2012: Year of the PhD Completion / Guardian Higher Education Top 10 posts of 2011 http://bit.ly/umPtdO #academia #Publications #Vanity

"Angry Young Academics" is again the most read post on @GdnHigherEd, 6 months after it was written, with 366 FB "likes" http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2011/jun/15/univeristies-radical-academics-jobs-training

Spent way too much time today learning Ruby and writing that scraper, but hey.

Account aggregation with UK banks and a free software Lloyds TSB scraper http://bit.ly/tRAsKl #Banking #GPL #Ruby

Thought I'd use some of my time off to setup bank account aggregation. Got Quicken running on Linux to find barely any UK banks supported

Just had such a lovely email re @GdnHigherEd piece "Angry Young Academics" #notalone cc. @jennifermjones

Now seeing Murmurs (Charlie Chaplin's great granddaughter) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. A good day!

Went to see the Richter exhibition at Tate Modern again. So good. You must see it.

Sir Michael Dummett obituary http://gu.com/p/34bqm/tw via @guardian

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/alexander-solzhenitsyn-gulag.html

Walter Benjamin's Paris Address Book http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/walter-benjamin-paris-address-book.html

And best wishes for a happy 2012! #phdchat

Happy 2011 to all on #phdchat. Limited participation as en route at present time.

My piece with @jennifermjones makes the @GdnHigherEd Top 10 articles of the year http://bit.ly/u2x5ES

NHS cuts have affected patient care say four out of five doctors

http://gu.com/p/34bgj

Amazing belated Christmas present from an artist friend http://yfrog.com/h82birxlj

C is for censorship | Michael Billington's A to Z of modern drama

http://gu.com/p/34bb7

What rubbish. Was going well until halfway through. "In this age of anxiety, we'll need the 2012 Olympic spirit"
http://gu.com/p/349kg

Right all. Merry Christmas and all that!

I seem to have a persistent, somewhat strange, blog commenter. Will see if it calms down. 2 days going strong now.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/07RKhL3ja4M/what-do-we-do-when-the-internet-mob-is-wrong

Now the @GdnHigherEd piece is out, just sent another off to @GdnCulturePros on why culture pros and academics should join forces.

Crossword roundup: Yule clues http://gu.com/p/349qp/tw via @guardian

Guest piece in the Guardian: Secondary schools are not adequately preparing students for hig http://bit.ly/svnEQr #academia #entrance #exams

Festive highlight of the year begins. It's all downhill from here. Muppet Christmas Carol.

Very sneaky bypass of Android security permissions http://viaforensics.com/security/nopermission-android-app-remote-shell.html

So having spent ages working out how to see replies in ChromeDeck, they've pushed another update this morning. Now can't see it again.

Homeless people in the UK revealed to have life expectancy of just 47 http://gu.com/p/348pt

How British workers are losing the power to think | Aditya Chakrabortty http://gu.com/p/3482t

Off to see the Leonardo exhibition and then Jerusalem. Apologies in advance to all for my snuffling throughout.

Slashdot comment of the day: http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2581940&cid=38432532

WTF? EPG takes offence to Alfred Hitchc**k and Charles D***ens | Media Monkey http://gu.com/p/347ph/tw via @guardian

This bastardised libertarianism makes 'freedom' an instrument of oppression | George Monbiot http://gu.com/p/3483v

Rail fares to rise faster than inflation http://gu.com/p/3486x

HMRC hid 'sweetheart' tax deals for big business, MPs say http://gu.com/p/3484m

Watched A Genius Like Us, bio doc on Joe Orton. Interesting, but wholly heteronormative w/ the "tragic homosexual" subtext. Disappointing

Argh. Let me re-write that typo.

Iteratively editing the first 2/3rds of my final chapter today. Shaping up pretty damn well, if I do say so myself.

Laughter is the best medicine. Bollocks it is. Lemsip.

