Less is more

Bernie Russell Economics
Less is more
Interesting point in a letter to the Spectator this week in response to a Charles Moore point that the Australian parliament sits for only 18 weeks a year.
Martin Sewell from Gravesend (no link – I think it’s behind the pay wall) says that the Texas and Oklahoma legislatures ordinarily sit in alternate years, and the Utah legislature sits for 45 days a year.
Yet those states host six of the ten US cities not affected by the recession.
So Tom Paine was right: “that government is best which governs least”.

Interesting letter to the Spectator this week in response to a Charles Moore point that the Australian parliament sits for only 18 weeks a year.

Martin Sewell from Gravesend (sorry, no link – I think it’s behind the pay wall) says that the Texas and Oklahoma legislatures ordinarily sit in alternate years, and the Utah legislature sits for 45 days a year.

Yet those states host six of the ten US cities not affected by the recession.

So Tom Paine was right: “That government is best which governs least”.

And so, surely,  was Cicero: “The more laws, the less justice.”

Blog for the Independent

Bernie Russell Media
Blog for the Independent
The Independent is running a blogging competition for students.
They’re looking for blogs on any subject, but especially on student life.
The best authors will go on the Indie site, and the best article will go in the paper (which means fewer people will read it … weird.)
And best of all – there’ll be a chance to work for the Independent in the summer:
You have to sign up for their blogging service, which is powered by LiveJournal. As far as I can tell, it’s a closed community, but it’s a great competition, and well worth having a go.

The Independent is running a blogging competition for students.

They’re looking for blogs on any subject, but especially on student life.

The best blogs will go on the Indie site, the best article will go in the paper, and the best bloggers will get the chance to work for the Independent in the summer

You have to sign up for their blogging service, which is powered by LiveJournal. As far as I can tell, it’s a closed community, but it’s a great competition, and well worth having a go.

Question time

Bernie Russell Media
Question time
There was a strange piece on the Today programme after the Tory party conference.
Assuming the Tories win the next election, many of the MPs will be newcomers to Parliament.
The Today programme had the reasonable idea of asking a random section of PPCs some questions to get an idea of what they were like.
So far, so good. But then it went all BBC.
Warning: this question is loaded
Here are a couple of the questions they asked:
Who’s your favourite 20th century PM?
Do you believe in God?
Are there any circumstances in which you’d favour the return of capital punishment?
Ask me another
Question 1:
Of course, most of them said Margaret Thatcher. And of course, this was meant to get Today listeners choking on their organic muesli.
Question 2:
Just weird –  since the Beeb is staffed by the kind of people who go all po-faced and censorious at the notion of bringing religion into politics;
Question 3: capital punishment (something most voters support, btw) won’t come up, and has always been a free-vote issue anyway;
A question of bias?
It couldn’t be…I mean, you don’t think the BBC is trying to curdle the voters’ blood by conjuring up a Guardian fantasy of a hanging and flogging Tory party  bewitched by the spirit of Margaret Thatcher?
Noooo.
The BBC is totally impartial.
Everybody knows that.

There was a strange piece on the Today programme during the Tory party conference. Continue reading →

Get plusgood at Googling

Bernie Russell Teaching
Get plusgood at Googling
Been meaning to log this for ages. It’s from a comment on an earlier post – a Google Search Tutorials blog set up by Joss Winn, from the University of Lincoln’s Centre for Educational Research and Development
It’s a collection of short videos from Google about how to use specific features of their search engine. Useful and usable.
http://joss.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/
http://rbrussell.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/2009/10/02/get-good-at-googling/#comments

I’ve been meaning to log this for ages. It’s from a comment on an earlier post – a Google Search Tutorials blog set up by Joss Winn, from the university’s Centre for Educational Research and Development

It’s a collection of short videos from Google about how to use specific features of their search engine.

Useful and usable. I’ve added it to the resources page.

