Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

  • Author: Alice Northover

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Friday procrastination: Webby honoree edition

Thank you to our wonderful contributors, staff, and most of all readers. OUPblog is one of nine 2013 Webby honorees in the ‘Blog – Cultural’ category. I can’t tell you how thrilled we are to be alongside the New Yorker’s Page-Turner and Perez Hamilton. And further congratulations to the Oxford Islamic Studies Online team or their Religion & Spirituality Websites nomination and the Oxford Music Online team for their Best Writing (Editorial) honor.

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Friday procrastination: hatchet-man edition

If my grandfather could survive the Siege of Leningrad and still distinguish between a German and a Nazi, then so can I says Polina Aronson. Shakespeare and food. The Sight and Sound Film Poll: An International Tribute to Roger Ebert and His Favorite Films

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Friday procrastination: cool videos edition

Google Plus and academic productivity. Extremely rare triple quasar found. Fitting in with our March Madness: Atlas Edition, Oxford Bibliographies in Geography launched this week. Nonsense botany from Edward Lear. His nonsense language wasn’t bad either. Dead authors can tweet you out of the water. A reminder about Open Culture’s master list.

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Friday procrastination: Rain on the sun edition

OUP author Jason Mittell is understandably proud of his student’s excellent video. March Madness begins. We’ll be starting our own on the OUPblog and OxfordWords, but to start one for the papacy and of course Tournament of Books. American Revolutionary art Internet-ed. And more links for your reading pleasure…

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Friday procrastination: Tumbled edition

Another week, another delayed Friday procrastination. Last week I was rumbled in the demands to tumble — that is, Oxford University Press’s academic division has a shiny new Tumblr. For those of you in publishing and not on Tumblr, the inordinately helpful Rachel Fershleiser gave a presentation on Tumblr tips earlier this week. So without further ado…

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Friday procrastination: Snow leopard edition

It’s Friday once more and I’m holed up in my snow-proof bunker anticipating Nemo — both the storm and the movie. Readers browsing through the damaged library of Holland House in West London, wrecked by a bomb on 22 October 1940. The University of North Carolina’s Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library is publishing one piece of Civil War-era correspondence a day, 150 years to the day after it was written.

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Friday procrastination: mysterious jetsetting edition

Friday procrastination is back! Apologies for the absence loyal followers but this blog editor has been jetsetting, mysterious, and then trapped in an email prison as a result of the mysterious jetsetting. What did I miss? Well here are some things you may have missed:

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Friday procrastination: it’s 2013 edition

People gradually returned to the office this week, but this year in linking goes off with a bang. We have strong showing from Berfrois and Inside Higher Ed to begin. I’m finally getting sick of the 2012 listicles (and I really like those year-end lists). And videos! But first, here’s a picture of some of the books OUPblog received last year despite the fact that we don’t review books on the blog.

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Friday procrastination: winter cold edition

What do you read when struck down with a winter cold? Run back to the classics of Fitzgerald and Spielberg; learn from the ancients and panic about technology; and try not to look at things that make your eyes fall out.

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Friday procrastination: why is it December? edition

What happened to 2012? I checked the book room, those weird spaces between the cubicles, and the inexplicable drawers in conference rooms (why would they have stuff in them in the first place). Here’s a week in (my) reading — a particularly librarianish one too.

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Friday procrastination: milking edition

It’s been an eventful week in Oxford spires (although I write this from the New York office which contains no spires). We had a kerfuffle over the OED and we’re gearing up for the Place of the Year extravaganza next week. So what have we learned in between?

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Friday procrastination: M(o)ustache edition

It’s the close of WOTY week everyone and I’m GIFed out. Welcome new followers! And goodbye to those who quickly OD’ed on Oxford content. You will be missed. First off, it’s Movember, when men around the world sprout moustaches to raise awareness of men’s health issues. Our own Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is presenting a moustachioed man (no women) every day this month on Twitter.

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Friday procrastination: Hurricane Sandy edition

As many of you may have noticed, it’s been a little chaotic in the New York office of Oxford University Press these past two weeks. The MTA and NJTransit have the Flickr streams to prove a photo of a boat on railway tracks is worth a thousand “Service has been suspended until further notice” messages.

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Friday procrastination: energy pod edition

Many moons ago OUPblog had a “Friday Procrastination” series collecting some interesting (and non-Oxford!) reading from around the web. I’m hoping to kick start it again with what I’ve been reading this week. Any further recommendations are welcome.

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The Oxford Companion to the London 2012 Opening Ceremony

Many questioned how the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremony was going to make a mark after the spectacular Beijing Olympics only four years earlier. While Beijing presented the Chinese people moving as one body — dancing, marching, and presenting a united front to the world — the British answer was a chaotic and spirited ceremony, shifting from cricket matches to coordinated dance routines, Mr Bean’s comedic dream to a 100-foot Lord Voldemort.

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