Real life

I've been speaking to people who know about consultants and consultancy from working with consultants, from providing consultancy, people who don't spout academic words at me with strings of adjectives connected with 'furthermore', 'however' and 'in addition'. People outside academia don't have to prove everything or show which ideas are grounded in the literature with citations in order to avoid plagarism. They're pragmatic and get on with life, managing what has to be managed. They satisfice, i.e they make do with what's available.

Academia is not allowed to satisfice, but must cover all arguments in logical (and lengthy) detail.

Academia and real life are different worlds.

Foreign academics

Now I realise why Jorge Cham couldn't get into the UK last week - it's something to do with the new system for handling immigrants. But it's ridiculous and embarassing when invited academics can't do lecture tours. The petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/MCvisit/ protests the new regulations.

Useful academic networking site?

Useful networking site? http://www.academia.edu/

It looks nice, & its content could be useful, but there's usually enough information on universities' own sites to find out what you want to know about academics.

I might put myself on, once I work out whether I'm with "The Open University" or "Open University".