The BBC's Jane O'Brien went to Poetry Out Loud in Washington, a national competition aimed at reviving the oral art form, to find out what is capturing the participants' imagination.
Watch the video:
Thursday, 29 April 2010
US teenagers flock to live poetry events
Monday, 26 April 2010
A Taste of the World's Weirdest Delicacies
Live octopus for you, sir? And perhaps a deep fried spider for the lady? And how about a little frog juice to go with that? That's right, put your cheeseburger down and sample the world's most exotic and interesting dishes by taking SPIEGEL ONLINE's Exotic Edibles Quiz. It's food for the brain.
Do the quiz:
http://www1.spiegel.de/active/quiztool/fcgi/quiztool.fcgi?id=49989
Do the quiz:
http://www1.spiegel.de/active/quiztool/fcgi/quiztool.fcgi?id=49989
Avatar becomes fastest selling Blu-ray on record
Avatar is maintaining its popularity in the move from box office to home video, with sales of 6.7 million DVDs and Blu-ray disks in the first four days.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/7633910/Avatar-becomes-fastest-selling-Blu-ray-on-record.htmlStephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens
Aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.
In a series for the Discovery Channel the renowned astrophysicist said it was "perfectly rational" to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere.
But he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for resources, then move on.
"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.
Read the article:
Tea 'healthier' drink than water
Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.
The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates.
Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found.
Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health.
Read the rest of the article:
Friday, 23 April 2010
William Shakespeare: A king of infinite space
On the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death, Anthony Seldon asks why we are allowing the world's foremost playwright and England's cultural figurehead to disappear from the classroom.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/7622436/William-Shakespeare-A-king-of-infinite-space.htmlLanguage computers lack 'knowledge of world'
Machines are learning to understand spoken language from models of the world developed by researchers.
Danny Bobrow, a research fellow at Palo Alto Research Centre (Parc), explained how natural language processing has grown up since the 1970s.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8610210.stm
Money Makeovers
Portraits on U.S. Currency Keep Getting Younger
The iconic images of presidents–the ones printed on our money–are timeless. Or are they? Rather than staying the same, the members of America’s honorable legion look like a fine wine: better with age. They appear cleaner, sharper, and, well, nipped and tucked.http://photo.newsweek.com/2010/4/money-makeovers-for-founding-fathers.html
Our True, Tweeting Selves
Why historians salivate over Twitter.
The hue and cry about the Library of Congress acquiring the Twitter archive, dating back to its origins in 2006, has shown that we continue to stubbornly believe two myths about social networking. First, that it is private. Second, that it is trivial. Social-networking sites seem to have a curiously alcoholic effect on users.Read the article:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/236791
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Britain's occupations: the winners and losers over the past decade
Typists, bookbinders and sewing machinists are among the losers as the economy modernises - and as the state grows.
The manufacturing sector has been particularly hit by job losses. Electrical product assemblers have suffered biggest decline - a cut of 69pc since 2001. Quality assurance technicians, a vital part of ensuring the reliability of manufactured goods, have fallen by 40pc, while metal machine setters are down 57pc.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7617817/Britains-occupations-the-winners-and-losers-over-the-past-decade.html
Hospital Outfits Staff with 100 iPads
A hospital district in Visalia, California, has ordered 100 iPads to provide staff with access to rudimentary applications like e-mail, as well as X-ray images, EKG results and patient monitoring programs around its five sites.
Nick Volosin, the hospital’s director of technical services, thinks the iPad is a superior alternative to both laptops and the specialized touchscreen tablets often used by hospitals — it’s portable, has a 10-hour battery life and costs merely $500 (other devices can fetch close to $3,000).
http://mashable.com/2010/04/21/hospital-purchases-100-ipads/
Girls Day
Girls'Day - Future Prospects for Girls
On the 22nd of April 2010 technical enterprises, enterprises with technical departments and technical training facilities, universities and research centres are invited to organise an open day for girls - the Girls'Day.
