17.202 Graduate Seminar in American Politics II (MIT)
This is the second in a sequence of two field seminars in American politics intended for graduate students in political science, in preparation for taking the general examination in American politics. The material covered in this semester focuses on American political institutions. The readings covered here are not comprehensive, but it is sufficiently broad to give students an introduction to major empirical questions and theoretical approaches that guide the study of American political institu
21W.747-1 Rhetoric (MIT)
This course is an introduction to the theory, the practice, and the implications (both social and ethical) of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion. This semester, many of your skills will have the opportunity to be deepened by practice, including your analytical and critical thinking skills, your persuasive writing skills, and your oral presentation skills. In this course you will act as both a rhetor (a person who uses rhetoric) and as a rhetorical critic (one who studies the art of rhetor
Back bench rebels
Since the British Labour party’s re-election with a reduced majority of 66
Philip Cowley, Reader in the University’s School of Politics and International Relations, was recently nominated for the Times Higher young researcher of the year award. In this podcast, Philip discusses his research into back bench rebellions within the British parliament. Philip describes his research as practical politics, linking academic research to the real world of political debate.
Challenges to the Absolute Prohibition of Torture
Professor Nowak outlined definitions of torture, highlighting the prohibition of torture as an absolute and non-derogable right in international law. He
Professor Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, delivered the Second Annual Paragon Human Rights Lecture, held each year to mark International Human Rights Day. He spoke about the current challenges facing the absolute prohibition of torture, particularly with respect to the ‘War on Terror’.
Why Human Rights Matter
Irene Khan argued that the UK's counter-terrorism policies are undermining the absolute prohibition of torture and ill treatment. She maintained that this approach is based on a false assumption that ef
On the eve of International Human Rights Day, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, delivered the inaugural Paragon Human Rights lecture. She spoke about the erosion of human rights in the name of counter-terrorism measures in the UK and across the globe.
The Human Adaptation for Culture
Professor Michael Tomasello from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology’s Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, in Leipzig, Germany gave the inaugural annual public address for the School of Psychology entitled The Human Adaptation for Culture.
Lying at the core of his argument is language and therefore culture is the product of remarkable and recently evolved faculty to understand othe
Professor Michael Tomasello
The global campus-ICT and the future of universities
This paper analyses the changes which the ICT causes on a global scale. The globalization of higher education triggered by e-Learning,
the emergence of e-infrastructure for e-science, the Open Educational Resources
movement, e-libraries and the tendency of building global educational alliances are analysed as well. Special emphasis is put on several wellknown university models, e.g. Research University, Open University and
Entrepreneurial University, as well as on some emerging university models
Offshore Engineering
Since 1926 Dredging Engineering and since 1975 Offshore Engineering courses are given at the Delft University of Technology. In 2004 these two specialisations merged and formed the new MSc programme Offshore Engineering, a two-year curriculum leading to the MSc degree in Offshore Engineering. The programme consists of four specialisations: Fixed (Bottom Founded) Structures, Floating Structures, Subsea Engineering and Dredging Engineering. Students with a BSc degree in Civil Engineering, Mechanic
Geomatics
Our world is driven by information. Think about how much we use Google Earth, TomTom, GPS, and satellites. In our globalised world it becomes more and more important to have an overview. Geo-information is crucial for this and people who can deal with this information as well.
‘Geo-information’ – the geographical coordinates of buildings, roads, property boundaries, water pipes, and even trees – is considered as an essential resource by both government and industry, where it is consta
PoesÃa Inglesa (siglos XVI-XX) (2009)
This course offers a pocket-guide to English Poetry from the end of the sixteenth to the last decades of the twentieth century. It combines a historical, critical and theoretical approach and aims to raise questions rather than provide answers. Its aim is not to teach contents but skills: it is hoped that at the end of the course the student will have overcome a common illness, consisting in a persistent phobia generally experienced by those exposed to a poem in English. The course will aim to s
Elongated Skulls Discovered in Russia Elongated skulls similar to those found in South America have been discovered in Russia. Altering the shape of the head through head binding was also practiced by ancient Egyptians, Australian Aborigines and certain tribes of North American natives.
Bringing a 2000-year-old painted warrior to life
A 2000-year-old painted statue is being restored to her original glory by scientists from WMG at the University of Warwick, the University of Southampton, and the Herculaneum Conservation Project.
Science in Focus: Shedding Light on Science: Workshop 7. Sun and Seasons
Light energy from the Sun is absorbed all over the Earth. In this workshop we will examine how the transformed energy heats the Earth unevenly, causing seasons.,The segment examines how the sun's path in the sky changes over the seasons, and how the tilt of the Earth's axis affects the number of daylight hours for people at different latitudes throughout the year.
Crazy Nuts - Impossible Object Optical Illusion A simple but mind-boggling optical illusion of the impossible object type. This illusion shows two independently moving nuts that seem to defy the laws of geometry.
Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Global Health Concerns and Issues A Public Health Seminar delivered by Candace Chandra, Founder and President, Canary Strategies, LLC on Monday, May 10, 2010 Due to the severity, length, and frequency of conflict around the world, global health is increasingly involved in post-conflict reconstruction. Conflict is increasingly impacting not just the burden of disease and prevalence of serious injuries (including mental health), but also destroying health care systems and physical infrastructure - creating an emergency
The Impact of Smoke-Free Workplace Laws on Acute Myocardial Infarction Deaths A Public Health Seminar delivered by Melanie Pickett on Monday, April 26, 2010. The rate of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) deaths in Massachusetts was examined before and after the implementation of a comprehensive smoke-free workplace law in July 2004. The impact of the state law in cities/towns with and without prior local smoking bans and the effect of the local laws were examined for the period 1999 through 2006. Following the implementation of the state law, there wa
Executive Compensation: More Regulation, or Just More Transparency?
The question of whether CEOs of America's major companies are overpaid has been a subject of interest for many years. Are the compensation practices for these elite men and women fair and appropriate? Do they provide proper incentives, or do they reward excessive caution or risk taking? Wharton accounting professors John Core and Wayne Guay have just completed a study on this topic. Guay, along with colleague Chris Armstrong, sat down with Knowledge@Wharton to discuss executive compensation and
Pre-Service Teacher Training in Mathematics Using Tablet PC Technology
This study focuses on the use of innovative Tablet PC technology in learning and teaching mathematics. Specifically the effects of incorporating Tablet PC technology in pre-service teachers' mathematics education were analyzed. The significant impact of technology use in mathematics education was assessed by evaluating and comparing students' final project and course grades. Grade performance of two groups of students was compared. One group was the treatment group where students extensively use
Online Library of Scientific Models - A New Way to Teach, Learn, and Share Learning Experience
While scientific models are usually communicated in paper format, the need to reprogram every model by every user results in a huge loss of efforts, time and money, hence lengthening the educational and research developing cycle and loosing the learning experience and expertise gained by every user. We demonstrate a new portal www.imodelit.com that hosts a library of scientific models for electrical engineers in the form of java applets. They are all conformal, informative, with strong input and
Developing SCORM-based Courses for Avicenna Virtual Campus
Avicenna Virtual Campus (AVC) is UNESCO-led, multi-cultural EUMEDIS pilot project. It involves partners from sixteen Euro-Mediterranean states. Each partner contributes through a node called Avicenna Knowledge Centre (AKC), which produces e-courses and e-learning objects. For seek of interoperability, partners setup a pedagogical standard to guide the production process of learning objects. Further more, researchers adopted and recommended SCORM as a standard model for structuring learning objec
