Beard Typeface Guide

Christian Goldeman felt compelled to match beard illustrations with their typeface equivalents. Similar:Quidditch Comes to Seton HillwartsVisitors often remark the campus reminds…AcademiaHeadlines: Why editors matter in journalism.Headlines are important. (Send an editor…AmusingCaptain Gearheart inspects progress on his #neovictorian #steampunk æther cruiser. Now fea…AestheticsMaking a villain's lair in #Blender3D (this weekend's relaxation)AestheticsCommonly Misused Words: ITS and…

“The Humanities Matter!” Infographic

The University College London (UCL) Centre for Digital Humanities–in collaboration with 4Humanities–has created a new The Humanities Matter! infographic with statistics and arguments for the humanities in high-impact visual form. Countering clichéd, factually ungrounded criticisms, The Humanities Matter! draws on published statistics and a crowdsourced poll to give a shout out to the humanities in…

New York fails Common Core tests

Just 23 percent of charter students scored proficient in language arts, compared with 31 percent in public schools overall. That’s a greater gap than had shown up in last year’s exams. In math, charter schools beat the public school average in each of the past two years — but not this year. On the new…

RT @THATCampPGH: Is there anything more exciting t…

RT @THATCampPGH: Is there anything more exciting than attending #THATCamp #Pittsburgh @ChathamU on Oct 5+6? We think not! Come meet, greet… Similar:RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from the Civil…RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from …TweetsProto iPads and Paper Coexist in Classic Star TrekRewatching the classic Trek episode “The…CybercultureMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky…

Turnitin’s slick new iPad app almost erases years of web-based GradeMark trauma

I have in the past griped on Twitter and on my blog about the clunky Turnitin.com web-based interface. You have to do so much clicking and dragging and typing and waiting for the screen to refresh, and there are places where the “delete” button appears right where an “OK” button was a second ago, so…

6 Creative Uses of Sentence Diagramming

My father was a little distressed to learn that diagramming sentences was not a big part of my education. Learning Latin in high school was the best grammar education I ever got. After that, nothing about English (or, later, German and Old/Middle English) ever worried me. Most kids hated it. But for the kids who…

McDouble is cheapest and most nutritious “food” in human history

Morgan “Supersize Me” Spurlock spoke at Seton HIll in 2005 about the social damage caused by fast-food culture. (Morgan Spurlock autographed my hamburger wrapper.) The following article approaches the issue from another perspective. I, for one, scrupulously avoid buying a drink or fries, and always order a burger and salad from the McD’s value menu.…

Son took out trash w/o being asked; daughter wore papercraft tophat to grocery store. Life is good.

I took my daughter to an Alice-in-Wonderland-themed library summer reading wrapup party, where she threw herself into every craft table. Then she wore one of her creations as we went grocery shopping. Meanwhile, my son, who stayed home to watch another DVD lecture on superstring theory, took out the garbage without being asked. Today…

Summer Theater Camp Photos: “Patrice” in “13”

My 11yo performed the part of “Patrice” in the clever coming-of-age musical “13” Saturday. Here she is with the leading character Evan (played by Anthony Marino — a very talented fellow with several movies on his resume). The content was a bit edgy for a cast that included kids as young as 8, so some…

Why I Rarely Blog about My Home Building Projects

We’re kind of in the eye of the storm, between a whirlwind summer and the routine of the academic year, and I really couldn’t disagree with my wife when she reminded me of this project. I remember using my original iPad 1 to sketch out the measurements for the wood I intended to buy in…

Jane Catherine Lotter’s Self-written Obituary

I don’t know her, other than as the author of this inspiring essay. May you, every day, connect with the brilliancy of your own spirit. And may you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path. —Jane Catherine Lotter Obituary. Similar:In February, 2001, I was blogging about computer nostalgia,…

Why I Like Papers, Please

At a certain point, the transit papers will get so complex that you will, inevitably, start making a lot of mistakes. This can become a serious problem as every incorrectly reviewed passport will deduct more and more cash from your pay at the end of the day. With your family’s lives on the line and…

Infographics: the PowerPoint of the 2010s

I used to say that PowerPoint slideshows were the fan-fold-paper computer banners of the 1990s. Similar:In-person classes heighten age-related hearing problems (opinion)My family tells me I’m starting to speak…AcademiaThe Way of the Warrior #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 1) Worf joins the station…Rewatching ST:DS9 We cold open into a…MediaSupport the arts in your community!…

With great power comes great responsibility.

With great power comes great responsibility. Looks like I need to create a new unit on design. @jessiedylan @abbfleck @goudyliv84 @KatySny Similar:Yes, I do feel rather awesome right now.Lost brand-new earbuds. Reached in pocke…PersonalI'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsOverheard at Quora: "Why after all these years…

Professional or college Shakespeare productions in the Pittsburgh area this fall?

Does anybody know of any local (within an hour or so of Greensburg) professional or college productions of Shakespeare this fall? I’m taking students in my “Shakespeare” lit seminar to see Seton Hill’s “Comedy of Errors” in September. “Romeo and Juliet” at Pitt Playhouse in mid-December is too late for me. Similar:Letter of Recommendation: Fanny…

Mars Curiosity rover sings ‘Happy Birthday,’ dares Earth to collect royalties

One year ago today, NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down on the surface of Mars and began studying the planet. The rover may be lonely out there on its first birthday, but it won’t go entirely without celebration: NASA has repurposed Curiosity’s soil analysis system to play the tune of “Happy Birthday to You” out loud for…

The New Journalism, Redux

The lineup is solid, no doubt about it, and speaks to the health of and the prospects for what’s come to be called “long-form journalism.” (Why long-form instead of just “long,” I couldn’t tell you. But, as long as I’m in a parenthesis, I can say that another positive development is the arrival of several…

Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon

I took my kids to a water park all day, and spent it completely off the grid. This is big news. The Washington Post Co. agreed Monday to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family’s stewardship of one of America’s leading news organizations after four…

US regulators demand clamp down on Apple e-book contracts

I made a lot of impulse Kindle purchases during the phase when so many books were $9.99. I’ve never bought an iBook… whenever possible, I buy via Kindle instead, as a consumerist means of protesting Apple’s meddling with the price of books. US regulators have called for Apple to be forced to cancel certain e-book…

Woman comments on man’s looks. Man FREAKS OUT.

If I ever over-react to a tweet, I hope the tweeter is as understanding as Hilary Sargent. Politico’s Ben White changed his Twitter profile photo yesterday to a new photo, which showed him kind of smirking (or something). A week or two ago I yelled at Business Insider for not including Ben White in some…