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:When you hear your daughter the understudy is going on for a sold-out show. Live theater i… CultureStage Right offers…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Quantity leads to quality – Austin KleonAnecdote: [A] ceramics teacher announced…AestheticsFacebook Updates News Feed So Your Favorite Friends Rise to the TopNow, News Feed, at its most basic level,…BusinessStudents Are Using ChatGPT to Write Their Personal Essays Now: AI can replicate the shape …Students say they appreciate AI’s abilit…AcademiaSon Doong Cave 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:In November 2000, I was blogging about the US Presidential election, mirrors, Arts & Lette…In November 2000, I was blogging about …BusinessWhy typewriters beat computersThe…

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:Academic robe, Is this the year I finally send you out to be cleaned? Nah, Febreeze is goo…PersonalHappy birthday to the son.PersonalMy wonderful daughter.PersonalA colleague bakes Irish soda bread to share on the Humanities floor every St…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:The 1931 Histomap: The entire history of the world distilled into a single map/chart.This “Histomap,” created by John B. Spar…AestheticsYouTube distortion after the same clip is re-uploaded 1000 timesIn theory, technology lets people make a…Aesthetics‘There’s a…

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…

Textbooks for Fall 2011

Students are starting to contact me asking about books. I will have the course websites up in a week or two, but for now, here are the textbooks. LA101 “Seminar in Thinking and Writing” From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader, Second Edition (ISBN 978-0-312-60141-6) The SF Writer, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-205-75197-6) EL200…

The 1982 Tron Holiday Special

Sides: split. Gut: busted. Milk droplets: transferred to computer screen via nasal passages. The 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Rip Taylor via The 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Rip Taylor, Scott Gairdner, Ryan Perez, PerryAdamSmith, Nick Mundy, Funny Or Die, dannyjelinek, BoTown Sound, and James Codeglia. Similar:Too Short a Season (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode…