Category Archives: Technology

Unleashing the potential of VR (virtual reality)

Posted on January 10, 2018 by

Virtual reality (VR) is going to shape itself into an art form that is quite different from contemporary cinema. We can’t really predict yet how things will turn out, although my bet is that movies as we know them are here … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Learning, Life, Movies and film, News, Popular culture, Teaching, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

More interesting stuff about pigeons and people

Posted on January 7, 2018 by

After my post on dovecotes ran a few days ago, my friend, colleague, and fellow blogger Sally Cissna published a really fascinating blog post about the relationship between humans and pigeons a century ago. Her post contains several old newspaper … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, History, Popular culture, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Cool Google Docs “Insert Symbol” Feature

Posted on January 6, 2018 by

I was just working on something in Google Docs and needed to insert a letter “a” with a circumflex. I clicked on “insert symbol” and searched for “a,” but none of the options were what I needed. Then I noticed … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Grammar, punctuation, usage, mechanics, Learning, Technology, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Functionality in search of purpose

Posted on October 25, 2017 by

Although I’ve noticed this item in the corner of a classroom I teach in this quarter, I never looked closely at it until today, when it was in a slightly different location. I almost didn’t recognize what it was. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Higher education, History, Life, Milwaukee, Popular culture, Teaching, Technology | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Love! Love! Love!

Posted on October 5, 2017 by

An article published today at Inc. online (“Self-Made Billionaire Jack Ma Says You’ll Need This 1 Rare Skill to Succeed in the Age of Machines“) argues that IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional intelligence, i.e., “soft skills”) are less important … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Popular culture, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Big Yellow Taxi

Posted on July 25, 2016 by

I happened across this AP story by Frank Eltman in yesterday’s newspaper: “Solar projects can’t save the forests for the trees?” According to the article, several projects are currently in the works to cut down hundreds of acres of forest in New … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Nature, Political Analysis, Technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

After the line went dead

Posted on August 20, 2015 by

It took only a few seconds for me to figure out what function this alcove most likely used to serve. But a few years from now, there will be young adults who have no memory of pay phones.

Posted in History, Life, Technology | Tagged , | Leave a comment