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2005-08-26 16:18
�1. Parochialisme in the 'bladets, again
It is Shanghai Jaio Tong university's idiotic ("respected") ranking of
world universities:
Cambridge has climbed one place and is now ranked as the world's
second-best university, according to an international league table of
higher education institutions.
The respected Shanghai Jiao Tong lists 11 UK universities in the top
100, including Imperial College London, University College London, and
Edinburgh University. Oxford has slipped two places in the past 12
months and is ranked 10th.
That was the UK's Grauniad, which somehow managed not to notice that
there are countries in the world other than Blighty and the FDRUSA.
Le Monde, whose coverage we saw offline, was no less blinkered, but
those who, like us, are vaguely aware that they have universities
also in Abroad, will be glad to have the full
list (which the 'bladets neglect to point to, of course) and
those who, even liker us, are parochially Yoorpean can get the
local
highlights here.
�2. Dooyeweerd?
No we don't weerd, but we could...
�3. Monday Review of Stuff
Pie! Australian pie!
Australian lunch pie with mash and mushy peas and gravy ("sju").
Not Pie Minister, for
sure, but not at all bad, and - crucially - within convenient lunching
distance.
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2005-08-26 14:42
So homeopathy doesn't work
in the sense that it doesn't outperform placebos in large clinical
trials. But the homeopaths aren't taking that lying down; the Beeb
finds a spokesperson from the Society of Homeopaths to claim or allege
that:
"It has been established beyond doubt and accepted by many
researchers, that the placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial
is not a fitting research tool with which to test homeopathy."
Yes indeedy. Shutting your eyes and saying "I believe in fairies" is
a much better research tool with which to test homeopathy, especially
if you want it to pass.
Apparently there's something we hate more than dirty smelly hippies: it's dirty smelly hippies in white coats claiming simultaneously that they are very scientifically rigorous and that your conception of science is too narrow for their dirty smelly alternative truths.
[Permalink]
2005-08-26 12:18
This time it's GCSEs
(the UK's worthless 16+ exams) in which pupils are neglecting their
nice langwidges:
Modern foreign languages are in danger of becoming an "elite"
subject, head-teachers have warned, after the latest GCSE figures
showed another sharp decline in the numbers taking French and German.
Only 272,140 candidates sat French this year, down 14.4 per cent, and
only 105,288 took GCSE German, a decline of 13.7 per cent, making the
core European languages taught in schools the two subjects decreasing
most rapidly in popularity.
The FT has another article they allege to contain evidence that this
is economically counter-productive, but they want money for it and we
are not in the habit of paying for our news. (We're considering
changing that, though.)
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2005-08-26 09:57
"I said it in Hebrew - I said it in Dutch -
I said it in German and Greek;
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!"
Let's try
again!
Homeopathie werkt niet. Er is geen enkel bewijs dat het gebruik van
sterk verdunde middelen enig effect heeft. Als het magische water
klachten al verlicht, dan is er sprake van een placebo-effect.
Gah! Dutch again! Sorrie, hoor!
[Permalink]
2005-08-25 14:49
It is Gerardus
Mercator, flemish geographeur extraordinaire, and his celebrated
projection:
Another way of formulating these conditions is by saying that the
Mercator projection is the unique conformal chart where parallels and
meridions are represented by orthoganal line and distances are
respected along the equator.
Geometry, M. Berger, p.265 (English trans.)
We always wondered what it was that it was for.
[Permalink]
2005-08-25 13:25
We have demands and we have money!
We demand, in particular, a shiny magazine featuring all the
contestants for this year's League of Champions, with preferred
formations, historical sketches, fascinating tidbits of trivia and
estimations of their chances. And, especially, pictures of their
strips, since we are pledged by a solemn pledge or vow to support only
teams in
bleu. We will - and we do not say so lightly - even buy the
Sunday Times, should it bundle with its extensive and extensively
wretched self such a something.
Also, we have now booked a nice holiday in M�nchen ("Munich") for
Oktober, when the floods will have subsided and the Oktoberfest will
be just a distant memory. We will have sossage and we will have bier,
and we will also see Kultural and Other Stuff in abundance. We will
be flying with Lufthansa from Birmingham, and we will of course keep
you up to date on their gin and tonic policy as events transpire.
[Permalink]
2005-08-25 10:45
It is Michal
Bycko, 52, founder of the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in
Slovakia, where the artiste's parents emigrated from (no, not the
museum, sillyhead!):
While Warhol himself never visited, Bycko insists that the region's
peasant mentality and religious iconography were a profound influence
on his art.
Gosh, what a coincidence! We've never been there either, and it
certainly made a big impression on us!
[Permalink]
2005-08-24 16:09
�1. More sporting tact
It is the Barmy
Army!
England opener Marcus Trescothick, for one, is delighted with the
response of the fans.
