wiki protest over the new SOPA and PIPA bills

google changes homepage against sopa

Some interesting links on the subject can be found below.

MacKinnon: SOPA and PIPA Censor Internet Users

Stop Online Piracy Act (Scary Facts)

SOPA and PIPA: Just the Facts

Wikipedia: SOPA and PIPA – Learn more

Another consistent appeal to me as a class teacher of maths and IT is “can we listen to music”. School policy at the school I teach was simply to say no its school policy that you can not. This statement was generally retorted with “but it helps me work better.” They were not lying. Anecdotal evidence in my class rooms showed that yes they did work better when listening to music. It got me thinking. Is it harming the students learning by listening to music while studying? I did some quick research on the two connected issues and this is what I found.

The first one. “Have You Heard? Noise Can Affect Learning!” advocated a number of studies has a very detrimental effect on learning in noisy environments. Quoting of actual evidence much more than “Don’t Shush Me! In Some Libraries, It’s OK to be Loud” witch quoted methods rather than evidence of increased benefits from the environment.

I think the truth probably lies somewhere in between where some tasks are better suited to noisy collaborative environments such as debating, sharing technical skills & ideas and developing interpersonal skills. Quite environments may lend them self to other important skills such as recall and problem solving needed in areas such as maths. I fear there are limited spaces for these tasks in modern schools is limiting students ability to work independently and constantly need to “bounce ideas of friends”.

On the topic of music I found the article “Should you listen to music while studying?” the consensuses seemed to be generally its not bad if you follow some basic tips.

1. Try listening to music without lyrics. Lyrics can be distracting, whereas instrumental music heightens concentration.
2. Try listening to slow- or medium-paced music.
3. Try to avoid music with loud drumbeats, like rock or heavy metal.
4. Try to avoid music that is new. You may find yourself paying closer attention to music that is not familiar.
5. Try playing music quietly in the background.
6. Try to continue one style of studying, such as memorization or math, when listening to a particular type of music.

How I apply this to my class.

I think I will suggest the music tips to students in my class back with evidence presented in the article and continue to allow students to listen to music at times. I will also present evidence of how loud noise has a detrimental effect on learning as evidence of why I insist on times of silence in my maths class rooms.

UPDATE: 18-01-12
Another great link to consider:

Best Music to Study To

Considerations This is a working industrial pier so I’m not really advising anyone of actually doing this. But having said that if you decide to ignore my warnings its a very nice site. The other thing its pretty shallow and could very easily done on snorkel.
The entry is not fun. You have to climb down these rocks at the end of the pier. The other option would be to enter from the beach but that would involve a whole lot more swimming.

Site: There is lots of life. Saw 5 short tail ceratosoma nudibranchs on one pylon. Also found a Trapania brunnea (pretty sure anyway, it was pretty small.) Other things include a number of fiddler rays, a white shrimp (dont have an ID on this.. Let me know if you know what it is?), Stingaree (Urolophus Sp), and lots of goat fish and banded puffers. Baby stingaree’s that took shelter under my buddy.. then realized it was a person took shelter under me.. then realized i was a person and high tailed it. Good comic value from baby stingarees.

Recommend: Well its a bit dicey considering its a working pier with large ships docking there. I’m sure if there was work going on at the time you would be told to piss off. But if you stick in pretty close to the shore you should be right. Its a very long pier and I only got about 100-200 m out and it was still only 2m deep so I dont think any boats would come in that close. Also who know what is in the water there. My buddy made me a bit paranoid after the dive when I started scratching myself. Its a heavy metals plant and I dont know what they put out in the bay. I assume this day and age it would be all good but, who knows. So overall its worth doing once to see if you can turn up some new and interesting species, or if your in town and want to go for snorkel close by. And even though the wind was very strong the viz was still pretty good.

Picture:

Stingaree (Urolophus Sp) in grass under Pt Henry Pier

Solution:
A great piece of free software called keyPass. Its open source software that encrypts all your passwords with one master password. It lets you organize your passwords into categories and can even generate a password if you cant think of one secure enough.

Web Site:

www.keepass.info

If you have not seen an image of this place then you have not been looking at any local photographers work. Its very popular and the time I went down to check it out there was a member of the Geelong Camera Club taking some shots. A quick look through the Geelong Throng group on red bubble or a search for Clifton Springs will give you an idea of how popular this place really is. For me this has not stopped me going down and taking my version of this great photography place and it should not stop you either.

Considerations: First you need a tripod. This place is great for slow shutter speed work. Another great piece of kit would be a Neutral Density Filter to help you get some really nice long exposure speeds to flatten out that water. The sun sets in the opposite direction to this. I have only been there once and it was pretty over cast so I’m sure on a better day the sky would light up on sunset.

Site: Sandy beach with a car park very close buy. So access is pretty easy.  Maybe bring some thongs if you want to take some images from in the water and don’t care to much about getting your tripod to wet. This site is in the bay so most of the time the water is pretty flat.  I think the key with this site seems to be coming back a few times to get some different conditions.

Sample Image:

Clifton Springs Jetty

History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geelong_Power_Station#Geelong_B
Considerations: There are many keep out signs there so enter at your own risk. There is also lots of rubble and junk everywhere making it hard to walk around. Lastly there is quite a bit of graffiti and stuff around so there is no telling who you might run into when your there. Maybe its worth going with someone.

