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:When Robert Pinsky Wrote a Video Game[F]or a brief time in the mid-nineteen-e…CultureSuch pictures…

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:Ode to Huckleberry Finn, Dec’d(Inspired by Emmeline Grangerford, Dec’d…CultureRobot wars: 100 years on, it's time to reboot Karel Čapek's RURI was honored to play…

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:Two classic novels returning to Accomack schools following voteAccomack County Public Schools announced…BooksToday's annoying adventures of adulting: fixing the bathroom ceiling fan.Not fun, but done. ModdingWe Got A Look Inside The 45-Day Planning Process…

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:Trump Fires Senior Adviser’s Son From Transition for Sharing Fake NewsTrump senior…

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:The school mocked. I turtled.Draft: “As my classmates tormented, I sh…AcademiaThe insect apocalypse:…

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:Bing’s…

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:Education: Teaching teachers how to teach readingI’m definitely seeing students in my fre…BooksKLINGON STYLE (Star Trek Parody of PSY – GANGNAM STYLE)Silly fun, just in time for…

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.…

Grad Student Deconstructs Take-Out Menu

"Realizing he hadn’t eaten since lunch, the Ph.D candidate picked up the Burrito Bandito menu. Before he could decide on an order, he instinctively reduced the flyer to a set of shifting, mutable interpretations informed by the set of ideological biases—cultural, racial, economic, and political—that infect all ethnographic and commercial ‘histories.’" —Grad Student Deconstructs Take-Out…

Crunched by Numbers

"[W]omen have been systematically misled into overestimating their chances of dying of breast cancer in order to prepare them to accept mammography." [A review of the book Reckoning with Risk.] —Crunched by Numbers (The Spectator) Similar:Apple’s new diverse emoji are even more problematic than beforeThis author did a great job articulating…AestheticsAs White Evangelical Vaccine Refusal…

2002 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Winner

Bulwer-Lytton wrote a novel that infamously began, "It was a dark and stormy night." His name lives on in the title of an annual bad fiction contest. This year’s winner: "On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky, not quite a roller-coaster ride but more like when the toilet-paper roll…

Folklorist Alan Lomax Dies

"Mr. Lomax was a musicologist, author, disc jockey, singer, photographer, talent scout, filmmaker, concert and recording producer and television host. He did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take it to a wider audience." (Jon Pareles) —Folklorist Alan Lomax Dies (NY Times) Similar:Listening to Weird Al's "Word Crimes." Awesome. My teaching method does…

Weblogs: Put Them to Work in Your Newsroom

“Weblogs are growing up…. They’re not yet fully utilized in the news industry, but elsewhere weblogs are a common and widely used new piece in the Internet publishing puzzle.” Weblogs: Put Them to Work in Your Newsroom (Poynter Inst.) The social and literary importance of the weblog phenomenon extends far beyond commenting on the news,…

Becoming a Usability Professional

“Usability expertise is mainly an issue of talent and experience rather than theory. Much of usability work requires pattern matching, which is why it’s so dependent on brain power and past experience: Once you observe slight traces of a usability issue in users’ behavior, you must deduce the underlying implications for design.” Jakob Nielsen —Becoming…

Yahoo Admits Mangling E-Mail

Yahoo has admitted that it has been changing some of the words inside attachments accompanying messages sent to users of its web-based e-mail system. —Yahoo Admits Mangling E-MailBBC) Similar:Empok Nor #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 24) Horror-themed visit to derelict Ca…Rewatching ST:DS9 Dax, Worf and Kira ar…EthicsNASA's Perseverance lander brought some Easter eggs with…