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DeSantis seeks control over universities, targeting tenure, ‘politicized’ classes

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Republican allies are seeking more influence in university classrooms, targeting tenure, waging a battle against “politicized” courses and contemplating a significant change in how professors are hired across the state.

Out Today: “Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land: An Original Audio Drama”

Out today is another book, titled “Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land: An Original Audio Drama“, by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson.

Discover what happens to Raffi and Seven of Nine following the stunning conclusion to season one of Star Trek: Picard with this audio exclusive, fully dramatized Star Trek adventure featuring the beloved stars of the hit TV series Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan.

Star Trek: No Man’s Land picks up right after the action-packed season one conclusion of Star Trek: Picard. While Raffi and Seven of Nine are enjoying some much-needed R&R in Raffi’s remote hideaway, their downtime is interrupted by an urgent cry for help: a distant, beleaguered planet has enlisted the Fenris Rangers to save an embattled evacuation effort. As Raffi and Seven team up to rescue a mysteriously ageless professor whose infinity-shaped talisman has placed him in the deadly sights of a vicious Romulan warlord, they take tentative steps to explore the attraction depicted in the final moments of Picard season one.

Star Trek: No Man’s Land is a rich, fully dramatized Star Trek: Picard adventure as Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan pick up their respective characters once more. Written for audio by Kirsten Beyer, a cocreator, writer, and producer on the hit Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, and Mike Johnson, a veteran contributor to the Star Trek comic books publishing program, this audio original offers consummate Star Trek storytelling brilliantly reimagined for the audio medium.

In addition to riveting performances from Hurd and Ryan exploring new layers of Raffi and Seven’s relationship, Star Trek: No Man’s Land features a full cast of actors playing all-new characters in the Star Trek: Picard universe, including Fred Tatasciore, Jack Cutmore-Scott, John Kassir, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Lisa Flanagan, Gibson Frazier, Lameece Issaq, Natalie Naudus, Xe Sands, and Emily Woo Zeller, and is presented in a soundscape crackling with exclusive Star Trek sound effects. Drawing listeners into a dramatic, immersive narrative experience that is at once both instantly familiar and spectacularly new, Star Trek: No Man’s Land goes boldly where no audio has gone before as fans new and old clamor to discover what happens next.

Buy on Amazon.com
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Flubber

Flubber: Directed by Les Mayfield. With Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Ted Levine. An absent-minded professor discovers “flubber,” a rubber-like super-bouncy substance.

The first 15 minutes of the movie is spent setting up the idea that this professor is eccentric. He’s so goofy! He’s out of his mind with how smart but forgetful he is! There’s only a few actors that could have pulled this off without it going completely goofball stupid, and luckily we have Robin Williams to fill the role, so it’s only goofball silly. This movie is, of course, a remake of 1961’s “Absent Minded Professor”, previously with Fred MacMurray as the lead role. The original film was a staple of my youth, as it was on frequent replay on whatever broadcast or cabled channels we had access to, and concept itself is a novel one for younger kids: the professor creates a substance that lets him (or whatever he sprays) jump higher than he could jump before. There’s an unspoken truth about titular substance in that it also protects you from the ramifications of jumping to a height of 100 feet, then falling back to the ground. In fact, in this 1997 remake, a couple of goons are hit in the head repeatedly by bowling balls, which I can only imagine would have normally resulted in their heads caving in, but in this universe they just get slight lumps on their foreheads.

This version of the film also introduces a romantic interest for the professor, and no, it’s not the teacher. Instead, it’s a hovercraft robot that’s somehow evolved itself an AI and has fallen in love with Williams. In theory the professor is trying to invent flubber to help save the school he works for, but I can only imagine how much money a floating AI with a built in polaroid camera and advanced holographic system would go for. Instead of trying market his already invented inventions, he goes for broke and creates a somewhat sentient goopy mess that ends up bouncing all over town and even through one guy’s digestive system, ultimately rocketing out of his rear end in a humorous but ultimately juvenile moment of zen.

Also, Wil Weaton is in the film, but which kinda blew my mind.

Buy On Amazon!

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New Book Added: “Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land: An Original Audio Drama”

Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land: An Original Audio Drama by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson has been added to the site!

Discover what happens to Raffi and Seven of Nine following the stunning conclusion to season one of Star Trek: Picard with this audio exclusive, fully dramatized Star Trek adventure featuring the beloved stars of the hit TV series Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan.

