I Was Early, the Train Was Late. Which meant I had to spend almost two hours waiting at New York's Penn Station. I couldn't actually leave the station: I didn't know when exactly the train might arrive, but I did know that my husband would be disembarking… [Invisible Adjunct] Doughnut aesthetics is a grossly underappreciated […]

Presents of Mind. The Unemployed Philosopher‰¥ús Guild began in 1992 when two students of philosophy found their inner creativity in the midst of a dwindling academic job market. As it turned out, fulfilling gift giving needs proved to be almost as satisfying as probing eternal questions. They offer such items as “Freudian Slippers”, “Nietzsche's Will […]

Deans world has a question for all women: what do you like about men? the answers are somewhat surprising, somewhat overtly sexist, but i'm not sure that's always bad anymore. in any case, go read and respond.

Misuse of Science. In a report recently complied by Rep. Waxman (D-Calif) and the minority staff of the House Government Reform Committee's special investigations division areas in which the Bush administration has manipulated science to the benefit of his political agenda are highlighted. The report has an accompanying website. [MetaFilter] The site mentioned above reveals […]

On the Futility of Reading. KF is writing about the need to re-read. Well, here's a disconcerting thought: reading is a woefully inefficient way of processing information. (I know, I know: who reads just to “process information”? But bear with me a moment.) Let's say… [Matthew G. Kirschenbaum] books yes, but what about the journal […]

Users Rights to Communications Services. The Commission for Communications Regulation, Ireland has released a new publication Users Rights to Communications Services (Protecting Users in a Developing Communications Market), which is the decision governing the regulatory framework for the protection of users of electronic communications services. This decision follows their consultation 03/26 (Protecting Users in a Developing […]

The Technoarchy. Technoarchy: a form of oligarchy where society is controlled by those who use technology the best. Unlike traditional oligarchies technoarchies are generally emergent. For the most part they are not created deliberately, but rise out of the properties of the dominant technology of the time, ie the networked computers of the 21st century. […]

Conference web site software. Further to my post about a conference web site.  Thanks to Jeremy Hunsinger, I set up a good enough site in about 10 minutes.  Actually, the underlying code is pretty awesome and the HCI is very nicely done, especially on the back end.  My first impressions are very positive.  There is […]

Oligonomy Defined. Hannaford lays the groundwork for a new theoretical model of business economics — the oligonomy. It's a curious conundrum and I've never seen any of the free-market thinkers address this phenomenon of growth. Where does it lead, and what does it mean? Oligonomy defined The vocabulary of economists has no word to describe […]

Erpanet and Daedalus have launched the Erpanet ePr …. Erpanet and Daedalus have launched the Erpanet ePrints Service, an open-access repository for the cultural and scientific heritage community. [Open Access News] This is great news for the digital preservation community. It will be interesting to watch the take up of this new technology.