Thursday, January 21, 2010

Self-referential is NOT self-reverential: a tale of migration

The Joshua Fit sure acts like it's on hiatus, so let's make it official. I was going to use the past-exonerative tense in writing this but the bottom line is: I feel I'm one blog over my limit for reasonable maintenance.

I'm blogging and doing other Web 2.0+ stuff with my students and they have to come first. (Otherwise, what's the point of whining about the sorry state of education? If you get my drift.) The Other Two-Fifths seems to have legs, so that blog will be my default posting area for pretty much everything else. You'll see topics at TOTF that might appear off-theme in that space, by its original charter. On a positive note, this may reveal a more unified & consistent ProfGeo over time. No guarantees, though! I will also continue reading/commenting in the usual spots (e.g. blogs listed in the "I frequent" section at TOTF).

Thanks to those who checked in here. Please visit:

The Other Two-Fifths

Friday, January 1, 2010

OK, one resolution I can make and keep



Compliments of the Season to you, and many more!

So I have a small collection of news outlet typos and odd juxtapositions, and this year I pledge to share them with you. By "typos" I mean spelling, grammar, or usage errors; by "odd juxtapositions" I mean items that really shouldn't be placed next to each other on page or screen. In the print world, this can be something like a Macy's underwear ad on the same page with an article about invasive search procedures at airports. (Why are those models smiling?) On the Web it can be more extreme, because stories and ads tend to rotate often, with little or no human supervision. This can cause a picture of boxers (the dogs, not the underwear) in a Humane Society story to appear next to an offer to find "your perfect match" via an online dating site.

Usually such occurrences appear on the outlet's home page, which is to me a greater offense than appearing on an internal page which may get fewer viewings. Although no stranger to typos myself, I think it's worth noting when a bunch of writers, readers, and editors can't keep on top of this. Or when an intern who pulls an extra shift on a holiday is left to his or her own devices and decides to have a little fun. Sooo...

To start the New Year off right, at the top of this post is an example from the home page of the L.A. Times of January 1, 2010. My comment to the Times: Sorry, folks, but that doesn't look like Sully at all!