![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Mar. 7th, 2015 01:25 am* ISIL are using bulldozers to destroy Nimrud. There are no words for what is being lost.
* "Breaking Down Without a Spare:" https://medium.com/basic-income/breaking-down-without-a-spare-a271a6ef6f7e
* "Caring too much. That's the curse of the working classes:" http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/26/caring-curse-working-class-austerity-solidarity-scourge
* Why Academic Pay Walls Make Me Stabby: I have made no secret that I think hiding research behind pay walls is bad for society. It slows research by making it hard for people to get a hold of materials related to their fields. It makes it hard for people to do their own research or find reliable information on topics of interest to them. I have mentioned before that I literally can not read my own thesis because it is behind a pay wall, which strikes me as particularly perverse. That research represents two years of work for me. I had to pay to write it. Someone else is making money from holding my work random and I get no compensation for it, nor was I asked if I wanted my work to be available to everyone who wanted to read it or if it should be held captive so that only academics with institutional support can read it. Look, I know damned well no one wants to read my thesis. _I_ don't want to read my thesis. I certainly didn't want to write it. (I was forced to write on a topic I was not particularly interested in instead of the topic I picked for my self for reasons that still make me grumpy. My partner at the time had to drag me bodily into the office the last two months or so I was working on it. I hated this paper like burning, though I loved the other research I did in college, and especially in Grad school). I would like access so I can pull stuff out of the bibliography. I would like my thesis available FOR FREE to any other benighted souls trying to write on that topic. I think it is a crime that I don't get a say in the availability of my own research and that others are profiting from it with compensating me or asking my permission.
I think a lot of people feel that way about the pay wall system. It feels like theft. Theft of knowledge that should be available to people who need it. Theft of labour from the people who did all that work and suffered to make these papers others are profiting from.
* It's way too soon to get excited. It needs a lot more investigation. "Ancient Human Fossil Could Be New Primitive Species:" http://www.livescience.com/49588-ancient-human-fossil-primitive-species.html
* "Satvahana site to be re-excavated:" http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/satvahana-site-to-be-reexcavated/article6842796.ece
* "Scientists recreate ancient Siberian brain surgery techniques for first time:" http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0054-scientists-recreate-ancient-siberian-brain-surgery-techniques-for-first-time/
* "Huge burial site from before 2 thousand years will be analysed by specialists:" http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news,403580,huge-burial-site-from-before-2-thousand-years-will-be-analysed-by-specialists.html
* "Analysis of skull fractures in medieval Denmark reveals increased risk of death later on in life:" http://phys.org/news/2015-01-analysis-skull-fractures-medieval-denmark.html
* "Corpse of 200-Year-Old Monk Found in Lotus Position:" http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/corpse-of-200-year-old-monk-found-in-lotus-position-150129.htm
* Glee: 6.10 "The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester:"
( Embed: )
* "Standard Responses to Online Stupidity:" http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/03/02/standard-responses-to-online-stupidity/
* I wish they would remake "Wait Until Dark" with an actual blind actress. It is the rare thriller with an intelligent, resourceful female lead. Rarer still the lead character with a disability who uses that as a strength. Put them together and I can think of nothing like it in modern media. It shouldn't be hard to update. I wish they'd do it.
* "Erotica Written By An Alien Horrified By The Human Body:" http://the-toast.net/2014/04/02/alien-erotica/
* Our Financial Situation continues Scary: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com
* "Breaking Down Without a Spare:" https://medium.com/basic-income/breaking-down-without-a-spare-a271a6ef6f7e
* "Caring too much. That's the curse of the working classes:" http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/26/caring-curse-working-class-austerity-solidarity-scourge
* Why Academic Pay Walls Make Me Stabby: I have made no secret that I think hiding research behind pay walls is bad for society. It slows research by making it hard for people to get a hold of materials related to their fields. It makes it hard for people to do their own research or find reliable information on topics of interest to them. I have mentioned before that I literally can not read my own thesis because it is behind a pay wall, which strikes me as particularly perverse. That research represents two years of work for me. I had to pay to write it. Someone else is making money from holding my work random and I get no compensation for it, nor was I asked if I wanted my work to be available to everyone who wanted to read it or if it should be held captive so that only academics with institutional support can read it. Look, I know damned well no one wants to read my thesis. _I_ don't want to read my thesis. I certainly didn't want to write it. (I was forced to write on a topic I was not particularly interested in instead of the topic I picked for my self for reasons that still make me grumpy. My partner at the time had to drag me bodily into the office the last two months or so I was working on it. I hated this paper like burning, though I loved the other research I did in college, and especially in Grad school). I would like access so I can pull stuff out of the bibliography. I would like my thesis available FOR FREE to any other benighted souls trying to write on that topic. I think it is a crime that I don't get a say in the availability of my own research and that others are profiting from it with compensating me or asking my permission.
I think a lot of people feel that way about the pay wall system. It feels like theft. Theft of knowledge that should be available to people who need it. Theft of labour from the people who did all that work and suffered to make these papers others are profiting from.
* It's way too soon to get excited. It needs a lot more investigation. "Ancient Human Fossil Could Be New Primitive Species:" http://www.livescience.com/49588-ancient-human-fossil-primitive-species.html
* "Satvahana site to be re-excavated:" http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/satvahana-site-to-be-reexcavated/article6842796.ece
* "Scientists recreate ancient Siberian brain surgery techniques for first time:" http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0054-scientists-recreate-ancient-siberian-brain-surgery-techniques-for-first-time/
* "Huge burial site from before 2 thousand years will be analysed by specialists:" http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news,403580,huge-burial-site-from-before-2-thousand-years-will-be-analysed-by-specialists.html
* "Analysis of skull fractures in medieval Denmark reveals increased risk of death later on in life:" http://phys.org/news/2015-01-analysis-skull-fractures-medieval-denmark.html
* "Corpse of 200-Year-Old Monk Found in Lotus Position:" http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/corpse-of-200-year-old-monk-found-in-lotus-position-150129.htm
* Glee: 6.10 "The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester:"
( Embed: )
* "Standard Responses to Online Stupidity:" http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/03/02/standard-responses-to-online-stupidity/
* I wish they would remake "Wait Until Dark" with an actual blind actress. It is the rare thriller with an intelligent, resourceful female lead. Rarer still the lead character with a disability who uses that as a strength. Put them together and I can think of nothing like it in modern media. It shouldn't be hard to update. I wish they'd do it.
* "Erotica Written By An Alien Horrified By The Human Body:" http://the-toast.net/2014/04/02/alien-erotica/
* Our Financial Situation continues Scary: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com