Spiegel und MOOC

Spiegel-Online hat sich zum Phänomen "massive open onlinbe-course" geäussert und dabei ist mal wieder ein an dürftiger Schlichtheit kaum zu überbietendes Artikelchen herausgekommen -Link zu Spiegels Klugscheißerei
Was soll  man zu soviel geballtem Unsinn schon sagen?
Daphne Koller, eine der Gründerinnen von Coursera, einem Anbieter dieser Kurse hat in einem TED-Vortrag so räsonniert: Vielleicht kommt dre nächste Nobelpreisträger aus Afrika, vielleicht ist dort Jemand mit Talent und Begabung, aber ohne Zugang zu Bildung. Da setzt Coursera an und stellt eben Bildung zur Verfügung. Zentral sind die Video-Vorlesungen dazu gehört das Forum, in dem die Professoren sich nicht zu schade sind, ihren Online-Studierenden zu helfen. Oft wird als Nachweis ein Zertifikat angeboten, das natürlich nicht ein Schein aus Princeton oder Harvard ist. Aber, was soll's, vor allem, wennes doch auf die Bildungsnhalte ankommt.
Auch wenn sich Spiegel-Online amüsiert skeptisch gibt, so hat ein Professor der Universität von Virginia eine ganz andere Haltung. Philip Zelikow, der einen Kurs unter dem Titel The Modern World Global History since 1760 angeboten hat, resumierte ganz anders: 

Since a number of you have asked about some of the course statistics, I'm glad to share some with you, in addition to the quantitative data in the survey. The number of students that enroll in a MOOC (in this case around 47,000) is not a very interesting number. Many of those students never even try out the course. About 26,000 people around the world sampled this course at some point, perhaps just glancing at part of a video presentation. Of these, my estimate is that somewhat more than half of those — maybe 13-15,000 — decided to give the course a go and really work at it.

Of that number, it seems that about half of those were determined to take all the quizzes, more or less on time. Almost 5,000 students earned Statements of Accomplishment, the large majority of those Distinguished. Since this is one of the longest courses on Coursera, running the length of an entire 14 week semester (not counting spring break), earns no formal credit, and is usually a significant addition to the very busy lives practically everyone leads, that represents a striking level of commitment to studying and reflecting on modern world history. In addition to that number, I estimate that a roughly comparable number, perhaps another 5,000 or so, are auditing the course thoroughly — taking some or none of the weekly quizzes — but nonetheless working their way through the material.  

Das klingt doch ganz anders als Spiegels belustigte Distanzierung.

Rejsekort og Movias uforskammethed

Movia har tudet os ørene fulde, hvor supergodt alt bliver når vi løber rundt med et rejsekort i lommen. I mellemtid læser vi oftere og oftere, at Rejsekortet i mange tilfælde er en forringelse af service og dermed en forøgelse af prisen. Det kunne man også læse i den seneste udagave af Søndagsavisen. Som svar på tiltalen siger Anders Due fra Movia:

»Det er ganske rigtigt en forringelse i forhold til klippekortet. Men jeg kunne omvendt spørge: Synes du, at du har fået to rejser eller én rejse for ét klip, og hvorfor skal dine medrejsende betale for, at du får to ture for den samme pris?« siger han.

Javel, vi er samfundsnasser når vi  bruger klippekortet i en time. Mage til sludder skal man vist søge længe efter.  Nej, Due, en forringelse bliver en forringelse og det er stadigvæk mig som har betalt for turen og ikke min "medrejsende".
Forringelsen og forøgelsen gælder for øvrigt også for min "medrejsende", medrejsende som også er Movias betalingskvæg. Det kan ingen Due fra Movia skjule med en undskyldning at samme ringe vilkår glder nu for alle bruger af Movia, og så hjælper der ingen ævl fra en eller anden Due.

Whitsun Walk

It is good that we still have two days to celebrate Whitsun. Yesterday the weather was rather poor, but today it was so nice that it would have been a pity to stay at home. So I decided to explore more of Copenhagen.
The urban train was today astonishingly dirty. Sticky remains of soft drinks and newspapers from last Friday. What a disgrace that DSB cannot maintain its property better.
Østerport Station is a good starting point for different walks. The station has taken its inspiration from Viking farms. Old meets new:

Train leaving Østerport Station

Nyboder (New Houses) is neat to the station. The quarter was established by king Christian IV., the king who heavily influenced how Copenhagen looks today. Nyboder is a very early example for row houses. Thefirst houses were built in 1631. Later tmes was critical about the standard in these houses and several barbarians tried to knock down these houses. Fortunately these houses are now covered by monument protection.

Nyboder, an acute-angled corner

I won't put pictures of the status around Churchill Park and Langelinie. I think I will make an album with those somewhere else. Not all islike great art, but still - it's a part of the whole, like this one:

Theobald Stein's statue of a fisherboy from Naples. Must have been a very warn summer that year.

For reasaons which I don't understand I have never been to the Citadel before. The place is special, as it is the oldest still working barracks. Or as the armed forces call it: a modern working place in historical surroundings. Kastellet (the citadel) used to be self-supplying with bread, but most of the windmills are gone.

The last windmill of the citadel has more symbolical than practical value.

