Random stuff that doesn't fit in anywhere else ...
I have compiled a guide for South African students planning on
Going Overseas to do a Postgraduate Degree in Computer Science.
It contains just about everything I know about funding, admissions, etc., but if you're a South
African student and you still have something specific to ask (or something to
contribute) feel free to
contact me.
In July 2005 Paul Fitch, Anjie Harris and I went backpacking around
Europe for three weeks. Here is my approximate
trajectory: (click on the image for a larger map)
In the last few days Paul and Anjie stayed in
Italy while I went to Mainz to visit Gregor Feig, so their trip included
Rome, Naples and Sicily but not Munich, Mainz or Wiesbaden.
During my visit to Lefkada and Kefallonia on the same trip I took
some pretty photographs (click on each for a larger image).
The first two photos were taken from a boat off the coast of Lefkada. The
third is the church in Poros (on Lefkada) where my paternal grandparents
(and probably several generations before them) were married.
The last photo is of Sami (on Kefallonia), taken from the pier.
A
recent
article
in The Guardian by
Richard Dawkins
and Jerry
Coyne contains an eloquent explanation of why
introducing Intelligent
Design into American science classrooms in such a way as to even
vaguely imply that it contains the slightest smidgen of actual science is
a very bad idea.
In December 2005 Nicholas D.
Kristof (my favourite New York Times op-ed columnist) wrote a
very good (but sadly unusual) commentary
(The
Hubris of the Humanities, free-to-read copies
here,
here,
here
and here)
on the lack of scientific and mathematical literacy in Western society.
In particular, he points out that as a society we prize literary knowledge but
are completely indifferent to (and I think regularly encourage)
mathematical and scientific ignorance. Having a population where the vast majority
of people are uniformly terribly
educated when it comes to rational decision making has very serious negative
implications, for every facet of society.
In July and August 2006 I was lucky enough to be able to
go back to Edinburgh as a summer visitor to
the Institute of Perception,
Action and Behavior at the University of
Edinburgh. While in Edinburgh I took some more pretty photographs
(click on each for a larger image).
Edinburgh really is incredibly beautiful, and definitely the most
Gaimanesque city
I've ever been to.
He pointed out that there are exactly two possible reasons why
the West did not intervene in Rwanda: cowardice or indifference.
Since I doubt anyone would consider the current US administration
cowardly (even if there are lots of other negative things I would consider
them), their lack of substantive action three years into
the Darfur
conflict suggests indifference.
Having visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin,
it is incredibly sad (and deeply shameful) that not much more than sixty
years later such a mockery has been made of the
phrase "Never Again".
In April 2007 my family, girlfriend and I spent five days at Nxabega
in Botswana'sOkavanago Delta.
The camp is run by Conservation
Corporation Africa, whose approach to ecotourism, conservation and
development ("care of the
land, care of the wildlife, care of the people") is incredibly impressive.
Photos:
Left to right, top to bottom: leopard eating a reedbuck, little bee eater,
painted reedfrog, juvenile vervet monkey, my sister in a
makoro,
and dusk on the Delta.
