"Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman"

Just finished this book. Read it very quickly even though it's a relatively long read - think it was just because it was very interesting.

Richard Feynman was considered one of the top minds of the last century. Reading this book, you'll get an idea why. Obviously, as an autobiography it does bring to the fore how great he thought he was. He never really goes into detail about his achievements, so it's tough to know details about what exactly it was that he achieved.

This book really blows stuff like Freakonomics out of the water in terms of thinking differently. I think the fundamental reason Feynman stood out was a combination of the persistence he asked the question 'Why?' and his ability to obtain answers.

'Why' is a fundamental word that should really be used more often. Ben Goldacre's wonderful 'Bad Science' column in the Guardian fulfils the modern day version of Feynman - asking awkward questions of what Feynman calls 'Cargo Cult Scientists.'

Asking the right questions of quacks and trash peddlers should smoke them out pretty quickly.

I often get frustrated at work when people give presentations that aren't necessarily backed up by facts. I too often put up charts without properly sourcing them. I think this is a problem that needs to be addressed in society in general.

Too often newspaper report only the findings of a study. It's amazing how often they won't actually tell you which journal the research is appearing in. They often won't even include who the authors are. I often moan about the number of headlines revolving around 'cancer risk' in newspaper stories. The old method of ignoring stories with quotation marks in the headlines needs to be followed more rigorously.

In summary, I remembered the Feynman lectures from my physics course and it's refreshing to find out that there was a genuinely interesting (if sometimes tipping towards the insane side of eccentric) person behind them. Well worth a read if you're looking for some popular science stuff.

Fantastic

For anyone who doesn't like the Daily Mail nor the Evening Standard, here's a great little thing.

Managed to get it to say "Londoners fear Ken fiasco." Wonder if that's what the headline writers actually use - will have to see if I can see a similar machine at the Sun.

Heat - George Monbiot's New Book

I do hate George Monbiot on many levels. He has a very strong 'holier than thou' attitude to almost all of his campaigning issues. He very rarely gives people credit for trying. "You may have saved one million dolphins, but you still don't pay your migrant workers a living wage".

This book is a vision of how to deliver an almost Carbon Neutral Britain (and world) by 2050. It's very ambitious and very interesting. Once you get past his first two chapters, it's quite a good read. It should be used as a model for people wishing to make a point about anything campaigny. Everything he refers to is sourced, he talks through his calculations and he is good at actually using decent numbers.

Overall, there were some interesting ideas which I'm going to have to check out:

• DC Power Lines (a new, more efficient way of moving large amounts of electricity around)
• Passive Houses (extremely well insulated houses which don't need heat)
• Peer to Peer National Grid

The Peer to Peer National Grid sounds the most promising. The majority of energy inefficiency in electricity generation is due to heat escaping. This could be harnessed by putting small scale generators in each home. THe power transmission lines would then allow energy exchanges between households.

My main problems with his book is that the assumptions used to postulate that we need to reduce a carbon emissions by 90% seem slightly ropey. He goes out of his way to criticise a group of people for not being fully trained in science, but then talks about a wonderful paper by someone who wasn't trained in science (one page later!?).

To be fair though, this is a good effort and worth a read or two.


Here

Harryhausen

The original special effects guru. Impressive what could be achieved with a stop motion camera, a projection screen and large amounts of plasticene.

Learning - Crip on a Trip

Title of the programme seems to have been done by a Sun subeditor...

Sounds like an interesting show.

What's next?

Tourettes on Tour?

Spastic spend with plastic?

Midgets play with Widgets?


Possibilities are endless

The next deputy PM

A very rare example of a Lib Dem being able to use numbers well.

Amusingly, Stephen Tall (random Lib Dem from Oxfordshire) has managed to twist a press release supporting Harriet Harman for deputy PM into a case for Hillary Benn.

I think everyone is convinced Hillary Benn is a nice guy, but he still seems a little obscure to me.

The other question many people must be asking is "What does the deputy PM actually do?"

It always seemed to be a job for someone who couldn't be trusted with a 'proper' cabinet position. Michael Heseltine needed something grand without too much potential to mess things up. John Prescott needed to the same treatment.

We'll see if Hillary Benn can manage to achieve anything in the position.

Gates Goes Green

Microsoft, the company geeks love to hate, is going to make itself eligible for the award of greenest company on Earth. It would be churlish to ask why they haven't done this before - energy inefficiency is mainly a product of computer manufacturers rather than Microsoft.

It's an interesting idea that it's possible to save that much energy without putting too much effort in. 100 million computers seems to be quite a low estimate for the number of computers in the world - I seem to remember seeing a stat that there were almost a billion computers in the world.

Anyway - we'll see if this actually adds something to the computer or if it just makes the computer constantly try to turn itself off when you're not looking.

Social Suicide Suits

I love my industry. Selling things to people who don't need them.

