I've been a long-term user of Astrid and Producteev to manage my tasks list. When I went to reinstall Astrid today, I noticed that there was no longer a Producteev sync option. After much digging about on the forums, I found that it's been hidden. You can re-enable by going to Settings -> Misc -> Enable Third Party Add-Ons.

Yesterday, the Plashing Vole posted a request for tips on keeping up with research. While I don't want to improperly place myself in the "super researchers" category, I thought I'd do a quick list of ways in which I keep abreast of new research. I don't. I've given up on reading in one particular area in a generalized sense.

One of the references in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow that eludes me (in its specificity, not in its generality) is the following quotation: A couple of critical pieces have dealt with this. Deborah Madsen, in the recent Cambridge Companion writes that Pynchon addresses Karl Marx to make the denial that colonies are just cheap labour.

With less than a week until my Ph.D. viva, I've been taking everyone's advice to heart and not going completely nuts on the revision. After all, I do know this stuff pretty damn well. Anyway, just so I remember what I did this week, I wanted to make a public note of it (probably of more use if, after the event itself, I can say it worked...) My thesis is broken down into three distinct themes, or sections.

Organized by Dr. Caroline Edwards and Tony Venezia, the Weird Council conference takes place from the 14th-15th September. Register now! Or you can download the poster as a PDF. Conference on China Miéville: Weird Council was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on September 03, 2012.

In a recent piece for the LRB, Mattathias Schwartz gives an inside look at the truly scary world of carding, the practice of stealing credit card information, through a review of Mischa Glenny's new book DataMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia . The point that I want to quibble about (although perhaps it's not a quibble; language is important) is the use of the term "hacker" throughout.

I have just seen, via Rohan Maitzen on Twitter, a useful page of suggestions for the "first day of term", teaching-wise. This led me to re-think a few of the ways in which I think the web should work. I have been advocating, for quite a while now, the idea of re-decentralizing the web. This statement requires a bit of unpacking.

'Whose line is it anyway?: enlightenment, revolution, and ipseic ethics in the works of Thomas Pynchon', Textual Practice, 26, 5, pp. 921-939 Publication: 'Whose line is it anyway?: enlightenment, revolution, and ipseic ethics in the works of Thomas Pynchon', Textual Practice, 26, 5 was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on September 02, 2012.

In the wake of the Finch report, one of the most frequent cries from academics, particularly at the early career phase, was one of despair. The endorsement of Gold OA meant, mostly to them, that they would have to budget for publication funds in their applications. In short, Gold meant gold; currency. This is, of course, not what the terminology means in the traditional Budapest initiative model.

Although I'm nothing to do with the organization of this, I wanted to give it a plug! Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace Adapted for the stage by Andy Holden and David Raymond Conroy ICA LONDON 30 August 2012 + 31 August 2012 £8, £7 concession, £5 Members 7.30pm Andy Holden and David Raymond Conroy have adapted for the stage a selection of pieces from Wallace’s collection of short stories;

Although I'm not universally convinced by claims of grade inflation (and have written about the examination system over at the Guardian ), I do welcome some attempt to differentiate examination grades. There is no point in having an examination system that yields a homogeneous result, or has boundaries that are overly broad. That said, the manner in which Gove has set about regulating this is abhorrent, for several reasons.