June 2005 Archives
It just can't be good, it has to be original and good.
When I think hard about it part of me kind of wishes
we hurled our bodies into the air, at times, cracking on impact,
but I miss the rest of you
and I am now working on keeping myself at SHU.
You can vote for who you feel wins the argument.
I strongly recommend that you become involved in one that doesn't kill anyone.
I don't know how many of the younger readers will remember him,
following me from trash can to trash can as I went about my business
in like.. some scholastic endeavor. Or something.
All I can say is, I’m not surprised France came up with crap like that.
What I Did 0n My Summer Vacation: Walked Away from This... (via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
On Father's Day, while we were headed east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, on our way to a family vacation in Amish country, the steering on our 1992 Taurus gave out. The car spun out in the grassy median, flipped over, and came to rest partially in a westbound lane.--Dennis G. Jerz
[This wasn't a lot of fun to experience, but if you've got to be involved in a rollover accident, I strongly recommend that you become involved in one that doesn't kill anyone.
Julie Young, an English major who graduated in 2004, earned a mention on BlogScholar, "(academic blogging portal)".
I'm not trying to turn this place into a marketplace or even an ad system, but...
I'm selling my Dell. Anyone looking for a computer?
It's a good machine, just a year old. It has all the warranties, CDs, manuals, and such.
I'm selling the whole system--the Dell Dimension 2400, 15" flat screen monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and a printer if you want it. And it runs Windows XP Professional, too.
Why am I selling it? Well, it just doesn't do what I need it to do, and I think I want a laptop instead anyway.
I'm presently staring blankly at the amazon.com screen wondering if it's worth me putting it up there. Plus, when I follow their instructions, I don't see the "sell yours here" button they mention. Hmph. Maybe I'll put an ad in the newspaper. That might work...
Comment here or email me if you're interested: twig_e13@lycos.com.
If blogger A insults blogger B, does the first amendment prevent blogger B from suing blogger A? In a court of law, will a first amendment defense prevent blogger A from being found guilty of libel, defamation, or invasion of privacy?
Here's the text of the First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Notice that the amendment is directed at congress -- that is, the government will not restrict speech or the press. Does an individual blogger who deletes a comment from his or her website viloate the commenter's first amendment rights? No. There are good reasons why I, as a professor, cannot publish your grades online, or why you might not want to fill your academic blog with angry one-side rants. But unless you are congress, or acting in some manner as an agent of the government, the first amendment doesn't stop you from clamping down. And unless you're the victim of government censorship, the first amenedment won't do much to protect you if you get into legal trouble over what you post on your blog.
In an academic context, all schools, whether public or private, do have to deal with the ethical principle of academic freedom, so that, for instance, a professor isn't pressured to fail a student who writes a politically incorrect paper. But if a student posts a comment that's critical of Microsoft, and then later applies for a job at Microsoft, the company is perfectly free to say, "We didn't hire you because we Googled you and didn't like what we found." (Well, they probably wouldn't actually come out and say that...)
Ranting about general stress and workload is one thing, but naming names and getting personal is another matter. No employer wants to hire people who use their blogs to complain about their co-workers or employer, so few employers will be impressed by student blogs that complain about their felow students or professors.
EFF: Legal Guide for BloggersWhether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published....[I]n many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging.
Eric MayerPart of an excellent series of reflections on Michael Allen's essay, "On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile."Mary and I set out to get a novel published. And we did. But we’re not rich and famous. Nor are we full-time novelists. So, did we succeed?
Here are the facts. Poisoned Pen Press has sent out into the world five beautifully produced books (with a sixth on the way) which have sold thousands of copies in both hardback and paperback. An independent can't get the same distribution as one of the publishing conglomerates and our sales figures would probably earn a mid-list author the boot. On the other hand, plenty of mid-listers would enjoy the starred reviews we've had in Publishers Weekly and Booklist and our handful of awards/nominations. Plus, we are in hundreds of libraries all over the country which is a wonderful thing all by itself. Would we have been better off being dropped by a larger publisher after our first two paperbacks went unnoticed and failed to sell in sufficient numbers? Hardly. And that is the fate, it seems, of most new mid-listers these days.
The SHU blogosphere has had a few energetic and exciting debates, a few of which have degenerated into name-calling.
Here's an interesting discussion of how a departmental discussion group got ugly, and what we can learn about online methods of communication.
Chronicle Careers: 06/06/2005Hard words, indeed. Arguably a challenge, and if so, Hank took the bait. "I guess it's inevitable that at the 11th hour, some asshole makes an incendiary posting that completely negates the spirit of discussion and rational debate that preceded it," he began circumspectly, then wrote what he really thought. "I would suggest that there are two kinds of people, right now: those who have the talent and integrity to get and keep jobs as professors and lecturers, and those who somehow get admitted to a literature/writing department without being able to use a word like 'scab' correctly." Hank concluded that he had dealt with John's type before: "When the actual demonstration or meetings occur, you're a no-show."
Well, John's posting might not have been worthwhile, but Hank's displayed everything that can go wrong with blogs and online discussion groups -- like the way the medium can encourage hair-trigger responses, snap reactions, and fierce emotional outpourings. A sudden passion seizes the e-mailer, who can be confrontational in a way that a face-to-face interaction might discourage. A bookworm who spent high school running from the jocks can now, late in life, get macho.
A stunned silence reigned for about 20 minutes before a torrent of abuse rained down on Hank's head. He issued a sheepish apology an hour later, but the damage was done -- by John's post as well as by Hank's.
One more thought from the article:
There was the effect on personal relations, on what little camaraderie the department had. The flame war could affect people's careers, given that participants would one day sit on conference panels and search committees.
