Calling the technically inclined

Ok, so perhaps this isn't quite the typical use for the blog, but I'm wondering if anyone out there knows a technically inclined friend, who might be a programmer, who can help.

I'm switching databases that I use to store my research. I've been using Microsoft Access but this isn't available for my new Mac. I would like to test out Filemaker but need to get the material in Access over to Filemaker. It's not, for me, a straightforward process. And from what I've been reading, it might even involve writing a program to do it. Any ideas?

I know that Zotero is probably even better but I don't think it will take in my data from Access. Perhaps for the next book...

And you thought this was only about postmodernism....

It turns out that academics who do complex mathematics can be a lot like academics who do complex critical theory. At least, they can both fall for the same hoaxes. Paul Taylor over at the LRB blog writes of how the journal Advances in Pure Mathematics seems to have fallen for a hoax similar to the one that Alan Sokal played on the journal Social Text. That is, they took seriously an article that was nonsense - but nonsense that sounded familiar.

See it here.

Well, at least it couldn't happen in history. Could it? I do wish someone would try.

Did Roman Girls Giggle?

I love it when historians ask and, better yet, answer these kinds of questions.

The Cambridge ancient history and classics professor, and fun blogger, Mary Beard does just this over on her blog A Don's Life. See it here.

New History and New Media

It used to be (before I started this blog) that I mostly felt inadequate because I couldn't keep up with all my journal subscriptions. I had long ago given up on reading all the books I wanted to read. But I still harboured this thought that I might get to browse all the journals I subscribe to and at least read the articles and book reviews that caught my eye. That dream has faded.

Now, I can also feel inadequate (and perhaps you can too) by looking at all the new work that is being done in the digital humanities. Just take a look at the incredible resources at the Roy Rosenzweig Centre for History and New Media.  

Or perhaps that would be too much. Don't read it all. Just look at one tiny amusing site they have called Sidelights.

It's a website with a few fascinating accounts of amusing episodes from the past. You can read about 'Who Invented Body Odour' or how the First World War changed the way we blow our noses. 

Now, that's my kind of history!

What is History? Still

If you haven't yet read E H Carr's classic little book What is History? do so now. Go to amazon or abebooks or the nearest used bookstore (don't worry, they'll almost certainly have a copy) and buy it.

To start, you could read some interesting posts over at Richard Brown's Looking at History blog on exactly this top. He has two posts on Carr's book in his thread of posts on the subject of writing history. See all of that thread here.

But mostly just go out (right now - why not? what else are you doing?) and read the book.

Must-reads for Wannabe Mad Men

Just in case you've been feeling all retro watching Mad Men and are hankering after a bit of the early 60s swanky life, Jenny Diski over at the London Review of Books blog has something for you. Read it here.

Tommy Douglas/Jim Bronskill Update

An update on Canadian Press reporter Jim Bronskill's case to have Library and Archives Canada and CSIS release more information from the security file on former Saskatchewan Premier and NDP leader Tommy Douglas.

I confess that I'm having a heck of a time working out the ruling made Wednesday in this case. It appears that the judges technically ruled in favour of the government. But it also seems that the judges accepted some of the logic that would make LAC and CSIS release more information, particularly the idea that they must consider the historical value of material they are releasing.

See this story on the ruling at the Winnipeg Free Press