Star Trek: No Man’s Land picks up right after the action-packed season one conclusion of Star Trek: Picard. While Raffi and Seven of Nine are enjoying some much-needed R&R in Raffi’s remote hideaway, their downtime is interrupted by an urgent cry for help: a distant, beleaguered planet has enlisted the Fenris Rangers to save an embattled evacuation effort. As Raffi and Seven team up to rescue a mysteriously ageless professor whose infinity-shaped talisman has placed him in the deadly sights of a vicious Romulan warlord, they take tentative steps to explore the attraction depicted in the final moments of Picard season one.

Star Trek: No Man’s Land is a rich, fully dramatized Star Trek: Picard adventure as Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan pick up their respective characters once more. Written for audio by Kirsten Beyer, a cocreator, writer, and producer on the hit Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, and Mike Johnson, a veteran contributor to the Star Trek comic books publishing program, this audio original offers consummate Star Trek storytelling brilliantly reimagined for the audio medium.

In addition to riveting performances from Hurd and Ryan exploring new layers of Raffi and Seven’s relationship, Star Trek: No Man’s Land features a full cast of actors playing all-new characters in the Star Trek: Picard universe, including Fred Tatasciore, Jack Cutmore-Scott, John Kassir, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Lisa Flanagan, Gibson Frazier, Lameece Issaq, Natalie Naudus, Xe Sands, and Emily Woo Zeller, and is presented in a soundscape crackling with exclusive Star Trek sound effects. Drawing listeners into a dramatic, immersive narrative experience that is at once both instantly familiar and spectacularly new, Star Trek: No Man’s Land goes boldly where no audio has gone before as fans new and old clamor to discover what happens next.

Buy on Amazon.com
Buy On Books-A-Million.com
Buy On Book Depository.com
Find on E-Bay

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Louisiana Sen John Kennedy insinuates comptroller of currency pick is communist during hearing

Saule Omarova, a Cornell Law School professor who was born in Kazakhstan, took part in a confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee.

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Viewing website HTML code is not illegal or hacking prof tells Missouri gov

Professor demands that governor halt “baseless investigation” and apologize.

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“Elvira Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death” Review

Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death: Directed by J.F. Lawton. With Shannon Tweed, Bill Maher, Karen M. Waldron, Adrienne Barbeau. The U.S. government, eager to protect the nation’s avocado supplies, recruits feminist professor Margo Hunt to make contact with the Piranha Women, an all-female tribe who believe men are only good as a source of food.

I was only able to watch about half of this before I gave up, though I did appreciate the first like 10 minutes of it, it’s just too silly of a movie to stay interested in for very long. Elvira does her schtick but it’s not enough to make the movie any better. Also, Bill Maher? As in THE Bill Maher? Yep, that’s him in his much younger days. I didn’t realize that he had a movie career before he got his political talk show.

I’m going to skip the rest of this series and stick to just the original content if I’m going to watch more Elvira, which I just may not even do.

Buy On Amazon!

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Elvira : Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death

Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death: Directed by J.F. Lawton. With Shannon Tweed, Bill Maher, Karen M. Waldron, Adrienne Barbeau. The U.S. government, eager to protect the nation’s avocado supplies, recruits feminist professor Margo Hunt to make contact with the Piranha Women, an all-female tribe who believe men are only good as a source of food.

I was only able to watch about half of this before I gave up, though I did appreciate the first like 10 minutes of it, it’s just too silly of a movie to stay interested in for very long. Elvira does her schtick but it’s not enough to make the movie any better. Also, Bill Maher? As in THE Bill Maher? Yep, that’s him in his much younger days. I didn’t realize that he had a movie career before he got his political talk show.

I’m going to skip the rest of this series and stick to just the original content if I’m going to watch more Elvira, which I just may not even do.

Buy On Amazon!

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Josh Hawley’s former academic mentor “distressed” and “bamboozled” by senator’s actions

Stanford Professor David Kennedy said Hawley gave “credence to the patent falsehood that the election was ‘rigged.'”

Longtime Climate Science Denier Hired At NOAA

David Legates, a professor whose research has been supported by fossil fuel companies, has been hired for a top position at the federal agency that oversees weather and climate forecasting.

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Knowing

Directed by Alex Proyas. With Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson. M.I.T. professor John Koestler links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters and sets out to prevent the ultimate catastrophe.

I honestly didn’t think they’d go in the direction they went with, and by god, I wish more films went to these extremes in story telling.

Buy On Amazon!

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65 faculty members from AG Barr’s law school alma mater say he has ‘failed to fulfill his oath of office’

Law professors and faculty from George Washington University Law School, Attorney General William Barr’s alma mater, said in a letter Tuesday he has “failed to fulfill his oath of office to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States.'”

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The Lord of the Rings One Volume Kindle Edition

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron’s fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index. J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but while he studied classic works of the past, he was creating a set of his own.

