Nonimmigrant Visa Waiver

Quoting from the Department of  Homeland Security form I-94W given to all non-US citizens arriving in the US: 

" ... are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; ..."  

This is followed by two boxes: Yes and No.  

Reading in England by the Pound

Weak pound affects UK’s access to world-class scholarly publications. So reports Information World Review.  Who knew that currency exchange rates could impact the quality of science done from one nation to the next for the simple reason that libraries can't afford journals? 

Editors and ERB member from outside the UK should offer some help here, don't you think? 

http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2240973/weak-pound-affects-uk-access

Blackboard Loses Ruling

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Blackboard has lost a preliminary ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The office rejected all 57 claims in a software patent that Blackboard Inc. used to successfully sue rival Desire2Learn.

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/04/16097n.htm

Haworth Press and Its Abandoned Domain Name

At one point Haworth Press used the domain name HaworthPressInc.com. This was used by those trying to find articles that appeared in Haworth journals. A few months ago, Haworth failed to renew this domain name and it is now being used by an online casino!

So to all you authors, editors and reviewers that donated your efforts to publishing a Haworth journal - tough luck. Your work has now become a bit harder to find online.

It is surprising to me that a company that is in the business of providing an electronic service could let this happen. And yet....

Advertising and Scientific Publishing

Let's randomly choose an academic article. How about this one:

Sander van Triest, Maurice J. G. Bun, Erik M. van Raaij and Maarten J. A. Vernooij (2009), "The impact of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability," Marketing Letters, Vol 20, Issue 2.

You might notice that Springer is trying to earn some additional revenue using Google's AdSense program.

It is fairly amusing to see that what sorts of ads end up juxtaposed with an academic paper. In this case the moral dilemma bothers me some, but the sheer incongruity is what is notable.