Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made a joke about the GOP candidates Saturday that reportedly drew much laughter. At the black-tie steak-and-lobster Alfalfa Club dinner Saturday among political and business elites in Washington, she said that of two GOP presidential candidates, "one is a practicing polygamist, and he's not even the Mormon," according to an Associated Press report.

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I've been wrestling with the notion of an interdisciplinary academic program for undergraduates that engages students in thoughtful consumption of digital media, in production of scholarly and creative work in various forms of digital media, and in exploration and analysis of the implications of such media.  In trying to clarify my thoughts before I go talk to people about this idea at my school and elsewhere, I asked for help on Twitter.  The following is the conversation that emerged.  I'm st...  show all text

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We recently pointed out that a bunch of Polish politicians wore Guy Fawkes/Anonymous masks in Parliament to protest ACTA:It appears that some politicians in Bulgaria thought that was a good idea, and have done the same thing:It's...

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Preface In the wake of the SOPA/PIPA protests, debate over the Research Works Act, the growing boycott of Elsevier by scholars in many fields, and more local discussions of the ways that various scholarly societies in my own fields of interest (anthropology, folklore studies) responded to the recent call by the [U.S.] White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for comment on public access to federally funded research, there is a great deal of additional attention being given to the cha...  show all text

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Though I usually work with the Bookworm database of Open Library texts, I've been playing a bit more with the Google Ngram data sets lately, which have substantial advantages in size, quality, and time period. Largely I use it to check or search for patterns I can then analyze in detail with text-length data; but there's also a lot more that could be coming out of the Ngrams set than what I've seen in the last year. Most humanists respond to the raw frequency measures in Google Ngrams with some  show all text

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Monty Python's rebels ponder all they must replace if they kill the Romans The researcher rebellion against the closed research-and-publishing system,

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Leo Widrich is the co-founder of Buffer, a new way to publish tweets and Facebook posts at better times for more impact. He writes more about social media tips and tools on the Buffer blog. Follow him on Twitter @LeoWid or subscribe to his Facebook updates. When Twitter recently launched the newest version of its iPhone app, the company focused on streamlining and simplifying the user interface. Ryan Sarver, head of Twitter API, said, “In a world where Facebook and Google are competing on featu...  show all text

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A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at ...

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Liberation from the bounds of books and libraries doesn't mean freedom from the constraints of corporate power and culture.

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Screenshot of Templates page from iBooks Author Apple has amended a controversial clause in the end-user license agreement of its recently introduced iBooks Author e-book creation app. The first version could be read as saying that any e-book created or edited in iBooks Author could only be sold exclusively in Apple’s store. The new EULA of iBooks Author 1.0.1, released Friday, makes it clear that content created inside iBooks Author belongs to authors, and can be sold on any other e-book platf...  show all text

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With Amazon slowly taking over the publishing world and bookstores closing left and right, things can sometimes seem a little grim for the brick and mortar booksellers of the world. After all, why would anyone leave the comfort of their couch to buy a book when with just a click of a button, they could have it delivered to their door? Well, here’s why: bookstores so beautiful they’re worth getting out of the house (or the country) to visit whether you need a new hardcover or not. We can’t overe...  show all text

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Mr. Gazzara’s long acting career included playing Brick in the original “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway and roles in influential films by John Cassavetes.

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On June 2, 2011, Bing, Google, and Yahoo! announced the joint effort Schema.org. When the big search engines talk, Web site authors listen. This article is an introduction to Microdata and Schema.org. The first section describes what HTML5, Microdata and Schema.org are, and the problems they have been designed to solve. With this foundation in place section 2 provides a practical tutorial of how to use Microdata and Schema.org using a real life example from the cultural heritage sector. Along t...  show all text

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The Digital Textbook Playbook On February 1, the FCC and the Department of Education unveiled a "Digital Textbook Playbook" (PDF), a guide to help K-12 schools makes the transition from printed textbooks to digital ones. According to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the goal is to get all students in the U.S. using digital textbooks in the next five years. In both the chairman's and in Arne Duncan's remarks, as well as in numerous write-ups of the initiative, it's the weight of the printed text...  show all text

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There are, roughly, four kinds of illness in kids: Category 1 is the kind of serious, life-threatening illness no one wants to think about. Category 2 is an intense illness, one where the parent is probably too busy mopping up puke to complain overmuch. Category 3 is, “well, you definitely can’t go to school like that.” Category 4 includes phrases like, “I tucked some kleenex into your backpack.” Category 3 is deceptive: You think, “ah, well–the kid just needs some rest. I can stay home and do ...  show all text

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JOB ANNOUNCEMENT FOR DIGITAL HISTORIANDear Colleague,I was recently speaking with a colleague over at the National Library of Medicine (part of NIH),…

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“We’re in the middle of a crisis…that has been going largely unnoticed–a worldwide crisis in education,” said philosopher Martha Nussbaum Thursday evening to a near-capacity audience at Cubberley Auditorium. “There are radical changes in what democratic societies teach young people, and these changes have not been well thought through.”   “If this trend continues, we will be producing generations of narrow technically-trained workers rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, c...  show all text

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There is a growing crisis in the academic monograph marketplace, but organizations are rallying to devise new solutions.

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In October Ryan showed us how you can use the text-to-speech accessibility features on your computer to proofread work. Ryan offers the example of checking the accuracy of a transcription with this method, but he notes at the end of his post that this might be helpful for proofreading our own writing. Some of us may ultimately find that synthesized voice technology is still too far behind to create a tolerable listening experience, but I personally find it good enough when taken in moderate dos...  show all text

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UPDATE, 10:44 a.m. Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards just released a statement praising Komen for "clarifying" its grant process, saying "we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers." Click here for more. = = = = = = = = = = Komen for the Cure just released the following statement from Nancy Brinker and the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors: We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our ...  show all text

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People are more likely to give in to urge to tweet or check email than other cravings, say US researchers Tweeting or checking emails may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, according to researchers who tried to measure how well people could resist their desires. They even claim that while sleep and sex may be stronger urges, people are more likely to give in to longings or cravings to use social and other media. A team headed by Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University's Booth Busine...  show all text

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