Bad Faith Radio plays --Series Two has begun
series 1 can be heard from within above link...http://www.peterjukes.com/
also wierd tales make excellent listening
Sunrise
6 years ago
random image
Friday, 30 September 2011
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
readings
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
readings
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Recovery
Recovery...The Slow Road from Ewan Dyer on Vimeo.
A short film about nature and it's place in modern society. Producer/Director/Editor - Ewan Dyer, Poet -Gary Boswell, Composer -Audioscores (www.audioscores.com), Shot with Sony EX3, Canon 7D & (Time lapse) Nikon D80. Shot at Consall Gardens in Staffordshire...
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Sundae
A short film about a school boy who goes to do work experience with his dysfunctional uncle and starts to discover what sort of person his uncle really is. A Ewan Dyer Film Ewandyer@Hotmail.com
Monday, 17 January 2011
Monday, 6 December 2010
Decision Analysis for Success - a course for students?
superb article BACKGAMMON: DECISION ANALYSIS FOR SUCCESS by Harvey Gillis reproduced here without permission from US Backgammon Federation Website for archival & educational purposes
© 2010 Harvey Gillis
The drama was unfolding. The choices were complex and I was sure that the result of making a mistake could be deadly. Attacking was risky; but so was doing nothing. A setback at this point could spell defeat for the entire campaign. The volatility of the situation made the decision even more difficult. Perhaps I could stall, buying myself some time or deferring a frontal assault by the enemy? Without a precise model, the choice was unclear; but I had to act. I would just have to rely upon strategic principles and my limited experience to make the decision.
A reader may think that I am describing the war room of a major military conflict, a final showdown of two business competitors, an incredibly important investment decision, the pursuit of a dangerous criminal, or even a medical team’s handling of a malignant tumor. Not so. This was an ordinary encounter between two backgammon players! Backgammon is a seductive game that is easy to learn but enormously difficult to master — even after decades of study and practice. Stripped of prejudice, backgammon is a sophisticated decision theory application taking place within a stochastic (probabilistic) environment – not, in this respect, unlike life, war, business, forensics, or the stock market. Like these related analytical pursuits, it requires – and develops — strategy, oversight and sagacity.
For these reasons alone, backgammon should be taught in high school and college. It surpasses many other skill-based games in preparing young adults for the puzzles they will confront in their personal and professional lives when forced to make decisions under conditions of incomplete information and uncertainty. In addition it forms character, teaching the youthful mind how to deal with adversity and accident, taking those negatives in stride and even turning them to one’s advantage.
Backgammon teaches a skill set that is essential to success for virtually anything that a person will encounter in their career, investments or personal life. It frames a methodology for selecting between precarious decisions. Its virtues are:
1) Backgammon teaches probabilistic decision making under stress.
2) It builds character, confidence and self-esteem.
3) It teaches the student how to deal with uncertainty and bad luck.
4) It rewards situational analysis and the building of alternative scenario outcomes.
5) It teaches the important lesson that strategy is more important than tactics, guesses, emotion or instinct.
6) It encourages the student to understand his adversaries.
7) It teaches you to distinguish between mortality and survivable morbidity.
8) It rewards “what if” analysis.
9) It rewards preparation. “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”
10) Backgammon emphasizes the “war over the battle.”
11) It teaches analytical concepts and probabilities.
12) Backgammon rewards flexibility
13) It teaches the rewards of taking calculated risks. “To take no risk is the greatest risk of all.”
14) It is exciting. Like life, a backgammon game can take unpredictable twists and turns.
Given this impressive array of benefits, you should want your children introduced to backgammon at the earliest age possible. At minimum, we should all advocate the formation of backgammon clubs at high schools and universities, as Joe Russell, a past World Champion, has done at UCLA. And backgammon would be a great accredited course on decision analysis for business students. Working with Phil Simborg, head of the Backgammon Learning Center, Professor Don Berecz has followed this path at Georgia Southern University, introducing backgammon as an accredited course for all freshmen. Projects like these are just what the Education Committee of the U.S. Backgammon Federation is pursuing. I hope I have convinced you to support that effort in any way you can. Now, I have a backgammon match to play with a good friend. I am going to play for the most important reason: it’s fun!
visit www.Fibsboard.com (run by stog) for Backgammon info & how to play online for free on FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Centre)
Harvey Gillis (photo by Pat Gibson)
Harvey Gillis© 2010 Harvey Gillis
The drama was unfolding. The choices were complex and I was sure that the result of making a mistake could be deadly. Attacking was risky; but so was doing nothing. A setback at this point could spell defeat for the entire campaign. The volatility of the situation made the decision even more difficult. Perhaps I could stall, buying myself some time or deferring a frontal assault by the enemy? Without a precise model, the choice was unclear; but I had to act. I would just have to rely upon strategic principles and my limited experience to make the decision.
A reader may think that I am describing the war room of a major military conflict, a final showdown of two business competitors, an incredibly important investment decision, the pursuit of a dangerous criminal, or even a medical team’s handling of a malignant tumor. Not so. This was an ordinary encounter between two backgammon players! Backgammon is a seductive game that is easy to learn but enormously difficult to master — even after decades of study and practice. Stripped of prejudice, backgammon is a sophisticated decision theory application taking place within a stochastic (probabilistic) environment – not, in this respect, unlike life, war, business, forensics, or the stock market. Like these related analytical pursuits, it requires – and develops — strategy, oversight and sagacity.
For these reasons alone, backgammon should be taught in high school and college. It surpasses many other skill-based games in preparing young adults for the puzzles they will confront in their personal and professional lives when forced to make decisions under conditions of incomplete information and uncertainty. In addition it forms character, teaching the youthful mind how to deal with adversity and accident, taking those negatives in stride and even turning them to one’s advantage.
Backgammon teaches a skill set that is essential to success for virtually anything that a person will encounter in their career, investments or personal life. It frames a methodology for selecting between precarious decisions. Its virtues are:
1) Backgammon teaches probabilistic decision making under stress.
2) It builds character, confidence and self-esteem.
3) It teaches the student how to deal with uncertainty and bad luck.
4) It rewards situational analysis and the building of alternative scenario outcomes.
5) It teaches the important lesson that strategy is more important than tactics, guesses, emotion or instinct.
6) It encourages the student to understand his adversaries.
7) It teaches you to distinguish between mortality and survivable morbidity.
8) It rewards “what if” analysis.
9) It rewards preparation. “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”
10) Backgammon emphasizes the “war over the battle.”
11) It teaches analytical concepts and probabilities.
12) Backgammon rewards flexibility
13) It teaches the rewards of taking calculated risks. “To take no risk is the greatest risk of all.”
14) It is exciting. Like life, a backgammon game can take unpredictable twists and turns.
Given this impressive array of benefits, you should want your children introduced to backgammon at the earliest age possible. At minimum, we should all advocate the formation of backgammon clubs at high schools and universities, as Joe Russell, a past World Champion, has done at UCLA. And backgammon would be a great accredited course on decision analysis for business students. Working with Phil Simborg, head of the Backgammon Learning Center, Professor Don Berecz has followed this path at Georgia Southern University, introducing backgammon as an accredited course for all freshmen. Projects like these are just what the Education Committee of the U.S. Backgammon Federation is pursuing. I hope I have convinced you to support that effort in any way you can. Now, I have a backgammon match to play with a good friend. I am going to play for the most important reason: it’s fun!
visit www.Fibsboard.com (run by stog) for Backgammon info & how to play online for free on FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Centre)
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