Look at this picture. A guy in a uniform obviously has his hands around a kid’s neck. Why would Business Insider use the word “allegedly” to describe what seems like a pretty obvious assault? If you are Young Sesame Chicken, what makes the Business Insider post worth sharing is the contrast between the mealy-mouthed headline…
Rewatching ST:TNG Who doesn’t like seeing stuffy Picard react to the quirky mayhem caused by the unpredictable Q? Who didn’t like seeing stuffy Picard react to the quirky mayhem caused by the unpredictable Vash? Certainly not the cigar-chomping network executive who burst into the TNG writers’ room and barked, “I want a Vash and Q…
When I was in college and grad school, a couple of times of year I would stay with my sister in her apartment for a long weekend, and we would splurge on junk food (often Keebler Fudge Sticks) and video games (often the latest Sierra point-and-click adventure). I remember playing The Colonel’s Bequest in my…
Parchmap is a wonderful expansion to the interactive fiction player Parchment. It adds a visual auto-mapper to Infocom-style games, including those created with Inform 7. You can jot notes on the map, too! My own 2001 IF-Comp entry, “Fine-Tuned: An Auto-mated Romance,” is one of the 217 stories available on the Parchmap site. Similar:Rethinking…
It’s weird that in the Narnia board game, the Pevensies compete against each other. I thought it would make sense that they would have to work together to defeat the White Witch, but no. Why do they all work against each other? In the book, Edmund betrays his siblings — but they don’t betray him!…
Forget for a moment that the picture is among the most famous in US history, or that the photographer—a 21-year-old Kent State journalism student named John Filo—risked his life to document the tragedy. Consider what the photo captures: Our own military occupied a public university and then opened fire on a crowd of unarmed citizens—students…
Similar:Your Brain Does Not Work Like a ComputerThe brain-as-computer is a powerful meme…HealthAmazon Staff Meetings: “No Powerpoint”I am not a big fan of traditional slide-…BusinessThine Own Self (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 16) Data gets amnesia at a RenFe… Rewatching ST:TNG In the captain’…EmpathyMany things in the world are awful. But creating this #steampunk…
Rewatching ST:TNG Engineering schlub Lt. Barclay gets zapped by this week’s Space Thing, which makes him smart, charming… and also dangerous. Stumbling through a friend-zoning scene from the play Cyrano de Bergerac, actor Dwight Shultz deliberately flubs a dramatic line and fails to shove a prop to the floor on the first try, masterfully embodying…
A student newspaper article about interactive fiction (quoting Emily Short and me) Blaming Roget’s Thesaurus Finding the URL of a framed HTML document My visit to the John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project HarperCollins re-issuing the works of C.S. Lewis Dave Winer on “The Web is a Writing Environment“ Similar:Love This Headline: "He took a date…
How dare President Biden be invoked by a British tabloid that rather creatively linked a scholarly study to a plan Biden floated during the Democratic primary. How dare Biden be implicated in a Fox News graphic that falsely lists cutting beef sales by 90% as a requirement of Biden’s “climate requirements.” How dare Biden be…
I love watching my daughter perform. Here she is doing some short tap routines. The last two also incorporate her interpretation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60, “Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by TapTitansToday (Official) (@taptitanstoday) Similar:Reflections on Flannery O'Connor's "The River"I’m teaching “The…
When my wife and I were grad students in Toronto, my sister would fill up VHS tapes with episodes of Babylon 5. When the tape was full, she’d send it off. (Together with some Mystery Science Theatre 2000.) What that means is that, though the episodes aired weekly, I binge-watched them. (I assume they were…
We’re talking about elite students here landing jobs in highly desirable firms. These are Deresiewicz’s “Excellent Sheep.” We can presume that their educations have been rigorous as they’ve climbed to the top of the meritocratic heap. If these young professionals can’t write well, who can? And if they’re not writing well, why not? My belief…
Similar:Pope calls Argentine kiosk owner to cancel paper deliveryThis is a very cute story, further illus…AmusingLego signs multi-million-pound deal with BBC to create Dr Who setThe concept for a Doctor Who set came fr…BusinessThe Measure of a Man (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 9)Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….CultureBack in the MLAAs the humanities decline…
Just in case you haven’t been thinking lately about the passionate accusations of massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election (which led led to the Jan 6 storming of the Capitol Building), here’s an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Note that the Post-Gazette editorial page endorsed Trump in 2020. Massive voter fraud? This author,…
I remember when I started seeing political cartoons that began depicting office workers using flatscreen LCDs instead of bulky CRTs. I inherited a handful of CRTs as people I know upgraded. I still haven’t bought a new LCD TV — I’ve inherited several hand-me-downs from family members. The next time I offer my course on…
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight Similar:Minnesota authorities can't arrest or threaten journalists after judge approves settlement… A federal judge brokers an agreement i…Current_Events“People are much more frightened than they are bigoted,” making his economic message reson…No actor says “My character does this an…BusinessUpdated a handout on writing a process analysis. TechnologySimon Newman…
Similar:The Last Outpost (ST:TNG Rewatch. Season 1, Episode 4) Riker shouts from a cliff while Fer…Rewatching ST:TNG after about a 20-year …CultureCarolyn and spider friends performing "Power" from Stage Right's Sleeping B…PersonalCriminal Code: Procedural Logic and Rhetorical Excess in VideogamesGreat example of the application of well…CultureMy dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it's not Orwell,…
Similar:I rather like my instructional page on writing effective dialogue. I created this new grap…HumanitiesMy crazy Friday night involved tweaking the graphic for an #MLAstyle instructional web pag…AcademiaMemories of Toronto Yonge Street EncountersI arrived in Toronto in 1992 as a 22yo g…CultureI'm in the timeline where the Borg are everywhere and Riker doesn't want to…
Similar:STEM Needs a New LetterCreativity alone does not foster innovat…ArtJoe Biden gives the media a desperately needed lesson about Donald TrumpPerhaps I should have been shocked at th…EssaysAt Computers and Writing #cwcon for the weekend.Am I wise now? At an event for encouragi…AcademiaStudents Don't Read Syllabi, Exhibit 58623https://twitter.com/ConnorMEwing/status/…AcademiaWhy won't the University of Maryland talk about…