well worth watching

Tocqueville in China

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:29:00 -0700

First there was Confucius. Then there was Mao Zedong. And now Alexis de Tocqueville tops the must-read list for avid Chinese intellectuals and bloggers.

The UMP Dogfight

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:25:00 -0700

I'm not sure that Claude Guéant's support for François Fillon is an advantage in his fight with J.-F. Copé or not. One might have expected Guéant, who supported the droitisation of the UMP in Sarkozy's last year, to have gone with Copé, who seems to have committed himself to extending the tactic. But Guéant, a bureaucrat at heart, may find Fillon's understated style more congenial. Who knows? Politics, like romantic comedy, is a matter of chemistry. With supporters like Guéant and Baroin in his camp, Fillon had better watch his back, but then I suppose that back-watching is part of the job description of party leadership. This contest has now been running about as long as a presidential campaign. It's time for a vote.

Lecture Canceled

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:25:00 -0700

As announced here earlier, I was to give a lecture at CEVIPOF in Paris on October 26. Unfortunately, a medical issue has arisen that will prevent me from traveling for a bit, and I've had to cancel that lecture. My apologies to anyone who took the trouble to register. I will also have to suspend blogging for a while from Tuesday, Oct. 16, while I recuperate. Thanks for your support.

Badke's books: Research processes and Research Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:14:00 -0700

Badke, W. (2012) Teaching Research Processes: The Faculty Role in the Development of Skilled Student Researchers. Oxford: Chandos; New York: Neal-Schuman. ISBN: 9781843346746
The book "suggests a novel way in which information literacy can come within the remit of teaching faculty, supported by librarians, and reconceived as "research processes." The aim is to transform education from what some see as a primarily one-way knowledge communication practice, to an interactive practice involving the core research tasks of subject disciplines." Info here.
Also just a reminder that there is a free online abridged version of William Badke's Research strategies (updated March 2012). The full book is available in print and e-book versions:
Badke, W. (2011) Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog. 4th ed. iUniverse.com ISBN-13: 978-1462010172
The website with details of the publication and the abridged web version is at http://acts.twu.ca/library/textbook.htm

EU Wins Nobel Peace Prize

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 06:10:00 -0700

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize before he had done anything. The prize to the EU seems like the opposite: a sort of lifetime achievement award (overlooking a few mishaps such as Srbrenica and Kosovo). Europe may be collapsing, but it's not at war. In this light, the prize, while somewhat pointless, is not absurd. But it must seem a rather bitter pill to everyone but the fatuous José Manuel Barroso, who was crowing about the award this morning. Europe would do better to take care of its problems than to sit on its laurels.

Information Literacies Track call for papers

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:18:00 -0700

There is an information literacies conference track for the eighth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS8). COLIS 2013 takes place at the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-22 August, 2013. The call is for short or long papers presenting empirical research within information literacies and/or discussjng methodological issues. The deadline for submissions is March 1st 2013. Among the accepted papers on information literacies, one paper will be awarded the inaugural iilresearch Best Information Literacies Paper Award. The call for papers is at http://www.iva.dk/english/colis8/call-for-information-literacies-track/ and the COLIS conference web site is at http://www.iva.dk/english/colis8/ Questions regarding the workshop should be directed to Camilla Moring, member of the iilresearch-network and Local chair (cm@iva.dk). General queries regarding submissions should be directed to Jeppe Nicolaisen (jni@iva.dk), Chair of Publications and Proceedings.
Photo by Sheila Webber: duck, Sheffield, October 2012

This Is Not a Tabloid or a Scandal Sheet

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:01:00 -0700

Nevertheless, as Tolstoy observed, gossip is an essential part of human existence, and there is some gossip that is too juicy to ignore in a fit of high-mindedness.

Incoherence in Economic Policymaking

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:37:00 -0700

France has just approved the TSCG, ex-Merkozy, essentially signing on to the austerity bandwagon. At the same time, the IMF has issued its World Economic Outlook, which points out that austerity has already failed and is in fact making matters worse. The incoherence in global economic policymaking could not be more complete. And meanwhile, the US is preparing to fall off the fiscal cliff.

Here is Christine Lagarde's warning:

Christine Lagarde has urged countries to put a brake on austerity measures amid signs that the IMF is becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of government cutbacks on growth. Ms Lagarde, IMF managing director, cautioned against countries front-loading spending cuts and tax increases. “It’s sometimes better to have a bit more time,” she said at the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank on Thursday.
The fund warned earlier this week that governments around the world had systematically underestimated the damage done to growth by austerity.

