ABC is developing the steampunk adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Yes, really.

As gimmicky as “steampunk Huck and Tom” sounds, the characters actually may be quite well suited for steampunk. Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer Abroad was a play on Jules Verne-style adventure stories, and featured a mad professor and his absurd, futuristic airship. And Tom Sawyer had his own mystery story with Tom Sawyer, Detective. However, Twain…

Vote for Carolyn’s Headshot — Round 2

Vote for Carolyn’s Headshot — Round 2. Similar:Toiletries for a steampunk villain who needs to look dapper. Straight razor and shaving br… Nice lighting shows clearly that I h…DesignMechanical #greebles (more #Blender3D practice)https://youtu.be/NzUp-9e_olQAestheticsTuxedo Pooh Reads Oscar Wilde I spent an hour on this. Below is the …AestheticsSights, Sounds, and Smells of Elizabethan TheaterSomewhere during my…

Mars Panorama — 10yo with iPad Pretends Her Bed Is NASA Rover

Mars Panorama — My 10yo Pretends Her Bed Is NASAs Curiosi – YouTube. Similar:First Stanford code poetry slam reveals the literary side of computer codeLeslie Wu, a doctoral student in compute…AestheticsLessons (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 19) Picard and a new officer bond over …Rewatching ST:TNG When Picard is up i…AestheticsCommentary: The unbearable smugness…

Choosing Carolyn’s Headshot

Which of these headshots do you like best? Let me know on Facebook. Carolyn Headshots. Similar:8 (Short Halloween film by Josh Reardon)My daughter and I appear in this short f…AestheticsFie upon your multi-page, ad-stuffed crapfest of shame. (Don't click!)What I wrote is not actually a list, jus…DesignRobots Are Coming for Our PoemsThe robots are quickly…

Dozens of Plagiarism Incidents Are Reported in Coursera’s Free Online Courses

“If we really are trying to teach the world, including people from other cultures, we have to take a responsibility to educate people about plagiarism, not just vaporize people for it,” said Mr. Severance, who is also a clinical associate professor of information at Michigan, in an interview on Wednesday. —The Chronicle of Higher Education.…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu

If in question, have more GOOD than BAD? University of Georgia Student Journalists Walk Out

My students and colleagues sometimes wonder why I don’t approve the Seton Hill student paper before it’s published, or give students grades on their published work. Student journalists at the University of Georgia resigned en masse rather than relinquish editorial control to an “editorial director” and nonstudent staff. In a draft outlining the “expectations of editorial…

Stage Right Water Sprite

Last week my daughter and I were a little too early to see the Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s new exhibit, so we revisited some of our favorite items in the permanent collection. Similar:Media Bias Chart version 10 — Left / Center / Right; Fact vs Fabrication; (Ad Fontes Medi…The very useful “media bias chart”…

SCUBA Diving at the Pool

Because a beautiful sunny day at the pool apparently by itself isn’t enough, we upped the ante with SCUBA gear. Similar:Why Did Dial-Up Modems Make So Much Noise?Screeeech . . . hisss . . . squaawk. The…CybercultureDowntime with the boy.PersonalFolger Shakespeare Library on "The Fate of Ophelia"On my ride into work yesterday, my mothe…Academia'Jane Austen,…

Official Rules to Nanofictionary

I was at a youth car wash today, watching my son and the other the kids spray each other (and sometimes the cars). One of the customers happened to be carrying an anthology of dystopian science fiction. We got to chatting, and he told me about this parlor game — which sadly seems to be…