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May 27, 2006
'please don't do this sort of thing ever again'
You can hear the UCEA being told off and apologising for their dodgy reporting of the select committee meeting on the dispute at parliamentlive
You need to click ‘this week’ then ‘wednesday’ then ‘committees’ then ‘listen from start’.
Would be great to have students analyse it.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:21 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2006
pranging out
I’ve been to two top class workshops this week, both on topics which interest philosophers as well as linguists, pragmatists and psycholinguists. Lots of interesting ideas, mixed with the feeling that the interlocutors (it was the kind of context where we use words like that without blinking) weren’t really having the same conversation (explaining exactly what ‘the same conversation’ might mean being exactly the kind of thing we were talking about). As well as the serious ideas, I enjoyed the in-jokes about Quine, Searle, Grice, etc. and the personal anecdotes about some of the big names back in the day. But I think my favourite moment was when one of the philosophers responded to another and illustrated something interesting about full stops by saying, ‘Suppose I say to you: ‘Jeffrey Skilling has committed suicide. He was found guilty on 19 out of 28 counts.’ The other philosopher was shocked and replied , ‘DID he?!!’ I guess the example was so appropriate that he forgot we were in a hypothetical context. (It’s about Enron btw)
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
'a billy at work'
‘You’ve got a Billy at work’ said Harry, when Sylvia said she was going in to work yesterday.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)
'sick of the sight of them'
‘I’m sick of the sight of them, to be honest’ said the nice man who wiped my bike for traces of explosives in advance of Brenda’s visit to the library on Tuesday. After a while the novelty wears off, it seems.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
hey bike boy!
Listening to Perry Haines (no, I didn’t think you’d remember him) performing his one ‘hit’ (that’s ‘hit’ as in 10 of us in Aberdeen liked it) and thinking any bike fans out there will want to know what kind of machine I just signed a credit agreement for. It’s a ridgeback bullit
So far, very nimble - much more zippy than the Trek that was driven through on Wednesday and giving me a much more aerobic ride than I’m used to. Reminds me of what cycling used to be like before I got myself an inappropriate vehicle. Ideally, I’d have liked to get a proper road bike but I need something that will cope with the Parkland Walk, Trent Park and other occasional bits of off-road riding.
Had a nice cycle home on the new machine, ruined slightly by the fight between two girls I tried to stop on the way. They were somewhere around 12 or 13, I’d say, and one was being seriously violent to the other while her friend added the occasional kick. I was in between them telling them to stop but I had obviously managed my trick of becoming completely invisible. A grownup who knew them was there and doing absolutely nothing about it, but then a few others came along and tried to be slightly more effective than me.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 6:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2006
le miserable
Well, I enjoyed the pre-match atmosphere round Highbury yesterday afternoon. 4 hours before kickoff, there were hundreds of Arsenal shirts heading through the ‘tickets only -sold out’ signs on the doors of the pubs, ‘tired and emotional’ youths were making noise on Upper Street, and cars with flags were tooting at them as they went by. I was dropping off Ohna’s computer which those nice Apple people have agreed to fix despite it being past its warranty (actually past its ‘repair extension programme’ but anyway). I stopped for a coffee and came out to find my bike had been driven into (handlebars bent, pedal on floor, crank broken, back derailleur bent). I’d been sitting ten yards away but facing in the wrong direction. Just got the call to confirm that it’s ‘beyond economical repair’. Time to shop around and get into debt again…
B-(
Posted by Billy at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
select committee
Education Guardian - lecturers and employers called to select committee
Mmm, wonder where this is heading….
Among other things, I’m refereeing a journal article and working on a book proposal today, two things that would be struggling for my attention if I had my usual pile of marking to do. I’m trying to make as much use of this time as I can but I’m also hoping the dispute ends soon. I don’t want to be marking through the summer (or later).
There seems to be quite a bit of variation around the country just now. Some universities are getting very nasty - threatening to dock or even stop pay. I’ve also met some people whose departments aren’t going to be affected much. But it does look like most students will not be having their work marked at the moment. So far, I have three assessment boards at two institutions booked as provisional (only happening if the dispute is over in time) and some marking at one institution which will be going on as normal (the union’s position being that we should do any external work but not do anything internal).