Lagarde gets it, which should give pause to those who blame this crisis on "neoliberalism." If there were such a thing as a neoliberal consensus, the IMF would have to be part of it. But the IMF has gone off in a different direction under the leadership of Lagarde. The WEO contained this graph, which has now been widely reproduced in the blogosphere:

Paul Krugman explains:

I and others have been arguing for a while that the experience of austerity in the eurozone clearly suggests pretty big Keynesian effects. Here, for example, is what a scatterplot of fiscal consolidation (from the IMF Fiscal Monitor) and growth (including an estimate for next year, from the World Economic Outlook) looks like.

But, you might object, maybe the causation runs the other way; maybe countries in trouble are forced into fiscal consolidation, so it’s not the austerity what did it. But the IMF has an answer to that: it looks at forecast errors versus austerity. Part of the reason for doing this is to figure out why things are going so much worse than expected; but there’s also the fact that the forecasts already included the known problems of the economies in question, so that you’re more or less getting an estimate of the impact of austerity over and above the known problems (and the initially assumed effect of austerity, which was supposed to be small).

Here, "IMF" really means IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard and economist Daniel Leigh, the authors of "Box 1.1" in the WEO (which can be downloaded here). They argue that the "multiplier" in the world's deleveraging economies is much larger than previously thought, indeed greater than one. Hence fiscal expansion adds more than €1 to GDP for every additional euro of government spending and subtracts more than €1 for every euro slashed by zealous budget cutters. This could make the goal of returning to equilibrium an infinite regress: for every step governments think they are taking toward it, the goal actually recedes by a greater distance. That is why Christine Lagarde is warning of the dangers of a downward spiral into depression. The risk is not negligible, but political systems throughout the developed world seem absolutely incapable of recognizing it. Instead, we slouch toward serfdom.

Sarko le Barbu

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:48:00 -0700

Ex-Pres. Sarkozy has grown a beard, as you may have heard. No, he hasn't converted to Islam. Roselyne Bachelot thinks that he will keep the beard as long as he is content to remain out of politics, but the minute he ends his "retirement," the beard will come off.

In any case, he has been talking with reporters about his successors at both the Élysée and the UMP. About Hollande, apparently, he speaks only in mimed gestures: rolled eyes, shrugged shoulders, etc. "Il sait que ses propos sont immédiatement répercutés et qu'un manque d'élégance pourrait lui coûter cher dans l'opinion.:" But it seems that concern about lack of elegance doesn't hold him back when discussing François Fillon: he "has no balls," Sarko says of his former "collaborator." He's just a bourgeois from the Sarthe and will never win the presidency because he doesn't have what it takes to talk to "le peuple."

Take it for what it's worth, folks. Is this a covert endorsement of Copé? It's odd that Sarkozy has no harsh words for JFC, since there was no love lost between the two during his presidency. Maybe he views Copé as a stalking horse for ... himself. If and when he decides to make a comeback, a UMP droitisée by Copé would be a more suitable vehicle than a UMP bourgeoisifiée by Fillon, and Copé, who is running as Sarko bis, would be easier to dislodge than Fillon, however emasculated.

Open Education video winners

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:30:00 -0700

Creative Commons together with the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Foundation had a competition to create short videos about open education, and these are worth a look (I liked the 3rd prize winner best). My only quibble would be that some of them seem to equate open education with Open Educational Resources (whereas I think there is more to education than providing resources!) http://whyopenedmatters.org/videos/
Photo by Sheila Webber:leaf on a chair, Turku, 2008

Paris Talk

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:18:00 -0700

I will be speaking Paris on Oct. 26, 12:30-2 PM, at CEVIPOF. The subject is a comparison of the US and French presidential elections of 2012. Registration is required at the CEVIPOF Web site.

Le Pen Minister?

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:20:00 -0700

Did Nicolas Sarkozy consider offering Marine Le Pen the ministry of the interior on the eve of the final presidential debate? According to Bernard Girard, this is the message of a forthcoming book--and the proposal came from Camille Pascal, a centrist, not from one of Sarkozy more extremist advisors such as Patrick Buisson. Remarkable if true. Ã suivre.

Imaginaires, représentations, pratiques formelles et non formelles de la recherche d'information sur Internet: PhD thesis

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Tue, 9 Oct 2012 15:30:00 -0700

