Richard Dawkins Foundation Introduction
The introduction video for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Science and Reason has made its way on to YouTube:
2006-10-23
2006-10-18
Torchwood
Finally, we're almost there: Torchwood starts this weekend.
Please, please, please... let it be good!
2006-09-25
The God Delusion
On Saturday I managed to get hold of a copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I'm only a couple of chapters in at the moment and so far it's a good read.
Because of the release of the book he was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight last Friday. I managed to miss it but, as usual, YouTube comes to the rescue:
Note that the interview is also currently available on the BBC website — I've been unable to watch it there today because the stream is very choppy.
2006-09-14
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
Poisoned pigeons fall from sky in Texarkana, via Dvorak Uncensored.
No, I don't have a comment, but it was the perfect excuse to dig out some Tom Lehrer:
2006-09-06
Still space rocking
It's well over a month now and I'm still listening to Knights of Cydonia most days — I just can't stop myself.
As a song it's very derivative, kind of obvious, it has simplistic lyrics but, but, but..... it just works.
And it seems to play well live too:
Given the probable average age of their core following I'm probably in the "dad" bracket in relation to them but I'd still really love to see them live...
2006-08-23
Why I love the internet
Back in the mid to late 1980s, during my late teens, I was a huge Japan fan. This, of course, involved collecting as much as their output as possible — not just the records but also trying to get hold if promo videos and stuff like that.
Anyone who knows the band will know that they had an early "glam rock" phase that, as the band evolved, they sort of ignored. Videos from that period tended to be quite hard to find, generally only available in some sort of "bootleg" form.
These days, thanks to the net, it's so much easier to find this sort of stuff:
2006-08-04
The name's LaForge, Geordi LaForge
I'm not great fan of weblogs that post one quiz result after another (yeah, I know, most online quiz things are stupid but they're often fun too). Normally I wouldn't post one right after another but after seeing a post on the Bad Astronomy weblog I had to have a go at this:
You are Geordi LaForge
You work well with others and often fix problems quickly. Your romantic relationships are often bungled.
| Geordi LaForge | 60% | |
| Will Riker | 60% | |
| Spock | 59% | |
| Deanna Troi | 50% | |
| Jean-Luc Picard | 50% | |
| Mr. Scott | 45% | |
| Beverly Crusher | 45% | |
| James T. Kirk (Captain) | 45% | |
| An Expendable Character (Redshirt) | 45% | |
| Worf | 40% | |
| Data | 37% | |
| Chekov | 35% | |
| Leonard McCoy (Bones) | 30% | |
| Uhura | 20% | |
| Mr. Sulu | 10% |
2006-08-02
I'm an emaciated hipster drinking dreams and eating consciousness
Silly quiz time (via Tim): The Famous Leader Test — I took 18 questions and ended up as:
I think I got a better deal than Tim did. ;)
And, if you're wondering about the title of this post, it's a line from Sophisticated Beggar by Roy Harper. It was either that or the other obvious one (well, obvious to me).
2006-07-25
Amps to 11, space rock with me!
This week, I'll mostly be listening to Knights of Cydonia by Muse.
Okay, I admit it, I love space rock and that track comes about as close as anyone "new" has come for a long time.
Amps up to 11, here we go again...
2006-07-12
OMG! Clowns!
From The BBC:
The Bestival, which takes place on 8, 9 and 10 September near Newport, Isle of Wight, had asked festival-goers to turn up in curly wigs and large shoes.Sure, phobias can be terrible things but I can't help wondering what they're going to do when the agoraphobics start to complain... And, wait a moment, it's on the Isle of Wight — pity the poor aquaphobics too...
But organisers decided to shelve the idea after a number of ticket holders said they suffered from Coulrophobia.
2006-07-03
RAF Waddington Airshow
Had a pretty good day out at the RAF Waddington airshow last Saturday. The content and mix of the display wasn't quite up to the usual quality this year although there were still some outstanding displays (the Typhoon display was the most impressive I've seen yet).
And, of course, the Red Arrows were as amazing as ever. I never get tired of them. Drawing a heart in the sky should be naff but, somehow, when they do it, it isn't.
2006-05-08
Top Tip of the Day
Top tip of the day: if you have a ball stuck in a tree, don't try and get it down by throwing a garden rake at it, you'll then have two things stuck in your tree:
2006-05-04
I am not a Doctor...
Via The Reg:
Former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston has been "linked" with the lead role in a remake of The Prisoner, the BBC reports.I'm a quite a fan of The Prisoner and the idea of Christopher Eccleston playing Number 6 does hold some appeal — although the idea of Sky One doing the remake does give cause for concern.
2006-04-13
The Euston Manifesto
The Euston Manifesto seems to be making quite a buzz today. I've had a very quick skim of the document and found much that I agree with and, at first glance, nothing I totally disagreed with. I think I'll be printing this one out and having a good read over the long weekend (it's a holiday weekend in the UK — some sort of pagan festival or other from what I can gather).
If nothing else item 14 caught my attention as it deals with Open Source. Okay, it's bound to annoy the hell out of RMS if he ever reads it but, hey, it's nice to see it get a mention.
