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October 2012

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I'm getting an education on the drug-driven sexual adventures of the girl behind me on the train. Marvellous. Headphones.

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Quite an exciting day! Mapped out the chapter structure of book #2 and find I've written more of it than I realised. Started introduction...

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I always feel very studious when I get to the BL on Saturdays. I always feel miffed when I see the # of others who were there all week also.

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Received an outrage email over my phrasing in the Archer complaint. To be clear, I wasn't blaming the Guardian, but it is still online now.

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Notes on Adorno's "The Essay as Form"

Adorno, Theodor W. ‘The Essay as Form’. The Adorno Reader. Trans. Bob Hullot-Kentor & Frederic Will. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. 92–111. Print. 92: Essay form decried as lacking tradition in contemporary Germany [1958] Not changed by being unhappy with this Nor by being unhappy with scientific…

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My Adorno summary note of the day: "We cannot think facts non-conceptually and we cannot think concepts non-factually"

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I am looking forward to teaching my first years about the (and their) essay form(s) through Adorno and David Foster Wallace far too much!

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Politicians disrespect teachers then ask why there's declining discipline & no respect for teachers in schools.

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For example, unless there's a long-term, statistically significant disparity, teachers shouldn't be judged by their results. Students should

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Now obviously, the teacher does make a difference, but I'd like to see much more onus shifted back on pupils & parents.

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Most teachers work incredibly hard for very little reward and idiotic public condemnation like this.

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HE tweetup attendance a little shorter than planned due to not realising venue had changed. Good to meet @ernestopriego, @notorius_qrl &c

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"However, the ONS pointed out that GDP growth had been artificially boosted by two short-term factors: the Olympics and the jubilee"

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Just had the most hilarious seminar writing contemporary rap parodies of Donne's To His Mistress Going to Bed!

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. @networkedres @OxfordJournals might be as well to desist in your lawsuit against Delhi University, then, if you really promote "access"

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Uh oh. Looks like @SussexUni / @sussexlibrary web facilities are all down. I really *need* BOB to be working in 1.5 hrs for teaching. Argh!

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Had a long conversation with a particle physicist on the train because he was reading Riddley Walker, of all things!

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The Grim Phoenix: The New Challenges for Open Access

It seems that 2012 really was the “tipping point” for Open Access, especially in the UK. The Finch Report has mandated OA for RCUK-funded projects and the implementation phase is now hastily underway. No longer can Open Access be seen as a minority issue; it's here and it's here to stay. As one…

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"published form is a book review I wrote, like, last weekend." Peer reviewed, copyedited, typeset, proofread, archived, indexed in just >1wk

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"While 4 of my essays have been in the production cycle for 1-2 years, the 1st thing of mine that someone's actually put out in"...

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Publication delays in the humanities are crazy. After review, we often wait 1-2 years. I'm fixing this. Here's a comment from an author:...

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Can't believe it's Monday again; off to Sussex as we speak. However, I think my illness, which has lasted 5 weeks, is lifting!

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Crude, but helpful, typesetting script from meXml

In my quest to create a set of free and open tools for platinum, scholar-run OA journals, I've just committed a crude, provisional script to my meXml git repository that assists with typesetting into pseudo-NLM format. A few notes. First of all, what does it do? The script parses markup output from…

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Please convey that I've tried to email her, but am at home feeling poorly and so won't be able to make it(!)

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Anybody just leaving the British Library who sees a woman looking as though she's expecting someone (me) by the gold bench in the foyer...

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Orbit 1.2 is now "open" and our "rolling format" is live

I'm pleased to announce that Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon today launched into its second issue. If you visit the journal at present, you may think that the issue is very small -- and you'd be correct. The journal has now moved to a rolling format, however. Articles will be added as and when they…

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Does anybody have, or can they get, Armando Iannucci: Milton's Heaven and Hell? 2009 BBC documentary.

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Harvey's agreement w/ Volcker on "strong possibility of a massive crash in next 5 years", in 2005, definitely bolsters his class power arg

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Reading David Harvey on neoliberalism. You know, just to wind down & feel happy after 6 hours of teaching.

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Very pleased to hear about the Gary McKinnon decision. Not pleased that Cons prepared to use human rights discourse only when it suits them.

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Spent my office hour writing a python script to automate a lot more of the typesetting process for Orbit. Now awaiting @timhuzar to talk OA!

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In other news, expect more curmudgeonly tweets as the now month-long virus has resurged. Again.

