http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org//journal-of-digital-humanities The first Journal of Digital Humanities is out: http://t.co/aJtT704N and with it a new, postpublication model of peer review. – William G. Thomas (wgthomas3) http://twitter.com/wgthomas3/status/187981968548438016 ]]> Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:24:31 -0700 http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org//journal-of-digital-humanities http://www.metafilter.com/114289/A-Database-of-Metaphor The Mind is a Metaphor. A database of thousands of metaphors organized by category, like 18th century, Liquid, or Jacobite. It's maintained by University of Virginia English Professor Brad Pasanek. ]]> Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:06:33 -0700 http://www.metafilter.com/114289/A-Database-of-Metaphor http://philipkdickconferencedortmund.com//philip-k-dick-worlds-out-of-joint-1st-international-conference-home CFP - World's Out of Joint: Reimagining Philip K Dick Dortmund 15-18 Nov 2012 http://t.co/nsy4SFoj – contemporaryfiction (contemporaryfic) http://twitter.com/contemporaryfic/status/177342090890592256 ]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:48:19 -0700 http://philipkdickconferencedortmund.com//philip-k-dick-worlds-out-of-joint-1st-international-conference-home http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/03/how-do-you-cite-a-tweet-in-an-academic-paper/253932//how-do-you-cite-a-tweet-in-an-academic-paper-alexis-madrigal-technology-the-atlantic How Do You Cite a Tweet in an Academic Paper? http://t.co/PFdUD6Z9 – Open Culture (openculture) http://twitter.com/openculture/status/176362371361681408 ]]> Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:05:41 -0700 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/03/how-do-you-cite-a-tweet-in-an-academic-paper/253932//how-do-you-cite-a-tweet-in-an-academic-paper-alexis-madrigal-technology-the-atlantic http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2012/02/the_mystery_of_the_millionaire_metaphysician_slate_republishes_one_of_the_greatest_magazine_stories_ever_written_.html/the-mystery-of-the-millionaire-metaphysician-slate-republishes-one-of-the-greatest-magazine-stories-ever-written-slate-magazine A Strange Philosophical Manuscript. A Secret Benefactor: The Mystery of the Millionaire Metaphysician : http://t.co/jOiITp72 @slate classic ]]> Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:21:17 -0700 http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2012/02/the_mystery_of_the_millionaire_metaphysician_slate_republishes_one_of_the_greatest_magazine_stories_ever_written_.html/the-mystery-of-the-millionaire-metaphysician-slate-republishes-one-of-the-greatest-magazine-stories-ever-written-slate-magazine http://thebrowser.com/articles/e-books-cant-burn/e-books-cant-burn-best-of-the-moment-the-browser E-books Can't Burn: Could it be that ebooks bring us closer to the essence of the literary experience? @nybooks http://t.co/IMoUdFtP ]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:50:20 -0700 http://thebrowser.com/articles/e-books-cant-burn/e-books-cant-burn-best-of-the-moment-the-browser http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_science_transfer/ “Faster.” Could any other word better capture the reigning paradox of our age? The world today—whether measured in technological or ecological terms—appears to be changing more rapidly than ever before. Our modern system for generating novelty and prosperity has stretched to encompass the entire planet, growing more complex and expansive, so that now it seems to groan and shudder beneath its own weight. In its service, some things are falling apart: Non-renewable resources are profligately consumed, ecosystems disrupted, and social traditions steadily relinquished. There seems no way to stop or slow these processes without causing immense, cascading catastrophe. The only… ]]> Thu, 29 Sep 2011 04:01:31 -0700 http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_science_transfer/ http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/196170 I'm looking for examples of websites that have successfully enhanced a research community (academic or artistic) with a dynamic online/social/mutual-portfolio presence. Blog and social media based hubs, perhaps, that showcase the possibilities of web portfolio/research integration for academic and creative purposes. I've been asked to help implement a website/blogging platform for a community of 20 MFA students.

Basically I'd like to gather up some examples of dynamic websites attached to academia (or similar i.e. the arts). These examples will be then passed on to my superiors with an eye to developing our own platform that takes the best… ]]> Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:26:18 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/196170 http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end Was theory a gigantic hoax? On the contrary. It was the only salvation, for a twenty year period, from two colossal abdications by American thinkers and writers. From about 1975 to 1995, through a historical accident, a lot of American thinking and mental living got done by people who were French, and by young Americans who followed the French. The two grand abdications: one occurred in academic philosophy departments, the other in American fiction. In philosophy, from the 1930s on, a revolutionary group had been fighting inside universities to overcome the “tradition.” This insurgency, at first called “logical positivism” or… ]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:08:16 -0700 http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end Was theory a gigantic hoax? On the contrary. It was the only salvation, for a twenty year period, from two colossal abdications by American thinkers and writers. From about 1975 to 1995, through a historical accident, a lot of American thinking and mental living got done by people who were French, and by young Americans who followed the French.

