title: There's no place like home: Is our preference for familiar surroundings a bias?

authors: Weijers, Dan M.

abstract: Drawing on experimental and traditional philosophical methods, several researchers have argued that our judgments about the relative value of different lives are often affected by status quo bias. Status quo bias – the irrational overvaluing of the status quo – appears to make our comparative judgments of our current life with different, and especially radically different, kinds of lives unhelpful. If true, this finding has significant implications for philosophy in several areas, including wellbeing, moral theory, and any value-based theorising about home. In this presentation, I will present the results of experiments on different versions of Nozick’s experience machine scenario. The different versions of the scenario were designed to tease out what it is that we value about the status quo, enabling me to establish whether our high valuing of home is more to do with our personal relationships, familiarity with our surroundings, or fear of the unknown. The experiments included gathering individual characteristics of participants, so that many possibly confounding factors could be analysed. The main message from the results is that for many people, going home means going to where the people they love are.

text: There's no place like home: Is our preference for familiar surroundings a bias? Drawing on experimental and traditional philosophical methods, several researchers have argued that our judgments about the relative value of different lives are often affected by status quo bias. Status quo bias – the irrational overvaluing of the status quo – appears to make our comparative judgments of our current life with different, and especially radically different, kinds of lives unhelpful. If true, this finding has significant implications for philosophy in several areas, including wellbeing, moral theory, and any value-based theorising about home. In this presentation, I will present the results of experiments on different versions of Nozick’s experience machine scenario. The different versions of the scenario were designed to tease out what it is that we value about the status quo, enabling me to establish whether our high valuing of home is more to do with our personal relationships, familiarity with our surroundings, or fear of the unknown. The experiments included gathering individual characteristics of participants, so that many possibly confounding factors could be analysed. The main message from the results is that for many people, going home means going to where the people they love are.

year: 2019

title: Impact of Repair Joints in Fencing Wire on Data Communications: How to Receive Radio and Block Data using No. 8 Wire

authors: McMullan, Jonathon

abstract: Modern electric fences have remote controls and remote monitors that communicate with the energizer through the active fence wire. This manuscript looks at the impact of repair joints on the data communications between energizer and remotes. We report measurements of nonlinear rust-induced characteristics in joints and we draw conclusions about their effects in the context of an electric fence carrying data communications signals. We furthermore demonstrate how their nonlinear characteristics can cause mixing and detection effects that could account for radio reception.

text: Impact of Repair Joints in Fencing Wire on Data Communications: How to Receive Radio and Block Data using No. 8 Wire Modern electric fences have remote controls and remote monitors that communicate with the energizer through the active fence wire. This manuscript looks at the impact of repair joints on the data communications between energizer and remotes. We report measurements of nonlinear rust-induced characteristics in joints and we draw conclusions about their effects in the context of an electric fence carrying data communications signals. We furthermore demonstrate how their nonlinear characteristics can cause mixing and detection effects that could account for radio reception.

year: 2014

title: Accelerating success and promoting equity through the ako (note 1): Critical contexts for change

authors: Berryman, Mere

abstract: Achieving equity and excellence for all young people remains the major challenge of education systems across the world. This paper contends that equity and excellence for students currently underserved by our system needs transformative school reform. In response, we outline the ako: critical contexts for change. This model has been applied across five dimensions for transformative reform within Kia Eke Panuku (Note 2). This paper focuses on how this model can be understood and applied alongside curriculum implementation. We draw evidence from wider research of the impact on improving student achievement when individual aspects of the ako: critical contexts for change have been applied. We have found that when all three contexts are applied simultaneously and spread throughout the school, pedagogical reform can be accelerated, even for those students most underserved.

text: Accelerating success and promoting equity through the ako (note 1): Critical contexts for change Achieving equity and excellence for all young people remains the major challenge of education systems across the world. This paper contends that equity and excellence for students currently underserved by our system needs transformative school reform. In response, we outline the ako: critical contexts for change. This model has been applied across five dimensions for transformative reform within Kia Eke Panuku (Note 2). This paper focuses on how this model can be understood and applied alongside curriculum implementation. We draw evidence from wider research of the impact on improving student achievement when individual aspects of the ako: critical contexts for change have been applied. We have found that when all three contexts are applied simultaneously and spread throughout the school, pedagogical reform can be accelerated, even for those students most underserved.

year: 2017