More Pics and An Amazing Prof

Apart from my daily walks and stuff, I've been auditing some courses online at Harvard X.  I think I told you about it before.  Anyway, a few days ago, having completed all ten of their China History and Civilization courses, I started a new one on Justice.  I want to talk about that a bit today.

The "Justice" course apparently was the first course that Harvard put online.  The professor in question, Michael Sandel, is a noted expert and reputedly an excellent lecturer as well.  So I thought, ok, let's give it a try.  As it turns out, Michael Sandel is such a gifted lecturer and speaker that he even gives talks in football stadiums and so on.  If you are keen, look him up.  Quite amazing.

So about this course.  Why did I say An Amazing Professor?  First, you guys know I have a very big ego.  No, unlike my former marketing colleague, I have never considered myself the best thing since sliced bread.  But hey, I think I was a pretty decent teacher.  With that in mind, you would realize that I don't often watch someone teaching and say, "oh wow, that's amazing!  Why didn't I think of that!"

Watching Sandel's lectures, I say to myself ALL THE FUCKING TIME!  Hands down he is the best lecturer I have ever experienced.  Folks, coming from me, that's quite an endorsement.  If I can claim to have won a teaching award or two, this man should be given a teaching award for life.  Let me give you a couple of examples.

His lecture is in some great big lecture hall.  Sits hundreds.  Yet he's able to get so many students to participate.  That in itself is amazing enough.  Now he would have no control over what the students would say.  But he always manages to consolidate what they say and put them into some framework that fits with his lecture.  He uses what the students say and is able to bring these disparate discourses into his talk.  That takes a lot of expertise on the subject and a lot of quick thinking.  I really admire that.

And so often, students fucking applaud at the end of a class.  Not at the end of a semester, though that itself is quite something, but at the end of a class!  Man, how does that feel?

So yeah, I seldom say this about another lecturer:  Sandel is in a class of his own.  If I were still teaching, I could learn so much from him about how to teach.  What a guy!

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Continuing with my embassy picture tour, though I doubt if anyone is actually looking at them at all, here are some more.  I will post four or five at a time, until I exhaust my inventory.  Then I think I will stop.  I'm not sure it's worth the effort, haha.  But here goes.

Well, even guess, I think, since the flag is quite visible.  It's France.  What a location, too.  It's next to the official residence of the Prime Minister, and across from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  I guess they must be important or something.

That's Germany.  Looks like something from the East German days.  Doesn't it look more like a police station or something?  Not sleek like some others, but I guess functional?

I showed you the back side of the Saudi embassy before.  But I thought I'd show you the front of it, to do it justice.  Though why I should care to give the Saudis justice is quite a different story.

The UK High Commission.  Looks like any government office block.  But it's quite large, and location-wise, it's a stone's throw away from Parliament.

And of course from the giant elephant next door, the US Embassy.  I read somewhere it's supposed to represent a submarine.  I don't know.  Do you see that?  Not sure.  A very large complex, right across the hotel where my gym is.  Pretty key location, too, basically as close to Parliament as is the UK High Commission.  I suppose it says a lot of these countries' relative importance to Canada.


OK, so much for today.  Hope you had fun looking at them.  Till next time!