The memos were written using a proportional typeface, where letters take up variable space according to their size, rather than fixed-pitch typeface used on typewriters, where each letter is allotted the same space. Proportional typefaces are available only on computers or on very high-end typewriters that were unlikely to be used by the National…
A ROBOT that will generate its own power by eating flies is being developed by British scientists. The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects’ skeletons and release electrons that will drive an electric current. —Robot eats flies to…
Your online participation is evaluated mostly by your portfolio — a collection of your best blog entries, that represent your developing intellectual engagement with the literary works we have studied. —Framework for a Weblog Portfolio (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’m using weblogs in my American Lit course. I thought the experiment went well when I did it…
For math and science geeks it was a badge of honor, nestled neatly into a plastic pocket protector along with a handful of stubby pencils. And then, one dark day in 1972, with the advent of the pocket calculator, the slide rule went the way of the abacus. Why fiddle around with the arcane log…
Bliss, Sugar, Cosmo girl, Elle girl, the list goes on … The power of such marketing is highlighted today by a survey which shows that most seven- to 10-year-olds are using makeup. The survey showed that by the age of 14, around nine out of 10 girls apply some type of eyeliner, mascara or lipstick.…
Many humans are less inhibited when they’re typing then when they are speaking face-to-face. Teenagers are less shy. With cellphone text messages, they’re more likely to ask each other out on dates. That genre of software was so successful socially that it’s radically improving millions of people’s love lives (or at least their social calendars).…
It’s a mistake to assume that college students who hold jobs are working to pay tuition — or, for that matter, any college-related expenses. One full-time student at Wright State complained of working 50 hours a week, but then admitted using much of the money to pay for flying lessons. Others acknowledged spending a substantial…
Two researchers argue, in a paper published this month in the journal Global Environmental Change, that following the norms of American journalism, U.S. media have promulgated a bias in the coverage of climate change essentially by giving too much credence to climate skeptics at the expense of the scientific consensus. —Climate: Media’s Balance Tips To…
After 180 days in the U.S., email messages lose their status as a protected communication under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and become just another database record. This means that a subpoena instead of a warrant is all that’s needed to force Google to produce a copy. Other countries may even lack this basic protection,…
What made the early Internet so very threatening to the mainstream media was not just the new opinions being expressed, but the fact that people were spending hours of their lives doing something that didn’t involve production or consumption in the traditional market sense. Families with Internet connections were watching an average of nine hours…
The floppy disk has several replacements, including writeable compact discs and keychain flash memory devices. Both can hold much more data and are less likely to break. Even so, floppies have been around since the late 1970s. People are used to them. They were the oldest form of removable storage still around. —Mark Neisse —Floppy…
Would they enjoy a peek into the diary of a wombat? That, of course, would be up to me. I had the power of a book in my hand, and like any conscientious role model — parent, coach, teacher, baby sitter — I approached this responsibility with enormous respect for its importance. Few things create…
—The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form A project so glorious and immense; Pointlessly witty magnificence. With limericks numerous Defining so humorous: Versified database brilliance. Via Sarcasmo. Similar:Email (finding the right tone as a writer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXlgO…CybercultureIf You’re An English Major You Should Take a Journalism Class–Even If You Think You Hate J…Journalism is not everyone’s…
Television started as a powerful community-building force. If you had a TV set, you would watch what was broadcast, discuss it among the family at home, and also with the wider context of friends, relatives, neighbours and colleagues. If you encountered someone else with a TV set, the immediate assumption would be that that you…
Whew… New Class Blogs are Up (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) The first week of classes is over, and the university modem pool, which was down for about a month, is finally back up. So I can finally return to my habit of blogging a bit after I’ve put the kids to bed. My big project of late…
In short… Someone wrote a really DUMB web scraper, and harassed me with it. —Peter Seebach —Can they really be this stupid? Peter Seebach, who happens to host blogs.setonhill.edu, also hosts a variety of sites dealing with interactive fiction. He recently got an e-mail from the Entertainment Software Association that threatens him with legal action…
Thousands of irreplaceable books were feared lost or damaged in a fire at one of Germany’s most precious libraries, though some 6,000 historical works – including a 1534 Martin Luther Bible – were saved by a chain of people who spirited them away from the flames, officials said Friday. —Jochen Weisigel —Rare Books Feared Lost…
So how do you start? Where do you begin? I start my graduate seminars with “intellectual autobiography.” I ask my students to write a couple of pages about who they are, how they came to where they sit in my room. We share these stories of who we are and how we came to be.…
It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a man has not fallen off a scaffolding.…
Long ago, I realized that computer labs aren’t designed for students writing English lit papers. You may have heard about a revolutionary new development in communications technology. [N]o wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It’s so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its…