Through a great variety of events young women are able to gain an insight into working life and get in touch with Human Resources Managers and personnel responsible for traineeships. For this purpose, the participating institutions open their laboratories, workshops and offices to give concrete examples that show girls how interesting and exciting this work can be. Employees are often personally available for discussions.
The Girls'Day opens up extensive future prospects to a generation of qualified young women. With the objective of establishing contacts and drawing attention of industries and the public to girls' strengths.
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Were the 'mad' heroines of literature really sane?
The mad heroines of classic Victorian fiction have long been objects of fascination.
The violent and feral Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, the mysterious Woman in White whose escape from an asylum begins Wilkie Collins's gripping thriller, and the terminally delusional Emma in Madame Bovary.
But were they really mad? Would we today recognise them as mentally ill or were our heroines merely misunderstood, not to mention a tad inconvenient?
For Radio 4 documentary, Madwomen in the Attic, medical historians, psychiatrists and literary specialists gave their diagnoses of our troubled heroines.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Satire ist bei Apple tabu
Apple schließt in seinen Nutzungsbedingungen jede Form von Satire aus. Das hat der amerikanische Zeichner Mark Fiore gerade zu spüren bekommen - der Internet-Gigant verweigert ihm ein App.
20. April 2010
Der Pulitzerpreis wird derzeit jährlich in einundzwanzig Kategorien vergeben, eine davon zeichnet Zeitungskarikaturen aus. Da die außerhalb ihrer Herkunftsländer meist schwer zu verstehen sind, erfährt man normalerweise in Deutschland nichts über diese Kategorie. In diesem Jahr war das anders: Mit Mark Fiore gewann zum ersten Mal ein Zeichner für seine Online-Karikaturen, genauer gesagt für satirische Flash-Animationen, also kurze Trickfilmchen, die Fiore auf SFGate, der Website der Tageszeitung „San Francisco Chronicle“, ver öffentlicht hat. Sie sind großartig, weil sie mit einfachsten ästhetischen Mitteln arbeiten und trotzdem in der schönsten Tradition bissig-bösartiger Karikatur stehen.
Do We Need the iPad? A TIME Review
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a very rich, very clever man. He got up on a big stage and held up a new kind of computer. It was flat, and it didn't have a keyboard. This very rich, very clever man then tried to convince a bunch of reporters that in five years this flat, keyboardless computer would be the most popular kind of computer in the country. Some of them even believed him.
The year was 2000. The man's name was Bill Gates.
The Cost of Europe's Volcanic Ash Travel Crisis
After five days of empty airports and silent skies, European Union transport ministers held an emergency meeting (via video conference) on Monday, announcing that they would ease travel restrictions starting the morning of April 20. The initial cloud of volcanic ash that had brought Europe's airlines to a standstill seems finally to be dissipating — and now its financial impact is becoming clearer. TUI Travel, Europe's biggest tour operator, said in a statement that fallout from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano has so far cost the firm $30 million. With around 100,000 of its customers still marooned overseas, the company added, that bill is rising by $9 million a day. European airports, many deserted since dust spewed out by the volcano turned the region into a no-fly zone last week, are down $183 million as a result of the eruption, industry group ACI Europe said Sunday. The world's airlines, meanwhile, are together estimated to have lost more than that each day.
Why Do Women Still Earn Less Than Men?
Last year's tax returns may already be signed, sealed and delivered, but April 20 is the day the average American woman will finally finish earning her 2009 salary — at least, the one she would have pulled down if she were a man. That's because U.S. women still earned only 77 cents on the male dollar in 2008, according to the latest Census stats. (That number drops to 68% for African-American women and 58% for Latinas.) To highlight the need for change, since 1996 the National Committee on Pay Equity, an advocacy-group umbrella organization, has marked April 20 as Equal Pay Day. There are some signs of progress: the first bill President Obama signed into law as President targeted the U.S. pay gap, and the Senate is currently considering another meant to address underlying discrimination. But the question remains: Why has it taken so long? Nearly half a century after it became illegal to pay women less on the basis of their sex, why do American women still earn less than men?
Monday, 19 April 2010
The Trustworthiness of Beards
The way you gain people's trust is to earn it over time by repeatedly proving that you deserve it. That, or grow a beard.
