Washington Post Co. on Tuesday said it would buy Microsoft Corp.’s online magazine Slate, whose mix of politics, news and culture has built a loyal following but failed to yield significant profits. —Martha Graybow —Washington Post to Buy Web Magazine Slate (Reuters) Similar:''The Balloon Hoax'' by Edgar Allan PoeWhen steampunk was speculative fiction, …AmusingA tale of…
In a chilling reversal of Henry Ford’s strategy, which was to pay his workers amply so they could buy Ford cars, Wal-Mart’s stingy compensation policies–workers make, on average, just over $8 an hour, and if they want health insurance, they must pay more than a third of the premium–contribute to an economy in which, increasingly,…
“Sometimes you do everything right and you still die,” Mr. Wade said. “So you pick yourself up and start again.” I can live with that message, even though I can’t shake the feeling that it was designed to sell books to conflicted parents like me. —Learning Early That Success Is a Game (NY Times) An interesting…
As Web logs proliferate — Technorati, which tracks 5 million blogs, estimates that 15,000 are added each day — the boundaries between public and private are being transformed. Unconstrained by journalistic conventions, bloggers are blurring the lines between public events and ordinary social interactions and changing the way we date, work, teach and live. And…
Because government schooling is so bad, and dissatisfies such a gigantic amount of people, as represented in ?survey upon survey,? it therefore follows that they cannot be held liable for their faults! Imagine this being said of a private company?an auto maker, or a toy manufacturer, produces products that are so extremely bad that they…
Tips Using blurbs with headlines rather than headlines-only seems to help disperse interest throughout a homepage (down the page). Recognize that a list of headlines-only high on the page might not get people to look as much on lower portions of the page. The use of blurbs does not appear to affect the number of…
I know who the murderer is, Kevin blogged. —S. Kurruk —The Lyttle Lytton Contest (Adam Cadre) One of the “winners” in the Lyttle Lytton contest, Adam Cadre’s alternative to the Bulwer-Lytton contest. (Cadre is also an accomplished interative fiction author.) Similar:There's No Substitute for FictionWhat do Peskin and Astington recommend f…BooksFinished Reading The Chronicles of PrydainWe…
Exams: Hard vs. Unfair (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) As students got their first look at the final exam for “American Lit 1800-1915” the other day, a few gasped, “This is hard!” One student shushed the others. “It’s not all that hard if you think before you write.” Our classroom culture was open and friendly enough that the…
“She’s somewhat neurotic,” he confides, “but she is bright, organized and conscientious–the type who’d get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu.” He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old “couldn’t see the big picture.” That…
On both micro and macro levels, drawing from the research of others and my own, this proves true for both teachers and students: for some, particularly those with access, the blog is relevant to their lives both within and outside the classroom; for others, though, the medium remains irrelevant. This means that the quest for…
“Will you sit with the baby while I read the boy a good-night story?” “I’m so dead,” the wife sighs. “You put them both to bed tonight.” The six-year-old parades past holding the book he’s chosen. Nuclear Energy. Husband and wife exchange glances. “Look!” the boy beams. “It has a whole chapter on protons!” Wife…
Actress Sharon Stone has filed a liable suit against an LA plastic surgeon for comments he made about Stone having had plastic surgery. Stone adamantly denied the claim and is suing. —Freddie Mooche —Sharon Stone sues doctor for liable (Axcess News ™ News for the X generation) Earth to copy-editors… that should be “libel,” shouldn’t it?…
Improve Your Students Grammar Skills That was the subject line of a marketing e-mail I recently got from a publisher. I didn’t bother to check whether that publisher has any punctuation and proofreading titles. Similar:Joyful white guys finish ahead of struggling woman and black man in this university’s cata…Looks like the quality control process a…AcademiaWondermark:…
You’ve heard of “Myst,” “Quake” and “Tomb Raider,” but how many people remember “Obsidian,” “Grim Fandango” and “Under A Killing Moon?” —Gene Emery —A Visit to the Museum of Underappreciated Games (Yahoo|Reuters (will expire)) One presumes this museum is somewhere near The Island of Misfit Toys. Of course, there is also The Underdogs, a site devoted…
According to an e-mail sent today to Harvard students, Google will collaborate with Harvard’s libraries on a pilot project to digitize a substantial number of the 15 million volumes held in the University’s extensive library system, which is second only to the Library of Congress in the number of volumes it contains. Google will provide…
Stealing someone’s words isn’t the same as stealing someone’s television. The original author doesn’t have to run to Best Buy to get a new paragraph. But ideas and words are professors’ stock and trade. Unlike the company president who steals sentences for a Rotary Club speech, or the congressman who pilfers phrases for a campaign…
During the fall semester of 2004, I drew from my previous experiences in Writing for the Web with Dr. Jerz from the Fall 2003 semester. The class has changed, and so has my perception of what writing for an internet audience entails. This section assesses what I have learned working with the class, as both…
“When I told my daughter that I was going to a presentation on blogs, she said ‘NO! You can’t do blogs in schools! Blogs are OURS!’” —Barriers to Entry (Weblogg-Ed) While I still encounter many students who have never heard the word “weblog” before I introduce it in class, I’ve been increasingly encountering students who already…
I blogged about Ailee Slater’s Oregon Daily Emerald student entitlement essay before reading any of the discussions that raged on the internet. Clancy was moved to react against the gendered response to Slater, and invoked sympathy for Slater based on her [Slater’s] apparent alienation from university culture. The sexist and ad-hominem attacks on Fark and…
“You are standing in the middle of a pretty town square in the center of a nondescript English town. Like most any other non-descript English towns, there’s not much to see or do here, but maybe you’ll find something amusing and enjoyable to do. A shiny metal phone booth sits in the center of the…