Good editing skills and random, candid video = 2 minutes of awesomeness. This is why I love the internet. Takes just a tad too long to get started — give it about 45 seconds before you decide to bail out. You’ll be hooked by the second time you see the flip-flops. Via. “Ah-ah-ah ooh, ah-ah,…
Thanks, Karissa, for sending this collection of reasons why it makes sense to be careful when you post photos online.. 5. Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum What do you do with a drunken pirate? Throw her in the brig–or, if you’re Millersville University, deny her a teaching degree. That’s what happened to…
At the beginning of last semester, when I called roll in a class that included a student with the last name “Gearhart,” I have been telling steampunk bedtime stories to my kids (Peter, 10; and Carolyn, 6). Each night, after my daughter has finished the tooth-brushing and prayer-saying, in total darkness I try to advance…
I should admit to myself.. that SD card reader is gone. It’s gone. I didn’t lose any important data, but it was a 2G card. Sigh. Similar:My parents holding a picture of the family I took with my first SLR camera in 1987.PersonalWe celebrate the good life of my father, George Joseph Jerz “Be straight…
I haven’t seen the ads in question, but thought this InformationWeek commentary was blogworthy. “Some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software,” Microsoft concedes. No, probably everyone who watched the ad is wondering what shoes and Seinfeld have to do with software.…
Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (a government website that identifies research backing up good web design practices). Similar:Woah there, online tech site. Let's not set that bar too high, now.I just saw the following clickbait for a…Current_EventsJournalism 101: I fixed this meme for you.I can sympathize with the sentiment, but…CultureTwo stunning hugs end Amber…
A wonderfully expressive, almost wordless essay on language, problem-solving, and code.The Synonym Problem (See also Jono DiCarlo’s “These Things I Believe” — a humanist manifesto about computer code.) Similar:Clickbait writers hate this English professor's time-saving trick!Defeat clickbaiters with this one weird …CybercultureIn October, 2000, I was blogging about bobbed hair, Woolf, a CFP for interactive…
Groklaw has a good analysis of the recent Harry Potter Lexicon smackdown. Fair use good, too much verbatim copying bad. The fact is, Rowling and her editor led the defendant on with praise of his website work, such that there was a suggestion by him that he might be the editor of the official encyclopedia,…
A financial researcher comes across a six-year-old article about United Airlines. Thinking it is a current news story, he summarizes it, then republishes the summary out of context. Within 10 minutes, a mass panic hits shareholders who are responding to his summary. More than a billion dollars evaporates into thin air. Tribune Co. said Wednesday…
Great news for those interested in the first draft of history. (Not-so-great news for those worried about Google’s increasing control over so many kinds of information.) C|Net Google is making searchable, digital copies of old newspapers available online through partnerships with their publishers, the company said Monday. Under the ad-supported effort, Google will digitize millions…
Most gamers have never heard of Braunstein. Sad but true. In the hierarchy of self-awareness you’ll find the circle of gamers who know what D&D is (a very, very large circle), then inside of that is the circle of gamers who know what Greyhawk is (large but smaller), and inside that the circle who knows…
Great little vignette highlighting the perils of live TV reporting. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell demonstrates the perils of live television as she gamely tries to report from the Republican National Convention during the midst of a major balloon drop in this clip that’s amusing the chattering class the day after the two-week convention marathon has come…
A former student sent me a link to a Republican spoof of FaceBook, BarackBook. It’s an interesting piece of new media campaigning, where the RNC has created an entire Facebook parody displaying the social network of Barack’s friends. I know you go to great lengths to remain unbiased in the classroom (which is awesome!) but…
Great use of 3D technology to enable the study of an historic art form. Virtual Vaudeville: Watch legendary comedian Frank Bush in a vaudeville performance from a variety of perspectives in the theater, from the most expensive boxes to the cheapest balcony seats. Compare the reactions of different spectators and even experience the act through…
Whenever ice cream sales rise, so do shark attacks (eating ice cream makes you tastier?) (Part of a great series by the BBC. Bookmarked for a future journalism class.) Similar:The only snow alert you'll ever need.AmusingPlaying video games linked to breast-feeding, not crimeGreat piece from Ben Kuchera at Ars Tech…AmusingPicking a rubric in Canvas should…
Because the children were rarely bored – at least, when a television was nearby – they never learned how to use their own imagination as a form of entertainment. “The capacity to daydream enables a person to fill empty time with an enjoyable activity that can be carried on anywhere,” Belton says. “But that’s a…
Sounds like a promising peek behind the curtain at Wired. I’ll watch this for a while and see whether I can use it in my journalism classes. What Is This? An almost-real-time, behind-the-scenes look at the assigning, writing, editing, and designing of a Wired feature. You can see more about the design process on Wired…
I’m always amused when the TV reports from storm landfalls are peppered with statements such as, “There’s nobody here but reporters.” Who needs fairness, objectivity, and nuance when there’s a storm a-brewin? Who needs balance, when you’ve got a pole to lean against? Oh, the drama of the live storm stand-up! TV correspondents bellowing while…
This article should be required reading for all aspiring writers and professionals — not just women. I have spent too much time being rattled by terse e-mail from editors, agents who have told me that I’d never get a book deal, and bosses who have berated me as not being “detail-oriented.” I think that in…
Last year a colleague in the English department described a conversation in which a friend revealed a dirty little secret: “I use Wikipedia all the time for my research–but I certainly wouldn’t cite it.” This got me wondering: How many humanities and social sciences researchers are discussing, using, and citing Wikipedia? — Lisa Spiro When…