Jessamyn pointed out the dust up over the dissapearing of PaperOfRecord.com, a historical newspaper archive.

Matt tells us the office pranks he masterminded a couple weeks ago got reported in Saturday’s Daily Mirror (scan above):

JOKER Matt Batchelder had the last laugh after he was left out of an office conference trip.

Alone at his desk for a week, the snubbed computer geek dreamed up a series of pranks to greet his boss and three colleagues as they returned… on April Fool’s Day.

First he “ovenwrapped” all the chairs in 1,100 sq ft of tin foil.

He also plastered 5,300 post-it notes over every available work surface. Then he painstakingly arranged 578 plastic cups on the office floor. And finally, he filled the place with 280 balloons.

Married Matt, a whizkid web engineer, was the talk of the campus at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, where he works in the admin department.

An insider said: “We don’t know if his bosses saw the funny side – or if he’s been fired.”

Nobody here knows who the “insider” is, and Matt’s bummed that he didn’t get his blog mentioned, but the coverage is still sweet. And, now we can officially call Matt the office nerd.

Can anybody send a copy?

Daily Mirror, Matt Batchelder, Matthew Batchelder, co-worker, co-workers, media, mpow, newspaper, office, office prank, prank, pranked, pranks

Not all errors in news reporting are as trivial as this one:

THE COST of beer kegs has risen by about 30% since the end of 2003. In addition, Neil Witte is the draught beer quality-control specialist of Boulevard Brewing Co., and Steven Pauwels is the brewer’s brewmaster. A March 14 page-one article on beer-keg theft incorrectly said that the cost of kegs has tripled in recent years and incorrectly said that Mr. Witte is Boulevard Brewing’s brewmaster.

Well, actually, there’s nothing trivial about a 300% jump in beer costs, but still.

Back to the point: Regret The Error is an ever growing collection of all the little (and not so little) things our news media has gotten wrong. Or, at least is a collection of the things they’ve admitted to getting wrong.

Doesn’t sound like much fun? Go try it, but you can’t read just one.

update: and here are some corrections, or perhaps ‘clarifications,’ from NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. I point them out because they’re the most confrontational (rightly so) corrections I’ve ever seen or heard. Go listen.

correction, corrections, error, errors, getting it wrong, making it right, news, news media, newspaper, regret the error

I regularly check the English language online edition of Pravda for laughs and sometimes for their take on US domestic affairs. But today’s headline left me scratching my head. What calendar are these people using, anyway?

The headlined story is offered without any context or explanation. As it turns out, author Ian Magnussen really did mean February 5th 2006, not 2007 or later. Had it appeared two months ago it might have been called speculative fiction, though more likely seen as a crazy conspiracy theory. I just find it a bit scary. But still, why publish it now?

breaking news, conspiracy theory, contradiction, contradictory, foreign opinion, headline, news, newspaper, odd news, pravda, russia, russian, russian news, scary, speculative fiction, strange headline

Somebody at Gizmodo found this Agence France-Presse story about the intersection of American surfing and bathroom habits in The Hindustan Times. It’s based on a report by the USC Annenberg School’s Center for the Digital Future. For five years running now, the center has tracked internet use (and non-use) in a 2,000 household representative sample of America (choosing a new sample each year).

This year, researchers found: “Over half of those who used Wi-fi had used it in the bathroom.”

Gizmodo is going a little farther than I’d initially care to by asking readers to comment on their behavior, but I found this gem that reminds us that this may just reflect the evolution of our media: “The laptop in the john is the new newspaper for the millennium.”

I apparently have too many neatnik issues to go down that path, but rather than devolve the discussion, I’d like to point out that this Center for the Digital Future report appears to be a good complement to OCLC’s latest report and the regular stream of reports from the Pew Internet Project.

Now back to the funny: RSStroom Reader.

restroom, bathroom, rss, media, newspaper, report, Center for the Digital Future, wifi, in the bathroom, technology, computer use, behavior, research, on the throne, in the can

A visit to The Paper House will run $1.50 and takes you out to a beautiful corner of the Massachusetts coast, 52 Pigeon Hill Street Rockport, MA 01966, just up the hill from Pigeon Cove. Call (978) 546-2629 if you’ve got questions. More info at Odd New England.

Pictures tell quite a story, so take a look at the photoset showing details of the fireplace, curtains, and exterior walls. Here also: the porch, lamp, desk, and piano.

The official website answers the question: “how do you make a paper house?”

Well, let me see. (Elis Stenman) started out making a house for the summer. The framework to the house is wood-just like any other house-it has a regular wood-en floor and wooden roof. The wall material, which was supposed to be insulation really, is pressed paper about an inch thick. It’s just layers and layers of newspaper, glue, and varnish on the outside That keeps it pretty water-proof actually. This was done in 1924 and he lived here in the summertime up until 1930. Actually, I guess he was supposed to cover the outside with clapboards, but he just didn’t. You know, he was curious. He wanted to see what would happen to the paper, and, well, here it is, 70 some thing years later.

tags: massachusetts, newspaper, paper, paper house, rockport, rockport ma, weird passion, weird travel

Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss answered questions for On The Media’s Brooke Gladstone. Amoss and his staff have been covering the catastrophe in New Orleans as only locals can.

Some of the best reporting I’ve seen on this has come from the Times-Picayune, and I was quite amazed when I discovered the electronic edition Wednesday. Despite the damage, they appear to have start releasing a print version again and are distributing it in the city and in communities where refugees have fled. For so many displaced people, and in areas where power prevents other communications, I can imagine how valuable this thread is.

tags: catastrophe, electronic edition, exile, hurrican katrina, hurricane, interview, jim amoss, katrina, locals, louisiana, new orleans, newspaper in exile, newspaper, on the media, refugees, times picayune, times-picayune, timespicayune