Commonly Misused Words: ITS and IT’S

Similar:Bound Together by an Historic Moment I was a young faculty member teachin…CultureCry from a Far Planet by Tom Godwin (WAOB Audio Theatre; read by Dennis Jerz)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ0BBIss…CultureExplorers (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 22) Sisko builds an ancient Bajoran s…Rewatching ST:DS9 With a come-hither …AmusingA Few Good Men at the Pittsburgh Public TheatreFantastic performances, powerful…

Correlation is not Causation

According to a somewhat dry AFP article (posted on a URL that will probably expire soon), “The researchers estimated that in 2008 Australian adults aged 25 and older spent 9.8 billion hours in front of the small screen, and that this time was associated with 286,000 years of life that ended prematurely. | Every single hour…

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:What It Was Like to Watch the Beatles Become the BeatlesBeyond their music itself, their greates…CultureIOC spokesman: Journalists free to Instagram at Sochi Olympics  Journalists…

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:Inheritance (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 10) Data's mom talks a lot, young …Rewatching ST:TNG Within minutes of hea…EmpathyKafka…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Frazetta's "A Princess of Mars" painting sells for $1.2 million at auctionI’ve read about 11 of the Edger Rice Bur…AestheticsStudent Newspapers Scurry to Make Ends Meet“After 112 years as The Daily Emerald, t…AcademiaYou are standing in a field. There is a meme here. Via David ThompsonAmusingMy 13yo and 18yo enthralled by WarGames.Wife…

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:Replacing Disputed Flags with Related ArticlesInstead of flagging links to questionabl…BusinessMan Infected with Ebola Misinformation Through Casual Contact With Cable NewsOn the other end of…

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:Shakespeare’s Choose-Your-Own AdventureIf meeting three strange ladies in the s…AmusingIN-ZOOM (A world-premiere 10-minute play)A very current short play by Bill Irwin….CultureOpening night! So great to see live local theatre.PersonalHabits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:Museum of Endangered SoundsImagine a world where we never again hea…Aesthetics2001: A Space Odyssey – Discerning Themes through Score and ImageryIncredibly detailed close reading of the…AestheticsAdding a little Middle-Earth drama to a photo shoot.The girl was…

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…