In between the work, I nipped down to the bike shop to get lights for the kids’ bikes and enjoyed watching someone test-driving a brompton on Lamb’s Conduit Street (she seemed sceptical but was being persuaded by an enthusiastic pal - I resisted telling her about Erica’s broken arm sustained while pulling a glove on with her teeth while bromptoning). Lamb’s Conduit Street used to be famous for being the only street in London that’s one-way for cars and two-way for bikes (as well as for the water supply, of course). Picked up Apoa’s ‘what I need for food tech tomorrow’ text while I was there and was delighted to see that we already have everything she needs, including, somewhat unexpectedly, a pineapple.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2006
rock it, man
You Tube - William Shatner’s Rocket Man
Trust me,
B-)
(You need to log in, though, and confirm you’re over 18 - who knows what kind of effect it might have on an impressionable mind ;-)
Posted by Billy at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
waste your life
While we’re on the subject of http://youtube.com if you ever fancy wasting the rest of your life just type William Shatner into the search box when you’re there.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2006
the pen and the sword
language log - the geopolitical significance of sentence-final prepositions
Wow. Seems the US army is trying to counter insurgency by running an essay competition.
John Hodgman and Jon Stewart had a lot of fun with it on the Daily Show. John Hodgman points out that:
You can’t fight a war on terror if you’re ending a sentence with a preposition
He also offered this nice bit of rhetorical advice:
First you tell them how you’re going to kill them; then you kill them; then you tell them how you just killed them.
If you feel like entering the essay competition, here’s the info:
CAC Military Review Essay Competition
And here’s a lnk to The Daily Show piece on it on youtube:
youtube - daily show on the essay competition
B-}
Posted by Billy at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2006
enron
Left all in the game in the middle, to make a pear and rhubarb crumble among other things, but came back for the end. The story was fairly predictable but there was some good writing and Ray was on top form swearing away. Could use this programme to explore the various meanings of the ‘c’ word (no, not ‘cool, students).
But the really good film I saw this week was Enron - The Smartest Guys In The Room (yes, folks, that’s irony). An amazing story, very well told. There’s so much you could say about it but a few things particularly intrigued me.
First was to see how they started digging a little hole and ended up digging something big enough for the whole company to fall into, and to drag in Arthur Andersen, a whole pile of banks and the state of California with them. Hadn’t realised they were responsible for the ‘Governator’.
Second, was the connection they made between the Enron traders and the Milgram experiments (where more than 50% of ordinary folks turned out to be willing to electrocute strangers to the point at which they risked death just because a man in a white coat told them to). Funnily enough, I was just recently watching the start of Ghostbusters which was also inspired by Milgram.
Finally, it was that queasy feeling as you’d laughed at the evil idiots** for a couple of hours and were then reminded that it really wasn’t funny at all, particularly when you saw what they did to Californians and to the ordinary employees who were completely shafted by them. As usual, the ordinary folk were left with nothing while the guys who caused the mess were cashing in their millions on the way to their cells.
B-)
**not including the guy whose suicide started the film
Posted by Billy at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2006
all in the game 2
Well, it has some qualities, mainly some of Ray’s ‘colourful’ language, but time for life to go on.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
all in the game
Ray Winstone. always worth watching. And a nice use of Kasabian at the beginning. Might be a laugh. Hope it’s not too good, though. I’ve got other things to do….
The football looked OK in the trailer, although not sure about the final shot. Reminds me of the time we were the crowd for a Comic Strip movie during half time at QPR.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:13 PM | Comments (0)
Warning: meltdown imminent
Just received this from the Guardian:
Welcome to Higher Noon, academic news and opinion, twice weekly from EducationGuardian.co.ukWarning: meltdown imminent
11 May 2006
Latest
Universities face meltdown over pay, says lecturers’ leader
Universities face complete “meltdown” if the lecturers’ pay dispute is not resolved this week, the Association of University Teachers warned employers today.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/specialreports/lecturerspay/story/0,,1772449,00.html
It does look like we might be in for a bumpy ride. I’m still surprised how few people know about this. I’m still trasumatising students who are about to hand in their work and haven’t heard about it yet. A common response when I explain the action is, ‘What, again?!’ It seems many of them thought the strike was one day of action and that was that.
I do hope it’s resolved soon, though.
Posted by Billy at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
May 9, 2006
'I like the flowers...'
Off to lead a woodcraft music session this evening. Just found this interesting discussion about woodies on the Crouch End High Horse
I love it that the poster refers to our nation as ‘Thatcher’s Britain’.
We sing ‘I like the flowers..’ fairly regularly but not the plutonium version.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 3:16 PM | Comments (0)
rural london
Sitting in the park listening to jazz wafting as I work and surrounded by birdsong. Stood 20 yards from a wet and shaggy heron on the way in, then said hello to a man who was walking a very large pony on the patch of grass near Bounds Green Road. Gotta love the rural life.
Meanwhile, the lesser spotted thief has been having a go at my bank account. Seems I got ‘skimmed’ at the weekend.
Had a nice walk in Sussex with Dug on Saturday. Enjoyed the muddy, rainy bits best, although I’m not sure I’d recommend Dug’s outfit - open Birkie sandals and a soft shirt (no raincoat).
B-)
Posted by Billy at 3:03 PM | Comments (0)
sold
It went for 620 squid in the end.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)