Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Ohm are on their way to to a physics convention when they get pulled over. The cop says to Heisenberg, who is driving "Do you know how fast you were going?" "No," says Heisenberg, "but I know exactly where I am." The cop says "You were doing 60 in a 40 zone."... Continue Reading →
Reef madness; suppressing bad news is nothing new. #Australia and #climate silence
Unless you've been in a coma on Mars, you'll have spotted that the Australian Government strong-armed UNESCO recently. They did this to keep the inconvenient-to-tourism fact that significant chunks of the Greater Barrier Reef is suffering coral bleaching out of a report on climate change and World Heritage sites. In yet another example of the... Continue Reading →
Punctuated Equilibrium Theory – a pet peeve about graphics
So there are lovely images of Advocacy Coalition Framework and Multiple Streams Approach (Basic version and with more recent modifications But none that I have found for Punctuated Equilibrium. Someone who knows what they are doing should do something about that gap. Meanwhile, this. Comments very welcome (rude is fine - I dish it... Continue Reading →
From “The Wire” to “Heresthetics” – the game is rigged….
The game is rigged, you feel me? (At this point the wife will point out that I am not, in actual fact, a black man from B'more... Sorry "Baltimore"). Anyway, back to game rigging- the word for the day is "Heresthetics" William Riker was one of the leading scholars "positive political theory," or the Rational... Continue Reading →
The Smugosphere – an academic citation
So, I have been writing cynically about the "smugosphere" - that place where normal rules of performance assessment to not apply because people are Doing Good For The Cause. And I just kind of stumbled on a very very interesting paper by one Wolfgang Seibel; Seibel, W. 1996. Successful Failure: An Alternative View on Organizational... Continue Reading →
Nothing like the sun – of (macho) theory and parsimony
"...An explanation becomes more parsimonious than another when it uses a smaller number of explanatory variable while explaining at least as much as its opponent. For example, it is more parsimonious to model the solar system as heliocentric than terracentric, because the former uses far simpler mathematics to account for at least as many planetary... Continue Reading →
Why we are toast: Aussie Corporate perspectives on #climate innovation
Mikler, J and Harrison, N. 2013. Climate Innovation: Australian Corporate Perspectives on the Role of Government. Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 59, (3), pp.414-428. Nothing I have learnt in the last two years of reading a lot (no, even by my OCD*-ish standards) has so much as grazed - let alone dented -... Continue Reading →
“Hormetic consolidation” – Marc’s bid for immortality
So, you adopt just enough of the opposing coalition's rhetoric and even one or two of their trivial policy recommendations (from what the ACF crowd would call the secondary aspects'). And this makes you look reasonable, and the opponents look churlish if they don't applaud your reasonableness. And either way it (probably) takes some wind... Continue Reading →
Bristol and public policy geek-out-ery
Lovely 24-ish hours in Bristol, seeing my sainted aunt, and then my oldest UK-friend, whom I have known since 1997. Lots of good beer, good pizza, good conversation. #Aintnosintobegladyourealive Meanwhile, on the journeys to and from and in-between, I read a bunch of policy papers, and have come up with more terms for the ever-expanding... Continue Reading →
Encouraging words and help from senior academic
Bless the internet for enabling rapid free communication with clued-up people around the world (as someone just old enough to remember having to send letters to people and getting (with luck) a reply two or three weeks later, this is an under-noticed improvement in our lives. I contacted a very senior (and also interesting -... Continue Reading →
