This post is the second of two assignments for the UC, San Diego ‘Learning How To Learn ‘ MOOC on Coursera presented with skill and enthusiasm by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terence Sejnowski.
If you are here as a peer assessor, be gentle with me.
If you are a casual reader, you are one of my target audience and I hope you learn something about learning how to learn from this post.
On the sound principle that you learn best by doing, and sharing, the task is to present three of the main points as if teaching them to others. Continue reading →
Continuing my list of the fifty Greatest British Cult Movies, here is my selection from 20 -11:
20. KES Ken Loach (1969)
One the most remarkable screen performances by a child actor. David Bradley plays Billy Casper, a bright, scrawny 15-year-old kid who is frequently bullied at home and at school but finds an outlet for his frustrations by keeping a pet kestrel. Based on a novel by Barry Hines, it is a moving and brilliantly observed study of hope amid the drabness of working class life in Northern Britain.
19. SHAUN OF THE DEAD Edgar Wright (2004)
The definitive modern day zombie movie with a fine comedy duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Good jokes about struggling to tell the real zombies from the ‘normal’ brain-dead citizens with plenty of surprisingly gory splatter effects. Continue reading →
Psychiatrists are concerned about the effects of staying on Facebook too long.
A friend of mine said recently that there were signs of a backlash against the world domination of Facebook. I strongly suspect this is wishful thinking on his part. If the students I teach at University in Italy are anything to go by, the fascination/addiction is pretty total.
When I have lessons in the language lab, they are constantly checking in for updates (or to make updates themselves – gaffes made during classes are posted in real time.
At breaks, where they would previously have gone out for a coffee or a cigarette they now stay in for quality FB time, free of the burden of having to follow the lesson.
In a recent NY Times article one addict nailed the reason why so many are hooked: “Facebook is amazing because it feels like you’re doing something and you’re not doing anything. It’s the absence of doing something, but you feel gratified anyway.”
This sounds spot on to me. As in the Vaughn Monro song from A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court‘ put it “we’re busy doing nothing’ and “we’d like to be unhappy but we never do have the time”.
“The idea of taking that landscape that you see in such films as Saving Grace and Calendar Girls, not that there’s anything wrong with these films, films that get shown to Americans and they say, “Aw, isn’t England nice?” That’s where I grew up, it’s very scenic and picture-postcardy and the idea of starting like that and then shit blowing up appealed to me” – Edgar Wright – director & co-writer of Hot Fuzz (From interview in The Guardian).
Even in its a dubbed version, Hot Fuzz is British comedy at its best – can’t wait to see the original version on DVD. The idea of British cops in a sedate English village aping Hollywood buddy-action movies is inspired. The scene where ace cop (Nick Pegg) fights one of the villains in a model village is one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in ages. It made me realise that through living in Italy I have completely missed out on the TV comedy ‘Spaced’ (co-written and starring Pegg) and the Hot Fuzz team’s previous zombie spoof ‘Shaun Of The Dead’. Thanks to YouTube I can now plug these gaps.