"We get it in the neck every time we go and play over in Australia so
it is great to see it over here too," he said. "The crowds have made
the Australians feel very unwelcome and that is great for us."
�2. Discrete Morse theory!
We never actually learned the continuous kind, but never mind; if we
survive this we'll have earned Proper Mathematician status for sure.
�3. Bretons and Rusyns and Sorbs, oh my!
Anyone in the habit of studying micronationalismes is just going to
have to grit their teeth and inflict this week's Timemagazine on
themselves.
Sorrie, hoor, and don't shoot the messenger, for it is we!
[Permalink]
2005-08-24 12:54
And especially two (2) 'bladets! When Malm� FC of Sweden and FC
Thoune ("Tun") clashed, Le Temps
rejoiced:
Thoune jouera contre les grands d'Europe!
[...]
Au coup de sifflet final, les prot�g�s de Sch�nenberger, ivres de
joie, s'attardaient sur la pelouse, baign�s dans une ambiance
indescriptible.
Thoune will play agains the greats of Europe!
[...]
After the final whistle blew, Sch�nenberger's proteges, lingered on
the pitch drunk with joy, soaking in the indescribable atmosphere.
They've qualified for the groop fase, you see.
Le tirage au sort des huit groupes de quatre �quipes se d�roulera
jeudi � Monaco. Il est d�j� permis de r�ver.
The draw to decide the eight (8) groups of four teams will take place
in Monaco on Tuesday, but it's not to soon to dream.
Meanwhile, Aftonbladet has an Extra under the heading:
Men f�r Fan!
For F***'s Sake!
and a collection of articles, such as 'Ni sk�mde ut Sverige ("You're an
embarrassment to Sweden"'):
Det mest sk�mmiga �r kanske att den samling ljusbl� marionetter som
visade upp s� katastrofala brister i teknik, snabbhet och inst�llning
faktiskt fortfarande kan vinna �ven �rets allsvenska.
The most embarrassing thing is maybe that the collection of light-bleu
puppets who showed such catastophic technical weaknesses, speed and
inst�llning still in fact have a chance to win this year's
Swedish championship.
Our thesis, which is ours and which we exhibit other than for the
first time, is that even reputable and internationally
oriented newsbladets (and other meeja) are utterly and militantly
parochial when it comes to sport.
[Permalink]
2005-08-24 10:02
Fire & water must've made you their daughter
You got what it takes to make a poor man's heart break
"Fire and Water" by Free, dammit. Who are Great White anyway?
Si au sud-ouest de l'Europe, le Portugal et l'Espagne sont en proie �
la s�cheresse et aux incendies, � l'est du continent le bilan s'est
alourdi avec 26 morts en Bulgarie et l'annonce de nouvelles pluies
torrentielles dans le nord-ouest, o� Suisse, Autriche et Allemagne
sont en �tat d'alerte.
If in the south-west of Europe, Portugal and Spain are victims of
drought and fires, to the east of the continent the something is
somethinged with 26 deaths in Bulgaria and the announce of further
torrential rain in the north-west, where the Switzyland, Austria and
Germany are in a state of alert.
Never mind that, though: what's the forecast for Trent Bridge
tomorrow? And where's the sn�kaos, eh?
[Permalink]
2005-08-24 21:30
Take me to your native langwidge!
In order to investigate the nature of these very different sorts of knowledge we need to look at the relationship between the producers of knowledge and the source of knowledge, that is, what it is about, and to see them as inextricably interconnected in the social construction of knowledge.
Kath Woodward (inevitably), David Golblatt and Liz McFall, "Changing Times, Changing Knowledge" in Knowledge and the Social Sciences: Theory, Method, Practice, D Goldblatt (Ed.) [Our emphasis]
Everything with Kath Woodward as co-author is as much fun to read as this, and not just occasionally but all the bloody way through. She's co-course chair and much of the course is good, so she must presumably be good at something, but her writing continues to give us the impression she swallowed a whole bag of Jargony Treats shortly before the aeroplane of her prose entered a zone of severe turbulence, with nauseating consequences.
2005-08-23 16:15
Just
for once:
A-level results out on Thursday will show a further
decline in the number of pupils taking foreign languages, particularly
in German, The Independent has learnt.
The trend emerged as business leaders said the drop-off in the number
of students taking science and languages was a national disgrace. Many
candidates are opting for what have been termed "softer" subjects,
such as such as media studies and psychology.
The UK secondary education system is a complete joke, is what we
think, and A-levels have long since ceased to be the solution to a
problem anyone could reasonably claim to have.
But we'd really like to see some hard evidence that studying
langwidges and science would enhance able students's negociating
position in a marketplace based on money rather than the usual
pieties, not least because we have studied both in our time.
[Permalink]
2005-08-23 13:39
Danmark vs
Canananada escalation!
Canada is sending its navy back to the far northern Arctic port of
Churchill after a 30-year absence.
