If you watch the news, you’ve probably seen a “look live”. That news-speak term means a reporter who appears to be live in the field, but was taped doing the introduction to their story, or sometimes their throw back to the newsroom or a different type of seemingly live hit, well before the show is…
Freelance photographer Jen McKendrick won’t take pictures of “ugly people” — that is, the high school bullies who were doing what bullies do on Facebook. “If you are ugly on the inside,” says McKendrick, “I’m sorry but I won’t take your photos to make you look pretty on the outside!” A WTAE-TV article explains it thus: McKendrick…
For more on ALL RIGHT, ALL READY and ALL TOGETHER, see Grammar Girl. The slang term “alright” is always slang. Similar:This is what the techbros are excited about? Really?Some 2300 years ago in ancient Greece, P…AcademiaIn March 2000, I was blogging about Palm V computers for the Navy, NCAA banning online jou…In March 2000, I…
Similar:The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)As a grad student at the University of T…CulturePater Noster Passenger ElevatorsSome 50 years ago, my father took me to …AmusingBacon Starry Night MemeI’ve no idea where the “Bacon Starry Nig…AestheticsEmpok Nor #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 24) Horror-themed visit to derelict Ca…Rewatching ST:DS9 Dax, Worf…
The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people’s grammar. It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I’d normally be left…
In addition to iPads and MacBooks, every freshman who arrives at Seton Hill this fall will get a copy of The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I taught this book last term in my American Lit class. Here are two of the best student projects on The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games: 2 Sides of…
Similar:Into the depths of code. Algorithmic archaeologies and cave fantasies in video gamesThe full article (by Angelo Careriis) in…AcademiaEvery Post-Game Press Conference (Weird Al)https://youtu.be/oXAW2qd65nAAmusingClickbait writers hate this English professor's time-saving trick!Defeat clickbaiters with this one weird …CybercultureToday’s #blender3d modeling, inspired by a satellite photo courtesy of Google Maps. (I’m n…Today’s #blender3d modeling,…
Similar:Let He Who Is Without Sin #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 7) Worf Scorns RisaRewatching ST:DS9 A nervous Morn sniffs…Amusing80 Days: "1872, with a steampunk twist. Phileas Fogg has wagered he can circumnavigate the…I stayed up way too late last night play…CybercultureOffice Hours in the Pool Hall My favorite story comes from the week…
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…
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:Releasing a Tiny Game and Trying to Get Paid[G]ames is a bit more financially brutal…BusinessF-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11She…
The business of journalism is changing. The approaching anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks is an occasion to reflect on how we received news in the days when newspapers updated their web pages once a day, and Google did not constantly monitor newspaper home pages looking for fresh stories. For journalists thinking about the future,…
A popular handout from my site, Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers, includes a phrase uncommon enough that Googling for it (“practiced scream therapy“) leads me to short story exercises that develop an example into more detailed studies, or pages that remix the content of my site in order to make a similar point.…
There is a lot to like about Google+, and getting to 25 million users so quickly certainly seems promising for the Google social network. But, it doesn’t bode well if the excitement is already fading. Google needs to not only create a capable social network, but it needs to make that social network compelling enough…
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…
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…
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…
Which is cooler? That my 13yo son was just sitting at the kitchen table singing lyrics to MC Frontalot’s “It Is Pitch Dark,” or that my 9yo daughter was chiming in with corrections? It Is Pitch Dark Similar:Out of the Zuckersphere, (back) into the BlogosphereThis is why I still blog. While commerci…AcademiaWe love us some…
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…
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:Students Produce Breathtaking 3D Simulation of 17thC LondonThe haze effect lying over the city is b…DesignI'm Asking My Students to…
The control panel. Similar:The Medium is the MoralIt has been more than 40 years since Mar…AcademiaThe Case for Slow Journalism: When to Unplug from the Endless News CycleOften when I see people in my social med…CybercultureAnother 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blender3dartAestheticsBag a Bot DayAt midnight tonight, participants in the…Current_EventsTexas lawyer trapped…