Trevor Cook

Our Universities: Why Are They Failing?

And at universities that boast of their commitment to undergraduate teaching, too many professors gabble through PowerPoint slides twice a week and entrust the face-to-face teaching of actual students to underpaid graduate students and Ph.D.s on short-term contracts, who do their best to impart basic skills in writing and quantitative analysis while earning only a few thousand dollars a course.

via www.nybooks.com

Hmm

Is Abbott sinking? (from @sspencer_63)

Queensland Speaks | Interviews with key Queensland politicians, senior public servants and others over the last 40 years

Queensland Speaks presents interviews with key politicians, senior public servants and others, providing a fascinating insight into the personal and political world of decision making in Queensland over the last 40 years.

via www.queenslandspeaks.com.au

An excellent new site

In Murdoch land: how many lives are worth risking for a story?

Former editor of The Australian, Paul Whittaker, bargained with the Australian Federal Police over how many lives would be lost if the newspaper published its scoop on the Operation Neath anti-terrorism operation before raids took place, it was revealed in the Melbourne Magistrates Court today. The Commissioner of the AFP, Tony Negus, said that when he told Whittaker — now editor of the Daily Telegraph — that lives would be at risk if he published, Whittaker replied: “Well, how many lives are at risk?” Negus said he responded that if the suspected terrorists were alerted to police attention, they “may actually go to the nearest shopping centre and decide to take action because they won’t have time to prepare properly”. Negus said Whittaker replied: “Well, what are we talking about, one person being killed, or are we talking about a number of people being killed?”

via www.crikey.com.au