A French-language thesis on schoolchildren's concept of internet searching has just been put online.
Cordier, A. (2011) Imaginaires, représentations, pratiques formelles et non formelles de la recherche d'information sur Internet : Le cas d'élèves de 6ème et de professeurs documentalistes. UNIVERSITÉ CHARLES DE GAULLE – LILLE III. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00737637
I did not really spend enough time with it (considering my moderate French language skills) to give a good account of what it is about, but I think it is an investigation into 11-12 year old French schoolchildren's experiences of searching the internet, contrasting this experience with what the school librarians have as their goal for information literacy teaching. The latter are urged to pay more attention to the pupil's practice with information and technology.
This is the French abstract "L'objectif de ce travail est d'apporter une meilleure connaissance des imaginaires, représentations et pratiques non formelles développées par les élèves de 6ème sur la recherche d'information sur Internet, et d'effectuer un parallèle et une confrontation avec les pratiques de formation mises en oeuvre par les professeurs documentalistes. Pour ce faire, une étude qualitative, combinant entretiens semi-directifs et observation distanciée, a été menée au sein de trois établissements scolaires français. L'adoption d‟une éco-posture pour analyser la recherche d‟information sur Internet permet de considérer les pratiques de recherche et de formation de manière située, en tenant compte des contraintes opérées par les espaces d'action identifiés. Le sentiment d'expertise personnellement ressenti en matière de recherche sur Internet joue pour les deux types d'acteurs un rôle fondamental à la fois dans l'appropriation de l'outil et dans l'appréhension des séances de formation. L'étude révèle un écart important entre les pratiques de recherche ordinaires des élèves et les pratiques prescrites par les professionnels."
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more anemones, October 2012

TSCG Adopted

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Tue, 9 Oct 2012 08:41:00 -0700

The TSCG has been approved by a vote of 477 to 70, with 282 deputies of the Left voting in favor. In other words, the treaty would not have passed without the support of the Right. Not a brilliant victory for Hollande, but a victory, since he has now committed himself to getting along with Germany. For better or worse, he now owns what used to be called "Merkozy."

Frechman Shares Nobel Prize for Physics

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Tue, 9 Oct 2012 07:57:00 -0700

Serge Haroche shared this year's Nobel Prize for Physics for his work in quantum optics.

Workshop / Atelier

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Mon, 8 Oct 2012 18:41:00 -0700

“Attunement and Empathic Reflection”

Workshop with Megan English

on Saturday October 20th, 13h-17h

dans le studio « A » des Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal

4816 rue Rivard, Montréal H2J 2N6

PRESENTER’S BIO:

Megan English is a Dance Movement Psychotherapist in private practice in Toronto. Over the past few years, Megan has worked towards spreading the word about Dance Movement

George Kuh article for discussion in October

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Mon, 8 Oct 2012 17:27:00 -0700

The article which the ACRL Student Retention Discussion Group has chosen for October is:
Kuh, G. and Gonyea, R.M. (2003) The Role of the Academic Library in Promoting Student Engagement in Learning. College and Research Libraries, 64(4), 256-282. http://crl.acrl.org/content/64/4/256.abstract
To join the discussion, go to http://connect.ala.org/node/189260
George Kuh is an influential figure in US Higher Education, and I think that this article is still worth reading (whether or not you decide to join in the debate!) The authors took data from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire and compared various sets of questions including the set of questions relating to library use, some key questions to do with satisfaction, and a set of questions which they selected as being a (sort of) match with ACRL standards.
The authors make some pertinent remarks about how important variables to do with previous academic achievement, ethnicity etc. are, when trying to link library use with academic success, something which some other studies gloss over.
The evidence does not support an easy correlation between academic excellence and library use, or library use and (the authors' measure of) information literacy. The final paragraph reads:
"The findings of this study indicate that it takes a whole campus to produce an information-literate college graduate. For this reason, librarians would do well to redouble their efforts to collaborate with faculty members, instructional development staff, and student affairs professionals in promoting the value of information literacy in various in-class and out-of-class activities and to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to evaluate the quality of the information they encounter, on and off the campus."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn arriving, Sheffield, October 2012

Sciences Po Management Criticized

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Mon, 8 Oct 2012 05:06:00 -0700

The management of Sciences Po during the era of Richard Descoings's directorship, has been harshly criticized by the Cour des Comptes.

Information Literacy petition

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 10:21:00 -0700

There is an online information literacy petition from Easybib - the implication is that it is for librarians in the USA, but it doesn't actually say that, so.... This is what it is about
"In celebration of Information Literacy Awareness Month, we have set up an online pledge for librarians to sign and show their commitment to teaching these imperative skills. For each signature acquired on the pledge, EasyBib will donate $1 to the American Library Association... If you are dedicated to teaching IL skills and would like to sign our pledge, please following this URL: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pledge-to-promote-information-literacy-awareness/ (You do not need to register for an account in order to sign.) The free service used for this campaign, iPetitions, may ask you after you have signed our pledge to provide an optional donation to them. If you see this, just close out of your browser window--your name has been recorded and you are in no way obligated to donate any money"
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn leaf (photoshopped) October 2012

Crashed Aquilla Lander Completed

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 09:00:00 -0700

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us again at Nurgle favored cupboard. Now firstly I will apologise for being away for some time now, but some as you know I have had an entire house to decorate and let me tell you it is not fun. Most of that has now been done and the time I have had I have finished my crashed Aquilla lander.

