There's no substitute for being able to watch someone perform an operation in order to learn, so this comprehensive collection of free online videos is designed to help you perform step by step statistical tests using the power of the procedures built into Microsoft Excel and SPSS.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Globorix: GSK - good pharma or bad pharma?

GSK: Good pharma or bad pharma? Discuss.
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that/which
I'll fess up. I get confused by the distinction between “that” and “which.” So I looked it up.
Fortunately, there's not much evidence that any distinction is or has ever been made by careful writers of English. However, the more anally-retentive authorities say that there is a difference; so here, courtesy of Jack Lynch, it is:
If you are defining something by distinguishing it from a larger class of which it is a member, use “that”:
When the general class is not being limited or defined in some way, then “which” is appropriate:
Now you might expect Auntie Beeb to be a bit uptight about English usage, but it seems that in the present hip BBC, you can let it all hang out.
Groovy, man.
Download MP3
Fortunately, there's not much evidence that any distinction is or has ever been made by careful writers of English. However, the more anally-retentive authorities say that there is a difference; so here, courtesy of Jack Lynch, it is:
If you are defining something by distinguishing it from a larger class of which it is a member, use “that”:
“I chose the lettuce that had the fewest wilted leaves.”
When the general class is not being limited or defined in some way, then “which” is appropriate:
“He made an iceberg Caesar salad, which didn’t taste quite right.”Clue: “which” is normally preceded by a comma, but “that” is not.
Now you might expect Auntie Beeb to be a bit uptight about English usage, but it seems that in the present hip BBC, you can let it all hang out.
Groovy, man.
Download MP3
Thursday, March 29, 2007
UK Science Funding Cuts - ePetition

"I wish the Government to review its recent decision outlined below:
The British Government has slashed the funding of scientific Research Councils by £68 million. The Research Councils most affected by this include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which has been hit by a £29 million reduction in funding, and the Medical Research Council, which is seeing a £10.7 million reduction in funding. The response of the BBSRC biological research council announces that the council will have to cut 20 new grants and reduce expenditure on new equipment."
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Second Life Backlash

Just like Martin, I don't get SL in education.
Someone please tell me what I'm missing.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2007
AskDrWiki

I tend to find that the majority of my colleagues (and students) are influenced by media reports of Wikipedia forgeries and horrors and will not be swayed by the data (including mine) which says that Wikipedia is at least as accurate as most peer reviewed sources.
Students are particularly concerned that the peer review aspect of Wikipedia is carried out by people who are "not qualified" in their opinions (err, so I'm not qualified I guess).
Other colleagues have expressed the view that using wikipedia for student assessment in the way that I do is problematic because "next year they won't have anything to write about" - i.e. they foresee the end of knowledge approaching (I don't)!
The problem I have with askdrwiki is the compartmentalization of knowledge.
At the UK Blackboard users conference last December, it seemed that every Staff Development type in the UK had … started their own staff development wiki … to which one or two people had contributed (no institutional brownie points), before the project had, well not died exactly, just tailed off … after wasting significant amounts of staff time.
So my problem with askdrwiki is: what's wrong with Wikipedia? Compartmentalization of knowledge among limited user communities is a good way to ensure these projects, well, not fail, just get ignored. Sure, Wikipedia has it problems, but IMO, that means the onus is on us to get in there and fix them
Now where are my institutional brownie points for doing that?
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PLoS ONE: Journal 2.0?

And if it works out, please let me know (you can leave me a comment).
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Creating Content: Students as Users
The always readable Kathy Sierra has a new article on User Community And Return On Investment. Kathy's blog Creating Passionate Users is directed at marketers rather than educators and is all about involvement and building user communities, but hold on a moment ...
Isn't this a model worth thinking about when you next need to create teaching materials?
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Isn't this a model worth thinking about when you next need to create teaching materials?
Download MP3
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
I Cu Superbugs

Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital is swapping steel for copper in an 18-month trial to test the findings. 80% of hospital MRSA transmission is believed to come from contact with surfaces such as door handles, bathroom taps, toilet flush handles and grab rails. To test the theory one general medical ward is having copper installed in preparation for the trial while a similar ward will retain its traditional fittings. Even pens used by staff will be made from copper alloy. Copper reacts with the bacteria and inhibits respiration - the Egyptians may have used copper thousands of years ago to treat infections.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Word of the Day: Meh
Meh: Indifference; to be used when one simply does not care.
Homer: Kids, how would you like to go... to Blockoland!
Bart & Lisa: Meh.
Homer: But the TV gave the impression that -
Bart: We said "meh".
Lisa: M-E-H. Meh.
Homer: Kids, how would you like to go... to Blockoland!
Bart & Lisa: Meh.
Homer: But the TV gave the impression that -
Bart: We said "meh".
Lisa: M-E-H. Meh.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Students assessed with Wikipedia
The BBC reports that postgraduates at the University of East Anglia are being assessed as they edit existing Wikipedia article.
Yawn! Wake up BBC! I did this over a year ago!
Yawn! Wake up BBC! I did this over a year ago!
3D Animation of HIV Replication
Thanks to Biosingularity for pointing at this great 3D animation of hiv replication:
Friday, March 02, 2007
MicrobiologyBytes.com Updates
- Novel drugs against poxviruses.
- AIDS: CCR5 antagonist Maraviroc has recently shown some efficacy in clinical trials.
- A recombinant HEV vaccine has recently proved to be safe and effective in a phase 2 clinical trial.
- TTV: Torquetenovirus update.
web2dna
www.microbiologybytes.com as DNA courtesy of web2dna:

Web2DNA takes a website, analyzes it, crunches it up and spit it out as a graphic representation of DNA. The brightness of the lines is determined by the importance of the tags in terms of structure:

- H1 is brighter than H2, which is brighter than H3...
- TABLE is brighter than TR, which is brighter than TD tags...
- Images and flash elements appear as 70% white.
- New HTML tags like STRONG and EM is brighter than older ones like B and I
- UL, OL and DL is brighter than their LI, DT, DD
- DIV layout is brighter than table layout
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