Silly title for a news summary of a University of Pittsburgh study. The study found students who used spell- and grammar-check made more errors than students who just used their head. Of students who were asked to revise a passage without the spell checker, those with higher SAT’s did a much better job (5 errors)…
“Now that almost all of her books are out of print, however, she may be best known as the Doris Day character in the treacly 1960 film version of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, which erases Kerr’s extraordinary literary career and morphs her into a home remodeling-obsessed, suburban stay-at-home mom. While the movie’s producers may…
Ron Zeno has posted a summary of and a few comments on Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments (Justin Kruger and David Dunning – Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). People are generally pretty bad at estimating their own performances (the people who are worst…
“Time and again the public has shown its willingness to help produce happy endings. Citizens’ use of the Amber Alert is credited with saving 47 kidnapped children. In its 15-year history, America’s Most Wanted claims viewers have helped capture 746 criminals featured on the show. | Those successes aren’t merely the result of miracles. They…
“Crafting pages that work well with search engines and users is a black art. Chris Sherman sheds some light on the subject, and offers some SEO writing resources. Dr. Dennis Jerz, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire also has some excellent blurb and headline writing advice.” Andy King —Writing for Search EnginesWebReference)…
“Ridiculous comments, such as Dan Gillmor’s claim that ‘with the advent of weblogging, the readers know more than the journalists’ only stoke the fires of hyperbole and do not help us understand this new tool. | Blogging is not journalism. | Often it is as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with…
“It is becoming clear that millions of people are turning to weblogs for news, information, commentary and entertainment -? just for the pure joy of taking in writing that’s vivid, vibrant, telegenic, emotion-laden, and driven by personal experience rather than the formula of detachment that deadens far too much traditional journalism. | What does it…
“Roughly 40 percent of all e-mail traffic in the United States is spam, up from 8 percent in late 2001 and nearly doubling in the past six months, according to Brightmail Inc., a major vendor of anti-spam software. By the end of this year, industry experts predict, fully half of all e-mail will be unsolicited.”…
“During the course of this semester, you’ll have ample opportunity to explore the Star Trek Universe, beginning with an essay about your journey through hyperspace, an involved research paper, and a final assignment either comparing the Star Trek Universe to another area of Sci-Fi, or creating your own part of the Star Trek Universe by…
“My personal business card says I’m a Digital Medievalist. | It’s the best way to describe my training, my occupation, and my interests. | I am trained as a medievalist. I started studying medieval English literature as an undergraduate, and am currently completing a doctoral dissertation in Medieval English and Celtic literatures (I’m writing about…
My book, Technology in American Drama, will be published shortly. I have no intention of flogging it endlessly on my blog, but as I was doing some final (I hope) paperwork and checking the page my publisher devoted to the book, I spotted the “printer friendly book flyer” link. When you click it, the browser…
“Teens and twentysomethings usually do not bother to set a time and place for their meetings. They exchange as many as 5 to 15 messages throughout the day that progressively narrows in on a time and place, two points eventually converging in a coordinated dance through the urban jungle. To not have a [portable phone]…
The world’s first brain prosthesis – an artificial hippocampus – is about to be tested in California. Unlike devices like cochlear implants, which merely stimulate brain activity, this silicon chip implant will perform the same processes as the damaged part of the brain it is replacing. | The prosthesis will first be tested on tissue…
“Everyone say it with me. I will not get bad luck lose my friends or lose my mailing lists if I DON’T forward an e-mail…” —The SoapboxSmilePop) An amusing flash animation. Thanks, Danielle. Similar:‘Hunger Games’ to digitally recreate Hoffman filmmakers behind the “Hunger Games” mo…CybercultureWhy I Still BlogI particularly value blogging because of…AcademiaMore Evidence that…
“The Web is only limited by the hard drive(s) your site is stored on, print is strictly limited by story inches. Have you noticed a tendency to ramble on a bit online? If you want to retain your readership you’ve got to curb that urge, at least on your front page. The way around that…
—I Will Use Google…The Flow?) We’re in midterm crunch time… I don’t want my students to read anything into the timing of this posting. I just thought it was funny. I’m unsure where this is “really” from. While using Google in the hopes of tracking down the source of this image, I found this creative…
“You’ve never seen anything like St. Patrick’s for bringing the Irish out in people,” said P.J. O’Doyle, owner and proprietor of O’Doyle’s Pub in Pittsburgh. “For one magical night, all the wonderful things you hear in all the grand old stories come true: the glorious thirst for drink, the endless singing, the pining for the…
“According to a videotaped message airing exclusively on CNN, media mogul Ted Turner has sent himself back in time to January 2000 to avert the catastrophic merger of America Online and Time Warner.” —Ted Turner Sends Self Back in Time to Prevent AOL Time Warner MergerThe Onion) Similar:xkcd: Headlines It: nailed. xkcd: Headlines.AmusingChilling analysis of…
“Benetton’s Sisley line of clothing will contain a Philips Electronics radio frequency ID tag that will replace ubiquitous bar codes, which have to be manually scanned…..While there is no indication Benetton intends to track its customers with the tags, privacy advocates are worried that the technology could lend itself to unauthorized customer monitoring.” —Benneton Clothing…
“Losing your clean credit history is one thing; losing your freedom is another. And victims of America‘sfastest-growing crime are discovering they often have much more to worry about than the hundreds of hours of paperwork necessary to clean up the financial mess associated with ID theft. Sometimes, they have to worry about ending up in…