Professional Historian and History Consultancy Services Brisbane
Category: Blog
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‘Reckless Race for Dominance’: Is Any Decision-Maker Listening?
I have been making the moral warning, over and over, again and again. Is Any Decision-Maker Listening? From Kevin Roose, reporting from San Francisco, June 4, 2024, in “OpenAI Insiders Warn of a ‘Reckless’ Race for Dominance,” The Washington Post. The members [nine current and former OpenAI employees] say…
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QUESTION: Why the Culture-History Warfare upon Education in Early 21st Century?
This morning’s story, for me, is Patrick Jack’s article in The Higher Education supplement, which examined the fallout in a conflict: Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology of the United Kingdom, with Kamna Patel, associate professor of development studies at University College London (UCL), and, Chair of the Expert Advisory Group,…
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The Thinking of Dumbassery: Clear Message to Government and Corporations
dumbassery Jump to navigationJump to search Contents 1English 1.1Etymology 1.2Noun 1.2.1Synonyms English[edit] Etymology[edit] From dumbass + -ery. Noun[edit] dumbassery (uncountable) (slang,vulgar,Canada, US) Immature, foolish behavior; behavior typical of a dumbass. quotations ▲ 2008, Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl[1], →ISBN: Speaking of savages, Bruce Cowell and his pack of jock-wannabes, who’d been kicked off every school team because of attitude problems and/or the use of…
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The Weight of Block-Thinking Division between “Religious” and “Secular”
Dear friends, What has happened in the United States is a shift of the weight of the Block-Thinking Division between “Religious” and “Secular”. Let me unpack that phrasing. Block-thinking is the cognition motivated by the collective agenda of an interest group, usually a political advocacy organisation with ‘religious’ or ‘secular’ pretense. In these cases,…
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31 May 2024 AEST
What a day! Donald J. Trump becomes a convicted felon. 2. One of my significant academic-scholar mentor, John Moses past; and significantly, 3. an important review essay for the field of Australian contemporary studies-in-religion and social history was published. Sometimes I am humbled in history’s providence at the very…
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PASSING OF JOHN MOSES
Dear Colleagues, Ingrid Moses messaged last night that John had died, after a long illness, although he was still quite sharp still in the last weeks and we had been messaging often. He was 91. Quite upsetting for me as he was a constant support both…
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Romanticism and Charles Taylor
Review Essay: Matthew Hunter, Charles Taylor’s Sublime Shortcomings: The great philosopher’s book about poetry is provocative but disappointing, The Chronicle of Higher Education, MAY 22, 2024. Charles Taylor (2024). Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment, Harvard University Press. At a moment when, as Taylor has…
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Universities and Employability: Why am I not employed (contracted)?
“The [UK] creation of the Office for Students by the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act to ‘encourage competition between English higher education providers’ and to ‘promote value for money’ has been particularly instrumental in promoting a mercantile narrative that has forced universities to close departments and courses that have not been recruiting well.” Zahid Naz, The employability agenda corrupts educational and personal…
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I and My Colleagues have been Saying the Same Thing For Decades as Leading Journalistic Statements: So, Why I NOT Employed or Contracted?
Dear friends, Not understanding the A.I. risks. Tyler Austin Harper (2024). The Big Ai Risk Not Enough People Are Seeing: Beware technology that makes us less human, The Atlantic, MAY 21, 2024, 6 AM ET. GIFT ARTICLE In 1977, Ivan Illich, an Austrian-born philosopher, vagabond priest, and ruthless critic of metastatic bureaucracies, declared that…
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Centrism (now called neopopulism): I said it, now the NYT is reporting it May 19, 2024
Dear Friends, and I thank Graham Perrett’s office for its recent kind support, and several friends who made sure I have not gone under, I said it, now the NYT is reporting it May 19, 2024: Gift Article (I paid for it, the least you can do is read) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/briefing/centrism-washington-neopopulism.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tU0.99mB.4xpAfXEjbZQR&smid=url-share So, I said it back in March with the emerging…