2006-04-12
Quote of the week
From an article in The Guardian:
Last night, the Royal Society gave a public platform to Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, to deliver a lecture entitled Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution Is Right. Professor Jones said that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was "to me, rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks."
2006-04-11
Daily Mail in Theory Cock-Up Shock
It shouldn't and, to be honest, doesn't surprise me to find out that the hacks over at the Daily Mail don't have the first clue about what a theory actually is when talking about science.
A story there today, Pupils 'confused by science lessons in creationism' gets it very wrong in the wording of a poll associated with the story:
Should creationism be taught as truth or theory?I think that's got to be the most biased set of answers I've ever seen from a poll but, in this case, it would appear that it's more to do with ignorance on the part of the person setting it as opposed to it being down to a deliberate attempt to get the answer they want.
- It should be truth
- It's all theory
Is it any wonder that the readership of the paper then make comments such as
The fact is nobody knows anything because theories are just thoughts or ideas and nothing more...Monkeys are cute and will never be humans.
Evolution theories change every other week because they haven't a clue really. Remember the big bang?
I really do not see what the Royal Society are getting all steamed up about! They admit that Darwin's theroy is just that - a theory.And so on, that's just a random sample. Thankfully there are a couple of comments made against that story that actually point out what "theory" actually means.
2006-04-04
Further AGAST
It seems that AGAST is now fully up and running. This morning I found a leaflet on the doormat and it also seems that they've got a website up and running — the site contains much of the text that's in the leaflet but nothing else.
Sadly, so far, it seems that they're running the usual sort of FUD campaign that is common to many protest groups. This tends to be a case of preaching to the converted, it seldom seems to convince anyone else. Worse yet, it plays right into the hands of the opposition.
I think the thing that really reduces the usefulness and believability of the site (and the leaflet) is that some bold claims are made (literally, some of them are written in bold) but no source is given for the information. That's a real shame. I can understand space being short on the leaflet but there's no reason for failing to cite sources (and link to them where possible) on a website.
Take the claim that the plans are for "6 of the largest on shore turbines in Britain" for example. Okay, ignoring for a moment why that's actually an issue, where's the evidence, where will they actually be in the wind turbine height league for the Britain? I'd have an easier time believing this and putting it into some useful context if the details were actually given.
Another example: "It is reported that from as far as 2 miles the aerodynamic sound can be heard and felt like the boom boxes teenagers have in their cars". Sounds bad doesn't it? Even more so in Billingborough because there are plenty of those sorts of cars around so many people know what that's like. But, "it is reported" where and who reports this? Is this hearsay evidence, just an anecdote? How do I test the validity of this? Compare this with the BWEA's factsheet on wind turbine noise where they give plenty of values, place them in context and provide you with information as to who did the study so you can follow it up. While I wouldn't expect AGAST to do the same it would make the whole thing appear a little more believable if I know where it had been "reported".
I won't comment on the rest of the content as pretty much every item is presented as a fact with no backing whatsoever. I hope this was a design decision, I hope the intent was to get people thinking about the issues — sadly it doesn't look that way, it looks a little more like an attempt at FUD.
I'm not, by default, opposed to a wind farm on our doorstep; then again I'm not, by default, fully in favour of one either. I've been doing a fair bit of reading up, on and off, and so far I've failed to find very convincing arguments either way (although the balance is slightly in favour of the "pro-" rather than the "anti-" side but only because the "pro-" arguments tend to be more rational).
2006-03-28
Get a Life!
I got an email the other day, I don't think I know the author of it. It read:
great site!!That was it. If I knew the person it would make sense as a good-natured dig, but as an email that's totally out of the blue from a total stranger...
but reckon you need to get out more, perhaps for a byte (?) to eat or something
Leaving aside the obvious problems with the content, and leaving aside the fact that this person talks about my "site" without saying which site they're talking about (my main site, my astronomy site or my weather site?), what I find really odd is the false dichotomy that the email is based on.
It's something I've run into for most of my adult life, and for a large part of my teens too. As well as having the sorts of interests that most people have (eating, drinking, practicing procreation, socialising, shouting at the TV, etc...) I also have a whole bunch of "geeky" interests too. Astronomy and computers have been with me since I was a child, an interest in the weather is a pretty recent development and is still very much in its infancy. What is it about the "geeky" interests that makes people like the author of the email create that dichotomy that says "either you do normal things, or you do geeky things, but you can't do both?"
I've tried to get it a number of times but, mostly, I just can't get there. I can't understand what it is about some people such that when they see you have a passion about something they assume that's the total of you, that's all you do, that you have no life outside of that interest.
Just how insular do you have to be to think like that?
2006-03-10
Thin end of the wedge
From this article on the BBC:
Creationist theories about how the world was made are to be debated in GCSE science lessons in mainstream secondary schools in England.It would appear that the thin end of the wedge is finally going to find itself in mainstream UK classrooms.
The subject has been included in a new syllabus for biology produced by the OCR exam board, due out in September.
Although there are some sensible points raised in the article it's sad to see it start out with the phrase "creationist theories". I think the author of the article needs to go and learn what a theory is.
2006-03-06
SciFi Crew Quiz
Saw the quiz over on Matt's blog and couldn't resist. Shame I've never seen this "Serenity" mob.
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com |
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