Summer readings

I was ill for the past five days and watched the telly extensively. I was impressed by some of the programmes that BBC World has broadcasted lately, especially the ones in the series Africa Lives on the BBC. Educating, enlightening, and deeply moving.

So today, when I finally managed to sit long enough at my desk, I visited BBC World online to check whether there’s anything more about this series of programmes. I managed to find a couple of things. But just like ususal, my information hunt on the web lead me astray to other topics.

I came across an article ("Catholic podcast makes waves") about a catholic priest who blogs and uses podcasting for communicating about religion (Vatican is waiting to see what’ll happen).

Then I found another one ("Rewriting the rules of publishing") about an online publishing venture called Lulu. What
they basically do is this: authors upload their manuscripts onto the site and these are then printed individually anytime someone wants to buy them. The book or CD is then posted to the buyer. 20% of the price is kept by the publisher, 80% goes to the author. Unfortunately, Lulu is still US based, but they promise to set up business in Europe in six months. If the project team I’m part of (we introduced problem-based teaching of English in Slovenia) doesn’t get the funds to publish our book, Lulu might be our choice.

I couldn’t help and check the latest developments on the Learning English site. I haven’t visited the site for months and I was amazed by the goodies: learning quizzes, vocabulary and listening exercises, interactive activities and especially the Keep Your English Up to Date by Professor Crystal. Good hunt. And now I've got to dash off.