Philip K. Dick and Heidegger

The science fiction writer Philip K. Dick died in March 1982, but has left a legacy behind that would be the envy of most writers (a lot of people think he is still alive and writing). Although the majority of people come to his work through the many movies that have been made from his stories, such [...]

Wikileaks and secret intelligence on Afghanistan

The massive release by Wikileaks of 90,000 pages of classified material on the war in Afghanistan has once again raised the question not only of how that war is prosecuted–and the details fill in a picture that will need an equally massive effort of discussion–but also of the way in which governments routinely classify and [...]

“So Yahoo hired a professional ontologist…”

This article by Clay Shirky is a good encapsulation of the computer/GIScientist understanding of ontology that is rapidly entering geography and especially mapping and GIS: It is a rich irony that the word “ontology”, which has to do with making clear and explicit statements about entities in a particular domain, has so many conflicting definitions. [...]

OSS and Arthur Robinson

Nice memo by Arthur Robinson, who was Chief of the Map Division in the Research and Analysis (R&A) branch of the OSS during WWII. Usually he signed himself by his full name but I like this one because he used his nickname, Robbie, by which he was well known in later life.

Foucault, archives and the OSS

Foucault wrote on the archives and worked in them extensively. It’s true that there is something different about doing archival work. For one thing, archives vary considerably in such mundane matters as their policies and access, and more importantly how they have arranged and categorised their material. I’ve been working the last three days in [...]