The Quality of Life (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 9) Boxy bots start to skive; Data thinks they’re alive, that’s a-plot twist

Rewatching ST:TNG During a poker game, Crusher tweaks Riker, Worf and LaForge for wearing beards.  The bumpy-headed scientist Farallon is super-dedicated to a “particle fountain” mining project, which the Enterprise-D is assigned to evaluate. Along the way she has also had time to tinker with remote-controlled, AI-driven gadgets she calls “exocomps.” After an exocomp refuses…

More modeling in #blender3d. Very happy with reflections and lighting. (The teacup is a polyhaven.com freebie.)

Similar:The coronavirus is today just as contagious and just as serious as it was when we were all…CultureMy Parents (aged 72 and 78) Demonstrate a Ballroom Dance PoseThis is how my parents finish their Arge…AestheticsGingerbread USS EnterpriseMr. Sulu, set phasers to delicious! Whic…AestheticsA Time magazine with Trump on the cover hangs in his golf clubs.…

Florida Woman Bites Camel

Identifying her as a “Florida woman,” as I interpret it, suggests that we’re dealing here with what Newfoundlanders would call a come-from-away and New Yorkers would call an out-of-towner. The tantalizing implication is that a local woman would have known that you could give a truck-stop camel an infection requiring antibiotics by biting its genitalia.

While the veterinarian was caring for the camel, was anyone attending to that Florida woman? She had, after all, been sat on by a six-hundred-pound camel, an experience that has to be at least uncomfortable and probably injurious. A reader has to wonder if she had some broken bones or some cracked ribs or at least a nasty taste in her mouth.

And we still have the deaf dog to deal with. –Calvin Trillin, New Yorker

A Fistful of Datas (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 8) Worf Trapped in Western Simulation

Rewatching ST:TNG Silly Gagh-Western finds Worf trapped on the holodeck with gunslinging copies of Data. When the crew gets a few unexpected days of downtime. Picard practices his flute and Crusher casts a play. After running out of excuses, Worf finds himself wearing a sheriff’s badge and moseying into a holo-saloon, at the request of…

Physician: “My career of treating patients has ended”

Very painful Reddit thread. Similar:Irrational Geographic : snopes.comBoosting the signal. This is a real Nati…BusinessLighten Up (an illustrator explores the racial politics of skin color in comics)Lighten Up — The Nib — Medium.AestheticsLincoln’s last play; or, the continuing fascination with “Our American Cousin”E. A. Sothern as the foppish and silly L…CultureOde to Huckleberry Finn, Dec’d(Inspired…

More #Blender3D practice. Making many objects to liven up a #steampunk environment.

Similar:Pictures only hint at her passion and can't capture how smart she is. I love you, daughter… Current_EventsAnother 10sq cm section of a #neovictorian control panel for a personal #blender3D #steamp…AestheticsStandardized Test Scores Don't Really Measure LearningThere are ways to raise a child’s test s…AcademiaOpens Wednesday.PersonalWhen You've Already Got a Major, But You Love Books…

Rascals (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 7) Transporter glitch tween-ifies Picard, Ro, Guinan and Keiko

Rewatching ST:TNG A glowing Space Thing causes the transporter to revert Picard, Guinan, Ro and Keiko into 12-year-olds, with their adult memories intact. The four child actors do a fantastic job channeling the personalities of characters we already know well.  Tween Picard tries to carry on giving orders as usual, and contemplates returning to the…

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, who testified unmasked at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, has since tested positive for the coronavirus, the airline said in a statement.

Kelly testified at the hearing that he believes masks do not add substantial protection to airplane passengers and cited aircraft ventilation systems.

“I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment,” he said. “It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting.”

The hearing lasted approximately three hours. Five witnesses were seated in close proximity and went most of the hearing unmasked.

