Comments for The Domain http://cbdomain.wordpress.com An educator, living in Sydney, and blogging therapeutically about his mildly eccentric interests Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:18:14 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on Commenting on ‘Facts and friction of Easter’ (John Dickson, SMH 21/3/2008) by thomasrmhill http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/commenting-on-facts-and-friction-of-easter-john-dickson-smh-2132008/#comment-30 thomasrmhill Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:18:14 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/commenting-on-facts-and-friction-of-easter-john-dickson-smh-2132008/#comment-30 A very interesting read. I stole it from you, many people should read this during the Lenten period. A very interesting read.
I stole it from you, many people should read this during the Lenten period.

]]> Comment on The trip to Caen by Claire http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/the-trip-to-caen/#comment-23 Claire Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:05:02 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/the-trip-to-caen/#comment-23 Noice Blog, Chris! All this fuss about snow! I guess it's nice at first ... and then there's all too much of it. Glad you've had a great time. Love Baire Noice Blog, Chris!

All this fuss about snow! I guess it’s nice at first … and then there’s all too much of it.

Glad you’ve had a great time.

Love
Baire

]]> Comment on Mont St Michel by Mark Gronow http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/mont-st-michel/#comment-22 Mark Gronow Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:26:46 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/mont-st-michel/#comment-22 Enjoying the travel diaries! My brother in law is from Dieppe north of Caen on the coast. If you get there his mother would love to have a visitor from Australia, she spent a few days with us last Christmas and is a lovely lady. Email me if you want her address. Keep warm its in the mid 30s here!! Mark Enjoying the travel diaries! My brother in law is from Dieppe north of Caen on the coast. If you get there his mother would love to have a visitor from Australia, she spent a few days with us last Christmas and is a lovely lady. Email me if you want her address. Keep warm its in the mid 30s here!! Mark

]]> Comment on Versaille.. oh my God by Mark Gronow http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/versaille-oh-my-god/#comment-20 Mark Gronow Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:12:21 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/versaille-oh-my-god/#comment-20 Well if it is any consolation, we caught the train to Versaille only to find that the palace was closed (it was Monday, no one told us Paris closes on Monday!) We did get to walk around the magnificent gardens and toured Marie Antoinette's cottage and personal garden. Well if it is any consolation, we caught the train to Versaille only to find that the palace was closed (it was Monday, no one told us Paris closes on Monday!) We did get to walk around the magnificent gardens and toured Marie Antoinette’s cottage and personal garden.

]]> Comment on A good day, the two of us by Mark Gronow http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/a-good-day-the-two-of-us/#comment-19 Mark Gronow Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:50:48 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/a-good-day-the-two-of-us/#comment-19 Hi Chris and Paula - Don't you just love Paris? Winter or Summer it is a very special place, but visiting cities all over the world is special. Buenos Aires was wonderful, full of colour and excitement - tango dancing in the streets, music and people everywhere. We were there for only a day, but managed to get in a lot. We were in Paris for Bastille Day in 2007, your thoughts on the fireworks reflects ours. The Eiffel Tower looked great, but the fireworks failed to impress, the people were amazing, the stopped their cars and just stood and looked, we were at the Place de la Concorde and the streets were at a standstill. Well we are finally home after our travels, Fraser Island was wonderful and very seductive in its freshwater lakes and magnificent beaches. The marine life was active - dolphins playing of the beach. We certainly have experienced diversity in our wonderful planet! Looking forward to reading the rest of you blog. Cheers and enjoy - Mark Hi Chris and Paula – Don’t you just love Paris? Winter or Summer it is a very special place, but visiting cities all over the world is special. Buenos Aires was wonderful, full of colour and excitement – tango dancing in the streets, music and people everywhere. We were there for only a day, but managed to get in a lot. We were in Paris for Bastille Day in 2007, your thoughts on the fireworks reflects ours. The Eiffel Tower looked great, but the fireworks failed to impress, the people were amazing, the stopped their cars and just stood and looked, we were at the Place de la Concorde and the streets were at a standstill. Well we are finally home after our travels, Fraser Island was wonderful and very seductive in its freshwater lakes and magnificent beaches. The marine life was active – dolphins playing of the beach. We certainly have experienced diversity in our wonderful planet! Looking forward to reading the rest of you blog. Cheers and enjoy – Mark

]]> Comment on links for 2008-08-28 by Morton Thomas http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/links-for-2008-08-28/#comment-12 Morton Thomas Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:39:07 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/links-for-2008-08-28/#comment-12 Yes, they had great ambitions - but that work is fairly old and they didn't have mouse-over pop-up technology then. It is tedious hitting the links and waiting for a new page to open. It doesn't do well for printing out either, but there are plenty of alternatives on the web. One that really fascinated me was Irish author Anne Pigone's "The Dead" reversioning, <a>The Ugly</a>. There are drop down menus provided to compare each paragraph of her text with Joyce's. A pretty amzing one with Yes, they had great ambitions – but that work is fairly old and they didn’t have mouse-over pop-up technology then. It is tedious hitting the links and waiting for a new page to open. It doesn’t do well for printing out either, but there are plenty of alternatives on the web. One that really fascinated me was Irish author Anne Pigone’s “The Dead” reversioning, The Ugly. There are drop down menus provided to compare each paragraph of her text with Joyce’s.

