July 5, 2009
Bookstores and Bookcrossings
“A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.”  – Jerry Seinfeld
Regular bookstores have fallen on tough times.  The American Booksellers Association is…
July 4, 2009
Successful Comeback for Bald Eagle in New Jersey
Most experts expected the bald eagle to become extinct during the 20th century.

This American symbol has since reversed its decline and begun to recover.

The bald eagle was found to be…
What’s Up With Work
Photo by Marjory Collins,
Garage mechanic near Newark, New Jersey,
1943, Library of Congress
I’m being too concerned with work lately. I picked up an issue of Time magazine (May 25, 2009) on “The…
July 3, 2009
The Shawangunk Ridge Trail
Panoramic view showing the Shawangunk Ridge from south of New Paltz

In 1989, the NY/NJ Trail Conference decided to explore an alternative route for the Long Path from Harriman State…
Getting Globally Social
Since social networking sites have gotten more attention lately because of news events, I thought it would be interesting to find what the most popular social networks are by country.

…
July 2, 2009
Built To Last
I was telling students last week to broaden their definition of video. People are taking the oft-maligned PowerPoint
type of presentation, screencasts, and photo slideshows and saving them in video…
A Wiki Full Of Tools For Teachers
This wiki for teachers at indispensibletools.pbworks.com is a good list of Information and communication technologies in education. (That’s  “ICT” to many people outside the USA.)

The…
A Poet Laureate For Community Colleges
Kay Ryan is the current Poet
Laureate of the United States. That is a topic that would normally appear on my poetry blog, but there’s an
education connection with Ryan. She wants to use her…
July 1, 2009
And now... Atheist Summer Camp

Atheist summer camp, funded by Richard Dawkins’ foundation — Alongside the more traditional activities of tug-of-war, swimming and canoeing, children at the five-day camp in Somerset will learn about rational scepticism, moral philosophy, ethics and evolution.

Camp-goers aged eight to 17 will also be taught how to disprove phenomena such as crop circles and telepathy. In the Invisible Unicorn Challenge, any child who can prove that unicorns do not exist will win a £10 note — which features an image of Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory — signed by Dawkins, Britain’s most prominent atheist.

Slacker Personal Radio
They’ve got sixteen rock stations, 20 categories, you can fine tune selections - it’s kind of free satellite radio.  I like Pandora but this seems better so far…
Trailer Park From The Past

Psycho trailer (Alfred Hitchcock) Citizen Kane - The Theatrical Trailer Garden State - Teaser Trailer

Alfred Hitchcock liked to do his own film trailers. They don’t make them like this anymore. His for The Birds” promo, is also quite droll. Orson Welles also did one…
The 50 Greatest Movie Trailers of All Time
from the Independent Film Channel - We know them as trailers, but they don’t trail anything; they play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary “Coming Attractions” dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled “What Happened to Mary?” After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences “The next incident in the series of ‘What Happened to Mary’ will be shown a week from now.” Not exactly “In a world…” but it did the trick back in 1912.
Dolphin 56 Visits the Jersey Shore
Photo: Rod Houck
Dolphin 56 seen last summer off Island Beach State Park.

A celebrity dolphin known “Dolphin 56” has been spotted at the Jersey shore again. He is a wild bottlenose…
July
July was originally called Quintilis (from Quintus, meaning “fifth”), but it was renamed by Mark Antony to honor the murdered Julius Caesar, who was born on July 12.

Read and post comments…