I am not too happy about the way wild conclusions drawn from this self-published research periodically pop up in the media. Kudos to Liberman, from Language Log, who tries (yet again) to explain. The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness The best way to describe this, I think, would be to say something like: In the…
If language is as instinctive to humans as dam-building is to beavers, if every 3-year-old is a grammatical genius, if the design of syntax is coded in our DNA and wired into our brains, why, you might wonder, is the English language in such a mess? Why does the average American sound like a gibbering fool every time he opens his mouth or puts pen…
I believe that the underlying facts about the Wikipedia phenomenon — that the general public is actually intelligent, interested in sharing knowledge, interested in getting the facts straight — are so shocking to most old media people that it is literally impossible for them to report on Wikipedia without following a storyline that goes something…
Okay, this is my one frivolity before diving into my hell Monday (featuring an unbroken stretch of three back-to-back classes and a committee meeting): According to a Natural Resources Defense Council survey, 78 percent of sinister one-eyed industrialists based in the Arctic have been forced to relocate their powerful underworld shadow governments, with many now…
Yes, I interact with students via e-mail and the Web. And computers can be great for teaching when it’s difficult or impossible for students to get to a brick-and-mortar classroom. But for me, teaching involves f2f (there, you see, I’ve gone and used a computer term in a sentence). I want to listen to students…
Silly headline, from a University of Washington press release. Second, fourth and sixth grade children with and without handwriting disabilities were able to write more and faster when using a pen than a keyboard to compose essays, according to new research. The study, headed by Virginia Berninger, a University of Washington professor of educational psychology…
It’s a transparent ploy to get Google rank via incoming links, but it’s also a great piece of investigative reporting. By Chandler Phillips. “We would hire you here at Edmunds.com. Then you would go out and get a job as a car salesman and work for three months.” “Selling cars?” I asked unnecessarily. “Right.” “Where…
Kanye West has tried to apologize twice, once on his blog and once on Jay Leno. He blew it both times. In each case he referred to having stolen Taylor’s moment. West doesn’t understand that what he did was wrong, threatening and self-centered. He simply acknowledged that his completely narcissistic behavior cut into another celebrity’s…
[F]our-year degrees typically require two luxuries Solvig didn’t have: years of time out of the workforce, and a great deal of money. Luckily for Solvig, there were new options available. She went online looking for something that fit her wallet and her time horizon, and an ad caught her eye: a company called StraighterLine was…
Google’s FastFlip is the newest media toy. The service is meant to duplicate the look and feel of perusing a printed publication. The stories are displayed on electronic pages that can be quickly scrolled through by clicking on large arrows on the side instead of a standard Web link that requires waiting several seconds for…
In his Inside Higher Ed blog, Joshua Kim writes: A transformative step that learning technologists can participate in proposing, pushing, guiding, leading, managing and maintaining would be providing a campus-wide blogging platform and institutional aggregation site. Here are some guidelines for what this could look like… Here is the text of a comment I posted:…
I’m not sure many people really care that today marks the 10th anniversary of the date that the moon was supposed to have blasted out of Earth’s orbit in the British sci-fi show Space: 1999, but here’s a YouTube clip that presents an alternate opening of Star Trek, redone in the style of Space: 1999.…
Factual errors in live TV reports led to a security incident on the Potomac river today. Erroneous live cable news reports on CNN and Fox had said that the Coast Guard was firing shots on the river. CNN reported the Coast Guard had fired 10 rounds at a suspicious boat, and showed vessels circling in…
Assistant Professor of Composition/English Institution: Seton Hill UniversityLocation: Greensburg, PACategory: Faculty – Liberal Arts – English and LiteraturePosted: 09/09/2009Application Due: 11/13/2009Type: Full TimeNotes: included on Affirmative Action emailSeton Hill University seeks specialist in Composition/Writing Studies for tenure-track, Assistant Professor of English, beginning fall 2010. The faculty member will teach composition and related courses in the…
The Seton Hill registrar describes how her devotion to mathematics and logic has helped her serve her community. “Nearly everything I need to know, and that I currently believe, I think I’ve learned at school board meetings…. I’ve survived seven elections, I’ve been beaten up by the press, made deep friendships and bitter enemies. I’ve…
For anyone who’s ever forgotten something or someone they wish they could remember, a bit of solace: Though the memory is hidden from your conscious mind, it might not be gone. —Wired Similar:University disavows chocolate milk, concussions studyThe University of Maryland on Friday dis…AcademiaMars Is a Hellhole: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way…
U.S. citizens will soon be able to log in to government websites using their Google account, or the URL of their Yahoo profile. It’s a significant embrace of the open and emerging tech standards the Obama administration promised. —Wired Similar:They Smiled Too!Victorians had to stay still for 3 secon…AestheticsLet's face it, it's time to give…
Not as cleverly written as that video that has a line or two about each U.S. president (which I can’t locate at the moment) but still very nicely done. Similar:Why I Still BlogI particularly value blogging because of…AcademiaFor Two Months, I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here’s What I Learned.Farhad Manjoo says he’s a…
From the president’s prepared remarks to school children, scheduled for tomorrow. Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide. Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe…
A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably…