E'mail makes you dumber

... says a new study:

Constant e-mailing and text messaging reduces mental ability by 10 IQ points, a more severe effect than smoking cannabis, by distracting the brain from other tasks, a University of London report showed....

Don't know about you, but I'm scared....

The Unitarian Jihad has claimed responsibility for the following chilling announcement:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary....

The full manifesto can be found here.

Thanks to the folks at LU and Sister Broadsword of Love and Mercy for the link.

Yours in a reasonable degree of service to this or whatever cause you may or may not choose. Don't forget to pick your Unitarian Jihad name! (Me, I'm Sibling Nail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism.)

Virtual hunting? Or "video target practice using live animals"?

Thanks to Fiend for sending me the link to this story, about a proposed California law prohibiting "computer-assisted hunting", in which an Internet user remotely controls a gun and shoots at live game. Snopes doesn't list such "virtual hunting" as a hoax or April-Fool news story, and it doesn't strike me as inherently implausible, so I'm taking it at face value.

My own reaction is on record via e'mail, but I'm curious what others think.

Stability of CD-R and DVD-R media

The April issue of Cites & Insights pointed me to this article (.pdf) from the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in which the authors tested the stability over time of various recordable CD's and DVD's. The authors tested the discs after accellerated exposure to light and temperature variation. But what about use as a frisbee or coaster?

Truth in journalism?

I initially thought this story (Subscription only, unfortunately) from the Chronicle of Higher Ed. was a subtle April Fools' joke. Apparently not, judging from other reports.

From the Chronicle:

New Scholarly Journal, in Clash of 'Interests,' Will Try to Fill a Public-Policy Void
By DAVID GLENN

It has been a season of farewells at two of the country's most prominent right-of-center policy journals. Next week, The Public Interest, a 40-year-old magazine of domestic policy, will publish its final issue. Meanwhile, The Public Interest's former sibling, the 20-year-old international-affairs magazine The National Interest, has been riven by discord: In March, 10 of the 14 members of its editorial board resigned en masse.

Now Francis Fukuyama, who has written for both magazines -- his classic essay "The End of History?" appeared in The National Interest in 1989 -- has announced plans for a new magazine that, he says, will strive to embody both Interests' past virtues. Its first issue will appear in September. Its title: The American Interest....

At least it can't be accused of hiding its biases.

A mess of April Fishes

Thanks to Fiend for this compilation of noteworthy April 1 news stories. I was particularly glad to see that the Bush twins are doing their part to implement their father's policies.

I can add to the list only the sobering news story below, for which I am indebted to the good folks on Library Underground:

Information Does Not Exist

I guess that we librarian-type folks can just pack up and go home, then....

Update, 1:00 pm: April 1 news stories from Library Journal and Locus (1,2,3, more....)

Ignatius in (Hollywood Development) Hell

Stephen Soderburgh, John Belushi, Richard Pryor, and numerous others have expressed interest in filming A Confederacy of Dunces. All for naught, says The Book Standard.

Hollywood screenwriter Stephen Schiff explains:

"In some ways, producers and studios are more exacting than book editors often are," he says. "In the book world, you can get by with a lot of fairly slack stuff, especially if you have written best sellers. If you are a brand name, you can write some fairly shoddy stuff, and no editors will raise a voice — whereas by the time (the book) gets to the screen, you have had these squadrons of people checking every aspect of the plot and characters."

You see, Confederacy of Dunces just doesn't meet Hollywood's high literary standards.