Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation While en route to the Klingon Homeworld to participate in the installation of Gowron as the new leader of the High Council, Picard prompts Worf to take the opportunity to regain his family honor. Worf prefers to wait. Gowron is annoyed when Picard declines to use force to back…
The pandemic is not over. It’s a blessing to live in a country with the resources to acquire and distribute vaccines, and a privilege to work for an employer that respects science and cares for the public good. The email arrived while I was at home relaxing with the family. Seton Hill is no longer…
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dennis G. Jerz (@dennis.jerz) Similar:When students don't show up during office hours: I adjusted the cabinet and added a new (s…AestheticsFight choreography via teleconference. As You Like It @steelcityshakespearePersonalAugust Wilson Trifecta (Two Trains, Ma Rainey and Fences on the same day)Fences was performed in…
A great father-son story, written by Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy. I was 10 when “Star Trek” debuted in 1966, and I was reading Spider-Man comics and listening to the Beatles at home in LA — a very different experience from having to deliver newspapers in the dead of a Boston winter. Dad’s zeal…
I heard the boy tell Raffi that all his friends had left the playground and the kids who remained weren’t being nice to him. They were three beefy blond kids, and they were roughhousing with one another. Raffi told the boy that he would stand up to the bullies, and true to his word he went over to the other boys and puffed himself up and roared at them
My family had one of these when I was 12 or 13. The games I remember include a Pac-Man clone called “Munchman,” but I think I remember learning BASIC, blocky computer graphics, word-processing, and using a speech-synthesizer. The TI-99/4A was a great computer to learn on. I remember making a Star Trek combat simulator (based…
In The New Yorker, Rebecca Reed reports on modern historians’ efforts to rehabilitate the Roman emperor Nero, whose name has become synonymous with corruption. Depictions of Nero as notorious are “based on a source narrative that is partisan,” Thorsten Opper, a curator in the Greek and Roman division of the British Museum, told me recently.…
The latest in Aaron A. Reed’s monumental project” 50 Years of Text Games” focuses on Graham Nelson’s programming language Inform, and in particular his game “Curses.” “You have to get a coin from the temple of zeus to buy the ekmek,” explained one responder. “To do that you need to use the rod of luck.…
Waiting for The Current War to start. I haven’t seen live professional theater in a long time. I saw lots of good video theater, but it’s just not the same. [Addendum] I really enjoyed the show. I knew a bit about Edison and Westinghouse, but I was surprised (and delighted) at how skillfully the writer,…
In May 2001, I was blogging about Business and the English language (a humorous rant against business jargon) — Clint Witchalls, Spectator Some features you may need on your computer (like “Extend Deadline” and “Read Bosses’ Minds” The Creator of Cliffs Notes has Died (though I know you won’t read his whole obituary) “Telling the…
Who is this nobody Memorial Day keynote speaker who dared to make white patriots feel discomfort by bringing up facts that trigger their racism? It’s not history unless it affirms my world view, right? Where does the lying America-hating fake news media come up with these stories? There so bias!! A ceremony organizer turned off…
Rewatching ST:TNG Trek explores some cultural boundaries by having Crusher fall in love with an ambassador who is not what he seems. But before we get to that plot twist, we get comedy from Data not realizing he has interrupted a turbolift make-out session, some decent setup concerning a conflict between two moons of Peliar…
Rewatching ST:TNG The teaser sets up another comic episode with Lwaxana Troi, and the first few acts deliver accordingly. This time, Lwaxana (Majel Barett) sets her sights on Doctor Timicin (David Ogden Stiers), a reserved scientist focused on saving his world’s dying star. This episode has many long scenes of Space Science, some of which…
Similar:Out for a walk during some downtime. Paused to appreciate this beautiful city of #Pittsbur…Out for a walk during some downtime. Pau…PersonalThe geekling is 14 today.PersonalNYPD's Lt. Cattani offers heartfelt apology for "wrong decision" that threw his reputation…Cops are trained to make snap decisions …Current_EventsI accidentally did too much DuoLingo. I don't want to advance…
Similar:The boy is visiting the Prohibition exhibit @HistoryCenter while I continue at NeMLA.PersonalStandardized Test Scores Don't Really Measure LearningThere are ways to raise a child’s test s…AcademiaEducators approve national campaign to halt high stakes, “toxic tests”Not a news item, but an announcement fro…CultureFall 2020 Midterm Grades: SUBMITTEDPersonalI spent Thanksgiving break building a #trimsheet for steampunk…
After I posted my grades for this term, I made a dumb typo in this celebratory meme, and a friend pointed out the error on social media. Another friend, who is just starting a new grad program, asked: Curious, would it be bad form to point out the typos in my class materials? I’d say…
So good to see her preforming live on stage again. (She did a fantastic job.) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dennis G. Jerz (@dennis.jerz) Similar:Another section of a #steampunk control panel. Useful for a cutaway shot after a character…AestheticsAn English professor tries to help ChatGPT write and revise a…
Similar:Modular components to mix and match. The upper storeys are next. #blender3d #medievalyork …Modular components to mix and match. The…AestheticsInside Voices — A Weekend MusicalCarolyn was in this short movie, conceiv…AestheticsWe Had No Idea What Alexander Graham Bell Sounded Like. Until Now | History & Archaeology”Hear my voice. Alexander Graham Bell.” …CultureGoogle Docs "Writing to…
Dethroning the “I hate you” song that Kirk Thatcher blasts on the bus in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, “Racist Sexist Boy” is now officially my favorite punk song. Full concert: Similar:Emily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap PoetryThere’s never enough time to cover Emily…CultureSuspicions (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 22) Crusher narrates murder-mystery…
Conspiracy theories, knee-jerk tribal thinking and stubbornness are not confined to one end of the political spectrum, as this NYT analysis of a recent Jeopardy! conspiracy theory establishes. Mr. Donohue’s case is unusually clear-cut, and the allegation is obviously false. So the element of this story that interests me most is how the beating heart…