Çarşamba, Haziran 28, 2006

Pupils + internet = nightmare for Sir

A site allowing children to rate their teachers may sound harmless but it could ruin careers, writes Craig Barton

I first heard about the website during a maths lesson with my Year 10s. While I was trying to teach about the beauty of quadratic equations, it was clear that the roomful of adolescents in front of me had other things on their mind.

The topic of their whispered conversations was the website http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/exit.jhtml?exit=http://www.ratemyteachers.co.uk, and even the conscientious students had downed tools to find out more. On my return to the staff room, it immediately became clear that I was not the only one to have been told about the site that Monday morning. Conversations about Year 8 reports and the latest episode of Lost had been replaced by talk of internet law.

A group of teachers was already huddled around our archaic computer trying to log on as fast as the school network would allow. I decided to wait until I was home to take a look, and my eyes couldn't quite believe what they were seeing.

The website, which began life in America last year, provides a database of schools across the UK. Once you have located yours, a click of the mouse brings up a list of everyone currently teaching at the school. First names and each teacher's subject area are also given.

Next to each name is an average rating out of five and a face to reflect the score, ranging from a yellow smiley one complete with a cool pair of sunglasses down to the blue, teary face bestowed on those who score one out of five. The number of people who have "rated" each member of staff is shown, and an additional mouse click breaks down the ratings into three categories: clarity, helpfulness and easiness. All that's missing is the name of the reviewer.

Like many other websites, this one makes its money from the adverts that appear on its pages, but there is also supposed to be something inherently virtuous about it. The banner at the top of each page contains the phrase "honest, essential critique".

To many, apparently, the idea of a forum where students (and indeed parents, for there is a section for them also) can share their honest views about the people who teach them, free from any possible retribution, is a good one. But is this what the students use the site for and, even if it is, is that fair on the teachers?

With regard to the first question, the evidence is mixed. Some students do seem to be using the website for the purpose intended by offering support and appreciation for their teachers or criticising specific areas of their teaching in what could be construed as a constructive manner. Perhaps some teachers should read out of the textbook less or spend more time praising the well behaved children instead of always shouting at the naughty ones.
However, it is clear that some students are simply using the website to abuse teachers in a way they would never dare to at school. While the website states on its rules page that comments must not include vulgar or profane words or name calling, it is clear that some comments are slipping through the net.

For example, one of our teachers was labelled "a fascist" in a rather succinct and unconstructive two-word review.

Schools across the country appear to be sharing similar experiences. A teacher from a secondary school in the Nottingham area is in receipt of the following feedback: "He is a BOARING maths teacher. the only good thing is: if he catches u talking, nod at him like he is ure mate and he looks away. Groovy, eh???"

In a school in London, we are told: "Mr X is a joke. I hate him." In Greater Manchester, things get a little more sinister: "Wahey!!! Part-time teacher!!!! He locks ppl in cupboards and makes dem cry home to their mummyss and daddys."
Perhaps most worrying is the following comment made in the parents' section about a teacher in a school in Lancashire: "My poor daughter came home squealing for many a day because of this woman. Evil."

The website also includes a "hall of shame", which is a list of all the schools that have banned pupils from accessing the site during school hours. There is also a warning that should any teacher pose as a student in an attempt to redress the balance, the site "WILL post a note on the school's page when you are discovered". So teachers have been warned.
The second question is clearly a more controversial one. Is it right or fair for the kind of personal comments about individual teachers that are usually confined to the playground to be made available to what is potentially a worldwide audience?

You could argue that teachers should have thick enough skins to be able to handle such criticisms, whether justified or not, but that misses the point. The website could very well be used by parents trying to decide which school to send their children to, or employers looking for a way of screening applicants for a job.

A negative rating and a nasty comment by a student who has been put in detention for failing to do his homework could have far-reaching and rather serious consequences.
I am told that, legally, the website is doing nothing wrong, but surely some serious moral questions have to be asked. I know of no other profession whose members are subject to such scrutiny, and the effect it is already having on staff morale is both profound and demoralising.
I know that I am biased, but teaching is a hard enough job without this hanging over our heads.
Craig Barton teaches at a comprehensive on Merseyside. His novel, "The Cambridge Diaries: A Tale of Friendship, Love and Economics", is published by Janus.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Pazartesi, Haziran 26, 2006

Short Overview: Progress in Iraq

In '03 we deposed Saddam with a lightening blitzkreig. We kept moving in a sandstorm. We made the greatest one day advance of any army in history (160 miles). A testament to American mobile logistics.Saddam skips town and his fasicst thug generals are rounded up and invited to stay in some special hotels left over when the previous occupants were invited to return to their usual pursuits by Saddam before he left town.

Then we fumbled for a year or so fighting the insurgents on our own, getting to know the place, the players, the local customs, and trying to figure out what to do next. All the while ordering long lead items like power stations and electrical substatioins. And finding Saddam living in a sewer. After having a duel with his two sons (late and unlamented) who died in a hail of gunfire in a bathroom. Some kind of family fetish I expect.Then some guy figures, it is starting to get calm enough for elections, and can we design a system for a country of 25 million and install it in time to hold fair elections? Can we get candidates to run? And so there were elections. Three of them in a year. And six months after the last, we have a sovereign government. Who can't wait to get rid of us, after they have a few political problems forcefully ironed out.

All the while we are recruiting and training an army and police force. A year and a half later and the army is performing moderately well and the police force needs some serious attention. All but four provinces are pacified and the Sunnis are scared to death that we will leave them to the tender mercies of the folks they have been oppressing for the last 30 years and bombing for the last 2 1/2. The Kurds in the north are doing well (they have been under American protection for a decade and a half) and the Marsh Arabs are doing better now that the marshes are being restored. Baghdad and its environs are a problem. As are attacks on the oil infrastructure.

The long lead items are getting installed and plans are being made for a troop draw down when the Iraqi Army gains some more manpower and experience. They are having no trouble getting recruits despite bombs going off in the recruiting line.So I see continued progress with some areas that need attention.We've come a long way baby.Way too early to give up.


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http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/

Çarşamba, Haziran 21, 2006

North Korea Flexes Its Muscles

After years of inconclusive meetings on North Korea's nuclear program, Pyongyang appears to be readying a bold move. North Korea is reportedly moving closer to testing a long-range ballistic missile (NYT). As signs of preparation?including fueling of intercontinental ballistic missiles?seemed to point to a possible launch, Pyongyang told its citizens to wait by their radios for news (globalsecurity.org). The move would end an eight-year pause in such tests and comes despite strong Japanese and U.S. warnings (VOA).

Condoleezza Rice warned North Korea that any such test would be considered "a provocative act" (AP). China and Russia are also urging Pyongyang to return to negotiations, which led last fall to a declaration committing to the "verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." South Korea has also joined the chorus warning Pyongyang against a missile test (LAT). But the traditionally close relationship between Seoul and Washington is growing chillier over their differing views on how to treat North Korea (Newsweek). South Korea favors engagement and eventual reunification, while the U.S. stresses disarmament.
Some suggest concern over the potential missile test may be misplaced. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists offers a detailed look at North Korea's nuclear capabilities in 2005, noting that while it is widely known Pyongyang has a nuclear program, Kim Jung-Il's regime has never conducted a nuclear test or conclusively demonstrated it has operational nuclear warheads. Contributors to the blog Defensetech.org note U.S. and other intelligence sources cannot confirm that missiles are actually being fueled. And Brookings visiting scholar Alexander Vorontsov analyzes Kim's "military-first" policy, saying it may be oriented more at maintaining domestic order than threatening neighbors. Such a policy could be seen in a positive light, Vorontsov writes, when compared with South Korea's transformation, which began with military rule.
Other countries seem to be losing patience with Kim. On June 16, Japan's parliament passed a law calling for tough sanctions against Pyongyang if it doesn't improve its human-rights record (Asia Times). Japan could prevent North Korean ships from docking at Japanese ports and block cash transfers to North Korea without explicit UN authority.
One exception to the global trend is China: Daniel Sneider of the San Jose Mercury News writes Pyongyang still has a strong ally in Beijing, whose growing closeness to Kim's regime is causing concern in both Seoul and Washington. China is also a key trading partner for North Korea, which is expanding its markets in an ongoing capitalist experiment described in this Backgrounder.
Asia scholar David Kang argues in the Washington Post that, to make progress, the United States should broaden its focus on North Korea from the nuclear issue to the wider theme of north-south unification. Graham Allison tells CFR.org's Bernard Gwertzman that the Bush administration's North Korea policy of "threaten and neglect" has been "an abject failure." James Goodby of the Brookings Institution suggests encouraging a "peace regime" involving people-to-people contact and state-to-state relationships that promote cooperation. A compilation by Stanford's Asian-Pacific Research Center, North Korea: 2005 and Beyond, features several authors who write that economic progress, commerce, and integration may be the strongest forces for change on the Korean peninsula. And Randall Ireson, who leads the Quaker agriculture development program in North Korea, offers a blueprint for how to bring North Korean agriculture to the point that it could once again feed its people.


http://www.cfr.org

Cumartesi, Haziran 17, 2006

Ankara preparing to ask for over $30 mln in compensation from Athens

Ankara preparing to ask for over $30 mln in compensation from Athens over last month's collision of Turkish and Greek F-16 fighter jets over Aegean which left Greek pilot dead. Turkey to back claim with video recording and fact that region isN2t part of Greek flight information region

New details in final report show Ankara and Athens turned from edge of crisis after collision: Turkey sent armed F-16 jets to region just after accident, Greece recalled fighter jets to prevent escalation of tension

Ankara is preparing to seek compensation from Athens over last month's collision of Turkish and Greek F-16 fighter jets over the Aegean Sea which left a Greek pilot dead.

Turkey stated that the Greek fighter jet crashed into the Turkish one from below while coming up behind it and is therefore seeking more than $30 million in damages. The legal process concerning the claim will begin after NATO finalizes its investigation into the deadly dogfight which resulted in the collision.

Ankara is backing its claim with video images taken by another Turkish fighter jet which witnessed the collision and the fact that the region is not part of Greece's flight information region.

New details of collision in final report

The final report on the collision of the Turkish and Greek fighter jets has also brought to light new details about the incident.

According to the report, Turkey sent armed F-16 jets to the area just after the accident while Greece recalled its fighter jets from the area to prevent escalation of tension in the region. The report concluded that the fact that Turkey sent armed fighter jets to the area is an indicator that the two countries were close to a crisis just after the collision.

The report also states that the Turkish pilot, who survived, didn't activate the ejector seat himself but that it happened automatically after the accident. During search and rescue operations to find the pilots, the report states that tension was high. When a Turkish-flagged ship rescued the Turkish pilot, the report said that Turkish and Greek search and rescue teams went to the ship. While a Turkish Army officer was amusing the Greek team, a Turkish helicopter took the pilot from the ship and took him back to Turkey, according to the report. There was reportedly also a dispute between the Turkish army officer and Greek team.

ABHaber

Cuma, Haziran 16, 2006

Investors cope with new economic risks

The threat of rising inflation and interest rates has fueled sell-offs in US and global stock markets.

Despite a generally strong world economy, stock-market declines here and abroad this week are confirming a new investor mood that's focused less on hoped-for highs and more on the downside risks.
Many stock indexes remain up for the year to date, but in the past month they have shifted sharply downward, led by the emerging nations that had been posting the strongest gains.

From May 8 through this Monday, for example, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has fallen 13.8 percent, the Russell 2000 index of small US stocks is down 8.7 percent, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index of large US stocks have shed 4.5 percent of their value. Similarly, a broad index of major foreign stocks, from Europe to Japan, is down about 5 percent.

Wednesday morning, after sell-offs in China and Japan earlier in the day, traders pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average back and forth across the psychologically important 11,000 mark.

