The conclusion from working on my second chapter is that I have read too much general background material and not enough on my case studies. I am fairly well covered on POPs, since I have done research on them before. Naturally, adding a few more sources would be nice, though there are not really a great many out there. I am also quite well covered on current events relating to climate change, because there has been such a raft of coverage and discussion. While my intention has never been to write a blow-by-blow account of either (how could I possibly do so in 30,000 words?), it is certainly necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the history, before any important and valid analysis can be done.
As such, I need to fill in my knowledge on recent developments pertaining to POPs, which should not be hugely difficult. Then, I need to shore up my section on the early history of the climate change debate. Aside from the mandatory OUSSG dinner and talk tonight, I suspect this will fill the next 32 hours. Naturally, I am interpreting my promise to Dr. Hurrell of having a second chapter dropped off at Nuffield by Wednesday as having that chapter dropped off, by my own hand, in time for him to read it on Thursday morning.
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I’m glad to see that the mad dash for product completion is a shared approach at all places and levels of education.
Belief and knowledge—a plea about language
“For most people a belief is an article of faith, a hypothesis or a theory is not much different from a guess, and as for knowledge—well, that is not very different from a belief, except that most people are much more certain of what they believe than of what they know. Another usage of belief, as in “I believe he is coming at 5:00pm,” has no sense of faith—in fact, quite the contrary. It contains an implicit “but I’m not really sure.” When a person hears “scientists believe,” he or she may hear it as a statement of faith or a suggestion of uncertainty. Neither is what we intend.”
I’m glad to see that the mad dash for product completion is a shared approach at all places and levels of education.
But of course. One develops a kind of insane confidence in one’s ability to pull off something good, during the short space of time in which sheer desperation is at its most powerful.
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