tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37744652011-04-21T21:48:11.674-04:00Weblog for various purposesGaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.comBlogger531100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-58245866378689390822009-01-29T07:08:00.003-05:002009-01-29T07:19:11.615-05:00

I was browsing Google images for shots of the inauguration, and on the third page came up with the image below:Here's the source:http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200802/r223675_883677.jpgNow, to insert an image using Blogger, have open the page with the link's URL. You open your compose window, click on the window, and follow instructions.To create a link using Blogger, click on the link icon. Note

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-69170088129484520232008-03-15T13:48:00.004-04:002008-12-09T03:38:02.427-05:00

I've just begun to re-read a novel I last read 10 years ago, Red Earth and Pouring Rain by the Indian / American writer Vikram Chandra, which opens in spectacular form when a disaffected young man returns to India and shoots a white-faced monkey that has carried off his jeans. The family bring the monkey inside, fearing a riot by followers of Hanuman, the monkey-god, and while being nursed, the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-12796493732425063372007-09-05T08:17:00.000-04:002007-09-05T08:23:42.243-04:00

. . . several news sources are telling the same story, dropping in the same keywords, etc.? Kevin Drum observes this happening as we approach the announced date of the report on President Bush's Surge:One way you can tell when a PR campaign is gearing up is the sudden appearance of a raft of articles all telling a remarkably similar story. So here's the remarkably similar story that's suddenly

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-33982453486404331922007-08-30T09:45:00.002-04:002007-08-30T10:03:40.013-04:00

Fair's fair. If I'm asking students to keep a blog, I should reactivate my own.I'll be posting comments and reflections here, as well as links to items of interest. A couple of the latter for now:1. One of the continuing themes of the present administration is the habit of softening reports so that they are less critical of what is happening. A column in the Aug. 30 Washington Post offers yet

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-28718293037284596802007-08-30T09:45:00.001-04:002007-08-30T10:02:47.902-04:00

Fair's fair. If I'm asking students to keep a blog, I should reactivate my own.I'll be posting comments and reflections here, as well as links to items of interest. A couple of the latter for now:1. One of the continuing themes of the present administration is the habit of softening reports so that they are less critical of what is happening. A column in the Aug. 30 Washington Post offers yet

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-422849476167691532007-03-01T19:32:00.000-05:002008-12-09T03:38:02.857-05:00

I don't know what the copyright status of this is. The idea is to throw random Garfield panels together--judging by the results I've had tonight, they generally work better than the comic itself. Exhibit A:I found this at www.dougshaw.com, but if you Google "Garfield Randomizer," you'll find more.Another:

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1165157126407950762006-12-03T09:37:00.000-05:002006-12-06T10:12:13.540-05:00

NPR is encouraging listeners of its Weekend Edition Sunday program to send in lists of most loved or (more likely) hated Christmas music, with reasons why. I thought that would be a good subject for a blog post--I'll recommend it to my 212 class shortly--and if I decide to write in, here's what I'll propose:My "most hated" list is much longer than my "much loved" list, for reasons that have to do

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1163763764498496082006-11-17T06:30:00.000-05:002006-12-05T14:03:44.710-05:00

Major newspapers (The Washington Post and The New York Times) report on a French study saying that resveratrol, a minor component of red wine, not only helps counter obesity and diabetes, but improves endurance. An ordinary laboratory mouse will run one kilometer on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion. But mice given resveratrol, a minor component of red wine and other foods, run twice

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1163333954704443062006-11-12T07:06:00.000-05:002006-11-12T07:30:49.110-05:00

There's this guy, Daniel A. Moore, in Alabama. Been a fan for all his life, and has this thing he does which combines his football enthusiasm and his profession. He paints. He paints idealized versions of sports photos of big moments in the Crimson Tide's history, e.g., the Sack, when in '68 Notre Dame QB Steve Beuerlein (later to be Troy Aikman's backup in Dallas) was pretty nearly destroyed by

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1162471451899194412006-11-02T07:30:00.000-05:002006-11-02T07:44:11.913-05:00

Jacob Weisberg of Slate magazine has what seems to me a pretty good post on electoral mudslinging. One hears, so often, that "both sides do it," that it's worth seeing a corrective on this topic.The practice is very old, of course, but attained some modern highpoints with the infamous LBJ ad linking Goldwater to a nuclear explosion, to Dick Nixon's dirty tricks squads (culminating in the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1161573377746137942006-10-22T23:10:00.000-04:002006-10-24T06:36:28.303-04:00