GPL, Copyleft Use Declining Fast http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Sbxrax9VQyw/gpl-copyleft-use-declining-fast

I just don't think Google get it with G+. http://www.reddit.com/r/googleplus/comments/nbtyd/google_plus_apps_migrate_tool/

A toast to the late Russell Hoban with several Krakenites. http://yfrog.com/odz95jfj

Easy answer to fix this. Stop making needless modifications to AOSP. http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/smdQGOIn6QY/android-update-alliance-already-struggling

Resource: How to use WordSeer to collect and compare words, e.g. “love” in Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalHumanitiesNow/~3/dflE5hNVobQ/

meXmlGalley now supporting image insertion (OJS: XML to PDF) http://bit.ly/uWGr4K #OJS #PDF #Publishing

I definitely think @SussexUni have to up their game in light of Lincoln's promotional efforts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5fzmmrk6kk (seriously, watch it)

Uploaded meXml test script & necessary transform files to https://github.com/MartinPaulEve/MEXMLGalley . If interested in creating PDFs from XML, have a look.

Bradley Manning preliminary hearing convincingly asserts judge is biased. Pause in proceedings as recusion considered. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/dec/16/bradley-manning-hearing-live-updates

Sorry to have missed the @GdnHigherEd chat today, by all accounts was a good 'un.

Just a recommendation to all, that Kimsufi do dedicated servers at £14/m: http://www.kimsufi.co.uk/ Put referrer me22546-ovh for my benefit!

Beckett and Pinter Productions at the Bristol Old Vic http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/beckett-pinter-bristol-old-vic.html

Actually, why am I cheering? I'm about to go out in that.

#UKSnow yeah! 1/10 #EN1

Excellent takedown of Quentin Letts, the Mail's "theatre critic" via @williamjmcevoy http://bit.ly/rrxkk0

Clov: "He's crying" / Hamm: "Then he's living" -- Samuel Beckett, Endgame. On that cheery note, night!

Facebook are unveiling timeline this week. Guess they're doing it over the holiday to minimize inevitable outcry.

Mmm, just had a review commissioned for Literature and History journal.

Almost 20% of US women are raped or experience attempted rape. What's the threshold for the term "endemic"? :( http://j.mp/sNyOL2

Crosswords: the meow meow of the 1920s http://gu.com/p/345h7/tw via @guardian

Highly recommend Stone, “Adorno and the disenchantment of nature.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 32 (2006) to all wanting an intro to this

A petition design to force a fresh debate on the HE White Paper: http://j.mp/tzo75g

I'm speaking at UKSG 35th Annual Conference and Exhibition, 26th-28th March 2012 in Glasgow http://lanyrd.com/2012/uksg12/ via @lanyrd

Phew. First draft of penultimate section of final chapter: done. Now need to re-read, re-work and iteratively edit. Then on, to the end!

"Exigology (noun): a statement whose converse is it's own explanation" http://j.mp/ruxTZk via @mr_oscar

It takes me a while to adjust to the end of term. I feel there should be more to do before I can get on with research.

re. Obama's statement, "We don’t let individuals make their own decision about how the laws operate", actually, post-Nuremberg, we MUST.

Just to be clear on those retweets: patents. Ugh.

Moving Hoban obituary in the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8957087/Russell-Hoban-dedicated-to-strangeness.html (also mentions Pynchon in Public Day) cc. @Dystopia2009 @PynchonInPublic

Revealed: huge increase in executive pay for America's top bosses http://gu.com/p/3457q/tw via @guardian

Understanding Foucault: A critical introduction (2012) http://foucaultnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/understanding-foucault-a-critical-introduction-2012/

Some lovely comments in memory of Russell Hoban

http://gu.com/p/344nj

Honoured to have known him, pleased that his work will continue to be published and read. Goodbye, Russ.

Extremely saddened by the death of Russell Hoban, a writer of extraordinary imagination and a remarkable individual.

Science without journals: More evidence that journal rank is a poor predictor of citations http://bjoern.brembs.net/news.php?item.812.11

Also finding correlations between a document & part of a Pynchon novel. As with CERN, not sure if it's enough to call it a discovery...

An interesting comment on my blog following up on Pynchon's friends as characters in Gravity's Rainbow http://bit.ly/vJXwvB

Samuel Beckett's Revelation http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/george-hunka-samuel-beckett-krapp.html

"@theNHJ: Had a very interesting chat with @martin_eve on this very subject on Sunday... http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/dec/14/secondary-schools-fail-teenagers-computing" cc. @DrTomCrick

Unfortunately, most of the quotations from Dialectic of Enlightenment I want to use are in 1st chapter. Looks like I haven't read the rest!

