My dad sure knows a lot about microphones! I guess that makes sense, given his life experience in bands, setting up PA systems, voicing church organs, etc. Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail he sent me in response to my request for help in choosing a decent mic for my computer. Perhaps it’ll also be of help to some of you out there if you happen to be looking for a computer mic.

The first thing you should look for is a High impedance mic. In general, these are low priced. You may also want to look for one that has a cardoid pattern. This means that you need to have it pointing at your mouth when you speak for it to work best.

If you would prefer a mic that picks up sound from more directions, you should look for an Omni-directional microphone. The problem with this type pattern is that if you have a speaker turned on with the sound going through the speaker, the chances for feedback are much greater with omni-directional mics.

Boundary mics usually have a hemispheric pattern. Not bad, but again they are prone to feedback when they are in close proximity of a speaker that produces the mic’s sound. Most boundary mics are low impedance. Any low impedance microphone is probably not going to work with the computer’s input; unless you add a device called an impedance matching transformer. I have a bunch of these that I don’t use any longer. If you end up with one of these low impedance mics and you need a matching transformer, let me know and I will give you one of mine.

Language Log: Two types of “errors” (again) and it’s all “grammar” (again)

This is an error that seriously, and frequently, gets on my nerves. I guess I come across it a lot due to my involvement in fat acceptance.

Language Log is a great blog for people with an interst in linguistics. It’s pretty academic, though, so it helps if you have a little background! Maybe of interest to my copyediting friends out there?

AlterNet: MediaCulture: The White House Fakes It

Over the past four years, it turns out at least 20 different federal agencies have been involved in producing hundreds – yes, hundreds – of fake TV news segments, many of which were “subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government’s role in their production.”

I have no words.