Tuesday, July 13, 2010
DCU's Bastille day
I just finished writing another book, and we are recording a new CD; so I
have been out of touch with my colleagues at DCU for some time, so
please forgive me if this is old hat. From here, the transfer of power
to Brian Mac Craith, culminating in today's inauguration, has seemed
very odd. For a start, surely they should have waited for the academic
term to begin, allowing the students to participate, rather than choose a
date which is F's last contractual day? Or is this the only way of
getting him to let go the reins?
Secondly, F's publication a fortnight ago of a new strategic plan covering 2010-2012 seems a little provocative? And where were the photos on the DCU website over the past month of the two together, reassuring us all? Finally, although I am no news junkie, the complete absence of conventional media coverage today is not indicative of a smooth handover.
The issue - handover of what? - also needs to be unpacked. While F insisted on close control of media portrayals of himself, and never delegated even the disciplinary procedures, he apparently had signed over control of finances as a condition of taking the job. Indeed, perhaps some of his considerable and well-documented excesses with the disciplinary procedures come down partly to frustration
And partly, of course, to his equally well-documented character flaws, not least of which is a psychic fragmentation that allowed him pursue policies of the utmost backwardness and viciousness while obsessively portraying himself in the media as a mild-mannered progressive. Wrt the former, his leitmotif has been a giving away of a public university to narrow business interests. So it is not even - to take two science examples – HCI or epigenetics which have absorbed the university's resources. It has been destruction of creative work, at the expense of subservience to narrow business needs. Many people's lives have been ruined.
Here I can speak from experience. The work done by my students and I was not just published in peer-reviewed journals, but accepted as the content of courses at Stanford and Berkeley. The students' academic careers were aborted; all have gone on to successful business careers, from web design to writing algorithms for hedge fund trading. The ability of these still young men, applied to exploitation of our research, would have netted the country a nine-figure sum
F did not succeed in destroying academic tenure, and leaves behind a power vacuum as legal disciplinary procedures have not even been written yet. I know nothing of Brian Mac Craith, but doubt that he has the pure stupidity to allow this state of affairs to continue. Let us celebrate July 14 at DCU as “(We got rid of the ) Bast** day”
None of the above is intended as a remedy for legal actions I and others will undertake against F in a personal capacity.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 13u Iuil 2010
Secondly, F's publication a fortnight ago of a new strategic plan covering 2010-2012 seems a little provocative? And where were the photos on the DCU website over the past month of the two together, reassuring us all? Finally, although I am no news junkie, the complete absence of conventional media coverage today is not indicative of a smooth handover.
The issue - handover of what? - also needs to be unpacked. While F insisted on close control of media portrayals of himself, and never delegated even the disciplinary procedures, he apparently had signed over control of finances as a condition of taking the job. Indeed, perhaps some of his considerable and well-documented excesses with the disciplinary procedures come down partly to frustration
And partly, of course, to his equally well-documented character flaws, not least of which is a psychic fragmentation that allowed him pursue policies of the utmost backwardness and viciousness while obsessively portraying himself in the media as a mild-mannered progressive. Wrt the former, his leitmotif has been a giving away of a public university to narrow business interests. So it is not even - to take two science examples – HCI or epigenetics which have absorbed the university's resources. It has been destruction of creative work, at the expense of subservience to narrow business needs. Many people's lives have been ruined.
Here I can speak from experience. The work done by my students and I was not just published in peer-reviewed journals, but accepted as the content of courses at Stanford and Berkeley. The students' academic careers were aborted; all have gone on to successful business careers, from web design to writing algorithms for hedge fund trading. The ability of these still young men, applied to exploitation of our research, would have netted the country a nine-figure sum
F did not succeed in destroying academic tenure, and leaves behind a power vacuum as legal disciplinary procedures have not even been written yet. I know nothing of Brian Mac Craith, but doubt that he has the pure stupidity to allow this state of affairs to continue. Let us celebrate July 14 at DCU as “(We got rid of the ) Bast** day”
None of the above is intended as a remedy for legal actions I and others will undertake against F in a personal capacity.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 13u Iuil 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Last talk in Stanford: heads must roll
Speaking of which, heads MUST roll for this. In other posts, I have outlined a constructive way of dealing with the lacunae and internal contradictions in the 1997 act; but right now, here's an action list
1. Parasite cleansing; Expel both SIPTU and Cox from DCU
2. Fire 80% of DCU's human resources staff, but not before giving them the right of reply we were denied by them
3. Unless BmC is very stupid, Conry has already been shown the door
4. Prepare a file for the gardai about the violation of students' rights by Joe Morris, Alan smeaton, and Brian Stone, inter alia
The creative work has continued; here's Tom's and mine final statement at Stanford;
"Consciousness, gamma oscillations, and neural resonance
Lab talk, 4pm 7/7/2010
Room 17, Ventura Hall, Stanford University
Abstract
Consciousness, gamma oscillations, and neural resonance
Sean O Nuallain, DCU and Nous Research
It is established through recent ECOG and other work that gamma waves indeed are endogenous to the brain. It is also plausible that synchronized gamma has a critical role in consciousness. This talk interrelates these apparently distinct hypotheses with work on sub threshold neural oscillations.
First of all, the idea that sub threshold neural oscillations have a causative role in the timing of neural firing is fleshed out, following (O Nuallain and Doris, 2010). Then the gamma hypothesis and its critics are addressed. Briefly, evidence is adduced through use of the Hilbert transform that gamma can - momentarily – suppress the noise associated with the “dark energy” of the brain (Freeman, O Nuallain and Rodriguez, 2008). Both simulated and real ECOG data are used.
The final part of the talk proposes a framework in which the hitherto disparate findings from consciousness research, sub threshold neural oscillations and indeed meditation can be brought into dialogue. Synchronized gamma causes a decrease in the metabolic demands made by the brain on the rest of the organism; at the same time it co-ordinates neural firing. The discrete nature of our conscious experience is due to the sampling process that goes on; indeed, we impose an often artificial order on what is a very sketchy organismic experience indeed.
Biography
Sean O’Nuallain holds an M.Sc. in Psychology from University College, Dublin (UCD) Ireland & a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of a book on the foundations of Cognitive Science: "The Search for Mind" (Ablex, 1995; 2nd ed Intellect, 2002; Third edition Intellect, 2003) and editor of "Two Sciences of Mind" (Benjamins, 1997); editor of "Spatial Cognition"; co-editor of "Language, Vision, and Music" (Benjamins, 2002). After winning a landmark case preserving academic freedom in Ireland in 2003, he has taught and researched at Stanford and Berkeley, publishing mainly in theoretical biology and experimental neuroscience
Suggested readings;
'
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18988296
http://www.springerlink.com/content/v4127mu1765j6853/ "
Sean O Nuallain PhD 5u Iuil 2010
