The grainy images of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon have been grist for the moon conspiracy theory mill for decades. The final loss in quality came when Nasa made its US recording of the event–the one always seen in archive footage–by simply placing a 16mm film camera in front of a television monitor in…
For a period of 2 million years, ending with the last ice age around 10,000 B.C., the Earth experienced a series of convulsive glacial events. This rapid-fire climate change meant that humans couldn’t rely on consistent patterns to know which animals to hunt, which plants to gather, or even which predators might be waiting around…
I spent a few hours cleaning up my e-mail archives yesterday. I was amazed of the amount of space that was taken up by 4MB flyers for events I did not attend, 2 MB PDFs of one-page forms that I could have printed out from a 3kb HTML page, and batches of photos (@1MB each) that…
The personality profile is a staple of intro to journalism classes, but newspapers don’t tend to collect all their profiles in one place, so I often have trouble finding models. Entrants in the Hearst Journalism Awards have to supply a profile as part of their application process (which also includes general news and on-the-spot reporting). …
The journalism class that I’m preparing to teach this fall is a writing course, but it’s also very content-heavy — lots of specialized vocabulary, lots of unique professional practices to teach. This fall, I’m not using a big $100 journalism textbook. Instead, I’ll be spending more time with several smaller texts. In place of assigning chapters for…
I’m always on the lookout for interesting stories that one can tell with statistics — and cautionary tales about misusing statistics in order to create news where there isn’t any. Via MetaFilter — this OK Cupid article breaks down responses to user-generated dating profile questions. Green states were more likely to answer “yes” than the…
“What if I had a check on my desk for $5,000? And what if I rewarded the writer whose introduction most caught my attention, who most effectively made me want to continue because of a solid and clear thesis, with a check for five grand? Would your introductions improve even more?” Cries of “Absolutely!” filled…
The first few panels of a 12-panel cartoon. Thanks for the suggestion, Mike. Similar:‘Unexpected item’: how self-checkouts failed to live up to their promiseBusinesses still fret over these issues,…BusinessUp the Long Ladder (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 18) — The Enterprise Visits the Pl…(Rewatching Star Trek: TNG after a 20-ye…EthicsCommon Sense Media's AI Initiative When…
LA100: Basic CompositionEL200: Media Lab and SetonianEL227: News WritingEL237: Writing about LiteratureEL266: American Literature I (1800-1915) Similar:Classroom Project: Students Get 1 Hour to Propose, Shoot, Edit, Publish DocumentaryStudents created this in 60 minutes. …HomeTake that, grass! Eat rotary analog steel.HomeLEGO turned itself around by analyzing overbearing parents[C]hildren play to get oxygen, to unders…CultureKirby Delauter SagaLet’s…
Teen tries out a Walkman for a week. It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact…
This is from the online version of a paper being presented at Hypertext09. I already knew the general shape of the history, and I’m not sure that the author is actually providing us with a new take or a new insight (the introduction simply establishes the facts, rather than emphasizing how a new archival discovery,…
My favorite “winner” in this year’s Lyttle Lytton Contest, which awards writers who can, in one sentence, imitate the infamous “It was a dark and stormy night” novel opening. Alex turned to Gertrude, in much the same way Martin Landau turned to Barbara Bain in the opening of Space: 1999. — Alex Dering Similar:Bound Together…
I can’t say I understand my creation, but it sure was fun making it. Similar:Masks serve many purposes. How sad that they’ve become politicized. I’ve seen the original meme on my so…Current_EventsHow to promote your laser skin clinic effectivelyI rather miss teaching HTML and doing my…AestheticsMan enough to sew my own computer bag. Insecure enough…
A high school secretary has been charged with illegally changing grades in a school computer system to improve her daughter’s class standing and with lowering the grades of two other girls. —Elanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Similar:Journalists: The "Enemy of the American People"; Also, an "Accountability" PollI seem to be educating future enemies of…Current_Events"Look for the…
I just supervised a teaching demonstration in the Writing Popular Fiction program here at Seton HIll, and the experience inspired me to touch up an old handout on developing ideas for short stories. A short story is tight — there is no room for long exposition, there are no subplots to explore, and by the end…
Big, two-dimensional drop-down panels group navigation options to eliminate scrolling and use typography, icons, and tooltips to explain the user’s choices. — Jakob Neilsen Similar:Facebook’s News Feed: Often Changed, Never GreatI’ve never liked Instant Articles — Fac…BusinessColorful variations of an upholstered desk chair for my fantasy #steampunk #blender3d proj…AestheticsGames Without Frontiers: Victory in VomitWired reviews…
Set phasers to “meh”! My wife arranged a visit to The Franklin Institute a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t actually know that this Star Trek exhibit was there. I was ready to pass, in favor of the more educational exhibits, but my wife made it a Father’s Day treat and shelled out enough gold-pressed…
Chris Anderson is best-known for championing the long tail (marketing to the niche customers who fill out the trailing end of a demographics chart, rather than trying to create products to please the mass market) and has been promoting a book on the topic. One of the early reviewers for his book identified great swaths…
Woah! Trying to charge bloggers who quote more than 5 words was bad enough (I no longer quote from or link to AP stories). But the most contentious element in the new policy, which the union also decried as “vague,” gives this instruction to employees using Facebook: “Monitor your profile page to make sure material…
I’ve never been a phone guy. My voicemail recording advises people to e-mail me rather than wait for me to remember to check my messages. Around 2004, I told a class of students that I didn’t use instant messager because I would have nobody to talk to. I got a generous “awww!” of pity from…