Working Part-Time by Choice

Being of the generation that wanted to both bring home the bacon and fry it, I didn’t plan on going back to part-time work, and neither did many of my friends and colleagues who have done so. But we all had an eye open for opportunities and were willing to go out on a professional…

Battlestar Galactica ‘Launch When Ready’ Bridge Girl Fan Page (updated with links to archived pages)

—Battlestar Galactica ‘Launch When Ready’ Bridge Girl Fan Page (Wayback Machine’s archive of SarahRush.com) Today my five-year-old son was watching one of my wife’s old Battlestar Galactica videotapes, and I remembered that when I was about 11 I had a crush on the cute bridge crewmember who told the Viper pilots stuff like “Transferring core command to…

Branded anything but Unique

A trend for naming children after favourite possessions is accelerating in brand-driven America. | The records show that in 2000, 49 children were named Canon, followed by 11 Bentleys, five Jaguars and a Xerox. —John Harlow —Branded anything but Unique (news.com.au) The title refers to the fact that there were 24 children named Unique in 2000.

Idaville Detective 'Encyclopedia' Brown Found Dead in Library Dumpster

“Detective Brown’s death is a great loss,” said Idaville Police Commissioner Rupert “Bugs” Meany, a longtime critic of Brown’s unorthodox investigative technique who nevertheless appeared to be shaken by the murder. “Thanks to him, Idaville has the highest arrest-to-conviction-due-to-obscure-trivia rate in the nation. I believe I speak for everyone in Idaville when I say that…

Book explores eugenics' origins

In his new book, War Against the Weak, investigative reporter Edwin Black makes the case that 20th century American proponents of eugenics — the belief that controlled breeding can improve humanity — had substantive ties to the architects of Hitler’s racial extermination machine. — Dan Vergano —Book explores eugenics’ origins (USA Today) A student in my…

Annotated Bibliography on Gender & Language

Not only does the author give examples that avoid sexist language, it differentiates between those which are stylistically desirable and those which are stylistically awkward. The site also explains the difference between gender neutral and non-sexist language, something that could be very helpful for students trying to understand sexist language. The author asks (but does…

'Do not call' list faces more hang-ups

The House and Senate voted Thursday to grant the Federal Trade Commission explicit authority to create a national “do not call” list for telemarketers, but the move prompted a second federal judge to block the move. —‘Do not call’ list faces more hang-ups (CNN) An amusing side note… the judge who initially blocked the motion has…

Crisis in Scholarly Publishing

The bottom line is that scholarly publishing isn’t financially feasible as a business model — never was, never was intended to be, and should not be. If scholarship paid, we wouldn’t need university presses. —The Invisible Adjunct —Crisis in Scholarly Publishing (Invisible Adjunct)

The Invisible Library

The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library’s catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound. —The Invisible Library I think I blogged this a long time ago. It’s not in my…

New Doctor Who TV series

Doctor Who is coming back to BBC One in 2005. It will be a new live-action series, written by Russell T Davies. —New Doctor Who TV series  (BBCi/Doctor Who News) My son Peter will be thrilled, as will my wife. She has old videotapes from her teenaged years, and pulled them out to amuse our…

Nothing Matters

Teachers should teach nothing. Students should learn nothing. Students should know nothing. Nothing is worth teaching. Nothing is worth learning…. —Nothing Matters Read the whole thing — I’ve had students stop after the first section, but the whole page expresses a single unified thought that develops from the first “Nothing Matters” section. I’ve blogged this…