Holidays are over and now it’s back to school tomorrow in Victoria where ‘thinking’ is now on the school curriculum.

Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Teaching thinking skills is all about ‘having new eyes’.

The Thinking Processes domain as mapped out in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) encompasses a range of cognitive and metacognitive knowledge, skills and behaviours which are essential for students to function effectively in society, both within and beyond school.

New York’s Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now is exclusive to the National Gallery of Victoria and will not travel to any other Australian city, or anywhere else in the world.

Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now, features iconic artworks from the 1940s to the present by internationally renowned artists such as Jackson Pollock, Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, Dan Flavin, Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman, and also introduces some new names to Australian audiences such as Sarah Anne Johnson and Suling Wang.

A selection of the Guggenheim’s recent acquisitions are also here in Melbourne.

The Dilemma: A policeman arrives at a burning truck where the driver is trapped and is about to burn to death. To save him this final agony, should the policeman shoot him?

What do YOU think?

Bishop Harries and Richard Dawkins have collaborated on several occasions to promote the proper teaching of science in UK classrooms. They discuss the Policeman’s Dilemma and mercy kiling and other strong questions of religion, science and ethics including faith schools, homosexuality and Christianity, the school curriculum and the media. They also do it rationally and respectfully.

To Richard Dawkins believing in God is like believing in a teapot orbiting Mars. Although, Dawkins says he is ‘a member of Atheists for Jesus’.

This is a fascinating video interview with Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford by Richard Dawkins, the famed evolutionary biologist, atheist and popular science writer.

Dawkins holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, a position created for him in 1995 by Charles Simonyi, the Microsoft millionaire.

Watch the interview on video here …

Matt Ridley, the celebrated British science writer, almost filled the great room of the Melbourne Town Hall last night for his 2007 Deakin Lecture,
“Nature? Nurture? What makes us human?”

He will be giving another lecture tomorrow night at Melbourne University called, “Physics had Einstein, Biology had Crick”.

Time and Date : 6:00PM, Thursday 12th July 2007
Venue : Prince Phillip Theatre, Architecture Building.

NEW research, to be revealed at a conference of some of the world’s top neuroscientists in Cairns today, has found alcohol does not kill off brain cells as always thought.

For years imbibers have been told a big night on the drink wipes out entire sections of human brain cell function with much the same destructive equivalent as a napalm bombing strike.

According to Queensland Brain Institute director Professor Perry Bartlett, this is not true.

If you are sitting around Australia and watching primetime TV on a Sunday night you will be exposed to levels of government propaganda never before seen in this counry. This phenomenon, under the current regime, has already been the subject of a Senate inquiry and now the media have picked up on it ….

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This Senate inquiry arose out of concern about the escalating costs of Commonwealth government advertising since 1996, and about the political nature of particular advertising campaigns.

Expenditure on Commonwealth government advertising has climbed steadily since 1991-92. Between 1991-92 and 1995-96, the average yearly advertising expenditure through the Central Advertising System was $85.6 million. Between 1996-97 and 2003-04, the average yearly expenditure on advertising was $126.75 million.

The median expenditure over the whole period from 1991-92 to 2003-04 was $97 million. Expenditure by the Howard government since 1996-97 thus averages $29.75 million more than the median; expenditure by the Keating Labor government prior to 1996-97 averaged $11.4 million less than the median.

Excluding the bi-partisan advertising campaigns for Defence Force Recruitment, the next nine most expensive advertising campaigns since 1991 have been conducted by the Howard government.

The Opposition claims the Government has spent $1.7 billion on government advertising campaigns since it came to office.

Government tax dollars for propaganda in 2006/2007 are expected to be even higher.

FOX NEWS.COM: The fastest growing genre in video games is “brain training,” a genre no one had even heard of before last year.

But it only takes one smash hit — in this case, Nintendo’s “Brain Age” — to launch an armada of imitators.

Nintendo’s rivals have tried to hop on the “Brain Age” bandwagon with copycats like “Brain Boost,” “Brain Genius,” “Brain Juice,” “Brain Challenge” and (for the sake of variety) “Mind Quiz.”  More …

Last night the Australian Thinker of the Year 2007 was awarded to Professor Jenny Graves in recognition of her world class innovations in comparative genomics and her research into the function and evolution of human genes, particularly those genes responsible for determining a baby’s sex.

Professor Graves of The Australian National University and Melbourne University has also provided leadership and encouragement both nationally and globally for teaching better science to children and for better opportunities for women in science.

Leaders from universities, from government, from the arts, sciences, industry and media attended a reception at the Melbourne Convention Centre’s de luxe Clarendon Room–Melbourne’s most ‘Melbourne’ room.

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson presented the annual award on behalf of the School of Thinking.

On receiving her award, Jenny said: “Science is not easy but it’s incredibly exciting. It’s a detective story and an adventure story”.

Professor Jenny Graves receives her award.

Leigh Harry CEO of MECC, Jenny and Michael.

ESCAPE  +  SEARCH  =  THINK

The School of Thinking is pleased to announce that it will host the World Thinking Congress at the new Melbourne Convention Centre on Monday 16, Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 August 2010.

W T C 2010 - The World Thinking Congress, Melbourne, 2010

What: WTC 2010 – The World Thinking Congress, 2010.
Why: The purpose of WTC is to promote better thinking in the world.
When: 16-18 August, 2010 for 3 Days of Program.
Where: The new Melbourne Convention Centre.
Who:
- Audience: Science – Business – Family.
- Speakers: World’s top headline speakers in these three sectors.
- Delegates: International. National. State Capital and Regions.

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We are currently negotiating with some of the world’s leading thinkers in science, business and public sectors. We will keep you posted as further details are settled.

The theme of WTC 2010 will be: Escape + Search = Think