Author Archives: Timothy Burke

On Lincoln and Accuracy

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Timothy Burke

A Facebook friend of mine directed my attention to Eric Foner’s evaluation of the film Lincoln. Foner likes the film somewhat, but complains that it is inaccurate in some important respects. Foner comments, “The emancipation of the slaves is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Popular Culture | 3 Comments

Flash Mob Protest Wanted

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Yo, people of San Francisco! If ever there has been a store that deserves to be periodically picketed by a flash mob, it’s Unionmade. (493 Sanchez Street). The Gawker story has all the information you need to know. Postmodern bullshit … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

A Mismatching of Frame and Picture

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Timothy Burke

I understand the allure that a certain kind of soft-authoritarian approach to governance offers, not the least because when the man on the white horse is genuinely devoted to producing beneficial outcomes in his (or her) territory, good changes with … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

Danger in Numbers

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Writing and reading large numbers of letters for tenure and promotion dossiers is quite a chore. On that, I agree with Don M. Chance. On almost everything else he says about such letters in his essay for the Chronicle, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 4 Comments

Those Who Won’t Teach

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Timothy Burke

The various distinctions that institutions of higher education like to draw between themselves are sometimes important and sometimes true (not necessarily both at once). And sometimes those distinctions hold some weight outside of higher education, among prospective students and their … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 3 Comments

The Folkloric First Amendment

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Timothy Burke

One curious part of online discourse almost since the beginning of the Internet has been the way that the First Amendment figures as an iconic artifact at certain recurrent moments, almost as much as the comparison-to-Nazism described by Godwin’s Law. … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

The State of the Art: 500px and Flickr as a Window Into Social Media (II)

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Timothy Burke

II. Algorithmic Culture: Code and Agency New media theorists and digital humanists, most prominently Alexander Galloway, have been writing over the last decade about “algorithmic culture”, about practices, interpretations and readings that arise within and around algorithmic media. Galloway often … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Pictures from an Institution | 1 Comment

Akins of Tomorrow

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Timothy Burke

I posted a while back on Facebook about Todd Akin’s statements on abortion and rape, but the subject is worth returning to this morning. Among the post-mortems is the proposition that extreme anti-abortion sentiments cost the Republicans two Senate seats … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 14 Comments

What Could Change

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Lest anyone think from my essays yesterday that I didn’t vote, or that I don’t think it’s important to vote for Obama, a quick note. 1) I can’t think of anything that Romney would likely improve, even in areas where … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

The State of the Art: 500px and Flickr as a Window Into Social Media (I)

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Timothy Burke

I’ve been exploring Flickr and 500px a lot over the last month, partly as a way of sharpening my own growing interest in photography and visuality. Both sites, however, are also fantastic case studies of the evolving character of social … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Pictures from an Institution | Comments Off on The State of the Art: 500px and Flickr as a Window Into Social Media (I)