The visit by two warships to the area is the latest move to challenge
rival claims in the Arctic triggered by the threat of melting ice.
The move follows a spat between Canada and Denmark, over an
uninhabited rock called Hans Island in the eastern Arctic region.
We can't improve on the Wikipedia coverage,
for sure (otherwise we could, whereupon we promptly would couldn't again):
On July 27th, the Swedish radio show Morgonpasset of Sveriges Radio's
channel P3 made a series of prank calls to the Danish and Canadian
foreign ministries regarding the dispute. The Danish foreign minister
was reached by M�ns Nilsson, one of the radio show hosts, who
announced that Sweden was also making a claim to the island and that a
bottle of banana liqueur had been buried on the island and that a
statue of famous Swedish TV-personality Lennart Hyland was to be
erected over the spot. A call was also made to the Canadian Foreign
Ministry, where Nilsson with a fake Danish accent claimed to be "the
Danish foreign minister" and a request was made to pass on a message
to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs to cease the conflict and
share the island equally with Denmark.
We'd bet cold hard cash Encarta didn't know that.
[Permalink]
2005-08-23 10:40
�1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
It mostly made us laugh, which is all we asked of it. The HHGttG has
appeared in many forms, although most of them have had the wit to
realise that Trillian and Arthur are a romantic non-starter.
(Hollywood, isn't it?) And while this Arthur is a rubbish actor, the
vogons are good.
�2. The Taming of the Shrew
We saw this outside, in the garden of a stately home in Derbyshire.
It was as much like wandering into a passage from Bourdieu's
Distinction (which we haven't actually read) as watching
Shakespeare: the gardens were open an hour ahead of the start for the
exhibition of picnic-mediated bourgeois one-up-manship. There were
some extraordinary entries, for sure, but we stuck to sossage
samwidges and bottles of bier, which is a dinner fit, after all, for
an Emperor, especially if said Emperor is us.
This is the second time we've seen this play, and the second time
we've seen it played in the open air. We have read it, however none
times, which we need to fix. There are probably some good jokes
(althoug it's hard to tell: as a rule of thumb, if the lumpen
bourgeoisie is tittering, it wasn't a joke) and definitely some
antiquated sexual politics.
�3. Aldi
We went to Aldi with the Dowager Countess, to buy yummy bier and
sossages and other stuff. We were slightly disappointed, compared to
Lidl; Aldi has a great many excellent things, but the packaging tends
to be in the silly Engleesh, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.
[Permalink]
2005-08-22 15:23
So our beloved Cricket and Foopball Club is very definitely down in
the depths of Serie C1/A, where the searchlights of the UK meeja
seldom penetrate. We're reduced, in fact, to scouring Yahoo.it for
our many data. Which directs us in turn to here for
more:
Giovanni Vavassori chiede determinazione ed entusiasmo per misurarsi
in un campionato difficile come quello di C1. Non ha esitato un attimo
prima di decidere di allenare il Genoa, consapevole di ricostruire una
squadra dalle ceneri.
Johnny Vavassori may or may not have urged his squad to keep their
chins up and play the game in these difficult times. Or something.
Sigh. We were planning to learn some nice Italian by
cross-referencing with Engleesh coverages, but now it looks like we'll
have to upgrade our skills just to have a clue what's going on.
Maybe we'll follow the mighty PSV of Eindhoven this season instead,
since the Dutchy-Double-Dutch is currently a more pressing lacuna in
our langwidge portfolio.
[Permalink]
2005-08-22 13:02
He's abrasive and trenchant:
The Pope told the crowds there were dangers in people finding their
own religious routes.
"If it is pushed too far, religion becomes almost a consumer product,"
he said.
"People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit
from it. But religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot
ultimately help us," he said.
Have a biscuit, for once, Pope!
We are currently gearing up to argue that the diversities of modern
"knowledge" (in the sociological sense) are symptoms of the triumph of
liberal ideologi, for sure. Although we have no concrete plans to
adopt the religious attitudes the Pope would prefer it their place, we
would never pass up a chance to abuse dirty, smelly "New-Age"
hippies.
[Permalink]
2005-08-22 10:12
They hate
that!
So do the birds experience emotions at all? "Zoologists would say,
Probably not," said [Marine biologist Gerald] Kooyman, who works for
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "A lot of what looks to us
like love or grief is probably hormonally driven more than some kind
of attachment" to the egg, chick, or partner, he said.
[...]
Instinct, hormones, and the drive to reproduce influence a lot of the
penguin behavior, Kooyman said.
Do you get the feeling or impression, Varied Reader, that Meester
Kooyman doesn't read a great deal of Stephen "Ping-Pong" Pinker and
his Evo-Psycho chums? Admirable though that is, we, for one, are
inclined to suspect that "instinct, hormones and the drive to
reproduce" influence quite a lot of people behaviour also, as well.
Either that or we are in fact a pingouin ourself, maybe.
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