BBC has style

Bernie Russell Media
BBC has style
Thanks to Paul Stainthorp for sending me this link to the BBC style guide.
I’ll add it to the resources page.
http://www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsstyleguide.pdf
As well as being useful, these guides are always a great read, especially when they list howlers that went out.
I enjoyed:
For the second time in six months, a prisoner at Durham jail has died after hanging himself in his cell.
A suicide bomber has struck again in Jerusalem.
A walker crossing Tower Bridge spotted the body – it’s understood he was about five-and-a-half and Afro-Caribbean.
It’s a sad and tragic fact that if you’re a farmer you are three times more likely to die than the average factory worker.
BUT
how did “Bi-medial working has brought further complications. get through?

Thanks to Paul Stainthorp for sending me this link to the BBC style guide.

I’ve added it to the resources page.

As well as being useful, this is a great read, especially where it lists howlers that went out.

I enjoyed:

  • For the second time in six months, a prisoner at Durham jail has died after hanging himself in his cell.
  • A suicide bomber has struck again in Jerusalem.
  • A walker crossing Tower Bridge spotted the body – it’s understood he was about five-and-a-half and Afro-Caribbean.
  • It’s a sad and tragic fact that if you’re a farmer you are three times more likely to die than the average factory worker.

But …
How did Bi-medial working has brought further complications get through?

That’s horrible.

Travelling to work

Bernie Russell Media
Travelling to work
LSj graduate Sadie Geoghegan [2008] has joined travel company Thomas Cook’s e-commerce department as a Content and Editorial Executive.
http://www.thomascook.com/
Sadie will be writing articles and building the websites for Thomas Cook and all its other brands such as Direct Holidays, http://www.directholidays.co.uk/ My Travel http://www.mytravel.com/etc.
She got the job after getting involved in a work experience project set up by another LSJ graduate, Katie Bond, now Content and Editorial Manager at Thomas Cook.
Katie visited the LSJ last year to run the project for students who wanted to work as travel writers. Sadie joined in, worked hard, and it paid off.

LSJ graduate Sadie Geoghegan [2009] has joined travel company Thomas Cook’s e-commerce department as a Content and Editorial Executive.

Sadie will be writing articles and building the websites for Thomas Cook and all its other brands such as Direct Holidays,  My Travel, etc.

Work experience
She got the job after getting involved in a work experience project set up by another LSJ graduate, Katie Bond, now Content and Editorial Manager at Thomas Cook.

Katie visited the LSJ last year to run the project for students who wanted to work as travel writers. Sadie joined in, worked hard, and it paid off.

Shrink that link

Bernie Russell Media
Shrink that link
One of my students asked if he could use Twitter-style URLs when referencing web sources in his dissertation.
These URLs are generated by Twitter apps or stand-alone web sites which translate full URLs into a much shorter version.
This version will expand back into the full URL and point to the correct source when clicked.
How does it work?
Copy your URL
go to (e.g.) http://bit.ly/
paste the URL in the ‘shorten field, and click Shorten.
Then copy and paste the new URL into the footnote or bibliography.
Result?
Compare this full URL:
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/10/06/75836/the-world-and-the-dollar-reacts-to-robert-fisk/?source=rss
to the shortened version from bit.ly
http://bit.ly/3QHp23.
Problem solved …
The new URL is much more usable. Standard URLs are long, ugly, and difficult to use, especially if you’re working from a hard copy.
I said this student could use these URLs, and wondered if it might be something we could incorporate into our academic style guide
… or not
But there are problems:
How long do these shrink-wrapped links last?
What happens if the sites offering these services die off?
And these problems got me thinking (after a chat to Paul Stainthorp) about other web-related referencing issues:
What happens if the site archives the source and the URL changes?
what happens if a student links to a source that ends up behind a pay-wall?
(E.g., the Economist currently allows free online access to copy published in the last 12 months – but from 13 October, non-subscribers can only see copy under 90 days old.)
I’ve touched on just two, but there must be plenty of others related to copyright issues, deep-linking, database sources, e-journals?
I’m not sure where this should go. (Do we have some kind of academic standards committee?) But I am sure we need to start thinking about it. I’d certainly welcome some guidance.

One of my students asked if he could use Twitter-style URLs when referencing web sources in his dissertation.

These URLs are generated by Twitter apps or stand-alone web sites which translate full URLs into a much shorter version.

