Stunning, bleak unemployment chart from the front page of the New York Times

Similar:James Comey: Trump won’t be removed. But we’ll be fine.Here’s an editorial by someone who feels…CultureIn November 2001 I was blogging aboutIn November 2001, I was blogging about …AmusingAmerica’s Real Digital Divide If you think middle-class children are…CultureDon’t Want to Fall for Fake News? Don’t Be LazyFake news is not a problem caused by tho…CultureReporters’…

Fact check: Trump utters series of false and misleading claims at coronavirus briefing

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…

Updating a villain’s lair in #Blender3D. Still a work in progress.

Similar:Creative People Say NoWhen I was a master’s student working as…AcademiaifMUD IF discussion | Emily Short's Interactive StorytellingEmily Short on the limitations of parser…CybercultureOn a little afternoon walk with my son.HealthMore household props for a #blender3d #steampunk project. I had made the spice rack and utensi…AestheticsMy college writing students are out making short videos responding…

The Nightingale (WAOB Audio Theatre)

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…

Introduction to The Skin of Our Teeth (optimistic, absurdist metatheater; Thornton Wilder, 1942)

Similar:Results of the 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition The 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Com…Current_EventsAmong today’s major professional accomplishments: installing this hook. #springbreakMy office door feels more complete now. …AcademiaRiding on Square WheelsStan Wagon, a mathematician at Macaleste…DesignCulture Desk: My Life in PencilsDevotees of the Blackwing had been payin…AestheticsAll the Classroom’s a StageSome good observations in this…

When People Only Read the Headline — Misuse of Journalism

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…

Which of my colleagues wants attention?

Similar:Wide-angle view of a villain’s secret lair. #blender3dAestheticsR.I.P. Blogging, Killed By Screenshorts Are screenshorts slowly killing bloggi…CybercultureFilmmakers fighting “Happy Birthday” copyright find their “smoking gun”Who owns the copyright to the “Happy Bir…BusinessBetween static hand-coded HTML pages and modern content-management systems, there used to …When I started my blog in 1999 (by addin…CybercultureHappy Easter!PersonalGround-nesting Yellowjacket WaspsWhile…

In “World Drama” I’m adding the absurd, optimistic “The Skin of Our Teeth” (dropping bleak “Waiting for Godot”)

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 Survivors (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three Episode 3) Charming geriatric love and a pacifist morality play

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After the Federation colony on Raina IV is obliterated, the Enterprise discovers a perfectly preserved house with two elderly survivors. The standoffish Uxbridge impresses Worf by confronting strangers with a non-functional hand phaser, and the hospitable Rishon tells a charming story of how the two fell in love on Earth.…

What gives you comfort? I collect lights. Some of these have magnets!!

Similar:The Rivals #PPTPlaytimeA great production of a delightful play.CultureSave The WordsIn honor of the cold I am fighting, I ju…AmusingEditorial: Video Games and The Great Train Robbery Through the development of crosscuttin…AestheticsThey're coming in faster than I can mark them. This number will be higher tonight, so I'm …PersonalJournalists Verify ClaimsConfirm what your sources tell…

MoonBot is back. This time he fights a new adversary. #Blender3D physics practice.

I submitted midterm grades at about 11 last night, quickly modeled a new object, and let the animation render overnight.   Similar:The Hubble spotted this smiley face in spaceReading each other’s facial expressions …AestheticsAll those fights over late-ar­riv­ing mail bal­lots were much ado about very lit­tleJust in case you haven’t been thinking l…CultureNot a #carguy…

How are you holding up? What difficult choices have you made? How can we all help each other get through COVID-19??

Carolyn and were recently cast in a historical film. I recorded my video audition last week, feverish with an upper respiratory tract infection, coughing and gulping from a mug of tea between lines. Our characters are in different time periods, but we each get to fight someone in a duel. Filming for our scenes was…

Confessions of a Nerdy Homeschooling Dad

Similar:Huge Collection of Free CC-Licensed Textbooks (2012)2012 Book Archive. Business, humaniti…AcademiaCome see Carolyn as “The Girl” in The Fantasticks, Oct 18-27.  CultureI’m really enjoying the embossed labels. #Blender3D (Making props for my fantasy #steampun…AestheticsMore than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the… Imagine a society that engineers…

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…

Oedipus Tyrannos (Oedipus Rex) — Brief Introduction

My first lecture screencasts for my newly-online class. (Thanks, COVID-19.)     Similar:A warning to college profs from a high school teacherMy students did well on those questions …AcademiaSo this is Pi DayMy wife says she bought the pies intendi…AmusingToasting Shakespeare at the Bard's Birthday BashOrganized by Pittsburgh Shakespeare in t…CultureThe elements, in haikuEach element…

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…