Grammar Girl Podcasts — Listen and Learn

Just about every day I have a grammar question, despite that in junior high school I was an ace at diagramming sentences. Most commonly I need to figure out how to punctuate something I have written. I search for an answer, and I want to remember the information — if possible — so that I can use it the next time the same question arises. Yes, I could consult The Elements of Style, On Writing Well, The Chicago Manual of Style, or countless other good grammar books.

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These days, however, when I am puzzling over a comma or a particular word, I almost always go online to find a podcast at Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips. I listen to the explanation, usually accompanied by music and amusing examples, and even days later I still remember the rule or the spelling or usage — even if the topic has not reappeared in my writing.

If you have not checked out the Grammar Girl podcasts, take some time to do so. They are great fun — two words that I never associated with sentence diagrams.

Tracking Disasters — A Good Kind of Tracking

Nixle helps to aggregate the information that you are following.

If you haven’t had enough of hurricane Irene, PC Magazine just published 10 Mobile Apps for Tracking Hurricane Irene. Some are free and other are downloadable for a small charge.

Applications come from government agencies like NOAA, but there are also some that are more survival oriented. One helps users develop and share a disaster plan.

Nixle, the application on the left, allows a user to set up connections with data sources so the information comes to you. Every app is not available for every mobile platform.

Check out the PC Magazine presentation, featuring something for every type of disaster tracking personality.