Tales of the Plush Cthulu

“Once upon a time, in a part of the house where grownups rarely visited, there was the Land of the Stuffed Animals… But Professor Blue Smush DinoBaby’s warning came too late. First a slight tremor came from within the box.” Jon Hansen —Tales of the Plush Cthulu Similar:What to Do With a B.A. in English?Some…

Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology?

"The true link between technology and art, regarded in modern times as something shameful, is becoming increasingly apparent, and the evidence suggests that artists’ dependence on machines has been not only extensive but long-lived…"  Charles Paul Freund —Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology? (Reason) Similar:Shatner's live, extemporaneous post-touchdown monologue on mortality was better…

Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out There

"Debate has raged in recent years whether it was even fair to call Pluto a planet, given its newfound status as one object among many in the Kuiper Belt — which actually contains more mass than the better-known asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter." Steve Kettman —Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out…

Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College

“Instead of a library, the school has a resource center equipped with computer workstations that can access the Web, e-books and online journals. The resource center also houses several meeting tables, audio-visual materials and a few paper magazines — but no books.” Katie Dean —Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College (Wired) Similar:Melissa Terras' Blog: Male,…

Aussie Suicide Bags Delayed

Is this for real? "The controversial suicide device will be promoted under the name "Aussie Bags" and will be shipped with the warning ‘DO NOT put this bag over your head. It could kill you.’" —Aussie Suicide Bags Delayedb> (AAP) Similar:Reading Game/Text: EverQuest, Alienation, and Digital Communitiesthough Limbaugh is wrong to decide that …Cyberculture'New York…

The Power of Portals

"Several years ago, the State University of New York at Buffalo took stock of its proliferating Web sites and found more than 250,000 pages spread out across 17 different servers. Not surprisingly, students and faculty members were having a hard time finding information they needed, even though they knew it was probably online — somewhere." Florence…

Father's Poem, Son's Conviction

"After posting his father’s poem — a bitter reflection on the state of Egyptian society and culture after Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war against Israel — Shohdy was arrested in November 2001." Sergey Kuznetsov —Father’s Poem, Son’s Conviction (Wired) Similar:10 Rules of Internet – Anil DashA very useful, concise summary of web-en…BusinessIs Superman…

Marilyn Monroe Died 40 Years Ago Today

: The Smoking Gun features a small trove of scanned images of Monroe artifacts, including her will and a love note to Joe DiMaggio. Marilyn Monroe Died 40 Years Ago Today Similar:Death Comes for the Microbot — Flash Fiction by Aimee PicchiBee walked on six spindly legs to the sp…CultureLoved part 2 of Romeo and…

How first-year college students read Popular Science

When asked to read a magazine article, 40% of college students thought that the author had performed the research reported in the article: "The willingness of students to believe that anyone who writes is an expert and authority was striking." Kate Manuel —How first-year college students read Popular Scienceb> (Studies in Media & Information Literacy…

Don’t Link to Us!

In light of the above, it might be appropriate to mention Don’t Link to Us!: “Stupid Linking Policies.”    Thanks, “paheil”. Similar:Video: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror – NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryYes, the Mars rovers are cute and wonder…DesignCNN employees resign after retracted articleCNN is pretty upfront; three journalists…BusinessTwo decades of Alzheimer's research may be…

Who Needs Dr. J? [Journalism-school reform at Columbia]

At Columbia, students "play pretend-journalism" for 10 months and leave with a master’s degree.  "It’s striking how small has been the influence of J-school graduates on the upper reaches of American journalism." Tunku Varadarajan —Who Needs Dr. J? [Journalism-school reform at Columbia] (WSJ) Similar:Panic, confusion aboard sinking cruise chip – CNN.com Nobody’s perfect, but this…

Flogged by Bloggers

Weblogs are vehicles for debunking inaccurate, biased reporting–exposing the media giants like never before. "A favorite target is the [New York] Times, which has developed the habit of running front-page editorials posing as news reports." John Leo —Flogged by Bloggers (U.S. News) Similar:Battlestar Galactica 'Launch When Ready' Bridge Girl Fan Page (updated with links to…

Children's text messages are 'the key to their future'

"Researchers examined how different professions wrote text messages and divided them into four groups – creatives, jugglers, controllers and facilitators." —Children’s text messages are ‘the key to their future’ (Ananova) Sounds like a lazy journalist paraphrasing a press release rather than actually doing journalism, but the basic idea presented in the article seems interesting. Similar:I…

The Web Didn't Kill Libraries: It's the New Draw

"The Internet is fueling an increase in library use which, in turn, has led to a library-construction and renovation boom." Steve Freiss —The Web Didn’t Kill Libraries: It’s the New Draw (CS Monitor) Similar:▶ Taylor Mali on "What Teachers Make"I find that re-watching this every year …CultureFanciful Fun in Theatre Factory’s “The Fantasticks”A great review…

This Promotional Pen Works So Great…

"I’m far too busy to seek [new drugs] out by reading medical journals and research papers or by talking to my fellow doctors. It really is a huge help to get great drug recommendations by way of hats, T-shirts, coffee mugs, pencil holders, clipboards, and fanny packs that I randomly encounter or that are sent…

Austin Powers Hijacked My Weblog

Through the website http://www.austinpowers.com/, AOLTimeWarner seems to be hosting an altered version of my weblog, with the background colors changed, an advertisement added, and all the links changed — as if my weblog is affiliated with Austin Powers. I checked out the first movie from the library and won’t bother with any of the sequels.…

Action Comics #1, 1938

Somebody who apparently doesn’t care much about copyright laws scanned in all the pages from the first appearance of the comic book hero Superman. —Action Comics #1, 1938 Similar:Frozen opens tonight. (All shows have been sold out for over a month.)DramaStudents must learn how to get things wrong. Only one subject does that. [English.]I invest…

Blogging: Electronic postings and links…

"John Robb, Userland president and COO, has coined a new term for the business blog — K-log, the ‘K’ denoting knowledge. It is so named because it is a tool for capturing and leveraging the knowledge contained in the minds of individual employees…" George Partington   —Blogging: Electronic postings and links…nbsp; (WorldCom) Yes, that WorldCom.…