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Oak Technology & Learning works with community members, people from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with disabilities who are interested in acquiring skills and competence in information and digital technologies.
There’s more to language learning than picking up dates in a foreign country. We investigated some of the craziest methods of adult language education out there.
greatist.com/happiness/adult-learn-foreign-languages/
Photo by Jess Ivy
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
Part of my keynote presentation at #converge10 www.slideshare.net/catspyjamas/the-personal-learning-netw...
I just started an excellent online class via Coursera titled Exploring Neural Data Exploring Neural Data that started 29 September 2014. Monica Linden and David Sheinberg of Brown University are teaching this class. Our first assignment was to detect spikes (action potentials) in a few seconds of recorded data from a neuron. The assignment was to modify some Python code to plot the data, and then detect and plot the spike activity, and plot all the detected spikes. This plot shows voltage versus time, there are about 88,000 samples in this data. To figure out the "spikes", a threshold is applied (in voltage and time) to separate the spike from the noise. The red lines were drawn for every spike detected.
It was very satisfying to work with this data, and to learn a bit more about neuroscience (and Python). We are using the Spyder environment, which is quite a nice development environment. This assignment took me a little longer than I thought it would (finished about 530 am Sunday morning).
Guiding Principle 1: Promote academic excellence, interdisciplinary inquiry, and vital intellectual communities.
The professional schools, together on one campus, will host a thriving interdisciplinary graduate experience.
A continuing education facility will include the community in the educational experience.
New informal learning spaces will revive the heart of the historic campus.
Guiding Principle 2: Promote three distinct but seamlessly interconnected campuses to promote interaction.
A complete loop road will improve on-campus vehicular circulation and wayfinding.
Each academic building will have a “front door” and street address on Hayes Road.
A new Transit Pavilion will orient visitors and act as a hub for inter-campus travel.
Guiding Principle 3: Be responsible to the larger community by shaping – and being shaped by – broader plans and policies.
A new amphitheater and landscaping will welcome public use of the campus “front yard” on Main Street.
Improved pedestrian and bicycle paths will connect to University Plaza and other commercial properties.
An expanded recreation center and fields will be opened to community recreation and fitness programs.
Guiding Principle 4: Provide long-term capital planning and promote prudent stewardship of university resources.
Historic and adaptable buildings will be renovated to accommodate the professional schools.
State-of-the-art new construction with lower lifecycle costs will replace non-adaptable buildings.
Guiding Principle 5: Establish UB as a leader of environmental stewardship and sustainable design.
Stormwater management will mitigate the impact of campus runoff on municipal systems.
Renovations and new construction will meet the highest standards of sustainable design.
Improved transit and bicycle access will provide alternatives to automobile use.
Guiding Principle 6: Use the excellent design of campus architecture, landscape architecture and interiors to create great and memorable places contributing to a high quality of campus life.
The historic layout of quadrangles and courtyards will inspire the design of new pedestrian-friendly spaces.
New and renovated housing suited to graduate lifestyles will expand the on-campus residential neighborhood.
A renewed Harriman Quad and adjacent programs will provide a center of gravity for campus life.
All new developments will meet or exceed expectations of design excellence, as exemplified by the current John Kapoor Hall project.
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After yesterday's buckle shinin', another new American word for me to learn was 'bobtail'.
Bobtailing is when a semi-truck is traveling without an attached trailer. This can occur when a semi-truck is in the process of picking up a trailer (and has no trailer to deliver) or is returning from delivery (and has no trailer to pick up). Bobtails are a common sight on Texas highways.
Once again, James McMurtry's lyrics are spot on. Unfortunately if you follow the song to the end, there is a sad ending.
"She's been green breaking horses when she's home from the road,
Waiting on dispatch to find her a load.
She leased all but the trap, ponies can't graze a thing,
Another bobtail of coastal ought to last them 'til spring.
Randy says not to worry, he'll feed while she's gone.
She's got the Freightliner idling half up on his lawn.
He don't like her driving when the northers come blue
But if the horses went hungry Lord knows what she'd do"
jukebox # 505
Here is a rather good solo live version of the same song.
DY MoralRegion Kids learning pad with fashionable design inspires kids to create and study. Kids can also take a photo or a video to record the funny things in their lives with the camera.The kids tablet computer has a a faster processor to storage more apps to unlock kid's imagination and potential with eBooks,music,videos,games,creativity studios and more.The kids pad with highest-quality educational contents.Let's join the DY children tablet word!
