There are so many reasons we don't DO reflective learning. We live in our habits/routines/comfort zone (as as Charles Duhigg points out, habits can be Good things) Time (lack thereof) Energy (exhaustion) It's difficult to reflect. We get little or no training. It's not something we are encouraged to do in school. It's far more... Continue Reading →
Song lyrics and meaning: “Grey Seal” by Bernie Taupin (performed by Elton John)
Got me an ear worm. Heard this on the stepper at t'gym on Sun 18th January. Googled it, read about it, loved it. Lyrics in italics, my version in square brackets. Apparently Taupin says he doesn't know what the song means. I think his unconscious was hard at work... Why's it never light on my... Continue Reading →
Stepper reading: Delayism from IPA, Mann’s “Serengeti Strategy” and “policy dictators”…
So, started with “The Greenhouse Panic” by Dr Brian Tucker, who was a leading player in the CSIRO's climate efforts, and wrote a 1981 book on the “C02 connection”. From his obituary I knew that he'd gone to work for the (libertarian) Institute of Public Affairs. This article,written in mid-1995, (IPA Review, Vol. 48/1) is... Continue Reading →
How to scupper international negotiations #425; remove the “too competent” diplomat
How do you slow down international negotiations that you aren't keen on without being Too Obvious about it? One way is talent-control. Make sure that someone who just might succeed where you want the process to fail is removed... Here's a fascinating interview that I stumbled upon that speaks to just that. It's Professor Jason... Continue Reading →
Do digital natives learn electronically? Or “The Panspectron and the Ivory Tower”
Can information technology help us “in the real world”, as students and scholars? Marc Hudson attends a link-heavy lecture and comes away inspired and a bit overwhelmed. The startling factoids come thick and fast in Professor Derek France’s talk; Over 90 percent of students have a smart phone or mobile device, The average number of... Continue Reading →
On the Stepper: 13th January: Climate reports, Stockholm syndrome and Green Bans
On an "Australian science/politics in the 70s and onwards" binge at mo' (trying to be more systematic in my PhD reading). Garratt, JR, Webb, EK and McCarthy, S. (2011) Charles Henry Brian Priestley. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 57, 349-278. Didn't read all of this, but the bits that relate to his... Continue Reading →
Writing goals Week 2, 2015 (Jan 12th to Jan 18th)
Directly relevant to PhD a) 2500 words on the coming of climate change awareness in Australia (1987 to 1990) – who, how, why; and the response from coal interests. Indirectly relevant to PhD b) 10 “All Our Yesterdays” posts allouryesterdays.net “Don't get it write, get it written.” From week 1: 2500 words on “capsule biographies”... Continue Reading →
On the stepper 11th January 2015: Wind power romance, past warnings, science hacks, climate histories
Trying to form a new habit – typing up what I read “as I go”. And connected to that, giving an account of what I read while on the stepper for 90ish minutes a day (mostly). The habit is not “fully bedded in” as a habit yet, but I refuse to use that as an... Continue Reading →
Let’s airbrush the black people out of the narrative, eh?
It’s easy to spot when the “right” is distorting the past for the purpose of shaping the present and future. It’s easy to denounce their focus on kings and queens and Great Men, and the technologies of innovation that create a “whiggish” narrative of white power (in every sense). It’s easy to get outraged by... Continue Reading →
Writing goals Week 1, 2015 (Jan 5th to Jan 11th)
Directly relevant to PhD 2500 words on “capsule biographies” of lobby groups“proxies” in the (Australian) coal wars - BCA, MCA, ACA (defunct), IPA, CIS, Lavoisier, Galileo etc ACF, TWS, Green Party, Greenpeace, Australia Institute, Climate Institute etc Indirectly relevant to PhD 2500 words on “the Road to Toronto” - state, corporate and public responses to/awareness... Continue Reading →
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