Tweet Citing 101

A lot of valuable information comes to us nowadays in tweets, but how do you cite a tweet in your academic paper? Well, the MLA (Modern Languages Association) has just released the official way to cite tweets in MLA format. Learn more about it at Edudemic.com!

Pinterest: This week's Featured Online Resource

Pinterest seems poised to be the Web's next big thing. Think of it as a social billboard or as a visual social bookmarking site. It's sort of like delicious.com but with your bookmarks being represented by big photos.

A user "pins" an object to one of her "boards" and her followers can click on it and be taken to its website. So a cover of a book takes a user to the publisher's page on that book or a book review, wherever the user got it from. Each board is on a particular topic and users can follow single boards rather than everything from a particular user.

The "About" page claims "people use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes."

Twice as Many Dylans as Kaylas

In 2010, 10,000 Dylans were born in the United States, to just 5,000 Kaylas. I found this using WolframAlpha, simply typing "Dylan, Kayla."

WolframAlpha, the computational knowledge engine, is good for a lot of pieces of knowledge and information, many of them perfectly straightforward. However, howtogeek.com gives us a great article, 10 Amazing Uses For Wolfram Alpha.

For example, the comparison function, whereby the user types in search terms (any search terms, and with WA it is possible to compare apples and oranges) separated by vs. gives you relevant comparisons between your items.

Mark Twain vs. J.D. Salinger , por ejemplo, shows us that one was born 176 years ago, and the other, just 93. Twain died in Redding, CT, and Salinger in Cornish, NH.

I also know that there are 538 English words ending in "rd" because I typed in "words ending in rd."

You can also figure your body mass index without having to ask your doctor.

On the advice of one of the comments beneath the article, I found out that if a woodchuck could chuck wood it would chuck, on average, 22.1 cubic inches, or "all the wood he could."

Make Your Friends Into Action Figures!

This week's Featured Online Resource is Shape Me Miniatures from a company called Shapeways.

First, about the company and its services. They provide 3D printing--say you'd like a small sailboat for a knicknack. About three inches long, four or five ounces. You'd like to design your own. Use CAD or some sort of design software, send them the design, and via 3D printing they fabricate the boat or whichever item you choose and ship it to you. Futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that in the future all objects we own, we'll make ourselves by this method, and we're now beginning to see the technology in play.

As for the Shape Me Miniatures, they are little dolls (though busts are also available) in the image of your mother, grandmother, friends, etc. You send in a photo from the front and one in profile, pay your fee, and get back a little doll.

Please excuse the way in which this post sounds like a commercial. I'm not interested in generating business for this company, but providing information. The fact that 3D printing is now afoot and seemingly relatively accessible , is to me, an epochal happening in the world of information. It is another way in which the line between creator and consumer is blurred.

So, while we usually include websites that provide free information, this one's an exception, and I think just looking at the website is enlightening and inspiring.

Get Rid of Annoying Facebook Features

A lot of people are annoyed by some of the features implemented by facebook a few months ago, such as the news ticker and the strip of friends on the right, with one or two of them available for chat. This slideshow from mashable.com shows you slick tricks for reversing some of these. While at mashable, you may wish to check out the latest news on facebook timeline, also with ways to lessen the blow of the changes.

Details of the Wikipedia Blackout

Wikipedia is one of the high profile web sites that affected a blackout starting midnight last night as a way of protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

This NYT story explores ways around the blackout.

Meanwhile, HuffPo rounds up some highly-censored student tweets reacting to the lack of access.

And The Washington Post gives a survival guide. It of course refers to libraries, "where you can use free wi-fi without having to buy a $4 latte first."