Is everything making me stoopid(er)?

Some days it takes all the courage on can muster just to drive into crime-ridden Mankato, MN: From this morning's paper:

Mooning suspect remains at large
The Free Press,
MANKATO —

A pepper-spray-wielding woman who sprayed a bar bouncer after mooning police officers early Tuesday remains at large.

Police were called to Choppers on South Front Street about 1 a.m. to report that a woman was causing problems in the bar.

The woman reportedly stepped outside the bar, dropped her pants, and displayed her buttocks to officers passing by in a squad car. The officers apparently didn’t notice. When the bouncer chastised the woman for her behavior and attempted to remove her from the premises, she took a pepper spray container from her purse and sprayed the bouncer’s face and the bar area. Then she took off running.

The only description given of the woman is that she is heavyset.

"Heavyset?" That doesn't exactly narrow down the set of suspects around here.

Has anyone else noticed that newspapers are getting thinner - in width, in length, and especially in depth? News magazines like Time and Newsweek are getting thinner on editorial content. NPR and CNN are now catering to our sub 5 minute attention spans. Most movies seem to run about 90 minutes instead of two hours and critics complain when they run "long." I am not holding my breath hoping for a political debate where participants could actually treat issues in depth.

Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic asks "Is Google Making Us Stoopid?" Motoko Rich asks in the NYT's article "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading," if reading on the Internet is the cause of poor reading test scores.  I've worried about my change in reading habits for some time.

If the snippitization of information was made popular by Internet sites, it has certainly gotten a good deal of help from the regular media.

OK, here it comes. You KNOW I couldn't resist...

Not so Cuil

Update: Cuil's servers were shut down on September 17, 2010, with later confirmations the service had ended. - Doug

Yes, it IS all about me. 

When I heard yesterday on NPR that a new search engine designed to rival Google was being released, it demanded a search engine shoot-out on an important subject. Well, me, of course. I searched for "Doug Johnson" in both the new Cuil (pronounced like cool, Irish for knowledge) and our old friend Google.

The first page of results were, let's say, interesting.

While I did like the Lover Boy implication and that 3 of the first 10 results were related to me, none was a direct link to either my blog or website. And the pictures are a mess. Who are these people? Not me. The little graphic of the bottle comes from my column on the Education World website but is placed next to the hit on Wikipedia that lists other Doug Johnsons. (Yes, there are quite a number of us out there.)

Now Google on the other hand...

 

The first three hits are for my website and blog. The next ones are for the famous football player and on it goes.

I'd suggest trying a similar test on a less frivolous topic in which you have some expertise.

Should be fun to see how Cuil evolves, should it survive.

___________________________________

On an unrelated note, today is my birthday. This is the first year social networking, specifically Facebook, has been used to send me greetings and salutations. People are "writing on my wall." Although it sounds malicious, I am sure the intent is good.

I am not sure how innocent the greeting below was however....

It's hell getting old...but it beats the alternative.

Wordle-ing a column

Wow.

Maureen S. Irwin, Director of the Library, in Rye Country Day School, NY sent me the graphic below. She "Wordled" an column I wrote that she'll be using in her school. What a beautiful way to say "thanks"! And thanks back to you, Maureen.

A Wordle cloud for Top Ten Things Baby Teachers Should Know About School Libraries. Note the words WILL, CAN, HELP and STUDENTS are all prominent. Hmmmmm...