It's hard to be excited about the Artemis III mission announcements when the CEO of the company making one of the mission's rockets has spent his week inciting racial violence via his personal social media platform.

If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

The America 250 stuff feels very pizza party after layoffs coded.

If you know Boston, you’ll appreciate this. A perfect Storrowing! (Photo from reddit - www.reddit.com/r/boston/s/R...)

Real talk, if you’re using AI to generate feedback instead of grading student material yourself, resign. Just quit. You never wanted to be an educator in the first place.

Your morning random comic panel:

It is hard for me to look at predictions markets and not see a deeply dystopian creation meant to reflect the darkest impulses of our world. I don't know what it will look like for culture to hit rockbottom with internet gambling, but I hope we move beyond it in my lifetime.

[P] Contrary to rumors, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes will not be performing at the "Great American State Fair".

It is a really bad sign that some of the most resourced universities in US higher education are laying off librarians to close budget gaps.

I'm the Dungeon Master for this ridiculous undertaking:

Hey, we just started a brand new campaign of Total Party Kill over at @theincomparable.com; it’s a great place to jump in with our fun and frequently ridiculous D&D shenanigans. I’m playing Squeak, a gnome cook turned warlock after he overclocked a grill. www.theincomparable.com/tpk/555/

What if taxing the rich works?

New ongoing Total Party Kill adventure starting up, a great jumping on point for new listeners! www.theincomparable.com/tpk/555/

ja fragt euch mal

It's me, talking about Star Wars, as usual!

Mandalorian & Grogu is absolutely bonkers.

I enjoyed the new Star Wars movie.

This week I wrote about "Thoughts on Learning Styles" www.patreon.com/posts/though...

a member's only post on my blog: What can we learn from the Canvas outage? www.patreon.com/posts/what-c...

I feel betrayed by the pronunciation of forecastle

Wow, Canvas paid ShinyHunters to get their data back:

Massachusetts in one picture.

I'll say this: most graduate speeches are completely forgettable, and this avoids that... But yeah, rule 1 of speaking: know your audience!

This season of Maul - Shadow Lord concludes, and your Star Wars pals @dmoren.com, Kat, and @tonysindelar.bsky.social are here to discuss who survives, the strengths of animation, and Crimson Dawn’s reporting structure. www.theincomparable.com/acp/111/

Universities Suspend Final Exams After Canvas Hack The breach of the learning management system used by two out of every five North American higher ed institutions continues to reverberate. https://bit.ly/4tqq347 #EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

‘PAY OR LEAK’: Hackers Target Big Higher Ed Vendor The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters breached Instructure last week. The hackers, who have also attacked individual universities, demanded the ed-tech giant pay up or face a data leak. https://bit.ly/42mvUfM #EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

This week I wrote about "Instructional design as Unlicensed Therapy" www.patreon.com/posts/instru...

In this podcast episode, we discuss the movie SINNERS. We enjoyed it! www.theincomparable.com/theincompara...

Did you know I have a podcast where I talk about every new Star Wars thing? Well I do:

After a longer than expected absence, your Star Wars pals @dmoren, @tsindelar and Kat return to cover not two but *four* episodes of Maul - Shadow Lord. We discuss keeping car chases interesting, Inquisitor nomenclature and the five successful habits of Sith Lords. theincomparable.com/acp/110

Teaching and Learning Centers Are Good, Actually

The Chronicle of Higher Education ran my column defending teaching and learning centers against a wrongheaded attack: www.chronicle.com/article/teac...

ikea has this new storage chest for kid's rooms that looks like a mimic, and I applaud this kind of thinking. it's good to teach children about the dangers of mimics early, so they don't fall prey to one the first time they go adventuring

Next week on the chronicle of higher ed: Writing centers are guilty of witchcraft! All academic librarians are radioactive! Postdocs are incapable of feeling pain! And other truths only a tenured crank can reveal!

I was just contacted by a reporter asking for comment about the whole Pluto planet thing. Hanging on by a thread over here.

This week I wrote about "The Context Sandwich" www.patreon.com/posts/contex...

My response to “Why Pedagogy ‘Experts’ Are Wrong” www.patreon.com/posts/in-res...

Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

So very Chapel Hill, NC: I’m at The Gathering Place, a collectible card gamers’ bar, and a dad is dungeon-mastering for five middle school girls. He lets them know that the dragon they're fighting has turned its attention to the one of them in leather armor. “VINYL armor,” she sternly corrects him.

My response to “Why Pedagogy ‘Experts’ Are Wrong” www.patreon.com/posts/in-res...

In this superman comic, a young Kal-El gets in trouble in school for writing his homework himself instead of using AI:

Holy cats, this is a terrible article on the great danger posed to higher ed by... teaching and learning centers? www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

People complain about the male loneliness crisis but then god forbid men try to have social hobbies

One of the things that I just kind of take as given about my field (learning design and faculty development) is that it will be perpetually ignored, unappreciated, and under resourced.