LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Researchers Locked Out By Government Shut Down

Surely the dorks responsible for this are deeply pleased, because this means academics, scholars, scientists, journalists -- everyone who needs reliable information, those who research their facts to back up their ideas and arguments instead of, o, just saying any gee dee ed thing they feel like at the moment and then declare to be the Word of God -- is locked out from doing their job.  In other words all those gee dee ed commies, queers femnazis, and atheists who deny creationism and the holy stars and bars.

From Inside Higher Ed, by Michael Stratford here:
In addition to forcing the closure of government buildings  where research is conducted -- such as the Library of Congress and presidential libraries -- the shutdown was also cutting off access to myriad electronic resources on which many researchers depend. Websites that were not operational included those of the Library of Congress, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Science Foundation, the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Education Department’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences.
PubMed, a free repository of biomedical and life science research maintained by the National Institutes of Health, was operational but a notice on the site warned users that it would not be updated during the shutdown.
Researchers who had traveled to Washington for the purpose of using federal resources to advance their work said they were frustrated by the shutdown.
Read more at the link above.

Why yes, this affects yours truly.


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