Effects of too much of Lecturing

Too much of Lecturing

Effects of too much of Lecturing

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Brighton professor bans Google

The professor of media studies at the University of Brighton has had enough of students turning in "banal and mediocre work" and decided that Google and Wikipedia must go.

Tara Brabazon provides her students with a reading list, of books, and expects their work to reference those works, rather than a rehash of a Wikipedia entry or the top five results from Google. To achieve this she has, reportedly, banned her students using search engines and Wikipedia.

While we applaud her call for students to learn "the interpretative skills first before we teach them the technological skills", nothing offers a range of information to be interpreted better than a Google search.

Google told us, when questioned about the ban: "We believe that more knowledge is more power for people around the world. That's why we're committed to democratising access to information... One of the great advantages of the internet is that anyone can publish what they know."

We could point out that people publish what they think they know, regardless of the facts. Few of the inaccurate entries in Wikipedia are deliberate - the authors just believe themselves to be right in what they're saying. Drawing conclusions from a single media source is never a good idea, but if that media source is only fact-checked by the sick, the elderly and the under-employed, then it should form no more than a suggestion.

Wikipedia does accurately point out that Ms. Brabazon is currently gaining notoriety for her ban, though fails to connect that with her forthcoming public lecture on the subject in a way that only a cynical new-media publication would.

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REVENGE OF THE SPAM HATERS

Background: Ralsky had become a multimillionaire through marketing spam on the Internet. How much spam? His company sent up to 250 million e-mails a day. The story told readers about Ralsky’s new 8,000-square-foot, $740,000 home. The spammer bragged that one entire wing of the house was paid for by a single weight-loss e-mail.

Revenge Gone Wild! A group of spam haters decided to give Ralsky a dose of his own medicine. They posted his home address on hundreds of websites, and Ralsky started getting tons - literally - of junk mail. Then they posted his e-mail address and his phone number, and the mega-junkmailer got inundated with the very thing he had made his millions from - spam. And, no surprise: He was annoyed! Ralsky later complained, "They’ve signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is. These people are out of their minds! They’re harassing me!"

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Man reels Hummer Limo out of Lake Texoma

One local man planned to spend the day at Lake Texoma with his family, and hoped he might get a big catch. He never expected what he found fishing at Juniper West.

Boating on Lake Texoma seemed like just another day for Bob Faulkner, until he reeled in what he calls the biggest catch of his life. He never expected that his big catch would turn out to be a stretch Hummer limousine.

Witnesses were just as shocked as Faulkner to see the vehicle.

"We was out fishing and we started to come up and we seen guys trying to hook onto something and found out that there ended up being a Humvee in the water and we didn't know what it was for a long time- we thought someone's boat sunk," says Shane Sawyers, a fisherman who witnessed the events unfold.

Faulkner says he was backing his boat up at the end of the day, when suddenly his 27.5 ft. stopped suddenly.

"The guy in the boat that was doing the hooking ended up- he was trying to pull it up with his anchor because he backed his boat into it and there was a bunch of people that put their boats in this morning- we did too.

And we never did hit it... And it's just a wonder that we didn't hit it," Sawyers says.

Pottsboro police say they immediately recognized the vehicle.

"It was stolen from a residence in our city and we're still, as I said, we're still interviewing people, trying to gather the suspects and who we think it might be and put it all together," says Brett Arterburn, Pottsboro police chief.

Faulkner knew he hit something large and had to get it out of the water. When he attached his anchor and tried to remove the object, he pulled in a large piece of vinyl.

He contacted the Grayson County Sheriff's Office and when deputies arrived, with Faulkner's help, after four tries, they reeled the vehicle in.

Faulkner says he couldn't believe his eyes as the roof just kept coming out of the water. He says finding any vehicle in the lake was a shock, but realizing he "caught" a stretch limousine: That's one catch he'll never forget.

The case is still under investigation and police say they don't know why someone stole the vehicle and then dumped it.

(Source)

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Bremerton Wine-for-Sex Arrangement Turns Sour

BREMERTON The 27-year-old Poulsbo woman told police officers she promised sexual favors to a man if he bought her alcohol early Wednesday morning.

But after getting two bottles of inexpensive fortified wine, she used one to hit him in the forehead.

Bremerton police were called to the 7-Eleven convenience store at 802 Sixth Street at about 12:58 a.m. after receiving word of an assault, reports said.

There they found the 48-year-old Seattle man with two large gashes on his forehead from a bottle of Thunderbird wine.

The woman told officers after the man gave her the wine he began badgering her.

"He was telling her she needed to follow through with her end of the deal and then he started pushing and grabbing her," the report said.

The man denied he made such an agreement. He said after buying the woman the wine, she hit him for no reason. Witnesses at the scene told officers they saw the woman approach the man from behind, ask him to drink with her and then hit him.

The witnesses did not say if they heard the two discuss sex, reports said.

A clerk at the store who witnessed the assault told officers that the woman had been banned from the store.

The woman was arrested and booked into the Kitsap County jail for an outstanding felony warrant for assault and violation of a no-contact order, and also for second-degree assault stemming from the wine-bottle assault.

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10 Creepiest Old Ads

1979 Pakistan Airlines ad

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'Meanest mom on the planet' places ad explaining son's goof

Jane Hambleton has dubbed herself the ``meanest mom on the planet.''

After finding alcohol in her son's car, the mother decided to sell the car and share her 19-year-old's goof with everyone — by placing an ad in the local newspaper.

The ad reads: ``OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet.''

Hambleton has heard from more than interested buyers after recently placing the ad in The Des Moines Register.

The 48-year-old from Fort Dodge says she has fielded more than 70 telephone calls from emergency room technicians, nurses, school counselors and even a Georgia man who wanted to congratulate her.

``The ad cost a fortune, but you know what? I'm telling people what happened here,'' Hambleton says. ``I'm not just gonna put the car for resale when there's nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision.

``It's overwhelming the number of calls I've gotten from people saying 'Thank you, it's nice to see a responsible parent.' So far there are no calls from anyone saying, 'You're really strict. You're real overboard, lady.'''

Unless you count her son, who Hambleton says is ``very, very unhappy'' with the ad and claims the alcohol was left there by a passenger.

For the record, Hambleton believes her son but has decided mercy isn't the best policy in this case.

Hambleton says she set two rules when she bought the car at Thanksgiving: No booze, and always keep it locked.

The car has been sold, but Hambleton says she will continue the ad for another week — just for the feedback.

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