Maybe I’m just tragically unhip that I hadn’t heard about this before, but Yvonne introduced me to a new word yesterday: machinima. Wikipedia defines this as: Machinima (a portmanteau word for machine cinema and/or machine animation) is both a collection of associated production techniques and a film genre (film created by such production techniques). As a production technique, the term concerns the rendering of computer-generated imagery (CGI) using low-end 3D.. Read More
This is your anterior cingulate cortex on coffee
Good news for all us coffee addicts: Coffee Boosts Short Term Memory, from MedPage Today …functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) detected significant activity in the brain’s memory centers 20 minutes after the men consumed 100 mg of caffeine… …the fMRI scan detected activity in the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain, which is responsible for some short-term memory functions. Now I’m going to go grab myself a cup. If I.. Read More
Journal of Mixed Message Research
I received an email recently from SAGE, an announcement that they’re launching a new journal: the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. The editors seek empirical research studies across the social, behavioral, health, and human sciences that employ mixed methods research, and methodological manuscripts advancing knowledge about mixed methods research. Mixed methods research is defined as research in which the investigator collects and analyzes data, integrates the findings, and draws inferences.. Read More
Google/LC World Digital Library
This is all the news the last couple of days: Google Gift to Digital Library, from NY Times $3-Million Gift From Google Jump-Starts Library of Congress’s Digital Cultural Archive, from the Chronicle James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, said the World Digital Library would be modeled after the library’s American Memory Project… I’m extremely gratified that this project is being undertaken by LC, & funded by Google — rather.. Read More
My blogiversary
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my first post. I was inspired to start this blog by the 2004 ASIST Annual Meeting: there were a few sessions on blogs and blogging, & since I had been talking with Fred about Lyceum for a while at that point, I thought that I really should get some firsthand experience with this whole blogging thing. And the rest is history. It occurred to.. Read More
Brain drain, part 4
Stem cell scientists headed to Singapore to continue research, from CNN Two government biologists heavily recruited by Stanford University have decided to work in Singapore instead, saying they will face fewer restrictions on stem cell research overseas. And so it begins. It seems that today is the day for me to revisit themes that I blogged about this time last year. Last year I was posting about the impending decline.. Read More
The old home town, year 2
Once again, my home town of Newton, MA was rated the safest city in the US. According to this CNN article, Cary, NC was also near the top of the list. The ranking is based on “six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.” I suppose I should be proud of the old home town. But of course now I can no longer say.. Read More
Space, the Final Frontier of Metadata
I’m writing this in a hotel room in Newport News VA. Tomorrow I’m giving a day-long workshop on educational metadata to NASA’s Center for Distance Learning, which is near Langley Air Force Base. A rather alarming moment this morning when I Yvonne looked at Mapquest directions to NASA Langley. I had assumed — somewhat naively, I now realize — and without, you know, actually looking at a map — that.. Read More
Goodnight Cigarettes
‘Goodnight Moon,’ Smokeless Version, from the NY Times In the great green room, there is a telephone, and a red balloon, but no ashtray. “Goodnight Moon,” the children’s classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove.. Read More
VRD & WebJunction
I’m not sure why I’m bothering to post this, as I suspect that anyone reading my blog also probably reads the Dig_Ref listserv, where this was announced yesterday & where I saw it. Still, just in case not… Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 13:19:06 -0500 Subject: Virtual Reference Desk at SU Virtual Reference Desk project joins WebJunction as Information Institute of Syracuse and OCLC expand partnership SYRACUSE, NY–The Virtual Reference.. Read More