Those who do not live in Scotland may be unaware that this YES sign indicates an affirmative response to the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?".
In a referendum to be held on 18 September 2014 this issue will be decided by those who are registered to vote in Scotland.
In my view, the underlying belief of those on the YES side is that it is right and proper for a nation to aspire to govern itself, that it may experience difficulties in doing so but in working through those difficulties it will develop the maturity required to hold its head high in the community of nations. The YES side believes that now is the time to "grasp the thistle".
The NO side appears to hold the view either (i) that a 'mature nation' status is not worth working for or (ii) that, while it might be desirable to become a mature nation, the inevitable difficulties could not be overcome.
I listened live to the 2 hours and 40 minutes of this parliamentary debate and thought that Mike Russell's ten minute winding-up speech (transcript below) characterised by its positive approach, exemplified that contrast with the negative approach of his opponents during that debate.
THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTS (12 AUGUST 2014)
DEBATE ON THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES OF INDEPENDENCE
WINDING UP SPEECH FROM MIKE RUSSELL
Official report:-
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Thank you. I call Michael Russell to wind up the debate. Cabinet secretary, you have until 5 o’clock.
16:49
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning (Michael Russell):
Let me give the chamber a revelation: I think that on the evidence of this afternoon’s debate there are no votes in this chamber that are up for grabs in the referendum and that it is pretty clear that there are no undecideds on these benches.
However, there might be some undecideds watching at home. I suspect that they might well have turned off by now, particularly after Jenny Marra’s speech, but if they are still watching I suggest to them that, if they are trying to come to a judgment on the basis of this debate—there are people in the gallery who might want to make such a judgment—they should do so on the basis of what has been the positive view and what has been the negative view.
Look at the positive view that all my colleagues in the chamber have expressed and at the endless, destructive negativity that we have heard from Labour, the Liberals and the Tories.
I will start with the clearest view of the currency issue. As ever, the First Minister got it right in the chamber last week. I will repeat his exact words. He said:
“It is our pound, and we are keeping it.”
There are no ifs and no buts. That is the guarantee. That is plan A to Z. For the benefit of those who are still trying to frighten people out of what is theirs—people such as Mr Henry, who asserted that Scots will not be able to buy food or go on holiday after independence, and Mr Fraser, who tellingly referred—
Hugh Henry:
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Michael Russell:
No, I will not. I am sorry; one contribution from Mr Henry in an afternoon is more than enough.
Mr Fraser referred to the currency belonging to someone else, which was very interesting. I will repeat what the First Minister said so that there can be no doubt. He said:
“It is our pound, and we are keeping it.”—[Official Report, 7 August 2014; c 33159.]
Hugh Henry:
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Mr Russell has just made a statement in which he attributed words to me that I did not say. Is it in order for members to fabricate words that were not said during the debate and attribute them to other members? [Interruption.]
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Order, please. What members say in their speeches is entirely up to them. It is not for me to decide what they should and should not say. However, the Official Report undoubtedly shows every word that has been said in the chamber.
Michael Russell:
I am sure that Mr Henry will reflect on that when he looks at what he has said about me and my writings. I am sure that he will think about that carefully. Mr Henry’s words speak for themselves, as does his depressing demeanour.
The debate has been one of great contrasts. I go back to positivity and negativity. My friend Mr Swinney talked about ambition, achievement, resources, potential and raising the eyes of Scotland to what can be achieved. In my area of special interest, he talked about the need for transformative childcare and the world-leading position of Scottish higher education. What was the result? [Interruption.]
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Order, please.
Michael Russell:
The result was that, 10 minutes in, Mr Rennie gave the knee-jerk plan B its first outing. Mr Brown then leapt back in. Project fear was in there working hard.
The other side of the unionist coin then showed itself. It was quite stunning. Alex Johnstone chuntered on from a sedentary position about the fact that everything that was mentioned was a product of the wonderful union, but he was interrupted by Jenny Marra, who said that everything was the result of the failed SNP. There we have it: that is a contrast. Labour hates the SNP more than anybody else, and the Tories love the union more than anything else. Neither of those is a prescription for a safe future.
Believing that a Labour Government will remove weapons of mass destruction is also not a prescription for a safe future. There is no evidence for that whatsoever. How else are we to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, except by independence? That is the reality.
It was telling that, when Mr Swinney mentioned Trident and what we need to do, the reaction from Labour and the Tories and even from the sole Lib Dem who was there was derision. They want to put bombs before bairns and Trident before teachers. That is their shame.
