Should undergraduates be taught Fortran? …

via Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog by dougaj4 from the Eng-Tips Forum

Doug approves of one response which indicated that undergrad engineers should learn, instead of Fortran:

1. How to spell
2. How to make an outline of a report before starting to type
3. How to use Excel the way it's designed
4. How to turn off MSN while at work
5. How things in their field of interest are manufactured
6. How their employers actually generate income and profit
7. How and where to find which design loads to use
8. What “design requirements” are
9. How to work with others
10. How to talk to clients

London launches online graduate jobfinder

via Kable: Publishing Kable

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has unveiled a website aimed at steering the capital's 100,000 recent graduates into work

Named Helping Graduates into Work, it went live on 21 July 2009, and has been developed by the Mayor's Office with the University of London careers group to provide information for students leaving the city's universities.


© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009

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Ten trivial (i.e non-work-related) items

Kenyan students charge their mobiles with pedal power via BBC News Technology UK Edition
Two Kenyan university students hope to market a device that allows bicycle riders to charge their mobile phones.

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
Edgar Allan Poe was also a player of hoaxes, a plagiarist, and substance abuser. But oh, how he could write... more

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
People think we live in an age of violence and killing. In truth, the past was far more bloodthirsty than the present age, as Steven Pinker explains... more

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
Lord Byron was mad, bad, dangerous, and a cad. But as both poet and as lover, he knew what women wanted... more

Friday fun via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Anne
More places to visit this week!
Techniquest has three science centres in Wales - Cardiff, Wrexham and Llanberis. Entrance is £7 for adults and £5 for children and concessions.
The National Railway Museum based in York has free entry as does the National Media Museum in Bradford.
The Discovery Museum in Newcastle also has free entry.

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
They can be eccentric, slow afoot, even grouchy. But old dogs can live out their final days with a humility and grace we all can learn from... more

Middle Eastern Geography via Coffee Klatch by pfitz
Do you think you know the geography of the Middle East? How about the broader region including North Africa? Try out this fun little game. It's on an education-based website and they don't score you per se, but give you as many tries as you need to drag the country names onto the map.
Check it out: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
No rational justification can be offered for trust and self-sacrifice. But without them, social life is chaos, a war of all against all... more

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
Narcissistic tendencies - confidence, extraversion, a desire for power - can actually help to make you a good leader. But if you're a true narcissist... more

via Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
It was an historical cataclysm carried out on an unimaginable scale. Stalin's regime devoured not just human lives but hopes, dreams, trust... more

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Special Needs London – event

16-17 October 2009 Business Design Centre, London

Special Needs London has the resources, ideas, advice and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training to provide teachers, SENCOs, support staff and parents with the tools and skills to help all pupils achieve.

Learn about the latest issues from professionals with SEN expertise, within the inspiring CPD seminar programme.

Find thousands of resources to compare and buy for every kind of special and additional educational need.

Entry to the show is free, and seminars cost as little as £9+VAT each.

overview

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Finally, Sarah Palin

via Word Wise by Dan Santow

This is totally nonpartisan: The executive literary editor at Vanity Fair magazine copyedited edited Sarah Palin's resignation speech based on the rules of grammar, usage, style, accepted norms of good writing, etc – oh, and the editor corrected facts, a few of which were wrong. (Edits are in red; fact-checking notes in green.) If you're unfamiliar with what it's like to be edited by a really serious copyeditor, definitely take a look. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's pretty fascinating.

Hazel’s comment:
I found it fascinating too!

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Can Bibliographic Data Be Put Directly Onto the Semantic Web?

via Catalogablog by David (Thanks – I missed it)

an article by Martha M Yee (University of California, Los Angeles) in Information Technology and Libraries Volume 28 Issue 2 (2009)

Abstract

This paper is a think piece about the possible future of bibliographic control; provides a brief introduction to the semantic web and defines terms pertaining to the it.; discusses granularity and structure issues and the lack of standards for the efficient display and indexing of bibliographic data. It is also a report on a work in progress, an experiment in building an RDF model of more FRBRized cataloging rules than those about to be introduced to the library community (Resource Description and Access or RDA) and the creation of an RDF data model for the rules. I am now in the process of trying to model my cataloging rules in the form of an RDF model; this model can also be inspected here. In the process of doing this, I have discovered a number of areas in which I am not sure that RDF is sophisticated enough yet to deal with our data. This article is an attempt to identify some of those areas and explore whether or not the problems I have encountered are soluble, in other words, whether or not our data might be able to live on the semantic web. In this paper, I am focusing on raising the questions about the suitability of RDF to our data that have come up in the course of my work.

Postprint available free

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Job interviews – 101 common mistakes to avoid

via Business: Job Search Techniques Articles from EzineArticles.com

Learn the biggest mistakes committed during job interviews. The author provides 101 common mistakes. With preparation and conditioning to avoid these errors, applicants will dramatically improve their job search campaigns.

Read the full article

Hazel’s comment:
If these are common mistakes then I'm appalled, disgusted – add whatever words you like!

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