Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Sunday, March 9, 2003

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More on open access to scientific data: "Quoting [Professor] Wood: "We should all be wanting to democratize science. We should be making science, or the opportunity to do science, as widely available as possible." [...] Quoting Mark Weiss, one of the NSF program directors for physical anthropology and archeology who is planning a large autumn meeting on Wood's proposal: "It's nothing new, but with electronic access, it's becoming much more feasible to provide much more broad access." Gerhard Weber of the University of Vienna goes further and proposes that providing open access to one's data should be a condition of publication in the field's major journals." (Thanks to Dov Henis.) [FOS News]

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Population density: "Here is a map of the population density on Earth. I like maps like that. I notice there's tons of space with nobody there. Because we've already turned those places into deserts mostly. And some places with a huge concentration of people. [...] There are lots of things I'd love to see in near real-time on a map, or a globe. I'd like to be able to play with different data sets. Resource use, money flows, health, education, net traffic, the people I know, etc." [Ming the Mechanic]

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Aleister Crowley: "To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter." [Quotes of the Day]