Topping the list of risks is the threat to the overall pace of global economic growth, as the US Federal Reserve and other central banks raise interest rates to combat inflation. Some fear that rising interest rates could cause a recession. Many see that scenario as unlikely, but still fret that slowing growth could dampen corporate profits.

"The sell-off in risky asset markets has been global," Richard Berner, an economist at investment powerhouse Morgan Stanley in New York, wrote to clients late last month. "Until recently, many investors were hoping for the Goldilocks scenario of just enough growth to sustain earnings, credit quality, and brisk demand for commodities, but not enough to stir inflation and more Fed tightening."

The current climate, by contrast, has brought a range of potential risks to the forefront. Dangers include the possibility of a sharper-than-expected downturn in the US housing market, a continued slide in the value of the US dollar, an interest-rate overshoot by inflation-wary central banks, and some unforeseen financial crisis in the murky but massive realm of hedge funds.

This doesn't mean that a market meltdown is coming. But it's been enough to ramp up volatility on trading floors from New York to Bombay.

In essence, the global economy has entered a phase where its momentum is harder to read. Many forecasts call for world gross domestic product to continue growing at a healthy clip of about 4 percent this year. But recent signs in the world's largest economy are troubling. US inflation is edging up, even as job creation - a key driver of future growth - faltered in May, according to a report last Friday.

Mr. Berner, for his part, suggests that concerns about a US economic slowdown are overblown. He predicts a resumption of solid growth during the summer.

"Until that resilience restores confidence in the outlook, however, investors may continue to reduce risk in their portfolios," he said in his May 24 commentary. He calls this move the "risk-reduction trade."

Translation: Sellers could dominate financial markets for a while, especially in riskier regions and sectors. Cash looks increasingly attractive to some investors, given concerns that rising interest rates could hurt both stocks and bonds.

Shares in Japan and Thailand fell to six-month lows Wednesday, while South Korea's market dropped 2.7 percent, for example. China's Shanghai composite index of stocks posted its largest one-day drop in more than four years, meanwhile, although analysts attributed the 5.5 percent sell-off mainly to traders who wanted to build cash to buy new stocks that will begin trading soon.

The new focus on market dangers was captured, in an oblique way, in Business Week's latest cover headline: "Mr. Risk goes to Washington" was the magazine's take on President Bush's choice of Henry Paulson, the chief executive of investment house Goldman Sachs, to run the Treasury Department.

The thesis is that Mr. Paulson brings a refined understanding of risk and rewards to that important job - but also that the times demand such skills. He will have to cope with worldwide concerns about the dollar - will it fall too far or not far enough? - and about whether the governments of industrialized nations can afford to pay health and pension benefits without fueling inflation.

Those concerns, and not just the shorter-term uncertainty about central bank policies, are part of what's rattling investors these days.

Some analysts suggest the dollar needs to fall gradually against the currencies of US trade partners to shift patterns of commerce into better balance.

But with the US as the world's leading consumer nation, others - including exporters from Beijing to Berlin - worry that any "weak dollar" policy could destabilize the world economy. And a weaker dollar, they argue, won't by itself correct America's gargantuan trade deficit with the rest of the world.

By Mark Trumbull | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Çarşamba, Haziran 14, 2006

Kazakhstan to join Azerbaijan-Turkey pipeline project in June

ASTANA, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan is ready to sign an agreement on shipping crude across the Caspian Sea to a pipeline from Azerbaijan to a Turkey, the president of the energy-rich country said Thursday.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking at an investment summit in the commercial capital of the Central Asian country, Almaty, said: "This month we will sign an agreement with the Azerbaijani government on linking Kazakhstan to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline."

The 1,100-mile BTC pipeline enables Azerbaijan to supply crude from its oil fields off the Caspian coast to Western markets via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The Kazakh president said, "The agreement will be signed during the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia in Almaty."

