July 26, 2013
Marie Lee, Executive Editor of Computer Science and Linguistics journeyed to Switzerland, the land of chocolate, watches, and ricola for the International Congress of Linguists. Here is her tale.
July 23, 2013
Happy Birthday to Morris Halle, MIT Professor of Linguistics emeritus, author of several MIT Press books, and legend in the lingustics world!
July 20, 2013
Why is this spacesuit soft? On July 21, 1969, only 21 layers of fabric, most gossamer-thin, stood between the skin of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and the lethal desolation of a lunar vacuum.
July 15, 2013
Tom Barry, author of Border Wars weighs in on immigration reform that was recently passed with bi-partisan support in the Senate, but is stalled in the House of Representatives.
July 11, 2013
In Washington D.C. top officials from the U.S. and Chinese governments are meeting for the fifth round of the U.S.—China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Barry Naughton, author of The Chinese Economy and the forthcoming Wu Jinglian discusses the importance of these meetings.
June 26, 2013
Here’s a birthday post for Semiotext(e) author and philosophical giant, Peter Sloterdijk, written by our own Marc Lowenthal:
June 17, 2013
For Public Safety Month, Ian Brown and Christopher Marsden the authors of Regulating Code write about the recent scandal involving the collection of Verizon user’s metadata, and how it relates to Public Safety. The authors are giving talks at MIT and Harvard today, June 17th.
June 16, 2013
Today is Bloomsday. It is celebrated every June 16th in conjunction with Leopold Bloom’s metaphysical and gastronomical (and maybe pataphysical) journey through Dublin on June 16th, 1904. For our post, we have Andrew Hugill author of ‘Pataphysics: A Useless Guide discussing the influence of pataphysics on James Joyce. The post is best read with a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy!
June 13, 2013
The United Nations’ most recent report on Syria, published earlier this morning, indicated that the Civil War in Syria has claimed nearly 93,000 lives, including over 20,000 since the beginning of the year, while also producing 1.5 million refugees. Moreover, the recent confirmation by Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah (the Lebanese-based Shia group) that his forces will be fighting alongside Syrian soldiers still loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime only portends further violence for Syria and the Middle East. Ever since Al-Assad took over the presidency from his father in 2000, Syria’s bond with Hezbollah has steadily grown, and this burgeoning relationship throughout the past decade is detailed extensively in The Epicenter of Crisis: The New Middle East. The book stands as a thorough history of Middle Eastern relations over the past few decades, which culminates with insights on the region’s present state and how it will impact future international relations. Beyond four chapters on Syria, the book also includes commentary on Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan from a large group of impressive contributors.
June 10, 2013
For Crowdsourcing week, Daren Brabham writes about his recently released book, Crowdsourcing. The book is the latest in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series.