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Names of the Dead – reported June 2, 2006

From today’s New York Times:

The Department of Defense has identified 2,465 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:

FUNKHOUSER, James A., 35, Capt., Army; Katy, Tex.; Fourth Infantry Division.

KOLASA, Alexander J., 22, Cpl., Army; White Lake, Mich.; Fourth Infantry Division.

WEST, Bobby R., 23, Specialist, Army; Beebe, Ark.; Fourth Infantry Division.

2006 06 02 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

The Odd body

the Register Online has a collection of columns categorised (it is a British paper) as the Odd Body. Reader’s send in questions and they’re answered by Stephen Juan, Ph.D. is an anthropologist at the University of Sydney. the articles that first drew me in are titled “How long does it take the body to…”. The first of these starts with”

It takes time for everything, including what happens in the human body.

* Fingerprints form six to eight weeks before birth.
* Fingernails grow about four times faster than toenails – about .02 of an inch (0.05cm) per week.

and, naturally, it eventually includes items related to sex and reproduction.

—
And today’s special is ..
Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It’s the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. – Lily Tomlin

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2006 05 28 ernie Interesting Web Sites Comments (0) Permalink

Writing and Web Design

Yet another great entry in A List apart. This one is abut writing and Web design: “Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!” by Derek Powazek. One part I especially liked:

It’s time we designers stop thinking of ourselves as merely pixel people, and start thinking of ourselves as the creators of experiences. And when it comes to experience on the web, there’s no better way to create it than to write, and write well.

Other postings at A List apart on writng are filed under Topics: Content: Writing

2006 05 22 ernie About the Internet and the Web
Teaching
web2.0 Comments (0) Permalink

Faculty Academy 11 (2)

Faculty Academy at Mary Washington is over for another year. Had a great time talking with Rachel Smith, Cyprien Lomas, and Jon Udell. These were the headliners, and it was just as good talking with other participants. There’s a blog and a wiki for the event.

Today, I headed up a panel session “What’s a Wiki for?” with participation from Steve Greenlaw, Dave Macewen, Mara Scanlon, and Greg Stull. it was really neat to see the different uses we’ve made of wikis.

—
And today’s special is ..
Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds. – John Perry Barlow, EFF co-founder, Decrypting the Puzzle Palace
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2006 05 17 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

Faculty Academy 11

The eleventh annual Mary Washington (was College now University) Faculty Academy is scheduled to start tomorrow, May 16, 2006. It looks like yet another excellent lineup of speakers and presentations, and some great guest speakers – Rachel Smith, New Media Consortium, Cyprien Lomas, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative scholar-in-residence, and Jon Udell, Infoworld Magazine.

I’m involved in 2 panel sessions this year. One is Panel Discussion: “A Conversation about Blogging at UMW” Ernie Ackerman, Teresa Coffman, Leanna Giancarlo, Steve Greenlaw, Jeff McClurken, Tim O’Donnell, John Pearce, Anand Rao, Marcel Rotter, Gregg Stull. At last year’s Faculty Academy I also was on a panel about blogging, “Blogging In Teaching and Learning.” The other is listed as “Ernie Ackermann, Mara Scanlon, David MacEwen, Gregg Stull, Steve Greenlaw (UMW), “What’s a Wiki For?” A panel presentation/discussion of the ways that several faculty are using a wiki in their teaching or department’s activities. The discussion will provide several viewpoints on ways to use a wiki in an academic setting.”

It should be fun.

Tagged
2006 05 15 ernie Interesting Web Sites
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Sequester the Voting Machines

Ed Felten in his excellent blog Freedom To Tinker includes a description of yet another problem with Diebold voting machines. This one, like many of the others, is serious. He mentions a report that describes a possible attack that “would allow anyone who had physical access to a voting machine for a few minutes to install malicious software code on that machine, using simple, widely available tools. The malicious code, once installed, would control all of the functions of the voting machine, including the counting of votes.”

He goes on to say that “All Diebold Accuvote machines should be sequestered and kept under vigilant watch.”

Here is the link.

—
And today’s special is ..
You have to begin drawing to know what you want to draw. – Pablo Picasso
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2006 05 13 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

Reception for graduating students

For the first time ever, the Mathematics and the Computer Science Departments at Mary Washington held a joint reception for students who will be graduating tomorrow. It went really well and was an excellent idea to jointly offer a reception for the students from both departments. Students started showing up a little before 3 and we started packing things up at about 4:30. Sara More and I represented the Computer Science Department.

Several students showed up and it was really nice to have a chance to talk with them, their friends, and their parents. We talked with Karen Schouweiler, Abbey Wineland, Courtney Young (with her fiance and mother), Dan Fovargue (with his sister and parents), and Mandie Corriveau (with her parents) who commented that she got her job because she had taken the database course. It was great fun and it is something we will definitely have to continue. Combining with Math makes lots of sense – we have common interests and majors.

There were several frequently asked questions:
1. How long will graduation last?
2. What’s a nice place to take the family to dinner?
3. Do we need to bring chairs to graduation?

2006 05 12 ernie Teaching Comments (0) Permalink

View du jour; April 23 2006

The creek in our back yard

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);.

And today’s special is ..

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.
– Robert Louis Stevenson

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2006 04 23 ernie view du jour Comments (0) Permalink

The real struggle will be in finding an appropriate place for ubiquitous computing in our lives

“The real struggle will be in finding an appropriate place for ubiquitous computing in our lives” is a quote from Adam Greenfield’s book “Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitos Computing.”

That is the challenge. Excerpts are on line at A List Apart. This one came from “Everyware: Always Crashing in the Same Car“

2006 04 19 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

Claudia wins a Pulitzer!!


Our good friend Claudia Emerson won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book “Late Wife: Poem.”

A quote from her in an article in the Washington Post accurately described the situation here among her friends:

“We’re freaking out here,” said poetry winner Emerson, who teaches at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. “It was a very big surprise.” The author of three books of poetry, Emerson said “Late Wife” is much more personal than her other work.

The prize was announced yesterday. She and her husband Kent hosted an impromtu party at their hosue last night. They had to. The house would have been filled with well-wishers in any case. Her book is listed as #523 in books at Amazon.com today, it was at about 1500 yesterday, and somewhere around 500,000 the day before.

Her books are wonderful, she writes and sings great songs, and it’s a singular pleasure to hear her read. Congratulations Claudia!

2006 04 18 ernie Books
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