I purchased some Vallejo gloss varnish to paint over the glass sections once I had finished protect coating the piece with Army Painter's Matt Varnish spray. I think the end result has turned out rather well and I am pleased with the 'glass' effect I achieved The only thing I don't like is the 'smiling faces' you will see in image below. It almost as if a lone guardsmen survived the crash and is beaming a smile outwards from the glass. 'Haha! You didn't kill me. The emperor is watching over me!'. Also as you can see below I ended up going for a golden Aquilla rather then the white one I was deliberating over.

On another note I picked up my new shiny Chaos codex today. The sultry voices from the warp are already calling me to read it entirely and decide what to buy from the new stuff, which will be hard because it all looks amazing! The new style of codex is awesome though and it well worth the extra cost. I have one of the new fantasy hardback books and they feel more sturdy.

Until the next time you grace Nurgle's favored cupboard, may Nurgles blessings fall on you.

Regionalism on the Rise

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 01:05:00 -0700

Steven Erlanger has a nice piece in The Times about the rise of regional separatist sentiment across Europe. The paradox, as he points out, is that the European Union, which is supposed to create greater solidarity among the nations of the continent, is weakening national solidarities among regions from Catalonia to Scotland. The problem at this level is Europe's problem writ small, as it were: the rich don't want to pay for the poor and don't acknowledge that they owe their less fortunate fellow citizens anything. Interestingly, we have the same problem in the United States at the individual level: those who are better off resent the taxes they pay to support those who are worse off. In Europe, the principle of the welfare state is more widely accepted as a norm, but the body of fellow citizens--what Tocqueville called semblables--to whom one recognizes a duty of solidarity is not fixed and can vary with ambient economic conditions, as we are now discovering.

Promoted

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sat, 6 Oct 2012 14:35:00 -0700

Your humble blogger was promoted yesterday to the rank of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Here I am at the podium at Harvard's Center for European Studies reminiscing about 44 years as a Francophile.

Police Dismantle a "Terrorist Cell"

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sat, 6 Oct 2012 09:35:00 -0700

"A network, almost a cell" of more than a dozen people, said to be "delinquents" converted to "radical Islam," has been dismantled by police. One man was killed, ten others were arrested, and two or three remain on the loose. The network was spread across France from Strasbourg to the Alpes-Maritimes. Ties to Salafism were noted.

Le Pen au Chocolat

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Sat, 6 Oct 2012 08:03:00 -0700

Jean-François Copé is having a hard time establishing himself as Sarkozy's successor and heir apparent. It's bad enough that he has to fend off a challenge from François Fillon. But on top of that he just can't seem to get hold of the right rhetoric to prove that he is now in fact the incarnation of la droite décomplexée, the role in which his recent eponymous "Manifesto" cast him. So he's gone poaching in the Var, Le Pen country, where he came out with his now famous paean to le pain au chocolat:

« Il est des quartiers où je peux comprendre l’exaspération de certains de nos compatriotes, pères ou mères de famille rentrant du travail le soir et apprenant que leur fils s’est fait arracher son pain au chocolat à la sortie du collège par des voyous qui lui expliquent qu’on ne mange pas pendant le ramadan. »

This gem packs a lot into a small space: it manages to imply that the criminal element (voyous) coincides with Ramadan-celebrating Muslims who terrorize small children and deprive them of that quintessential snack of le Français de souche, le pain au chocolat.

This rather lame emulation of Lepenist rhetoric unleashed a torrent of laughter on Twitter. The title of this post is taken from one of those mocking tweets. Others can be read here. Like many imitators, Copé assumes that the original he seeks to copy is easily imitable. In the case of the Le Pens, it isn't.

WILU 2013: call for papers

noreply@blogger.com (automotive) — Fri, 5 Oct 2012 10:26:00 -0700

There is a call for papers for the Canadian Information Literacy conference: WILU. The Conference will be held at The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, May 8-10, 2013. The theme for WILU 2013 is Synchronicity: The Time is Now which "reflects the increasing need for Instruction Librarians to balance a myriad of seemingly competing demands. We invite proposals that consider what it means to provide timely information literacy programs in a world of synched devices, decentralized instruction, and information overload, all while serving institutions in flux." Possible topics include: Merging tradition with innovation; Balancing educational theory with pedagogical practice; Providing instruction for interdisciplinary programs; Theorizing instructional technology; Distributed instruction; Information ethics; Open access resources for instruction; Literacies: information and beyond. The deadline for proposal submissions is December 3rd, 2012. More info at http://lib.unb.ca/WILU/program/call-for-proposals/
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more autumn anemones, October 2013