Let me carry on.
Neil Bibby (West Scotland) (Lab):
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Michael Russell:
No, I will not take an intervention. I am sorry.
The reality of the debate was shown clearly. It was about that negative view. Nothing could be done. We had to ask what that was about. Maureen Watt got it 100 per cent right. She analysed the debate early on. The great fear that exists in project fear is the could-should-must progression. If any member on the Labour benches could admit that Scotland could be independent—I will come to Elaine Murray in a moment, as she did that momentarily—the whole fantasy will collapse.
The reason why it collapses is that that leads to the argument that Scotland should be independent, which is the argument that my colleagues made this afternoon. It goes a step further to the argument that Scotland must be independent.
The biggest illustration of that was given by Malcolm Chisholm. Yet again, I was saddened by a speech by Malcolm Chisholm. I have admiration and time for Malcolm Chisholm; he is laughing, but I do. I do not think that he and I differ very much in some of the things that we want to see, but here is the difference. [Interruption.]
The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick):
Order.
Michael Russell:
Labour members want to laugh at this, because it is beginning to strike home.
The difference is that I and my colleagues have a plan for how to achieve those things. We know how poverty can be eliminated in Scotland. We know—
Iain Gray:
Will the minister give way?
Michael Russell:
No—I want to finish my point.
I know that it is annoying to Iain Gray, but the truth of the matter is that it is possible to have a plan to change Scotland and to do those things. We can set out with those intentions and we can work hard to meet them, or we can—as Labour members would have us do—simply keep our fingers crossed that we get a Labour Government that could possibly pursue the things that they want to see in Scotland rather than the things that Ed Balls and Miliband want to see south of the border. I say to Malcolm Chisholm that that is not a plan: that is keeping your fingers crossed and putting party before principle.
Malcolm Chisholm:
The cabinet secretary may have a plan, but the whole point of all the Labour speeches has been to point out that it is not a plan that can be delivered without an economic foundation. Before he gives us any more claptrap about the negativity of Labour members, will he reflect on the fact that by far the biggest and most disgraceful scare of the referendum campaign is what the yes side is saying about the NHS? [Interruption.]
The Presiding Officer:
Order! Order!
Michael Russell:
How interesting. Mr Chisholm is being wildly applauded by Jackson Carlaw, who—
The Presiding Officer:
Sit down, Mr Russell.
That is quite enough. There is far too much heckling and far too much noise. The minister is speaking, so allow him to do so. This is a Parliament; it is not a public meeting or a hustings. There are people in Scotland who are listening to the debate. Make it worthy of them.
Michael Russell:
Why was Jackson Carlaw—the person who got so agitated about the issue of the NHS last week—applauding so much? Because we have hit the nail on the head. If the financial power lies outside Scotland, the decision on the priorities of Scotland and how to deliver those priorities will always lie outside Scotland, too. For every £100 by which expenditure is reduced south of the border through privatisation of the health service—privatisation that was started by Labour—£10 is lost from the Scottish budget.
Neil Findlay:
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Michael Russell:
No.
For every £100 that is removed from public expenditure through privatisation of higher education south of the border, we lose £10. That is the reality. That is the nub of the debate. We can choose to make our decisions in Scotland, to take our responsibilities in Scotland and to have opportunities in Scotland, or we can always dance to someone else’s tune.
Malcolm Chisholm wants to see the progress in Scotland that I want to see. I repeat what I said earlier: the SNP has the plan to do that. It puts its confidence—[Interruption.] We can hear the Tories laughing; we can always hear the Tories laughing when the people of Scotland want to progress.
Here is the choice: we can say to the people of Scotland, “Take responsibility, and then you will have the opportunity to change this country for the better”; or we can tell them to listen to those who will not accept the reality and who will always keep their fingers crossed that England votes the same way that they do. Those voices will always disappoint and let down the people of Scotland. That has got to stop.
The lesson this afternoon is entirely clear: there is a jobs plan for an independent Scotland, there is a finance plan for an independent Scotland, there is a currency plan for an independent Scotland and there is a plan to make an independent Scotland the country that it could and should be. The people who stand in the way of that are this unholy alliance between Labour and the Tories.
The Presiding Officer:
You need to finish, cabinet secretary.
Michael Russell:
They are the people who have plenty of ambition for their political parties and none for their country. [Applause.]
The Presiding Officer:
Order.
That concludes the debate on the economic opportunities of independence.