Theresa May is apparently getting a lot of grief for her dismissive approach to #readingtheriots http://j.mp/vHx3p9

Read Søren Kierkegaard's Papers and Journals http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/kierkegaard-papers-journals-online.html

Marx and the Aesthetic: Academic Conference 2012 http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/marx-aesthetic-amsterdam-conference.html

Imagine if you could get Google to go offline for a day in protest... http://j.mp/vDhJwP

TwaperKeeper archives http://www.nostuff.org/words/2011/twaperkeeper-archives/

Noises Off - "Frayn must have the subtlest mind ever applied to the writing of farce" < not a patch on Orton http://gu.com/p/344f8/tw

Thomas Cook to close 125 stores
http://gu.com/p/344fe < oh yes, there's the private sector picking up the jobs slack again.

. @Chrissybelle8 much obliged, thankee!

A minor correction to Anne Mangel's "Maxwell's Demon, Entro http://bit.ly/ukqL1U #Entropy #Maxwell's_Demon #Pynchon

Sad/irked that @SussexUni closing Centre for Community Engagement. Redundancies & loss of benefit to wider community. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/?id=11054

So they have strong evidence for Higgs, but not definitive discovery?

Of new interest for Pynchonites on Maxwell's Demon: “Demons, Entropy and the Quest for Absolute Zero.” Scientific American 304, no. 3 (2011)

"@SAGEmedia_comm: Listen to Dr Farida Vis talk about the impact of social media on the London Riots http://ow.ly/7XAlK." @Flygirltwo

Thought, I know what I'll read next, Gillian Slovo's Red Dust. Got to station and opened first page. Already read & can entirely remember.

FBI Rejects Freedom of Information Act Request About Carrier IQ http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/LlMLOyYAcEI/fbi-rejects-freedom-of-information-act-request-about-carrier-iq

Publication: 'Historical Sources for Pynchon’s Peter Pinguid Society', P http://bit.ly/vfh2sr #History #Publication #Pynchon

Does David Cameron's 'full-bladder technique' work? http://gu.com/p/343af/tw < he was taking the... oh, that's too easy.

cf Crawford, “Gender and Terror in Gerhard Richter’s October 18, 1977 and Don DeLillo’s ‘Baader-Meinhof’.” New German Critique 36, 2 (2009)

Confrontation 1-3 are particularly powerful, to my mind. Supplied notes on that page give a context.

Thinking, this afternoon, about Richter's Baader-Meinhof sequence. If you don't know them: http://bit.ly/vwWyeC

If you haven't already seen it... @qui_oui's guide to academic social media. Bonus points if you can spot my cameos! http://prezi.com/wpex31xj_9kv/what-the-tweet-social-media-for-grad-students/

The Commodity Fetishism of Social Capital http://phdblog.net/the-commodity-fetishism-of-social-capital/

The Condescending UI http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/bsoH9vp_HiU/the-condescending-ui

Off out for a coffee with @theNHJ.

In #newtweetdeck, how can I see the tweet to which a reply replies?

The Letters of Samuel Beckett Vol 2 edited by George Craig – review

http://gu.com/p/33qef

Academics research causes of riots. Government dislikes. IDS: "blame the X-Factor".

Enjoying reading the conversation around #MuppetMiddlemarch

Queen Mary, University of London senate passes motion of no confidence in David Willetts.

The legitimized online touting of Seatwave really annoys me. Markup is astronomical. And I missed the announcement for Orbital playing.

What do lad mags and rapists have in common? http://gu.com/p/342vx/tw via @guardian

Goldman Sachs whistleblower threatened with the sack http://gu.com/p/34xtp

You won't read a more worrying thought today. http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/z_w55eFhNw0/supreme-court-legitimizing-medical-patents

Much Foucauldian thought (social conditioning, sexuality and enlightenment) is also expressed in Adorno's "Enlightenment as Mass Deception"

Virtual environments (games) used for training of soldiers could violate Geneva Convention http://j.mp/tUzyo3

Watch out all. Almost entirety of Victoria Line is suspended. Sigh.

