Translating the markings from base 60 – the counting system used by ancient Babylonians – showed that these ancient mathematicians were aware of the Pythagorean theorem (not called that, of course) as well as other advanced mathematical concepts. “The conclusion is inescapable. The Babylonians knew the relation between the length of the diagonal of a square and…
Similar:'Thought Leader’ gives talk that will inspire your thoughtsSaving this for the next time I assign a…AmusingLaying out our anti-socialization defenses & cleaning out the penitence shack for anot…Visiting Fort Ligonier. When the girl…CultureHow Facebook – the Wal-Mart of the internet – dismantled online subculturesFacebook wants you to spend more time on…BusinessMaking sidewalks to go…
Similar:Sad that NASA is taking a back seat to a private company, but still nerding over an Americ…BusinessThe Cabaret Theatre (Latrobe) presents Shakespeare's popular Midsummer Supernatural pranksters! mismatched …CultureSports Meant So Much to Me. Why Wouldn’t My Son Play?I heard the boy tell Raffi that all his …CultureCrash site and Tower of Voices. Well worth…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Lonely Jake frumps in the Promenade people-watching spot where he and Nog used to hang out, and Odo and Quark try to offer him comfort in their own faux-antisocial way. At home, Jake is shocked to find a visitor — Jennifer Sisko from the mirror universe. Though he knows this is not actually…
About four years ago I bought an electric mower that was quiet enough that I could listen to audiobooks while doing my suburban adulting duties. The battery held enough charge that I could get about 1/2 of my lawn done at a time so that summer I bought another battery. A couple years later I…
As much as I love escapist science fiction, the way to get to the future for real is to avoid killing each other and ourselves in the present. We can’t count on capitalist techbros selling joyrides to billionaire tourists. People tend to liken space exploration to expansion on Earth—pushing the frontier. But on the edge…
After starting my 200-level “Shakespeare in Context” students on a few sonnets, I assigned Twelfth Night (most had never read a Shakespeare comedy before) and Othello (they loved Iago), and then asked them to sample four different plays — The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, and Jonson’s…
If you are writing an academic paper that quotes from an author that uses the ellipsis in a way that differs from MLA style (such as the script of a modern play that uses “…” to indicate when a speaker is interrupted, or a graphic novel that might use “…” to indicate a meaningful silence…
Similar:Fall 2020 Midterm Grades: SUBMITTEDPersonalAfter you finish your brass-polishing shift, join me at the Gear and Heart to swap stories…AestheticsOverwhelmed? Start a new to-do list with "1) Breathe; 2) Make 'to-do' list" Felt momentarily overwhelmed by the da…CultureMy kids are in a tree. How's your Friday?PersonalIt not only went VROOM, it carried chunky plastic letters…
Similar:The Case for Breaking Up With Your ParentsI already felt fairly independent from m…AcademiaHarper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, dies aged 89Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a M…BooksAfter Halloween where do all the pumpkins go? Now we knowIn the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jonathan…AmusingAnd if my point of view is somewhat misty-eyed…And if…
Similar:NASA finally makes contact with Voyager 2 after longest radio silence in 30 yearsI was thrilled as a middle-schooler to s…Current_EventsIf you think I'm wrong that the media fairly covered the Cannon Hinnant murder, but you're…Plenty of news organizations have report…Current_EventsDeSantis-backed bill would make it easier to sue news mediaAmerican law protects the free speech…
Similar:7 ways for teachers to beat the Sunday bluesTell yourself, I am rejecting these thou…EducationLittle People, Big Fun: A Brief History of Fisher-Price Little PeopleI remember having a Fisher Price airplan…BusinessInterior Detail of Steampunk Convertible Gazebo Spent much of Tuesday wrestling with co…AestheticsThe third Google hit for " #steampunk control panel" is a #blender3d image…
Rewatching ST:DS9 A haggard O’Brien, with a scraggly beard, is released from an alien prison. He seems disoriented… “I can’t leave. Where would I go to?” A concerned Kira watches as smug aliens infodump that they punish offenders by inserting extended memories of incarceration — twenty years, in O’Brien’s case. Sisko explains to Keiko that…
Similar:Star Trek: "Wink Of An Eye"/"The Empath"Amusing, if cynical, reaction to some of…AmusingA pleasant Independence Day photo shoot with the daughter.AestheticsThe boy wins once again. #chessGamesEveryone Nov 1AmusingSpent a half hour taming this tangle of cables (left) with a little tiny six-inch-wide car…AestheticsMe as a highshool photo-bomber, I presume at the cast party for The…
Similar:On Stephen Hawking, Vader and Being More Machine Than HumanIn one version of Hawking’s eulogistic s…CybercultureMore than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the… Imagine a society that engineers its…CultureAnother lovely variation of a #steampunk control panel. #blender3dart #neovictorian #desig…AestheticsOur Love Affair With Digital Is OverThe other…
Rewatching ST:DS9 After a nightmare featuring dead Klingon children, Worf wakes up in Odo’s security cell. He’s clearly in trouble. A Vulcan admiral convenes a Federation hearing called to explore allegations that, while commanding The Defiant, Worf destroyed a Klingon civilian transport. A Klingon prosecutor, Ch’pok, intends to prove Worf’s negligence, thereby stoking sympathy for…
In September, 2003, I was blogging about What the NY Times called the “campus fad” of Internet plagiarism. “What Does a Professor Do All Day?” (Clearly we are wasting our time whenever we are not standing in front of a classroom.) “Graphic Artist Carefully Assigns Ethnicities To Anthropomorphic Recyclables“ Leni Riefenstahl Dies (although she distanced…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir reluctantly helps O’Brien clean up before Keiko is due to return after an extended absence. At the family reunion, little Molly points to her mother’s belly and announces she has a little brother. At the request of Kira and her mentor Porta, Sisko blesses a young couple. He’s not thrilled with his…
Similar:How the printing press changed “you”: when reading changed, so did writingThis was before the printing press, so b…BooksStudents tend to zone out during my lectures on proofreading. I time it so I can say “clas…Academia"What Teachers Make" Sequence of AssignmentsEvery year I rewatch Taylor Mali’s passi…AcademiaAssociate Dean of What?The idea of students as customers…
For the past 2 weeks I have slept a lot, coughed a lot, and one of my four classes is a week behind where I had hoped to be, but I guess I’ll be okay. Still dealing with some heavy eldercare and other issues that I just don’t have the energy to write about here,…