The anti-maskers are right when they say masks aren’t 100% effective. The pro-face-touchers are right when they say not touching your face isn’t enough. The bar-hoppers and close-talkers and eaters-in-crowded-diners are right when they say social distancing alone won’t stop the spread of a pandemic. The “98.2% survival rate” crowd is right that most people…
Similar:My wonderful daughter.PersonalMy beautiful daughter says "Happy Valentine's Day" View t…AestheticsMy meme about the distracted boyfriend memeAmusingThoroughly enjoying Company.PersonalYour first attempt at a medieval gate and city walls will be your worst. #blender3d #medie…Your first attempt at a medieval gate an…PersonalWe love us some Sherlock any way we can get it.Personal
I’m going to have to watch this one again. Similar:The Bonding ( ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three Episode 5) — Character-driven analysis of grie…Rewatching ST:TNGÂ after a 20-year break….EmpathyStandardized testing: I opted my kids out. The schools freaked out. Now I know why.And so, on the first day of testing, I a…AmusingMore delightful #steampunk control panels. These…
Similar:After your shift at the protocol station, join me in the officers' lounge, just up the spi… AestheticsMake Video Horizontal Again For confessionals or tapdance routi…AcademiaEmily Dickinson Fun Page #literature #amusing #dashes Emily Dickinson Fun Page #literatu…AmusingOverview of the Forward Ops station, one deck below the main bridge of the fantasy #steamp…PersonalThe Benefits of Writing…
Rewatching ST:TNG This flipside episode, told entirely from the viewpoint of a civilization on the verge of discovering warp drive technology, documents a visit from members of a federation of space-faring aliens who wear brightly colored pajamas. An ER team with serious forehead bumps admits a patient with serious head injuries. They are first confused,…
I still have odd jobs to tie up, but I’m about to put a pause on this J-Term course that starts in December. Similar:Settling in for a half day updating my knowledge of the job market my students will face.Settling in for a half day updating my k…PersonalMy son, volunteering at the local food bank.PersonalOn…
Stunned by Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman and the rest of the cast in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Loved the documentary aesthetic in the opening sequence. Loved the intimacy of the cinematography and acting. Some of my favorite monologues were cut or trimmed, but I recognize a movie can express in a montage or a camera…
Similar:Stop Using 'Poet Voice'This article analyzes (and skewers) that…AestheticsHow ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expertKids who got low scores, I was told, got…CultureIt's Friday night in July, and I'm jamming with my fall course preps.The dean sends me an email at 9:07pm. In…AcademiaBlog ten-beat lines of verse, like Shakespeare…
We’ll cover all 10 plays, but each student will only be responsible for reading an overlapping list of six plays. The movie adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom opens on Netflix this weekend, and we’ll be covering that play on Monday. Similar:Script: Prospero Makes a Circle on the Beach. Scene Designer: "How?"I was amused by…
In May, NBC published a “Fact Check” challenging President Trump’s prediction that there would be a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. Â NBC was factually reporting the answers they got when they asked experts. Those experts didn’t say there would be no vaccine, they said it would be extremely unlikely. The fact…
Just as the technological innovation of the mass-produced book paved the way for the new storytelling medium called the “novel,” technological innovations that allow audiences to rewatch TV shows and binge-watch whole seasons have changed the whole medium of episodic video storytelling. (Babylon 5 did it early and did it well — but the article…
Similar:Practicing Intellectual, Evidence-based DisagreementThis is what a busy literature seminar o…AcademiaOut of the Zuckersphere, (back) into the BlogosphereThis is why I still blog. While commerci…AcademiaAn Open Letter to Reuters Reporters Nate Raymond and David IngramHow did Reuters happen to get a picture …Current_EventsUChicago College Admissions, Indiana Jones Mystery PackageWhat we know: The package contained…
A new handout, based on the opening lecture I give in every literature class. I’m trying to uncouple this chunk of content, which never changes, from the “intro to the course” lecture, which is topic-specific. Your high school teachers probably praised you for summarizing what you read and perhaps relating it to your own life…
You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public in an act of scientific and humanitarian generosity…
Ahh-aaggh! Similar:Family Feud: Tense Thanksgiving for Facebook and George Takei Businesses — as well as groups like no…BusinessHow’s newsgathering during COVID-19 at the state level? Depends on the governor.Journalists covering state responses to …CultureT.S. Eliot: "when we do not know enough, we tend always to substitute emotions for thought…I remember being fascinated with and cha…CultureMuseum…
Rewatching ST:TNG After the crew blacks out, Picard investigates Data’s mysterious behavior. Although I haven’t seen this episode since it first aired in 1991, I remembered it as a strong episode, with a script that respects the audience’s intelligence. I didn’t remember the Dixon Hill holodeck sequence, which was longer than necessary. Instead of showing…
Imagine a scenario in which circumstances outside your control confine you to a single room for an indefinite period of time — and you have basically nothing to do but stare at the walls. Available activities are strictly limited; you aren’t allowed company; you can’t really go outside; time collapses in on itself; and your…
Similar:Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a lot of focused attention. I… Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engi…AestheticsAttending the Texture Contemporary Ballet.PersonalThe Bremen Town Musicians (WAOB Audio Theatre) My daughter plays the narrator, my…HumanitiesSupport the arts in your community!PersonalThat moment when you're logging into a table read of #RUR (Rossum's Universal Robo…PersonalYahoo,…
In December 2000, I was blogging about Typeface snobbery (The Onion) Videogames as gendered play spaces (Henry Jenkins) Who wouldn’t want to trade in the confinement of your room for the immersion promised by today’s video games? …. Perhaps, my son finds in his video games what I found in the woods behind the school,…
Oh no. First YouTube institutes a “COVID-19 Medical Misinformation Policy” and starts deleting videos that tout fake cures or discourage people from following the medical advice of the WHO; then, YouTube takes a stand against any video that “misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential…