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:Can…
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:It’s alive! What NPR learned from turning its @nprnews Twitter account from a bot into a h…My student journalists tell me they lear…CybercultureNational Headline Contest 2011Great headlines from winner David Bowman…AestheticsWhat Jane [Austen] Saw: 1796 Shakespeare GalleryYou are invited to time travel to two ar…AestheticsShowcase of 60 Free Horror Fonts For Graphic Designers I think…
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:In major step, UCSF scientists translate unspoken…
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:Trimsheets baked with greebly texture goodness add eye-pleasing…
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:STEM Education Is Vital–But Not at the Expense of the HumanitiesPromoting science and technology educati…AcademiaMake Video Horizontal Again For confessionals or tapdance routi…AcademiaLiteracy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?A good feature from the New York Times: …BooksProud of My JournosI saw several heads that I recognized, b…AcademiaRealm of Fear (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode…
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:Airport retro video games collect spare coins in SwedenFliers arriving at Swedens two biggest a…AestheticsBackground for Trump's remarkable pivot to a pro-mask stance; via right-leaning Forbes and…Background for Trump’s remarkable pivot …CultureMore #steampunk #blender3d goodness. #design #cgi #blender3dartAestheticsI'm honestly not sure where that came from.For my…
Similar:Beam me up, Chewie!AwesomeThe Big Boy GraveyardOn road trips in my youth, watching the …AmusingWhen she isn't playing Hodel, she'll be dancing with a bottle.Personal"Syllabus Day": The Absolute Worst Way to Start the SemesterI’d rather blog about prepping my fall c…AcademiaToday's workload included requesting a "less-depressing used chair" #lowexp…PersonalYes, Virginia, There Is a Journalist!My new…
Similar:Anime Treatment of Star WarsI am not particularly into anime, though…AestheticsNerd Break! Listening To: Wilhelm Scream / Castle Thunder / Amen Break (While Watching Lig…In order to provide some context for a b…AestheticsYes, it's happening here at Seton Hill. Quidditch. AcademiaA support sloop on deck and in the landing bay. #steampunk #neovictorian #aesthetics #desi…AestheticsMerry Christmas 2018PersonalJust…
Similar:Unplugging for a Few Hours at Spruce Flats BogVisited a bog created when loggers clear…AestheticsSupport the arts in your community! I’m here for the daughter and the rest of the cast. @j…Support the arts in your community! I’m …CultureGo Forth and Conquer, but Postpone the Selfie“We have about 850 graduates, and we hav…AcademiaFired for Making…