We Had the Vaccine the Whole Time

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…

Sound Design and the Wilhelm Scream

Ahh-aaggh! Similar:Elderly ballerina hears familiar music from 50 years agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owb1uWDg…AestheticsVisiting the #scienceofpixar exhibit @kaminsciencecenterPopCultFlannery O'Connor: "I am in a state of shock"There’s often a moment in a lit class wh…BooksFacebook touts fight on fake news, but struggles to explain why InfoWars isn't banned10 points to CNN’s Oliver Darcy for work…Business"seriously, the guy has a point"…

Clues (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 14) Data’s faslehoods nonpluss and Picard thinks he’s sus, that’s a re-do

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…

This long-nelected CD-ROM case tucked away behind my monitor holds almost as many portable USB hard drives as CDs.

Similar:“Waiting for Life” (Once on This Island)https://youtu.be/NeoVD3prQWYPersonalImagine a world…PersonalThe chief engineer does not know where the floating lamps are coming from, but he looks gr…AestheticsEnterprise-D Blueprints As a newlywed, when my in-laws were …BooksAnother delightful section of a #steampunk #neovictorian control panel. #design #aesthetic…AestheticsWhich of my colleagues wants attention?Academia

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

In December 2000, I was blogging about typeface snobbery, freedom in video game spaces, the first email message, and T.S. Eliot’s anti-semitism

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. YouTube is Deleting Videos.

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…

My students were awesome. So many thoughtful final projects. So much growth. A stressful, rewarding, unforgettable term.

Similar:I'm down to a king and two pawns but my son likes playing until he crushes me.PersonalStuffed planet Venus, made for me by my dear mother, around 1974.AestheticsMany things in the world are awful, but my latest #Blender3D work on my #steampunk control…One of many steampunk control panels I’v…AestheticsWhere There's a Whip, There's a WayThe…

Motivation Amid Crisis (Autotrophic Bat)

As part of an independent study project, a graduating Seton Hill student wrote a blog about self-publishing her original collection of fairy-tale adaptations. She’s a double-major in creative writing and graphic design, and she freely adapted each story and illustrated each one in a different style. (She’ll be self-publishing her anthology soon, and I’ll certainly…

Final grades are due tomorrow. My Fall 2020 is almost over. I survived.

Final grades are due tomorrow. My only unmarked assignments are just a handful of final projects with some components I couldn’t evaluate, mostly for some technical reason. It’s been a pretty rough semester, but I’m glad I started prepping for it in July, rethinking and reorganizing and rebuilding lesson plans and assignment sequences with a…

“The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster (a reading)

This week for #StorytimeFriday friend of Prime Stage @DennisJerz reads The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, a 1909 short story about a world in which people primarily communicate via video screens. Sound familiar? Enjoy! #PrimeStageShares https://t.co/KaHdCGHVTC — Prime Stage Theatre (@Prime_Stage) December 4, 2020 Similar:Healing the WebThe lessons I learned in just over an ho…BusinessUChicago…

The reflection should show what’s about 60 degrees above the shuttle, not what’s in front of it. #startrek #tng jerz.setonhill.edu/the-devils-due

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Devil’s Due (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 13) Picard vs. sexy devil Ardra

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Picard searches for a legal loophole in peaceful planet’s pact with the devil. Memorable scenes include Data playing Scrooge on the holodeck, courtroom hijinks (“The advocate will refrain from making her opponent disappear”), and Picard padding around on the planet in his jammies (“Just have Mister Data fetch me…

I spent Thanksgiving break building a #trimsheet for steampunk control panels, because why not? #blender3d

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The Wounded (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 12) O’Brien’s Former Captain Goes Rogue

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. This episode introduces the Cardassians, who years ago attacked Picard on the Stargazer when he approached them during a diplomatic mission. Worf grumbles that the Cardassians have no honor. Indeed, during the teaser they attack the Enterprise. Still, Picard listens to Gul Macet’s complaint: a Federation starship has attacked…

Cursor*10

Great free Flash game, emulated at the Internet Archive. Similar:The Die Is Cast (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 21) Garak's mentor leads a pres…Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of …CultureMore modular, swappable building components. I’ve got to work on the sides of these mid-si…More modular, swappable building compone…AestheticsThose #fakenews people are at it again.…