> This is worse than 1984. In Oceania, one at least knew where the cameras were and could at-least try to avoid them.

Have you read 1984 recently? A huge part of the plot revolves around the protagonist thinking he was safe when he was in fact being watched on camera the entire time.

That looks like it just heats and sculpts wax, rather than extruding it. Quite a different thing.

What sort of "ownership" are you talking about other than copyright and patents? If the copyright stays with the author [or publisher] (which you and I agree on), and the work is not patented, I don't see any other recognizable ownership of "intellectual property" on the work that can transfer to the institution. Since it's published it's obviously not trade secret, and I trademarks doesn't seem applicable.

Can you explain what this mysterious non-copyright, non-patent, non-trademark, and non-trade-secret "IP" that the institution owns is?

This is usually the case with patents, but I've never heard of an academic institution claiming an ownership interest in employees' copyrights or having contract clauses about what sort of copyright license is allowable.

I recently read When God Talks Back by T.M. Luhrmann, and she talks about this. She's a (non-religious) anthropologist who spend several years attending and participating in charismatic evangelical churches to try to understand what makes these sorts of religious people tick, and it's fascinating. While some of them are legitimately crazy, she concludes that most of them are not--they are ordinary thoughtful people who do question and examine their faith, and conclude that it holds up.

I highly recommend it.

Perhaps you've forgotten that Microsoft backed HD-DVD against Blu-Ray.

The OED things irregardless is a word. It has a citation (from a dictionary!) from 1912, so apparently dictionaries thought it was a word more than a hundred years ago.

It's in the OED, too, with references dating back to 1912.

The OED is The Dictionary.

They're asking for £360,000 (~ $580,000) on Kickstarter, a target I very much doubt they'll meet. Feeling a little greedy, are we?

One of my favorite things about the library at the university where I did my undergrad was that the shelves where they sorted books that had been returned before placing them back where they went were out in the open. Any given day I could walk by and browse through a couple thousand books that had been returned that day or the day before--a snapshot of books on every topic that people thought were worth reading (or, at least, worth checking out).

I think there's a lot of value in "transparent" libraries.

It's Forbes. It's designed for rich old people with poor eyesight.