What's a good example?


This link.

I would love to go into a shop and try and get someone to sell this product to me.

Why is this man now Minister for Science?

'pioneering work on hypothermia, Old and Cold: hypothermia and social policy'

Now that sounds like good science.

Admittedly Lord Sainsbury wasn't much better, but at least he'd been in a position before government to appreciate how important Science is to modern life.

I don't believe a sociology lecturer is the right person to be in charge of Britain's research budget.

New degree reflects music's digital direction

Coventry University is setting up an 'e-music degree' - a degree in how to distribute and promote music online.

How can you do a degree in how to upload stuff to MySpace?

Where do the teachers come from - the internet has been a mainstream medium for around six years, maximum. Who can claim to know more than the people who have grown up through the system?

I doubt the contacts that Coventry University offer their prospective students are very strong - MySpace UK has about thirty staff, up from one at the beginning of the year.

Looks to me like a waste of time for whoever does it. Their best option is to ignore the course and use the student loan to fund their time making music.

The internet is a good distribution option for good music . Student's time would be best spent learning how to make good music rather than learning how to distribute the end product. I also think it will be tough for any university or teacher to show people how to make good music. If you're composing, you've either got it or you don't (in my opinion)

Video Blog!

An attempt at a video blog. Just talking about the activity I was up to on the weekend.

Before:

After

Beer fingerprints to go UK-wide | The Register

There appears to be a scheme to check people's fingerprints before they drink alcohol.
This is wrong. The government will be collecting data on where you drink. This will also give them the names of the people you hang out with. There is no reason for the government to need to know this information, and definitely intrudes way too far into people's lives.
Interesting to see that councils are able to setup a ID system that is hugely cheaper than the government's proposed cards...

Now that's just silly

Now that's just silly
Originally uploaded by mild_swearwords.

Some people get into the christmas spirit.

Others put a couple of decorations up around the house.

The REALLY committed can't bear to not have Christmas imprinted on every single thing they do. This means they have to involve Christmas at their most intimate moments.

Morrissons have bravely stepped up to the challenge and provided what we've always wanted - christmas themed loo roll.

Idiots. Anyone who buys this deserves to have their money stolen.


Might make cheap wrapping paper though!!

Stand up

'Feeling Good' ad for Co-Operative Bank

The Aftermath

The Aftermath
Originally uploaded by mild_swearwords.

Amusing story.

Went to a house party last night, to celebrate(?) Charlie leaving on a round the world trip.

He was having a fantastic time. Until he accidentally told his shiny new girlfriend about the fact that he'd had sex with one of the girls there. Six years ago. Once and never again.

For some reason this annoyed her out of all proportion. She stormed off to bed and then in the morning tried to run off without saying goodbye to anyone.
In order to move her car out, she needed to move someone's car out of the way. She tried and failed miserable, crashing the car which wasn't hers into Charlie's sister's car.
Obviously, after this convoluted series of events, it was decided (by Charlie's sister) that it was Charlie's fault everything had happened.

Therefore Charlie has to pay because he annoyed his girlfriend and she broke stuff.

Who says it's a man's world?

Dogs On Acid - Whats your favourite name on DOA?

Dogs On Acid - Whats your favourite name on DOA?

Just found this page!!!

Thanks Ben!

Cultural Week

This week has been slightly different.

On Monday I went to see 'an inconvenient truth' the Al Gore film which shows how he's single handedly trying to save the Earth. With a PowerBook apple computer. Might start staring into my laptop with an intense expression while making random presentations. Seems to work for him!

Wednesday I had a lovely dinner party with a Barrister and someone who is about to start studying to become a Rabbi. Most interesting and civilised talking over dinner.

Tonight I have been to see the new Kevin Spacey play in the Old Vic. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't the most sophisticated of plays, I think my dad would have moaned and said it was predictable and derivative. However Spacey was very impressive and the lead female (whoever she was) did a solid job. Worth seeing.


Admittedly on Tuesday I got drunk in the Roadhouse in Covent Garden. That wasn't quite as cultured...

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Terry Lloyd killed by US fire, say ballistics expects

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Terry Lloyd killed by US fire, say ballistics expects

If this was French troops being accused of accidentally shooting a journalist dead the press would be baying for blood. It's slightly concerning how much this story has been buried in many of hte papers.

Admittedly this is happening on the same day that a concerning nation has acquired nuclear weapons, but still!

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Terry Lloyd killed by US fire, say ballistics expects

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Terry Lloyd killed by US fire, say ballistics expects

If this was French troops being accused of accidentally shooting a journalist dead the press would be baying for blood. It's slightly concerning how much this story has been buried in many of hte papers.

Admittedly this is happening on the same day that a concerning nation has acquired nuclear weapons, but still!

Risky Business

Banning gambling on the internet = supporting terrorism.

Fantastic!