In 10 Years Our iPads Will Be Here

Our iPads will one day be stacked on a pallet, like these old PCs. They’ll be retro curiosities, having done their jobs — empowering us to build even better tools. Similar:Twitter is testing a tool for reporting fake & offensive contentIt’s risky to get your news from a socia…Current_EventsNellie Bly statue to be unveiled at…

Ian Bogost – Gamification is Bullshit

This rhetorical power derives from the “-ification” rather than from the “game”. -ification involves simple, repeatable, proven techniques or devices: you can purify, beautify, falsify, terrify, and so forth. -ification is always easy and repeatable, and it’s usually bullshit. Just add points. Game developers and players have critiqued gamification on the grounds that it gets…

Apple, publishers conspired against $9.99 Amazon e-books, says lawsuit

I was doing a lot of impulse buying during the $9.99 days, but since then, on occasions when I’ve seen the ebook offered at a higher price than a paperback, I have just turned to interlibrary load instead. “Terrified” by Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and discounted e-book pricing, five major publishers allegedly acted together to increase…

Students aim for Broadway in musical with true-life focus

David Mahokey of Dunbar, a senior at Point Park University, and Greg Kerestan of Greensburg, a senior at Seton Hill University, wrote the 20-song score and script, respectively, for ″In Control,″ a musical that focuses in part on Mahokey’s real-life battle with bone cancer. Two free performances of ″In Control,″ directed by Anthony Marino, artistic…

Books Without Borders

The heartbreaking thing is that this fall, over 10,000 bookstore employees across America will be out of work. The way the publishing industry is going, many of those people won’t be able to find jobs that are even tangentially related to books anymore; they’ll go on to work in movie theaters and grocery stores and…

Karel Capek Slighted

The layout of this display at the Carnegie Science Center almost makes it look like the Maria duplicate in Metropolis came before Karel Capek’s play RUR (which was written in 1920, first performed in 1921). Similar:Symbiosis (TNG Rewatch, Season 1 Episode 22)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…CultureEducated, uplifted, boosted, and fed. Block party celebrating August…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Facebook Puts a Downer on UpworthyFacebook Inc. changed its newsfeed algor…BusinessI accidentally started a Wikipedia hoaxHoaxes roam the Information Superhighway…BooksThe iPad Falls Short of Expectations—But What Does That Mean? The iPad market is saturated. Table…BusinessAdobe Shockwave interfereres with my system, blocks my attempts to remove it, and replaces…Does Adobe Shockwave fit your…

USS Requin

Images from an extended tour of a cold war submarine. (We liked the tour we took last year so much, my son and I came back.) [portfolio_slideshow size=medium trans=scrollHorz ] Similar:As White Evangelical Vaccine Refusal Reminds Us, Sometimes Religion is the ProblemWhen reality contradicts the truths that…CulturePa. agency explains why it enacted new 'no force-on-force…

Stage Right Greensburg Wizard of Oz

My daughter, as the wizard, with her talented castmates, in our local theater school’s preteen summer camp musical. Similar:Tips to Improve HappinessKing says many simple and effective tech…CultureHappy retirement celebration to two dear colleagues.AcademiaStar Wars, Star Trek And V Author Ann Crispin Passes AwayAs a high school student, I wrote a fan …BooksOkay, freshly downloaded…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:Drumming Kid Is Epic. That Is All.https://youtu.be/MRvHI8tgx8A AestheticsLooking forward in the back room of the officers' pub, in the #steampunk cruiser from…AestheticsIf watching this clip of Punjabi dancers in Ireland doesn't make you happy, I don't…

LEGO figures flying on NASA Jupiter probe

LEGO figurines representing the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei are flying to Jupiter. (NASA/LEGO) August 4, 2011 — They have launched aboard the space shuttle, visited the space station, and flown to Mars. Now, three more “very special” LEGO figurines are set to fly to Jupiter with NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The…