After another couple of hours of work, I’ve added the Griffin logo and a tail (trust me — it’s there). I’ve improved the lighting, and added some very subtle ambient occlusion (the inside of his beak and the inside of his eyes are shaded more realistically). I could probably do a better job differentiating such…
Correlation or Causation? – Businessweek. Similar:‘WarGames’ and Cybersecurity’s Debt to a Hollywood Hack After finishing his synopsis, Reagan…CybercultureExplore Geotagged Wikipedia Pages as a Text Adventure GameFor humans who like browsing through Wik…AmusingNational Science Foundation announces plan for comprehensive public access to research res…This is good news. It’s unfair that gove…AcademiaFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg strides past…
Holy ray-tracing, Batman, it’s a Blender 3D update! I have not had the chance to try out Blender 2.61, which features an ocean simulator, motion-tracking, and real-time ray-tracing. blender.org – Blender 2.61. Similar:5 tips for choosing the right typefaceWhen it comes to picking a typeface, you…AestheticsMy Freshman Comp Student Didn’t Recognize the Term ‘Word Processor’Most…
To celebrate yesterday’s on-time submission of final grades, I spent part of last night and much of today working on this Blender 3D model of our school mascot, the Griffin. Similar:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reducing print edition to 2 days a week; cites plan to go all digi… The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is scaling …BusinessI have two…
I just posted the latest musical theater education packet, written by my wife, as she aims to make the most of our home-schooled children’s participation in Stage Right Greensburg’s student theater production. 1.10) Narnia, once a utopia or paradise, has become a sad, cold dystopia under the Witch’s rule. Read & discuss other examples of…
Pittsburgh Parent Magazine’s December issue features Seton Hill’s New Media Journalism major in a cover story by Kelli Robinson. Similar:Reading a Classic American Play to My Daughter BooksBuzzFeed plagiarism, deleted posts: Jonah Peretti explains.In 2012 my former Slate colleague Farhad…BusinessDesigning Cabinets in Blender3D — ExperimentsI designed these simple 3D cabinets in B…CybercultureMusician uses computer algorithm…
This story features my Seton Hill colleague, Lee McClain. “It’s kind of like if you are looking at a bunch of leaves on a tree, you could study them, but you’d have to work really hard to tell them apart,” said McClain. That is how she sees faces. “That part of my brain that most…
If I were to say to a teacher: “Hey, you should try out this great IF game with your class”, it would generate a response ranging from “Fantastic, what’s it about and how do I play it” – from a teacher familiar with the principles digital game-based learning, to “I have adult students, they don’t…
“We take pictures of the clothes on a doll that stands in the shop, and then create the human appearance with a program on [a] computer,” he said. —Clothing Giant H&M Defends ‘Perfect’ Virtual Models – ABC News. Similar:Another 40sq cm chunk of a #steampunk control panel. I'll do three more variations followi…AestheticsListening to the…
I hope my student journos never have to face something like this, but I sent this link on to the editor, just to keep her informed. Many a journalist’s career has been made by being professional, while happening to be in the right place at the right time — Dan Rather was a little-known local…
Researchers have found a bright vein of gypsum, a mineral that could only have been deposited by water. The finding suggests that billions of years ago warm water flowed through underground fractures in the rocks. —NASA Rover Spots Unambiguous Evidence for Water on Ancient Mars | Wired Science | Wired.com. Similar:A woman approached The Post…
Apple just released an update of its very nice iBooks. The Kindle still is my preferred ereader for personal reasons, but I prefer to teach with iBooks. Last year when I taught a literature survey, I experimented with asking students to use out-of-copyright free etexts, and to annotate them in iBooks. The fact that iBooks…
Kodak Brownie and Instamatic cameras were once staples of family vacations and holidays — remember the “open me first” Christmas ad campaigns? But it may not be long before a generation of Americans grows up without ever having laid hands on a Kodak product. That’s a huge comedown for a brand that was once as…
One of my journalism students posted this insightful and well-edited documentary. (She also posted a brief introduction.) HTML5 HTML5 480p FLV360p FLV360p MP4240p FLVFlash Similar:Internet Explorer and Murder Rates: More Fun with Causation and Correlation IE.png – mlkshk.AmusingTeaching the First Amendment FreedomsIn an opening lecture, I briefly listed …CultureThe Falling Man — 9/11 Suicide PhotographPowerful,…
A national study released Monday suggests there is a smaller percentage of young people involved in “sexting” — sending or receiving explicit or sexually suggestive images via cell phone or Internet — than previous studies found. via National study: Youth ‘sexting’ is downplayed – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Wait a minute… who or what is doing the…
Facebook has revolutionized the way we communicate — and class reunions have changed because of it. Some people keep in close touch electronically with almost daily updates online, so they don’t feel compelled to buy a ticket and travel across town — or across the country — to see former classmates. For others, enthusiasm for…
When our firstborn was little, my wife carefully avoided saying “no” to him, saying “no thank you” instead. When he melted down in public, he would scream, “No thank you! Noooo thaaaank YOOU!” The key to a new theory of tantrums lies in a detailed analysis of the sounds that toddlers make during tantrums. In…
My daughter was amused that, even with a cheat sheet in my hand, I automatically responded to “Peace be with you” with the traditional “And also with you,” every time this Sunday, instead of the new translation “And with your spirit.” Not once did I get it right. Similar:Who Watches the Watchers (ST:TNG Season Three…
Before settling down to finish reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins, my daughter made this Lego reindeer. Similar:Steampunk flag for the United States of Britannia (from the alternate history my kids and …In the steampunk world my kids and I mad…AestheticsAquiel (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 13) LaForge adopts a murder victim's dog…Rewatching ST:TNG LaForge gets…
Ferrell’s wife, Karen, buys groceries and not all her clothes come from the dumpster, and some of their furnishings did not come from the trash. But Ferrell says he never buys clothes for himself. Scrounging is his word for what he does. When he moved to Texas 10 years ago from Arizona, Ferrell decided to…