What is school for? Seth Godin Seems like a simple question, but given how much time and money we spend on it, it has a wide range of answers, many unexplored, some contradictory. I have a few thoughts about education, how we use it to market ourselves and compete, and I realized that without a common place to start,…
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Web education is out of date and fragmented. There are good people working hard to change this, but because of the structure of higher education, it will take time. As part of a year-long journey to discover where we are in web education and where we need to go, Leslie Jensen-Inman interviewed 32 web design and development leaders. The consensus:…
You matter When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter. When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter. When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter. When you continue to raise the bar on what…
Message to the Coalition: people respond to incentives. I was listening the other day to Tony Abbott claiming that the price elasticity of petrol is zero (Joshua Gans quotes the Coalition’s Greg Hunt making the same claim). It was perhaps the first time that I had heard a politician use the word ‘elasticity’, and it made me wonder whether Abbott…
The debate is over.... Shell Oil, Energy Resources and Global Warming. John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil, USA, speaks about Shell's position on energy conversation and Global Warming. The speech was made at the Washington University, St. Louis, USA in September 2006. [The Whalesong Project: Whalelog]
The Victorian Government has released the Victorian Government Action Plan: Strengthening Community Organisations. A significant outcome is the establishment of the Office for the Community Sector at the Department of Planning and Community Development. It will be responsible for implementing the plan which addresses the streamlining of bureaucratic processes; workforce development in the community sector; and ongoing sustainability for community…
Means testing the baby bonus. I had vowed to not say another word on the baby bonus but the renewed speculation that something might be done has drawn me out. The talk now is of means testing it. As Andrew Leigh notes, this would have to be done with plenty of care but nonetheless would be a good step forward.…
Another good one from Andrew Leigh. As we draw near to budget time, there has been plenty of talk about what “middle Australia” will get. But where exactly is the middle? To provide a more precise sense, I’ve tabulated the pre-tax annual income distributions for individuals and households, in the 2008-09 tax year. My raw data is the 2006 HILDA…
Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil- What's Next? Earth's systems revolutions.... Spend the time to watch the video lecture by Daniel Nocera at M.I.T. In 1845, the Dietz Company of New York introduced the sperm oil lantern, which nearly wiped out some whale species. A decade or so later, Dietz began to manufacture lamps using other oils, and gas lighting…