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:Arsenal of Freedom (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 21)With an A-plot that comments on the Cold…CultureMore split-screen actinghttp://youtu.be/EGgeZWskEs8DesignA former student working in SEO shared this. I miss Google classic.AmusingStorage Wars Sued By Its Star; Show Is Faked And Execs Were Confronted By Cast, Court Pape…”Reality TV”…
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:The 3 Scariest Words A Boy Can Hear ("Be a Man")Former NFL player…
Similar:Mechanical #greebles (more #Blender3D practice)https://youtu.be/NzUp-9e_olQAestheticsHow Fake News Happens: It's simple! A governor tweets a Fox News graphic from a story that…How dare President Biden be invoked by a…CultureBoston Bombing Survivor Dances Onstage for First TimeTechnology and artistry combine in this …CultureJournalism students guiltily ignoring the "no electronic devices" note in the program duri…That moment when…
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:The Booming Japanese Rent-a-Friend BusinessWe had a case recently where a dying man…BusinessWhy The Athletic Wants to Pillage Newspapers – The New York TimesBy the time you finish reading this arti…BusinessWho is the more dramatic — my extroverted tween or my philosophical teen?Stoked from a morning show-choir perform…AmusingRobots Are Coming for Our PoemsThe robots are…
Similar:Contemptible and Exploitive “Share if You’re Not Ashamed of Me” Facebook ScamsOutline: Various Facebook posts that fea…BusinessMore #blender3d #steampunk #design. #blender3dart #aesthetics The officers’ conference roo…AestheticsDesert Bus: The Worst Video Game Ever CreatedPenn and Teller are involved with this s…BooksThank you, anonymous donor of Mardi Gras candy.Okay, on closer inspection I see the red…AestheticsWhat Can You…
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:"Jewish priests do this. It's where Leonard Nimoy got the Vulcan sign," says the geekling,…CultureMe loving my birthday truck, c. 1971. I adored this truck, and spellin…DesignThe girl is rehearsing for Hello DollyPersonalThe Satellite That Took This Incredible Photo Almost Didn’t Leave EarthThe camera’s first good image came back …AestheticsHow to Reduce Racial Bias in…
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:‘NPR Voice’ Has Taken Over the Airwaves In literary circles, the practic…CultureThe daughter joined the cast of this show a few days ago. As Safie, she sings a folk song …She says she got the email while at a ca…CultureTeaching Shakespeare in a Maximum Security PrisonGood essay by Mikita Brottman. When I r…CultureHow To Read…
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:A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than scree…Saving this for next term’s “History and…BooksThe Miller of the Dee; by James Baldwin; read by Dennis JerzI showed up at the recording studio for …AestheticsIn September, 2002, I was blogging about science writing, satire, ebonics, Google News, ow…In September, 2002,…
Similar:'Star Trek': The Story of the Most Daring Cliffhanger in 'Next Generation' HistoryAround 1990, when I was studying for my …HistoryNever trust a corporation to do a library’s jobThe Internet Archive is mostly known for…BooksAdvent of Digital Humanities Will Make English Departments Pointless — New RepublicDon’t overreact to the headline, which i…Academia"She even disgraces the name of…
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…