Rewatching ST:TNG after 30 years. After playing the trombone at his birthday party and passing out on a gassy planet, a gray-flecked Riker awakens in sickbay, where he learns 16 years have passed and he is now the captain of the Enterprise. After the requisite medical technobabble (virus, amnesia, blah blah), Dr. Crusher tries to…
Similar:How long has Google Docs let you pop up a window with your current word count? Why wasn’t …PersonalI made some progress.PersonalThis the last hour I will have a teenager in my house. (Tomorrow my youngest turns 20.) I blogged in 2004: “The ti…AwesomeTrying out a new lens to capture creepy-toy-come-to-life choreography. AestheticsCarolyn's "waiter with…
Deadline seems to have briefly published, then taken down, a breaking news story including the sentence “Pence announced late Wednesday that he is among those who have tested positive in the ongoing White House coronavirus outbreak.” 1. Google search for “tom tapp coronavirus pence” shows a hit for a Deadline story with a headline prefaced…
I recall just sort of telling the editors that I would be taking this story, thank you very much. I started looking for this clipping when I reviewed The Measure of a Man for my ST:TNG Rewatch. Sadly The University Journal is no more. When I was at U.Va. it was one of two competing…
Similar:Lower Decks (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 15) Junior officers star in a comin… Rewatching ST:TNG As Riker and Tr…EducationCommentary: The unbearable smugness of the pressMore on how their desire to control the …CultureSpring 2023 Grades: Submitted! (I only had 3 last-minute submissions to mark today.)AcademiaSlow flyby of a scout shop. Starfield backdrop; particle-based…
Headlines are important. (Send an editor some love.)
The first act of Artistic Prosperity’s virtual production of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is online. I designed the set backdrops and I play the humble builder Alquist. The first act is something like an office comedy, but the story takes a few twists and turns before the epilogue. Oct 12: Replaced link with new version.…
Those darned reporters. Always publishing newsworthy facts of national importance that powerful people would rather keep silent. When Hicks tested positive, she worried about others around her who might be infected, too, but the White House sought to keep that information from the public. Without Jennifer Jacobs, a dogged Bloomberg reporter who broke the story…
So negative! Why does the lying America-hating fake news media keep publishing stories that make Trump look bad? Where are the reports about superspreader events in the Obama White House? Where are the stories about Obama’s family members and staff ostentatiously refusing to take precautions that their own medical experts recommended that all Americans take?…
From Frank Bruni, NYT It’s a measure of the cynicism that has infected American politics — and, yes, me — that among my initial reactions to the news that President Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus was: Are we sure? Can we trust that? A man who so frequently and flamboyantly plays the victim,…
Similar:We’re in Denial About the True Cost of a Twitter ImplosionThe public disintegration of a platform …Current_EventsSeton Hill Supports "Man of La Mancha" Student Outing (Feb 17 and 19)Seton Hill University students can atten…CultureThose Were the Days: On 'Nostalgia' When missing home was a diseaseAlthough we now associate nostalgia with…CultureGoogle SGE Recommends You Drink Urine…
This is a sample link. Similar:The disinformation system that Trump unleashed will outlast him. Here’s what reality-based… Highlights from a column by Margaret S…UncategorizedI'm really enjoying seeing how my students are responding to Hamlet.As part of a class assignment, one stude…AcademiaBig Calculator: How Texas Instruments Monopolized Math ClassMy math education predated the widesprea…BusinessAugust Wilson Trifecta…
I have been experimenting with midnight deadlines lately, including midnight Sunday deadlines. Students who don’t want to work Sundays can of course get the work done earlier in the week. I also often have students start assignments during class time, ask them to submit what they have by the time class is over, and let…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire requests Picard’s help about an urgent matter. Chancellor K’empec names Picard arbiter over the power struggle that will follow his impending death. He suspects that one of the two rival faction leaders has been slowly poisoning him. The scenery-chewing Ambassador K’Eyhlar gets…
This is the end of the coronavirus pandemic. And this is how it could happen in the United States: By November 2021, most Americans have received two doses of a vaccine that, while not gloriously effective, fights the disease in more cases than not. Meanwhile, Americans continue to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, and…
I had to teach my Introduction to Psychology class today to 300+ students from my cell phone while I was trapped in my apartment building elevator with my two young kids. This has to go down as my most surreal and stressful teaching experience. — Jay Van Bavel (@jayvanbavel) September 24, 2020 Similar:Eats, Shoots…
To defend Fox personality Tucker Carlson against a defamation lawsuit, Fox’s lawyers successfully argued that no reasonable viewer takes Carlson seriously. CBS | MSN This is a legal win for Fox, who convinced a judge that Carlson is “not stating actual facts” on his show. As Defendant notes, Mr. Carlson himself aims to “challenge[] political…
One of the weirder ways this debate has played out since Barrett was first discussed as a potential Supreme Court nominee is the fight over whether or not People of Praise, the group of which she is a member, is also one of the inspirations for The Handmaid’s Tale. In Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel (and its recent TV adaptation), fertile women are forced to live as childbearing slaves called handmaids. The book isn’t an established inspiration — but the story has developed legs anyway.
Similar:On Their Last Day, Student Newspaper Editors Cover a Shooting on Their CampusTHREE HOURS BEFORE A SHOOTING WAS FIRST …AcademiaThe chief engineer has a forward-facing station, on a platform above the technical staff c…PersonalIdlewild's Story Book Forest Improves Its SignageIn the past, I have pointed out copy-edi…AestheticsAfter your shift at the protocol station, join me…
The State Department revoked a prestigious award from a Finnish journalist because of social media posts critical of President Donald Trump, according to a report from the State Department Office of Inspector General. Although the watchdog found that the State Department had acted within its “broad discretion” to rescind the award from Jessikka Aro, it also…