Other than one trip to the grocery store, I haven’t been in public since March 13, so I haven’t noticed if people in my community have started wearing masks. But I’ve wondered how I’ll be able to respond to people’s voices when I can’t see their mouths. In the past few years, I have…
A few interesting bits I found interesting to explore: There are two different ways to view the exact same data: The logarithmic scale shows a great comparison of the magnitude of growth between countries, but less of the human impact. The linear scale shows the real human impact — a growth twice the size is twice the number of…
My weekend coronavirus lockdown project was writing up a new handout devoted to Graham’s “Disagreement Hierarchy” for academic arguments. Does the word “argument” make you think of angry people yelling? This document presents Graham’s “disagreement hierarchy,” which catalogs multiple stages between juvenile name-calling and carefully refuting an error in your opponent’s central point. Siblings might…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After a member of a landing party dies an accidental, senseless death, Picard must break the news to her young son. “Jeremy, on the starship Enterprise, no one is alone,” says Picard. “No one.” Numerous times on my rewatch, I’ve wished episodes would devote less time to scanning and probing…
Public officials misspeak all the time. Journalists make mistakes all the time. Ordinary citizens over-react to headlines without reading the full article all the time. We are all of us human. It’s unfair for any of us to treat every gaffe as evidence of malice or incompetence. For example, critics of President Trump are stretching…
The Shape of the World, According to Old Maps Similar:The Crucible, Geyer PAC (Scottdale, May 16-19)My wife is directing Arthur Miller’s The…CultureDonald Trump's chilling escalation of his war with the mediaA journalist’s response to President Tru…Current_EventsProto iPads and Paper Coexist in Classic Star TrekRewatching the classic Trek episode “The…CybercultureNASA's Perseverance lander brought some Easter eggs…
In March 2000, I was blogging about Palm V handheld computers for Navy officers Teaching with bells and whistles Stephen King selling a short story online NCAA banning online journalists Great moments in bureaucratic history Diploma mills Maps of imaginary lands Similar:Do you remember Harry Monster counting with adorable little John-John? Watch this 2…
Similar:Trump Is Making Journalism Great AgainLong gone are the days when the media wo…CultureIn education, Apple must augment the reality of the cheap notebookIn 2012, Apple tried to position iPads a…CybercultureSocial Media Companies Aren’t Liberal or Conservative. They’re capitalist.Facebook cares more about scalability—th…BusinessMinneapolis Police Injure, Arrest Journalists Covering ProtestsThroughout the protests over the death o…CultureNASA…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After a primitive, rationalist society mistakes Federation technology for supernatural power, Picard must do whatever it takes to undo the resulting cultural contamination. Fortunately for Picard, that involves lots of talking. A grim scene in sickbay memorably demonstrates that humans in the 24th century can sometimes delay but cannot…
Similar:Westmoreland County Air Show 2012 (Photos)Traffic leaving the Arnold Palmer Region…AestheticsMedia Companies Are Getting Sick of FacebookAll of us with Facebook accounts do work…BusinessSilicon Avatar (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 4) Grieving scientist mom wrecks…Rewatching ST:TNG Riker does some ser…CultureAstronauts cloaked Klingon space patch: Star Trek-inspired emblem revealed The current commander of the Internati…Aesthetics#PPTPlaytime…
Similar:White House photo access controls public imageRather than permit photojournalists to s…Culture‘Broken Age’ ReviewThis will be my self-reward when I finis…CybercultureNo one’s ready for this: Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to… Everyone who is reading this article…CybercultureWho needs the Metaverse? Meet the people still living on Second LifeYears ago I spent…
Not fake news. Not the enemy of the American people. “Nobody ever thought a thing like this could have happened,” said the the president at Thursday’s press event. Feb 27: “We’re going very substantially down, not up.” [Narrator: “Cases were not going down.”] Feb 26: “The 15 [documented cases of COVID-19 in the USA] within…
Similar:Enjoying a peaceful fall moment while it's possible. Taking these moments as they come. AestheticsRemembering James Doohan on his 100th Birthday (found on the Star Trek Wholesomeposting Fa…When I was a kid watching the reruns aft…HistoryShow, Don't (Just) Tell (another update)AcademiaThe State Of Media EmploymentThis is why I require my “new media jour…BusinessDrumming Kid Is…
I haven’t done any audio theatre recordings in a while (thanks, coronavirus) and I miss it. Here’s my interpretation (recorded some time ago) of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Nightingale.” The nightingale is considered the most beautiful thing in the kingdom… until a mechanical nightingale wins over the citizens, and the true nightingale is banished. But…
Similar:A Message from Hester Prynne (Student Video)Have I mentioned lately that I have awes…AcademiaThese buildings are so much better than my first try about a month ago, and good enough fo…These buildings are so much better than …PersonalInternet hyperlinks do not infringe on copyright, EU court advisedWhile European Union rules say every act…Current_EventsIn April 2000,…
The Society of Professional Journalists links to an interview with an MIT professor who’s studying misinformation on social media (which is not the same thing as bad journalism — some bad actors take journalism out of context in order to deceive). Responsible journalists are aware that sensational headlines can harm the public. The truth is…
Similar:Nested (procedurally generated game of expanding drop-down lists)A text game that you play by opening fol…AwesomeSettling in for a half day updating my knowledge of the job market my students will face.Settling in for a half day updating my k…PersonalEx-Pope Benedict says the Selfish Gene is science fiction. He's half rightThe Selfish Gene is a…
Similar:Don't Like Hamlet? Now's Your Chance To Rewrite It”It’s not really fair to say, ‘Look at t…CultureKeeping things in the proper perspective at 4Cs: Praise for my delivery of a line from Sta…Already met a lot of good people and fou…AcademiaLecturing is So Much Easier than Leading a DiscussionLecturing is So Much Easier than Leading…AcademiaExplorers…
In light of current events, I’m dropping the bleak Waiting for Godot from my World Drama class (actually I’m making it optional; students could drop a different play) and adding Thornton Wilder’s absurdist but optimistic The Skin of Our Teeth. Writing while World War II was still raging, Wilder depicts a representative American family…
The blurb for a 2011 English version of the 1999 Chinese play I’m teaching this week: China’s most popular and provocative drama. A modern story of love and obsession, Rhinoceros in Love tells the story of a rhinoceros-keeper who develops a dangerous romantic fascination with the woman of his dreams: the uncompromising, unobtainable Mingming. Hear…