A Sudden Case of ‘Routine Maintenance’ in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Our local amusement park has a ride based on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The trolley takes you past large-scale mock-ups of various sets from The Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and yes, Trolley goes through a tunnel. “Come along, come along, to the castle hug-and-song,”…
I recently lamented that my kids are growing up without Mister Rogers -– a very sweet public television show that features an infinitely gentle father figure who wears cardigans and talks directly to the camera. (We don’t have good reception of our local PBS station.) Someone gave us a copy of a Mister Rogers show.…
This site is a listing of Water and Waste-Water Plants throughout North America and some of all around the world, that will give you a tour of their facilities. Enjoy! If you notice any link that does not connect, please send me a quick email with the name of the city for which the link…
The Cassini spacecraft has successfully entered orbit around Saturn, after a seven year voyage. The planet is now the most distant from Earth to be orbited by a spacecraft. —Cassini slips smoothly into Saturn orbit (New Scientist) Similar:Two classic novels returning to Accomack schools following voteAccomack County Public Schools announced…BooksInfographics: the PowerPoint of the 2010sI…
Most Americans claim they don’t believe what they read in newspapers or see on TV — only a third say news organizations generally get the facts straight — yet their opinions continue to be influenced by the media. Multiply this curious effect by the dozens of cable TV news shows, the hundreds of newspapers and…
The reason most pre-1940 musicals are unrevivable is that their books tend to be both slapdash in literary quality and fanciful to the point of absurdity. It was only in the late 30’s that the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began to emphasize dramatic plausibility, most notably in Pal Joey (1940). And…
Chunking | Forms | Frames | Fitts Law | Flash Usability | Guidelines & Principles | Link Rot | Liquid Design | PDF | ROI | Writing, Reading & Content | Articles & Related Links —Usability (The Net Place) Great collection of links to practical online articles on each of the above subjects. Similar:The Curtains Were…
—No Train, No Gain A great collection of short articles focusing on such topics as how to find an interesting story in a boring budget meeting, the basics of interviewing, and taking notes. For the first time this fall, students will be able to get credit for working for the student paper (of which I…
Let’s say a mother finds an application to Duke University’s Ph.D. program in English under her daughter’s mattress. Obviously the mother is devastated. If she does nothing, in a year her daughter will be dressed in black and sneering in obscure jargon at the Thanksgiving turkey and Aunt Sally’s cranberry Jell-O mold. Where can a…
She was witty, sexually adventurous and intimate with her readers, sharing photos of her travels and exchanging private e-mails and instant messages with fans. She posted messages to other people’s Web logs and created personal profiles at social networking sites. Many readers felt deeply connected to her. Then, three weeks ago, the “Plain Layne” Web…
The story of John Henry, told mostly through ballads and work songs, traveled from coast to coast as the railroads drove west during the 19th Century. And in time, it has become timeless, spanning a century of generations with versions ranging from prisoners recorded at Mississippi’s Parchman Farm in the late 1940s to present-day folk…
Those who complain loudly about how many jobs have been “exported” to other countries because of international free trade totally ignore all the jobs that have been imported to the American economy because of that same free trade. Siemens alone employs tens of thousands of American workers, and Toyota has already produced its ten millionth…
Spirit has begun to negotiate her way up into the Columbia Hills where she has encountered a strange rock called Pot of God that she found contains hematite, something that may well lead to the discovery of past water there. On the other side of the planet, Opportunity has continued her descent into Endurance Crater…
On his way into District Justice Mark Bilik’s office, Harris, wearing a “Flamehead USA” T-shirt, told reporters “Yes, I did,” when asked if he set the fire. —Jason Lesher —Latrobe men admit setting apartment building fire (Tribune Review) Note to self… if ever going anywhere near someone involved in the investigation of an arson case, change…
A Canadian man, driving a car packed with weapons and ammunition, was intent on killing as many people as possible in a Toronto neighbourhood but gave up the plan at the last minute when he encountered a friendly dog, police say. —Puppy prevents Canadian killing spree (ABC (Australia)) There… do you see how nice Canadians are?…
I readily admit that my accomplishment has no practical social purpose or business application. But as a story that spans 18 years from Hoey’s palindrome to mine, it has a moral about how it is becoming easier to do big things. Hoey is an excellent computer scientist, but he said he spent days writing a…
U.S. investigators said on Wednesday they had arrested an America Online employee and a Las Vegas marketer for stealing the Internet provider’s customer list and selling it to a purveyor of “spam” e-mail. —Andy Sullivan —US Charges AOL Worker Sold Customer List for Spam (AP|MyWay) Similar:Stop trying to figure out if screentime is good for studentsPro-technology…
Retro video gaming has become something of a pop culture phenomenon lately, with video game music and themes featured in television commercials for Hummer and Saturn sport utility vehicles. A top 20 R&B hit, “Game Over (Flip)” by Lil’ Flip features sound effects from “Pac-Man.” It’s not just nostalgia that’s fueling retro video interest, says…
The Queen has allowed herself to be the subject of the first royal hologram. —Queen’s holograph ‘makes me look lost in woods’ (Telegraph) Thanks for the offbeat suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:Down with Fake Politics! Down with Fake Government! Long Live the Free Press!You can’t get much more American than Th…CultureI worked in a video store for 25…
blind users are finding that they are spending disproportionately more time sorting through their junk e-mail than their sighted colleagues. That’s because sighted users can simply scan large batches of messages for that one important piece of mail, whereas blind users must listen to the subject line of each message before they know whether it’s…