Under the agreement 25 million metric tons (183 mln bbl) of crude a year will be transported from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan. During the first stage, 7.5 mln tons (55 mln bbl) will be shipped from the Aktau port across the Caspian Sea each year, to Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

The volume of investment will be decided after the agreement is signed between the two countries' governments.

By the end of 2006, the BTC project will be pumping around 300,000 bbl/d of crude to the Mediterranean. The pipeline is expected to meet its throughput capacity of 1 mln bbl/d by 2008. Eventually, half of the pipeline's supplies will come from Azerbaijan and the other half from Kazakhstan.

The main shareholders in the BTC project are London-based oil major BP (30.1%) and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (25%).

Turkey Signs Up For Asia-Pacific Space Program

Turkey signed a charter for a planned international space program Thursday, making it the ninth member of the organization, which has its headquarters in Beijing.

On behalf of the Turkish Government, Oktay Ozuye, Turkish ambassador to China, signed the convention on the proposed Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), which is designed to promote the peaceful use of space technology in the Asia-Pacific region.

Turkey is ready to work with other friendly countries in the region for the peaceful use of space technology, said the ambassador.

He hopes that the Turkish Parliament will ratify the convention when it is in session in winter this year.

Among those at the function were diplomats from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand and space officials from China. The eight countries signed the document last October in Beijing.

Sun Laiyan, director general of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said China welcomes the move by Turkey to sign the convention.

Luo Ge, secretary general of the Secretariat of the Interim Council of the APSCO, said that the use of space technology could be vital in predicting natural disasters, such as the devastating earthquake in Indonesia, and coordinating relief and rehabilitation work for people in areas hit by the disasters.

"I hope that the other nations in our region will also join this ambitious cooperative program for the socio-economic benefit of the Asia-Pacific Region in general, and the APSCO member States in particular," he said.

A multi-purpose small satellite project involving some members of APSCO is now being built and will probably be launched next year, he noted, which will be used mainly for environmental protection and other Earth observations and scientific research.

China, Thailand and Pakistan initiated a proposal in 1992 on the formation of a multinational organization in a bid to promote cooperation in space technology and applications in the Asia-Pacific region.

In August 2003, officials from those countries agreed in Bangkok that the APSCO headquarters would be located in China.

China, working in cooperation with departments of the United Nations and other international organizations, has offered short-term training programs for 260 trainees from countries in the Asia and Pacific region, mostly developing ones, during the past five years.

In March, China announced its decision to provide weather information equipment to the seven countries that signed the convention so they could receive its satellite weather information free of charge.

The weather information coming from Fengyun Meteorological Satellites has been used in weather forecasting, natural adversities prevention, environmental monitoring, and data transmission and scientific research.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Pazartesi, Haziran 12, 2006

Ancient stone tablets found in Turkey

Ancient stone tablets and seals unearthed during archaeological excavations at the Surtepe tumulus, in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa (Turkey), could shed light on other ancient structures discovered in the area. A team of experts headed by project director Jesus Gil Fuensanta of Spain who have been working in the area as part of the Tilbes salvage project, discovered a monumental building - believed to belong to the Persian-Achaemenid period - at the Surtepe mound during excavations in 2005. Surtepe is a large site covering 50 hectares and is believed to have been an area of settlement even during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages (fourth and third millennia BCE).

Fuensanta explained in a statement that the Persian building "was found in a place formerly uncovered by villagers. It had an official use until the early fourth century BCE. Up to three meters of its massive mud-brick walls were preserved, and it has traces of a paved court. During the 2005 excavations, different rooms of the building were also excavated. On the inside, which was partly burnt, were typical Achaemenid pots and fragments and administrative artifacts."

Among the finds in the site are a royal glass seal in the Achaemenid style that had been disfigured by fire and depicts a fertility scene with a leader praying, said Fuensanta. Another impression on a jar shows a typical iconograph of royal worship. According to Herbert Sauren, a German specialist in ancient Semitic languages, one of the seals has official Aramaic (the administrative language of the Achaemenids) writing and refers to the capacity of a vessel.

