Confessions of a Nerdy Homeschooling Dad
Are you unexpectedly home-schooling your kids? Every family is different, and every kid is different. But I think anxious parents who are in unexplored territory probably need to hear this: you won’t hurt your children if you don’t keep them academically occupied for a block of 7 hours. On a typical brick-and-mortar school day, kids…
Copper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn’t It Everywhere?
Copper is antimicrobial. It kills bacteria and viruses, sometimes within minutes. In the 19th century, exposure to copper would have been an early version of constantly sanitizing one’s hands. Since then, studies have shown that copper is able to destroy the microbes that most threaten our lives. It has been shown to kill a long list…
Oedipus Tyrannos (Oedipus Rex) — Brief Introduction
My first lecture screencasts for my newly-online class. (Thanks, COVID-19.)
Trump, finally, takes the coronavirus emergency seriously
CNN’s Stephen Collinson praises the president’s Monday press conference. This version of Donald Trump will save lives. The President offered Americans something they have rarely seen from him in his latest and most somber press conference yet on the coronavirus pandemic on Monday. He dispensed unimpeachable information based on fact. He called for national unity and…
Kitchen utensils for my steampunk villain’s hideout. #Blender3D.
There’s nothing particularly steampunky or villainous about kitchen utensils, but I am glad I feel well enough to get back to Blender3D.
Coronavirus Tribute to Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” (1942)
I found this image on Facebook (where it was being shared without attribution).
No, the Fed Did Not Just Give Stock Traders $1.5 Trillion
I don’t know that much about the world of finance. This was a helpful explanation of what it means to say the Fed “injected” 1.5 trillion dollars. According to Slate, that money was in the form of short-term loans, not a gift. “Again, this is all short-term lending against the safest collateral in the world,…
Those mean fake news people at the Washington Post are at it again, this time publishing a vivid simulation of the effect of social distancing
Those mean fake news people at the Washington Post are at it again, this time pushing a series of four simulations that vividly illustrate the impact of social distancing. Where do they get off, creating clear and informative graphics to illustrate a scientific principle? What do they think they’re doing, some kind of public service?…
Social Distancing: Because the Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few
Timeline of Donald J. Trump’s Statements on Coronavirus Outbreak
All About Soap — Why Washing Your Hands Fights the Coronavirus
People typically think of soap as gentle and soothing, but from the perspective of microorganisms, it is often extremely destructive. A drop of ordinary soap diluted in water is sufficient to rupture and kill many types of bacteria and viruses, including the new coronavirus that is currently circling the globe. The secret to soap’s impressive…
The Outsiders Closing after Friday Night’s Show
Toasty Warm Bed (designed by drunk AI neural net)
Pittsburgh in the Round review of The Outsiders
“It’s due to a slew of rich, physically and emotionally raw performances from this steadfast ensemble that Hinton’s timeless characters are realized as the heroes, albeit tragic ones, that they’re meant to be…. As the youngest of the Greasers, Ponyboy has a unique dynamic with the rest of the gang. He’s doted on to varying…
The Outsiders — four sold-out weekday matinees; four more performances this weekend
So proud of my talented, hard-working daughter!
The Ensigns of Command (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 2) Data plays MacGyver to save stubborn human colonists
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Data must convince stubborn humans to evacuate an unauthorized colony in Sheliak territory. Meanwhile, Picard must bargain with the legalistic Sheliaks for more time. After a teaser shows Data second-guessing his creative abilities, the main plot follows him as he first tries reason, then rhetoric, then a phaser to…
Evolution (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 1) Wesley’s nanobots irk tweedy astrophysicist
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The life’s work of an eminent astrophysicist is threatened when Wesley accidentally creates a civilization of microscopic beings. For a school project. The rumpled Dr. Stubbs is friendly enough to Wesley, but he lacks the devoted female companion that Star Trek often gives its male scientific geniuses, so his…
This is what audience members are saying about Prime Stage Theatre’s production of The Outsiders
Prime Stage’s THE OUTSIDERS Stays Golden at the New Hazlett
Cherry, the upper-class go-between spanning the worlds of the greasers and the Socs, is played by Carolyn Jerz, last seen at the New Hazlett as the leading lady/gentleman of Prime Stage’s Twelfth Night. Jerz radiates the kind of intense, poised charisma we associate with old Hollywood, and she imbues the sensitive, ambivalent Cherry with so much…