For those interested in political journalism, here's Rolling Stone's article documenting just how bad the 109th Congress has been. Rolling Stone is generally known for its treatment of pop cultural phenomena (originally rock music), but over the years has done some serious work.Also for the politically inclined w/in pop culture: interesting biographical piece on Garry Trudeau, cartoonist since

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1161385272736771932006-10-20T18:57:00.000-04:002006-10-20T19:01:12.746-04:00

I found it interesting to see comments from New Yorkers re who they plan to root for in the World Series. A certain proportion plan not to watch (sour grapes). Yankee fans seem to be rooting for the Tigers, because they're the American League team, so if the Yankees can't be in the series, they're rooting for the Tigers.The Mets fans seem to be motivated particularly as Yankee haters or Cards

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1160648251297536562006-10-12T06:04:00.000-04:002006-10-12T06:17:31.306-04:00

This from AP via ESPN--I heard it on the radio yesterday but couldn't quite believe it.What time does the White Sox game start? You could ask here.Yes, the White Sox have signed a deal with 7-Eleven to begin their evening home games next year at, yes, 7:11. "Every time the media announces the game's start time it willbe a gentle reminder of our sponsorship," Chabris said.We learned to accept ad

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1160133949103340692006-10-06T07:08:00.000-04:002006-10-06T07:30:18.783-04:00

I wrote most of this post last week, but then thought it should sit for a while. The starting-point was a column in early September by NY Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman on the image below (sorry, no link; Krugman is part of the Times Select category, meaning you have to subscribe to read his columns--another reason to pick up the free Times papers on campus):Krugman uses the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1159374733756493402006-09-27T12:25:00.000-04:002006-09-27T12:40:46.056-04:00

Just found this blog, Marmaduke Explained. Strikes me as a funny idea . . . I don't know if the comments are all that good; it may be that it lacks something in the execution.Better, I think, is this sort-of-Freudian reading of the cartoon.Here's his general index, featuring analysis of Garfield, Dennis the Menace, the Born Loser, and other cartoons and comic strips of dubious quality.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1158089380001883442006-09-12T15:26:00.000-04:002006-09-12T16:36:43.900-04:00

(think piece?) Most advertisements don't really penetrate the surface of our consciousness. They drop back to the level of background noise (perhaps because my impulse is to turn the volume way way down during ad breaks, if not muting entirely or channel-surfing). Ads that shout, particularly if the words being shouted are reproduced in all caps on the screen, are an attempt to break through the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1157882234867107592006-09-10T05:42:00.000-04:002006-09-10T06:15:52.216-04:00

If you want some basis for despairing at the audience for television, or at least for television news, take a look at the comments on Katie Couric's debut as CBS News anchor last week. Before the internet, there was a certain threshold for audience input: it was necessary to write or type a letter, stick on a stamp, etc. New, thanks to comment sections, audience members can write and send more

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1157118186457063712006-09-01T09:11:00.000-04:002006-09-01T09:58:31.803-04:00

My attention was drawn to this story by a news report on NPR. Seems that the Maine National Guard has made a service available to soldiers and their families: they will take a high-rez photo of Daddy--or Mommy, as pointed out in the article and story--blow it up to life-size, and mount it on stiff foam so that the families missing parents, or children, or siblings, can have an image of the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1156951450458875142006-08-30T11:21:00.000-04:002006-08-30T11:24:10.503-04:00

I haven't kept this kind of work up, as I'm not sufficiently into blogging per se, and have too many topics (often political in nature) to create a unified piece of work. This semester, however, I plan to keep a blog on popular culture: students are assigned to do this kind of work, so I'm going to do so as well.One of the key websites I use in connection with popular culture is the Internet

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1128419466147330272005-10-04T05:33:00.000-04:002007-05-15T18:12:20.743-04:00

I don't generally recommend Fark.com, as I find the number of posts too high, and the level of comments sophomoric. However, I do sometimes enjoy their (also sophomoric) Photoshop contests, which can be inventive and well done. One of these I linked to in my Engl 212 class yesterday was based on the premise of cartoon characters selling out.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1128127723799821662005-09-30T20:44:00.000-04:002005-09-30T21:11:03.900-04:00

