Commonly Misused Words: ITS and IT’S

Similar:The Period, Our Simplest Punctuation Mark, Has Become a Sign of AngerYou text your girlfriend: “I know we mad…CybercultureLet's conſider ſome ſurpriſing old type: "Did you ever hear ſuch a wind-ſucker, as this?"I ſhall always treaſure the pleaſant ſur…AmusingUsing "Strive" as a NounObviously I know what my students mean w…CultureCrabby 9yo Constructs a Head-mounted Frump-amplification…

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:Post Gazette Corrects Headline of Seton Hill iPad FollowupEveryone makes mistakes. As a student jo…AcademiaMailbag: breaking in again » Raph's WebsiteGood advice from Raph Koster…

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:Lighting makes a difference. The officers' pub from the interplanetary cruiser #steampunk …  AestheticsOn my fantasy #steampunk cruiser, every uniform…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Another random background control panel for a #blender3d #steampunk project. I wish all us…AestheticsLife would be so much better if all the interfaces we encountered looked like #Steampunk c…AestheticsNASA has flown a drone on Mars. A tiny robot. A flying robot. On. Another. Planet. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succe…AwesomeJournalist Nellie Bly Began…

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:Duke stops assigning numeric values to essays, test scoresThis story is about the admissions proce…AcademiaFacebook Ad Refreshes Interrupt the Composition ProcessSo I’m trying to edit…

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:Enjoying some sibling nerdtime with Lego The Hobbit.GamesFriday night. What am I doing? #partylikeaprofAcademiaOur 2014 class banner was an iPad. I can’t believe I just noticed that today.PersonalThe First Duty (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 19)…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:Such pictures fill my weekday world at fiveYour pictures fill my weekday world at f…AestheticsAnother corner building. Designed and textured. Needs an interior. #blender3d #design #ae…Another corner building. Designed and te…AestheticsAmazing McDonald's "Maestro Burger" CommercialJaw-dropping. So…