Log for Tuesday March 30, 2004 Printing: student clicking on her jobs in CSPrint, all is accepted, but no printouts for what seems forever...and then it starts spitting out. This happened around 5:20. I suspect that CSPrint was having a huge amount of end of day jobs sent to it. But I realized it would be helpful to know what all the codes mean in the Status column on the CSPrint screen. File that under: future training for worker-bees.

Reference Qestions: I wasn't able to help a student who wanted to know how to email all his classmates. I told him that I thought it was controlled from someone on the first floor. He asked a teacher nearby and she said it could be done via WebCT - duh! I should have realized that...and this is not the first time I have heard students asking this question.

Ongoing search: spent bulk of day on search for history of FBI misuse of powers.

Tech Tidbits: actually had time today to do one - did the new kid on the block - "Bibliography of Asian Studies"




  ¶ 5:51 PM

  Log for Fri 3/26/2004 Priniting - student unable to print a powerpoint out of WebCt, but fellow student said she had done it successfully in the lab under the library, so she went there

Reference - near end of shift, Patriot Group asked for:
Historical moments when FBI has had more extensive investigatory powers and used them...student wants to buttress the argument that "If FBI has powers, it will use them" I told her I will be able to work on it Tuesday.



Finished Prof. B Blog search

Work today - mainly searched for counterterrorism efforts/human rights issues in other countries for the Patriot group. handed off to the student.

Items on the Horizon : the boss visited and asked if I'd be able to work on a website presentations on evidence based practice (EBP) for newbies - near end of semester...still the question remains, how will social workers get tiimely access to their trade journals after graduation - particularly given the demands of EBP?

W
  ¶ 1:07 PM

  Dear Dr. B.

This is the last of my blog talk - specially for you.

I figured out why I couldn't find Laura Ingraham (I wasn't spelling her name right...like the pun.?..forgive me...). But she doesn't Blog per se anyway. Her felllow blonde - Ann Coulter - does blog, but only weekly.

Let me wrap up the choices:
I gave you 4 each of progressive and conservative blogs plus 6 I couldn't label. I didn't weed it down more than that because I just didn't feel right making that value judgement.

take care,

Winifred Flint  ¶ 12:34 PM

  Hi Prof. B,

These are my last of the blog choices - keeping in mind your strong desire for diversity.

Winds of Change by Canadian Joe Katzman. Award winning site . Tends to Conservatism; much knowledgable commentary on Middle East and Israel.


These next bloggers are definitely not conservative...their motto:
It's time for the Christian Right to meet the right Christians

ummm....the URL for this group isn't coming up in Blue for this blog software, so I'll just give it the old-fashioned way...
http://theRightChristians.org/  ¶ 11:34 AM

  Hi Prof. B.

These are blogs that I want you to know about, but they may not be exactly what you are looking for. One is a very new blog which will cease after the 2004 presidential campaign. It lists candidate statements and tracks their validity. I found it via the Christian Science Monitor via a Lexis-Nexis search - CampaignDesk from the Columbia Journalism Review.

The other blog touches on a population not heard much from in blogland - feminists, but it is more a bulleting board than a blog with a known editor. I found it via The Web Review : The Feminist Blog  ¶ 12:51 PM

  Hi Prof. B.

Still more blogs for you:

Found via CyberJournalist - Professor Kim - journalist educator who writes on media bias and speaks Swahili - how cool is that!


Found in the OpinionJournal site of the Wall Street Journal under "Favorite Sites"; these have been mentioned many other reputable places.
Kausfiles - "from Mickey Kaus, the most-tough minded liberal we know"
InstaPundit - "by Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennesee law professor.
Pravda calls it "the New York Times of the bloggers.""
Talking Points Memo - "weblog by Joshus Micah Marshall, the thinking man's
Paul Krugman"  ¶ 11:17 AM

  Hi Prof. B.

Found via Utne:

Smart Mobs: online cultural commentary by Rheingold (of Whole earth Catalog fame)
and WarBlogs: a collaboration between 7 anti-war blogs.  ¶ 11:10 AM

  Hi Prof. B.

Re: Potential Blogs for your class

Went to the Oscars for Blogs, called Bloggies. and highly recommend you explore them. They are an album of excellent blogs on a large variety of topics from all over the world. The ones I picked for you were from their 2004 nominations. From their best Political Class I chose WatchBlog, which uses 3 different editors and is broken into Democratic/Republican/Third Party. I also chose This Modern World; also listed as a favorite on the Progressive Review site.

Among the Bloggies choices for Best New Weblog that looked like potentials were:
Honey Tom - about gay life, but not political and Boing Boing, a super popular blog on technology including some social commentary.  ¶ 10:52 AM

  Dear Prof. B.

As I was saying....your key descriptors for this blog search were Diversity and "Thought Leaders". The Blog search engines were not immediately helpful; a perusal of the top blogs in their lists revealed, frankly, what sounded like a whole lotta white guys kvetching about politics, technology and just plain triva. So I went to our Simmons databases, particulaly our Biographical one and made search choices: American, African-American and political commentator. This brought up a hot ticket who actually spoke here in December as part of the Lowell Series. Her name is Farai Chideya. She's a high-powered multi media journalist and author. Her first book, "Don't believe the hype: Fighting cultural mis-information about African-Americans", is in its eighth printing....can you say "MacArthur Genius Grant"?....I can't really place her in the political spectrum,
but if she doesn't fall under the category of diverse, thought leader - then I don't know who does...
  ¶ 10:30 AM

  Hi Professor B.,

This Blog's for you! I thought this would be a fun way to deliver your request for
"6 diverse blogs; 3 from Progressive side and 3 from the Conservative side" Since the tone of blogs tends to be a bit "fresh", I will give you my final blog picks and how they made it from my short list. (I will also be adding some info ln how I did my search so my boss can look it over and let me know of better methods.)

You gave me several names to check into; which I did. I got blog hits off of Andrew Sullivan and "the blonde conservative radiotalk show host with book" - Laura Inghram. These two would fall into the Conservative side. I thought I had spotted Laura's blog, but it appears to have fallen off the face of the earth...will look for it later. This list of blogs will take a lot of verbage, so I will post this first bit now, to see how it is done.   ¶ 9:31 AM