In honor of the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein’s publication, the British publisher SP Books is releasing a facsimile of Shelley’s original manuscript. According to Roslyn Sulcas of the New York Times, the limited run will produce 1,000 copies of the facsimile, which will be available for purchase starting March 15.
From ‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s Monster | Smart News | Smithsonian
If there were a futures market in literacy, it would be dropping. It is a sad fact that the value of written words, in relation to spoken words and still and moving pictures, is sinking like a stone. Changes like this happen for structural reasons.
The publisher of Building Research & Information, Taylor & Francis, has recently decided to terminate Richard Lorch’s contract as Editor-in-Chief at the end of 2018. This action has sparked grave concern amongst the members of BRI’s editorial board. What follows is an open letter written by the board to the publisher. It details the concerns of the editorial board, the action that they took to try to dissuade Taylor & Francis, and the subsequent response from the publisher. All of the signatories of this letter have tendered their resignation from post.
Oct 21, 1929 – Jan 22, 2018
Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014.
But most science is still paywalled. More than three quarters of published journal articles—114 million on the World Wide Web alone, by one (lowball) estimate—are only available if you are affiliated with an institution that can afford pricey subscriptions or you can swing $40-per-article fees. In the last several years, though, scientists have made strides to loosen the grip of giant science publishers. They skip over the lengthy peer review process mediated by the big journals and just … post. Review comes after. The paywall isn’t crumbling, but it might be eroding. The open science movement, with its free distribution of articles before their official publication, is a big reason.
From Scientific Search Engines Are Getting More Powerful | WIRED
Ollie’s owner, Mike Daube, is a professor of health policy at Australia’s Curtin University. He initially signed his dog up for the positions as a joke, with credentials such as an affiliation at the Subiaco College of Veterinary Science. But soon, he told Perth Now in a video, he realized it was a chance to show just how predatory some journals can be.
From This Dog Sits on Seven Editorial Boards – Atlas Obscura
In September, academics in Britain uncovered 30 words ‘lost’ from the English language: researchers spent three months looking through old dictionaries to find them, in the hope they could bring the words back into modern conversations. For Jones, who blogs and tweets under the name Haggard Hawks, it has been a lifetime of word geekery. “I’ve been obsessed with language ever since I was a kid,” he tells BBC Culture. “I got a big illustrated kids’ dictionary when I was eight or nine – I got it for Christmas off my grandparents – I just sat and read it cover to cover, like you would a normal book. I was absolutely hooked.”
Looking for the title and author of a short story I read. I recall reading this story in a Science fiction magazine like Analog or Asimov’s. The story detailed a fast food restaurant that had an elaborate defense system to protect against robbers or mass shooters. The story either directly said or hinted that these types of attacks were so common that this restaurant defense system was nothing unusual. The story details an attack on the restaurant and the defense systems countering the attack. The story ends with the employee running the defense system dropping a micro-particle screen to protect the restaurant from gunfire. The attacker is hit by the screen and is killed. I believe I read the story around 20 years ago. I think story was written prior to Columbine. I am interested to look at the short story again and read it now that I am in a future world that has many similarities to the story. Problem is I cannot not remember title or author. Would appreciate if anyone has hints of what the story might be.
As I have asked around about this short story some people have suggested the book “Altered Carbon”. That book has a scene where an automatic defense system operates in a hotel. I have read that book and I know why people are making the connection to my question but the item I am looking for is definitely a short story and not a novel.
Card catalogs feel very old but are shockingly new. Merchants stored letters and slips of paper on wire or thread in the Renaissance. (Our word “file” comes from filum, or wire.) But a whole technology, based on scientific principles, for storing, retrieving, and circulating an infinitely extensible batch of documents? That is some modern-ass shit. And it helped create the world we all live in.
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