Facebook Query and Markup Language

Did you know FB has a Query Language and Markup Language of its own?

• Facebook Query Language (FQL)
• Facebook Markup Language (FBML)

Just in case anyone’s interested in these for their research. Also to KIV in case I find them useful in future.

Vote Plato!

A very different kind of election is on! Vote your philosopher (past and present) of choice into the (UK) government. Here’s the message from Warwick Alumni’s newsletter:

Warwick Plato expert Dr Angie Hobbs has had an idea for a very different sort of election. Dr Hobbs is asking people to nominate one or more philosophers, past or present, for an alternative UK Cabinet. Your proposals could be serious e.g. Hobbes for Home Secretary or more mischievous e.g. Zeno for Minister for Transport. The idea is both to have some fun and to consider whether any philosophers might actually be/have been any good at such jobs.

QS sacked from The Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Phil Baty, current editor of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and deputy editor of Times Higher Education magazine, confessed that the rankings published for the past six years using data supplied and owned by QS, are not fit for purpose. Baty said QS achieved only a tiny number of respondents to the “peer review” criterion, which made up 40% of a university's score. QS also did not take into account different citation habits between disciplines, thereby greatly handicapping the arts, humanities and social sciences.

THE has therefore ended their contract with QS, and enlisted Thomson Reuters instead. They're also looking at a major (if not complete) overhaul of the methodology to produce the 2010 Rankings, to be published this autumn.

(suspenseful, brooding music)

Hmmmm.

I shall reserve further comments until we see the resultant rankings. ;-)