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:The daughter experiences her birthday cookie AestheticsHow The NY Times Is Sparking the VR Journalism RevolutionJust as young people in journalism schoo…CybercultureDear 11yo DaughterYou are growing up smart, talented, dete…PersonalA Tribute to a Journalism FavoriteAs my news writing students work on seve…AestheticsQuantum Theatre's "Far Away" is an enigmatic abstraction, grounded by psychologically deep…Quantum Theatre’s streaming…
Similar:Biggest accomplishment of the dayThe real problem is timing — they had c…GovernmentI didn't mark a single paper or set foot in a classroom. Here's why this prof is tired fro…I submitted my final grades a few weeks …AcademiaWe Tried to Do Vanlife Right. It Broke Us Down.Shortly before I got married, my sister …CultureMerry…
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:My 1951 day DuoLingo streak was fun, but… Ever since DuoLingo announced it…BusinessAnother delightful caricature by Rebecca ScassellatiAestheticsThe girl sank her brother's last ship with the homophonous cry "I-1."AmusingCome see Carolyn as “The Girl” in The Fantasticks, Oct 18-27. CultureDate a girl who reads.I earned a +8 or +9 spousal bonus when I…Amusing13: The Musical…
Similar:Surprise: Humanities Degrees Provide Great Return On InvestmentCompleting a humanities degree is a good…AcademiaI’m thinking this is a still from the cringey Season 1 episode of TNG where the natives bu…AcademiaIdlewild's Story Book Forest Improves Its SignageIn the past, I have pointed out copy-edi…AestheticsThe Portable Writing desk — the Victorian laptopFocusing on the materiality of…
Similar:The bots are coming. And they have poems. Yet in a circle pallid as it f…CybercultureMy hard-working media students curated a collection of psychology student editorials & inf…My “Media Aesthetics” students worked wi…AcademiaMe (glares in iambic pentameter)Me: I need to post the opening lecture f…AcademiaMake Video Horizontal Again For confessionals or tapdance routi…AcademiaPart of my…
Similar:The Strangest, Most Spectacular Bridge Collapse (And How We Got It Wrong)At a glance of the edited footage, it’s …DesignThe girl enjoyed seeing Alex Noble and the rest of the cast of Sive. (Last shows, 2 & 8 to…CultureThe Nightingale (WAOB Audio Theatre)I haven’t done any audio theatre recordi…AestheticsJesus Christ SuperstarI have a daughter who…
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:Richard Scarry unfinished manuscript to be publishedSome of my happiest memories of fatherho…AestheticsGreensburg student wins Shakespeare contest A Greensburg student did the Bard pr…CultureMy parents holding a picture of the family I took with my first SLR camera in 1987.PersonalThe girl enjoyed seeing Alex Noble and the rest of the cast of Sive. (Last shows,…
Similar:Liberal Arts Leaders: The 50 Best Professors Who BlogIt’s polite to say “thank you” when some…Academia‘So, So Angry’: Reporters Who Survived the Capitol Riot Are Still StrugglingI weep for these patriotic, reasonable, …CultureThe overlooked masterpieces of 1922In literature the response to the challe…BooksRolling Stone and UVA: The Columbia School of Journalism ReportSloppy journalism can ruin…
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:A practical application of close reading skills: Nazi-spottingWhenever I teach a literature class, I p…AestheticsJournalism 101: I fixed this meme for you.I can sympathize with the sentiment, but…CultureRob Rogers' firing is a frightening omenPulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Nick A…CultureAdding a media project to a semester-long paper assignment is like adding a jetpack to a d…AcademiaDisagreement Hierarchy:…
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,…