Courtesy of Metafilter, here's a site that lets you test settings for CSS display of text. The site is Typetester. I haven't played around with it all that much yet, but we'll do so in the next few weeks.Another site for font checks is STC Font Browser.Just for fun: Woogle. Type in a phrase and it will supply images (some NSFW).Signed,

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1127153098911372002005-09-19T13:57:00.000-04:002005-09-19T14:04:58.916-04:00

In "All My Life For Sale," John Freyer documents putting his stuff onto eBay for sale. It's easier to do that if you are an impoverished graduate student (or undergraduate), perhaps, than if you have accumulated a lot of stuff.There are photos of some of his materials on pp. 58-59--a modernistic ashtray circa 1950 on the left, some of what appear to be plastic cups with stripes on them on 59.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1116767078618718852005-05-22T09:05:00.000-04:002005-05-22T09:06:17.160-04:00

OK, OK, it was my destiny to see this film. I saw and liked very much the first Star Wars film in 1977, when I was in grad school, so that's a kind of generational commitment. I buy into the consensus that The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the lot, as it keeps the sense of fun from the first one, and adds some depth, emotional coloration, and interest. Like others, I found Return of the Jedi

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1116551423734375042005-05-19T21:07:00.000-04:002005-05-19T21:10:23.736-04:00

Well, I didn't make it quite 48 hrs. I was messing around with dinner while the other occupant of the house had Bravo's West Wing week on, near the end of year two, with some really good bits, and I succumbed. So that was about 43 hrs. I'm OK with that--I was getting tired of playing early Beatles songs in my head. I was going to knock off a little early anyway to watch the Pistons game. Doing

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1116436178355107762005-05-18T13:01:00.000-04:002005-05-18T17:43:25.306-04:00

I don't know why cold turkey gets a bad rap. Especially if it's smoked and sliced thin, it's not bad . . . For anyone who may stumble onto this weblog who is not in my spring Engl 212 class (Writing About Popular Culture), I've asked them to pick a 48-hr. period and go without mediated popular culture (TV, film, popular music, print media, internet sites that aren't principally between

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1113137825334813372005-04-10T08:54:00.000-04:002005-04-10T08:57:05.336-04:00

I wonder whether anyone else has noticed an increase in this kind of phrase, or if it's just me. It seems to me that in common conversation, more and more, you hear people say something like "I'm going to be perfectly honest with you," or "to be perfectly frank," or shorter forms like "honestly" or "truthfully." Partly this is a signal that they are going to say something they fear you may not

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1112970899502480892005-04-08T10:34:00.000-04:002005-04-08T11:48:28.500-04:00

I haven't posted anything here for three weeks, which in blog years is very long. (The ratio of dog years to human years is 1:7; we need a study about the equivalent to human time in blog years.) Since my last post, Terri Schiavo has had her meteoric rise and fall, in terms of celebrity--too bad she didn't know it--the Pope has died, and Tom DeLay seems to be in the process of being shoved out

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1111508464194842642005-03-22T11:19:00.000-05:002005-03-22T13:57:48.783-05:00

In a piece I'm reading for Engl 212, I ran across mention of the firm Claritas, which classifies Americans into 66 categories for marketing purposes. The page where they do this is rather long for a link, so I put it into a TinyURL, http://tinyurl.com/4xgsnTinyURL is a web site which will take those long strings and recode them into something manageable. For example, the Claritas page linked

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1108301772861277252005-02-13T08:25:00.000-05:002005-02-13T08:36:12.866-05:00

I thought I'd follow up on the degree of training that "Jeff Gannon" got before being awarded a prime seat among professional from AP, UPI, u.s.w. For $50 you too can get accreditation from the Leadership Institute's Broadcast Journalism School. The Broadcast Journalism School is a one-stop, full-service seminar for conservatives who want a career in journalism. You'll learn information you won't

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1108124817725067092005-02-11T10:29:00.000-05:002005-02-12T07:59:39.863-05:00

Deceased studentI posted an entry here a couple of days ago about hearing from the niece of a former student who had been killed in a car wreck. I decided to remove the post, as it brought this space into a more personal kind of reflection than I want it to have. One of the characteristics of blogs, and the web generally, is that once something is written, it can be modified--unless, as with the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1107953381058803452005-02-09T07:40:00.000-05:002005-02-12T08:07:52.586-05:00