This version will expand back into the full URL and point to the correct source when clicked.

How does it work?

  • Copy your URL
  • Co to (e.g.) http://bit.ly/
  • Paste the URL in the ‘shorten’ field, and click Shorten.
  • Then copy and paste the new URL into the footnote or bibliography.

Result?
Compare this full URL:

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/10/06/75836/the-world-and-the-dollar-reacts-to-robert-fisk/?source=rss

to the shortened version from bit.ly

http://bit.ly/3QHp23

User-friendly
Standard URLs are long, ugly, and difficult to use, especially if you’re working from a hard copy. The new URL is much more usable.

I said this student could use these URLs, and wondered if it might be something we could/should incorporate into our academic style guide?

Problems?
But there are problems:

  • How long do these shrink-wrapped links last?
  • What happens if the sites offering these services die off?

And these problems got me thinking (after a chat to Paul Stainthorp) about other web-related referencing issues:

  • What happens if the site archives the source and the URL changes?
  • What happens if a student links to a source that ends up behind a pay-wall? (E.g., The Economist currently allows free online access to copy published in the last 12 months – but from 13 October, non-subscribers can only see copy under 90 days old.)

I’ve touched on just two, but there must be plenty of others related to copyright issues, deep-linking, database sources, e-journals?

I’m not sure where to go with this. (Do we have some kind of academic standards committee?) But I am sure we need to start thinking about it. I’d certainly welcome some guidance.

Posh nosh shop drops Fox

Bernie Russell Media
Posh nosh shop drops Fox
High-end UK supermarket Waitrose has pulled its advertising from Fox News after presenter Glenn Beck called Barack Obama “a racist”, and said he had “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”.
Beck made the remarks after Obama said police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had “acted stupidly” when they arrested US academic Henry Louis Gates for suspected burglary as he entered his own home.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/harvard.html
Defending press freedom
There has been widespread condemnation of the company’s decision, with many media commentators and academics seeing it as a serious attack by big business on press freedom.
What???
Actually, I made that last bit up.
I mean, as if…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/04/waitrose-fox-news-barack-obama?commentpage=4&commentposted=1

High-end UK supermarket Waitrose has pulled its advertising from Fox News after presenter Glenn Beck called Barack Obama “a racist”, and said he had “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”.

Beck made the remarks after Obama said police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had “acted stupidly” when they arrested US academic Henry Gates for suspected burglary as he entered his own home.

Defending press freedom
There has been widespread condemnation of Waitrose’s decision, with many media commentators and academics seeing it as a serious attack by big business on press freedom.

What???
Actually, I made that last bit up.

I mean, as if…

Which way does our reading list?

Bernie Russell Media
Which way does your reading list?
Just had an emall about some new books we’ve got for our journalism collection.
A couple of examples
The new Western way of war, by Martin Shaw
This is “a moral and political statement as well as a major contribution to sociology and international relations. It will make compelling reading not only for students and scholars of these disciplines, but for anyone concerned about Western political and military power, and the future for global justice”.
Cry Korea, by RW Thompson
This is all about the “carnage caused by America’s military might”.
Sigh…

Just had an emall about some new books we’ve got for our journalism collection.

A couple of examples

  • The new Western way of war, by Martin Shaw

This is “a moral and political statement as well as a major contribution to sociology and international relations. It will make compelling reading not only for students and scholars of these disciplines, but for anyone concerned about Western political and military power, and the future for global justice”.

  • Cry Korea, by RW Thompson

This is about the “carnage caused by America’s military might”.

Sigh…

LSJ graduate signs for Notts County

Bernie Russell Media
LSJ graduate signs for Notts County
LSJ graduate [2009] Dane Vincent has signed for Notts County – though he’ll be working on the web rather than on the pitch.
He starts tomorrow as the club’s media manager.
Dane’s job will be producing content for the web site, and dealing with press enquiries.

LSJ graduate [2009] Dane Vincent has signed for Notts County – though he’ll be working on the web rather than on the pitch.

He starts tomorrow (October 6) as the club’s new media manager.

Dane’s job will be producing content for the web site, and dealing with press enquiries.