Road accident. Many casualties…
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Author Archive | Ian Robinson
Kansas board of education shoots itself in the head
The Kansas board of education voted 6-4 today to adopt rewritten science proposals that mandate kids in Kansas are taught lies about how life on Earth evolves. Evolution is a fact. If that pisses off some fundamentalist christians whose faith is so weak that they can’t accept reality then tough. More details at pharyngula.org.
In better news all 8 of the board members who introduced a statement about “intelligent design” into the curriculum in Dover, Pa. have lost their seats in the recent elections. That case went to court and the Judge will rule in January whether it violated the US constitution separation of church and state clause. On the evidence presented it should be a major defeat for the ID movement. Once that happens then those kooks in Kansas should get sued big time.
Update: More info at New Scientist.
The Water Margin
I really loved the Japanese television adaptation of the traditional Chinese stories of the Outlaws of the Marsh at Liang Shan Po. Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon! 🙂 Completely by accident I had the TV on the new UK ITV4 station last saturday and what was just starting? Yep. Episode 1 of The Water Margin in all its grainy glory. No digital enhancement done on this. Doesn’t need it. It’s a wonderful story. Think I might have to invest in the DVDs.
“The Water Margin – Complete” (Fremantle Home Entertainment)
I used to have the 7-inch vinyl of the theme song with an English version on one side and a Japanese or Chinese version on the other. Don’t know where it is now though. Must see if i can track a copy down somewhere. If anyone reading this has a copy let me know.
More on Aerial
I’ve been listening to Aerial almost continuously since I got it yesterday. For about 80% of the time I’ve been playing the 2nd disk, A Sky of Honey. It’s brilliant. The singling is incredible. I’ve said it before, but what a voice. The instrumentation and arrangements are good as well. Who said concept albums were dead? good to hear Rolf Harris on there as well. Still have to get into the A Sea of Honey disk but that’s okay. It’ll be like getting another new Kate Bush album next week when I listen to that in detail.
I’m really happy. After 12 years this could have been a disaster, but it’s not. It’s bloody marvelous 🙂
Good Podcasts
Here are some Podcasts that I listen to regularly:
In Our Time (Melvyn Bragg – BBC Radio 4)
And this new one which has just started, and is therefore on probation:
Open University to deploy Moodle
This looks good. The Open University is to deploy Moodle to host its online learning environment. Hopefully, as this is open source, it’ll be platform agnostic and will work fully with Macintosh, and Linux, clients. Press release here.
Doing Presentations? Keep it simple!
I’m a great fan of minimalist slides when doing presentations. Just found a really nice weblog that covers this area called Presentation Zen. Lots of good advice and links.
Aerial – Kate Bush
Well. It’s finally here. Aerial from Kate Bush. Picked up a copy in Tesco at lunchtime. When I was going through the express checkouts one of the till operators and few checkouts away saw my copy and said to one of her colleagues, “That new Kate Bush CD has sold loads this morning”. So thats all good then. I haven’t really had a chance to listen to it from start to finish yet.
It’s split over two CDs. The first is called A Sea of Honey and the second is called A Sky of Honey. I have listened to the second disk more, both in the car and at home tonight. I really like it. There is a track called Sunset that is very, very good indeed. And Nocturn is also excellent. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about this over the next while, but first impressions are good 🙂
Periodic Tales
The BBC has a series of short audio pieces, from BBC Radio 4, about 10 different elements from the Periodic Table. Good stuff. You can listen to them here. The Tom Lehrer elements song is on the iTMS here.
Video Interview with Bill Gates
This is actually from September of this year but I’ve just found it. Interesting MSDN Channel 9 video interview with Bill Gates. He has some interesting things to say. The comparison of software development and biology as two hot areas for geeks is something I’d agree with.