I really hadn't intended to post about this or anything else today, and since this post mostly concerns discussions going on in CM 530 about the media, and since this blog is mostly for Engl 212 students thinking about visual culture, it may be somewhat out of place. However.Go back a few weeks to GWBush's press conference after the inauguration, in which he was setting out his plans for the next

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1107700162730814312005-02-06T09:26:00.000-05:002005-02-06T09:29:22.730-05:00

One more tidbit on the propaganda machine. Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly traces how a distracting news story (about a strange man from University of Colorado, Ward Churchill) became part of the news cycle. The comments Churchill made were three years old; he's giving a talk at an obscure college in Vermont; why now? Qui bono? You have to ask yourself who benefits.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1107698463520271292005-02-06T08:58:00.000-05:002005-02-06T09:01:03.520-05:00

If you want to see a smackdown of a bloviator, have a look at this post by the estimable Juan Cole of National Review figure Jonah Goldberg. Cole is a prof at UM who maintains probably the best English language source on Iraq in existence in his blog Informed Comment. Students in CM 530 have been asking--well, one of them, at least--how it is that one can judge reliability of a news source. I

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1107691559298497042005-02-06T06:47:00.000-05:002005-02-08T11:07:18.120-05:00

Last night I went to the symphony concert in Midland. As weblogs are (sometimes) supposed to be an account of experiences, I'll set some of these in here. I'm keeping this blog in part about visuality, but concerts are heavily auditory. As I was late enough in deciding to go that I didn't get in on the most highly desired seats, many of my locations are very close to the stage (which I prefer to

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1105572777882234112005-01-12T18:12:00.000-05:002005-02-11T11:34:15.490-05:00

Visual CultureAs you will be able to tell if you browse previous entries in this blog, I have mostly posted comments related to current politics. While that may well be a direction for future entries, I want to change this blog to fit topics related to visual culture, the topic for a current class that I'm teaching.I have an interest in visual qualities of the ordinary, by which I mean the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1101904723384758212004-12-01T07:38:00.000-05:002004-12-01T07:38:43.383-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1101904599300376802004-12-01T07:31:00.000-05:002004-12-01T07:36:39.300-05:00

OK, enough lollygagging around. The election's done, there won't be a recount in Ohio sufficient to turn things over, and we have Bush to kick around for four more years. I'll resist most of my impulse to comment on the cabinet departures (rats leaving a sinking ship and all that), along with familiar comparisons to the Politburo and placing loyalty to the Leader above all else, which seems to

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1099575226866072582004-11-03T15:32:00.000-05:002004-11-04T08:33:46.866-05:00

FWIW, here's how I feel, if anyone is reading . . . It's the morning after Kristallnacht, and I am a Jew.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1099405014581508332004-11-02T12:16:00.000-05:002004-11-02T09:16:54.580-05:00

Election day. I have mostly kept my blog on a Blogstudio site, Invisible Cities. However, they are migrating to a new server and are not allowing new posts at the moment, and I wanted to write something this morning. I do believe that blogs are changing things in some ways hard to trace. I now get a majority of my news on-line, with NPR (my mainstay for 20+ years) relegated to times when I'm

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1098193968850082742004-10-14T09:52:00.000-04:002004-10-19T09:52:48.850-04:00

I wanted to enter a test post to see if Blogger permits changing the date . . . this is actually being posted on Oct. 19.

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1075832895175449842004-02-03T13:28:00.000-05:002004-02-03T13:30:31.780-05:00

Test post

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1066770812763799792003-10-21T17:13:00.000-04:002003-10-21T17:13:32.786-04:00

This is by way of a test post. The "help" page says that there's supposed to be a link icon here, and I should be able to highlight text, click on the link, and get a window for the URL. But my page doesn't have a link icon. The "help" page says that may happen with older browsers, but Mozilla isn't all that bad in technical terms, and it doesn't show up in IE, either. Just as a test, I want to

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-106511307389803922003-10-02T12:44:00.000-04:002003-10-02T12:44:33.486-04:00

I read this morning about Rush Limbaugh's resignation from ESPN's football preview program (a step before they fired him). Apparently the main problem was his assertion that Donovan McNabb was receiving excessive praise because he was a black playing quarterback, a kind of affirmative action program. Whatever you might think about affirmative action, it does not apply in sports competitions in

