Is the scale of marches for change today a significant number? They are certainly the largest individual marches and the largest globally coordinated march, and the first to include a virtual march which allowed people to participate without travelling long distance. They say about 600,000 marched (excluding virtual marchers) around the world. That’s a lot …
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Author:astraea
Terrorism to Happiness – connecting the dots
The news seems to be as bleak as ever, … but the outlook is worse. There have always been stories of blood, death, corruption and pollution but now the consequences are more global and terminal. There is even a rationale argument that we are past tipping point, but I choose to believe that there is …
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Are you feeling it, Celtic Tiger?
They say that Ireland is back from the brink. The data shows it, the traffic on the M50 around Dublin shows it and the budget displays a touch of the old hubris we knew from the noughties. GDP might be above 5% but we’re not feeling it so much on the ground. The growth is …
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Are you beginning to get it? The what, why and how of system change.
There has been an outpouring of love and solidarity because of the tragic and terrific blood-letting in Paris this weekend. It has been a synchronous focus on thought, feeling and action by millions around the world. That is good. The answers proposed have ranged from black to white, from vengeance to forgiveness. (My preference is …
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Honesty or knowledge first?
Ethics do not seem to be integral to society or our civilisation. We have laws and religions and people are good. However, the nature of education does not promote the values that ought to underlie the sentiment expressed by laws, religion and society. They say it is bad or wrong to kill, but it happens …
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For some it’s not about people, nor ethics; just numbers.
A former hedge fund manager who bought a drug company has hiked the price of a generic drug 55x to pay for the purchase. The drug was $13.50 a dose but is now $750.00. It costs $1 to produce. The drug treats toxoplasmosis and is widely used by sufferers of AIDS. So clearly Martin Shkreli, …
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Education For Today – first cut
Here’s a presentation synthesising ideas about education for today’s world. Please get in touch if you have questions or comments. The slides may be downloaded here as a pdf. Also available on YouTube.
Computers in school do not improve results. Doh! It’s about culture.
OECD research shows that frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results. Among 70 countries, heavy investment in information and communications technology have seen “no noticeable improvement” in Pisa test results for reading, mathematics or science. This is not surprising. As with any technology, it can be “good” …
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Cyborgs are coming to take your job, especially if you’re young.
The prospect of your job being automated is increasing. The convergence of neuroscience, computing, biology and engineering has already made robotic prosthetics a reality and everyone carries a small thinking machine so that they can remember phone numbers, birthdays etc (media device/phone). We are certainly choosing a future in which we don’t work. We haven’t …
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What is consciousness?
What does it mean to be human? The answer lies between the physical and the metaphysical (spirit), somewhere in the mind, but it might be unknowable. However, it is possible to get closer to knowing yourself, and as Socrates observed two and a half millennia ago, that it the foundation of meaning in life. This …
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