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:For some reason, I saw a bump in traffic to a page that linked to a "make-your-own-Trump-e… This sort of thing was funnier back …AestheticsThree…

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:Why Computers Will Never Write Good Novels If it were possible to build a digit…BooksFuturistic Acrylic Chair (Blender 3D Animation)Yesterday,…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:How Humans Respond to RobotsThe play that coined the word “robot,” K…AestheticsFlipped Classes: Omit Housekeeping Mechanics from Recorded Lectures to Lengthen Their Shel…When a Facebook friend asked for tips on…AcademiaGoogle responds to streaming report with shruggie GIFThe Daily Dot proceeded to shrug the GIF…AmusingOklahoma Was Never Really O.K. (Frank Rich, Vulture)”Oklahoma! was…

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:Desiderata (Nerdy Inspiration)This is a little story about an inspirat…CultureWordPress duplicate images driving me crazy I’m using the Atahualpa Theme with WPT…HomeBooks vs. Kindles: The…

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:Kitchen utensils for my steampunk villain's hideout. #Blender3D. There’s nothing particularly steampu…AestheticsCarolyn and Alex in “The King and I”PersonalThe Muse #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 21) Jake meets his muse; pregnant runaw…Rewatching ST:DS9 From his spot…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:Set design for a virtual production of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Post-apocalypti… AestheticsWhat Jane [Austen] Saw: 1796 Shakespeare GalleryYou are invited to time travel to two ar…AestheticsCNN Profiles Former White House "Chief Calligrapher"Today was the last…

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…