I’ve been cut off from the Internet almost all week, sadly reduced to switching between CNN and FOX to get differing views of the war. That’s nothing like what I’ve gotten in the last few hours I’ve been skimming the blogosphere. CNN and FOX never comment on each other. On FOX, Ollie North’s account of…
“If he starts reporting US soldiers are raping civilians and noone else reports it his authenticity becomes an issue, but so far, he’s only given plain reports of what it’s like being in Bagdad during bombing. If that’s propaganda, I think I’ll take it.” Jill Walker offers a good summary of war-related blogging links. —The…
I’ve been on a short hiatus from blogging because I spent Spring Break house-hunting in Pennsylvania. Assuming there are no glitches in the closing process, shortly after the semester ends I’ll be moving to the new house just outside of Greensburg, PA, just 6.5 miles from Seton Hill University, where I will take “a leadership…
“I sometimes wonder whether I am really being effective in my job spending half the time in e-mail, half the time on the phone, and the other half doing real work. | It’s no surprise that entrepreneurs have seen that there’s money to be made in taming this e-mail mess. The most innovative products I…
“Media note links between ‘weblogs’ and ‘Iraq’” Jorn Barger —Google: Weblog + IraqRobot Wisdom) Similar:Do you get your news mostly from social media? I check NPR, Drudge, and news.google.com.Do you have a regular news-consumption r…CultureWhy Do So Many People on YouTube Sound the Same?So it turns out the “YouTube voice” is j…CultureGrading writing: The art…
“[A] growing group of military thinkers is questioning the U.S. military’s reliance on gadgetry.|U.S. precision weapons, Predator drones, and the like were less responsible for recent victories in Afghanistan and in the first Gulf War than is generally assumed, they argue. And increasing American dependence on technology leaves U.S. troops dangerously vulnerable to low-tech attacks.”…
“This leaves two channels: Iraq TV and Shabab (youth) TV. They are still full of patriotic songs and useless ‘news’, they love the French here. We also saw the latest Sahaf show on Al-Jazeera and Iraq TV, and the most distressing minister of Interior affairs with his guns. Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is…
“The cost to burrow down is dropping, while the price (and hassle) of erecting a skyscraper in a dense urban area just keeps rising. The breakthrough comes thanks to tunneling technologies that are now being used on huge transportation projects, like Boston’s Big Dig and Moscow’s Lefortovo highway tunnel project. Over the next 10 years…
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]…