Bravus

Month: June 2005

  • Google Earth: ridiculously cool!

    So, Google has released that zoomable world map with satellite photos that we’ve all been waiting for since we read Neal Stephenson’s ‘Snow Crash‘. You’ll need a fast computer and broadband (sorry Lorne!) to make it worthwhile, and it’s not yet available for Mac, but man, it’s cool!

  • Assuming the best

    I’ve always liked the quote, ascribed to Napoleon (among other people), “Never ascribe to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence”. I’d like to add a variation: “Never ascribe to malice what is adequately explained by a different perspective or world view”. I find that, much too often (particularly on the web), people who disagree…

  • Education for whom?

    Lee Shulman, an educator I’ve respected for a long time, and the President of the Carnegie Foundation, presented a talk on methods in educational research to us yesterday morning (including a very cool metaphor involving a pool table!), but the piece that really got my attention was something like this (I noted it down from…

  • Parenting Rocks

    Suzie and I have started a new blog with our musings on marriage, family and parenting. Nothing too complicated or theoretical, just simple, practical ideas that work: Parenting Rocks.

  • Open and Closed Work 2

    Another example was a presentation I saw at a conference recently. They were illustrating the use of a case study of a student teacher and his cooperating teacher discussing how the student’s practice teaching was going. First they illustrated it as a little piece of writing, just on one page – not much description, just…

  • Open and Closed Work

    Try an experiment with me: check out the photos at http://www.parkeharrison.com/main.html (click on ‘Gallery’ at the bottom of the screen) but try really hard not to read the titles of each photo. Try to go through the whole 20 or so photos, just reacting to the photo (spend some time really getting into each) but…

  • Dang

    Still waiting for a response from my hosting service, but it looks like those posts – almost a hundred between March and now – might be lost for good. I need a better backup product for Word Press… Oh well, c’est la vie…

  • The Triple Bottom Line

    This may be an old concept for some of you, but it was new to me and struck me as insightful. The idea is that to make a genuine assessment of pretty much anything, we need to consider the ‘triple bottom line’: what are the costs and benefits from this activity in terms of financial,…

  • The Bush Admnistration’s War on Science

    Don’t like the science? Just change it! (it’s a Salon link, so you’ll have to view an ad to read it if you’re not a subscriber)

  • Workin’

    Lorne wrote: “Great pics!! But I thought this was a “working” trip”. Hey, we’re working – just in very salubrious surroundings! Here’s proof:

  • Palo Alto

    So, still working at the Carnegie Foundation. Rented a mountain bike today, so that should make me a little more mobile – after walking here from the hotel then back again yesterday I was starting to get blisters, so I skipped the serious hike to the top of the hill this afternoon. Here are a…

  • Hmmm

    So, either the server is misconfigured and showing posts from the wrong date, or someone has deleted almost 100 posts, taking me back to March… I really hope it’s the former and will fix itself…