Category: Social Stream

You and I Are Not Much Different from Cans of Soup

At the dawn of the twentieth century, it was already clear that, chemically speaking, you and I are not much different from cans of soup. And yet we can do many complex and even fun things we do not usually see cans of soup doing.

Philip Nelson, American physicist
in Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life

 

Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life written by Philip Nelson
Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life written by Philip Nelson

Food is a product of economic supply and demand

Food is a product of economic supply and demand, so try to figure out where the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative, and the demanders are informed.

Tyler Cowen (—), American economist, academic, and writer
in An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies

 

John C. Malone on Assets in the Entertainment Industry

I don’t like a business where the assets go up and down on elevators. I like them to be fixed, hung on poles, or up in space going around.

John C. Malone (1941 – ), American business executive, landowner, and philanthropist
at Sun Valley Conference 2012, quoted in New York Times

 

Sabor a mi at Mijares Mexican Restaurant

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Recorded at brunch on 6/17/12 at Mijares Mexican Restaurant, Pasadena, CA.

Books have always been digital, not analog

Books have always been digital, not analog. Even when made of paper & ink, they are sequences of discrete symbols.

James Gleick (August 1, 1954 — ) American author and historian of science
on Twitter

 

You Cannot Learn Too Much Linear Algebra

Artin very wisely identifies these matrix groups as more fundamental–and they are. They come up much more in mathematics. Linear algebra is the central subject of mathematics. You cannot learn too much linear algebra. That’s the basic principle for all of you going on in mathematics.

Linear algebra is presented as sort of stupid stuff, [but] you cannot learn too much linear algebra.

Benedict Gross, Ph.D., George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University
in Abstract Algebra, Lecture 2 at 14:25 via Harvard Extension

 

Benedict Gross standing in front of chalkboard with equations from Abstract Algebra Class
Benedict Gross teaching abstract algebra

Reply to Feed Your Research

Replied to Feed Your Research by Ellen Keith (The Sheridan Libraries Blog)

All props to the graduate student in Sociology who alerted me to this wonderful time saver. I knew that researchers could set up RSS feeds and e-mail alerts for tables of contents, but I wasn’t practicing what I preached. I’ve got my e-mail alerts set up for tables of contents of favorite library science journals (an oxymoron, I know), but truth be told, those were starting to feel a little old school. I’ve got RSS feeds set up in Google Reader for all my favorite library blogs (NOT an oxymoron). But, although we promote this, I hadn’t set up any RSS feeds from our databases. When a student in the Soc department asked me a question about his RSS feed, I finally set one up myself to see what he was seeing.

You can do this in almost any database but my example above is from two databases we get via ProQuest: Sociological Abstracts and International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. These databases can be searched simultaneously and an RSS feed set up for their combined results. New citations that match my search show up in my feed reader, and as a bonus, the feed results import Find It links so if the articles are in full-text, I’ve got immediate access to them. Best of all, my time is saved by setting up this feed. I’m not constantly checking these databases for new articles on my topic. Instead, they’re delivered to me!

To take it a step further is there an easy way to integrate it into other social tools like Instapaper, ReadItLater, et al or to have the full journal article results emailed to my Kindle’s address so that the papers all show up for instant reading on my Kindle, tablet, e-reader?!

Thanks for the tip Ellen!