Site: Much of the site has been gutted and vandalized. There are some interesting structures to work with and I found working with HDR (high dynamic range) brought out lots of the interesting textures in this place. It’s worth spending some time to check out the whole place including the up stair offices and passage. Another thing worth checking out is the view from the roof. You can access this from the large stair case. (you cant miss these)

Sample images:

Stairs To Roof - Old Geelong B power station

Passage - Geelong B power station

Old Chair - Geelong B power station

Final Note: for more images of this style please visit my set on flickr.

Conditions: The conditions looked pretty good going in and was about 30mins before slack tide at the heads. The vis at the start of the dive was about 4m+

Depth: if you go a fair way of the pier and try really hard you can get 5. But the best stuff is not further than 50m of the end of the pier.

Time: about 40mins

Report: Entered from the shore and had to walk a about 30 or so m out so it was deep enough to swim. The best parts of this dive are to the right  (if you are standing on the beach) and a bit out of the pier with some nice ledges and kelp areas to look in. Under the end of the pier is another good area with lots of fish life. I have seen a few varied carpet sharks here before and this was the primary reason for diving this spot. To get a photo of one. They are usually very placid and will hang around long enough to get a good photo. Also found a few small crayfish but this is a marine park and you are not able to take them from here. As the tide got closer to slack the viz got worse and the surge got worse. I have been told in the past the best time to dive this site is 1 hour before slack.  The only trouble is figuring out when that is.

Would I recommend: Yes and ill be going back again to get a better photo of a carpet shark. Depth is quite shallow but the air helps to get under ledges and take your time taking photos.

View Shore Dives Of Victoria in a larger map

Crayfish - in marine park - not to be taken!

Varied Carpet Shark

Sea Horse holding on for his little life in the swell under Lorne Pier

Date Completed :  17-11-10

Conditions: Lots of swell and surge on this dive. It looked pretty good from the surface, I guess you never know what it s going to be like till you get down there.  The visibilty was about 2m at best with the swell and surge kicking up a lot of sand. Wind was about 10-15 from the north.

Depth: about 3m

Time: about 40mins

Report: Entered from the boat ramp and swam out under the pier. There is not a lot down the left side of the pier (left if you standing on the beach). Saw a few interesting things including a bunch of swimmer craps attempting to scare me off with there claws raised high only to be caught off guard by another swimmer crab. I spent at least 10mins just watching them, very comical.  There was also a couple very big smooth rays that came in to check me out. This is always a bit spooky when they come in out of the gloom! But they are amazing creatures and beautiful to watch swim. There is a bit of life on the pier pylons which if the conditions were any good would be good for macro work. Also came across a very large sea horse.  Im pretty sure it was a pot belly. There were not many good photography opportunities because of the sand and swell.

Would I recommend: Yes but only if the conditions were really really good and you were in the area. Im sure there are better dives on that coast of the shore. Just need to find where they are.

View Shore Dives Of Victoria in a larger map

Giant Moray Ell - Taka Liveaboard

Last week I went out on Taka liveaboard in the far north Great Barrier Reef.  It was a great 4 days having dived 10 dives.

Here are some scores I give the trip

Diving 9/10

Diving was great. Pristine reefs that had all the little and big critters you could want. This included leaf stone fish, grey reef sharks and all the anemone fish you could want. Cod hole was really fun watching the big guys push in for food.

Instructors / Dive Staff 6/10

As with all people, you get some you get along with really well and some you don’t. Having worked on boats as a Dive master Trainee I know how much a hastel some customers can become and push you to your wits end. Looking at the customers on the boat I think the staff got pretty lucky with all of them pretty competent divers and open to suggestion to improve. Unfortunately I think 1 maybe 2 of the dive instructors had a bit to big of a “I’m way cool look at me” attitude for me. Dive briefings by one instructor were a lists of what not to do rather than a positive experience and I felt like I was getting told off rather than getting excited for a dive. But on the other hand the other instructors were great and 6 out of 10 is probably a bit harsh. I think its the negatives that stick in you head that made me give them a 6.  I think it was an sentiment that another “new to diving” customer told me about a statement one of the dive instructors gave her about her air consumption that stuck with me.  He gave her a bad feeling with negative comments about her air consumption rather than suggest techniques to improve. For me that’s just not on!

Other Staff 10/10

Other staff were friendly and gave you the time of day to have a chat. This included the photographer who made a fantastic video of the trip and had I had the money would have purchased it for sure, but had to pay the rent and the trip was a stretch as it was. Special mention also goes to the other staff on board who were also very friendly.

Food 8/10

The person cooking was an instructor and a cook. The food was good and there was plenty of it!!! This is important when you are diving lots as you need the energy. There was also a person on board that was wheat intolerant. He seemed well catered for.

Conditions 7/10

I believe that it can be better. The weather probably sat around 15-20 knots which was alot better than it was looking when I looked 4 day before the trip. For me if its about 10m vis I’m pumped. The week after I got back was probably the best week of weather we have had since I moved to Cairns in 3 months.

Overall the trip was great the diving was great. Although there were some staff that I did not see eye to eye with I did not let that ruin my trip. Did all the dives with my best buddy in the world so the instructors did not really affect me to much. Overall I would recommend Taka for sure.