Poll Results and New Poll

It’s been an age, but here are the results of the last poll: For the question, 30% of respondents favored him saying, “Excuse me, sir, but could you say that again in English?” while 20% of the twenty respondents (likely SF fans) favored him asking random Texans, “So do you know Bruce Sterling, like, personally?” If you would like to check the poll results, please feel free to do so. And please vote in the new poll in the right sidebar. We at eclexys I hope that this new poll is a little more amusing than the last one.

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Do students want foreign teachers?

Found at Simon’s ever-worthwhile Asia By Blog roundup: Scott Sommers has written an article about his perception that Taiwanese students don’t particularly want foreign teachers. There are some points in the comments section relating to the parallels in Korea, especially posts by our famous Blinger. I disagree with some of what Blinger says, such as the terribly superficial judgment on how real professors and teachers ought to dress, and I can say from experience that it seems to me professor who wear ties can, at least in some places, expect just as much ridiculous treatment from the Korean administration as …

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Rats, Levers, Bad Couples, And the Cost-Benefit Analysis

Over at Every Topic in the Universe(s?), the blogger for whom I have no other name than either “omniverse” (or “impressed”, the name under which she last posted) raised the following question: If they give a rat a lever it can push to get a food pellet, it’ll push whenever it wants a food pellet. If they give a rat a lever it can push that will SOMETIMES give it a food pellet, it will push the lever CONSTANTLY, will become virtually obsessed with pushing it. HUH?!! It’s counter-intuitive, isn’t it? To me, not really. It makes a lot of …

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