Ancient catapults were state-of-the-art weapons of unequalled power?but how powerful were the military engineers who created them?… The fearsome machines terrorized battlefields and sieges until the proliferation of gunpowder. Their power was impressive and terrifying. Roman catapults could hurl 60-pound (27-kilogram) boulders some 500 feet (150 meters). Archimedes’ machines were said to have been able…
When the newest cheating scandal surfaces at some prestigious southern university known for its military school style “honor code,” the headlines leap across the tabloids like stories on child molestation by alien invaders. It’s almost never suggested that all this might be something other than a disaster for higher education. But that’s exactly what I…
A scheduled quiz on As You Like It sprang And caught some students unprepar’d today. Soft-hearted me! I bargained with them thus: They’ll blog in verse (as Shakespeare would have done), And I will grant them an exten-si-on. Similar:University disavows chocolate milk, concussions studyThe University of Maryland on Friday dis…AcademiaSeton Hill's Latest Interactive Multimodal…
In these movies, priests are suicidal, corrupt and/or lascivious. Nuns are heartless and sadistic. Before you run to your keyboard: yes, I’m aware of scandals, past and present, involving the church. And yes, some of the films listed above are powerful, important works based on true stories. But a lot of this stuff is just…
[I recently received the following e-mail… –DGJ] Dear Sir: I am presently working on a science fair project for my school. I found your article, Instructions: How to Write for Busy, Grouchy People. I was hoping you could expand on that a little more for me. I am in the 7th grade. My project this…
The shooter, officer Richard S. Neri Jr., is white. The victim, Timothy Stansbury Jr., was black. Scientific research has a say here too, probing whether our rawest reflexes can be primed by modern fears based on race. —Erik Baard —Misfire: Why Brain Structure Makes Unintended Shootings Inevitable (The Village Voice) Similar:Americans grapple with recognizing facts in…
[A]t least two transformations appear to distinguish the production of new-media news from the typical case of print and broadcast media: The news seems to be shaped by greater and more varied groups of actors, and this places a premium on the practices that coordinate productive activities across these groups. This, in turn, seems to…
It’s not just that so many denizens of the Net are barking loonies; that’s equally true of the general population. But too many Netters are still a demographically narrow slice of the electorate. They’re too young to vote, too broke to contribute to campaign funds, and too busy downloading pornography to care much about upholding…
Jill Drake, from Tenterden, Kent, will fly to Los Angeles and scream for an hour to promote Disneyland’s new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. —Terror task for screaming champ (BBC) Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:All of Your Co-Workers are Gone: Story, Substance, and the Empathic PuzzlerHowever, running parallel to the evoluti…AcademiaToasty Warm Bed (designed by…
Rebellion in American Lit Class!Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’ve got a tough crowd in my American Literature class. When I opened the discussion of The Great Gatsby with the question, “How was Gatsby great?” the students in their small groups overwhelmingly decided that he wasn’t great at all. A few mentioned favorably his love for Gatsby…
[I]t seems the media (TV and newspapers) are just now picking up on the “Beyonce Knowles as Lois Lane” rumor from earlier this week, and even though the rumor has been shot down as being false, various TV news programs and newspapers are running with the story. It also appears that Johnny Depp is not…
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Doesn’t this just make your blood boil? Writing Instructor Loses Job for Discussing Iraq War in ClassWINSTON-SALEM, NC–Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC) writing instructor Elizabeth Ito has been dismissed for taking a brief part of her class to discuss the war in Iraq. Ito criticized the Iraq war in a writing class on March 28,…
Googling for ‘weblog’Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I found this line in my weblog tracking service today: 03 Feb, Tue, 15:49:46 http://www.google.com/search?q=weblog&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=100&sa=N My weblog main page generally gets a couple hits from Google each day, and I do like to see what people are searching for, so out of habit I glanced in the URL for the…
My mother taught me many things — how to make wonderful Italian food, how to tend a garden, how to love one’s family — but during the last 48 hours of her life, she taught me the greatest lesson of all: how to die. –Paula A. Treckel —The Taking of My Leave (Chronicle) While the quote…
[P]ress releases are unreal and possibly pointless. First, you write the press release from other already-written things. You can even fudge quotes, which is a big no-no in journalism. Then you have to get everything approved by absolutely everybody. I’m not big on getting stuff “approved.” I think it’s weird that you have to do…
Rosemary Frezza, Blog Angel (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’ve blogged about trolls, but I’ve also been thinking about the beings that I call blog angels — those helpful, friendly folks who may or may not have blogs of their own, but who regularly e-mail suggestions or leave them in comments, who privately warn me about typos…
Today being Groundhog Day in U.S. (and elsewhere?) reminds me how the movie Groundhog Day suggests a model for how interactive stories could work. However, rather than write up my own essay on the topic, I’ll link to others who have already discussed this, found via Google… —Andrew Stern —Groundhog Day and IF (again) (Grand Text…
Always capitalize and use trademarks in their correct form. CORRECT: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software. INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped. INCORRECT: The image was Photoshopped. INCORRECT: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped. Trademarks must never be used as slang terms. —Permissions and trademark guidelines (Adobe.com) Somebody hand me an aspirin — I’m…
It has been said that reality is all about perspective — a camera is a pinhole view of the world that frequently filters out much of the story. With that in mind, check out this video of the familiar “I have a scream” speech by Dean. I’m no Dean supporter, but from down in the…