Month: August 2011

  • The Robber Barons of Academic Publishing

    Truth from George Monbiot: http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/29/the-lairds-of-learning/ My own particular beef in this area, in addition to all those he has articulated so nicely, is online journal subscriptions. If a university subscribes to a paper journal for 20 years, then quits the subscription, it has an archive of 20 years worth of journals in paper form that…

  • Confessions of A Bad Teacher

    http://www.salon.com/life/education/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/08/29/confessions_of_a_bad_teacher

  • Philosophy Education Sorely Needed

    Alex did a Philosophy and Reason course in Year 11 and 12 that she enjoyed very much, and I have been saying for a while that *all* school students should learn philosophy. Philosophy is, in my opinion, no less important than English, maths and science in preparing students for life. Excellent points made in this…

  • Good stuff from David Friedman

    I’m not an atheist, and I have to admit I have issues with the approaches of some of what P Z Myers (whose stuff I like a lot) calls the ‘gnu atheists’. This blog post from David Friedman is a very nice rebuttal to some of their more simplistic arguments: http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2008/01/atheism-and-religion.html Most of the gnu…

  • So, I guess we’ll stop hearing the gloating about ‘Climategate’ now

    I’m joking, of course: people who don’t care about the truth don’t care about the truth. But here’s some for people who do: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-22/climate-change-scientist-cleared-in-u-s-data-altering-inquiry.html

  • An Aesthetic1

    To me, this is beautiful music. Not rough, tough, scary but beautiful. Clearly there is something about taste that is innate and something learned: as some of you know, ABBA was my gateway drug and it takes some listening to ‘get’ everything that’s going on in this… I’m not sure whether I have a point…

  • This

    We don’t need draconian new laws. We need to chill, and individuals need to take responsibility, but what we’re doing is working: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/death-on-aust-roads-down-22pc-in-5-years/story-e6freonf-1226115243096

  • And, for Mark, a balanced take on the riots

    …which makes pretty much the point he made about the rush to judgement. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/england-aflame-and-everyones-too-quick-to-blame-20110813-1is35.html I guess I need to remember that you’re not all in my head. My biased posts were posted as a counterbalance to bias I’d read elsewhere, and I know both perspectives were needed to make sense. But if you hadn’t been…

  • More good sense on the UK riots

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/london-s-rioters-are-thatcher-s-grandchildren-commentary-by-pankaj-mishra.html

  • Always knew Russell Brand was more than just a pretty face

    Saying some of the things I wanted to say about the UK riots, only better: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/london-riots-davidcameron?CMP=NECNETTXT8187

  • Sense about the stock market

    http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/politics/sorry-to-be-so-sober-but-the-world-is-not-ending-20110809-1iku7.html

  • Why I’m ticking ‘No religion’ on the census

    …despite the fact that I do have confused, confusing, postmodern, nebulous theistic leanings… Basically, there’s no box available for ‘post-Christian’, although that’s probably the most apt description for what I am. I’m in an on-going, multiyear process of thinking through life, the universe and everything: here are a few of the waystations, but there’s lots…

  • Fukishima – Colin Peters brings some truth on Twitter

    I’m sorry, I feel a rant coming on. Fukushima is not “the worst catastrophe in the history of the world.” Unless, possibly, your *only* measure of how catastrophic an event is, is in Bq/m^2 The tsunami on the same day killed more than 15,000 people. Bhopal killed as many or more. The 2004 tsunami killed…

  • Teacher Quality Matters More Than Class Size

    Who knew? http://www.salon.com/life/education/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/08/06/good_school_excerpt (well, I did…)

  • One for Mark Patterson

    From Pharyngula: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/i_guess_im_going_to_have_to_ge.php I’m by no means the gleeful atheist P Z is, but I seem to recall you making the ‘no new DNA’ claim in the fairly recent past.