Book reviews: On commodifying intangibles

Book reviews of: 1) James Boyle, Shamans, Software, and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Pp. xvi, 270. $35.00 (cloth),$15.95 (paper). 2) Margaret Jane Radin, Contested Commodities. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 279. $35.00

Department Publications 2010

This publication is a list of books, chapters, journal articles, staff papers, The Food Industry Center publications, International Science & Technology Practice & Policy Center papers, miscellaneous monographs, Center for Farm Financial Management papers, miscellaneous Extension publications, popular press articles, op-ed articles, speeches and unpublished papers, computer software, web pages, abstracts and book reviews and theses authored by members of the University of Minnesota Department of Applied Economics in 2009.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Department Publications 2009

This publication is a list of books, chapters, journal articles, staff papers, The Food Industry Center publications, International Science & Technology Practice & Policy Center papers, miscellaneous monographs, Center for Farm Financial Management papers, Minnesota Council on Economic Education publications, miscellaneous Extension publications, popular press articles, op-ed articles, speeches and unpublished papers, computer software, web pages, abstracts and book reviews and theses authored by members of the University of Minnesota Department of Applied Economics in 2009.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

A cloud-based tool for sentiment analysis in reviews about restaurants on TripAdvisor

The tourism industry has been promoting its products and services based on the reviews that people often write on travel websites like TripAdvisor.com, Booking.com and other platforms like these. These reviews have a profound effect on the decision making process when evaluating which places to visit, such as which restaurants to book, etc. In this contribution is presented a cloud based software tool for the massive analysis of this social media data (TripAdvisor.com). The main characteristics of the tool developed are: i) the ability to aggregate data obtained from social media; ii) the possibility of carrying out combined analyses of both people and comments; iii) the ability to detect the sense (positive, negative or neutral) in which the comments rotate, quantifying the degree to which they are positive or negative, as well as predicting behaviour patterns from this information; and iv) the ease of doing everything in the same application (data downloading, pre-processing, analysis and visualisation). As a test and validation case, more than 33.500 revisions written in English on restaurants in the Province of Granada (Spain) were analyse

Libraries and Museums in the Flat World: Are They Becoming Virtual Destinations?

In his recent book, “TheWorld is Flat”, Thomas L. Friedman reviews the impact of networks on globalization. The emergence of the Internet, web browsers, computer applications talking to each other through the Internet, and the open source software, among others, made the world flatter and created an opportunity for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. Friedman predicts that “connecting all the knowledge centers on the planet together into a single global network…could usher in an amazing era of prosperity and innovation”. Networking also is changing the ways by which libraries and museums provide access to information sources and services. In the flat world, libraries and museums are no longer a physical “place” only: they are becoming “virtual destinations”. This paper discusses the implications of this transformation for the digitization and preservation of, and access to, cultural heritage resources

Technology in Second Language Writing: Advances in Composing, Translation, Writing Pedagogy and Data-Driven Learning

This edited volume showcases state-of-the-art research in technological applications in second language writing. It examines multimodal composing, digital feedback, data-driven learning, machine translation, and technological applications in writing pedagogy. Technology in Second Language Writing reflects the rapidly changing field of technology in second language learning and highlights technological advances across different areas relevant to L2 writing. Composed of empirical studies, reviews, and descriptive essays, this book covers a variety of topics across the areas of composing, pedagogy, and writing research. It includes discussion of computer-mediated communication, language learners’ perceptions about using technology in their writing, the use of social media in writing, corpus learning, translation software, and the use of electronic feedback in language classrooms. Offering a multifaceted approach to technology in a wide variety of second language writing contexts, this cutting-edge book serves as essential reading for scholars and postgraduate students in the field of language teaching, applied linguistics, and TESOL

A very brief review of the life and work of neuroscientist, physician, psychoanalyst, inventor, animal rights activist and pioneer in dolphins, isolation tanks and psychedelics John C Lilly 1915-2001.

Lilly was one of the greatest scientists and pioneers on the limits of human possibility but after his death a collective amnesia has descended and he is now almost forgotten. His Wiki is good but inevitably incomplete so here are a few missing details and viewpoints. Lilly was a generation (or more) ahead of his time. He is almost single-handedly responsible for the great interest in dolphins (which led to the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the USA and helped to found the animal rights movement). In 1958 he noted that the brains of elephants and cetaceans were larger than ours, that we should not abuse them and that it was one our most important projects to communicate with them. He invented sensory isolation tanks (at NIMH in 1954) and used them extensively with and without powerful psychoactive drugs at a time when it was thought that either the brain would shut down or one would go insane if external stimuli were eliminated. He created methods for implanting electrodes in mammal brains and was planning to do it to himself. He was one of the first to make serious use of computers in bioscience research and created the hardware and software to make the first attempts to communicate with dolphins. He self experimented with dangerous physiological investigations in high altitude medicine for the military during WW2, took LSD with dolphins and movie stars, submitted himself to the rigors of various forms of yoga and of Arica training, and taught classes at Esalen. He was a computer pioneer who forsaw the rapid advances in A.I. and it's inevitable clash with humans. He was the first one to investigate the bizarre psychedelic ketamine (" vitamin K "), and his results (published in the two last chapters of his book `The Scientist`) are still the best data on the dose/effect relation of any psychedelic on one person. It cured his lifelong daily migraine headaches (see http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/UFOs/Gorightly.htm). And all this happened before most of us were born! He had courage, honesty and integrity that is rare anywhere and almost nonexistent in science. His goal was to find the ultimate truth about everything and he went about as far as anyone ever has. He had little patience with the stupid and hypocritical games one has to play to fit into monkey society. Of course the reaction of the establishment was predictable. He left the NIMH and was never given any government or academic support for the last 35 years of his life. His paper and comments at a conference on sensory deprivation were removed from the published version. He was not invited to government sponsored symposia on dolphins (he had refused to help develop them as weapons), though he clearly knew more about them than anyone in the world. He liked to live and work on the edge and few could keep up with him, as his books make clear. If you have read some of his other books it will be much easier going. He was a pioneer in consciousness research and pushed the boundaries of our understanding of who we are and what we might become. Among other things he catalogs the various states reached by drugs, meditation, and isolation, tries to determine their significance, and suggests how to use them. I very briefly review and comment on his life and work. Those interested in all my writings in their most recent versions may download from this site my e-book ‘Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization Michael Starks (2016)- Articles and Reviews 2006-2016’ by Michael Starks First Ed. 662p (2016). All of my papers and books have now been published in revised versions both in ebooks and in printed books. Talking Monkeys: Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Religion and Politics on a Doomed Planet - Articles and Reviews 2006-2017 (2017) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071HVC7YP. The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle--Articles and Reviews 2006-2016 (2017) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071P1RP1B. Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st century: Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization - Articles and Reviews 2006-2017 (2017) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711R5LG

Reviews

Brian Clegg, Mining The Internet — Information Gathering and Research on the Net, Kogan Page: London, 1999. ISBN: 0–7494–3025–7. Paperback, 147 pages, £9.99

Reviews

The Hutchinson Electronic Encyclopedia, First Electronic Version, Oxford, Random Century and Attica Cybernetics, 1991. ISBN: 1–873472–00–5. Price £99