Buy On Amazon for only $3!

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X-Men Legacy Prodigal

Legion, the most powerful and unstable mutant in the world, and son to Professor Charles Xavier, has killed gods and reshaped the face of the universe. In the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men, Legion will finally attempt to conquer his demons…and embrace his father’s legacy! Collecting: X-Men Legacy (2012) 1-6

An amazing start to a series that quickly lost me, I loved the first dozen issues, but they seemed to never figure out where they were going with the story.

Luckily I picked these up in a 3/$1 bin, so not much was lost.

Buy On Amazon!

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Comic Pulls from September 18 2019

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Marvel Said To Be Eyeing Ronda Rousey For She-Hulk Role

Based on what we’re hearing, a woman with the ability to both kick ass and entertain is being looked at for the She-Hulk gig.

I think she’d be pretty good at this, especially if they put her through the Disney acting school and hype up the cgi that they use for Professor Hulk.

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Critters Attack

Directed by Bobby Miller. With Tashiana Washington, Ava Preston, Jack Fulton, Jaeden Noel. Follows 20-year-old Drea, who reluctantly takes a job babysitting for a professor of a college she hopes to attend. Struggling to entertain the professor’s children Trissy and Jake, along with her own little brother Phillip , Drea takes them on a hike, unaware that mysterious alien critters have crash-landed and started devouring every living thing they encounter.

This felt exactly like the first few Critters movies, for better or worse. There were a few times that I laughed hilariously out loud at the silly camp horror, I really did enjoy this for what it was.

Also, I don’t think there was even a single second of CGI here, I believe all practical effect were used.

Buy On Amazon!

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Dont Let Students Run the University

Trying to get professors fired because you don’t like their views isn’t activism—it’s preening would-be totalitarianism.

Don’t Let Students Run the University originally appeared on Internet-D on May 7, 2019.

Factoring Humanity review

In 2007, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution. In concert with Kyle’s discoveries of the nature of consciousness, the key to limitless exploration — or the end of the human race — appears close at hand.

Written by Robert J. Sawyer

This was a complete mind bender for me, there’s some high level philosophical quantum cube type of stuff that is both logical and mystifying. The pacing was perfect, though the story was damn uncomfortable towards the beginning.

In all honesty I have no clue how this book ended up on my device or even when it did. I found it there and started reading it without even looking at who the author was, trusting that my past self put some sort of thought into future me wanting to read it. Thanks buddy, you were right!

Stephen Hawking, science’s brightest star, dies aged 76

The physicist and author of A Brief History of Time has died at his home in Cambridge. His children said: We will miss him for ever.

Stargate Command

In 1939, Professor Paul Langford and his daughter Catherine are still grappling with the mysteries of the ancient relic they discovered in the Egyptian desert more than ten years ago. With war looming in Europe and funding running out, these brilliant minds are approaching their lowest ebb. Little do they know, answers are about to present themselves in a dangerous form, when the Nazi Occultist Dr. Wilhelm Brücke approaches their facility with a sinister motive.

Enlisting the help of two young soldiers, Catherine must use all of her wit and nous as she and her new allies embark on an adventure into the unknown to rescue her father, and save the Earth from an unimaginable darkness.

Be the first to see Stargate Origins at StargateCommand.co

Watch Stargate (1994), Stargate SG-1, and more, right now on Stargate Command All Access.

Subscribe for more Stargate Command content from MGM: bit.ly/2sjMjl0

Stargate is the popular science fiction franchise about intergalactic missions through time and space.

from Movies – 2Queue

DJT Talks about the nuclear

Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you’re a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.

Harry Potter Snape’s Patronus Lamp

Always.
For many Harry Potter fans, the loss of Alan Rickman in early 2016 was devastating. His portrayal of Severus Snape melded with and rewrote the professor we knew from the books. Now, when someone says “Snape,” we see only his face. His Severus Snape will hold a special place in our minds and hearts. Always.

Celebrate his legacy with this Harry Potter Snape’s Patronus Lamp. With a small LED, this lamp casts the shadow of Snape’s doe Patronus, reminding us of what the character was ultimately all about. It’s not a light, per se, as much as it is a decoration. You wouldn’t want to read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by it. But the directed illumination creates the magical shadow, a design that only works because there is darkness mixed in with the light. Take that how you will.

Product Specifications

Harry Potter Snape’s Doe Patronus Novelty LED Desk Light
Officially-licensed Warner Brothers’ Harry Potter merchandise
LED glowing light with timer function
Shadow-casting doe Patronus
Off / on / timer switch on base
2 hour / 4 hour / 6 hour timer selection switch on base
Timer remembers when you want it on and repeats duration every 24 hours (if you set it to illuminate for 4 hours, it’ll turn off in 4 hours and turn back on 20 hours after that)
Felt feet on base
Materials: Metal
Batteries: 4 AA (not included)
LEDs are non-replaceable
Dimensions: 6 1/4? tall x ~2 3/4? diameter base
Weight: 11 oz.

