XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Wednesday, October 19. It’s funny what a difference a day can make. Only yesterday we were talking about things in small packages. Well, today the news goes in the opposite direction. The theme for Wednesday is expansion.

• It starts with finances and two bellwether technology companies, Yahoo and Motorola, reporting increases in earnings for the quarter. This is good news for the industry as well as a nice nod toward important trends in Web and cellular phone technologies.
• Also expanding are tuition casts. Luckily, however, while these costs are outpacing overall inflation, the
  rate of increase slowed after a period of
  explosive growth, according to an annual survey released here today by
  the College Board.
• And, the king of expansion, Google, announced that it’s widening its book search efforts .
  It has begun operating local-language sites in eight European countries for its Google Print program.
• Of course, expansion isn’t always a good thing. It’s actually causing quality problem for Wikipedia, according to co-founder Jimmy Wales.
• Naturally, some people want to expand our minds. Put Starbucks in that category as they begin to feature Rick Warren’s God quotes on its coffee cups.
• On the home front, hurricane Wilma was upgraded this morning to Category 5 status .
• Finally, there was an expansion of sorts regarding Harriet Miers yesterday. The public learned that the Supreme Court nominee Supreme Court nominee backed ban on abortion in a 1989 survey .

Now, here’s a recap of our favorite posts from the edublogging community from the past 48 hours.

• From Paul Chenoweth : Post on generational views on technology.
• From D’Arcy Norman : Post on caching in WordPress.
• From Jonathan G. Cohen : Post on the new video iPod and its viability for the market.
• From Stephen Downes : Post on E-Learning 2.0.