Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. LaForge is stranded on a hostile planet with a nervous, injured Romulan. The “mutual enemies must learn to cooperate” storyline is by-the-numbers, but I still enjoyed it. I don’t remember ever seeing this episode before, but seeing the frequently reused “planet hell” set (featuring a distinctively stair-stepped sloping wall)…
For years, I’ve been teaching a fake graph. In pretty much every course I teach, on some day when students seem discouraged or distracted, I’ll draw an X axis labeled “Experience” and a Y-axis labeled “Confidence,” and sketch out the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” curve, as preparation for an informal pep talk. (Update, 27 Nov 2021: My…
Similar:Looking forward to what looks like an exciting evening of dance.Personal“I don’t know how that Jerz guy thinks he’s going to procure an entire library in the midd…“I don’t know how that Jerz guy thinks h…AcademiaAnother delightful #blender3d #cgi #steampunk control panel. #design #aesthetics #blender3… On a busy day when I spent 7.5 hours o…AestheticsHere's…
Similar:I have a daughter who does things. If demon curses and buckets of stage blood are your thi…I have a daughter who does things. If de…AmusingA Brazilian couple bought a deforested ranch and spent decades planting over 2 million tre…A Brazilian couple bought a deforested r…Personali trained an ai chatbot on my childhood journal entries…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. To escape a thousand-year-old booby trap, LaForge interacts with a holodeck simulation of the designer of the Enterprise’s engines… and gets waaay too attached. The teaser shows LaForge on a date — a failure that he later talks over with Guinan. Meanwhile, Picard, thrilled to explore an old warship, is…
Similar:Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Star-Spangled Banner and the War of 1812 When he saw “by the dawn’s early light…AestheticsMultimodal Composition: Every time a student submits a narrated PowerPoint, a puppy cries.AcademiaAt the airport, sending the daughter off to Ireland.At the airport, sending the daughter off…PersonalSoldiers and Sailors Memorial and Museum Another visit to Pittsburgh with my his…CultureEmpty…
Similar:Justice (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 7) When Wes trips on a fence, joggers' god gets in…In which Wesley commits a crime on the L…CultureQ Who? (ST: TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 16)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaThe Other 21st Century Skills User Generated Education.AcademiaAnnie 2012 with Annie 2017. Annie 2012 with her Warbucks. "Together…
According to an article in Medium, toilet paper isn’t selling out because the supply chain is collapsing, or because people are hoarding. We’re using more toilet paper at home. Yes, some people are hoarding, but we’re all spending a lot more time at home. All the toilet paper we would have used at work, in…
Similar:Annie Sullivan on teaching: Helen Keller, rendered blind and dea…CultureAny Interaction with a Service Dog Is DistractingThe director of our counseling and accom…AcademiaPresident JoAnne Boyle Announces Plans to Retire from Seton Hill University in June 2013An amazing, inspiring set of accomplishm…AcademiaI created about a dozen basic building shapes, with textures to add…
This is just an excerpt. Read the whole thing. Similar:‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’: Alabama doctor tells unvaccinated, dying COVID patientsDonald Trump is vaccinated. Mitch McConn…CultureQuidditch Comes to Seton HillwartsVisitors often remark the campus reminds…AcademiaPater Noster Passenger ElevatorsSome 50 years ago, my father took me to …AmusingThe difficulty is the point (teaching critical thinking…
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:Thirty Years Ago, the Challenger Crew Plunged Alive and Aware to Their DeathsThe Challenger made it through the spect…CultureFacebook exec erroneously cites The Lord of the Rings when comparing the social network to…A Facebook executive, Andrew “Boz” Boswo…BusinessMore modular, swappable building components. I’ve got to work…
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:6 Problems with our School SystemI spend a lot of time re-educating my…
Similar:Self-referential capitalism; paradoxical fusion of idealized pop culture and mass-produced…AestheticsDiamonds Are Bullsh*tI did propose with a diamond ring, for w…BusinessSomewhere out there, somebody is working really hard to come up with a meme to blame this …Front page of the Miami Herald newspaper…BusinessVerify or Duck! Journalists should confirm all details they didn't witness.New instructional web…
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:Reading Game/Text: EverQuest, Alienation, and Digital Communitiesthough Limbaugh is wrong to decide that …CybercultureMS-Word's helpful "View -> Focus" mode delays stress-related breakdowns.You won’t usually catch me saying anythi…CyberculturePipe Trouble’s government woes highlight gaming illiteracyInteresting discussion of a political ho…CultureInteresting use of A.I. in a radiology journalMedical doctors and scholars Raneem Bade…AcademiaI know stuff must be…