ThinkGeek

from Tie In Items – Movie Ties www.movieties.com/harry-potter-snapes-patronus-lamp/

A 20-point guide to defending democracy under Trump

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today:

qz.com/846940/a-yale-history-professors-20-point-guide-to-defending-democracy-under-a-trump-presidency/

Timothy Snyder
Housum Professor of History at Yale University

Deadpool | Red Band Trailer 2

I was too busy getting wasted on PBR and Busch Light over the holiday to post this, but I do have some opinions after watching this trailer a couple dozen times : Ryan Reynold has one more chance, and this is it, and from all indications he’s going to be rolling in Deadpool related cash for a few years.  There’s only been a few actors (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellum, Robert Downey Jr) that have suited their movie rolls so well.  The greatest movie sin of the last 10 years was allowing Deadpool, known as the “Merc With The Mouth” to literally have his mouth sewn shut in Wolverine : Origins.

Quatermass And The Pit

www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/reviews?start=0

Professor Bernard Quatermass, embodied here by Scottish actor Andrew Keir is a scientist entirely composed of tweed and anger. And the more angry he becomes, the more Scottish he gets. Fascinatingly, the basic concept is the same as 2001: A Space Odyssey, except in the original short story The Sentinel there are no ancient astronauts messing about with early humanity and the course of civilization, but there are in the original tv series by Nigel Kneale, written before The Sentinel grew arms and legs and became something much, much bigger. A coincidence? I think not. Government conspiracies, the supernatural, alien invasion (and an alien autopsy!); no wonder Chris Carter approached Kneale to write for The X Files. Burned by Hollywood, he turned him down, but we can dream…

Good News

You’re reading this in Professor Farnsworth’s voice, aren’t you?

Friends Forever… and ever.

David Mason

David Mason, scientist and professor at Fairhaven College, 1979

Teacher statue

“So my university recently built a statue commemorated to a deceased chemistry professor. He passed on 7 years ago. I never had him, but apparently he was really well loved.”

forum.destructoid.com/showthread.php?19230-Random-Pictures-Thread&p=1142098&viewfull=1#post1142098

Liberals teaching our kids!

True story.

Rep Lamar Smith Can’t Hear You

Meet Lamar Smith, representative from Texas, and Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary. As Chairman he can kill any bill he doesn’t like by denying it a hearing while giving priority to the bills he wants to pass, Like SOPA. While addressing the massive outcry over SOPA he stated that:

“It’s a vocal minority. Because they’re strident doesn’t mean they’re either legitimate or large in number. One, they need to read the language. Show me the language. There’s nothing they can point to that does what they say it does do. I think their fears are unfounded.”

Above is a list of people that have pointed at the language, including law professors and computer experts. You have a civil war among video game companies, and the successful boycott of a company. How do you ignore that? It’s an election year. This November. Whatever happens, Texas, please kick this guy out of office.

Please, if you have the ability to, elect this guy out of office.

via Lamar Smith Can’t Hear You – Boing Boing.

Two rednecks decide to go to college…

Two rednecks, Bubba and Cooter, decide to go to college. Bubba goes first, and he is advised to take maths, history and logic.

– “What’s logic?” says Bubba.

– “Well, let me give you an example,” says the professor. “Do you own a tractor?”

– “Sure do,” says Bubba.

– “Okay. Then I assume, using logic, that you have a yard.”

– “That’s real good,” says Bubba, in awe.

– “Logic also tells me that since you have a yard, you also have a house. Is that right?”

– “Gawly!” says Bubba.

– “And since you own a house and a house is tough to take care of by yourself, the odds are that you have a wife. Right?”

– “Betty Mae! This is incredible!”

– “Finally, since you have a wife, logically I can assume you are heterosexual. Is that right?”

– “You are absolutely right! Why that’s the most fascinatin’ thang I ever heerd of. I can’t wait to take this here logic class!”

Bubba, proud of the new world opening up to him, goes back into the hallway where Cooter is waiting.

– “So what classes are ya takin’?” says Cooter.

– “Maths, history and logic,” says Bubba.

– “What in tarnation is logic?”

– “Let me give you an example,” says Bubba. “Do you own a tractor?”

– “No.”

