Associated Press delivers this short report that Chinese author Qian Fuchang has written a novel designed to be read in a series of sixty 70-word chapters transmitted by cell phone text message.
Mock Turtle
Detroit parents are paid to teach their kids to read
The Detroit Free Press reports on an experimental program designed to improve reading readiness in disadvantaged inner-city preschoolers. Parents are paid in cash for their involvement, to the tune of $10 per hour.
The Detroit Free Press reports on an experimental program designed to improve reading readiness in disadvantaged inner-city preschoolers. Parents are paid in cash for their involvement, to the tune of $10 per hour.Parents who participate in the program attend monthly lessons, in which they receive detailed instructions for daily work with their children in the areas of story comprehension, letter sounds, and number recognition. Each parent keeps meticulous records in order to receive $60 a month for working with the child 15 minutes a day, six days a week.
The mastermind and financier behind this pilot program is Dr. Charles Whitten, a retired distinguished professor and associate dean at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. Whitten started with two groups of Head Start students in January of this year, and provided the cash incentives and lessons to one group, but nothing to the other (control) group. According to the article, at the program’s end in May,
The kids whose parents got the lessons — and the cash — performed better than the control group in four out of eight areas tested. There was no difference between the groups in three areas.
Next time around, Whitten wants to try the program out on kids who are not enrolled in Head Start, to see if he can replicate the results with children who may be even more ill-prepared to begin kindergarten.
Here’s the whole story from the Detroit Free Press.
New book showcases political cartoonists
Just out in print is Attack of the Political Cartoonists: Insights and Assaults from Today’s Editorial Pages, a sampler of political cartoonists, from the well-known and prize-winning to the upstart and regional. The book includes not only artwork, but also biographical sketches of the artists.
Just out in print is Attack of the Political Cartoonists: Insights and Assaults from Today’s Editorial Pages, a sampler of political cartoonists, from the well-known and prize-winning to the upstart and regional. The book includes not only artwork, but also biographical sketches of the artists.
Originally conceived by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), the compilation features an introduction by Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library.
Read about Attack of the Political Cartoonists at Editor&Publisher.com.
Consumer product archive preserves marketing history
This fascinating nugget comes by way of rebecca’s pocket:
Ann Arbor, Mich., is the home of an extraordinary private collection that claims to house an example of every new consumer food or health and beauty aid product introduced in North America since the early 1970s. Supermarket-style shelving in a former car dealership holds around 80,000 items, with 500 more added every month.
The archive is owned by NewProductWorks, a consumer-products consulting outfit, whose employees reportedly spend much of their time trolling retail stores for new items.
The collection is not open to the general public, but a wide variety of companies send delegations by appointment to investigate the vast historical array of “stupendous successes and colossal flops” represented therein.
Read the Toledo Blade story about the NewProductWorks collection.
AIfIA announces info architecture mentoring program
Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture (AIfIA) has just launched a mentoring initiative designed to create mutually beneficial relationships between novice and experienced information architects.
“Let’s face it: information architecture is a new field, and it remains difficult to learn about,” said Louis Rosenfeld, AIfIA’s treasurer. “Our collective experiences haven’t yet been captured as a body of literature, there are few academic IA programs where one can gain formal education, and there is only one industry-wide conference per year. That’s why we need to connect people who have experience with people who don’t, and that’s the goal of AIfIA’s Mentoring Initiative.”
Mentees must be AIfIA members, but mentors are not required to be.
Lessig declares “e-mail bankruptcy”
Wired News reports that Internet legal pundit Lawrence Lessig has thrown up his hands in the face of 200+ daily incoming personal (that’s non-spam) e-mail messages. Declaring what he calls “e-mail bankruptcy,” Lessig sent a script-driven note last week to all his e-mail “creditors”: those who have e-mailed him since January 2002 and have received no reply.
Timely tactic or theatrical stunt? Read the Wired News article and decide for yourself.
Why I’m not sending you viruses
Anonymous Patron writes “Why I’m not sending you viruses is a good one by Robert Vamosi, Senior Associate Editor, Reviews, at ZDNET. It might be obvious to most LISNewsterz, but for many people this is very important to read. He explains very clearly what e-mail spoofing is and what you should be aware of. Though he also says there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop spoofing except minimize your exposure, and probably just unplug your computer.”
Bronte love letters on show
Charles Davis writes “from ‘The Guardian’:
Four of the most poignant love letters in English literature have returned to the Yorkshire village where their misguided writer posted them 160 years ago.
After a century in storage at the British Library, the heartfelt notes from Charlotte Bronte have gone on display at the parsonage in Haworth, where she agonised over their phrasing during periods of depression in 1844. [ the rest of the story … ]
The Guardian article explains how these epistolary fragments are important, not only for how they shed light on Charlotte Bronte’s personal life, but also for their value as source material for her novel Villette.
Librarian’s Dramatic Past Life
teaperson writes, “Here’s a librarian to abolish stereotypes …
According to an article in the Boston Globe Frank Lavine was a crewman on Exodus 1947, a dramatic attempt to run the British blockade of Palestine with a shipload of Holocaust survivors. Then he comes back to the United States and becomes a librarian in Medford, MA.
There’s also a radio documentary on Lavine and his mission from WBUR.”
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