If you want to understand the modern academy, it wouldn't hurt to start at "impact factor." Every year, the company Thomson Reuters assigns every academic journal an "impact factor." Impact factors measure, roughly, how often papers published in one journal are cited by other journals. It is an ecological measurement, in other words.

Apple got some good news Tuesday afternoon, as Judge Denise Cote significantly lightened the proposed injunctive relief the company will face after being found liable in its e-book price fixing trial.