The two grand abdications: one occurred in academic philosophy departments, the other in American fiction. In philosophy, from the 1930s on, a revolutionary group had been fighting inside universities to overcome the “tradition.” This insurgency, at first called… ]]> Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:48:43 -0700 http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end http://m.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet_activist_aaron_swartz_indicted_for_data_t.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29 For a long time, it was the folks who downloaded music or movies illegally that faced the wrath of government prosecutors. So the unsealing of an indictment today against Aaron Swartz, former Reddit-er and founder of Demand Progress, for the illegal download of some 4 million-odd academic journal articles may sound a bit unusual.
Demand Progress has issued a statement suggesting Swartz's actions were akin to "checking too many books out of the library." But the government clearly disagrees as the charges include wire fraud, computer fraud, and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. Schwartz now faces up… ]]> Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:10:10 -0700 http://m.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet_activist_aaron_swartz_indicted_for_data_t.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29 http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/852 Reports of the demise of the humanities are exaggerated, suggest these panelists, but there may be reason to fear its loss of relevance. Three scholars whose work touches a variety of disciplines and with wide knowledge of the worlds of academia and publishing ponder the meaning and mission of the humanities in the digital age. Getting a handle on the term itself proves somewhat elusive. Alison Byerly invokes those fields involved with “pondering the deep questions of humanity,” such as languages, the arts, literature, philosophy and religion. Steven Pinker boils it down to “the study of the products of the… ]]> Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:02:02 -0700 http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/852 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21514 Information is exploding so furiously around us and information technology is changing at such bewildering speed that we face a fundamental problem: How to orient ourselves in the new landscape? What, for example, will become of research libraries in the face of technological marvels such as Google?

How to make sense of it all? I have no answer to that problem, but I can suggest an approach to it: look at the history of the ways information has been communicated. Simplifying things radically, you could say that there have been four fundamental changes in information technology since… ]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:03:34 -0700 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21514 http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?story_id=17723223 Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time:

In research the story is similar. PhD students and contract staff known as “postdocs”, described by one student as “the ugly underbelly of academia”, do much of the research these days. There is a glut of postdocs too. Dr Freeman concluded from pre-2000 data that if American faculty jobs in the life sciences were increasing at 5% a year, just 20% of students would land one. In Canada 80% of postdocs earn $38,600 or less per year before tax—the average salary of a construction worker. The rise… ]]> Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:47:00 -0700 http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?story_id=17723223 http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/ In the past year, I've written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most on very tight deadlines. But you won't find my name on a single paper.

I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations, pharmacology, theology, sports management, maritime security, airline services, sustainability, municipal budgeting, marketing, philosophy, ethics, Eastern religion, postmodern architecture, anthropology, literature, and public administration. I've attended three dozen online… ]]> Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:56:00 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2010/09/the-anthropology-of-hackers/63308/ A "hacker" is a technologist with a love for computing and a "hack" is a clever technical solution arrived through a non-obvious means. It doesn't mean to compromise the Pentagon, change your grades, or take down the global financial system, although it can, but that is a very narrow reality of the term. Hackers tend to value a set of liberal principles: freedom, privacy, and access; they tend to adore computers; some gain unauthorized access to technologies, though the degree of illegality greatly varies (and much, even most of hacking, by the definition I set above, is actually legal). But… ]]> Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:08:00 -0700 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2010/09/the-anthropology-of-hackers/63308/ http://chronicle.com/article/What-Are-Books-Good-For-/124563 I've been wondering lately when books became the enemy. Scholars have always been people of the book, so it seems wrong that the faithful companion has been put on the defensive. Part of the problem is knowing what we mean exactly when we say "book." It's a slippery term for a format, a technology, a historical construct, and something else as well.

Maybe we need to redefine, or undefine, our terms. I'm struck by the fact that the designation "scholarly book," to name one relevant category, is in itself a back formation, like "acoustic guitar." Books began… ]]> Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:23:00 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/What-Are-Books-Good-For-/124563 http://chronicle.com/article/Will-the-Book-Survive/124115/ Over the next 10 years, scientific experts will be dealing with "extreme weather." No one knows how weird and dangerous it will get.

Moscow already faces Bahrain-like temperatures. Downpours swamp a fifth of Pakistan. President Mohamed Nasheed, of the Maldives, worries enough about future sea levels to hold a cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear. (Don't miss this on YouTube!)

Parallel thinking should apply to a phenomenon of greater concern to readers here: "extreme academe." Think of it as the hysterical upgrading of ugly visions of the future already found in polite critiques of… ]]> Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:17:00 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/Will-the-Book-Survive/124115/ http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is. It's hard to describe it in words. So, I use pictures. Read below for the illustrated guide to a Ph.D. ]]> Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:47:00 -0700 http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/29/plato-mathematical-musical-code It may sound like the plot of a Dan Brown novel, but an academic at the University of Manchester claims to have cracked a mathematical and musical code in the works of Plato.

Jay Kennedy, a historian and philosopher of science, described his findings as "like opening a tomb and discovering new works by Plato."

Plato is revealed to be a Pythagorean who understood the basic structure of the universe to be mathematical, anticipating the scientific revolution of Galileo and Newton by 2,000 years.

Kennedy's breakthrough, published in the journal Apeiron… ]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:45:00 -0700 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/29/plato-mathematical-musical-code