Some random important stuff:
I had no idea the way I tie my ties was called four in hand… I might try tying the other ways shown here too, just for fun. But once your dad teaches you how to tie a tie and you remember that method, that’s probably the method you use your whole life.
Month: July 2009
The Pigs Are Out of the Barn
Amazon yanks bought copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from customers’ Kindles due to publisher’s demands: LINK
So, you know that snooty question from the douches that think they’re too hi-tech for dead tree media? The one about what’s so different about printed books and e-books? I guess the difference is that book stores don’t come around to your house and steal back the books you bought unannounced (but reimburse you).
Hack Boy
I finally found a use for my 10 year old screaming 333MHz G3 iBook!
I never threw it away because I was too fond of it, and what a great bit of luck – this is the best baby computer, ever! It’s built like a tank and so far still operates normally even though Max abuses it with great abandon…
Jobless PhDs
This article was making the rounds a while ago, but I forgot to link to it: The Case for Working With Your Hands
There are a huge number of people who can’t use their education in a useful or sustainable manner, and unfortunately, many of them can’t do anything with their hands, either. I don’t really know of a country where this isn’t true.
MJ
Okay, if you’re a normal person, you had enough of Michael Jackson news approximately 2.4 hours after his death. It took me considerable time to ignore every single headline with his name in it the past week, but I ended up reading one article and it turned out to be fascinating: LINK
That is all.
Open to all
If you are using Facebook, you really need to read this: Messages to Become Public by Default
Plagiarism in Thai Universities
I stumbled upon an excellent article on plagiarism over at Inside Higher Ed: LINK
Plagiarism is such a deeply rooted and widespread problem in Thailand, I think it deserves its own course for first year students. Most students understand that it’s bad for some reason, but their attitude is basically that they can’t do the work without plagiarizing.
Interestingly enough, most Thai students will immediately admit to plagiarizing if confronted, and the same goes for copying homework or cheating on a test. There’s definitely some good Asian moral richness blended into their transgressions.
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As a side note, when Nam and I were studying at Tenri University, we had a sad, sorry excuse of a teacher (you know who you are and I know you read this blog) who declared that cheating was OK for the Chinese students in our class because it was “part of their culture.”
I could use the same reasoning to turn a blind eye to what regularly transpires in the classes here, but somehow I just can’t let it slide..