A pretty amzing one with

]]> Comment on Reviewing Mark Treadwell’s Seminars by Jason Kemp http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/reviewing-mark-treadwells-seminars/#comment-11 Jason Kemp Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:23:20 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/reviewing-mark-treadwells-seminars/#comment-11 I also recently saw parts of a similar presentation by Mark. The significance of the material on split brains or similar; was not really made clear. It did seem like a strange tangent to make in the context of what we thought we were all there for. The TED talks format is 18mins. That is the limit that conference speakers are given and most are around this length. There are other shorter 4 or 5 minute snips that aren't really full TED talks. The TED prize talks also go longer as do partner ones. However to criticise Mark for that seems a bit pedantic. I believe there was valuable content provided but without an over arching structure that would help most people to decode it. At the presentation I attended some of the assertions were "over egged" for the purposes of the story. To me that kind of hyperbole is a distraction. Because then you get people arguing about the facts and Marks presentation again got a bit sidetracked on some of that. I wish he had just said. "Here is the book I've written on the subject and presented some of his exec summary - although maybe thats what he did. My short summary - worth further investigation although a quick survey of all his websites shows that an understanding of information architecture is not one of Mark's strong points. I'm going to take these points up directly with him because I think the underlying content is useful - however the presentation format does needs work. I also recently saw parts of a similar presentation by Mark.

The significance of the material on split brains or similar; was not really made clear. It did seem like a strange tangent to make in the context of what we thought we were all there for.

The TED talks format is 18mins. That is the limit that conference speakers are given and most are around this length. There are other shorter 4 or 5 minute snips that aren’t really full TED talks. The TED prize talks also go longer as do partner ones.

However to criticise Mark for that seems a bit pedantic.

I believe there was valuable content provided but without an over arching structure that would help most people to decode it.

At the presentation I attended some of the assertions were “over egged” for the purposes of the story. To me that kind of hyperbole is a distraction.

Because then you get people arguing about the facts and Marks presentation again got a bit sidetracked on some of that.

I wish he had just said. “Here is the book I’ve written on the subject and presented some of his exec summary – although maybe thats what he did.

My short summary – worth further investigation although a quick survey of all his websites shows that an understanding of information architecture is not one of Mark’s strong points.

I’m going to take these points up directly with him because I think the underlying content is useful – however the presentation format does needs work.

]]> Comment on The Pope’s Homily at the closing mass by Mum http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/the-popes-homily-at-the-closing-mass/#comment-3 Mum Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:02:46 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/the-popes-homily-at-the-closing-mass/#comment-3 Yes I think it has been an uplifting week, we went to Mass via the tv this morning rather than get cross at St Stephen's.I am very impressed with the Pope's compassion Love from both Yes I think it has been an uplifting week, we went to Mass via the tv this morning rather than get cross at St Stephen’s.I am very impressed with the Pope’s compassion
Love from both

]]> Comment on Reviewing Mark Treadwell’s Seminars by Peter http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/reviewing-mark-treadwells-seminars/#comment-2 Peter Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:43:00 +0000 http://cbdomain.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/reviewing-mark-treadwells-seminars/#comment-2 I saw his presentation in Canberra and frankly I thought it was disappointing, which was a pity as his main point (that schooling needs to change) is one I agree with.<br/><br/>His presentation was heavy on 'snake oil' particularly his discussion and analysis of the brain. Apparently you can remove one of the brain hemispheres with no intellectual or cognitive impairment at all. All those with minor brain injuries must just be faking it.<br/><br/>His presentation contained a number of factual assertions that were plain wrong or highly exaggerated. (He stated as a fact more than once that TED talks were 17 minutes in length. I have 10 TED talks on my iTouch ranging from 5 minutes for Johnny Lee to over 25 minutes for Bill Clinton). Also, apparently by the end of this year all High Schools in NZ will have 1 gigabyte internet connections. Please excuse my skepticism, even if we define his 'all' as 80%.<br/><br/>His main graph of the 'Upper Limit Theorem' is inconsistent with his source document by Bransen. Bransen show the greatest rate of school improvement took place around 1910. Treadwell indicates it was in the 1600th century, with practically no improvement in the last 200 years. However I will concede that a brief review of Bransen's published papers in this area seems to lack rigor as well.<br/><br/>Maybe I was expecting too much from the day. <br/><br/>Probably the best summary of the day came towards the end when a person near me was reflecting on the amount of passive sitting involved in the day. "It's like I am on an airplane ..... If this was a plane I would be in Singapore now" I saw his presentation in Canberra and frankly I thought it was disappointing, which was a pity as his main point (that schooling needs to change) is one I agree with.

His presentation was heavy on ’snake oil’ particularly his discussion and analysis of the brain. Apparently you can remove one of the brain hemispheres with no intellectual or cognitive impairment at all. All those with minor brain injuries must just be faking it.

His presentation contained a number of factual assertions that were plain wrong or highly exaggerated. (He stated as a fact more than once that TED talks were 17 minutes in length. I have 10 TED talks on my iTouch ranging from 5 minutes for Johnny Lee to over 25 minutes for Bill Clinton). Also, apparently by the end of this year all High Schools in NZ will have 1 gigabyte internet connections. Please excuse my skepticism, even if we define his ‘all’ as 80%.

His main graph of the ‘Upper Limit Theorem’ is inconsistent with his source document by Bransen. Bransen show the greatest rate of school improvement took place around 1910. Treadwell indicates it was in the 1600th century, with practically no improvement in the last 200 years. However I will concede that a brief review of Bransen’s published papers in this area seems to lack rigor as well.

Maybe I was expecting too much from the day.

Probably the best summary of the day came towards the end when a person near me was reflecting on the amount of passive sitting involved in the day. “It’s like I am on an airplane ….. If this was a plane I would be in Singapore now”

]]>