Thoughtful analysis structured around one man’s personal journey away from QAnon. No single online platform is responsible for QAnon’s rapid rise. YouTube hosted the videos that many members credit with their “red pilling,” the favored term for a supposed enlightenment or exposure to conspiracy theories. Facebook allowed for easy conversation, meme sharing and organizing. Twitter, Justin’s…
Rewatching ST:TNG When Picard is up in the middle of the night amusing himself with his archaeology hobby, he’s annoyed to find that Stellar Cartography has taken communications, library systems, and the replicators offline. When he heads down there, the officer in charge is taking some sensor readings that are so delicate they can be…
Objective news reporting is an ideal. Wherever humans are involved, there will be bias. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with journalism that reports with a particular slant, but informed consumers of news who want to understand a complex issue aren’t served by one-sided media coverage that flatters and amplifies their world view. This chart sorts popular…
If you said hello to me recently and I didn’t seem interested in smalltalk, but just raised my eyebrows, made friendly sounds, and drifted on, I hope I didn’t seem indifferent. I really was glad to see so many familiar upper halves of faces at the Lamp Theatre last night, but it was also kind…
The role of mainstream journalists is significant, and, overall, their record has been far less than stellar. Too many, whether in a one-on-one interview or at larger sessions with a number of reporters, have failed to push back in a way that matters. Trump is such a facile talker — one who specializes in dazzling…
Rewatching ST:TNG The Enterprise-D visits Deep Space Nine, so that the producers can take advantage of the beautiful promenade set and jam in a guest appearance from DS9’s Dr. Bashir. O’Brien doesn’t appear in this episode, but he’s mentioned in a brief and completely unnecessary scene where LaForge complains the pasta on DS9 “tastes like…
Similar:Blender 2.8 Released. Please leave us alone together for a few days.I’ve been using the beta for months, but…CyberculturePortraits of my 11yo: Pretty, Goofy, and Pretty GoofyAmusingJesus Christ SuperstarI have a daughter who does things. Her n…CultureCombined, base color, roughness and metallic passes. #Blender3d steampunk control panel. AestheticsEnjoyed watching the restored version of the hugely…
For decades, champions of the video game industry have touted gaming’s cultural impact as the equal of literature, film and music. Traditionally, the classic works from those mediums have been preserved for study by future generations, and amid gaming’s global rise in relevance, a group of video game scholars and advocates is pushing to preserve…
Similar:It's Science! Carolyn Uses Anastasia's Lip Balm KitMy friend Anastasia gave me a home-made …AestheticsRandom gauge design, for background details in a fantasy #steampunk project. #blender3d #b… AestheticsWhat Khan Academy's Fun, Free Learning Empire Has to Do with Dystopian Social Control Over the Christmas break, I’ve been ch…AcademiaAll the Classroom’s a StageSome good observations in this essay.…
Similar:Today’s #blender3d modeling, inspired by a satellite photo courtesy of Google Maps. (I’m n…Today’s #blender3d modeling, inspired by…DesignAnother 40sq cm chunk of a #steampunk control panel. I'll do three more variations followi…AestheticsWhen she isn't playing Hodel, she'll be dancing with a bottle.PersonalEpilogue to Rossum's Universal RobotsMy big finish as Alquist in a Zoom-based…DramaThe girl as…
Rewatching ST:TNG Picard is in sickbay with a gaping hole in his chest. Crusher can’t save him. In a white void, Picard meets a familiar figure, Q, who claims to be God, and conjures up a vision of Picard’s father (who is *so* disappointed), and voices from Picard’s past — people he says have died…
Similar:@shu.pippin was great. Four more chances to see it!PersonalI baked about 12 million vertices of steampunk control panel geometry into a flat plane wi…PersonalI Cannot Begin to Tell You How Proficient I Am in Microsoft WordIs this satire? It doesn’t matter. It ga…AestheticsJANE EYRE Steps In and Out of Darkness at PICTJane Eyre is not…
Similar:The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1 ( #StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 26) We Hav…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break …PersonalThe Girl Wins the Upper Division Monologue in the 25th Annual Pittsburgh Public Theatre's …CultureNew CarWednesday morning my resourceful brother…BusinessThree different sized buildings. Still working on variations for the biggest one. #blender…Three different…
My friend from high school passed away a few days ago. What an amazing preacher. So intelligent, so approachable, so passionate. What a loss to the Diocese of Lansing and everyone who knew and loved him. I am laughing through my tears at his aside, “I want to smack ’em!” (I knew him…
Rewatching ST:TNG Troi wakes up, looking like a Romulan. When Subcommander N’Vek tells her she’s impersonating the imperial intelligence officer Major Rakal, and that she’ll be killed if she doesn’t play along, he invites her to use her empathic powers to see whether he’s lying. He’s not. He’s using the assumed authority of “Rakal” to…
A conspiracy theory featuring a news story that NPR posted early on Jan 6 2021 and then updated after the pro-Trump demonstration turned into an anti-democracy riot was shared widely last year. My meme explaining the concepts of time-stamps and updating a breaking news story didn’t get shared nearly as much. People who already believe…
Rewatching ST:TNG LaForge gets a little too involved when investigating the disappearance of a lieutenant posted on a remote relay station. On a routine supply mission near the Klingon border, the Enterprise-D finds only a friendly dog and a mystery. The plot requires the details of the mystery to remain fuzzy so that LaForge has…
Similar:When is the phrase "when asked about…" part of good news writing? Rarely.A new graphic for an existing handout, w…AcademiaBoosting the Signal: Peaceful Protesters in Baltimore are the NormVideo of people throwing rocks or burnin…Culture"What Teachers Make" Sequence of AssignmentsEvery year I rewatch Taylor Mali’s passi…AcademiaBurgh to Burg, episode 2.AcademiaGood Twitter thread on how confirmation…
Some of my amazing colleagues have collaborated on an amazing NEH-funded summer institute that provides teachers in grades 6-12 with resources for teaching about genocide. The event, scheduled for summer 2022, includes units on the erasure of Native Americans, an empathy-building Narrative 4 storytelling workshop, and more. There’s a stipend for participating in this event,…
Similar:Face of The Enemy (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 14) Troi role-plays as a fear…Rewatching ST:TNG Troi wakes up, look…EmpathyDesk blotters, with procedural leather and wood materials by Blendermada. #blender3dAestheticsBeautiful. No Data / Lore opposition required. Aesthetics10 years later it’s so much worse.PersonalI am not in the splash zone but still definitely out of…