Commonly Misused Words: ITS and IT’S

Similar:'A Klingon Christmas Carol' Translates Dickens' Scrooge Fable to 'Star Trek' Universe for …Be still, my nerdy heart. (The other hea…AmusingHollow Pursuits (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 21) Misfit Crewmember Faces…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….AmusingWhat do students need to know about rhetoric?I love giving the “what is rhetoric” lec…AcademiaBrian Williams is Giving NBC an…

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:The AI revolution is powered by these contractors making $15 an hourStudents who cheat with ChatGPT can look…BusinessEric Bentley, Critic Who Preferred Brecht to Broadway,…

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:I played hooky from work to see Wild Robot with my familyI played hooky to go see Wild Robot this…AestheticsFlannery…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Playing with depth of field (blurring details that are closer than and farther from the fo…AestheticsMe loving my birthday truck, c. 1971.  I adored this truck, and spellin…DesignMotivation Amid Crisis (Autotrophic Bat)As part of an independent study project,…BooksI can probably remove that link to LycosOn a web page that I posted in…

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:I was 'raped' in VR – the effects can 'mirror' real sex assaultsThis is offensive, deeply troubling, and…CultureDo Cultural Critics Have Any Value Left?[T]he Internet…

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:Another 40sq cm chunk of a #steampunk control panel. I'll do three more variations followi…AestheticsIt’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount of disinformation being spread by elected official…It’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount …Current_EventsJust finished a good literature…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:Infrared photo confirms Munch wrote "madman" inscription first noticed in 1904“Kan kun være malet af en gal Mand!” (“C…AestheticsGreebles make me happy.Before CGI, filming a science-fiction st…Aesthetics"Why are you throwing out all the books?!"The short answer is…