Utilitarian barbarians at the gates

According to today's Guardian, Charles Clarke, the education secretary, has attacked the principle of public funding for "ornamental" HE disciplines such as medieval studies (having already said much the same about classics) on the grounds "that universities exist to enable the British economy and society to deal with the challenges posed by the increasingly rapid process of global change". So farewell to learning for learning's sake, hello to more vocational courses (and dare I say it, Mickey Mouse degrees, as Margaret Hodge would term them).

(the Times Higher broke the story, while Tristram Hunt has a good comment piece in the Guardian)

So ias, my little ornament, I'm sure you're dying to rant on this...

Utilitarian barbarians at the gates

According to today's Guardian, Charles Clarke, the education secretary, has attacked the principle of public funding for "ornamental" HE disciplines such as medieval studies (having already said much the same about classics) on the grounds "that universities exist to enable the British economy and society to deal with the challenges posed by the increasingly rapid process of global change". So farewell to learning for learning's sake, hello to more vocational courses (and dare I say it, Mickey Mouse degrees, as Margaret Hodge would term them).

(the Times Higher broke the story, while Tristram Hunt has a good comment piece in the Guardian)

So ias, my little ornament, I'm sure you're dying to rant on this...

A Letter from Baghdad, part two

For those who haven't seen, Salam Pax is alive and well and writing his blog again. Good to see a local viewpoint on the rebuilding of Iraq, although it is more than a little strange to see him describing aspects of the situation in Baghdad as Gibsonesque (see excerpt below) at the same time that Gibson is linking to Salam Pax's blog from his own blog.

The streets markets look like something out of a William Gibson novel. Heaps of cheap RAM (stolen of course) is being sold beside broken monitors beside falafel stands and weapons are all available. Fights break out justlikethat and knives come out from nowhere, knives just bought 5 minutes ago. There are army sighting thingys, Weird looking things with lenses. And people selling you computer cases who tell you these are electric warmers, never having seen a computer case before. Really truly surreal. Software CDs, Movie CDs and cheap porn.

A Letter from Baghdad, part two

For those who haven't seen, Salam Pax is alive and well and writing his blog again. Good to see a local viewpoint on the rebuilding of Iraq, although it is more than a little strange to see him describing aspects of the situation in Baghdad as Gibsonesque (see excerpt below) at the same time that Gibson is linking to Salam Pax's blog from his own blog.

The streets markets look like something out of a William Gibson novel. Heaps of cheap RAM (stolen of course) is being sold beside broken monitors beside falafel stands and weapons are all available. Fights break out justlikethat and knives come out from nowhere, knives just bought 5 minutes ago. There are army sighting thingys, Weird looking things with lenses. And people selling you computer cases who tell you these are electric warmers, never having seen a computer case before. Really truly surreal. Software CDs, Movie CDs and cheap porn.

Unprecedented: the 2000 Presidential Election

And a third post for today (these things are like buses - wait for hours, and then several turn up at once), this time on a documentary that ias and I saw last night. Unprecedented: the 2000 Presidential Election (IMDb entry) is a documentary on the irregularities in Florida that won Bush the presidency. It's an excellent documentary that does a good job of highlighting the partisan nature of the US election system, and that left me feeling quite outraged. You can buy a copy for the measly sum of $30, which would be money well spent in my opinion.

The only downside was that after this, Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (the second half of the double bill) rather paled into insignificance...

Unprecedented: the 2000 Presidential Election

And a third post for today (these things are like buses - wait for hours, and then several turn up at once), this time on a documentary that ias and I saw last night. Unprecedented: the 2000 Presidential Election (IMDb entry) is a documentary on the irregularities in Florida that won Bush the presidency. It's an excellent documentary that does a good job of highlighting the partisan nature of the US election system, and that left me feeling quite outraged. You can buy a copy for the measly sum of $30, which would be money well spent in my opinion.

The only downside was that after this, Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (the second half of the double bill) rather paled into insignificance...