In October, 2002, I was blogging about stupid space explosions, the superiority complex, why whitespace matters, usability testing, and Krispy Kreme
In October, 2002, I was blogging about The stupidity of explosions in space movies The Chronicle of Higher Education rescues the briefly defunct Arts & Letters Daily The superiority complex An anti-telemarketing script An “I Love Lucy: bible study Why whitespace matters when creating a sign The coming air age of 1955 (as envisioned in…
Star Trek TOS Main Theme but it never gets to the Main Theme
Arrgh! This is sooo stressful! (Some great visual gags as the intro drags on.) No, it is not worth it to watch the whole thing. But that’s the point.
Family Business (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 23) Quark feuds with his mother (Andrea Martin); Jake introduces his father to a freighter captain
Rewatching ST:DS9 The opening acts remind me why I cringe at all the Fergengi-focused episodes, and the great writing, the mix of comedy and drama, impressive performances, and the plot twists remind me why I end up admitting that yeah, that Ferengi-focused episode was pretty good. A humming Sisko cooks up an analog dinner for…
Explorers (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 22) Sisko builds an ancient Bajoran spacecraft; Julian meets a med school rival
Rewatching ST:DS9 With a come-hither glance and an obviously fake cough, the dabo girl Leeta introduces herself to Dr. Bashir. A very amused Dax interrupts with news that the valedictorian of Bashir’s medical class will be visiting the station soon. (Bashir was salutatorian, and he’s not bitter about that, no, not at all.) Sisko returns…
The Die Is Cast (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 21) Garak’s mentor leads a presumptive strike against the Founders homeworld
Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of S3E20 “Improbable Cause,” we see Bashir, clearly missing Garak, holding forth on the decline of modern theatre during lunch with O’Brien, who kinda sorta pretends to listen. But this is the teaser for the second half of a two-parter, and there’s a plot to jump-start. A fleet of Romulans…
Improbable Cause (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 20) Odo investigates an attempt on Garak’s life
Rewatching ST:DS9 During his usual lunch with Bashir, Garak dismisses as farcical the notion that Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar would be surprised that his best friend betrayed him, in a literary reference that is definitely random and will certainly have nothing at all to do with this week’s plot. Garak departs with a promise to deliver…
Why Tetris is the ‘perfect’ video game
Rather than wanting to make a film about Tetris the video game as such, Baird was fascinated by this human story that pushed the game into existence. “The original title of the film was actually Falling Blocs, just like the Eastern blocs that dissolved when the Soviet Union collapsed. I thought it was a really…
In September, 2002, I was blogging about science writing, satire, ebonics, Google News, owl callers, astronaut Buzz Aldrin punching a moon landing denier, and an email from a former student (who thanked me)
In September, 2002, I was blogging about “The Science of Scientific Writing” (1990) from ‘pong’ to ‘pac man’ Michigan Police fall for The Onion satire about terrorist telemarketers “Ebonics” (ebony + phonics) Silly alarmist story about recessive blonde genes A scientist undone by plagiarism Google News (when it was new) Mel Gibson’s plan to film…
In August, 2002, I was blogging about ebook readers and email in teaching; how urban legends spread; tales of a plush Chthulu; no, the creator of D&D was not on drugs; a paperless library; Marilyn Monroe; liveblogging an epileptic seizure
In August, 2002, I was blogging about Educational technology spending that doesn’t benefit students; ebook readers that students don’t like; email as a tool in online course (all free at the time, but now behind the Chronicle of Higher Ed’s paywall) A prof spreading bad papers in order to catch plagiarists Expensive goose tracker leads…
Remembering James Doohan on his 100th Birthday (found on the Star Trek Wholesomeposting Facebook Page)
When I was a kid watching the reruns after school in the mid 70s, Scotty was always my favorite. I even worked a reference to him into my dissertation.
Through the Looking Glass #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 3, Episode 19) Sisko Must Rescue Collaborator Mirror Jennifer from Evil Mirror Kira
Rewatching ST:DS9 The teaser gives Odo and Quark a comic scene that shows Sisko in Space Dad mode. A casually dressed O’Brien says he wants to speak to Sisko, then pulls a weapon and orders him to the transporter pad. Sisko realizes he’s been taken to the Mirror Universe, and learns his counterpart was killed…
Security is Sleeping in the Back Seat of the Car
For decades, my mother collected paperbacks that contained a year’s worth of Peanuts newspaper strips. I seem to remember each new year’s book appearing on a rack near the greeting cards. One summer when I was a tween around 1980, I found a big stack of these Peanuts paperbacks in the storage room under the…
You can be a Trek fan without loving TOS. But if we think tolerance and empathy are good things, it makes sense to practice tolerating and empathizing with our own past.
I was born in 1968 and grew up with reruns of TOS. I can only remember seeing a handful of episodes for the first time (and those are some of my earliest memories). Some of the episodes are awful, and the third season is overall very weak. You can be a Trek fan without loving…
I am very happy for these folks, who spent 20 or so years tweaking an insanely complex, completely free game, and are now selling a deluxe version that fans like me can’t wait to buy.
What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood? @shu_hogwarts
Why It’s So Hard For Foley Artists To Make Footstep Sounds
According to Foley artist Stefan Fraticelli, who’s worked on TV shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Fargo” and movies like the “Conjuring” series, footsteps are the most challenging sound for a Foley artist to master. Finding the right footwear, surface, and sync is not always straightforward.
Past Tense, Part 2 (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 12) Sisko must channel social unrest on Earth in 2024
Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of Part 1, Sisko, in the persona of Gabriel Bell, reminds loose cannon BC (from the “ghost” gang) that they have to keep the hostages safe as their bargaining chips. Just when BC starts showing Sisko some respect, the veteran cop Vin tries to be a hero, and Sisko has…
Past Tense, Part 1 (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 11) Plot contrivance particles strand Sisko, Dax & Bashir on Earth in 2024
Rewatching ST:DS9 The Defiant is ferrying Sisko, Dax and Bashir to Earth for a Starfleet symposium. After a nice bit about how “There’s no place like home, no matter what color the water is,” and some social comedy about tonight’s formal dinner with an admiral, we get a video call from Quark that fills out…
‘I saw the possibility of what could be done – so I did it’: revolutionary video game The Hobbit turns 40
.. Realising that statistics wasn’t for her, Megler answered a newspaper advert for a part-time programming job at a local software company called Melbourne House. It was 1980, and she was halfway through a course that focused on designing operating systems and developing programming languages. “The day I was hired, the first thing my boss…