Coursera - now banned in selected countries

Coursera, like many of the massive open online courses provides free university education to the masses worldwide. This is an excellent concept allowing the world's top universities to share their learning materials online led by the top lecturers at their respective institutions. 

I was bewildered when I learnt the United States government banned online access to courses to selected countries of Cuba, Syria, Sudan and Iran - apparently, Syria has now resumed coverage. I feel this is a short sighted decision, the power of education to transform lives and attitudes providing the United States wonderful opportunity to engage people at a very personal level, some could even argue engaging in soft diplomacy. I fear people from countries who are unable to attend traditional bricks and mortar universities are being severely disadvantaged due to internal turmoil or government ideologues not aligning to American values.    

Ironically, I am undertaking a Coursera unit on Critical Perspectives on Management led by a Canadian professor from a Madrid based business school. Being fortunate enough to reside in a rich western country, I have unfettered access to their incredible array of online learning resources. 

The US based education provider fell foul of US export law subject to economic sanctions by the state department. Apparently, export controls have been interpreted in such a manner allowing access to controlled markets, one hopes sanity will prevail and students in blocked countries can resume their  learning experience. 

I understand Coursera is a US based enterprise, it is my hope that the many international universities offering services to Coursera can convince the powers to be to reverse their short sighted decision and return learning to everyone.

Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1

Spending Australia Day with my family saw the cork pulled from a 2005 Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1, it was, as expected, a magnificent wine. Unlike most contemporary Australian wines, a cork is still used at Yarra Yering as opposed to a screw cap used by the majority of producers. Then again, since 2005, they may have moved over to screw caps as well - change is constant, I suppose.

Viewing the label of this wine, it looks as if it was produced by a family member on their home computer, the moment the cork is released, you soon realise no costs have been spared in the production of this marvelous wine.The No. 1 is a Bordeaux style claret consisting of cabernet sauvignon blended with merlot, malbec and petit verdot matured in new French oak.

The aroma exhibits herbaceous notes with a slight hint of tobacco, the palate exhibits complex cherry, plum and blackcurrent flavours with vanilla oak overtones, the aftertaste is smooth with fine tannins. With just on 10 years of bottle maturation, the 2005 is drinking well now with further cellaring potential.

James Halliday, from the Wine Companion awarded the 2005 vintage 95 points, the distinct lack of gold, silver and bronze awards plastered over the bottle shows a no nonsense style allowing the reputation of the No.1 blend to talk instead of label marketing. I have a couple of more bottles stashed away, looking forward to more sunny summer days.

The shark cull begins

Well, the shark cull has not only begun, but the first shark has been caught and destroyed. A three metre tiger shark was caught on a baited line off of Meelup Beach, Dunsborough, Western Australia. The shark was shot four times and taken further out to sea and dumped, this is the dumbest option as the sharks should be loaded aboard the boat, brought ashore and examined by scientists for research purposes. This is in my opinion, a short sighted and ill conceived government policy - an alternative is research, selective shark screening on beaches and shark tagging. 

For a number of years, shark spotting planes have flown over Perth beaches during the summer months in a bid to identify sharks approaching, the water is cleared of swimmers and surfers until the shark leaves the area. Electronic buoys have been deployed where tagged sharks approaching the vicinity register on the system and once again, swimmers and surfers can take a rest on the beach until the shark leaves the area.

Shark culling is a populist option that gives the public the appearance that the problem is being addressed. The community opinion, seen through my eyes is anti-culling but I am sure there is also community support - seen mostly through the surfing fraternity that sharks are killers and murders of the ocean and must be eradicated. They see shark numbers sky rocketing and a danger to all water users lobbying government in an emotive manner, the local Perth media play on this illogical fear in a brazen manner to enrich their own news coverage increasing advertising revenue in the process.      

Bali cockfighting

On a trip to Bali's east coast, we were driving up a valley for the wonderful views looking down the valley towards the sea. We noticed a large ring of men jostling for position and decided to investigate. As we drew closer, it was apparent a cockfight was taking place.

I have spent a fair amount of time in parts of Asia/Pacific over the years and was invited to many cockfights. I always declined as this sport is cruel and barbaric, it is, of course not a sport but a fight to the death with a razor sharp knife strapped to the left leg of the bird. I had always thought the knife was strapped to the right leg but since this was the first time I had seen a live fight, I stand corrected.

I have viewed cockfights on television when I have been in the Philippines, yes, a cockfight is really televised there - I kid you not. Now apart from the fact that this is really boring, there are plenty of people getting excited about this with a whole ritual taking place with standing the cocks up straight, getting them aggressive, pecking at each other before they are launched into the contest.

The aftermath is the death or severe wounding of a bird, they may break them up and relaunch at each other until the loser is incapacitated. The loser, if still alive is put to the side flapping around with severe injuries in a cruel and callous manner.