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Joe Orton is my contemporary Roaring Girl counterpart for teaching this week. From Jacobean to 60s gender bending!

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Jeffrey Archer's 140-character story and plagiarism

Today, the Guardian published the following 140-character short story by Jeffrey Archer. "It's a miracle he survived," said the doctor. "It was God's will," said Mrs Schicklgruber. "What will you call him?" "Adolf," she replied. This evening, I have sent the following to the Guardian books editor.…

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There is a running gag now. @the_blochian never sees my papers. Today, the trains thwarted that again! Still, the Pynchon panel was great!

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Also: Jeffrey Archer's entry is 100% plagiarised from a Roald Dahl adult short story about Hitler's birth: "Genesis and Catastrophe".

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There's a tweet going around about some 140-character "novel" competition. That's nothing. Pynchon's novels have 400-700 characters!

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I get pretty miffed when people try to sell me "identity theft" insurance. ID theft is actually a failure in their authentication mechanism.

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Latest wheeze from cold callers: "Hello is that Stephen?" "No." "Oh, I'm sorry. Actually, it's a call for all...." Sigh.

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So the Nobel cash will be going to Greece, right, as Germany is doing so much to "unite the continent" at the moment...

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Trigger warning. I felt physically ill when I read the victims' description of their treatment in French gang rape case. Now mass acquittal.

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Gillard video on misogyny is great, but as my friend said, it's a shame she chooses her discriminations & won't support same-sex marriage

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Off to teach hours 5 and 6 of John Donne. I might have said this before, but I really don't mind with Donne; good stuff!

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Also saying that critics have dubbed all experimental forms in past 40 years "postmodernism" is pretty reductive. *grumble*

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I like Will Self, but if he's trying to stake that claim that premises his Sinclair talk as his own...

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Will Self asking where Modernism has disappeared to. If he actually kept up with critical field, he'd know this is already under study.

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... additional tool through which to top-load funding. Wish some publications would just take a stand and stop publishing them.

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I felt quite annoyed with the THE "World Uni" rankings last week. So many in the sector think such rankings are crap & only serve as an...

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Just written a piece on experimental digital writing into which I've managed to shoehorn Mark Dowd's inhuman NULL pointer defer. exploit.

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. @nicklebygirl @timleunig @xtophercook oh dear; no indeed. Apologies @davidcameron -- believe that @david_cameron was intended!

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Taking the opportunity to do all those things a man can't do when his wife is around in the evening. Like copy-editing journal articles.

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Had one of those weeks where I found it hard to get enthused about teaching prep. Sudden connections with research got me out of it though!

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You can rest easy if you come to my Pynchon talk, by the way. I'm not going to mention "postmodernism" even once.

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Until then I'm enjoying my newly renewed BL pass and writing my paper on Pynchon and ethics for the Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar.

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This afternoon, I join @thoughtcat to speak to some sixth-formers about the novels of Russell Hoban; should be fun.

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Romney's use of "trickle-down government" as a term is one of the most audacious reversals of a phrase I've heard in a long while.

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Thanks all for your support through my major, life-changing encounter at Paul's bakery. Tongue is in cheek, but was hacked off!

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The woman at Upper Crust, however, took pity on me. Will exercise my consumerist outrage by never buying from Paul's Sadism Bakery

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"Can't you just please sell me a tea and not put the teabag in? I'm feeling really ill" / "No, sorry, we can't do that". Why?

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"Paul" bakery at Euston refused to give or even sell (offered price of their tea) me some hot water to dissolve a Lemsip. Just sadists?

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Off to Manchester for an Arthritis Research UK funding panel. Also sent my #ecrbook proposal off today. Promised response within 6 weeks.

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Let me say 1 thing re #Twittergate. Academic conferences are a publication of your work (a making public). Expect attribution, not privacy.

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Hours 4 & 5 of teaching Measure for Measure now. Not enough liberty, Lucio, in my opinion.

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. @qui_oui I'm torn between thinking "give me a break" and "I should have been there". It was a 2.5hr journey delayed by 30 mins :/

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For those hanging on the outcome of my #traintweet: I was 5 mins late for office hour. 2 students now sent emails saying I wasn't in. #damn

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Every train I have been on today has been delayed. I left with hours to spare. Now my office hour starts in 5 mins. Humph. #traintweet

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Let me add another: the premise is that it's near impossible to dispose of bodies in future. What about Bruce Willis' wife?