This Premiership Thing is Easy

I could easily get used to this.

robot showbot

B-Boy Stance By Freestylers

Get in Line Latecomers!

Business Week has a story about how Business Schools are changing their curriculums to make them more applicable to the real world, and to incorporate the latest research into students learning. The story concentrates on Marshall at the University of Southern California and includes this description of it's new curriculum:

Instead of a typical core curriculum design, Marshall's four first-year terms will be broken down by theme, with a cross-functional group of faculty managing each. The first will communicate the "language of business;" the second will deal with "understanding money, customers, and employees;" the third "managing and integrating operations;" and finally, in quarter four, "achieving global perspective." Each piece will fit into that quarter's theme -- an attempt to integrate multiple frameworks to solve global business problems.

In year two, students will study within one or more of Marshall's 11 research centers. Tied to a student's concentration, the centers are independently funded organizations designed to establish a connection among faculty research, industry needs and realities, and classroom teaching. They're designed to give second-year students exposure to cutting-edge research that will enhance their studies and arm them with the most up-to-date skills in their field of choice.

The first year program looks interesting, I'd like to see how that pans out and if it creates more integrated business leaders. The second looks a little more familiar. It's exactly what Wisconsin has been doing for several years now. The A.C. Nielsen Center in particular has been following this course since the early 1990's.

It's important that the school is on the vanguard of the new wave of business education, but it's also important that it makes sure it gets the credit it deserves for doing so if it wants to attract the highest calibre applicants in the future. I hope it does so.

Read My Blog

This is Just Creepy

Kieran Healy thinks she's drunk. I really have to agree. Katherine Harris's performance on Hannity and Coombes is just plain bizarre. Maybe she just finds Sean Hannity incredibly attractive and wants to have his uber-conservative baby? Check it out here or just stay here and enjoy the sight of Seanies lovely mug.

Update: I linked to the site (crooks and liars) rather than directly to the video as it looks like the video is exceedingly popular. I can't imagine why, maybe it's the same emotion that makes people stare at car wrecks.

Babies and Evolution

Newsweek and Time have two particularly interesting scientific articles this week. Newsweek's is about studies being done into how babies think. It turns out they think much more than we originally imagined, and that they have a lot of skills, particularly concerning face recognition and attention to detail, that are lost at later ages.

Time's story is about the teaching of evolution. One of the stranger things about coming to the United States is that this is even a discussion. In the UK evolution is taught in biology class pretty much the same way that gravity is taught in physics, or photosynthesis is taught in chemistry. It. Just. Is. The earth revolves around the sun. Nothing can go faster than the speed of light. All life evolved from common ancestors. Now it turns out 20 states are considering laws that would question the teaching of evolution in schools. At the same time a recent Harris poll says that 54% of American's don't believe that human's evolved from an earlier species. This is up from 46% in a similar study performed by Harris eleven years ago. Does this mean that American's are becoming more ignorant, or does it mean they are more willing to question scientific dogma. I have my opinions, I'll leave you to make up your own minds.

Statistically however what this means is that if you pick someone at random in the street, they are more likely to believe their ancestors were created as human than that they evolved into humans. To go further, the chances of randomly picking two people who both believe that the theory of evolution applies to human is about 1 in 5. Keep that in mind if you're on a bus and the stranger next to you asks you how you feel about that Intelligent Design vs. Evolution debate.

Packed

We have everything packed in the house in anticipation for the big move on Friday. There are two huge piles of stuff in the basement. That which is going to Madison, and that which is going to storage in Indiana with Lindsey's parents. There was another pile called Trash, but it's gone now. I'd include a photo on here but the camera dock is not here. It's packed you see. If you'd been paying attention you'd have probably guessed that already. Lindsey is taking the kids to her parents tomorrow and returning with her Dad on Thursday as he is more useful for helping to transfer the large items we own into the U-Haul we are renting than two toddlers.

The only things that aren't packed are the things that are considered essential for me over those two days. Food, Water, Clothing, Laptop, Internet Connection.

This may sound a little sadistic but I'm kind of interested in seeing how the kids react when they wake up, come downstairs and see everything (including their toys) has disappeared. Like an evil Santa Claus visited from a parallel universe. He probably had a black mustache and beard, and an eyepatch.

Monday

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This Week I Am Listening To...

Summer of Protest by The Dears. There you go Fatrobot, some Canadians. The Dears are so good they make up for Barenaked Ladies, Rush, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morrisette, and Anne Murray. Not Celine Dion though. Nothing will ever make up for Celine Dion.

This is the summer of protest
That they can never defuse
Force is a language they understand
And force we will use
And force we will use
And force we will use

This is the summer of protest
Of every dollar that kills
Run straight for the underground
Run straight for the hills
Run straight for the hills
Run straight for the hills

This is the summer of protest

Start of a revolution
Revolution for fools
Revolution for fools
Revolution for fools

Last Football Match in Cincinnati

Well that didn't quite go as planned.

We lost 3-0 and I was sent off 2/3rds of the way through the first half.

I don't get sent off (or even booked) very often. But when I do it always seems to follow the same pattern.

1. The game is a little acrimonous.
   
2. The referee is losing control and needs to make a stand.
   
3. The referee gives me a yellow card for a foul that usually wouldn't deserve one.
4. I say something I shouldn't to the referee, just two or three words, but none of which repeatable in front of children.
5. Hey presto, red card.

All in all a little disappointing, must learn to count to ten when I get angry or something like that.