An expression of rage, witnesses reported, came over Starr’s face as the befuddled agents followed the special investigator’s gaze overhead. There, in the middle of the ceiling, a grid panel covering one of the building’s ventilation shafts had been removed and was sitting diagonally askew in its casing, as if it had been hastily replaced.…
Duane Grunfeld, a 44-year-old Hartford-area insurance-claims processor, experienced a passing moment of satisfaction in his otherwise agonized existence Tuesday when he purchased a new pen. —New Pen Brings Fleeting Moment Of Satisfaction To Local Man (The Onion (Satire)) Similar:Washington Post, Breaking News, Is Also Breaking New GroundThe Washington Post, famous for breaking…BusinessAuthor Says a Whole Culture—Not…
Greetings, fellow citizen of the Federation! I couldn’t help but notice that you seem a bit fatigued. I suspect that the many demands of Starfleet service have worn you down, and you now require recreation to refresh you and restore your spirits to a nominal level of function. I know just the thing–a merry Elizabethan…
Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to “organize the world’s information,” announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index. —Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can’t Index (The Onion (Satire)) Hooray! It looks like The Onion’s…
You say ”Looting,” I say ”Finding” (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Two interesting discussions on Flickr, regarding the ethics of captions that accompany stories about the looting in New Orleans. See: “Racism on Flickr.” It’s certainly worth noting that in one picture, a black an is identified as “looting,” but in a different picture, two other people (initially…
Mayor Cabot,” he wrote, “cast the only dissenting vote.” Then the editor reconsidered. Without altering its meaning in any way, he recast the sentence to read, “The mayor cast the lone dissenting vote.” With a stroke of the pen, so to speak, he had achieved a line of perfect iambic pentameter. The MAY-or CAST the…
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:Everyone Should Get an ADoes a bus-driver-training school rank i…AcademiaStar Trek Personality Test –Star Trek Personality Test Apparentl…AmusingMy student journalists sport their…
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:In journalism,…
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:Did you share Russian fake news? Facebook, apparently unable to insert items directly in o…Did you share fake…
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…