Fuensanta believes that an enigmatic finding from the same archaeological season, a stone tablet with an inscription, could be associated with the Persian building. According to a preliminary study by Sauren the inscription on the find was made in Semitic, in use around the middle of first millennium BCE. After Sauren's translation and interpretation, it was discovered that the stone document was issued by the leader of this city (Surtepe, the ancient name of which is not yet clear) to thank a deity for his assumption of power. Separately, assistant team leader Eduardo Crivelli noticed that the few animal bones found at the site mostly belonged to horses, the statement said. The horse was a regular theme in Persian iconography of the period, it added.

The results of the studies have been presented at the 28th International Congress on Excavations, Surveys and Research in Turkey.


http://www.stonepages.com/news

Cuma, Haziran 09, 2006

France will not block opening of first chapter of EU talks with Turkey

France showed flexibility in approving quick opening and closing of the first chapter of Turkey's accession talks scheduled for next Monday, diplomats said yesterday. But the Greek Cypriots continued their insistence to include demands from Ankara on the Cyprus problem.

Days before the planned EU-Turkey Association Council meeting and Intergovernmental Conference next Monday, EU members continued discussions on a common position paper for the "science and research" chapter, the first of 35 chapters of accession talks that are expected to continue at least 10 years.

France had long opposed closure of the science and research chapter in the same day, claiming that there should be benchmarks, the EU term describing reference conditions, defined for the closure of this chapter. French diplomats earlier raised several issues, including enhancing autonomy of science and research bodies, developing the administrative capacities and examination of compatibility of international agreements in this field to EU law, and sought for them to be defined as closure benchmarks.

But the majority of EU members did hot give support to the French suggestion. That was based mainly on European Commission's earlier report following examination of Turkey's legislation and implementation on this chapter. The Commission did not suggest any closure benchmark.

France argues that the problem is a question of methodology, and according to the agreed "negotiations framework" with Turkey, EU has to define closure benchmarks in each of the 35 chapters. But according to observers, this is more of an attempt to complicate Turkey's EU accession talks, and is for "domestic consumption" in France.

EU enlargement and Turkey's possible membership is a sensitive issue in France and public polls show that the majority of French people oppose it. French politicians are extremely cautious about not being seen as pro-Turkey's EU process, particularly in the runup to next year's presidential elections.

EU diplomats said yesterday that France recently showed flexibility in quick opening and closing of the science and research chapter, but also wanted to emphasize that this is due to relatively little legislation in this particular area but on regular chapters, closure benchmarks will have to be defined.

"We will be flexible and not going to oppose opening and closure of the science and research chapter on Monday," a French diplomat told yesterday.

The permanent representatives of EU 25 will meet today in Brussels and discuss a common position paper on the "science and research" chapter. EU diplomats are also expected to discuss opening the second chapter of "education and culture," but the insistence by several countries, including France, to include political criteria here makes it difficult for the EU 25 to conclude a common position paper on that.

According to diplomats, another important discussion among EU members on the common position paper on science and research chapter is Cyprus. The Greek Cypriot administration in earlier talks among the EU 25 demanded inclusion of demands on Cyprus from Turkey, but almost all members are against this, EU diplomats said.


ABHaber

Perşembe, Haziran 08, 2006

Conflicting opinion is what drives scientific advance

When it comes to the public communication of scientific findings a further step down a well defined road wins easier acceptance than a deviation from the beaten track. Most academic research is therefore simply boring and eccentricity less tolerated. But any form of censorship encourages complacency and discourages innovation.

The Royal Society, Britain's scientific establishment, has just released a report on public communication of scientific findings. Journalists in search of stories and scientists anxious for publicity and research funding issue early, oversimplified or downright misleading accounts of research. Unsubstantiated claims of a link between immunisation and autism have caused distress to millions of British parents. Korea's progress in stem cell research seems to have been won at the expense of truth and ethics.

The Society's answers are self-restraint and peer review. Peer review is the process by which professions review their own work. Articles submitted to journals receive critical assessment from referees experienced in the field. Peer review is a bulwark against cranks, crooks and incompetents. But too much reliance on peer review carries its own dangers. Every profession defines its own concept of excellence in inward-looking ways.

