Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

“Just make sure that you spell everything wrong and swear a lot.” Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids Similar:Facebook’s News Feed: Often Changed, Never GreatI’ve never liked Instant Articles — Fac…BusinessAstronaut Luca Parmitano describes near-drowning experience in spaceWith water already obscuring his vision,…Current_EventsDr Jerz I think your microphone glitchedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPqnXF7A…AcademiaDid you see that…

Stop the Presses

The economic reality of working in journalism in the present economy: good people are losing their jobs. For the past several years, largely as a result of free news and classifieds on the Internet, ad revenues and circulation have been sinking for newspapers nationwide. Sun management and their bosses at the Chicago-based Tribune Company, which owns the paper, have…

Dungeons & Dragons: The Animated Series

Clever DVD Verdict review (written by recent SHU graduate Mike Rubino) DM: You pick up Dungeons & Dragons: The Animated Series, and find that it is lighter than expected. Your nostalgia level receives a +5 for the next nine hours and 54 minutes. (Thanks for the link, Josh.) Similar:WTAE-TV's Wendy Bell fired over racially inflammatory…

The Medium – Facebook Exodus

“The more dependent we allow ourselves to become to something like Facebook — and Facebook does everything in its power to make you more dependent — the more Facebook can and does abuse us,” Harmsen explained by indignant e-mail. “It is not ‘your’ Facebook profile. It is Facebook’s profile about you.” — Virginia Heffernan, New…

At Last, A Graph That Explains Scifi TV After Star Trek

In 1970, the gap between shows featuring magic and shows featuring more science-based themes is fairly wide, which may be related to the relative cost of producing the different types of shows; Captain Kirk required pricey sets and a makeup crew while Samantha Stevens just needed a film editor and the ability to wiggle her…

Obama's September 8 Address to School Children

If this were a Monday, I might have had my “News Writing” students watch it during class, since many of them are education majors (and a fair number of them admitted they were only in the class because their teaching certificate program requires the course). This is the first time an American president has spoken…

Pittsburgh paper to launch 'members-only' website

As US newspaper publishers mull charging readers on the Web, a Pennsylvania daily announced plans on Monday to put some content behind a pay wall. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said “PG+” would be a “members-only website with interactive features and exclusive content” available to subscribers for 36 dollars a year or for 3.99 dollars a month.…

Disney to buy Marvel in $4bn deal

Is your Spidey-sense tingling? Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men.–BBC Similar:Presidential RhetoricCultureNetflix’s ‘The Piano Lesson’ adaptation breaks cycle by not filming in PittsburghVery glad to see another of August Wilso…BusinessWhy our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreamingNeil Gaiman tells us why books matter:Wh…BooksApocalypse Rising #StarTrek…

Mugged Shadyside man tracks suspects by GPS

A technology win from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Rather and Potter emptied the victim’s pockets of his cell phone and wallet and told the victim to “get out of here,” police said. The victim ran off while Rather and Potter headed toward Fifth Avenue, police said. When officers showed up at the victim’s home, he was…

Radio News Delivery: How to Sound Like a Radio Broadcaster

Listen to a short news broadcast, such as the NPR Hourly News Summary. These stories will typically include audio clips from newsmakers, and perhaps the noise of crowds or nature. But we’re just focusing on the sound of the radio journalist’s voice. Don’t try to sound like “an announcer.” Forget the barking style of voice that radio announcers always…

Birdhouse: Existential Philosophy, Biology, Aesthetics, and Re-enactment of a Literary Entombment

Similar:I played hooky from work to see Wild Robot with my familyI played hooky to go see Wild Robot this…AestheticsDani Girl (Oct 1-3, 2015) at the Geyer Performing Arts CenterVinnie Tresco, Carolyn Jerz, Matthew Hom…CultureIf watching this clip of Punjabi dancers in Ireland doesn't make you happy, I don't know w…https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/13721…AestheticsMy Kids Loved Narnia but…

'Reading Workshop' Approach Lets Students Pick the Books

[L]ast fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign “Mockingbird” — or any novel. Instead she turned over all the decisions about which books to read to the students in her seventh- and eighth-grade English classes at Jonesboro Middle School in this south Atlanta suburb. Among their choices: James…

Verizon, you are so amusing.

I’ve long been annoyed by the fact that Verizon hijacks my URL typos and sends me to its own lame search service. The opt-out instructions are designed to look pretty ominous, so I decided I’d call Verizon customer support, and have them do a remote connect to my computer and perform the procedure for me.…

Sports hooligan evolves advanced stadium camoflage skill

Dude! Your shirt looks just like the blue walkway and the brown sand! How do you do that? From the MailOnline, via. Similar:The Wounded (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 12) O'Brien's Former Captain Goe…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….DramaText Adventure Geeks Rejoice: Major Inform7 UpdateI have final grades, an annual report, a…Current_EventsDéjà Q (#StarTrek…

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

OMG! The prez is in ur internet, killin ur freedomz! The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the…

Tonight… "Slowly the news spreading…" on TV

Tonight on Channel 4 Action News at 11, Seton Hill University students reflecting on what they learned by watching a half hour of local Channel 4 Action TV News. We go now to Channel 4 Action News at 11 reporter Dennis Jerz, with this live Channel 4 Action News at 11 report. I had my…

Ominous Music Heard Throughout U.S. Sends Nation Into Panic

A couple days ago, I posted to Twitter about hearing a strange whining noise, which didn’t seem to change in volume when I moved inside or outside. Later I realized it was my voice recorder in my fanny pack. So this story hit home with me. Ominous Music Heard Throughout U.S. Sends Nation Into Panic…

Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

With this Wired article, Clive Thompson put me into a happy place, and I wanted to share it. He’s quoting Andrea Lunsford: “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” she says. For Lunsford, technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving…

Wikipedia Will Limit Changes on Articles About Living People

Although Wikipedia has prevented anonymous users from creating new articles for several years now, the new flagging system crosses a psychological Rubicon. It will divide Wikipedia’s contributors into two classes — experienced, trusted editors, and everyone else — altering Wikipedia’s implicit notion that everyone has an equal right to edit entries. That right was never…

Student writing is getting worse- or wait, it's getting better!

Wonderful stuff from Steven Krause. Representing the world champion, the “going to hell in a hand-basket,” the eternal the youth are getting worse and worse, and carrying on the tradition of complaining about students that dates back in western culture to at least Isocrates, I give you Stanley Fish’s “What Should Colleges Teach?” on his…