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NBN Reaction: ZDNet Video

09 April 2009

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Check out this video from ZDNet: Sydneysiders' reactions to the NBN.

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Essay Notes: "Clouds, Clocks, and the Study of Politics" by Gabriel Almond and Stephen Genco

Summer Tablelands Storm by Margarita Georgiadis Almond, G. A. & Genco, S. J. (1977). Clouds, Clocks, and the Study of Politics. World Politics , 29 (4) , 489–522. Written in 1977, this article considers the scientific turn in political science. Traditionally, political science focused on descriptions of political systems, laws, and history. I have discussed Charles Merriam , founder of the "Chicago School" of political science, in an earlier "journal note". Along with Harold Lasswell , Merriam encouraged greater scientific rigour in political science research. Almond was notably a product of the " Chicago School " of political science, earning his PhD in 1938, the year Harold Lasswell left and two years before Merriam retired. The adoption of the scientific method of the hard (or natural) sciences, which had influenced psychology and economics, and, by this time, was influencing political science, is the subject of this article. Almond and Ge

Hesiod's Misogyny (err... Theogony) and his Unhelpful Contribution to Internet Bulletin Boards (Works and Days)

Dance of the Muses on Mount Helicon, 1807 by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) [CC0 1.0] via Wikimedia. Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days are interesting in the context of other classic works and provide an interesting understanding of the genealogy of the ancient Greek gods and the agrarian life of the time. This is a work of poetry translated into prose and there are some issues. The first thing that struck me was the misogyny of Theogony . Women (pp. 20-21) were sent down by Zeus as a curse to men: No fit partners for accursed Poverty, but only for Plenty... a bane for mortal men has high-thundering Zeus created women, conspirators in causing difficulty. The misogyny doesn't stop there. In Works and Days , the mythological Pandora (echoing Eve in Genesis ), releases evil upon the world (p. 39). Not by opening a "box" as Erasmus mistakenly conveyed, but by opening a clay storage jar (p. xiv). La Rochefoucauld's maxims often talk about love a

On Naturalism: Guy de Maupassant and literary cloning of humans

Christ Walking on the Water (circa 1880) by Julius Sergius Von Klever. Public Domain via Wikimedia. In Bel Ami (1885), a similar painting by the fictitious Hungarian painter, Karl Markovitch, plays an important metaphor. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant My rating: 5 of 5 stars In his review of the 2012 movie version of this novel, New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden refers to Georges Duroy as: ...the coldblooded social climber who seduces his way to the top of Gallic society in Guy de Maupassant’s 1885 novel, Bel Ami , is one of the nastiest pieces of work in French literature. Sure, Holden says this so he can point out how lame Robert Pattinson (of Twilight fame, apparently - I wouldn't know, I can't stand teeny-bopper nonsense. Besides, Georges had a moustache, maybe Pattinson was too young to grown one) plays the part of this cold-blooded social climber. Yet Georges reminds me of almost everyone I work with, and everyone around me, including myself. Or at

e-Learning: Putting student choice to the test

© Depositphotos.com / @CandyBoxImages A recent Boston Consulting Group report suggests that, to remain relevant, universities need to tap in to the "evolving educational behaviors and preferences" of the Millennial generation. What appears to be driving this is "the shift in the definition of an expert from only those who have professional or academic credentials to also include peers or close friends [coupled with] this generation’s overall tech savviness”. But does student choice lead to an improvement in graduates’ skills? It’s time we put student choice to the test. Anecdotes abound Endless anecdotes about student expectations dominate the higher education sector. These are then used to determine the strategic direction of universities. The expectations materialise in TV advertisements where professors individually call their students to provide feedback or where students are told they can determine their own learning priorities simply by

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Except where indicated otherwise, Le Flâneur Politique by Dr Michael de Percy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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