Resume Gaps

Matt Alderton suggests how to address gaps in the experience documented in your resume.

-DD

Ten Myths Around Open Scholarly Publishing

Tennant et al. have authored Ten Myths Around Open Scholarly Publishing. I find it interesting that the "'Myths’ were identified through a discussion on Twitter and then distilled into the ten most prevalent by the authors" (Tennant et al., 2019).

The team presented these ten myths:

1. Preprints get your research scooped;
2. Journal Impact Factor and journal branding are important quality measures;
3. Peer review proves trustworthiness;
4. Peer review improves the quality of reported results;
5. Open Access creates predatory publishers;
6. Copyright transfer protects authors;
7. Paying to publish is necessary;
8. Embargo periods are required;
9. Web of Science and Scopus are global knowledge databases;
10. Publishers add no value to scholarly communication.

-DD

Repurposing MOOC Content

Jeffery Young shares Robert Lue's idea of repurposing old MOOC content into new courses. Lue's has a clear vision for LabXchange: "LabXchange addresses this issue [inadequate student access to experiential science] with a platform that integrates dynamic experimental simulations with background curriculum and social networking—all created to more effectively expose students of varying backgrounds to the authentic and engaging experience of scientific discovery." LabXchange is seeking collaborators/partners before launching later this year (2019).

-DD

Microsoft Teams Update

Matthew Finnegan reveals improvements in Microsoft's Teams collaboration tools.

-DD

Mozilla FireFox Update

Gregg Keizer recounts the latest improvements to the Mozilla Firefox web browser, including features which squelch audio autoplay and which recommend Firefox plugins, as well as improvements in security.

-DD

Ringelmann Effect

Allison M. Vaillancourt writes about the Ringelmann Effect , which says that a larger team tends to have reduced participation on the part of its members. Ringelmann experimented in the 1880s with the individual body positions taken by those pulling a weight, and observed consistent decline in effort expended as the group gained in size.

-DD

Retirement in America

Andrew Biggs examines the typical American's retirement, and determines that the senior citizens in the U.S. do OK . Though some argue that the boomer retiree lifestyle is creating debt that will be paid by millennials and gen-xers.

-DD

Chrome Browser Update

Gregg Keizer reviews the new features of the 73rd edition of Goggle's Chrome browswer , which is available for Windows, OSX, Chrome and Linux platforms.

-DD

Be My Eyes

Be My Eyes is a volunteer network which provides help with visual identification to those who need it. There is an app for this service for both Android and Apple phones.

-DD

Be My Eyes - Bringing sight to the blind and visually impaired from Be My Eyes on Vimeo.

Voice Search

John Linkcoln lists the major devices and services for voice search in the United States. Lincoln suggests that following tips will optimize retrieval of your text content:

1. Make questions second-level headers.
2. Make questions conversational.
3. Focus on page speed.
4. Have a local emphasis.
5. Include a content FAQ.

-DD

Sleep Disorders

Eva Taylor Grant suggests signs of sleep disorders .

-DD

Evaluating Information

Mashable offered a video about lifelike images created by video technology. These images may be a component of this University of Washington course developed by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West which teaches students to recognize false information.

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E-mail and Distraction

Cal Newport muses on the harm e-mail does to creative work .

-DD

Customer Service Initiatives in Higher Education

Academic Impressions developed a list of ten points to be covered in a customer service initiative .

-DD

The following related video was created by Converge Consulting

Superconducting Wire Patented

Salvator Cezar Pais has filed a patent (assigned to the U.S. Navy) for wire which is superconducting at room temperature.

-DD

Temporal Brain

Jordana Cepelewicz reports on the work of Howard and Shankar to find neurons measuring time in the human brain.

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Language Translation

Greg Sterling reports on how home displays from Google and Amazon may become able to serve as language interpreters .

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Weekend Vacation

Cassie Holmes suggests that greater happiness is obtained if people treat a weekend like a vacation .

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The Number Pi

Khan Academy provides a description of the irrational number pi . March 14 is the day this number is celebrated.

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Reading and Self-Understanding

Mairead Staid muses on Sven Birkerts' The Gutenberg Elegies. Staid notes that deep reading helps us explore our beliefs .

-DD

Education Loans

Dan Bauman reports that firms making educational loans to students are not being held responsible for significant errors in bookkeeping.

-DD

Speed of Light

Dave Mosher comments on the annimations of NASA scientist James O'Donoghue, which illustrated the time it takes at the speed of light to traverse the distance between "nearby" objects in the solar system.

-DD

New York's Grand Central Terminal

Michele Debczak shares why there is a dark spot on the ceiling of New York City's Grand Central Station. The video was developed by New York Public Radio.

-DD


Source: The Gothamist/New York Public Radio https://youtu.be/dMf0sMT2IMk


Source: New York Times https://www.youtube.com/embed/99buqSVBuOo

Obtaining Phosphorus for Farming

BBC reporters Sibylle Grunze and Kerstin Hoppenhaus discuss the value of composting in a world where phosphorus supplies are limited.

-DD

Google PageRank and SEO

Andreea Sauciuc of CognitiveSEO investigated how Google reacts to websites with a "link scheme ," that is, a site that tries to manipulate Google's PageRank algorithm.

-DD

Watersheds

Robert Szucs distributes maps of watersheds from this site.

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Flow Batteries and Electric Vehicles

Cynthia Sequin reports on IFBattery, a firm developing a flow battery which could provide electric cars with a 300 mile range .

-DD

Successful Offices in Academia

Jeffrey Young muses on how professors should use their office. Some humanities faculty cherish having an office with a small library for their ongoing research, while others are comfortable "hoteling."

Some faculty complain that students do not make use of office hours, even though the times are in each course syllabus. make their office hours more popular with students. Young cites scholar Robert Talbert, who offers two problems with traditional office hours: first, that visiting the personal space of an authority figure is intimidating, and second, that an informal office can convey a lack of professionalism. His solution is to meet with students by appointment in a local bagel shop.

T. Kelly offered a practical way to increase student visits to a professor's office. Kelly now uses a scheduling app, and found this quadrupled the number of students attending office hours, as they know that their visit to a faculty office will not involve a long wait.

-DD

Voice Interaction and the Future of Computing

Adam Dorfman suggests that voice interaction is a wave of the future, and encourages Microsoft to continue promoting Cortana.

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Astronaut Qualifications

Rose Eveleth muses that certain "disabilities " might qualify one to be an exceptional astronaut.

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Linux Command Line Options

Sandra Henry-Stocker shares a summary of Linux command line options.

-DD

Booking Courses in Google Search Results

Sergey Alakov notes that Google now allows search results to include a course booking , using the Google Reserve technology initially rolled-out to personal care businesses.

-DD