…we understood engineering. Whoever was responsible for letting this advert (doubtless produced by meeja-studies graduates) loose into the real world should be downright ashamed of themselves. Students of the London South Bank University hopefully are feeling abashed. Me, I would probably be calling for someone’s blood. Clue: this geartrain cannot move, thus rendering it totally fucking pointless…
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Mistempered Weapons
Rachel has a brilliant entry on her blog where she writes about the appeal of knives and the predictable results when it’s mixed with human emotions, particularly those of a teenager "awash with hormones and insecurities, dreamy and silly and hyper-sensitive to the pettiest slight". Go and read it, and then come back here. Go on, I’ll wait.Good piece, wasn’t it? Now, while you’re digesting it, I’ll tell you something. Last Monday evening, we were out working in the garden. We heard the sound of a moped passing the end of the drive. To our astonishment, we also heard the sound of its teenage rider yelling "Homo! Homo!" as he passed by. I was instantly seized by an adrenaline rush and became extremely angry. For a moment there, if I had been in a position to do so, I am sure I would have dragged the young oik off his bike and given him a good thrashing. So it is not just teenagers who can be hyper-sensitive. Still, I would like to look that boy in the face and ask him why he was being such a wanker.Leave a Reply
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Switching on the LHC
We’re getting closer to the time when the Large Hadron Collider becomes fully operational. Phil Plait, over at Bad Astronomy, points us towards this web cartoon that pretty much summarises the gamut of reactions to this. I also like the artist’s statement below the cartoon. Extract:The U.S. was to have built such a supercollider in Texas, but congress cancelled funding for it back in 1993. Science is one of the stupider things I can think of to get jingoistic about—it’s up there with art as one of the great collaborative intergenerational human undertakings–but it still disappoints me that my own country, which split the atom and landed a man on the moon, decided it didn’t have the money to resolve some of the profoundest questions about the nature of reality but did manage to come up with funds for the destruction of Iraq. This seems to me kind of like not being able to afford music lessons for your daughter but somehow always having enough cash on hand to buy cocaine every weekend.Leave a Reply
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Happy Families
An extraordinary interview with the writer Paul Abbott in today’s Guardian. The term dysfunctional doesn’t even come close to describing his family background. At least he managed to escape.Leave a Reply
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The Doctor Cometh
I see that Joss Whedon returns next week with a sing-along blog: Dr. Horrible. What’s not to like? Whedon’s work (Buffy, Firefly, Serenity) always struck me as a cut above the usual pap we see on the haunted fishtank or the silver screen. I’m curious to see what he will do with the Web.Leave a Reply
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The Chill of Costume
David Thompson, over at, er, David Thompson, has a nice piece on the work of Steve Schofield and his photographs of British Science Fiction fans who like to dress up in the costumes of their favourite characters. There’s a bittersweet technicolor Diane Arbus quality about them, though, like Thompson, I’m not convinced about the spin Schofield puts on them. Frankly, I don’t care if they do dress up as American cultural SF icons. It’s also quite clear that some Americans simply don’t understand our own home-grown ones. And they never will, ha ha ha.Leave a Reply
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Head-Wall-Head-Wall II
A discussion between John Lennox and Richard Dawkins. My take? I wish that I had the patience of Job that Dawkins exhibits. Were I there, I would be slapping Lennox with a fish within ten minutes. What an absolute wanker. If this is the best "evidence" that a Christian can offer, then why in god’s name does anyone believe this tripe?It’s interesting that others are saying that Dawkins should not have taken the tactic of letting Lennox simply hang himself (as he clearly does), because believers will simply delude themselves that Lennox has "won" the "debate". I also think that this is probably true. Dawkins also concedes the possiblility, but points to the one who will follow him. Apparently, Christopher Hitchens will debate Lennox next month. Dawkins and I both look forward to that conversation.Leave a Reply
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Language and the Brain
A commonly-held view is that the human brain has evolved mechanisms that enable it to deal with language – and hence children demonstrate remarkable facilty for learning language at very young ages. But now comes a new proposal that states, in effect, that languages have adapted to the capabilities of the brain. It’s intriguing. More on this can be found over at the Babel’s Dawn blog, complete with a link to a 62 page draft of the paper laying out the proposal. Gulp.Leave a Reply
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All in the Mind
