Category Archives: Technology

New Podcast: Lisa Rumiel Examines the Environmental Activism of Rosalie Bertell

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Rumiel-History-Matters-talk.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHistorian Lisa Rumiel recently presented a talk entitled “Three Mile Island to Bhopal: the Life and Work of Environmental Activist Rosalie Bertell” in front of an engaged audience at Toronto’s Parkdale library.  Bertell, who has a PhD in biometrics, has long spoken out about the environmental consequences of nuclear power. Rumiel’s talk is available… Read more »

What will the future history of today look like? Digital literacy for the next generation.

Ian Milligan argues that we will need to make dramatic changes to history undergraduate curriculums by aggressively implementing digital literacy programmes. This will benefit both our students and the historical profession.

(Re)imaging 9/11: A Reflection on Photographic Representation and the Politics of Memory

“Let the atrocious images haunt us. Even if they are only tokens, and cannot possibly encompass most of the reality to which they refer, they still perform a vital function. The images say: This is what human beings are capable of doing—may volunteer to do, enthusiastically, self- righteously. Don’t forget.” – Susan Sontag This week marks the tenth anniversary of… Read more »

What Do You Want to Know (about history)? Wolfram Alpha and the Computational Knowledge Engine.

Wolfram Alpha lets users interact with over 10 trillion pieces of information curated by a large research team. You just type in what you want to know, the engine tries to figure out what you’re asking it, and you’re presented with a remarkable array of information (as well as ways to refine your subsequent searches). This has tremendous historical applications, both for teaching and for historical research.

Writing Digital History

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As of December 2010, I have been engaged in a digital history project for the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) in New York. The project is a web history being created to coincide with the centennial of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) in 2013. The goal of the project is to create what essentially amounts to an online documentary that describes the history… Read more »

Like history? There’s an app for that

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I recently purchased an Apple iPhone, so that means I now enjoy texting, web browsing on the go and, of course, a higher monthly cell phone bill.  But I’m also able to use a number of great apps that relate to history. An app (short for “application”) is essentially a computer program for a smartphone.  Apps are often created by third-party developers… Read more »

The Rise and Fall of Ideas: Having fun with Google N-Grams

We need to make sense of large quantities of information in order to do ‘big history’ and provide a context into which we can write our smaller studies. In this post, I’ll tell you what an ngram is, show some cool pictures, and hopefully drive you to have some fun with this.

Stewart Brand and the Nuclear Renaissance that Should Not Be

By Lisa Rumiel Note: Again, the author would like to thank Linda Richards for her helpful comments and suggestions in preparing this article. It is time to stop claiming that a nuclear renaissance is the solution to the current environmental crisis.  I’m talking to you, Stewart Brand.  A sort of Nostradamus of technological and environmental thought, Brand is one of… Read more »