In September 1999 I was blogging about Tom Stoppard, techno-utopianism, voice-recognition software, and Edgar Rice Burroughs

In September 1999, I was blogging about What makes a play worth seeing twice, according to Tom Stoppard The then-unrealistic expectations of voice-recognition software A critique of the “information wants to be free” mantra A Microsoft exec who predicted that digital publication would eclipse print publication within a decade How marketers are pushing your buttons with the help of technology and semiotic theory The storytelling genius and embedded racism of…

Pagers, Pay Phones, and Dialup: How We Communicated on 9/11

For much of the day, those aboard Air Force One with the President of the United States were less informed than the average American sitting at home watching CNN.

Yellow Journalism Did Not Cause the Spanish-American War (Role of Sensationalized Headlines Often Exaggerated)

When a correspondent sent to Cuba to cover a possible war telegraphed that there would be no war and he wanted to come home, Newspaper mogul Willam Randolph Hearst is said to have replied, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.” It’s a story I remember learning in middle school. But there’s no contemporary evidence of this exchange, which would never have been permitted by…

Thank you, male ballet dancers everywhere, for making moments like this possible.

In August 1999 I was blogging about Poohsticks Bridge, penmanship, Archimedes, and ebooks

In August 1999, I was blogging about Conservation efforts at Poohsticks Bridge A Penmanship camp in Philadelphia Recovering the only known copy of a lost work by the Greek mathematician Archimedes (erased by a 10th-century monk who scraped off the writing to reuse the parchment) Fourth-graders using e-books at Resurrection Catholic School in Dayton, Ohio Noted bibliophile Sven Birkerts having a disappointing encounter with ebooks

Unplugging for a Few Hours at Spruce Flats Bog

Visited a bog created when loggers cleared part of a forest. Laurel Summit State Park.

Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)

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