A thoughtful reflection on religion in Star Trek. While Humans aren’t depicted as participating in any form of organized religion (there is a reference to a Christmas party here, a nod to monotheism there), the series also includes a distrust of science and technology, regularly depicting mad scientists, societies over-dependent on technology, etc.) that insists…
If you’re legally present on a public street or sidewalk, you can legally photograph anything in plain view. (This includes children and crime victims… but just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea.) If law enforcement engages you, ask whether you are free to go; if so, then move out of the…
Standardized testing rewards standardized thinking, while excluding creativity, resilience & other “soft” skills. I have started gong out of my way to remind students in my classes that I am not comparing their papers to a “correct answer” in the back of my book — I want them to learn a habit of mind that…
It’s a good day when one’s nerdiness is an asset to a colleague. Similar:A quick Sunday visit to #fortligonier with my history-loving son.A quick Sunday visit to #fortligonier wi…CultureUtility Tactical Waist Pack Pouch Military Camping Hiking Outdoor Hand Waist Bag: Sports &…Really. These things aren’t at all assoc…AestheticsWhen a Textbook Plagiarizes Your Student's WorkIn a…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:Shen Yun Chinese dance troupeOne of seven touring groups devoted to s…ArtThe daughter is working hard as a dancer and Flaemchen understudy. @frontporchtheatricalsCultureAP Style: try to determine, and then respect, a source's preferences when it comes to…PersonalBritish Politician begins reciting colonial-era Kipling poem in in Myanmar templeAfter the…
Keep a local backup of anything important you’ve entrusted to online services. There’s no guarantee that, years from now, those services will honor the terms you agreed to. Backed by new investors, including singer Justin Timberlake, Myspace (after dropping the capital ‘S’) has been rebranded as a music-streaming service, with a new sleek interface, and…
Penn and Teller are involved with this story. Worth a read. The only record of the game’s existence was a handful of review copies that had been sent out to journalists in the weeks before the publisher went bust, in 1995. The game remained a curious rumor until September, 2005, when Frank Cifaldi, a freelance…
Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices. #ethics #books The Federal lawsuit claimed that Apple, led by then-CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, conspired with HarperCollins, Hatchett, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster to drive e-book prices up from the $9.99 price point Amazon had established. –readwrite.com Similar:The lesson…
RT @spj_tweets: How TV could suffer the fate of newspapers: @alanmutter shares the second installment of his two-part blog – http://t.co/l… Similar:What kids do when Dad won't hand over the iPod So I’m not being selfish… this is …EducationParallel Structure vs. Faulty ParallelismI just touched up a handout on Parallel …HumanitiesCarolyn Gombell Is Not a…
RT @DepressedDarth: Dear J.J. Abrams, If the new Star Wars is bad, you will forever be known as Jar Jar Abrams. Sincerely, Star Wars fans Similar:As if 2021 wasn't already bad enough, it managed to get Betty White. Beloved actress, comedian and American…Current_EventsContagion (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 11)Picard faces aggressive Romulans and an …DesignOne…
I really like MailChimp’s “Social” plugin, which not only publishes a WordPress blog entry to Twitter and Facebook, but also collects responses from Twitter and Facebook users and collects them as WordPress comments. Today I installed a different plugin, Twitter Tools, which is really just a single tool — it lets you create a WordPress…
Habits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of life. At bedtime, in order to avoid a nightly litany of complaints, I ask my glass-is-half-empty-and-I-hate-the-pirate-glass-and-there’s-a-bug-in-it tween to list three good things, two neutral things, and one sad thing about her day. Sometimes if she needs to share more than one sad thing, I…
While researching my obligations for #juryduty Thursday, I came across this “Juror’s Creed.” The gender-specific reference to men, the instruction to reflect upon the virtues of democracy, and the instruction to respect the judge’s education all hint at a historical context for the creed. Institutions never put their creeds into writing unless they feel those…
Spent a productive work day doing nothing but optimizing my blog. Added a very nice plugin for displaying thumbnails of related posts. Similar:YouTube Now: Why We Focus on Watch TimeYouTube has adjusted its search algorith…CybercultureHow do I cite generative AI in MLA style? | MLA Style CenterWe ask students to cite encyclopedia art…AcademiaIn April, 2002,…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:'Inappropriate' dance moves lead to calls for student lessons in Peters Mr. Merrell said the students told h…AmusingWhat My Journalism Class Looks Like on Election DayMy journos are out there, gathering news…AcademiaU Michigan's North Quad Complex: A Media CathedralThe North Quad Residential Complex…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:Three-dimenstional PrintersA new generation of three-dimensional pr…DesignTwitter, after 10 years, hasn't been a money-makerRake-thin and bearded, Dorsey radiates a…BusinessHave 40 years of mobile phones given literature bad lines?The X Files did a good job of embracing …CybercultureStudent: “Just wanted to let you know that your…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:My Kids Loved Narnia but Were Unimpressed by Turkish DelightAmerican kids today would have little id…AmusingDestroying trust in the media, science, and government has left America vulnerable to disa…From The Brookings Institution (non-prof…CultureFor…
While I am uncomfortable with the whole “classroom as marketplace” metaphor, since it’s pretty much gamifying without the fun, I am nonetheless interested in this strategy for encouraging students to collaborate by having them attach a value to the artifacts they present to the class for sharing.. We shop for everything from apps to ideas.…
The researchers found that each singer’s heartbeat was linked to the song’s melody – i.e. the speed and structure of the music. They also found that when the choir sang together, their heart rates tended to increase and decrease at similar times. “As soon as the singing begins, (the hearts) start following each other,” Vickhoff…
We live in an elegant universe. The cosmos is like a string symphony. Genes are selfish. There is an endless battle between thermodynamics and gravity. Do you love these statements, or hate them? The reading world gets pretty divided over whether or not it’s okay to apply metaphors and similes to descriptive science writing. It…