An interesting episode of the Australian radio series on science: All in the Mind, which deals with out-of-the-body experiences. I’ve only ever had one of those in my life, and it was both interesting initially and somewhat scary once I realised what I was experiencing.(hat tip to Mind Hacks for the link)Leave a Reply
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Magnetic Movie
Phil Plait, over at Bad Astronomy, draws our attention to this mesmerising visualisation of the magnetic fields that surround us all the time. Nicely done.Leave a Reply
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Turning The Tables
I never seem to get these gentlemen on the doorstep – it’s always the other kind…Leave a Reply
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The Annotated Turing
Jeff Atwood, over at Coding Horror, draws my attention to The Annotated Turing, by Charles Petzold. Sounds interesting. Alongside Andrew Hodges’ magisterial biography of Turing, this looks to be a worthwhile exploration of the man’s work. It is just somewhat depressing that, judging from the comments on Atwood’s post, even now the fact that Turing was gay brings the bigots out of the woodwork.Leave a Reply
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Finger On The Pulse
Well, you know me – I have no time for religion. Away with all that mind-numbing idiocy. Having said that, I do want to say that I thought that Rowan Williams got it spot-on when he said during the General Synod’s debate that:"I am deeply unhappy with any scheme or any solution to this which ends up, as it were, structurally humiliating women who might be nominated to the episcopate."Amen to that. What staggers me is that there are clearly people – some of them women – who believe the exact opposite. It almost beggars belief – but then I realise, yup, it’s simply religion, wending its merry way through the human psyche. Just keep out of my head, thank you very much.Leave a Reply
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Erm, What Error?
For the life of me, I can’t understand what is misleading about this description of Berlusconi. Spot on, it seems to me. Even more astounding is that the White House, under this administration, got it right for once and told the truth. No wonder they felt the need to apologise.Leave a Reply
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If Scientists Were Tabloid Fodder
This segue into a parallel universe is not just perverse, but has the whiff of greatness about it. Away with Britney Spears – give me Stephen Hawking in compromising situations! But I have to concede that the finishing touch is the rebranding of Michio Kaku as Mucho Kaka. I’ve often thought the same, myself. Simply brilliant.(hat tip to PZ Myers)Leave a Reply
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The Standards Office
Related to the last post (about the description by Pat Helland of the two camps in IT: Controllers and Doers), Stephen Walli has his own thought-provoking post about setting up a Standards Office within Google. Such a place is usually seen by the Doer camp as being staffed only by Controllers (and mostly in a highly negative sense), but it need not be this way.Stephe brings his long experience in the Standards game to bear on laying out the case for why Google should have a Standards Office. I found it very compelling, but I couldn’t help wondering that if Google has not already got such an office and associated processes in place, then are they not too late to be thinking about it now? If, indeed, Google is driven primarily by the Doer camp, then I can’t help feeling that it’s more likely to end in tears sooner rather than later. Stability comes from the tension and interaction between the two camps. Both sides of the coin are necessary for the coin to continue to exist…Leave a Reply
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Controllers and Doers
Pat Helland has a few wise words about the two broad categories of people who work in IT: the Controllers and the Doers. I recognise the types very well. Indeed, I started off in the Doer category, but for most of the latter part of my career (if such a grand word could be used about my working life) I was quite clearly in the Controllers’ camp.Leave a Reply
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Horses and Carriages
This weekend saw another gathering of horsey people and their animals around here. It was rather pleasant.
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Just Desserts
I see that Stephen Green is claiming that he is facing bankruptcy following his failed bid to bring blasphemy charges against the BBC for daring to show Jerry Springer – The Opera. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving case. Mind you, he’s set up an online petition to beg that the BBC waive the costs that were awarded against him by the High Court. Look Stephen, it’s clearly God’s will that you lost, so just pay up.I also note that a counter-petition has been set up to suggest that he abide by the law. I’ve signed that petition instead. Let him reap the whirlwind.Leave a Reply
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Mischief
I don’t know about you, but if I were to set up a Public Relations firm, I think that last thing I would call it is Mischief PR. It sounds such a hostage to fortune to me. Anyway, someone’s gone and done it, and guess what, they’re refusing to come clean on the data behind a story they’ve apparently concocted for one of their clients. Why am I not surprised?Leave a Reply
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