Minneapolis protest cleanup: Did you share this meme without fact-checking it? (Don’t spread fake news about the news.)
A Facebook meme with 52k reactions and 37k shares includes pictures of volunteers cleaning the streets in Minneapolis, the day after mass protests of the death of George Floyd. The pictures make a powerful point about the values of the community. However, the text includes an unnecessary slam against journalism, because it introduces the images…
#PPTPlaytime adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.
Top — nonverbal addition with Jessica and her mother’s ring; bottom — good camera work (the actors choreographed when to turn on their cameras in order to arrange themselves in this order) @thepublicpgh
Merchant of Venice Part 2 live, now! #PPTPlaytime
87,000 Missing Deaths: Tracking the True Toll of the Coronavirus Outbreak
Sobering report from the New York Times, providing evidence that COVID-19 deaths have been over-reported. Mortality data in the middle of a pandemic is not perfect. In most places, the disparities between the official death counts and the total rise in deaths reflect limited testing for the virus rather than intentional undercounting. Officially, about 355,000 people had…
Very interesting adaptation of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. #pptlaytime @thepublicpgh
Write instructions for busy grouches.
Updating the graphic for a writing handout on how to write instructions, which I created in 2000.
In a literature class, the author’s words matter more than the author’s life and times, or our own feelings and values.
Updating the graphic for a resource I created in 2012.
Trump, Obama seem equally disinterested in portrait unveiling — but journalism takes hits from both sides
On social media recently I saw people mocking Trump for “refusing” to unveil the traditional presidential portrait of Obama, and I saw people attacking “the fake news media” for pushing a narrative designed to make Trump look bad. The original NBC story that broke this item accurately states that neither Trump nor Obama is interested…
Déjà Q (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 13) Amusing, insightful study of human nature
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break) The meddlesome entity Q, stripped of his powers, throws himself at the mercy of Captain Picard: “in all the universe you’re the closest thing I have to a friend, Jean-Luc.” Lots of well-done banter and self-absorbed patter from actor John De Lancie. While Worf and Crusher have memorable reactions to…
I just found an abandoned blog draft, dated 2011, on economics in early computer games. Published!
I just found a post on economics in early computer games, tucked away as a “Draft” in my WordPress database, dated Jan 2011. I’m not sure why I never published it. The web page I was responding to has disappeared from the Internet, so I’ve linked to the Wayback Archive instead.
Slow flyby of a scout shop. Starfield backdrop; particle-based engine exhaust; hull uses a Boolean modifier to cut out portholes; cockpit frame and text labels use shrinkwrap. #Blender3D
More progress as I continue to level up my #blender3d skills.
Synchronous Online Classes: 10 Tips for Engaging Students
Every time I have taught an online class, I have made it asynchronous. I’m blogging these synchronous teaching tips so I can find them again when I’m prepping my fall classes (which will likely be HyFlex). The tips offered here won’t miraculously eliminate the initial awkwardness of virtual class sessions, but they’ll help. And over…
Local TV News Stations Present Amazon PR Video as Journalism
About a dozen local TV news stations aired a video segment produced by Amazon. Some identified the source, but most just let TV viewers assume the video was a news story, rather than a PR piece hosted by an Amazon employee. Journalism matters. See Forbes for details on the story.
Carolyn Gombell Is Not a Real Person: #JusticeforCarolyn Is a Campaign Against Twitter Refusing to Delete Trump’s Tweets Accusing Joe Scarborough of Murdering Lori Klausutis
Fascinating use of social media. To be clear, this story about “Carolyn Gombell” is a fabrication, intended to spark Twitter to take action against people (such as Donald Trump) who use Twitter to publicize unfounded accusations. Will that matter to people who share it? It’s parody accounts, not journalists, who are retweeting this story as…
New York Times runs just 1000 names of the nearly 100,000 Americans who have already died from COVID-19
Now Is the Perfect Time to Memorize a Poem
Powerful writing, by Matthew Schneier. Most of the essay is on the power of poetry as an oral art form. (See also Poetry is for the Ear and Poetry Writing Hacks: Top 10 Tips.) But I blogged it because of the paragraphs about the author’s father. Right now, a machine is breathing for my father,…
The bots are coming. And they have poems.
Yet in a circle pallid as it flow by this bright sun, that with his light display, roll’d from the sands, and half the buds of snow, and calmly on him shall infold away Deep-speare’s creation is nonsensical when you read it closely, but it certainly “scans well,” as an English teacher would say—its…
Looking forward to Part 2 of #PPTPlaytime’s production “The Rivals” (live… now!)
Dogmeat and I may yet win this game.
Yes, this was the decisive moment. I ended up cleaning my son out when he landed here later in the game.