Speaker(s): Keith Luck | The 35th annual MARG Conference will take place on Thursday 27 March 2014 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The theme for the 2014 conference is 'Management Accounting and Strategic Partnerships.' Speakers include David Otley and Chris Ford (Lancaster University Management School) who will speak on ‘Princes, Property Developers, Commandos and Charities: Lessons from an Unusual Strategic Alliance’, Henri Dekker (VU University Amsterdam) who will discuss ‘Managing Risky Relations’, Alasdair Macnab (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and Falconer Mitchell (University of Edinburgh) who will speak on ‘Outcome Costing’ and Warwick Hunt (PwC UK) who will speak on 'Strategic Alliances: Cultures, Networks and Global Challenges'. There will be a panel discussion session titled 'Do Strategic Alliances Suggest New Strategies and New Accounting' in the afternoon with the opportunity for questions throughout the day. The CIMA Distinguished Practitioner Lecture will be presented by Keith Luck (CIMA Vice President) who will discuss 'How Management Accounting and Strategic Partnerships combine to deliver  success - a practitioner’s perspective'. Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:00:00 GMT

Management Accounting Research Group conference 2014 - How Management Accounting and Strategic Partnerships combine to deliver success – a practitioner’s perspective - CIMA Distinguished Practitioner Lecture [Audio]

2013-12-11 Linda Galijan Dharma talk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

Support SFZC

Vulnerability and Connection

2013-12-15 Kiku Christina Lehnherr Dharma talk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

SFZC Live

Listening With Your Body

2013-12-13 Kiku Christina Lehnherr Dharma talk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

Be Kind

More at http://scifri.me/dx8mtx

This week, the SciFri Book Club concludes its discussion of David Grann’s non-fiction tale of Amazonian exploration, The Lost City of Z. The book recounts the life—and mysterious disappearance—of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett, who once posited the existence of a lost Amazonian city called “Z.” But was “Z” a real place? And could the harsh Amazonian landscape ever have supported ancient, complex civilizations? Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger studies archaeological sites in the Amazon’s Xingu region, and features in the conclusion of Grann’s tale. He describes the “garden cities” he’s uncovered, suggesting that ancient civilizations once thrived in the Amazon.

Uncovering the Amazon’s Real ‘Lost Cities’

Watch the video at http://scifri.me/r38ztx

People expect particular dog breeds to act certain ways. Golden retrievers are friendly, Jack Russell terriers like to dig, pit bulls are aggressive—or so the thinking goes. But animal behaviorist James Serpell wanted to investigate whether those generalizations were really true, so he surveyed tens of thousands of dog owners about their pooches’ behavior. Though he did find some common behavioral traits among breeds, he also found plenty of variation. The source of that variation, he says, might be the behavior of the human owners—an important influence on pet dogs’ behavior.

Dogs, They’re Just Like Us

Find out more at http://scifri.me/ia7ztx

In the Broadway play Constellations, a beekeeper and a cosmologist get together, break up, cheat on one another, and get married…across 50 different parallel worlds. This is what a love story looks like set in the multiverse—the infinite number of parallel universes proposed by some string theorists. Ira speaks with Constellations playwright Nick Payne about bringing the multiverse to the Broadway stage, and what parallel worlds could mean for love and free will.

A Love Story, Set in the Multiverse

More at http://scifri.me/j86ztx

Faked X-rays, fabricated data, unreported amputations—those are just a few examples of the medical misconduct discovered during Food and Drug Administration inspections. But a recent investigation by NYU journalism professor Charles Seife and his students reveals that, in many cases, the FDA never told the public, doctors, or scientists about fraud that the agency uncovered. More transparency, Seife told Science Friday, "is a way to transcend these failings."

The FDA responded to the investigation in a statement: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is committed to increasing the transparency of compliance and enforcement activities, with the goal of: enhancing the public’s understanding of the FDA’s decisions and fostering industry’s understanding of the need for consistently safe, effective, and high-quality products." An FDA spokesperson writes that the agency is "convening a working group to further explore transparency issues."

Medical Fraud Missing From Public Record

More info at http://scifri.me/xh6ztx

California has been locked in a four-year drought that has depleted groundwater reserves, hastened the spread of wildfires, and caused severe crop loss. Reporting in Science Advances, researches say that by the end of the century, the Southwest and Central Plains regions are at risk of experiencing a megadrought—a drought that lasts for multiple decades. Climatologist Jason Smerdon discusses how climate change might be pushing us towards a drier future.

