On Wednesday a group of students positioned themselves on the main walkway, offering hugs to all passersby. I believe this was part of a promotion for one of the campus clubs. During the ten minutes or so that I watched them, only a few people accepted the offer.
Between classes I was sitting on a bench, about five or six feet away from this girl. She was doing homework and texting while listening to her music player. Eventually she stopped to watch the birds, but I don’t think she could hear them. Even though she had her earbuds on, I could hear the music. Fortunately, this school has a good American Sign Language program. I expect that many of today’s students will end up needing it.
I just used a dangerous tool to open a nearly impenetrable package that was about three times bigger than it needed to be. High-tech devices have some of the worst packages, gigantic displays made of unconscionable quantities of petrochemical products and cardboard. They do not have tabs, zippers, flaps, dotted lines, escape hatches, or any other means by which to open them. Scissors are usually inadequate. Stabbing at them with knives is dangerous, both to the consumer and the product within. I use a small box cutter, something that would get me kicked off an airplane if I tried to transport it in my carry-on. Sometimes the density of the plastic packaging causes the razor blade to bend.
So I was very pleased to learn that Amazon.com is working with manufacturers to put and end to wrap rage
I like this video
Lately it seems that packages of cat food, catnip, cat toys, and cat accessories all have the text translated into French. Here in South California we are used to seeing a lot of things in Spanish, an assortment of Asian languages, as well as languages of the Middle East. And I often get technology products that have the instructions in several languages, usually including French and German. (Why, oh why is Italian ignored? But that’s another topic for another day.) But these cat-related items are described solely in English and French, no Spanish, Korean, Farsi or Tagalog. Do cats speak French? I tried saying “Bonjour” to Bob, but if it meant anything to him, he did a good job of concealing it.
Today is my cousin’s birthday, and I wanted to send her an ecard. For some reason I couldn’t find any I liked. I did find a lot of strange cards for occasions I never expected. Bob Marley’s birthday, Groundhog Day, Cervical Health Awareness Month (I’m not making this up), Arbor Day, Flag Day, Pulaski Day (why?), Respect Your Cat Day, Bastille Day, Mother-in-law’s day (like that’s gonna happen), Menopause Awareness (as if we need a card to make us aware of that) and Day of the Dead, to name only a few. I quit when I came to International Pickle Week.
Back in the mid-90’s, Vincent Flanders had a popular website called “Web Pages That Suck” based on the idea that we could learn good design by looking at bad design; let others make mistakes so we don’t have to. Flanders wrote a book (published in 1998), and a sequel (published in 2002). He’s still around. Interestingly enough, his current web page is dreadful.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
Why? Oh, so many reasons.
He’s got Google ads right in the middle, where he should have important content. True, having them there probably increases the chance that people will click on them (if only by mistake). So, if his real goal is to get people to navigate away from his page, this will work. Maybe that is his goal. The only thing he is selling, as far as I can tell, is his last book. His link to that is in the most obscure possible place. (If you bother to look for it, let me know how long it took you to find it.)
Which brings me to his website navigation. Rather than use a menu or tab system across the top or down one side (both of which would be familiar to most web surfers), he has placed his navigation “below the fold”. I have to scroll down to see the buttons and links.
There is a lot more that is wrong with this site, but these are the big “first impression” items. BTW, the credits indicate this is a design from Template World. It doesn’t make me want to go there to look for templates!
I was horrified to find that Google AdSense had plastered inappropriate political ads on all my web pages. I am in the process of blocking them through my Google account, but apparently this does not take effect immediately.
Is pretending to do something as good as actually doing it? Some people think so. At some schools, students who are too squeamish to dissect a frog are allowed to pretend to dissect a cartoon frog. As someone who recently dissected a real sheep’s brain and compared it to pictures of sheeps’ brains, I do not believe for a minute that one is the equivalent of the other.
Delusions aside, what about the real dilemma many schools face, of simply not having the resources (adequate space, money for equipment, etc.) to offer laboratory experiences to their students? Are simulations better — or perhaps worse — than nothing? Are there other choices?
The people at Smart Science believe there are. They have developed a patented system for bringing real science experiences to students through virtual labs. Their recently-launched blog explains the thinking behind this. I especially like this post about the difference between simulations and science. The main website is at www.smartscience.net.
I came across Kasmira’s blog while searching for ideas on how to wear lingerie as outerwear. (Not my usual style, but I’m contemplating a Halloween costume.) Nearly every day, she photographs herself in whatever she is wearing and posts it on her blog. For a few minutes, I was tempted to copy the idea, but I just don’t have the clothing variety that she does. (After a few days of black pants and yet another T-shirt, nobody would look.) And I’m certainly not prepared to offer fashion advice and shopping tips. So take a look at What I Wore Today.
