Katherine Wikoff

Professor at @MSOE. PhD in English (rhetoric). Digital storytelling, digital society, content design, film/media studies, political science, communication.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

A journey down the rabbit hole, prompted by my need to monitor the weather for approaching thunderstorms in order to give my dog trazodone appropriately and winding up at new insights on gymnastics by way of an etymological detour around Sault Ste. Marie. https://t.co/aM5aFcMXQt

[Scott Myers @GoIntoTheStory]

William Zinsser: "The hard part of writing isn’t the writing; it’s the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?" #writing

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

The connotations of “authentic” seem SO different from its oldest root word.

In Ancient Greek, αὐθέντης (authéntēs) means “perpetrator, murderer, absolute ruler.”

Versus today’s “original,” genuine,” and “trustworthy.” 😮

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@joshm Possibly AI agents are seen at this point as similar to a Rube Goldberg machine that solves “problems” viewed by the general public as not particularly difficult or distasteful. Thus, the lack of interest in handing such tasks off to AI and even less in “transforming” their lives

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@theseoguy_ Interesting that success in AI search seems to be so old school: having solid, consistent, authentic website content and delivering reliable, responsive, professional service. Nice knowing it’s a strategy that requires fewer tricks and is less vulnerable to the whims of Google.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@CindyBegel I don’t think AI will replace people or leave everyone jobless. It will change the jobs. People will be functioning at a higher level to guide and orchestrate the output of AI tools.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@CindyBegel AI is like religion and politics—taboo. Those who see AI as a moral, existential issue will judge you harshly and hate you for using it. Using the tool well = phenomenal work quality. Extreme magnification of your own skill and talent. “Offloading” effort to AI = garbage (GIGO).

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

252 years ago today, the British Empire closed the busiest port in North America to teach one colony a lesson, and accidentally turned thirteen colonies into one country.

On December 16, 1773, a few dozen Bostonians had thrown 342 chests of East India Company tea into the harbor. The damages came to roughly £9,659. Lord North, the Prime Minister, decided to make an example. Parliament passed the Boston Port Act. King George III signed it on March 31, 1774. It took effect at dawn on June 1.

The Royal Navy moved warships into Boston Harbor and dropped anchor. Every dock was sealed. No ship could enter or leave. Not a barrel of flour, not a load of firewood, not a letter. The port would stay closed until Boston paid the East India Company in full and promised to behave.

The intent was to isolate Massachusetts and force her neighbors to watch her starve.

What happened instead is one of the strangest political miracles in modern history.

Down in Williamsburg, a 31 year old burgess named Thomas Jefferson and a few friends, including Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, pulled a dusty old book off the shelf of the House of Burgesses library, a record of how the Long Parliament had once handled a tyrant, and proposed that the entire colony of Virginia observe June 1, 1774 as a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" in solidarity with Boston.

The Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, dissolved the House two days later for treason. The burgesses simply walked across the street to the Raleigh Tavern and kept meeting.

June 1 came. In Virginia, every Anglican church was draped in black. The bells tolled all day. Plantation owners shut their doors. Jefferson wrote later that "the effect of the day through the whole colony was like a shock of electricity."

The same shock ran through every colony south of New England. Wagon trains of food started rolling toward Boston from as far away as Charleston. The Marblehead fishermen offered to give the Boston merchants the use of their docks for free. A Quaker miller in Pennsylvania sent a hundred barrels of flour. Israel Putnam personally drove a herd of sheep from Connecticut to feed the city.

Three months later, 56 delegates from twelve colonies sat down together in Philadelphia. It was called the First Continental Congress. None of them had ever met under one roof before.

Parliament wanted to punish a city. It created a nation.

252 years ago today, in a harbor full of Royal Navy frigates, the American Revolution stopped being a Massachusetts problem.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@hjluks @mackinprof @BradSchoenfeld @AbigailMackey1 Thanks! Encouraging news not often heard: “Chronological age is not the barrier to building muscle that most people assume. Older adults respond well when training is dosed appropriately. I won’t bury that lede”

[Zohar Atkins @ZoharAtkins]

https://t.co/9FY4UbGAc3

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

Miller Valley, Milwaukee

[Johnny B. Good @Cat5SMASHICANE]

Baseball can sometimes feel a little boring. This play was absolutely the highlight of the week when it happened. We definitely need to see more of this. 💯😲🤣

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@ihteshamali A real polymath and Renaissance man

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@ihteshamali And presumably everyone who’s ever taken Communication 101 has seen some version of the Shannon and Weaver model. Ironically, I came to know Claude Shannon through my English/rhetoric PhD studies. https://t.co/3Y4VdCbVW3

[Bilim Dünyası @dunyasalbilim]

Basit ve güzel bir anlatımla " tüm çokgenlerin dış açılarının toplamının neden 360 derce olduğunun ispatı. Hiç bir çocuk bu şekilde anlatıldığında bunu unutmaz.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@lemire You had me at “as good as or better than.” Love that a computer science department chair understands sentence structure better than many English majors! My narrative program assessment was dismissed as “anecdotal fluff”—but way better imo than their meaningless graphs and charts.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@storyandplot Me, too! Everything you said. So many “nailed it” moments and a plot that triumphantly pulls everything together at the end.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@tferriss Einstein was, of course, very smart. But he was not smart about everything.

[Katherine Wikoff @KatherineWikoff]

@pnickdurham Laundry?