Monthly Archives: April 2013

Jenny Mackness has an interesting report on the Learning Theory component of the recently concluded Pedagogy First programme (an online course to learn how to teach online).

Prompted I think by Downes, I decided to look into Keith Devlin’s MOOC on Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. It was nice to see some acknowledgement of the origin of the ‘MOOC’ term with Downes and Siemens, but not so much … Continue reading →

Mehdi Hassan’s claim that “being pro-life doesn’t make me any less of a lefty” is plausible enough, but his attempt to make the case on Twitter (of all places!) was certainly misguided, and while some of the lessons he has learned are good … Continue reading →

This is actually a pretty smarmy retraction by Dr Jeckyl Dawkins of an honest but nasty tweet by Mr Hyde Dick. Mr Dick tweeted (perhaps in response to a recent re-tweet reminding him of his frustration at a three month … Continue reading →

A Sustainable Economy for BC: a Provincial Election Discussion – boardofchange.com. Two thoughts 1. The NDP’s Shane Simpson (called in at the last minute to replace Matt Toner) was sitting between Andrew Wilkinson representing the Liberal party which implemented BC’s … Continue reading →

In his latest post at Discover, Keith Kloor responds to Jerry Coyne’s tweeted blog post headline “Islam Apparently behind Boston bombing” with the complaint that it is an “Islamophobic” response of  “intolerant atheists” who “apparently would blame environmentalism for Ted Kaczynski”. He … Continue reading →

Olivier Roy has been a consultant to the French Foreign Ministry and United Nations, is currently a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, and noted early that al Qaeda was drawing many of its recruits from Western Europe rather than from Saudi … Continue reading →

This discussion in USA Today seems to me more on the mark than earlier speculation that the Chechen connection might make it more difficult to reach consensus on Syria.

During Standoff, Congressman Tweets Global Warming Joke About Boston Bombing Suspect | ThinkProgress. I’m sorry, but even though it’s tasteless, disgusting and anti-science I actually find it funny. (And I don’t even feel too guilty about laughing because it doesn’t … Continue reading →

Part of the appeal of the flaneur is his seediness. The worn but well-starched collar,  the thinning elbows and slightly threadbare lapels of his clean and well-pressed suit, and the carefully polished shine on his ancient shoes. All these speak … Continue reading →

It is in the nature of academic ethicists to test their arguments by pushing to the boundaries of what we consider acceptable (often with an open mind as to whether it is their own arguments or our intuitive limits which … Continue reading →

My brother is left handed and I am averse to unwarranted levels of numerical precision, so perhaps there really is something to this. NCBI ROFL: Left-handed people avoid using exact numbers. : Discoblog. The extension of the effect to “the … Continue reading →

In a comment at 3quarksdaily (on the posting by Robin Varghese  about Jerry Coyne’s response to Glen Greenwald’s criticism of Sam Harris’ attitude to Islam), Abbas Raza objects to Coyne’s and Harris’ claim that those who complain of Islamophobia never define … Continue reading →