An inseparable but special part of the feeling of words lies in the fact that they have to be produced by a human body — with an exception noted for parrots and the like. The act of producing a word involves breath and muscle, and various kinds of muscular activity tend to produce various kinds…
—Classes Start (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Today is the first day of classes. I’m teaching News Writing, Drama as Literature, and two sections of American Literature I. I also advise the student paper, The Setonian. Similar:Text Wrangler Discontinued (Free Mac Text Editor)I still miss Notepad++, a Windows tool o…Current_EventsCNN Holds Morning Meeting To Decide What Viewers Should…
A memo sent to departments ranging from residential life to counseling to public safety reminds employees: “We will not solve problems for students because it robs students of an opportunity to learn.” […] “We get quoted the price tag frequently,” said Dean of Student Affairs Jim Terhune. “But what you’re paying for is an education,…
Engelbart encountered the idea of the Memex while serving as a radar technician in the U.S. Navy during World War II. It took root in his imagination and, in 1950, he had an epiphany, one that guided him and his work for the next two decades. Markoff writes that Engelbart “saw himself sitting in front…
Mayor Ray Nagin told folks to make sure they fill their upstairs bathtubs with water, and in case of real trouble, make sure you have a way of hacking through your roof — so you are not trapped by rising water. —Miles O’Brien —Miles O’Brien’s Hurricane Blog (CNN) The CNN newsman is blogging Katrina. Similar:Newspaper For…
Two or more movies, combined to make one much funnier movie. —Mate a Movie 10 (Worth 1000) Mike Arnzen, you might enjoy “Freaky Friday the 13th,” but keep scrolling until you find the Robin Williams movie. Via Sarcasmo. Similar:Actors too reverent with Shakespeare, says Mark Rylance”To take a song like Honky Tonk Woman an…CultureCode? Not So…
In his pockets, Jefferson carried such a variety of portable instruments for making observations and measurements that he’s been dubbed a “traveling calculator.” Among his collection of pocket-sized devices were scales, drawing instruments, a thermometer, a surveying compass, a level, and even a globe. To record all these measurements, Jefferson carried a small ivory notebook…
This essay is full of mistakes. Idea after idea and sentence after sentence is simply wrong. This sentence, for example, is false. Worse yet, this not even complete sentence! A long time ago (so the legend goes) a Cretan prophet by the name of Epimenides declared that “All Cretans are liars.” This paradoxical statement has…
Podcasting is liberating, even for regular broadcasters. You are no longer tied to the programming schedule, you can have listeners in Llanddewi Brefi, and you don’t have to have an editor if you don’t want to. Still, we may need to draw up some rules for podcasting. Or maybe rules is not the word, let’s…
As an avid gamer for over 20 years, I’ve begun to wonder if I’ll ever feel the immersive sense of wonder brought on by Infocom or the old Sierra adventure games. Maybe I have become jaded over the years—many a gamer lost faith during the dreaded CD-ROM/Full Motion Video ‘Game’ era—and look at today’s over-licensed,…
For EL250, a four-step process that helps you prepare for a productive class discussion using the SHU weblog system. Read the assigned text, react by posting an agenda item to your weblog, respond to 2-4 items posted by your peers, and reflect on the experience in a 200-word informal essay. Your 200-word reflection should include…
“Goldilocks Dies With Honor at the Hands of the Three Bears” —Klingon Fairy Tales (McSweeney) Silly. Making the rounds of the Net. I actually like “Other Poll Questions That May One Day Appear on an Unnamed Internet News Website, Given Its Recently Asked Question “Have You Ever Been in an Accident Involving a Plane?” Following the…
August Wilson, 60, one of America’s greatest playwrights, has told the Post-Gazette he is dying of liver cancer. “It’s not like poker, you can’t throw your hand in,” he said by phone from Seattle. “I’ve lived a blessed life. I’m ready.” —Christopher Rawson —Playwright Wilson says he’s dying (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) I’ll be teaching Wilson’s Fences in…
Word that Sgt. Dan Kennings had been killed in Iraq crushed spirits in the Daily Egyptian newsroom. The stocky, buzz-cut soldier befriended by students at the university newspaper was dead, and the sergeant’s little girl–a precocious, blond-haired child they’d grown to love–was now an orphan. They all knew that Kodee Kennings’ mother had died when…
Michael Gee, ex-Boston Herald sports writer, posted his ill-advised commentary on the ?incredibly hot? student with the ?bitchin? bod? on a message board. Check out the WaPo article, and click on the link to the ?blog? Robert MacMillan cites: SportsJournalists.com. There is no blog present. What you see is called a message board, or a…
Cuneiform, the world’s first script, was born in southern Iraq, and carbon dating indicates it originated between 3400 and 3300 B.C., writes Robert Biggs in one of the book’s finest essays. There must have been quite a burst of innovation, because within a century or two the wheel appeared as well. It was quickly put…
At the height of the conflict, Britain guaranteed freedom to any slave who fought for the king against George Washington’s slave-owning rebels. And in 1772, in London, Lord Mansfield, nudged by the advocacy of Granville Sharp, an abolitionist, judged that Africans could not be transported against their will. It sounded good. Thousands of slaves, lacking…
Podcasts get their name from combining iPods with radio broadcasting. It all started when a few folks started recording indie talk radio programs and releasing them online, intending them to be uploaded to iPods and listened to on the road. Of course, Apple, knowing what was happening, decided to push the technology into the mainstream…
The fact is, there will be no more books to restock. The UT library is undergoing a radical change, becoming more of a social gathering place more akin to a coffeehouse than a dusty, whisper-filled hall of records. And to make that happen, the undergraduate collection of books had to go. This summer, 90,000 volumes…
While the news lead told the five Ws and the H, the lead of a sports story (though not limited to one paragraph) must contain certain elements. When editing sports, check the lead for: 1. Who was involved 2. What happened 3. When 4. Where 5. Name of the sport 6. Score 7. How won…