E-mail error ends up on road sign

Thanks, Mike, for pointing out this one, which is a close second to “Translate Server Error.” The English is clear enough to lorry drivers – but the Welsh reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.” When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road…

Chronicle and HBO Win Excellence in Sports Journalism Awards

Some award-winning sports journalism. Filing it away for future reference. Similar:Valentines for Journalists Mark S. Luckie, MediumAestheticsTrump, Obama seem equally disinterested in portrait unveiling — but journalism takes hits…On social media recently I saw people mo…AestheticsNews report from 1981 about the Internet.A human interest story about an early ex…BusinessJudge rules Jim Acosta can have his…

A Self-Referential Story

One of my freshmen recently submitted a paper about how to overcome writer’s block.  It reminded me of this story, which I came across many years ago and was able to find again fairly quickly with Google. Fun stuff. The purpose of this sentence (which can also serve as a paragraph) is to speculate that…

Our Readers' Coolest Geek-o'-Lanterns

From Wired: Similar:Bloodlines (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 22) Angry Ferengi threatens a son Pi… Rewatching ST:TNG The Ferengi whose r…PopCultRandom gauge design, for background details in a fantasy #steampunk project. #blender3d #b… AestheticsGetting to the Point in Academic Writing Don’t spend three pages establishing…Designxkcd: Types of Editorsxkcd: Types of Editors.AmusingWhen the Bough Breaks…

Technology Review: Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth

My colleague David Stanley links to this article. Many people, especially academic experts, have argued that Wikipedia’s articles can’t be trusted, because they are written and edited by volunteers who have never been vetted. Nevertheless, studies have found that the articles are remarkably accurate. The reason is that Wikipedia’s community of more than seven million…

10 Ways to Get Your Writing Out There

Jim  Munroe, a Toronto indie new media author whose work I’ve been following for some time, recently published this useful article on building an audience. Of course he mentions self-published print zines and blogs, but he also mentions another subject I’ve been introducing my students to this term… 6. TEXT ADVENTURE VIDEOGAMESAnyone out there play…

Yahoo's Blistering Buzzword Barrage

I logged onto Yahoo and found that my profile had been changed. The first of Yahoo’s “Top Questions” is “What happened to my profile?” but the link just goes to the aggressively cheerful “Welcome to the Profiles Tutorials!” page, which does not actually answer the question. Another question is “What happened to my alias profile?“,…

To Do

Teaching: Midterm Grades (w00t!) LA100 (14 Oct) EL200 (16 Oct) EL236 (16 Oct) EL405 (16 Oct) Administration/Advising Submit two recommendations (Oct 15) Program Review Executive Summary (Draft Oct 17; awaiting reviews) Advising Grids Internal proposal for a summer outreach project Research Submit co-authored article (been sitting on it for months) Finish article for anthology (probably…

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html I’d like to be able to link to specific details on the map, but I don’t think it’s possible. I’d never heard of the “Argument Slide” before.  The “concept visualization” cluster is probably most useful for teaching my freshman writing students.  I’m taking a quick break from marking midterms, and I only glanced at…