Successful academics learn how to trigger the buttons that win the approval of referees. The physicist, Alan Sokal, demonstrated this by the submission of a spoof article to the cultural studies journal Social Text in 1996. The content was nonsense, but the form and jargon corresponded so closely to reviewers? expectations that the contribution was accepted. Professor Sokal?s purpose was to demonstrate that standards were lower and more subjective in softer subjects than in more scientific ones and, while he was right, the problem identified was more general. All subjects, from architecture to physics, from literary criticism to economics, develop what Thomas Kuhn called paradigms ? assumptions common to all practitioners and assumed to represent universal truth until a new paradigm displaces the old.

A further step down a well defined road wins easier acceptance than a deviation from the beaten track. Most academic research is therefore boring, and more so as scholarship has become more professional, eccentricity less tolerated and peer review multiplied through processes of grant awards and research assessment. The latest idea in Britain is to make these processes routine by shifting from the costly and fallible exercise of subjective judgment to a cheaper and objective system of quantitative metrics. This can only aggravate the problems.

Big advances come through the paradigm shifts and peer review makes this difficult. The line between the crank and the genius is sometimes a fine one and may only be apparent after time has elapsed. Many Nobel Prize winners had difficulty securing early recognition. The world of today favours the competent professional ? as judged by the standards of other competent professionals. In a sense this self-reference is right: the people to decide whether astrology is good astrology are other astrologers. But they are not the people to decide whether astrology itself is any good. Judgment of the rigour and relevance of professional standards and scholarly research can never be left to professionals and scholars alone.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, an elegant suspension bridge in Washington State, carried traffic for four months in 1940. In a high wind, the flat deck acquired a beautiful wave pattern. The oscillations grew larger and larger until the roadway finally disintegrated into Puget Sound.

The trade newspaper, Engineering News-Record, was forced to retract its suggestion that the designer, Leon Moisseiff, might have been responsible. The editors apologised for any inference drawn by ?the casual reader? that ?the modern bridge engineer was remiss?.

But the perspective of ?the casual reader?, though not a substitute for peer review, is as essential as the contribution of the little boy who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes. Any form of censorship, including self-censorship and censorship by fellow professionals, encourages complacency and discourages innovation. The history of modern scholarship is that, more slowly than we would wish, truth and new knowledge emerge only from a cacophony of conflicting opinions.

www.johnkay.com

Pazartesi, Haziran 05, 2006

Serbia declares separate statehood

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbia's parliament on Monday proclaimed the Balkan republic a sovereign state, following tiny Montenegro's decision to split from a joint union and dissolve what was left of Yugoslavia.

The 126 lawmakers unanimously acknowledged that their state is the heir to the union of Serbia-Montenegro -- the last shred of what was once a six-member Yugoslav federation. Serbia's parliament has 250 deputies, but the opposition boycotted the vote, held during a special session.

"Serbia, as the legal heir to the state union, must formally take over, or inherit, what it has created," said parliament speaker Predrag Markovic.

The assembly instructed all state institutions to complete the process for Serbia's statehood within the next 45 days, including assuming the duties and responsibilities previously in the hands of the federal administration.

Some deputies praised Serbia re-establishing its statehood after 88 years in the Balkan union, but others mourned the loss of a joint state with Montenegro.

"We will restore Serbia's glory," said Miloljub Albijanic, from the ruling G17 Plus party. "Long live independent Serbia."

But nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic felt less proud.

"This is a sad day in the history of Serbia," he said. "Something is happening in Serbia against Serbia's will."

Montenegro's declaration of independence late Saturday, after it decided to split from Serbia in a May 21 referendum, set in motion the process of dividing the joint state's armed forces, diplomatic missions, common assets and responsibilities.

On Sunday, the last president of Serbia-Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, stepped down, as his government dissolved itself and the federal parliament announced it would not meet again.

The Montenegrin head of the Serbia-Montenegro army was replaced by a top Serbian officer, and other changes were to follow.

