Assorted Links

6 thoughts on “Assorted Links”

1. The Berkeley story is good fun. Whether our own (Cambridge’s) department of “Arch and Anth” has such antics I don’t know. (An Oxford-educated friend once complained to me that “the trouble with Cambridge is that people don’t gossip enough. A college or department could be in civil war and the rest of us wouldn’t know about it. In Oxford everyone would know in no time.”)

   The last time I was involved with a change in Head of Department, the body with the power of choice (called, can you believe it, a Syndicate) not only canvassed the views of the academic staff but also of the assistant staff, and then the Chairman of the Syndicate held a meeting with the academics to discuss what was to be made of those responses. It proved a good way to proceed, with a widely respected chap appointed Head and only one nose put badly out of joint.

   It turned out that the views of the academics and of the assistants (secretaries, workshop staff, IT and electronics staff, and so on) were pretty congruent.

   I must say that the consulting of the assistant staff reminded me of a comment from a German research student whom I supervised decades ago: “You are so democratic here”. I corrected him: “We are so democratic here”. He had the good grace to chuckle.

   Naturally the power of the central administration grows by the year: whether the university still feels “democratic” to the old hands, I don’t know.

   Reply
2. Why do you need keyboard covers?

   Seth: They make cleaning possible. Or at least much easier.

   Reply
3. The laptop keyboard cover is a good oneAfter I had my inspiron repaired, I got a cover because no matter how hard I tried I could never keep it cleaned. Now I need a new laptop and I am looking at an asus. What I really like about it is the chiclet keyboard. Much easier to clean around keys. You can probably find good ones for a desktop as well.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiclet_keyboard

   Would something like this work better?https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-Apple-Chiclet-Style-Ultra-Slim-wired-USB-Keyboard-Black-FCC-CE-Approved-/141085947031?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item20d960b497
   The keyboard cover is great at keeping my keyboard clean, but I still want to get rid of it. Maybe I’m being picky Thank you for the links!

   Reply
4. The month of birth effect is larger in Austria than Denmark, so it’s not just latitude. Maybe Austria is cloudier?

   Reply
5. I too prefer a chiclet keyboard. I just got a laptop with a chiclet keyboard but I still was a little reluctant to use it until I got a keyboard cover for it. Maybe I have mild OCD.

   Reply
6. Interesting link about the gut bacteria. I saw a show a few months back where they had an ‘expert’ who specialised in the internal bacterial environment for humans – makes sense, we are an ecosystem.
   Personally, I wonder whether this might be more likely the reason for the success of the raw food movement, ie that it promotes a better internal bacterial balance, rather than the touted enzyme activity, especially since Tim Ferriss has found fermented foods to be a critical part of diet for weight loss purposes. I’d be fascinated to know the differences in bacterial types and populations between modern man and his predecessors.

   Reply