Ancient History Ramblings

Cheating at UCF

As we approach final exams, it was interesting to read about a cheating scandal at the University of Central Florida. The post on this topic by Robert Talbert includes a video of the class where the professor at UCF confronts the class and is an important read if you use publisher provided test banks. Talbert makes some very interesting points on the subject.

RSM

Gambling on Grades?

A new website called Ultrinsic is letting students bet on the grades they will earn in college. According to the website:

• "Ultrinsic is a web-based college platform that provides incentives to students for academic achievement. Ultrinsic exclusively dedicates itself to motivating students to improve their grades...Ultrinsic incentives are beneficial because they motivate students to succeed in school.  Notwithstanding if the student won the incentive or not, if the student tried harder and improved their academic standings even slightly, the experience was well worth it."

Hmmmm......Not sure what to think about this. I am all for motivating students, but I am not sure that this is the correct way. Right now, the site is available at 36 campuses. It will be interesting to see what happens with the site.

RSM

Organizing...

Each summer, after the PKAP season concludes, I spend some time back in PA trying to organize things (my office, my laptop, my desktops, etc.). Usually any new system I adopt does improve my organization......for a while anyway. So, I have been doing some reading online and today ProfHacker addressed this issue in an article entitled "Discover Your Personal Organization Style." This was an informative article that recommends the book How to be Organized in Spite of Yourself: Time and Space Management that Works with Your Personal Style despite its age (last edition 1999). I'd like to read it, but when I looked for it on Amazon I found out that Amazon does not have a Kindle version. So, maybe I can blame the lack of a Kindle version for my lack of organization.

RSM

Rent your Textbooks

I spent some time surfing at the Barnes & Noble website today, looking at their e-reader the Nook. I have been looking at eReaders desperately trying to figure out which to get. I want to use one in Cyprus when I am looking at ceramic forms, so I need to be able to upload pdfs. What got me going today was a CNN story about the gadgets unveiled at the CES, such as the QUE proreader. In looking around, I ran across a press release that announced Barnes & Noble's intention to enter in the textbook rental business. The release said that:

• "Textbook rentals are increasingly becoming a popular option for students looking to reduce their educational expenses.  Rented textbooks save students more than 50% of the cost of buying a new, printed textbook."

I have to wonder, does this include the amount a student makes when they resell the book? In essence, students have been renting textbooks for years.

RSM

Galileo reunited

It seems that Galileo will will be reunited with 2 of his fingers that were cut from his hand and a tooth that was removed from his jaw in 1737, when his body was moved to its current resting spot in Florence, Italy. The items had been placed in a sealed jar, but had been missing for over a century. The Museum of the History of Science in Florence will feature the items in a display when it reopens this March. The Museum also plans to do some testing on the objects if possible:

"It is not yet clear whether enough organic material remains in the newly discovered fingers for DNA testing, Galluzzi said, but if there is, it could shed light on the blindness that afflicted Galileo late in his life and his final illness."

RSM

Firefox Turns 5 and Cambyses II

The Firefox browser turns five years old today. It now accounts for nearly 25% of browser usage today. Its fairly steady growth as an alternative to Internet Explorer has slowed with the release of Google's Chrome. It will be interesting to see how Firefox changes as Chrome grows - Firefox 4.0 is around the corner and the browser competition can only benefit users.

Italian researchers have announced that they believe that they have found the missing army of Cambyses II. This army, supposedly 50,000 strong, was lost in a huge sandstorm in 525 B.C. The team of researchers have discovered a mass grave with hundreds of bones and skulls. Their discovery hinged upon a hypothesis regarding the path the army took:

In the following years, the Castiglioni brothers studied ancient maps and came to the conclusion that Cambyses' army did not take the widely believed caravan route via the Dakhla Oasis and Farafra Oasis.

• "Since the 19th century, many archaeologists and explorers have searched for the lost army along that route. They found nothing. We hypothesized a different itinerary, coming from south. Indeed we found that such a route already existed in the 18th Dynasty," Castiglioni said. According to Castiglioni, from El Kargha the army took a westerly route to Gilf El Kebir, passing through the Wadi Abd el Melik, then headed north toward Siwa. "This route had the advantage of taking the enemy aback. Moreover, the army could march undisturbed. On the contrary, since the oasis on the other route were controlled by the Egyptians, the army would have had to fight at each oasis," Castiglioni said.

RSM

Least stressful jobs

CNN.com has a list of the top 10 least stressful jobs and number three is college professor.I am stunned by this opinion. The paragraph on college professors refers to:

"Professors' low stress levels reflect the flexible scheduling and intellectual freedom that come with careers in academe. Add in the summer vacations, long holiday breaks and near total job security for tenured positions, and it's no wonder college professors have such high job satisfaction."

I really do not know what to say. I would never argue that being a college professor is more difficult than other jobs, but it does bring a different set of stresses - trust me.

RSM

Graffiti in Rome

When I was in Rome back in September, I noticed a lot of graffiti on the walls of buildings. A recent article by BBC News "Historic Rome marred by graffiti" expands on this idea. It has been suggested that there is as many as 3,500 graffiti artists at work in the city while the city has a team of 16 at work cleaning up the graffiti - a losing battle. I really liked the ending of the article which tried to balance the art versus disfigurment argument.

• "One famous book on the subject of graffiti is entitled Vandals and Crusaders. It depicts the street sprayers as modern artists whose work needs to be appreciated as much as conventional imagery committed to canvas. But is it mainstream, or merely a maintenance headache? The best graffiti sells for thousands of dollars; the rest, like those on many Roman walls, seems alien in such beautiful surroundings. Italy gave the world the word "graffiti", but it does not always like to be reminded what that can mean. "

RSM

Cleopatra's Tomb

The possible discovery of Cleopatra's tomb has been in the news a lot lately. I first noticed an article on the BBC news website about a project to examine 3 areas near a temple outside of Alexandria for the possible tomb of Cleopatra and Antony, CNN.com also had an article "Researchers may have found Cleopatra's final resting place." It will be interesting to see what is turned up in the next few weeks.

RSM

Last week before Semester

It is the last week before my semester begins so I am frantically trying to get ready. It is always amazing how quickly time flies over the holidays. Two items that caught my attention in the news:

• On the digital front, there is a Twitter phishing scam circulating through Twitter designed to steal login information. It is evidently working well enough that someone was able to hack into CNN anchor Rick Sanchez's Twitter account and post a false message.
• On the ancient history front there was an article about a 3rd century Roman battlefield discovered near Hanover Germany.

RSM