I also wanted to see the place Brumleby at Østerbro. Here after the cholera the Danish general physicians did something unusual for that time: they built houses with sufficient light and place and green areas. This public housing often was about to disappear, as greedy speculative iniutiative tried to demolish these houses. However, the people living in these houses fought a gritty fight with the municipality. Now these houses should be protected and safe for posterity. Now it's organized as condominium and the houses have been cautiously and carefully been restored.

Brumleby - housing for the "poor classes", now a popular place to live

Mod lyset (Rudolph Tegnér) - Art in public spaces

Niels R. Finsen was a Danish physician from Feroese Islands. He observed that light - and rays - have a beneficient effects on organisms and was the first to use this knowledge in medical therapy. He was really popular in his time and when he died, at the age of 43 'the people followed him to the grave'. Finsen is now rather unknown, although he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1903.
Rudolph Tegner is the creator of the monument in the honour of Finsen - a what a monument. Tegnér liked to produce in a monumental style. With him you are never in doubt what he is talking about. It seems that this 3-some is enjoyed the rays of light, which unfortunately were absent when I took the photo.
The statue is at the intersection of Blegdamsvej and Tagensvej in Copenhagen, close to the National Hospital (Rigshospital). 

Tegner had a propensity for anatomical details

Jesus, pengene og livet (Gretelise Holm)

En af de fornøjelser at være med i en bogklub er den at få kendskab til bøger, jeg ellers aldrig ville have læst. Formentligt ville jeg ikke havde læst denne bog, hvis ikke den var anbefalet af fagbogklubben. Der er bare det, at bogen allerede var op i februar må¨ned men jeg fik den altså først nu fra biblioteket. Nogle gange er det mellem svært og umuligt at få en aktuel titel igennem sit bibliotek. Men det viser så også, at det er en populær bog.
Holm fortæller om sin barske opvækst i det sønderjyske, med en hysterisk-religiøs mor og en voldelig far der kun til tiden kommer op af tumpe-stadiet. Og så avler de børen som hamster. Holm sætter lup på de vilkår, mennesker må have når et samfund kun er minimalsolidarisk, et samfund som synes at være paradiset for Liberal Alliance. Det er en verden, hvor meget talent ville gå til spilde, et socialdarwinistisk samfund. Holm møder ved skær tilfældighed en lærer der gør det muligt for hende at få realeksamen i Kolding - og socialkontoret i hendes hjemby knurrer, fordi de skal betale for undervisningen. De så det meget hellere at Gretelise havde tjent som børneslave hos en rig bonde.
Bogen giver en god forståelse for, hvorfor Holm er som hun er. Og den virker også relevant i den nutidige diskussion om hvorvidt et samfund skal være solidarisk eller ej.
Bogen omhandler hendes familie og hendes eget liv op til 1970, til sidst bebuder hun en fortsættelse. Jeg glæder mig til den. 

Holm bestyrede også et ismejeri med sine brødre ...

Skyfall (2012)

I will admit right away that I am nor very much into James Bond. I do, however, occasionally enjoy action, suspense and thriller movies - so why not gibe this one a chance, especially since I saw the trailer today.
Skyfall is a pyrotechnical movie with more emphasis on the special effects department than on the development of the story.
We start right away with a chase through the lanes of Istanbul. As if they were too small, we continue on the roofs of that town and proceed later on top of a train. At no moment it is clear why Bond is chasing somebody and how the chased has qualified to be the object of Bond's manhunt. - At a point M orders a shot, although miss Moneypenny cannot guarantee a clean shot and seemingly Bond dies. Of course Bond is not dead, else we would have seen a short film. It never becomes clear how he survives, but he watches on CNN that MI6 is under attack. This wakes up his sense of duty and he reports back.
This time the evil guy is a former special agent who has a special relationship to M, almost like an Oedipus complex. He is more sick than mad, more pathetic than evil. Unfortunately the story never takes any surprising turns, there is no special twist, just boredom in the expectation that they are going to blow up something more.
In short, Skyfall is not an interesting story that has some interesting special effects, but rather a collection of assorted chases and effects that are clumsily held together by a badly written story. The dialogues of Bond are as if Schwarzenegger had been  casted as Bond and all the other characters never manage to move out of the shadows of their cliches. My rating: 4/10.

Bond, stallion and also otherwise superhero, is always ready to shoot

Walks through Copenhagen

I am living for some time in Copenhagen and now it's highest time to explore the place, view it as a tourist and, hopefully, see and know about places I usually just pass by. I know already many streets that before just were names. Now I know where is the post office in Købmagergade and I can also place Peter Bangs Vej, the street in which one of Denmark's most famous murder cases occurred. And also Jagtvej 69, the place where the infamous notorious Ungdomshus.
Close to that no longer existing house is Assistens Kirkegård, which corresponds to Père Lachaise with graves of many famous people.

Hans Christian Andersen - probably rhe most famous Dane ever.,

Søren Kiekegaard -famous Danishg philosopher. (Why do I add famos? If he were famous, I didn't need to say so...)

...................................................

Søren Kierkegaard - (Happy Birthday!) -- for those in the knowing

I was just walking around after that and did not watch out for specific persons. I encountered these:

Vilhelm Topsøe - writer and journalist

An anonymous communist

This just is a beautiful symbol

Frøhlich - a composer. Much of his music is no longer heard today and this is probably a pity. The music he composed for Bournonville's ballets is lovely though.

...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................