You read it here first– well, maybe not first, but you read it here now: this handy list of ultra-portable computers. Something along these lines might be the next laptop I buy, frankly.
Go see “Young at Heart”
Been too busy around here lately, what with planning classes for spring, Estabrook Science Olympiad (that’s tomorrow), kiddie soccer practice, general cleaning/preparing for the in-laws to visit, and the various fireworks on that other blog I maintain. But I do have some other things I want to try to post about in the next day or two here.
In the meantime, here’s a YouTube video of the “show-stopper” number from the documentary Young At Heart, a very moving rendition of the Coldplay song “Fix You:”
As I understand it, this movie was actually made a couple years ago for British TV and is just now being released in the US. We saw it tonight at the Michigan theater, thanks to our friend/all-around good person Rachel and this fine organization, www.BlueprintForAging.org. Go check this movie out if you can– you’ll be glad you did.
Sophie could do this– yeah, right…
Annette watched this video on Facebook this morning and said “you know, this is the kind of thing that Sophie could do if we trained her:
Yeah, right. Maybe if we both quit our jobs so we could both do it full-time. As it is, I think Sophie’s main trick will remain barking at people and licking the window in the living room.
2007 IP issues to remember
Email clean-out blog post #2: Here’s a link to a report from the CCCCs called “Top Intellectual Property Developments of 2007 for Scholars of Composition, Rhetoric, and Communication.” It includes some links and information about, well, the title of the site: IP issues for the comp/rhet world. Among many other things, working in this material/discussion into ENGL 516 next winter might be one of the changes I make to that course.
Concentrate on and optimize in Washtenaw county
I’m cleaning up my email this morning, and thought this might be a good place to put a link to Concentrate, which is a local start-up/blog/web site aimed at promoting various businesses and enterprises. There isn’t much there yet, though one thing it makes me think about for teaching the Writing for the World Wide Web course is search engine optimization. There’s an article here about an area company that does this stuff, and as I put the schedule for this course together this week, it makes me think that maybe I ought to see if one of these folks would like to participate in the online discussion a bit during the course.
Japan is weird…
…but still kinda cool.
Looking for a place to park in Ann Arbor?
Who knew you could just check this site, which shows real time availability of parking spots in lots in downtown Ann Arbor. Via TheOrangeSlayedTheRake.
“The Dumpster”
This might or might not be “something:”
The Dumpster (2006: Golan Levin, Kamal Nigam and Jonathan Feinberg) is an interactive online visualization that attempts to depict a slice through the romantic lives of American teenagers. Using real postings extracted from millions of online blogs, visitors to the project can surf through tens of thousands of specific romantic relationships in which one person has “dumped” another.
Via my Reader feed and danah’s blog apophenia.
Improv freezing around the world
From Improv Everywhere comes this map of group freezing from around the world, all based on this previously completed Grand Central Station stunt.
Gaming helps 21st century students
Article/link #2 I don’t want to lose when I reboot: “Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills,” from eNews and its annoying password/account-driven web site. The sub-head specifically singles out sites like Second Life. A couple paragraphs:
Sharnell Jackson, the chief eLearning officer for Chicago Public Schools and the webinar’s moderator, noted that gaming and simulations are highly interactive, allow for instant feedback, immerse students in collaborative environments, and allow for rapid decision-making. The webinar was sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).
Studies of the brain have pointed to data suggesting that repeated exposure to video games reinforces the ability to create mental maps, inductive discovery such as formulating hypotheses, and the ability to focus on several things at once and respond faster to unexpected stimuli.
Which reminds me that the next time I teach English 516, I’m going to have to once again re-add the units on gaming and writing.