Are Decades-Long Megadroughts on the Horizon?

More at http://scifri.me/h84cux

Google Maps celebrated its 10-year anniversary this month. In that decade, web and mobile mapping companies have sprung up to chart the corner of every city and integrate real time transportation data into these maps. What will the maps of the future look like, and will they help us move from point A to point B more efficiently?

Forecasting the Future of Maps

Science Friday - Excerpt "Scientists and the Public Disagree on Key Issues"

More at: http://scifri.me/jv6pux

Whether it’s the four bodily humors, the geocentric universe, or the steady state theory, sometimes an old idea has to die before new science can flourish. (Just ask Copernicus.) A new anthology edited by Edge.org’s John Brockman aims to speed that process along by asking scientists and big thinkers which scientific concepts they’d target for extinction. Ira talks with two contributors to This Idea Must Die—theoretical physicist Sean Carroll and quantum mechanic Seth Lloyd— about the ideas they’d like to give a good shove out the door.

Which Scientific Ideas Must Die?

Contributor(s): Nicola Lacey | In this podcast, Nicola Lacey talks about a range of subjects including violence against women and children, discrimination in the law, how to achieve more gender equality in the judiciary, and equal pay.

Nicola Lacey, the Co-Director of the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power talks about gender and the law [Audio]

Speaker(s): Jack Blumenau, Simon Hix, Tony Travers, Sue Cameron | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor quality of this podcast. The third of the general election debates, involving five opposition party leaders: Natalie Bennett (Greens), Nigel Farage (UKIP), Ed Miliband (Labour), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru) will be screened live at the LSE (from 8-9.30pm) and will be followed by a panel discussion involving LSE academics and the audience (from 9.30-10.30pm). LSE's Jack Blumenau, Simon Hix, Tony Travers and columnist and presenter Sue Cameron will be taking part in the post debate discussion. Jack Blumenau (@jblumenau) is a Managing Editor of LSE General Election 2015 blog and a PhD candidate in the Department of Government at LSE. Sue Cameron has been a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times and is a former presenter of Newsnight, Channel Four News and the ITN Parliament Programme. She is renowned for her contacts in Whitehall, and writes about the Government's relationship with the Civil Service. Simon Hix (@simonjhix) is Professor of European and Comparative Politics and Fellow of the British Academy and Head of Department of Government at LSE. Tony Travers is a visiting professor at LSE, and is a specialist in issues affecting local government. He is Director of the Greater London Group and British Government @ LSE. British Government @ LSE (@lsegovernment) is an initiative currently based in the Government Department to promote and develop research on British Government being conducted at the LSE. So far world class speakers have attended our events, talking on a range of topics.

General Election: The Opposition Leaders' Debate [Audio]

Speaker(s): Matthew Crawford | Matthew Crawford will be in conversation with Professor Richard Sennett about his new book, The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction, in which he investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind. With ever-increasing demands on our attention, how do we focus on what's really important in our lives? Matthew Crawford is a philosopher and mechanic. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and served as a postdoctoral fellow on its Committee on Social Thought. Currently a senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, he also runs Shockoe Moto, a motorcycle repair shop. Richard Sennett is Director of Theatrum Mundi, University Professor of the Humanities at New York University and Professor of Sociology at LSE. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

The World Beyond Your Head: how to flourish in an age of distraction [Audio]

This public lecture series discusses concepts from the physical sciences that underpin both everyday cooking and haute cuisine. Each lecture features a world-class chef who visited and presented their remarkable culinary designs. 

Food and Science | Lecture 1 (2012)

Food and Science | Lecture 2 (2012)

Eliza Doolittle "Skinny Genes" Acid Washed's Remix

Hankat "Be The First" Acid Washed's Remix

Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2013

Dr William MacLehose, UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

In recent years, there has been much discussion of the influence of classical Arabic science on the Western scientific tradition. Yet these achievements have been variously ignored, overlooked or occasionally overstressed. This lecture discusses the impact that scholars from the Islamic world have made in the fields of medicine, astronomy, optics, geography, mechanics and many other disciplines. What role did the Arabic world have in the history of science? And how did Baghdad, Cairo and Islamic Spain preserve and expand the scientific tradition?

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at ucl.ac.uk.

pod

Armand Yazdani