Kelly was seated between American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. Kirby tested negative, the airline said. American said that “Doug is symptom-free, fully vaccinated and getting tested this afternoon.” –CNN Business

True Q (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 6) Visiting Intern Exhibits Q-like Powers

Rewatching ST:TNG On its way to help an ecologically devastated planet, the Enterprise-D picks up a clever young intern, who reveals for us her secret power of making puppies appear from nowhere. Amanda (played with an impressive mixture of maturity and teenaged vulnerability by Olivia D’Abo) chats with Dr. Crusher about family, and we learn…

Happily masked in center row C. (The daughter is dance captain.)

Similar:KLINGON STYLE (Star Trek Parody of PSY – GANGNAM STYLE)Silly fun, just in time for the 25th ann…AestheticsPerspective | Could ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ really be done? We found out. The three of us approach them in…AmusingA Thursday throwback to end 2015.PersonalIntroduction to The Skin of Our Teeth (optimistic, absurdist metatheater; Thornton Wilder,…https://youtu.be/1okt8MIVTtsAcademiaBurgh to Burg,…

Schisms (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 5)

Rewatching ST:TNG Riker is having trouble sleeping, except during Data’s poetry recitation. (“O Spot! The complex levels of behavior you display / Connote a fairly well developed cognitive array.”) As the ship faces a labor-intensive task of charting the Space Thing of the Week, LaForge has made some adjustments to the deflector grid. Riker’s dozing…

Fall 2021 Grades Submitted

Mission accomplished. Similar:Students don't know what's best for their own learningMany educators worry that students are m…AcademiaStudents Are Using ChatGPT to Write Their Personal Essays Now: AI can replicate the shape …Students say they appreciate AI’s abilit…AcademiaA merry look at journalism in the classic "The Year without a Santa Claus"PersonalMy crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule…

It’s a lie that having zero assignments to mark means I have nothing “to do,” but this particular task is done.

A relief. Similar:Ready to teach another set of students what research is (and what it isn’t).AcademiaMy kids are in a tree. How's your Friday?PersonalBrand new chairs for PICT draw applause.PersonalI’m fairly satisfied with this version of a medieval building trimsheet. (Source photo is …I’m fairly satisfied with this version o…Aesthetics"Moorish girl" in Man of La…

Adding random objects to the bookshelves for a fantasy #steampunk project. #blender3d

Similar:80 Days: "1872, with a steampunk twist. Phileas Fogg has wagered he can circumnavigate the…I stayed up way too late last night play…CybercultureTrees (an "Interpretive Travesty")A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed Ag…AestheticsifMUD IF discussion | Emily Short's Interactive StorytellingEmily Short on the limitations of parser…CybercultureMe loving my birthday truck, c. 1971.  I adored this…

Relics (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 4) When a huge hollow sphere traps a Scots engineer, that’s a-survey

Rewatching ST:TNG The Enterprise-D traces a distress call to a huge star-enclosing Dyson sphere. On a crashed ship, they find a jerry-rigged transporter that has suspended someone in its buffer for 75 years. That someone is the legendary engineer Montgomery Scott, who is surprised to see a Klingon among the rescue party. LaForge promises to…

Students Don’t Read Syllabi, Exhibit 58623

https://twitter.com/ConnorMEwing/status/1469369756138590209/photo/1 Similar:Fake News Taints Facebook's Trending TopicsIn an experiment conducted over several …CybercultureThe six wives of Henry VIII, in pie chart formIf you’ve ever wanted to see the reigns …AmusingVery Berry Dead Makes a Big Impression at Big Storm Performance CompanyCarolyn Jerz lights up the stage from he…AwesomeThe lesson of Rolling Stone and UVA: protecting…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu Logo

Hidden Spaces, New Possibilities

I’ve often had dreams about returning to a former home and discovering a hidden room there. When I was a kid, the local TV station trimmed a couple minutes out of every rerun of Star Trek, so as an adult I would occasionally be surprised by a few minutes I had never seen before.  …