August 2011

  • Re-think, Redesign: Survive & Prosper

    I've been watching the latest video from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on You Tube.  Good stuff. I liked the idea of biodegradable glasses (24 seconds in) and wondered if this is a genuine innovation, or just wishful thinking.  More seriously,...

  • Cosmic Ray Education, anyone?

    There have been news stories in the past week about one of CERN's less obscure experiments, but with one of the most contrived acronymns around: CLOUD [ Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets ] – quite ridiculous, but then these are physicists....

  • In and out of the Top Ten

    Before the Blog had a short break, I had planned a post to celebrate my success at getting one of my papers into EER's top ten downloads chart.  The journal keeps track of those of its papers that are most...

  • Partnering with CERN – but not yet the IPCC

    The Simon Langton grammar school in Kent has shot to national consciousness recently with its cosmic ray monitoring experiments that are soon to be above the earth on a satellite.  NASA, it seems, is embarrassed.  Clearly, monitoring earth-bound high energy radiation...

  • Toll Barriers

    This week's THE has an informative article on the differences in university funding across the UK, and the emerging issues around the flow of students throughout the UK.  In "Toll Barriers", David Matthews writes: Increased tuition fees could dramatically alter...

  • EAUC and Staffordshire to take over the world – official

    In this week's (informative as ever) Higher Education Academy Education for Sustainable Development e-Bulletin we find news of another ambitious EAUC initiative to set alongside its LIFE project.  This is the Sustainability Exchange which is a 2 year HEFCE-funded project...

  • Stonehenge fights back

    News this morning from BBC Wiltshire that Stonehenge was "the most visited paid for tourist attraction in the South West" in 2010, beating the Eden Project into second place.   This must be doubly galling for the never knowingly over-sold Eden,...

  • HRH on Harmony

    I confess that I have been slow to acknowledge that the Prince of Wales, with significant others, has penned a fat book on Harmony: a new way of looking at our world.  This is a text which, I am told,...

  • Turning around leadership for sustainability in higher education

    Turnaround Leadership for Sustainability in Higher Education is a project funded by the Australian Learning & Teaching Council which involves the  University of Western Sydney (Lead), the Sustainable Futures Academy (Salzburg), the Australian National University, and the University of Gloucestershire. A...

  • Disabled Animal Agency – Ofscoff comments

    A press release dated 10th August 2009, from the Office for Strictures and Control on Fodder and Food (Ofscoff), welcomes the government's promised new regulations on disability in the food chain (England). A spokesperson for Ofscoff, Dr Isabella McTarry-Wilson, is...