Jaq Greenspon's Blog, page 35

25 Things You Didn’t Know About the World’s Oceans | Mental Floss

Dive into some lesser-known facts about the deep. Source: 25 Things You Didn’t Know About the World’s Oceans | Mental Floss SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Why I teach.

Yesterday, in an offhand conversation, I was asked whether someone should pursue teaching in Lithuania. My immediate response was “not if they want to make a living.” Here, the powers that be are trying to “fix” the education system with all sorts of radical ideas, including combining all of the many and varied universities into […]

This Land is YOUR Land | David Magazine

Visit a National Park this Summer to Celebrate Your Citizenship & the Glory of the Great Outdoors. My latest piece for David! Source: This Land is YOUR Land | David Magazine

Weigh in

So a few month ago, I made a post about my own accountability. I was trying to lose weight and get rid of the belly and all that. And I’m still working on it, but I recently hit a milestone for me and I wanted to make an update to keep up with said accountability. […]

Cinema’s greatest scene: ‘Casablanca’ and ‘La Marseillaise’

Casablanca is widely remembered as one of the greatest films of all time, coming in at #2 on the AFI’s top 100 list and similarly regarded by many other critics. You can quibble with its exact rank, but it’s at least undeniable how iconic Casablanca remains. Even now, more than 70 years after its 1942 release, few movies have […]

This Is the Best Dinosaur Fossil of Its Kind Ever Found

The 110 million-year-old fossil of a nodosaur preserves the animal’s armor, skin, and what may have been its final meal. The 5-year-old in me, who wanted to be a paleontologist, is thrilled beyond measure. The 49-year-old me is almost as stoked. And here’s another piece, from Gizmodo, looking at how it “still has it’s skin.“

You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you – The Oatmeal

A lot of people have been posting this and I’m going to as well. It’s an important thing to understand  – not just for you but for me, too. Source: You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you – The Oatmeal

Roll the d20 for damage…

So I just read this book – Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons by Michael Witwer and my initial thought was that it “Makes me long to find my dice and get a campaign up and running…” This got me thinking about D&D and role-playing and creative endeavors and all that […]

Steve Valentine’s – MAGIC ON THE GO

Okay, so you all know I am an aficionado of the magical arts. That is to say, I loves me a good card trick. I also really enjoy learning the methods and the  psychology behind a great performance of magic as well. This was often the focus of the many articles I wrote for Magic […]

May the Fourth Be With You: Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans

Palette-Swap Ninja, whom I have never heard of before, is a parody band who focus on geek culture. This year, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope and the 50th Anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band they did what anyone would naturally do — mashed up the two. That’s […]