foolfillment: the blog


Archive for November, 2004

Ethical nonsense

2:02 pm on the 26th of November, 2004

I can’t remember who it was but some big company gave the university money to build their nice shiny new medical building.
Wolfson Medical Building
One of the conditions for this was that any research that the university, it’s staff, or it’s students carry out must comply with the company’s own ethical standards, which is all well and good. Until you realise what it involves and what it covers. For instance, on my course we have to do some group design projects, one of which includes asking people what they like/don’t like about their toothbrush. Before we do this though we have to hand in a 7 page application form to the Ethics Committee, prepare a plain language statement for all the respondants to read, and a consent form for them to sign. If we carry out questionnaires without this procedure then we’re supposed to not use the information.

So I have decided to put our questionnaire on the internet so that you can ignore it and not put any of your answers in the comments box.
You may also like to not add in your thoughts on what makes you decide what toothbrush to buy or how long you spend considering the options before picking one.
It would also help if you didn’t tell us what innovations you want in your toothbrush.
(more…)

The Shack gets gutted by fire

1:06 pm on the 26th of November, 2004

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Huge fire destroys club building

The Shack is one of the scummiest places you might ever wish to not end up in and finding out it had burnt down made me whoop with delight (no, really it did) yet it is a mixed blessing for anyone on a night out in Glasgow. You now know you won’t be going there but there is the downside that those who enjoy that sort of thing now are more likely to be where you are.

UofG :: Rectorial Nominations

7:40 am on the 26th of November, 2004

John Beattie is, I think, a fantastic choice in his own right, and alongside the other nominees he is miles ahead. Of course this election should have happenned last year but a failure by all the relevant uni bodies to publicise the deadline for nominations meant the students were left without a voice on the Senate for the first time in around 100 years.

The University of Glasgow :: Newsdesk - News and Events - Nominations for Rector 2004

Jenni Keenan Green
Plays ‘Heather’ in the popular Scottish BBC TV soap opera River City.

The University of Glasgow :: Newsdesk - News and Source: Events - Nominations for Rector 2004

Come one! I’m all for a bit of humour in politics but there’s a real chance that students might actually vote for this woman, whoever she is.
And, doesn’t popular mean someone has to have been watching it and like it?

Firefox

8:18 pm on the 25th of November, 2004

You may have noticed the little button on the right, it went up shortly after the first full version of Firefox was released. I was talking about it today with someone on my course, I hope they try it out and see why it is taking a march against IE. Maybe reading the firefox site and this post by Gordon might sway some more people to use it where they can.

spaminator

7:52 pm on the 25th of November, 2004

I’ve installed a plugin to fight comment spam [via], so far it’s caught the one spam comment since yesterday but blocked one genuine comment, I’ll give it a little more time but if it doesn’t work out I’ll get rid of it again. Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t get through, I get told too and I’ll put it up.

I’ve also added the requirement for an email address from commenters. This should mean real people can comment without worrying about it being blocked. It’ll never be displayed so you don’t need to worry about you getting spam - after all stopping spam is the whole point of me asking it of you.

where’s my t-shirt, i sent off for it ages ago

10:47 pm on the 24th of November, 2004

Wychwood BreweryPosted in general | No Comments »

the thing about training to be a teacher

10:11 pm on the 24th of November, 2004

is you you get told all the pitfalls to avoid, like talking for hours on end without bothering to try and engage the pupils, like making sure you’ve got all your resources working before you let the kids use them, like letting your class know what they’re supposed to be doing before you try to mark their work. And then you see all your lecturers demonstrating these things. I’m sure it’s all deliberate, to make us learn why we should avoid them. Maybe in later years they show what to do when things start to go wrong.

It’s not likely that the people I’m writing about will find this site, but there’s a link from my profile on the faculty’s notes database thingy to here so I should make it clear that on the whole the staff are very good, but you do get occasions when things aren’t exactly what you might expect from those who teach how to teach.

decisions decisions

9:59 pm on the 24th of November, 2004

Do I watch Arrested Development or Max and Paddy?

Support your local team

12:44 pm on the 18th of November, 2004

It’s all a bit mixed up at the moment, Hearts are playing football at the home of Scottish rugby, Inverness CT have to play in Aberdeen, the Scottish football team was playing at Easter Road last night and the Scottish rugby team are wandering lost between Perth and Glasgow. Meanwhile, the Scottish Claymores have been told they’re moving to Germany.

I’m going to Hampden on Saturday, which may sound like I’m asking for trouble, after the way things have been going recently, but while I was tempted to get a cheap ticket to last night’s match I instead opted to go to the egg chasing instead, chances of Scotland getting another ton? About 100-8.

Going Underground

4:22 pm on the 15th of November, 2004

It seems like only the other day I last posted here but it turns out it was much longer than that, sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve been quite busy but I should be free for the next wee while to do nothing.

I was away at the weekend with GUPA to Castleton, Derbyshire. It was the first time I’ve been and it was great fun. Really really cold though. We went down two caves, one of them an easy one for beginners and the other at the back of a show cave. It’s a fantastic way to get really wet and muddy, and spend all of your money on kit, I thoroughly recommend it. I don’t have any photos and I can’t find many good sites for you to see so have a look at this instead.