Miscellanea #10

Miscellanea: A collection of miscellaneous matters; matters of various kinds (Webster’s 1913).
Noteworthy tidbits gleaned from all over, sans commentary.

The tyranny of online learning environments and the seeds of the revolution
From ‘incorported subversion’: There is no such thing as a learning management system. Learning cannot be managed, it’s too complex and if anything, manages itself. However, commercial providers of online teaching and learning solutions have sought to exploit the myth that it can and to pull the wool of content creation and management over eyes unused to and unsure of the concept of online teaching and learning. (Dan Mitchell’s Teachnology Weblog)

Jamaican Mento Music
…a largely unknown Jamaican music that is the grandpappy of reggae. For a ska or reggae fan, mento sounds familiar and exotic and unfamiliar. Mento recordings are difficult to come by, but worth seeking out…. (J-Walk Blog)

The Invisible Adjunct shuts down her popular Weblog and says goodbye to academe
Her advice in a nutshell: Think long and hard before going to grad school in the humanities. Then think some more. (del.icio.us/tag/education)

There Are Books, And Then There Are Books
The April 25 issue of The Boston Globe includes in its ‘Ideas’ section an article by Edward Tenner entitled ‘Rebound.’ It offers a fairly useful accounting of where the ‘book industry’ now stands in terms both of sales and of its encounter with the technologies of the electronic age. It seems to bring good news about the ability of books to withstand the challenge of these technologies, but there are also plenty of reasons, as the article itself reveals, to wonder what the future of serious writing, as opposed to the fate of ‘the book’ as itself a technological device, will really look like…. (The Reading Experience)

Chelsea line up Beckham and Ronaldo
Football: Chelsea could complete the ultimate double swoop this summer, luring David Beckham and Ronaldo from Real Madrid, according to Claudio Ranieri. (Guardian Unlimited)

Armstrong considers future
Lance Armstrong says he could retire in 2005 if his team do not find a new sponsor. (BBC Sport | Other Sports | Cycling | World Edition)

The Truth about Convenience Foods
From Reveries — Cool News of the Day — Laura Shapiro is a food historian who thinks American food companies have succeeded by making women feel like failures, as reported by Dinitia Smith in The New York Times. Laura’s out with a new book, in fact, called Something From the Oven, in which she documents ‘how in the 1940s and ’50s, the food industry tried to convince American women that cooking was difficult in order to persuade them that they needed newly developed packaged and frozen foods and cake mixes….’ (Food Basics)

Frozen Dinners
You can make your own frozen dinners, and have more control over the choices and combinations. Save the plastic nukeable trays the store-bought ones come in, (not the carboard ones, since they aren’t washable) or buy microwave-safe containers…. (Food Basics)