Thursday, December 29, 2005

eContent Online Communication: Writing for the Web. The last 2005 issue of WWWTools for Education focuses on writing for the Web, with many useful links to articles about writing and to writing support sites. _____JH _____ "There's general agreement that writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print - though perhaps we should also consider that much online writing was initially written for the printed page, and in a nice final irony, a piece is often printed back to paper for easier reading. In this edition of WWWTools for Education, the last for 2005, we consider the factors that make writing for the Web so different, how writers can optimise their use of the online environment, and the contributions of educators and software developers in developing appropriate strategies, skills and tools to help them on their way." [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 10:05:11 PM    comment

ecology 'Best' green energy schemes named. The UK's top 10 renewable energy projects of 2005 are listed by the government. [BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition] 9:10:52 PM    comment

open content Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopedia, Ponders a New Entity: Wikiversity - Andrea L. Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education. Fans of Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, have proposed the creation of Wikiversity, an electronic institution of learning that would be just as open. It's not clear exactly how extensive Wikiversity would be. Some think it [Online Learning Update] 9:06:04 PM    comment

hearing Earbud Headphones May Cause Hearing Loss. [Slashdot] 9:52:19 AM    comment

privacy Spy Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files. The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. [NYT > Technology] 9:50:17 AM    comment

gender Women Now Outnumber Men Online. [Slashdot] 9:48:00 AM    comment

depression Bipolar disorder more common than expected in hospitalized teens. Clinicians at Bradley Hospital, the nation's first psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, have found that bipolar disorder is more common than expected in teens in a psychiatric inpatient setting. "In the past, mental health professionals thought that about one percent of teens was bipolar – our research indicates that if a strict definition of the illness is applied, up to twenty percent of adolescents on psychiatric units may be manic-depressive," says lead author Jeffrey Hunt, MD, a child psychiatrist at Bradley Hospital and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Brown Medical School. The study appears in the December issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. [Science Blog -] 9:46:22 AM    comment

health Hyperbaric oxygen treatments mobilize stem cells. According to a study to be published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, a typical course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by eight-fold the number of stem cells circulating in a patient's body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells are crucial to injury repair. The study currently appears on-line and is scheduled for publication in the April 2006 edition of the American Journal. [Science Blog -] 9:44:27 AM    comment

ePortfolio The blog as resume and autobiography. On my winter vacation this week, I've been spending some of my time sketching out a book proposal. The idea would be to explore the professional blog as a literary form that grows out of, and extends, two traditional forms: the resume and the autobiography. That might seem self-evident to blogging cognoscenti, but it's still unfamiliar to most people. Unusually for me, this book would address that audience. Profiles of readers I'd like to reach: ... [Jon's Radio] 9:37:20 AM    comment