Commonly Misused Words: ALL RIGHT and (Slang) ALRIGHT

For more on ALL RIGHT, ALL READY and ALL TOGETHER, see Grammar Girl. The slang term “alright” is always slang. Similar:On teaching coding to English studies studentsBecause this is a practical, hands-on, i…AcademiaUsing a Typewriter Simulator to Teach Media HistoryWorking on the syllabus for my “Media an…CultureMy Anti-Linkbait Pledge: Cynical Overhyping vs. Simply Being OnlineWhen…

Commonly Misused Words: THAN and THEN

  Similar:The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Joyce Carol OatesDickens is so brilliant a stylist, his v…AestheticsLove Online”The exchange of love letters was centra…CultureLong Live the LARPers — My daughter plays the antagonist in this award-winning 48 Hour Fi…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku7wzUtO…AestheticsDevil's Due (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 13) Picard vs. sexy devil ArdraRewatching ST:TNG after a…

Commonly Misused Words: ITS and IT’S

Similar:He Googles for some random memes to connect with weak prose, but what he does next is shoc…BusinessI just learned I only have months to live. This is what I want to say. – The Boston GlobeWhat a storyteller. Boston Globe jour…AwesomeEdible Chess Chess pastry cutters handmade in bra…AestheticsPlaying God (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2,…

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:York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7I’ll be in Toronto next week to observe …AcademiaYou are in a book. There is a typo here.Sigh. Critical…

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:Birthright, Part 1 (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 16) Worf learns his father m…Rewatching ST:TNG The Enterprise-D vi…EthicsI Made…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Context for Hayles, My Mother was a Computer (Ch 3 & 4)My undergraduates are working their way …AcademiaJuly 7, 1936: Get a Grip — Phillips Screws Up the ToolboxThis Wired article also mentions the Can…BusinessIn May, 2001 I was blogging about lanuguage, design and Cliffs NotesIn May 2001, I was blogging about…

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:Long-Haulers Are Redefining COVID-19Our understanding of COVID-19 has accret…Current_EventsThe overlooked masterpieces of 1922In literature the response to the challe…BooksThe Nightingale (WAOB Audio Theatre)I haven’t done…

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:Drumming Kid Is Epic. That Is All.https://youtu.be/MRvHI8tgx8A AestheticsOne of the Sadder Lost and Found Messages You'll Probably See TodayNot my item, but the pathos caught my ey…DesignFacebook paid Teen Vogue to run a fake article praising Facebook…