I like to see an old technology make a comeback, and I am pleased to report that this is happening with the humble index card.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Publishing
For decades, giant academic publishers have held the intellectual output of America’s universities hostage. That may be changing.
Continue readingBy Sheldon Recently I finally got around to reading Thomas Cahill’s delightful book How the Irish Saved Civilization, which, I should point out, does not actually address that compelling title until well past the halfway point in the book. But no … Continue reading
Lately I had the good fortune to hear from an old friend of mine, Richard “RJ” Jergenson, who, along with his brother Phil is one of the pioneers of the grid beam construction and prototyping system. I’ve written about this … Continue reading
…against all odds and expectations (on my part, at least) Congress has passed the Local Community Radio Act. This law removes previous restrictions on small, low-power community radio stations. Of course, the major broadcasters fought this bill, but a fierce, determined grass-roots efforts won through.
Continue readingChange, especially the kind that moves a civilization forward, requires easy access to knowledge and information. The Founding Fathers understood this. As exponents of the Enlightenment, they saw the availability of knowledge and information as a critical element of a thriving and prospering nation.
Continue readingI was intrigued to see an interesting article on the website of American Scientist magazine about the problem of the volatility of the data that narrates our civilization. The article, “Avoiding a Digital Dark Age” by Kurt Bollacker describes in … Continue reading
Amazon’s second generation Kindle, the D00511. Recent months have seen an increase of posts and news items on the coming eBook revolution. This way of delivering books has been a bit slower to catch on than proponents had hoped. The … Continue reading
As I slouch from middle age to full-on geezerdom I appreciate more and more the implied license one has to be a curmudgeon. It comes in especially handy if you aren’t by nature an “early adopter”. It took me until … Continue reading
Publishing is one of the big barriers that face independent scholars and amateur scientists. In years past, people who didn’t have a Ph.D. or some other kind of institutional affiliation didn’t have a snowball’s chance of getting published in a … Continue reading