The Belgrade-based Defense Ministry said it would formally bring down the Serbia-Montenegro flag at military headquarters within days, and replace it with the Serbian flag. The old flag will be placed in a museum, the ministry said.

Montenegro's president, Filip Vujanovic, announced the creation of the Montenegrin army within days.

Serbia and Montenegro were the only two former Yugoslav republics that stayed together after the violent disintegration of the Balkan federation in the 1990s.

Although the two nations share a common language and culture, as well as close historic ties, their relations cooled over recent years, with Montenegro edging toward independence.

In May, Montenegro's voters chose by a slim margin to split from the 88-year-old union with Serbia.

In the early 1990s, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia also split from the Serb-led federation, triggering a series of bloody wars. Serbia's southern, ethnic Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo also hopes to gain independence at ongoing U.N.-brokered talks.

"Everybody has left us," 33-year-old Serb engineer Dusan Petrovic said Monday. "It's time we rid ourselves of all illusions."

Serbia and Montenegro still need to divide dozens of embassies and residences. Serbia, as the union's legal successor, inherits membership in the United Nations and other international organizations.

On Sunday, Montenegro said it has asked all of its Balkan neighbors, European Union states and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to officially recognize it and establish diplomatic relations with its government.


CNN

Cuma, Haziran 02, 2006

Expanding the innovation horizon: Introduction to the 2006 CEO Study

The 2006 CEO Study takes a comprehensive, global look at a topic that is increasingly important to CEOs and government leaders worldwide: innovation. We knew from the study that CEOs were relying on innovation to drive profitable growth. But beyond innovation's bottom-line importance, we believe that business and public sector leaders are acutely aware of the phenomenal challenges society faces in the coming decades?and our mutual dependence on innovation to solve these issues.

We spoke at length with 765 CEOs, business executives and public sector leaders from around the world to learn more about their thoughts on innovation. They were remarkably frank, sharing with us their motivations, plans and even their weaknesses. We learned that two out of every three CEOs expect fundamental changes for their organizations over the next two years. Surprisingly, CEOs do not seem daunted by this challenge. Instead, they see opportunity?opportunity to be seized through innovation. And what they told us may compel leaders to reevaluate their preconceptions about innovation.

* Business model innovation matters?Competitive pressures have pushed business model innovation much higher on CEOs' priority lists than expected. But its importance does not negate the need to focus on products, services and markets, as well as operational innovation.
* External collaboration is indispensable?CEOs stressed the overwhelming importance of collaborative innovation, particularly beyond company walls. Business partners and customers were cited as top sources of innovative ideas, while research and development (R&Dfell much lower on the list. However, CEOs also admitted that their organizations are not collaborating nearly enough.
* Innovation requires orchestration from the top?CEOs acknowledged that they have a primary responsibility for fostering innovation. But to effectively orchestrate it, CEOs need to create a more team-based environment, reward individual innovators and better integrate business and technology.


In our conversations, we found a persistent, worldwide, sector- and size-spanning push toward a more expansive view of innovation. A greater mix of innovation types, more external involvement and extensive demands on CEOs to bring it all to fruition. Based on these CEOs' collective insights, we offer several considerations that can help organizations sharpen their own innovation agendas.

* Think broadly, act personally and manage the innovation mix?Create and manage a broad mix of innovation that emphasizes business model change.
* Make your business model deeply different?Find ways to substantially change how you add value in your current industry or in another.
* Ignite innovation through business and technology integration?Use technology as an innovation catalyst by combining it with business and market insights.
* Defy collaboration limits?Collaborate on a massive, geography-defying scale to open a world of possibilities.
* Force an outside look...every time?Push the organization to work with outsiders more, making it first systematic and, then, part of your culture.


By contributing their own ideas and perspectives, each CEO participant has played an integral, collaborative role in producing this study. And, for that, we are extremely indebted. In turn, we offer the insights from this study to CEOs worldwide in the ongoing spirit of collaborative innovation.

IBM