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Rob MacDougall

Two-Fisted Historian

Posts in Category ‘Science!’

Article

The Telectroscope

  • Rob MacDougall,
  • June 2, 2008
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It’s no giant mechanical elephant (what is?), but, yes, the telectroscope is wicked boss keen. Once again, I live in the wrong London.

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  • Filed under: Asides, Science!
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Article

The Social Networks of Squirrels

  • Rob MacDougall,
  • May 29, 2008
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This article’s almost a parody of popular science journalism (the squirrel Kevin Bacon! the squirrel Facebook!) but how can you not love a study of networking squirrels?

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  • Filed under: Asides, Science!, Squirrels
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Article

MONIAC

  • Rob MacDougall,
  • May 29, 2008
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A hydraulic analog computer built in 1949 (from scrounged Lancaster bomber parts) that represents the British economy using gauges, sluices, colored water, and felt tip pens. (Thanks, Jere!)

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  • Filed under: Asides, Science!
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Article

Strange Love

  • Rob MacDougall,
  • May 18, 2008
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P.D. Smith, author of Doomsday Men, on mad scientists and the dream of the superweapon.

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  • Filed under: Asides, Cranks, Science!
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Article

No Volcanoes?

  • Rob MacDougall,
  • February 22, 2008
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Get out your bristol board and rubber cement: it’s time for the  school science fair.

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  • Filed under: Asides, Science!
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About Me

Ahoy-hoy! I am an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada, where I teach United States history and study the history of information and communication. My current research involves the history of pseudoscience and crank invention. I'm using computational methods like text mining and adaptive filtering to trace the circulation of "wrong, bad, or weird" science in 19th-century America. The goal is to draw lessons for our own time about the ways communication networks shape the ideas we have and share.

I am the author of The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) and several book chapters and articles. I also co-designed and directed Tecumseh Lies Here, an augmented reality game that commemorates and critiques the history of the War of 1812. And I co-host a bi-weekly podcast that explores the history and culture of the 1970s and 80s through the lens of the classic sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. I received a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University in 2004.

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