Monthly Archives: October 2009

Double Down

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Timothy Burke

Every once in a while, you see a public figure say something and think to yourself, “I am almost certain that a historian fifty or a hundred years from now is going to be using that quote to capture the … Continue reading →

The (Skilled) Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Timothy Burke

Our Associate Provost is organizing a workshop to talk about how (or perhaps whether) we teach presentation and speaking skills in our courses. I’m planning to attend: I think it’s a really important issue. I worry a lot about many … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 5 Comments

Marshall, Will and Holly Sell Some Routine Tobacco Products

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Timothy Burke

I’ve been talking a lot lately about the mismatch between levels or scales of social action and social knowledge. Mostly I think that’s a question that involves the design and organization of institutions, governments, and social networks. Sometimes, though, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 4 Comments

End User Complaint

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Timothy Burke

The historian Randall Packard gave an interesting talk at Swarthmore last week about the history of malaria eradication. Like many historians, he ends up with a skeptical view of contemporary projects and plans. As he sees it, current attempts to … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 7 Comments

Reality Got Problem Set #3 Wrong, Not Me

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Timothy Burke

The story this week about two physicists who have suggested that the Large Hadron Collider is being sabotaged from the future so that it won’t produce a Higgs boson (or is it that it will have produced a Higgs boson … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellany | 5 Comments

Digital Search II: A User Perspective on Database Design

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Timothy Burke

If I’m anxious about Google becoming a database vendor, it’s partly because the user experience with existing databases has been so dismal to date. On the other hand, Google’s understanding of and commitment to usability is head and shoulders above … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 1 Comment

Digital Search I: Google Poisons the Well

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Timothy Burke

I am apparently not the only person who feels a bit bait-and-switched by the state of Google’s digitization projects after the settlement. So much so that Sergey Brin himself has sallied forth to defend the current terms in the New … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 6 Comments

Pile-On

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Timothy Burke

I just have to say it. President Obama? It kind of says something about the world in general (as well as the past Administration) at this moment if default statesmanship carried out within ordinary interstate institutions seems like a major … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

From Gourmet to the Daily Gazette

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Timothy Burke

I was reminded for the first time in years of the existence of Gourmet magazine a few weeks ago when a foodie colleague of mine started talking about some recipes she’d made from it recently. I used to subscribe to … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Blogging, Food, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

Less-Convergent Culture

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Timothy Burke

I’m broadly sympathetic to celebrating the power and range of audience productions of culture and to Henry Jenkins‘ arguments about convergence culture and about reading the total range of textual production around a cultural property. Sometimes Jenkins gets carried away: … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 7 Comments