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-1064246556900970162003-09-22T12:02:00.000-04:002003-09-22T12:02:37.063-04:00

Primary--probably exclusive--audience for this weblog is students in one of a variety of classes. I'm having students in Writing About Popular Culture keep blogs, and some are on Blogger, so I wanted to refamiliarize myself with how the interface works. I'm struck today, after the Emmy Awards (which I didn't watch), by some discrepancy between shows which receive awards and shows which people

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-838710312002-11-01T07:42:00.000-05:002002-11-01T07:42:17.270-05:00

This is a temporary post, as Blogstudio isn't coming up yet . . . I'll copy this to that location when I can. Paul Krugman is doing wonderful service for this country in his posts. A few excerpts from today's are in order. Recent news articles point out that Bush's SEC chair, Harvey Pitt, sort of neglected to tell the board confirming Mr. Webster to head an audit oversight committee that he

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-825107362002-10-04T07:16:00.000-04:002002-10-04T07:17:11.000-04:00

Those who are interested in a well-informed, objective view from overseas of the Bush administration's drive for war should check out this article in the London Review of Books by Anatole Lieven of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. Here's the close . . . Twice now in the past decade, the overwhelming military and economic dominance of the US has given it the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-822708262002-09-29T10:34:00.000-04:002002-09-29T10:58:19.000-04:00

To what extent do alternative texts on the internet supplement, substitute for, or complement mainstream news? That's a large question requiring some research to answer, and I'm not the person to do it. (Too lazy.) But I do want to pay some small fragment of attention to the question as it can be judged in the Bush (this Bush)administration's drive toward war with Iraq. Mainstream news reporting

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-818189592002-09-19T08:43:00.000-04:002002-09-25T14:57:56.000-04:00

Tigers have now lost 22 of 27. I have several thoughts about this. 1. Detroit seems to have more than its share of losing teams (Tigers, Lions, Pistons), with only the Red Wings as long-term champs. 2. Half of all sports teams are going to be losers, and many of the rest will be short of expectations (cf. Tampa Bay Bucs). 3. Why does anyone care? For those interested in the reliability of

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-817700082002-09-18T09:01:00.000-04:002002-09-18T09:01:16.013-04:00

In one of my classes (the only one not keeping a weblog), we have been drawing contrasts between academic interpretive practice and polemic. The first has as a goal looking for facts and then building an interpretation (subject of course to the usual human and institutional and disciplinary blindnesses), while the second begins with the desired interpretation and then researches facts to support

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-815792122002-09-13T22:19:00.000-04:002002-09-13T22:19:42.703-04:00

Nigerian e-mail scam. You may have heard about this or even received an e-mail (I have) -- the premise is that someone in Nigeria wants to move money out of the country, and approaches kind strangers with e-mail addresses, offering to share millions if you give access to your bank account. Some guy decides to have a little fun with these swindlers, carrying on a conversation as James Kirk. Be

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-815785212002-09-13T21:57:00.000-04:002002-09-13T22:06:32.000-04:00

Just in case anyone's checking this over the weekend . . . LA Times has an article about weblogs which mentions some of the best known ones, e.g., "On the personal Web sites, bloggers post tidbits of commentary and host unfiltered public forums in which rumors fly, news is weighed and the blog-o-sphere's stars (known simply as Dave, Meg or Evan) are pondered." Article also mentions academic

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-815486292002-09-13T07:18:00.000-04:002002-09-13T07:20:34.000-04:00

I'm going to play with my design over the weekend a little. I don't much like this template but content is more pressing right now. I read this morning an account of a talk by Kathleen Tierney at the American Sociological Assoc. The gist is that in disaster situations, our leaders go a little bonkers (sometimes more than a little), while ordinary people take action by relying on established

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774465.post-814635002002-09-11T13:03:00.000-04:002002-09-11T13:08:38.000-04:00

First entry. Students in two classes are keeping weblogs, and so it seems reasonable to me to start one to hold odds and ends that I don't want to talk about in class but which catch my attention for some reason. Title is something I thought about when walking past cars in the parking lot today. It reminded me of the best moment in Jurassic Park, when Spielberg slips in a shot of the

Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663895474545030061noreply@blogger.com0