IT has taught us what academia has always known: you often don't know what data will be useful until you've collected a ton of it. Please bear this in mind the next time you're tempted to criticise academics for doing "useless" research.
I just wrote on a student paper "Rowling is not saying the same thing with death-eaters as Tolkien is with orcs," and felt very thankful that I have the kind of job that lets me do this.
Total number of pieces of student work read this semester is now 281. Given my interest in gamification, I'm thinking I should make a badge to award myself when I get to 300.