:DS9 On an assignment to write a profile on Bashir, budding writer Jake tags along to a medical conference, and nothing really surprising happens. Their casual, character-based banter is not interrupted by a distress call from a colony in desperate need of medical assistance, and no side-quest, custom-tailored to appeal to the people who…
In my lit classes, I’m definitely teaching more short stories and fewer novels that I used to. I’ve expanded the time I spend on note-taking, synthesizing quotes from different sources, and why at the college level it’s not a good paragraph if it simply introduces “One quote that supports my position,” repeats three or four…
For years I used ScreenFlow, which offers a paid upgrade every couple of years, and doesn’t update the old versions when OS upgrades break them. There was a time when I was making promotional videos almost every week for a nonprofit, and at the time I thought some of the specific features of ScrenFlow were…
Starting with the robot and basic locomotion that comes with Unity3D’s “Starter Assets.” I’ve added a system that lets you tag an object with a custom translation/rotation, and a custom help text message (such as “[E] Activate Door”). Similar:Stories from the Tall Tales Club – Episode 1 The Time ElephantI’ve had a lot of fun…
Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Kairos Similar:My colleague Dr. Cusick bakes Irish soda bread every year to honor Saint Patrick's Day.AcademiaQ-Less (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 6) Shenanigans with Vash and QRewatching ST:DS9 In the teaser, Bash…DesignWhen is the phrase "when asked about…" part of good news writing? Rarely.A new graphic for an existing…
Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a lot of focused attention. I lost 2 hours today trying to decide the right typeface for text overlays for a steampunk game. Similar:The Cabaret Theatre (Latrobe) presents Shakespeare's popular Midsummer Supernatural pranksters! mismatched …CultureDigital Humanities: A DefinitionDoes the world need another working defi…AcademiaCombined, base color,…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Outside the O’Briens’ quarters, Quark catches Bashir eavesdropping on raised voices. (It’s actually Miles and Kira fighting.) Dax and Worf are happily bickering over opera when he is smitten by the sight of a “glorious” Klingon woman. “She’s okay,” says Dax. It’s Grilka, Quark’s ex-wife. Quark realizes she needs his financial advice, but…
TThe automatic doors on my fantasy steampunk cruiser do work… kinda. My PC got trapped. Similar:An important day to remember.Never again.PersonalThis long-nelected CD-ROM case tucked away behind my monitor holds almost as many portable…PersonalThe Most Toys (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 22) Data Abducted by Eccentri…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….ArtMore household props for…
Interesting. I don’t particularly care for the title of this YouTube clip, which seems very self-centered and not at all in tune with the message the speaker (Connor Neill) gives. He focuses on that moment when we realize there’s a difference between what we feel we need to say, and what we know the other…
No names in this single-source anecdote out of Hong Kong, credited to “Senior Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching.” The employee joined a video call with who he thought was the business’s chief financial officer. He was initially suspicious after a message from the CFO mentioned a ‘secret transaction’, suggesting it was a phishing scam…. However, after other…
The organ composition is called “As Slow As Possible.” It’s currently being performed in a church in Germany. The first chord proper whooshed through the pipes in February 2003, prompting complaints from neighbours that it was too noisy. In 2011, a way was found to reduce the air pressure. “We haven’t had any complaints since…
Ok, never mind Dusgcxms2… buddy, you can keep your first place as far as I’m concerned. Similar:Easter 2022PersonalCreative People Say NoWhen I was a master’s student working as…AcademiaWeb Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers: Four MovesThe confirmation bias describes the very…AcademiaCOVID-19 Cases (Useful Breakdown by Country, State, Population) A few interesting bits I found interes…Current_EventsUsing a Typewriter…
Researchers had programmed the various large language models (LLMs) to act in what they termed malicious ways, and the point of the study was to see if this behaviour could be removed through the safety techniques. The paper, charmingly titled Sleeper Agents: Training Deceptive LLMs that Persist Through Safety Training, suggests “adversarial training can teach models…
The amazing daughter is featured in the ads for this commercial dance event. Similar:Younger friends, can you write or read cursive? I’m curious.CultureAm I a Bad Father Because I Let My Daughter Eat M&Ms in Her Mashed Potatoes?[poll id=”2″] AestheticsOur family has seen David Whalen in the persona of Sherlock in five or six different…
When the kids were little, my wife and I managed their media consumption with the help of reviews from sites like Common Sense Media. (Or maybe a competitor. It was a long time ago… I emailed the webmaster to correct a detail they got wrong in a VeggieTales review.) I’m impressed by the level of…
Attending Religious Perspectives on the War in Gaza. Similar:Set design for Acts II and III of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) #blender3dDesignMy journalism students just gave me this wristband: "What would Jerz do? / Verify or duck…. AestheticsMy Son Plays Mozart Too Fasthttps://youtu.be/gXAtRI1NLxs He says “M…AmusingYour first attempt at a medieval gate and city walls will…
For confessionals or tapdance routines vertical video is fine. When my students do multimedia projects I remind them that the video screen in our classroom is horizontal, so if they do use a vertical video there’s plenty of room for them to add infographics and annotations. Or they can actually edit a vertical video. If…
Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills to understand the words they’re processing. […] A trained and tested LLM, when presented with a new text prompt, will generate the most likely next word, append it to the prompt, generate another next word, and continue in this manner,…
Look what I found on my shelf in a closet. #history #archaeology #media Similar:First steps towards reconstructing a 30-year-old simulation. Marking the locations of the …First steps towards reconstructing a 30-…AestheticsThe girl told me to post this with the caption, “The Addams Family Goes to the Big League….PersonalJerz Nerdcation 2013On a visit to the Washington…
This was before the printing press, so books were copied by hand on parchment, which made them expensive and rare. Most people didn’t read much, especially for pleasure. Instead, they listened to books at group readings for entertainment. Pero López de Ayala wrote at the end of the 14th century, “It also pleased me to…