The first road map? A Stanford University computer helps peice together a 1,186 bit jigsaw puzzle that was once a massive stone map of Rome.

This article depresses the hell out of me, bluntly explaining the nature and state of the humanities Ph.D. Here's an exciting career opportunity you won't see in the classified ads. For the first six to 10 years, it pays less than $20,000 and demands superhuman levels of commitment in a Dickensian environment. Forget about marriage, a mortgage, or even Thanksgiving dinners, as the focus of your entire life narrows to the production, to exacting specifications, of a 300-page document less than a dozen people will read. Then it's time for advancement: Apply to 50 far-flung, undesirable locations, with a 30 to 40 percent chance of being offered any position at all. You may end up living 100 miles from your spouse and commuting to three different work locations a week. You may end up $50,000 in debt, with no health insurance, feeding your kids with food stamps. If you are the luckiest out of every five entrants, you may win the profession's ultimate prize: A comfortable middle-class job, for the rest of your life, with summers off.

Yikes, well, there is some truth there. I've just broken through the adjunct ceiling (I prefer "lecturer"; it sounds more dignified) into tenure-track nirvana, but so much of this is true. Yet those who opt for the academic life are rarified souls, dedicated to a different life, and are very often willing to give up much to live the life of books and thought. Yes, the debt is appalling, but as an adjunct at two colleges I managed to earn a pretty high wage with benefits. Yes, writing the dissertation was a bear, but in the four years since I acquired the doctorate I published it as a book. And I always remind myself, as I look at same-aged friends who decided on other careers and are materially better off then me, that I am being paid to read, research, think, and talk about a subject I adore; I rarely pay for my books any more and never pay for trips to conferences; I have a group of people who deliberately take my classes because they enjoy my presentation and are genuinely interested in what I have to say. So, while the toils are great, the reward is greater. For me.

Don't go to the bathroom after dark. You are waking up the neighbors.