Volume 11, Issue 2

Random samples of 1,872 web pages registered with Yahoo! and 1,638 pages reachable from Yahoo!-registered pages were analyzed for use of meta tags and specifically those containing descriptions. Seven hundred twenty-seven (38.8 percent) of the Yahoo!-registered pages and 442 (27.0 percent) of the other pages included descriptions in meta tags. Some of the descriptions greatly exceeded typical length guidelines of 150 or two hundred characters. A relatively small number (ten percent of the registered and seven percent of the other pages) duplicated exactly phrasing found in the visible text; most repeated some words and phrases. Contrary to documented advice to web-page writers, pages with less visible text were less likely to have descriptions. Keywords were more likely to appear nearer the beginning of a description than nearer the end. Noun phrases were more common than complete sentences, especially in non-registered pages.

With the emergence of the Internet and its related technologies, many educators assert that there are substantial benefits to reap from online learning and educational technology. This study examines the effectiveness of online learning and to provide insights into the experiences related by participants in the Virtual School of Business (VBUS), a Temasek Polytechnic’s online project. VBUS is a cluster of newsgroups, databases, File Transfer Protocols (FTP) and RealMedia video servers dedicated to the various diploma courses of the Polytechnic as a repository for lecturers to deliver their teaching materials online.
A total of 657 first-year business students responded to a questionnaire administered as part of this study that examined the issues of the accessibility, usefulness, and effectiveness of online learning and its relation to improvement in subject grades. The findings suggest that the “better” students were more receptive to VBUS, while the “weaker” students found VBUS more of an added burden than an aid to their already heavy workload. There was no clear indication that VBUS played a significant role in improving students’ grades. More positive reactions to VBUS came from students who use VBUS on an average of one to two times a week, with each access lasting between fifteen and thirty minutes, and whose median time spent on studying a subject is around two hours per week.

Literary erotica has existed alongside erotic art and sculpture for as long as there has been the capacity to publish or otherwise transmit the written word. In ancient Greece and Rome the writing of erotic poems and stories were an accepted and popular literary form. Later in the Christian west, writers of erotica were to became subject to the Church, censorship and the law, and whilst there was never a period when there was not production of erotic books, their writings were often driven underground. Today there are few libraries that do not have on their shelves books that were once banned or considered obscene. The works of the Earl of Rochester, Boccaccio and Pauline Reage are now widely available. What was once considered obscene has now seemingly become acceptable by its historicism. Although these authors’ and other notable works have survived, comparatively little of the huge amount of privately published erotica has. Some can be found still in private hands, and a little is preserved in libraries…

No abstract available.