Eventyr

links for 2010-04-14

• Report on the Anti-Cuts Campaign at the University of Sussex
  (tags: academia protest Sussex)

links for 2010-02-17

• Kevin Rudd On Why Young Women Should Be Having Babies
  "At that point one of my friends introduced me, dropping in that I am completing a PhD. At this, Rudd rolled his eyes and in a terse voice lacking any sense of irony remarked that is the "excuse" that "all" young women are using nowadays to avoid starting families. Since then I've come up with numerous one-line retorts, but in the moment I just froze in shock."
  (tags: education women gender academia)

links for 2010-01-15

• BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Clever rooks repeat ancient fable
  "The crow and the pitcher fable was used by Aesop to illustrate that necessity is the mother of invention. But until now, the morality tale was not thought to have a grounding in fact. To investigate further, a team from the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) presented four captive rooks with a set-up analogous to the fable. "
  (tags: science research)

links for 2009-12-01

• Times Higher Education - Sussex’s future: fewer staff, more students
  '' ''The university is consulting on plans to cut 115 jobs, tempered by about 20 “potential redeployment opportunities”, from the end of July 2010. ... As staffing is reduced, the number of students will rise. ... “Overall, the university will be growing its student numbers, with no plans to reduce total student numbers across our schools,” Professor Farthing writes. “Indeed, in many areas we are planning significant growth in the number of international and postgraduate students.”''

  So much fun at Sussex University at the moment (40% of faculty in the Informatics department, one of many departments hit, expected to be made redundant in March). I'm feeling very sorry for any incoming students, as quality of experience cannot help but suffer!

  
  
  (tags: Sussex university academia Teaching)
  
  

links for 2009-10-28

• Volunteers flock to help cut council costs | Society | The Guardian
  Glad this scheme is becoming so popular.
  (tags: environment)
• Study: Your Brain Thinks Money Is A Drug : NPR
  'As far as your brain's concerned, money can act as a substitute for social acceptance, reducing social discomfort and, by extension, physical discomfort and even pain. Researcher Xinyue Zhou, of the department of psychology at Sun Yat-Sen University in China, puts it in very human terms. "We think money works as a substitute for another pain buffer — love." Past research has shown that a social relationship can make things hurt less. "If you dip your hand in hot water, if someone is standing there beside you, then you feel less pain," Zhou says. "That was a classic experiment."'
  (tags: research money)

links for 2009-09-30

• David Mitchell: Pointless studies are the key to evolution [The Observer]
  "What separates us from the beasts, apart from fire, laughter, depression and guilt about killing the odd beast, is our curiosity. We've advanced as a species because we've wanted to find things out, regardless of whether we thought it useful. We looked at the sky and wondered what was going on – that's why, for better or worse, we've got DVD players, ventilators, nuclear weapons, global warming, poetry and cheese string. And it's for better, by the way."
  (tags: humour education research academia Funding)