There is betting going on, cockfighting is all about gambling - this is the cruel reality of gambling, this is really a disgrace.

Why I like my Galaxy Tab 3

I purchased a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 after owning an older generation 7.0; well one of the original devices actually. While I wasn't so upset with my older device, it had a number of issues that caused me grief, that is, the software wasn't up-gradeable and couldn't run certain (newer) programs. That being said, the device is only a few years old and I kind expect better. This post was written on the said device while on holidays overseas, pretty much why I purchased it.

My old 7.0 cost me $336 when I purchased it overseas a couple of years back; my 10.1 gave me change from $350 and I'm pretty happy with that, substantially lower when first units hit the market. There are a number of different versions including the Tab 3 or Note, my choice being the Tab 3.

A friend had an iPad and I seriously considered switching to Apple, the iPad has some great functionality not suffering from compatibility issues that some Android devices may have. After spending a fair amount of time on an iPad 2, I have to admit to liking the device. I do however have a number of ethical issues with Apple products and seek alternate devices as a result.

Apple is overpriced and I notice international price maintenance, more commonly known as price fixing going on. Apple tried their hardest to keep Samsung off the shelves, successful in California, but lets face it, this is the home of the legal system assisting OJ Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton, no one worldwide takes American courts seriously. Lets face it, they wouldn't need Guantanamo Bay otherwise.

The British court system while denying Samsung's claim against the iPad required Apple to publish a disclaimer on its website and general media stating that Samsung did not copy the iPad. Likewise, while the German courts initially granted Apple an injunction against the 10.1; this was rescinded after evidence tampering was claimed by Samsung. Furthermore, Apple was fined in Australia for deliberately misleading consumers in regards to their 4G capability. I will stick with Samsung - excellent products and even better pricing.

Rudd - leading the United Nations

That fool Kevin Rudd has aspirations of becoming Secretary General of the United Nations after current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is up for re-election in 2016. We knew him as Rudd the dud, he talked himself up, failing to deliver any tangible benefits at any stage, in short - he is totally useless.

Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister of Australia swept to power in 2007 only to be displaced in the top job during his first term by his own party. Hated by those closest to him, the dysfunction, waste and infighting of the government he led is now history. On his dismissal, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard described this as "a government that had lost its way", yet, only one person was removed - ouch.

After undermining his successor, Gillard's own failures as leader saw the rise of Rudd again to the top job despite losing a few leadership challenges along the way. Her poor performance forged a path for Rudd's return.

Not that this was a bad thing, that gave us, the people of Australia the opportunity to vote this wanker out.

His political party, the Australian Labor Party was so roundly beaten at the 2013 federal election, the ALP recorded their lowest primary vote in their history. The legacy of six years of ALP government includes record government debt, the budget surplus he inherited at the start of his government is now a record deficit

To keep his loss in perspective, before the 2013 election, the ALP held 72 seats - level with the Coalition, yet after the election, the ALP formed a minority government with the help of the Greens and independents. The ALP currently holds 55 seats while the Coalition holds 90 seats. Retirements for the ALP after their humiliating defeat include 16 members in addition to the 17 seats lost during the election (including Rudd the dud himself).

Not that Julia Gillard was much better as Prime Minister, however, the whole time, Rudd undermined her efforts at every opportunity until he was returned to the Prime Minister's position.

Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Malcom Fraser and Gough Whitlam are all worthy candidates for the title of worst prime minister of Australia, now this imbecile wants to go and weave his magic on the United Nations - god help us all.

Private business schools

The issue of private business schools versus traditional government owned universities has been burning in my mind, I have been looking at private business schools in Australia as a study option, I want to know if employers are taking private business schools seriously?

INSEAD, the leading French business school and IE, the Madrid based business school are both privately owned and according to the Financial Times, are rated among the top schools to hire graduates - that should answer that one. Of course, this is two extremely prestigious European schools, would private institutions in Australia be viewed in the same light? Not so sure.

Throw in IMD from Lausanne, Switzerland into the mix, a third non-university aligned business school providing solely executive education and the status of business schools is suddenly very impressive. Given their lack of government representation, their competitive advantage is their quality, they can only survive by being better than their government sponsored competition. They not only survive, they appear to be setting high standards attracting high quality candidates.

These institutes are bricks and mortar establishments, until recently I had never heard of the IE Business School until I took massive open online course through Coursera. I'm pretty impressed now with this particular private business school and its innovative courses. Now it is a case of gaining credits under the Australian Qualifications Framework - that seems less likely in the short term.

Getting into these business schools is extremely difficult and one would assume very costly, taking into account that talented people with a wealth of experience apply for such schools, it is not unusual that graduates are highly sought after. Alumni associations and networking opportunities are also a marketing factor, this is very much a consideration for candidates.