Monthly Archives: November 2011

Leading us all astray?

Posted on November 30, 2011 by dwighttowers

Thanks to the readers who have added very useful comments and links below my “How little we learn” post.  There’s more to come (including some recently published books on the topic), but this cartoon below from xkcd was in my … Continue reading →

Posted in competence, humour | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Film Review: In Time

Posted on November 29, 2011 by dwighttowers

This bonkers but very fun film is a mash-up of Logan’s Run, Bonnie and Clyde and the Matrix, as scripted by Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Justin Timberlake, him of the mournful eyes, is a working stiff in a genetically-modified … Continue reading →

Posted in film review | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

“We get our news from the Council”

Posted on November 28, 2011 by dwighttowers

The journalist Andrew Gilligan, making a little-noticed appearance before a House of Lords committee this week, pointed out how the near-extinction of local journalism is destroying the industry’s ecosystem. News used to emerge because, from the Penrith Advertiser to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Times, media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Love’s the only engine of survival?

Posted on November 27, 2011 by dwighttowers

The Leonard Cohen fans will recognise the title of this post. It’s in response to a comment (one of several very useful ones) left underneath “How Little We Learn” (greetings to pedantry!) Johnnie Moore says in part “Love creates space … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism, competence | Tagged | 1 Comment

How little we learn

Posted on November 26, 2011 by dwighttowers

A couple of weeks ago I had (no) cause to be in an Accident and Emergency department. It is a tale of (my) muppetry that I shall feel secure enough to tell in, oh, fifty years or so. For now, … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Met the best boss, not the same as the worst boss

Posted on November 24, 2011 by dwighttowers

Amidst the crap, the Harvard Business Review published some very very intersting stuff (IMHO). Here’s a portion of a post by a guy called Robert Sutton. In his post, most of the items in his list are hyperlinked… My readings … Continue reading →

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Relentless negativity

Posted on November 24, 2011 by dwighttowers

A friend of mine (not the same friend I buy those magazines for) has been accused of “negativity”. My friend is kind of annoyed by this, but it comes with the territory, surely? Rather than address questions raised (which can … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, framing | Tagged | 1 Comment

Fierce discipline and hippies

Posted on November 23, 2011 by dwighttowers

Civil rights leader James Lawson, “[the] difficulty with nonviolent people and efforts is that they don’t recognize the necessity of fierce discipline and training, strategizing, planning, and recruiting.” From an article at Utne Reader

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“Carbon literacy” versus “saving the planet”

Posted on November 22, 2011 by dwighttowers

We are so screwed.* In the next couple of years people in my fair city are going to be carbon literacied. Poor souls. They will, for the most part, be taken away from jobs they do (and sometimes like), and … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Stop to think…

Posted on November 21, 2011 by dwighttowers

This Gotterdammerung thang comes, I think, via Dave Pollard… Was a professor fired for requiring students to think?

Posted in competence | Tagged | 2 Comments