Humble Opinions

The ecological fallacy: How to spot one and tips on how to use one to your advantage

Weekend of 14-15 January, I took a Tow Endorsement course in preparation for the SIV course later in the month. This is the final flight. Thanks for Roger Stanford (Winch-operator & organiser), and Chris Rogers (Instructor) Getting ready Lift the wing Take up Slack Go! Go! Go! One step and ... airborne A little left break to control yaw Past the "danger zone" Looks easy now another 30 metres or so more height before release About to release

Extracted from an email exchange with a student today: Hello X, I was wondering why it has taken you until Week#13 to notice that there wasn't a grade recorded for you for an assignment submitted in Week#4, but your records have answered it for me. There isn't a grade for the assignment because you didn't do the assignment. BlackBoard records show that you accessed the site only once in the first four weeks (16 August) to download the unit outline. Up to the date of the Progress Report you hadn't accessed iLecture, or the Progress Report guidelines, or any other aspect of the unit. In the four teaching weeks up to 7 Oct, you were a little more active, spending less than five seconds on the Group Project pages, and accessing the tutorial for Week#6. In the final four weeks of classes, you accessed the Week#10 tutorial, and spent about two hours on Qualtrics. That may be more than some in the class, but I doubt it. To summarise, in more than three months, you have done t

Northern Beaches goes to Bright from Hume Winzar on Vimeo . Kirstin organised a group to travel to the legendary Mystic Hill, Bright in Northern Victoria over the Labour Day Weekend, October 2009. Nine enthusiastic novices, with experience ranging from 60+ hours to about 10 minutes, took part. Rain and fickle wind ruined much of the five days, but we had a great time, expanded our skills and knowledge, and saw memorable flights, especially from Nico, Marc, James, and Kirstin. Here is a sample.

Sometimes the deities smile and the reasons we become academics converge and we have a great time as both scholars and lovers of life. This last weekend has been pretty good. I presented a research paper on Friday, curtesy of the Business School at University of Adelaide. The topic was my ongoing study on application of Complexity Theory to undrestanding consumer/market behaviour. There were many more people in attendance than I had anticipated. People went away saying that it was worthwhile and there were lots of questions that got me thinking more clearly about where next to take the project, so it was definitely worthwhile for me. On Saturday I ran a workshop on Best-Worst scaling and how to link that in with conjoint measurement. That went for an hour longer than expected and again everyone felt it was worthwhile. Amongst those two events I was able to catch three shows as a part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, and take in three wineries in the Adelaide Hills, and then fi

These images posted, with permission, from the Gallery at fishrock.com.au A belated post summarising a part of my journey to Sydney from Brisbane. My first plan was to make a circuitous route from Brisbane along the coast and then inland to the town of Manilla over perhaps two weeks. But that really was going to be more driving than it was worth. First stop was South West Rocks, about an hour North of Port Macquarie, where I took pot luck on accommodation, staying two nights at the Sea Breeze Hotel right on the water overlooking Port Macquarie beach. I met a couple of lovely people there - Kieran Hartley and his friend Suzanne Ison. I'll be keeping in touch with them. Next day I went scuba diving! Port Macquarie has some of the most amazing diving that I have yet experienced. The main feature is an underwater cave. At 126 metres long and completely dark inside. Each entrance is guarded by a wobegong shark, not the cute little half-metre creatures that you'll often s