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. Similar:Non-Euclidean Doom, where the…

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. Similar:I both like and hate that Canvas tracks the number of unmarked assignments that await me. …I both like and hate that Canvas tracks …PersonalYes, we will see almost anything branded Sherlock Holmes.PersonalHappy birthday to the son.PersonalJanuary 6th … the board game? About 20…

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…

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

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Looking forward to Part 2 of #PPTPlaytime’s production “The Rivals” (live… now!)

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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. Similar:On the Virtues of a Dadsplained Literary ChildhoodThe last book I read to her was Wutherin…BooksAnother 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blender3dartAestheticsNerdling spots typo in space exploration textbook.PersonalHappy 13th Birthday CarolynI’ve…

Leveling up my skills in #blender3D.

Using invisible shapes to cut holes in the hull, and a shrinkwrap modifier to align the cockpit frame and the glass. Similar:Presenting at #NEMLA session 8.1 Friday. “Hacking English: Examining a multimedia sandbox …AcademiaHypertext as a Teaching Tool — Brown University Poetry Classroom 1974This short film documents an early attem…AcademiaPresidential RhetoricCultureDon't call it "social distancing"…

I just bought Diamond City.

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The Rivals #PPTPlaytime

A great production of a delightful play. Similar:Frozen (Greensburg Civic Theatre, Greasepaint Players)DramaHomeschool prom 2017Personal"Wolf!", cried the shepherd boy. (The whole thread is worth reading.) https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/statu…CultureOh the Overthinks You Can Overthink: Horton the Elephant, the Wickersham Brothers, and Mas…Yesterday, I performed in a school matin…AcademiaWhen F. Scott Fitzgerald Judged Gatsby By Its Cover With a…

The High Ground (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 12) Sensitive, Artistic Terrorist Is Also a Terrorist

(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break) Crusher finds herself sympathizing with the charming terrorist who kidnapped her. After last week’s “The Hunted” and the week before’s “The Defector,” it seems the writers are very interested in humanizing perceived enemies. An unusually exposition-heavy captain’s log establishes the Enterprise is visiting a non-aligned world shaken by terrorists.…

On a little afternoon walk with my son.

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Every few years, I Google the name of the kid who saw “The Empire Strikes Back” the night it opened, and blurted out the big spoiler during gym class.

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And you thought your last teleconference was rough!

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Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots

Researchers identified more than 100 false narratives about COVID-19 that are proliferating on Twitter by accounts controlled by bots. Among the misinformation disseminated by bot accounts were tweets that conspiracy theories about hospitals being filled with mannequins, or tweets connected the spread of the coronavirus to 5G wireless towers, a notion that is patently untrue.…

The Hunted (ST: TNG Rewatch; Season Three, Episode 11) Honorable soldier exiled by the peaceful society he defended

(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.) A great Trek morality drama, most obviously inspired by the challenges faced by US troops returning from Vietnam, but light on preachiness and heavy on action. Impressed by the cultured and intellectual Angosians, Picard offers to help them recapture a violent prisoner who escaped a penal colony. The prisoner’s…