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SUNDAY TIMES - 21st September 2014
Michael Russell
In a sense I have been campaigning for independence across Scotland not just in the last four weeks but for forty years. But I don't think I have ever had such an emotional political experience as last Saturday standing in the Station Square in Oban listening to Dougie Maclean sing his anthem of Scottishness, Caledonia.
It didn't matter that someone had forgotten to bring an extension lead, so there was no power for the microphone. It was irrelevant that an early sea mist, now burning off, had prevented the First Minister from making a helicopter campaign stop and equally irrelevant was the stretch limo with a huge "NO thanks" logo tied round it ( one of the bizzarest sights of the campaign) that kept cruising past. Dougie sang and 250 people - young and old, from all parties but mostly none, sang along with a quiet intensity that brought tears to my eyes and to eyes of many others.
That event started a whole day of remarkable activities - a car cavalcade of more than sixty vehicles that wound its way across Mid Argyll with so many participants that a church hall in Lochgilphead had to be commandeered to feed them, a flash mob of dancers and musicians on a green beside the sea and finally a laser show lighting up a huge YES sign on the island of Kerrera in the bay facing the town.
This was politics, but not as I have known it. YES Scotland started out as an umbrella organisation and ended up as a mass movement . It's creativity and energy was replicated not just across my constituency - in Dunoon, in Campbeltown, in Rothesay, in Lochgoilhead, on Islay and on Mull - but across the whole of Scotland in a diverse, multi layered movement that demanded and will go on demanding not only attention but also real change.
Although Thursday night delivered a bitter blow to many of those who had invested so much of themselves in that movement I do not think it will go away. Indeed it must not go away. It's commitment, enthusiasm and vigour are needed as never before if Scotland is to move forward united.
It is this movement that can really test the will of politicians to deliver the new dispensation that the Westminster parties promised in the final days of the campaign and it is this movement that can press an agenda that is focussed on outcomes which benefit and empower real people not just the political classes.
As Alex Salmond said on Friday in his moving resignation statement, holding Westminster to account for the delivery of its new promises has to be done by the whole of Scotland and that process needs to be lead by citizens themselves. If it changes and benefits all the parts of the present UK so much the better as long as that not an excuse for endless delay.
I have undertaken more than sixty public meetings in Argyll & Bute over the past nine months. One of the biggest took place on Ardrishaig the night before the Dougie MacLean event at which I shared a platform with Professor Allan MacInnes and Lesley Riddoch, both longstanding friends. Lesley spoke about this new politics too and was given a standing ovation by the over capacity crowd jammed into a tiny church hall. That enthusiasm reflected growing demand for a different set of priorities and a changed way of doing things - bottom up not top down.
That is what independence is but it's core values - fairness, equity, hope, opportunity, equality, justice - go well beyond the the 1.6 million who chose that option. Lots of voters on both sides were sending a message about the need for those things that cannot now be ignored.
That is why the "faster, safer and better" change offered in the 3 UK leaders Daily Record "Vow" was in the end persuasive for so many. They disagreed on the means but not on the ends.
So that is also why the SNP as the Scottish Government has to be an active part of the process now being outlined by the UK Government. We must heed the urgings of those we have worked with and take part in a constructive, urgent and focussed process to decide on the range of powers required and accelerate their introduction whilst ensuring that they are devolved further into communities and made capable of adaptation to local need and local direction.
That will not be easy for anyone but it is the essential next step - a step demanded by Thursday's result and which can also act as a unifying mechanism. We can help make a new Team Scotland and learn from it though it will be a Team Scotland weakened when not led by Alex Salmond, to whom the whole country owes an enormous political debt.
I am undoubtedly still a nationalist and I want to see independence. But this referendum campaign, undertaken in an Indian summer of warm sunshine amongst the most beautiful scenery in the world, criss crossing sea lochs, sailing to islands and motoring amongst mountains, has taught me a great deal.
A passionate desire for a better country is shared by many of our fellow citizens, young and old inside and outside conventional politics. A different set of priorities and policies - some already introduced by an SNP Government over the past 7 years - is possible. Alienation from politics and society isn't inevitable because inspiration casts out indifference. Decisions are better when made with people, not for them.
I have had the great pleasure of an invigorating campaign in Dalmally and Dunoon, on Luing and Lismore, through Glendaruel (where I live) and Glen Barr and by the shores of Loch Etive and Loch Riddon. The conclusion of those journeys was not the one I hoped for a month ago when the Sunday Times asked me to contribute at the end of the campaign. But the people have spoken and when that happens politicians have to listen - wherever they are.