Seton Hill Student Journalists Launch Local Election Coverage

Students in my journalism class are publishing short articles on the U.S. election, starting with advance stories today, then continuing with live updates on Election Day and afterwards. This year, students have already started publishing articles online as soon as they are ready, rather than waiting until after the print edition has been sent to…

Why ‘Gangnam Style’ Is Actually a Study in Mind Control

I’m not sure “thank you” is the right way to acknowledge this painful link from Paul Crossman. “Oh, come on,” you’re probably saying. “It’s not the music that’s addictive. It’s the dance, from the goofy video. That’s what went viral.” (There’s that word again.) Well, it turns out that this programming effect could be embedded…

Shatoetry iPhone app lets you put… words… in… William Shatner’s… mouth

William Shatner and technology go way back, but it’s taken him until today to get his own smartphone app. Then again, he is a man known to take long pauses. Dubbed Shatoetry, the new app (iPhone-only, for the moment) lets you string together a variety of pre-recorded words — each with three different versions —…

Canada’s Stratford Festival losing ‘Shakespeare’ from its name

Attending this was one of the handful of cultural treats my wife and I splurged on during our grad student days. LA Times – Canada's Stratford Festival losing 'Shakespeare' from its name. Similar:Incredible archer shows his speed-shooting skillsI know next to nothing about archery. Ac…AestheticsWatching Shakespeare With Your KidsMy retired parents and bachelor engineer…CultureR.U.R. (Rossum's…

Cover your Backside with B-roll on Vimeo Video School on Vimeo

Great resource. Cover your Backside with B-roll on Vimeo Video School on Vimeo. Now consider this:   Similar:Too Short a Season (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 15) When an old admiral youthens, shows…Rewatching ST:TNG. I was underwhelmed…HistoryHow to create a magazine: 5 tips from top designersCreative Bloq. AestheticsThis is about half of the #steampunk control…

FDR in Annie

I’ve accepted the role of FDR in the upcoming Stage Right! Production of Annie. Auditions for the little ‘uns are Friday afternoon. My 10yo daughter and her tweeny friends are sticking out their chins and grinning and singing “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” or whatever…

Google Trends: blog, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook (2004-2012)

I rather expected this — popularity of the search term “blog” from 2004-2012. And this, too, was not a big surprise — Similar:‘This is no longer a debate’: Florida sheriff bans deputies, visitors from wearing masks On Tuesday, as Florida set…CultureDiana Kimball on "What Scares Us About Programming?"A few months old, but still interesting:…AcademiaA picture…

Monsters are People Too

Study used D & D characters to test how subjects responded to eyegaze in human, humanoid, and monster characters. Observers were presented with images selected from the popular fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D; figure 1a). The images could be of humans, creatures with eyes in the centre of the face (humanoids), and creatures with…

Testing Facebook Thumbnail

Why does Facebook always use this image for the thumbnail? This image isn’t the first or the last on the page. It’s not embedded into the post, it’s part of the template. Lately, even when I specify a different thumbnail, Facebook uses this image. I’m using a plugin called Social, which does a great job…

For campaigns’ traveling press corps, social media has changed way game is played

“Once we got to the Internet/cable-news cycle, really in 2004, there was no capacity to control” the message, said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “I leave it to others to judge if the power has gone from us to the reporters. I don’t know that, and it probably depends on the day, but…

UPDATE: BREAKING: ‘Star Wars’ Returns — ‘Episode 7’ Slated For 2015 And More Movies Planned As Disney Buys Lucasfilm

The moment in Attack of the Clones when the rockets popped out of Artoo’s legs, Star Wars died for me. So I can’t manage to get very worked up about it. Still… BREAKING…. Disney has just confirmed that it has agreed to acquire George Lucas‘ Lucasfilm Ltd, and that includes rights to the Star Wars…

After e-literature, there’s no going back

What is with the five-year-old photo illustrating this story that was published yesterday? That Kindle is ancient. Born digital describes works that are created with a computer and are meant to be read on the computer. They’re not works that you print out. The computational aspect of the work is part of its aesthetic and…