Month: October 2012
Testing
Noah’sRusty’s ArkLooks like the Ark built for Russell Crowe’s forthcoming film about Noah might be about to get flood tested – and fail. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-hurricane-sandy-headed-toward-russell-crowes-noah-ark-20121029,0,5318685.story Side note: guess I’m going for the quirky Hurricane Sandy stories, but I have lots of good friends in the Northeast, not to mention 50 million no-man-is-an-island human beings. Be safe, all.
Everything You Need To Know About Humans
(or, at least, the male of the species) A friend works in the rubber industry, and they got a new powerful guillotine at the workplace because a new test required a fresh clean rubber surface. Naturally, much more than rubber got cut: pretty much everything around the office that could get cut. Including the tip…
While we’re talking hurricanes…
This xkcd may be, if that were possible, even more awesome than usual: The Saga of Epsilon and Zeta
I don’t believe in Gaia theory
… the notion that the biosphere, or even the earth, as a whole can be considered as a single great organism. Some versions of it even credit Gaia with a sort of consciousness. But one could be forgiven for seeing Hurricane Sandy, aka Sandy-Athena, aka Frankenstorm, as a note: Um, no-one mentioned climate change in…
Mez Breeze achieves the impossible
…a thoughtful discussion of trolling: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/10/27/the-problems-with-anonymous-trolls-and-accountability-in-the-digital-age/ Well worth the read, from one of my very favourite poets – and people.
Tender Hooks
Yeah, I know: it’s ‘tenterhooks1‘, and the title is a common erroneous version. Just having fun with it… plus the hooks discussed below aren’t all that pointy… I’m waiting on lots of announcements at the moment: I’ve revised and resubmitted a paper to Research in Science Education (RISE), and should get a final publication decision…
Enz of an Era
Just marking the final set of assignments from UQ, for the last two courses I’m teaching there. Will upload these grades in the next little while, and that’ll be that… the end of an era. I taught there for 6 years, from 2006-2012. There’s one on-going link: my PhD and masters students. I still have…
A Balanced Case For Obama
An editorial from the Denver Post, explaining their decision to endorse Barrack Obama for president: http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_21804862/editorial-barack-obama-president I think it provides a good balanced overview of both men and both campaigns. I’d actually be even tougher on Obama than they are – Guantanamo Bay is still open, the government and agencies have vastly increased powers to…
Zombies, Anti-zombies and Consciousness
I mentioned this paper on Facebook last night, because I’m mildly obsessed with it. Suzie discovered it while working on her Biological Psychology essay on the nature of consciousness1. Thanks to Cassie, here’s a direct link that works: http://oro.open.ac.uk/2191/1/Antizombie_eprint_rev.pdf The article is a bit deep and a bit technical for casual discussion, though, so here’s…
Polls, Gamblers and the US Election
Fascinating discussion of the relative merits of markets and metrics for predicting outcomes. The election context is interesting (and a bit heartening), but almost irrelevant in terms of the interesting stuff about information, stats and predictions. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/oct-23-the-virtues-and-vices-of-election-prediction-markets/#more-36594
Annabel Crabb on Tony Abbott on Women
Thoughtful and perceptive piece, well worth reading. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-24/crabb-tony-abbott-clueless-or-calculated/4331806 As Annabel says, in a way it’s nearly as bad if he does it by accident as if he does it on purpose: “Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks”, Luke 6:45.
Knowing, Learning and Teaching
Dredging up some posts from the deep past, just ‘cos I can, and probably have a different audience now who won’t have seen them before: Knowing, Learning and Teaching 1 – Knowing Knowing, Learning and Teaching 2 – Learning Knowing, Learning and Teaching 2a – Learning Again Knowing, Learning and Teaching 3 – Teaching Hope…
The Two Commandments
In response to some discussion on my Facebook page and elsewhere around the web, as well as the posting of various memes, I was thinking of posting my own Prime Directive – ‘Don’t Be A Dick’. It’s entirely possible to agree with someone without being disagreeable, and IMO getting rude reflects on the character of…
Research Funding Freeze Redux
So, the minibudget came out today, and I guess the news wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Looks like the competitive grant programs’ funding is safe, and the ARC Linkage grant funding round has been opened up for applications, a month or so late. The Linkage program requires applicants to gain some industry…
Rifat Afeef in the Maldives – Deductive Science
I’ve received a couple of unsolicited emails from Rifat Ateef, who claims to have identified serious problems in international education and to be able to offer a solution that will transform education and the social sciences. Rifat’s blog is here and contains a number of writings outlining these ideas. http://www.rifatafeef.blogspot.com.au/ I’m still reading them myself.…
Research Funding Freeze: Sheer Insanity!
The Australian government has placed a freeze on funding for research, for budgetary reasons. Initially it was for both of the major funding bodies, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC), but this morning a further announcement has freed up some or all of the NHMRC funding. I…
We’ve lost something
This post from Cracked is a bit sweary, but fun: http://www.cracked.com/article_19481_the-8-most-wildly-irresponsible-vintage-toys.html I really do think that, in keeping people ‘safe’ we’ve wrapped the world in cotton wool to such an extent that it’s sometimes hard to see its awesomeness. People will rise, or fall, to our expectations – if we treat them like morons who…
16 Ways This Dude Blew His Marriage
…and we get to learn from his mistakes: http://www.danoah.com/2012/10/16-ways-i-blew-my-marriage.html Well worth a read for the married and those who want to be.
Feast or Famine
Apologies for the very feast-or-famine approach of this blog this year – nothing for months on end, then multiple posts each day. I think it partly reflects my mental state – whether UQ is a top university in Australia or not, I was depressed there and now I’m not. The ideas are flowing again…
Stats
I used to use StatTraq as a statistics tool for this blog, but took it off for some reason years ago. Pity – old stats would have been cool! I’ve just added the Jetpack plugin for WordPress, which will give me stats access again as well as a number of other benefits… so expect a…