“Dennis Jerz asked me a question about the length of time it takes for a Google query to be performed. We resolved this with a series of 50 tests to determine an answer.” Elwyn Jenkins —Google Search Speeds: Overpopulation and Underpopulation ComparedMicrodoc News) Thanks, Elwyn. Similar:How My Mom Killed Facebook Lest you think this is…
“The year 2000 marked a turning point, with the population’s ‘momentum’ becoming negative; there will be fewer parents in the next generation than in this one.” —Europe Shrinking as Birthrates DeclineTimes) This is a straightforward summary of an article to be published in Science. It might have been a more interesting article if it interviewed…
A current headline on an Australian news site: “Al-Qaeda fighting with Iraqis, British claim“. —Ambiguous HeadlineLiteracy Weblog) The news here is that Al-Qaeda forces appear to be in Iraq, but the phrase “fighting with” has two contradictory meanings. How about “Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Fighting Coalition, British Claim”. Similar:Liberal Arts Classes Could Teach Neil deGrasse Tyson…
“THE world’s biggest rubber band ball has been dropped from an aeroplane a mile up… Experts thought the ball would bounce hundreds of feet into the air.|Instead, it created a massive crater…” —This is Very DumbicWales) Similar:The battle against airborne COVID has shifted. Why your mask is the last layer of defence There has been…
“‘With few exceptions, modern scholars see the witch as essentially female,’ write Lara Apps and Andrew Gow. ‘The male witch vanishes quickly from view, as he is made invisible by a combination of rhetorical strategies.’ Male Witches in Early Modern Europe is the first book on the subject, and it is an outstandingly good one.…
“Field Guide to Stains is a lovely little book. It’s beautifully produced and designed. The writing is sharp, the advice is good and the photos are appropriately illustrative. You just have to wonder: Who the hell cares?” Sienna Powers reviews some dumb books. —What Were They Thinking?January Magazine) Via KairosNews. Similar:Apology of Socrates, By PlatoAristotle…
“In much of the 20th Century, there was a widespread denial of the existence of human nature in Western intellectual life, and I will just present three representative quotations. ‘Man has no nature,’ from the philosopher Jose Ortega y Gassett. ‘Man has no instincts,’ from the anthropologist and public intellectual Ashley Montagu. ‘The human brain…
“A few years ago, Tony Alleyne’s marriage broke down. In search of solace, Tony turned to his love of science fiction. Star Trek was particularly good at helping him cope, so much so that he transformed his flat into a replica of the Starship Enterprise.” —The Final TouchBBC) The apartment’s currently being auctioned on e-bay.…
“If Canada’s security had been threatened, he said the United States would respond immediately. ‘There would be no debate. There would be no hesitation. We would be there for Canada, part of our family.’ | It was that reference to family, hokey though it might sound, that rang most true of all. ‘Canada is not…
“It started as a routine downtown patrol. An officer cruised a sports bar, then went behind the bar to rinse off his hands and looked up as a fight broke out in the crowd. As it grew, tavern employees intervened, trying to muscle the combatants outta the bar. The officer helped, and even in the…
“The arrogance of technology companies knows no bounds. Consider the Terms of Service at a new company called Mailblocks, which says it’ll block spam (unsolicited commerical e-mail) for you, for a price that includes not just money but also the right to send you commercial e-mail.” Note: Dan Gillmor has posted an update/correction from Mailblocks:…
“Gemini Elementary School teacher Stacy Stinson told school officials she gave assistance to her fifth-grade students on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, citing the extreme pressure teachers and students are under to perform well on the test.” —Teacher admits helping students on FCAT Florida Today) When teachers cheat to help their students (and thus protect…
A rather sobering response to a hard-working teacher’s request for advice for how she can increase her teaching evaluation scores:“Simplest of all, you can give higher grades, which do correlate with student ratings. You can use more hand gestures, modulate your voice more, and walk while you talk. Students give higher evaluations to teachers who…
“Today, tens of thousands of underused computers, neglected Internet modems and turned-off TV sets gather dust in classrooms. Meanwhile, many teachers continue to rely on fill-in-the-blank workbooks, overhead projectors, chalkboards and 50-minute lectures. Electronic technology has revolutionized 21st-century work, but not 21st-century learning….Students seldom used modern, interactive instructional software. I did see teachers get e-mail…
“They file real-time reports with equipment that is a fraction of the cost and size of conventional, shoulder-mounted cameras and other gear. They file primarily for the Web, with images they’ve edited themselves at the scene, and occassionally contribute to television. | The technology has resulted in streaming video from the most remote places on…
“Students rarely post the default away message that comes with the [instant messenger] program. (“I am away from my computer right now,” for example, comes with AOL Instant Messenger, the program of choice on college campuses.) Instead, they create their own, transforming the away message into a kind of personal bulletin board available to anyone…
“It was Milton’s Satan and Dante’s Inferno that made them two of the most powerful Christian artists of all time. Because they understood evil and did not shrink from it, their depictions of goodness had power. In order to be redemptive, art has to convince us there is something real from which we need redeeming.…
Waking Ned Divine is a charming movie about a tiny Irish community that schemes to support a plot involving impersonating the dead winner of a lottery. While surfing around to find context for a posting on Richard Rorty, I came across this surprising article by Crystal Downing. Here’s an exerpt: “Rorty’s neopragmatic ethic is grounded…
“You do not have to be very conservative to find him startling… How could anyone, for instance, seriously hold, as Rorty has, that “truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with,” or that “no area of culture, and no period of history, gets Reality more right than any other”? Is it really possible…