The Bonding ( ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three Episode 5) — Character-driven analysis of grief
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…
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…
Oedipus Tyrannos (Oedipus Rex) — Brief Introduction
My first lecture screencasts for my newly-online class. (Thanks, COVID-19.)
The Ensigns of Command (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 2) Data plays MacGyver to save stubborn human colonists
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Data must convince stubborn humans to evacuate an unauthorized colony in Sheliak territory. Meanwhile, Picard must bargain with the legalistic Sheliaks for more time. After a teaser shows Data second-guessing his creative abilities, the main plot follows him as he first tries reason, then rhetoric, then a phaser to…
Manhunt (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, episode 19) — Silly Lwaxana Troi comedy of manners
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.) Troi’s eccentric mother Lwaxana returns for another comedy of manners, this time with full ambassadorial status and also on the prowl for a new human partner. Data and Picard mildly scold Wesley for saying a pair of alien ambassadors are “rather strange-looking.” and a bit later Picard tsk-tsks his…
Ring Theory Helps Us Bring Comfort In … and “dump” our own stuff out.
I spent some time listening to someone who was grieving, and who was frustrated by someone else who was also grieving. I could see that these two suffering people weren’t in the same circle of grief — a concept I learned about from someone’s social media post (can’t remember whose). Draw a circle. This is…
Social anxiety is linked to impaired memory for positive social events
People with social anxiety tend to have a harder time remembering social scenarios that end positively, according to new research published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. The study provides more evidence that social anxiety is related to biases in memory. “Prior research has suggested that symptoms of social anxiety are related to memory biases…
Those Were the Days: On ‘Nostalgia’ When missing home was a disease
Although we now associate nostalgia with fond memory, the word was coined to refer to an unwanted medical condition. The –algia in nostalgia means “pain”; a product of New Latin, it can be found in more clinical-sounding words such as glossalgia (pain in the tongue), cranialgia (a fancy word for headache), and proctalgia (a literal pain in the behind). Johannes Hofer (1669–1752) was a Swiss…
Pop song lyrics use more negative words (“hate”, “sorrow”) than 50 years ago
The use of words related to negative emotions has increased by more than one third…. If we assume an average of 300 words per song, every year there are 30,000 words in the lyrics of the [Billboard] top-100 hits. In 1965, around 450 of these words were associated with negative emotions, whereas in 2015 their number was above 700. Meanwhile, words associated with positive emotions decreased in the same time period.
The Hidden Signs That Can Reveal a Fake Photo
Farid emphasises that forensic techniques do not guarantee fake photos can be spotted. They are, however, creating an arms race between hoaxers and those working in the forensic community. “They raise the bar for the level of difficulty and skill required to create a compelling fake,” says Farid. “My hope is that when you run…
Over time, Google has made paid ads harder to spot
In 2007, Google changed the long-standing shaded background indicating the ads section of the page from blue to yellow. In 2008, it then briefly tried a green background before reverting back to yellow. Google continued to test variations of background colors including bright blue and a light violet. In 2010, violet officially replaced the…
During a modest snowfall, I’m passing the time in a public place where someone else has turned on the local TV news. #StormSurge #FearCast #manipulation
Stay tuned for more live footage of StormSurge FearCast Weather Crusaders, standing in the cold, snow blowing in their faces! Media personalities, warning everyone to stay inside, except of course for the media personalities paying back student loans by churning out anxiety-producing live reports like this one! Our own Slick Goodhair, telling you just how…
Parent: “Why don’t you use one of your stress balls?” The girl: “They don’t like me.”
Me: Carolyn, are you ok? Carolyn:Just reminding myself that I am a gift.
What happened when I showed vintage Mister Rogers to my 21st-century kids
They discovered TikTok. And Fortnite. And a world of YouTube gamers. I assumed they’d forgotten about Mister Rogers. But then came fall. After a long day of school, my daughter came home with tears in her eyes. She had too much homework, she moaned. And on the school bus a pair of kids had called…
‘Heil Trump’ and an anti-gay slur were scrawled on an Indiana church right after Trump’s election. The investigation led to an unlikely suspect — and the discovery of a hate crime hoax.
A well-written news story, covering a sensitive subject. The graffiti in rural Indiana became a national sensation, part of a string of high-profile hate crime reports in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory. Late-night television host Stephen Colbert featured an image of one of the tagged walls during a monologue. The church’s priest, the Rev.…
That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It
Professional disinformation isn’t spread by the account you disagree with — quite the opposite. Effective disinformation is embedded in an account you agree with.
Empathy in a Downtown Sub Shop
Sitting in a downtown sub shop. A half dozen 40yo dudes — boots & jeans & beards & tattoos — pile in, trash-talking each other. “I don’t wanna sit next to *that* retard!” says a guy in a knit cap. “You gotta pick your ‘tards!” I take a deep breath. Almost immediately, the dude with…
The Woman in Black
Last night’s preview was a layered treat. A theatrical framing story, the story being dramatized, and a story being uncovered. twists and chills at every level. Well done.