An armed man took students and a teacher hostage Wednesday in a classroom at Dyersburg State Community College in Dyersburg, Tennessee, officials said. | The group is being held in a classroom on the upper floor of the campus administration building… –CNN —Students, teacher taken hostage (CNN) What a nightmare… “The chief said the man claimed…
It wasn’t until the package arrived last week that the secret was revealed. The man who sold Kunath the cookie jar was a brother he has never met. —Quest for cookie jar leads to long-lost brother (Orlando Sentinel) That’s a wonderful story, but that’s one ugh-lee cookie jar. Similar:When He Clicked the Link, You Won't Believe…
Media conglomerate AOL Time Warner plans to drop “AOL” from its corporate name on Thursday, according to reports. — Reuters —AOL Time Warner drops ‘AOL’ from name (News.com) One more bit of Internet silliness becomes a subject for a future history lesson. It was a wild ride while it lasted (which was, unfortuantely for AOL Time…
The Buckner brothers had no criminal record or any history of trouble-making. In court last month, they pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. They were sentenced to indefinite detention. District Attorney General Al Schmutzer told the court: “They said they got the idea from a video game called Grand Theft Auto…
I don’t want to just sit here and begin talking about how I have been writing all of my life and how I have kept a diary for years, so I won’t, I will simply begin my first weblog entry, by saying, “I am stepping into new territory, and I do not know the ins…
Dracula was not a misunderstood man, as the Coppola [movie] version, and the Badham/Langella version, and the Palance version, and on, and on, would have us believe. | And the novel suggests no such thesis. Actually, the best proof of this comes from within the novel, as Dracula feeds a baby– a live baby– to…
—Best of ‘Stealth Disco’ (Stealth Disco) “Stealth Disco” is the practice of creeping up behind an unsuspecting co-worker and dancing silently, to imaginary music. It is apparently a rite of passage that takes the form of semi-affectionate mocking — a way of saying “Look at how square that poor working slob is… I’m having fun instead.”…
One famous case involved two pupils who had left 40 death threats on a teacher’s telephone answering machine. After being expelled by the headteacher, they were readmitted on appeal. It is extreme cases such as this, and the fact that a third of newly qualified teachers are leaving the profession after three years, that have…
In other words, Madonna’s just a poor little rich girl, and the rest of us only pick on her because we’re jealous. There may be something to that. But it doesn’t make her first book for children (“even grown-up ones,” she suggests on the jacket — ever the crossover artist) any less meretricious, cynical or…
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a…
Narratives are the border. Nevertheless, as we talk about stories in my college classroom, I find that references to mainstays such as Star Trek and Star Wars are more difficult to sustain. Not because these items are old or out of date, but because the people with whom I speak have such diverse habits and…
People listen to the average CD many more times than they watch a DVD. Yet CDs are languishing in stores and DVDs are flying off the shelves. How to see this other than sheer music industry incompetence? —Michael Booth —Recording Industry’s Missteps (Denver Post) Similar:Lego TimelineThe Lego brick system was patented 50 ye…AestheticsThe Circle (#StarTrek #DS9…
”Dalton McGuinty: He’s an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet,” said a release from Eves’s campaign headquarters, e-mailed to news organizations across the province on Friday morning in the latest, and oddest, Tory attack on the Liberal leader…. ”I think someone either had way too much coffee this morning or had way too much time,”…
Professor Leif Salford, who headed the research at Sweden’s prestigious Lund University, says “the voluntary exposure of the brain to microwaves from hand-held mobile phones” is “the largest human biological experiment ever”. And he is concerned that, as new wireless technology spreads, people may “drown in a sea of microwaves”. — Geoffrey Lean —Mobiles ‘make…
I?ve no doubt that if Seattle or Boston or Manhattan goes up in a bright white flash there will be those who blame it all on Bush. We squandered the world‘sgood will. We threw away the opportunity to atone, and lashed out. Really? You want to see lashing out? Imagine Kabul and Mecca and Baghdad…
—Torill’s a doctor!!!!! (jill/txt) Congratulations, Torill… I’ve enjoyed following Torill’s account of the endgame in her quest for the Ph.D., and it seems only fitting that an online community helps her celebrate it. My own doctoral defense was a rather lonely affair. The only date available was 3-5pm on the Friday after American Thanksgiving. My wife…
Time for me to get back to my day job, which means that it’s time for me to stop blogging. — William Gibson —William Gibson is an Ex Blogger (William Gibson) I can’t say that I followed his blog much, but I enjoyed coming across other bloggers’ links to his online work. He invented the term…
Science Fiction seems always to be looking back at something — often at childhood. Standing baffled and dazzled in the imperial spaceport of Trantor, we recall the trip from the shtetl to the City and on the the New World. Dreaming of Electric Sheep, we’re alone in the long city night, our parents gone, and…
Whether used as a marvelous eating utensil, a cult worship figure, or even decoration, the Spork has brought joy to countless lives. This page has been created in an effort to pay them the justice they deserve in Cyberspace. —Justin W. Merry —Sporks are Godlike The subpage, “Anatomy of a Spork” is amusing, but would…
A mechanism description is a short report designed to convey to the reader a technical understanding of the function, appearance, and operation of a particular object. In one or two sentences, give the reader a quick overview of these three elements, before you lauch into the details. —Dennis G. Jerz —Mechanism Description: Analyzing the Function,…