A recent study in the Journal of Marketing Communications found that men with beards were deemed more credible than those who were clean-shaven. The study showed participants pictures of men endorsing certain products. In some photos, the men were clean-shaven. In others, the same men had beards. Participants thought the men with beards had greater expertise and were significantly more trustworthy when they were endorsing products like cell phones and toothpaste.
But, oddly, men with beards were slightly less effective than smooth-cheeked fellows in underwear advertisements. Apparently we don't want Zach Galifianakis selling us boxers.
The researchers say the implications of their findings could extend far beyond advertisements. For instance, male politicians might want to consider not shaving because the "presence of a beard on the face of candidates could boost their charisma, reliability, and above all their expertise as perceived by voters, with positive effects on voting intention."
Former presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Richardson didn't put down the razor until they were already out of the running. Who knows how things might have turned out if they had had the power of facial hair working for them ...
Important note: The study looked only at neat, medium-length beards. You can't just go all ZZ Top and expect people to trust you.
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Trustworthiness-of-Beards/22581/#top
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Non-flying circus: John Cleese's £3,300 taxi fare
Volcanic ash cloud forces comedian to travel 1,000 miles by cab
He's more famous for a sketch about a Norwegian blue parrot than a Norwegian taxi, but John Cleese may have to change his routine. The actor and comedian reportedly took a cab from Oslo to Brussels on Friday costing 30,000 kroner (£3,300) after he was stranded, along with thousands of others, in the Norwegian capital by the volcanic ash plume from Iceland.
Cleese was in Norway to appear on the Scandinavian talkshow Skavlan when the cloud descended, closing airspace around the city. "We checked every option, but there were no boat and no train tickets available," he told Norwegian TV2 in a telephone interview posted on the network's website. "That's when my fabulous assistant determined that the easiest thing would be to take a taxi."
The taxi carried two extra drivers for the 930-mile journey. Cleese then planned to take the Eurostar to the UK. "It will be interesting. I'm not in a hurry," Cleese said, adding that from Brussels he planned to take the Eurostar train to London, where he hoped to arrive by 3pm today.
"I will think about a joke you've probably already heard: how do you get God to laugh? Tell him your plans," Cleese said.
Tweet dreams… our top 50 Twitter feeds for the arts
As Twitter announces its 150 millionth user and the RSC stages a tweeting version of Romeo and Juliet, writer-comedian AL Kennedy introduces our guide to how this networking phenomenon has gripped the world of culture.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/18/twitter-and-the-arts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/18/twitter-and-the-arts
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Uncle Sam Wants Your Tweets
How does a tweet die? Quickly and quietly. As any Twitter user can attest, the rolling, unstoppable "tweet stream" has a short shelf life; any message older than a few hours has reached its expiration date. That all changed yesterday, when the Library of Congress announced (through its Twitter account, of course) that it would archive every public tweet ever made. That’s right—every tweet, from the mind-numbing review of your sister-in-law’s breakfast burrito to John Larroquette's 140-character tone poems, will now be preserved for posterity.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonicshifts/archive/2010/04/15/uncle-sam-wants-your-tweets.aspx
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonicshifts/archive/2010/04/15/uncle-sam-wants-your-tweets.aspx
Twitter unveils advertising plans
Twitter has said it will allow advertising on its site for the first time.
The social networking site said advertisers would be able to buy "Promoted Tweets" that will appear on Twitter's search results pages.
It has been reluctant to allow advertising in the past.
However, co-founder Biz Stone said they would not be traditional adverts. They must be Tweets that "resonate with users" and be part of conversations.
Twitter has already signed up a raft of big name organisations such as Sony Pictures, coffee chain Starbucks and US retailer Best Buy.
How to Be Invisible
The joy of travel is to let different cultures seep into your identity. It's not to bring your own culture with you so you can inflict it on the native populace.