– “Then you’re gay.”

via reddit.

reposted from www.tikiwebgroup.com

X-Men First Class

From left to right, that’s Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Rose Byrne as Dr. Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast, Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok, Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique, and James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier.

dislexic hipster

one of my professor’s is dislexic this term. its horrible to try to copy down the utter shite he writes on the board

The Essay Rickroll

When Redditor Mayniac182 suspected his teacher wasn’t actually reading his essays, he did what any normal computer science student would do. He spent 8 hours formatting it into a Rickroll to see if his teacher would notice.

Full story:

Professor gets Rickrolled in a student’s essay

B Is The New C

His professor sent him an e-mail the following day:

Dear Michael,

Every year I attempt to boost my students’ final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material. For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points.

There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It’s as if you didn’t look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!

May God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely,
Professor William Turner

P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on.
B is the new C

Gravity Separator

In the back of the old professor\’s garage we found . . .

Diamonds will cut glass and more!

_The Professor:_ A diamond is the hardest known substance, inasmuch as
it will cut glass.

_The Cynic:_ Glass! My dear sir, a diamond will even make an impression
on a woman’s heart.

Lambuel and Friends

Grumpy Athiest, Habu the Polytheist, Kanga Jew, Professor Girrafenstien.

Could someone please tell me if this site is sarcasm or seriousness?

Robot Actors

A Wakamaru robot, named Momoko for a performance at Japan’s Osaka University, appears onstage alongside actress Minako Inoue.

The Wakamaru normally a domestic robot is primarily meant as a companion for seniors and the disabled. It uses a laser and cameras to track and identify people, and recognizes approximately 10,000 words necessary for daily life.

Tuesday marked the theatrical debut for the robot, which appeared onstage alongside real-life actors in Hataraku Watashi (“I, Worker”), by playwright Oriza Hirata. The Play focuses on a couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.

The 20-minute production took place at Japan’s Osaka University–where Hirata is also a visiting professor at the Center of the Study of Communication-Design–and was performed for the media ahead of a possible full-scale public run in the next year or so. Hirata and the rest of the project team wrote special software that lets the robots move and deliver the right lines.

Soon all liberal arts majors will be repalced by robots.

Homeric Greece

The location of Ithaca, home island of Odysseus as mentioned in Homer, has long been a matter of debate, since Homer’s description doesn’t match the topography of modern Ithaca.

There’s an interesting Channel 4 video at CNN about team of British scientists including Professor John Underhill of Edinburgh University and Robert Bittlestone of the ‘Odysseus Unbound’ project, who think they’ve found the location of the Homeric Ithaca.

It’s actually a remarkably dull video, which is why I’ve uploaded this amazingly cool map of Homeric Greece from Wikipedia instead of a screencap.

Anyway, the team has used soundwave data to determine that an area that’s now a valley might once have been a channel, and might hide the buried remains of a lost Greek city.

CNN Video:edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/09/07/rush.ithaca.mystery.itn

Steampunk Mouse

For those of you that complained the Steampunk PC was incomplete.

Though the eccentric Professor William C. Ravenscroft remains stingy on details of his “Telecalculograph”, he has recently allowed photography of the device with which its user controls it. These images, as well as speculation upon their contents follows:

One holds the device in a manner similar to the way a wood-worker holds a sanding block. The palm rests upon the “ball” in the foreground, with the fingers extending forward. The middle digit is placed upon the spiked cog, while the pointing-finger and the ring-bearing finger sit on the studded levers on either side. The thumb and small-finger rest comfortably on the side of the cylinder, helping to grip the contraption. The “Bug”, as the Professor calls it, is slid about upon a table top-thusly controlling a mobile indicator upon the Telecalculograph’s display. Push the device away from one’s self, and the arrow “moves” towards the top of the viewing window. When the arrow has been positioned appropriately so that it is pointing at the desired “item” on the glass, the user pushes down upon the various levers to elicit his desired effect. Turning the wheel in the center produces an action similar to turning a page in a book, or cranking a kinetoscope.

Squirtle

Squirtle
Pokémon #007

One of three Pokémon offered by Professor Oak at the beginning of the game. Squirtle start out cute and cuddly but soon evolve into formidable fighters: first Wartortle, then Blastoise. Note: in the game’s early stages, Squirtle tend to fare better against combatants than Charmander.

Type: Water
Height: 0.5 m.
Weight: 9 kg.

EVOLUTION: Squirtle – Wartortle – Blastoise

Puncuation is Everything!

An english professor wrote the words:

“A woman without her man is nothing”

on the chalk board ans asked his students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:

“A Woman, without her man, is nothing.”

All the females in the class wrote:

“A woman: without her, man is nothing.”

Punctuation is powerful.

via bits & pieces