In the Dark

My friend Darren sent me a linkto these rather excellent alternative London Underground signs…

(click image above for link to original photographers blog)

Apparently they’ve been appearing for some time now, but like 99% of passengers, I’m sad to say I’ve missed them..

They’ve been done so well, that to a regular commuter, their utter familiarity as part of an accepted, everyday visual clutter, results in them becoming almost invisible, losing all meaning beyond their colour and shape..

Well it’s a lesson learnt for me. I usually pride myself on at least attempting to see beyond the day to day, and resist the automatic filters that city life can generate.

Rest assured, that I will certainly be keeping a much sharper lookout for these signs from now on… How I would’ve loved to have noticed Shepherd’s Pie, overground, Gas mark 4 on a journey into work, it would have…

I’ve had a number of discussions recently about the Research Excellence Framework (REF2014). I’ve yet to find anyone who has a positive view of REF2014. I’m certainly against REF2014 and think it is having a negative impact on how universities behave and think it is primarily driven by a desire to measure and quantify, even if it ultimately damages what is being assessed. However, I thought I would run a quick poll to get the views of others. Given how many typically read my posts, this will almost certainly not produce a statistically significant result.

“I didn’t say, and I’ve been misquoted universally, that [technology] rots the brain and it’s bad, I’ve never given value judgements, ever,”
Professor Susan Greenfield, 2011.

I’m writing this, my first ever blog entry, after having attended the talk that Professor Susan Greenfield gave as part of the 2012 British Science Festival in Aberdeen, entitled The 21st Century Mind. The topic that she was speaking about, the influence that our increasing use of computer technology might be having on the development and physiology of our brains, is one that she has presented in numerous television, radio and newspaper interviews and articles.

Her opinion (and it is just that) is that our use of screen-based media, such as social networking and video games, is having a detrimental effect on our behaviour. This is obviously a controversial area and also one that the popular press (especially the Daily Mail) is fond…

We have recently gone through an extensive senior job search for a joint position and the questions we asked the candidates were fairly generic. But I remember my own early job interviews and how badly prepared I was for them, so I thought it might be of interest to list the questions we asked the candidates and the kind of responses panels are typically looking for. At a certain level these questions are obvious as soon as you put yourself in the shoes of the interview panel, and that would be my single biggest piece of advice. Imagine that you are on an interview panel looking for a colleague. What would you be looking for?

Forbes recently crunched recruiter questions down to three core issues:  “Can you do the job? Will you love the job? And can we tolerate working with you?” In the academic context, where permanent positions…