Friday, October 5, 2007

News accuracy, a $200 computer, and other topics for class discussion ...or just weekend reading Facts, Facts, Facts For discussions of newspaper fact-checking, the issue of professional reporters relying on public relations sources, and "transparency" about the reporting -- and correction -- process, see these: New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt's column, Pictures Worth a Thousand Questions, about a photorapher's obituary, the corrections to it, and the Times' follow-up story: Known for Famous Photos, Not All of Them His. Free speech on campus Between free speech and a hard place Feature story lead-writing... an example of when to focus on "where," Army enlists anthropology in war zones a "focus on a single case" lead, Violence tests the security on campuses Technophilia, technomyopia and related concepts: See David Pogue's review of the $200 laptop designed for the One Laptop Per Child (laptop.org) international education project. It has no Microsoft Windows, no CD/DVD, but, as Pogue demonstrates in a video, it's designed to be "spillproof, rainproof, dustproof and drop-proof," as well as fanless, silent, neworked and programmable. It's also going to be available -- for a couple of weeks -- to Americans willing to buy a second one for a school in a needier country. (www.xogiving.org) I couldn't help noticing that the little green machine is programmed in Python, the language I've been wanting to learn ever since I started reading about its role in the Django open-source Web development platform. 2:11:00 PM    comment []

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