Saturday, August 21, 2010

Media Cloud, A Project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard

Media Cloud

"Media Cloud is a system that lets you see the flow of the media. The Internet is fundamentally altering the way that news is produced and distributed, but there are few comprehensive approaches to understanding the nature of these changes. Media Cloud automatically builds an archive of news stories and blog posts from the web, applies language processing, and gives you ways to analyze and visualize the data. The system is still in early development, but we invite you to explore our current data and suggest research ideas. This is an open-source project, and we will be releasing all of the code soon. You can read more background on the project or just get started below."

No time to think, by David.M.Levy

Monday, August 16, 2010

WORDS and What They Do To You, by CATHERINE MINTEER

WORDS and What They Do To You, by CATHERINE MINTEER. Illustrations by Lucy Ozone. 1965, Catherine Minteer. Web Edition © 2001, 2004 Institute of General Semantics

Friday, August 13, 2010

Phoenix (1901)



Counting all different ideas drifting away
Past and present -- they don't matter.
Now the future's sorted out
Watch, you're moving in elliptical pattern
Think it's not what you say
What you say is way too complicated
For a minute thought I couldn't tell how to fall out.

It's 20 seconds 'til the last call, going "hey hey hey hey hey hey"
Lie down, you know it's easy like we did it all summer long
And I'll be anything you ask and more, going "hey hey hey hey hey hey"
It's not a miracle we needed, and no I wouldn't let you think so
Fold it, Fold it, Fold it, Fold it

Girlfriend, know your girlfriend's drifting away
Past and present, 1855-1901
Watch them build up a material tower
Think it's not gonna stay anyway
Think it's overrated
For a minute, thought I couldn't tell how to fall out

It's 20 seconds to the last call, going "hey hey hey hey hey"
Lie down, you know it's easy, like we did it all summer long
And I'll be anything you ask and more, going "hey hey hey hey hey"
It's not a miracle we needed, and no, I wouldn't let you think so
Fold it, Fold it, Fold it, Fold it
Fold it, Fold it, Fold it, Fold it

Note: Lyrics obtained here

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

"Metaphor in Scientific Communication", by Anuška Štambuk

"Metaphor in Scientific Communication", by Anuška Štambuk

Yo La Tengo (song For Mahila)

Spatial Metaphor in the Work of Marshall McLuhan, by Gordon Gow

Spatial Metaphor in the Work of Marshall McLuhan, by Gordon Gow.
Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol 26, No 4 (2001)

"While the laws of media themselves had been formulated over the course of McLuhan's career, the tetrad represents an innovation in his thought, distinct from the laws upon which it is formed. The tetrad is innovative insofar as it was a means of binding together the laws of media to establish a set of figure/ground ratios - ratios that McLuhan claimed characterized all metaphorical operations and the relations among the laws of media. Having made this connection between metaphor and the laws of media through the tetrad, McLuhan (McLuhan & McLuhan, 1988) could then articulate what he believed to be a new approach to culture and technology studies"

"In contrast to the static, container-like qualities of visual space, acoustic space comes across as an organic concept, dynamic and contingent in character. With acoustic space there is no empty void to be filled, but rather a space created in the mutual relations between elements as they develop over time. McLuhan explained the idea in a letter to literary critic Harold Rosenberg in 1965 by using an analogy: "Central heating structures the thermal space of a room visually. That is, a centrally heated room has a thermal space that is uniform, discontinuous, and connected. That is visuality as such" (Molinaro, McLuhan, & Toye, 1987, p. 318). McLuhan's analogy suggests that acoustic space might be like that generated by a portable electric space heater. These devices are useful to eliminate drafts largely because they can be used to structure thermal space acoustically: creating [their] own dimensions moment by moment ... [without] fixed boundaries ...[and] indifferent to background. In other words, the portable electric space heater changes the spatial qualities of a room by virtue of its location in the room"

