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Arlo still has it…
To Manchester, to see Arlo Guthrie perform. Arlo is a girlhood hero of ‘er indoors, and a favourite of mine. He rarely makes it to these shores – the last time we saw him was 1988- so this was a must-see for us.He was great. Backed by son Abe and grandson (!) plus an excellent…
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The Devine Harriet
One of the pleasures of being a toiler in the groves of academe is that you get to work alongside some truly remarkable people. One such is my colleague Harriet Devine. Harriet’s academic reputation rests on her work on eighteenth and nineteenth century authors. She is a highly respected academic in her field, but has…
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Celeb mania
Our local paper, The Lytham St Annes Express – and I’m not providing a link because it’s such a useless publication – recently saw fit to splash a large photo of Abi Titmuss on the front page. The reason was, apparently, that she might – note the conditional – make a visit to Lytham. The…
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Slow progress on plastic bags
Guardian Unlimited Business | | Tesco offers carrot to reduce use of plastic carrier bags Tesco are trying to present themselves as all eco-friendly by this move – but their “biodegradable” bags will still take years to degrade in the landfill sites where they will end up. I really can’t see why Tesco in Ireland…
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Plagiarism pays
This confirms my worst fears about the plagiarism epidemic. It’s drearily predictable that the person whose conscience is entirely clear as she makes up to £1000 a week writing essays for students to pass off as their own is a lawyer by trade.Bring back exams! Actually, that is happening, at several HEIs of my acquaintance.…
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Benchmarking functionalities….
BBC – Berkshire – voices2005 – Management-speakThanks to Anglepoise for this collection of appallingly mangled English. It’s a kind of Black Museum of the worst offenders.
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Little Things I loathe No 2
I’ve changed the title of this thread – “Little things for which I have an irrational loathing” is clumsy, and also, I’ve decided, inaccurate. Contemplating these loathsome things, I came to the conclusion that my loathing was not irrational, but actually entirely justifiable and correct, and that anyone who disagreed with me was wrong. Hence…
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Not amuth’d
EducationGuardian.co.uk | comment | We are not amuth’dHere’s a lovely piece by the always entertaining John Sutherland. It is distressing that so much unintelligible gibberish gets passed off as learned criticism these days. I always pass on to students the words of Nobel-winning scientist Peter Medawar:“No-one who sincerely believes he has something important to say…
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The cheating epidemic
Telegraph | Education | I cheat us all by doing my pupils’ workMost people who work in education are aware of the situation described here. It’s now reaching epidemic proportions. I’m coming across more and more undergraduates with apparently good A levels who flounder hopelessly when asked to take part in any kind of academic…
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History matters
The Observer | Review | The future’s in the pastHere’s a marvellous piece by the ridiculously multi-talented Stephen Fry on the importance of History. Should be compulsory reading for all with any influence on education policy.