Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines

Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (a government website that identifies research backing up good web design practices). Similar:Narrative, Creativity, and EvolutionMy students are finishing up Hayles, My …AcademiaBoys And Girls Memorize Words DifferentlyGirls were more likely to memorize words…CultureUnscheduled Disasters in Journalism: Learn to DealIn school, we expect our professors to a…AcademiaMy Ouya arrived.My…

Not The User's Fault

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:Audisee Presents: The War of the WorldsAs new age synthesizer music, a rich bar…BooksBuilding a ridiculous amount of detail as I create tiles for distant sections of…

Google raising newspaper morgues from the dead

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…

Andrea Mitchell vs. the Balloons

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…

BarackBook

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…

See the Show!

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…

Just because?

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:Microsoft's Bing AI Now Threatening Users Who Provoke It: "If I had to choose between your…According to screenshots posted by …Current_EventsCaptive Pursuit (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1,…

Important work can be done while daydreaming

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…

Storyboard – Wired Blogs

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…

High Chance of Blowhards

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…

Is Wikipedia Becoming a Respectable Academic Source?

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…

Zounds! New "Dit-Dah" Lingo of Telegraph Operators Threatens Standard English! ;-)

I’m teaching a 200-level “Writing for the Internet” class, with students ranging from seniors to first-semester freshmen.  Our opening unit is on social, academic, and professional conventions, foregrounding the fact that the internet on which young people play and learn is the same internet in which the adults in their lives are teaching and working…

YouTube Comment Snob

The possibilities make the mind reel. YouTube Comment Snob is a Firefox extension that filters out undesirable comments from YouTube comment threads. You can choose to have any of the following rules mark a comment for removal: More than # spelling mistakes: The number of mistakes is customizable, and the extension uses Firefox’s built-in spell…

Wookie Apostrophe

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