"On this point, McLuhan disputed Innis' claim to the contrary (McLuhan, 1964a) and proclaimed electricity as the force behind a new era of post-Euclidean acoustic space, making obsolete the visual space created by mechanical typographic technology. McLuhan emphasized the effects of the electric revolution in the arts, science, and philosophy of the early twentieth century as this new acoustic mode of awareness seeped into Western culture. For instance, he suggested that the appearance of Cubism was a clear indication of the return of acoustic sensibilities. He tells us in Laws of Media that "Cubism ('multi-locationalism') is one of the painterly forms of acoustic space." Why is this so? Because, he says, "paralleling [the atonal music of Shoenberg], Cubist painting abandons single fixed points of view along with Euclidean geometry and perspective" (McLuhan & McLuhan, 1988, p. 55"

"McLuhan also considered modern data networks as a form of acoustic space, observing that modern telecommunications demonstrate acoustic properties: they have the intrinsic nature of a sphere, simultaneously resonating and structured around multiple and interconnected centres, relatively indifferent to background (McLuhan & Powers, 1981; McLuhan & Powers, 1989, p. 140).

Mass Communication Theory. Foundations, Ferment and Future. By Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K. Davis, 2009.

Mass Communication Theory. Foundations, Ferment and Future (fifth edition). By Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K. Davis, 2009.

Science metrics

"The value of scientific output is often measured, to rank one nation against another, allocate funds between universities or even grant or deny tenure. Scientometricians have devised a multitude of metrics to help in these rankings. Do they work? Are they fair? Are they over-used? Nature investigates"
nature news, specials

Friday, August 6, 2010

Improving two elements involved in the learning process of a language by using tools designed by Draceina Pinion for being used in Second Life



Improving two elements involved in the learning process of a language by using tools designed for Second Life. Grammar, Vocabulary and Use in context:
Word Puzzle Balls, Dracy Crossword (type 5 and Making Panel)

Second Life is an adequate environment for learning languages not just because allows to join individuals from several places, facilitating the exchange of ideas between them but also because of the immersive character of this virtual environment, which permits people to share a common space where they can interact with ease and where they feel comfortable.

Even without the need of using tools, Second Life, understood as an space is a very adequate place for practicing languages but it is mainstream taking advantage of the easiness that we experiment in this Virtual World for designing and creating intelligent tools oriented to achieve specific objectives involved in the process of learning a language.

Word Puzzle Balls and Dracy Crossword (type 5 and Making Panel) are created by Draceina Pinion and aim to help people to improve grammar and vocabulary in many languages.

Thus, Word Puzzle Balls can be used for learning and teaching the grammar of all the languages which can be used in Second Life and Dracy Crossword can be applied for learning and teaching vocabulary of English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Hirigana, the first of all the writing systems taught to Japanese children.

Draceina Pinion avatar is an experienced user of Second Life, a professional scripter who works for many educators and institutions. She has a shop, called Dracy´s Virtual Shop, specialized in educational tools in Second Life. and also mantains the blog “How to use educational tools

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Yo La Tengo (weather shy)

The Evolution of Social Behavior over Time in Second Life, by Helen Harris Jeremy N. Bailenson Alexia Nielsen Nick Yee

The Evolution of Social Behavior over Time in Second Life, by Helen Harris, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Alexia Nielsen, Nick Yee

The Rules of Virtual Groups: Trust, Linking and Performance in Computer-Mediated Communication

The Rules of Virtual Groups: Trust, Linking and Performance in Computer-Mediated Communication, by Joseph B Walther and Ulla Bunz. Journal of Communication. December,2001.
Rule 1. Get started right away.
Rule 2. Communicate frequently.
Rule 3. Multitask getting organized and doing substantive work simultaneously.
Rule 4. Overtly acknowledge that you have read one another´s messages.
Rule 5. Be explicit about what you are thinking and doing.
Rule 6. Set deadlines and stick to them.

Tools for Use in Second Life

Tools for Use in Second Life (Midle Tennesse State University)

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