There has been much discussion of whether the US should have captured Osama Bin Laden alive and put him on trial, as per the Nuremberg precedent set in the apprehension and subsequent judicial sentencing of Nazi World War II war criminals. I felt it was worth making a slightly more critical evaluation than some of those views already put out there about this. The Nuremberg defendants. Front row, from left to right: Hermann Göring (death;

There was a recent conversation on Twitter's excellent #phdchat hashtag revealing the angst that can be involved in getting the balance right between holding an idea back (for formal academic publication) and putting it out there. I'd like, in this post, to enumerate the pros and cons of each side, both ideologically and pragmatically.

A few days late, but this is a quick post to highlight my statements, and photograph, on the Guardian books site. The piece was to highlight events pertaining to reading/celebrating authors in public, which linked in with the Pynchon in Public Day event which I organized last weekend. The piece has been widely circulated and I'm grateful for all the exposure!

In a fascinating LA Times piece published today, it is remarked, in conversation with a close friend of Thomas Pynchon that: So why don't we? Why don't those of us for whom Pynchon is a professional, and personal, interest do this? The answer, to me, seems self explanatory, but before answering, it's worth giving a brief history of Pynchon's stance on privacy. Featured image: Pynchon's hand giving a V-Sign around the door.

Attached are my lecture notes for the "Genre 2" lecture I gave at the University of Sussex (2011-05-04): Martin Paul Eve - "We've met before, haven't we?": Spatio-Temporal Distortion in David Lynch's Lost Highway. This file is released under a Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike license. It remains Copyright 2011 Martin Paul Eve. Featured image Copyright 1997 October Films.

Vanity post alert! I have just been told that my achievement of Associate of the Higher Education Academy has been featured in Sussex's Teaching and Education department's publication, RUSTLE ("Really Useful Stuff on Teaching, Learning Etc."). This is, obviously, only the start along the long certificate-strewn pathway to full-time teaching in higher education, but it's certainly a good initial foray.

A summary of the Guardian Q&A session, 'Life After a PhD' for which I was a panelist, is now available over on the Guardian Higher Education Network. Of particular interest, in my view, is Tennie Videler's reference to ASHPIT; certainly a lead I am hoping to follow up. Keep your eyes peeled for their third policy day. I'm also quite amused that my aside on Wittgenstein made it into the summary;

If, like myself, you had travelled to The Barbican last night, you would have seen two men, a father and son, on a dazzlingly white, clinical set, a gigantic face of Jesus projected onto the screen behind them. The face shimmers. It's impossible to look at, every time it draws your focus, the area under scrutiny seems to disappear, only for a new area to command attention.

A quick plug for my latest Android application, which is now available in the Android Market: Crossword Helper. This is, fairly obviously, an application designed to help you finish crosswords when you are stuck. You can get the app by scanning this QR code on your device: The application has a built-in dictionary of approximately 300,000 words against which you can match your existing grid and/or an anagram.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending an event at Foyles bookstore in London featuring David Foster Wallace's Literary Agent Bonnie Nadell and Editor Michael Pietsch. The evening was in honour of the UK launch of Wallace's posthumous publication, The Pale King which is current receiving rather favourable reviews.

I am very pleased to report that I will be participating as a panelist on the forthcoming Live Q&A this Friday (15th April) on the Guardian Higher Education Network. I'm hoping this event will be an exciting opportunity to engage with and discuss the community's concerns as regards postgraduate prospects. In timely fashion, the THE has an article on this very topic in their latest issue.