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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: academia

academia stories: 13 news summaries

 Algorithm Can 'Fill in the 
 Blanks' of Ancient Texts 

Algorithm could also be basis of search engine for old docs

Sep 2, 09 1:56 PM CDT
(Newser) - A new computer algorithm could soon take some of the guesswork out of deciphering ancient texts, Reuters reports. The program, developed in Israel and currently used with ancient Hebrew, works with digital copies of unreadable texts and uses pattern recognition to “fill in the blanks,” says one of... More »

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technology • computer programming • academia • search engine • algorithms • pattern recognition • Hebrew • ancient writings • documents • ancient texts

 Database Takes 
 Scholars to 
 Medieval 
 Battlefields 

Free searchable database includes facts on salary, health, knighthood

Jul 21, 09 4:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - British researchers have posted records of some 250,000 medieval soldiers in a searchable online database, the BBC reports. Now, interested parties can easily learn about the lives of fighters in the Hundred Years’ War, including salary, health, and knighthood information—for free. The “remarkable” records, says one researcher,... More »

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military • Internet • academia • soldier • history • database

Bankers Leave Street in Rear View; Head for Academia 

Execs take teaching jobs amid crisis

Apr 21, 09 1:19 PM CDT
(Newser) - With the financial tornado buffeting Wall Street, some of its leading figures are ditching their careers for work in academia, Time reports. Merrill Lynch’s former president is teaching at Yale; Citigroup’s former merger boss headed to Berkeley; a onetime Goldman Sachs exec is now at Harvard. “It’... More »

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Wall Street • Goldman Sachs • Merrill Lynch • UC Berkeley • college • university • academia • Harvard • Princeton • Yale • bankers • banks • financial crisis

OPINION

 Big Pharma
 Sickens Universities 

It's too easy for drug companies to skirt lax academic regulations

Jun 22, 08 6:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - Weak legislation allows professors to collect huge under-the-table payments from Big Pharma, and it’s time to fight back, Dan Greenberg writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Pharmaceutical companies pay professors to shill drugs and lend their names to industry research, and the only oversight is an honor-system mechanism... More »

MORE ABOUT:
ethics • pharmaceutical companies • pharma • university • academia • pharmaceutical industry • academic research

 Inside Academia,
 Subtler Sexism 

Women cite 'deeply entrenched inequities' on tough path at research universities 

Jun 15, 08 2:17 PM CDT
(Newser) - Gender discrimination at research universities is surely much better than it was in decades past, but a study based on interviews of female faculty finds that sexism remains on campus, Inside Higher Ed reports. While overt shows of bias are rare, a host of subtler, “deeply entrenched inequities” have... More »

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higher education • sexism • college • academia • gender discrimination • gender bias

 Profs to Buffy: 
 You Slay Me  

Slayer fans meet to share scholarly insights

Jun 6, 08 2:03 PM CDT
(Newser) - Buffy the Vampire Slayer started out lowbrow, but don’t tell that to the academics converging on Henderson State University today for a 3-day conference on the campy TV classic. The cheerleader-turned-monster fighter has inspired the kind of study usually reserved for major philosophers, the AP reports. The Arkansas university... More »

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philosophy • academia • Buffy the Vampire Slayer • Joss Whedon

 At Lefty U.,
 Plans for
 Right-Wing
 Chair 

University of Colorado seeks 'intellectual diversity,' to qualms on both sides

May 13, 08 11:50 AM CDT
(Newser) - Here’s a recipe for controversy: Take one of the nation’s most liberal schools—the University of Colorado at Boulder—and make it the home of the nation’s first endowed chair for Conservative Thought and Policy. The school’s Republican chancellor tells the Wall Street Journal the campus... More »

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political science • conservative • academia • University of Colorado • George Will

 Smithsonian Picks New Leader 

Museum returns to academia roots, selects Ga. Tech president

Mar 15, 08 2:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Smithsonian Institute today handed its top job to Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough, marking a return to the museum’s academic roots, the AP reports. Clough follows the troubled tenure of businessman Lawrence Small, who came under fire for raising executive salaries and for focusing more on money... More »

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museums • academia • Georgia Tech • Smithsonian • G. Wayne Clough • Lawrence Small • Smithsonian Institute

Colleges Explore Mormonism

Long ignored by religious academics, Romney's faith is drawing new attention

Feb 19, 08 3:15 PM CST
(Newser) - Academics, including those at most theological seminaries, have long ignored the study of Mormonism. But now, possibly because of a certain presidential candidate—or a certain HBO show—it's on the radar in religion departments and scholarly publishing houses, the Boston Globe reports. Harvard Divinity School just added its first... More »

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Mitt Romney • scholarship • academia • Mormon • Mormonism • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Big Love • Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Profs' Research Will Be Free on Web

Open-access movement worries journal publishers

Feb 13, 08 1:35 PM CST
(Newser) - In a move that could bring a major change to the culture of academia, the arts and sciences faculty of Harvard University yesterday voted unanimously to distribute their scholarship online for free rather than signing exclusive deals with obscure, often expensive scholarly journals. Journal officials worry, the Boston Globe reports,... More »

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Internet • academia • professor • Harvard • journals • open-access movement

Va. Tech to Turn Shooting Site into Peace Studies Center

New program will focus on violence prevention

Dec 20, 07 6:20 PM CST
(Newser) - Virginia Tech's Norris Hall will soon house the university's new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention, in an effort to keep alive the memory of those who died in that building during the April 16 massacre. School officials announced the plan today, after a several months-long deliberation about how... More »

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Virginia Tech • school shooting • academia • Virginia Tech shootings • peace studies

Freud Is Everywhere but in Psych Dept

Psychoanalysis is thriving in culture, obsolete in psychology

Nov 25, 07 10:59 AM CST
(Newser) - Sigmund Freud's ideas have seeped into every corner of popular culture and academia, from film to foreign policy. The one place they've seeped out of is university psychology departments, where psychoanalysis is now viewed as obsolete, the New York Times reports. A new survey of 150 top colleges and universities... More »

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health insurance • psychology • academia • neuroscience • Sigmund Freud • psychoanalysis

Heaven Can Wait, and So Must Research

Scholars chafe at temporary closing of Vatican Library

Jul 17, 07 4:39 PM CDT
(Newser) - Despite rumblings from anxious researchers, the Vatican Library has closed its doors for at least 3 years to undergo renovations after an inspection this year revealed that the structure couldn’t support the weight of its books. Reading rooms were unusually full last week, the BBC reports, as researchers got... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Pope Benedict XVI • Catholic Church • Rome • Vatican • research • Vatican Library • academia • Codex Vaticanus • Constantine

13 Stories


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