Recently, while circling the earth for a travel book, I experienced one of my greatest thrills as a globe-trotter: I was mistaken for a German. Don't misunderstand. I am no Germanophile. It's just that wherever I journey, I try hard to blend in with the locals. So when a German woman stopped me in the town square in Cologne and asked me for the time—in German! clearly assuming I was also German!—I couldn't help but congratulate myself on a job well done. I'd successfully melted into my surroundings, shedding my Americanness the way a snake sheds a sheath of dead skin.http://www.newsweek.com/id/236032
A Killer Product Will closed devices like Apple's iPhone murder the Web?
If you say that the iPhone is the greatest invention of your lifetime, few would bat an eye. If you stay up all night playing Halo 3 like some deranged supermarathoner bent on blasting strangers a continent away on your Xbox Live, few would question your sanity. But dare to claim that devices like the iPhone and the Xbox are killing the Internet as we know it, you'd be laughed out of town.
But this is the central argument of a new book, "The Future of the Internet--and How to Stop It." Jonathan Zittrain claims that the very thing that makes the Internet great--its "generative" or innovative nature--is being locked down in a new wave of closed devices like the iPhone, Xbox, TiVo and the OnStar system. Zittrain, cofounder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, claims the Internet's ability to serve as an open platform for innovation is being undermined by these "tethered" toys that can't be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/135150
But this is the central argument of a new book, "The Future of the Internet--and How to Stop It." Jonathan Zittrain claims that the very thing that makes the Internet great--its "generative" or innovative nature--is being locked down in a new wave of closed devices like the iPhone, Xbox, TiVo and the OnStar system. Zittrain, cofounder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, claims the Internet's ability to serve as an open platform for innovation is being undermined by these "tethered" toys that can't be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/135150
Advertisements on the iPad? Bring 'Em On.
The 30-second spot didn't always exist. Someone had to invent it. Same goes for the full-page magazine ad, the couple-of-minutes-long movie trailer, and, much more recently, the Google search ad. For an advertising medium to matter, someone has to first come up with a killer format.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonicshifts/archive/2010/04/15/advertisements-on-the-ipad-bring-em-on.aspx
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonicshifts/archive/2010/04/15/advertisements-on-the-ipad-bring-em-on.aspx
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Dickens and the Rise of Divorce
By Kelly Hager, associate professor in English and women's and gender studies, Simmons College, Boston. Ashgate, £50.00. ISBN 9780754669470
Hager examines the legal history of marriage and divorce, and offers a fuller account of the "Women's Question" plus revisionist readings of Dickens' novels.
Who Is on the Other End of Facebook?
You can't get far in academic PR circles these days without the conversation turning to technology and social networking. It's all the buzz: how best to exploit Facebook and MySpace for marketing purposes, what to make of Twitter. Add in the hardware: BlackBerrys, iPhones, and other ever-more-powerful and sophisticated mobile phones. Then there's YouTube, not a social-networking site per se, but a place where people flock in great numbers and share information.
http://chronicle.com/article/Who-Is-on-the-Other-End-of/48693/
http://chronicle.com/article/Who-Is-on-the-Other-End-of/48693/
The Art of Meeting
As public-relations officers, we always seem to be going to meetings. Our days are often a blur of staff meetings and teleconferences, board sessions and department get-togethers, all-college gatherings and breakfast chats. We schedule meetings, present at meetings, and chair meetings, ad nauseam.
Yet for all those meetings we attend—and all the complaining we do about them—many of us keep repeating the same mistakes and perpetuating an unsatisfying, unproductive cycle.
Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded
Lori Whisenant knows that one way to improve the writing skills of undergraduates is to make them write more. But as each student in her course in business law and ethics at the University of Houston began to crank out—often awkwardly—nearly 5,000 words a semester, it became clear to her that what would really help them was consistent, detailed feedback.
Her seven teaching assistants, some of whom did not have much experience, couldn't deliver. Their workload was staggering: About 1,000 juniors and seniors enroll in the course each year. "Our graders were great," she says, "but they were not experts in providing feedback."
That shortcoming led Ms. Whisenant, director of business law and ethics studies at Houston, to a novel solution last fall. She outsourced assignment grading to a company whose employees are mostly in Asia.
http://chronicle.com/article/Outsourced-Grading-With-Su/64954/#top