No alternative to cutting disabled and ill people's benefits. Really? | Zoe Williams http://gu.com/p/34vhc

TS Eliot prize: Second poet withdraws in sponsor protest http://gu.com/p/34v4v

Foucault and the Courage of Truth: A Roundtable (2012) http://foucaultnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/foucault-and-the-courage-of-truth-a-roundtable-2012/

**Support War Child** and see Laurent Gardner/Booka Shade/Leftfield live April 2012 http://bit.ly/sSPLYr #Charity #Leftfield

Report: “Redefining the Academic Library: Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services” http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalHumanitiesNow/~3/0if_UHmt2YA/redefining-the-academic-library-managing-the-migration-to-digital-information-services.html

Ace research from @flygirltwo today in the Guardian. How riot rumours spread on Twitter. http://j.mp/tkQRm6 H/T/ @jennifermjones

Christmas has come early for me. Booka Shade & Leftfield live at Brixton! April 2012, in aid of War Child charity http://j.mp/vG1LeP

Radiohead and Massive Attack play at Occupy London Christmas party - video http://gu.com/p/34v4d/tw via @guardian

Michel Foucault et le christianisme (2011) http://foucaultnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/michel-foucault-et-le-christianisme-2011/

Cancer patients to face welfare tests during chemotherapy, charities warn http://gu.com/p/33qmx

Alan Moore v Frank Miller: comics legends clash http://gu.com/p/33q6t

Phew. Teaching done for the term. Concentrated research period. Go!

Muppet movies: their communist plots revealed http://gu.com/p/33qan

Last day of teaching this term. Frankenstein. A somewhat tedious text, with a whiny protagonist, but hey. Roll on research! #twitcrit

The production of educational space: Heterotopia and the business university (2011) http://foucaultnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/the-production-of-educational-space-heterotopia-and-the-business-university-2011/

What's your favourite simile, like? http://gu.com/p/33pec

BBC News - Every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010 mapped http://bbc.in/v9BjEQ

Occupy London's anger over police 'terrorism' document http://gu.com/p/33pt3/tw via @guardian. This is outrageous.

Crossword roundup http://gu.com/p/33pbd/tw via @guardian

Describe how the coalition government's attitude twrds disablity benefit claimants resonates with the treatment of Piggy in Lrd of t/ Flies

Income inequality growing faster in UK than any other rich country, says OECD http://gu.com/p/33p84/tw via @guardian

I keep seeing "self-reflexive" in articles. That's a tautology, though, right?

Siddhartha Mukherjee: 'A positive attitude does not cure cancer, any more than a negative one causes it'

http://gu.com/p/33zga

First Fictions launch http://doctoralschool.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/first-fictions-launch/

Browser History Sniffing Is Back http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/hDeJ5HT3GBE/browser-history-sniffing-is-back

I think giving researchers access to anonymised med records could benefit us all, but it should be all researchers, not those who can pay.

Just had an email on Pynchon articles. Very pleased to see my Historical Sources for Thomas Pynchon's 'Peter Pinguid Society' listed!

John Hurt revisits Krapp's Last Tape http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/12/samuel-beckett-john-hurt-krapp.html

Hollywood: tell me why we have to wait until February 2012 for The Muppets (Nov 23rd, 2011 US), again?

The demonisation of the disabled is a chilling sign of the times | Ian Birrell

http://gu.com/p/33zn6

Fed Gave Banks Eye-Popping Emergency Loans, Without Telling Congress http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/k7hvaBCIokc/fed-gave-banks-eye-popping-emergency-loans-without-telling-congress

The terror of Babar Ahmad | Victoria Brittain

http://gu.com/p/33zk5

Quantum entanglement of macroscopic objects http://bit.ly/rs8wUj

Now off to see the Alabama 3 in Kentish Town. Hurrah!

Global and historical reasons why it is utterly innapropriate, even to joke, about killing trade un http://bit.ly/uRLQsi #n30 #strike #union

RE: Hi Armin,

Progress is good, but slow. The basics now work; I am working on making sure that images are correctly… http://disq.us/4f85de

Dialectic of Enlightenment, 2011 http://bit.ly/v0oCGW #Adorno #Enlightenment #recession

Patients physically harmed by NHS cuts and bad management, says surgeon

http://gu.com/p/33nmy

I dislike the way most apologies are couched. "If what I did caused you offence, I'm sorry". Makes it your fault for taking offence.

Finishing the last subsection of my section on Pynchon and Dialectic of Enlightenment.

First Fictions launch weekend: 20-22 January, 2012 http://bit.ly/rIiMei #academia #books #fiction