Misc
stoat | April 27, 2010Good grief. So I try to gmail someone a message, and I happen to say "see attachment" in my text, and when I press "send" up pops a little box "I notice you said see attachemnt, but there isn't one. Is that alright?" or somesuch.
Well, I thought it was interesting. This is (probably) Mr Asbo.
Coming soon: the thing none of you have noticed about the "key" papers :-)
stoat | April 17, 2010Apparently we're all going to die because The Spooky Face means all that healthy foreign-grown lettuce and fine green beans can't be flown in. Or so said the radio this morning; I wasn't paying too close attention because I was sleepy, they may have phrased it slightly differently. However, when I got to Waitrose I was disappointed to find no panic-stricken queues - indeed it was quite quiet - and plenty of vegetables. Still nothing at all to see in the sky - well, other than the moon and so on, which remain perfectly clear.
While I'm on the misc stuff, I warn you I'm going to blog about our…
elerner | April 9, 2010Every other year, the National Science Board publishes its Science and Engineering Indicators report: data points from various aspects of academia, industry, and public life that aspire to gauge the nation's scientific strengths and weaknesses. One of the more interesting indicators is a survey given to adults and students about basic scientific questions, i.e. does the Earth circle the Sun or vice versa. This year, however, the questions about evolution and the big bang were dropped at the last minute, under the reasoning that many respondents know the correct answers but give the incorrect…
stoat | March 26, 2010 Who says GW is bad? Climate change stops fighting between India and Bangladesh says Nurture. [Err, see comments. And also, JA nailed this -W]
David Appell wonders about "Livestock's Long Shadow" - the odd thing is that I swear I've done this one before, and *I* didn't really believe their numbers either. But it might have been on wikipedia... can anyone help me out?
And, briefly, some science: Unmanned planes take wing for science. Bit of a dobber-substitute, no? There is a downside: Flying instruments on the Global Hawk isn't cheap or easy. NASA charges the same price -- US$3,500 per hour…
stoat | March 19, 2010
I'm wondering if this is fatal or not. Bike shops in Cambridge don't seem to do welding.
[Thanks to all who commented. The answer turns out to be the Genesis, £600, plus some mini-mudguards. To make things more exciting I'm buying it via the govt's bizarre buy-your-bike-from-work scheme, which (if it all works out) saves me 40% tax plus maybe some other bits. For those happy enough not to live here, there is some weird tax-dodge scheme encouraged by the gummint whereby the company buys the bike (in theory), or maybe some other leaseholding company, you rent it for a year whilst making…
tqa | March 17, 2010
One of my many distractions lately is travel planning. After spending several months living in the wilds of Lower Alabama, I'm getting to take a bit of a vacation. Right now, face a 60-minute round-trip commute to get to the nearest bookstore (a marginally acceptable Barnes and Noble). If I'm going to make a longer trip to restock the larder, I might as well go the full Monty and hit the Waterstone's on Piccadilly Circus.
So I'm off to Europe for a few weeks at the beginning of April. I've got the rough outline sketched in, and I'm hoping that some of you can help me fill in some of the…
stoat | March 6, 2010
From William Leeman but found via SkepChick, in turn found via The Penguin.
(If you've never read Time considered as a helix of semi precious stones you should; though it isn't quite as good as its title).
While I'm here, do you fancy some of that John "wacko" Donne?
BATTER my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,
Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee…
stoat | February 26, 2010When we all wake up by the Onion.
Spam: I wrote a website for a friend who does English/German translation. This is my attempt to push it up the google rankings and maybe even get her some business: http://baumgarten-translations.com/.
ScruffyDan on the incoherent septic response to Siddall et al.
Daniel: stronger than 3/4 of a sausage.
We were going to the Head of the Trent tomorrow (well, today now, cos I delayed this post) but the forecast is looking awful: Div 2 and the novices are already cancelled (for some mad reason we were entered as IM2). Since that means I don't have to get up at…
stoat | February 21, 2010Von S has an excellent article on adaption and mitigation (it isn't excellent because it says anything new or interesting - indeed, I'd regard it as the bleedin' obvious - but just as a fairly sane and readable restatement of the obvious). Plus this allows me to "reach out" as I believe the phrase has it to someone I'm supposed to disagree with somewhat.
Deep Climate's look at the "independent" Wegman report is worth a glance. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
DenialDepot as usual is on form to keep the warmist to account. And even drags Lubos into it. Speaking of Lubos, CIP…
stoat | February 20, 2010I was dragged screaming from work at the riducously early hour of 7:20 on friday night, by my wife, to listen to this. Being a barbarian, and knowing only that it was by Debussy, I assumed it was a concert. But no, 'tis an opera, although possibly a slightly odd one, since it is largely a transcription of Maeterlinck's play in which people sing lines others would just say. As the opera notes said, and wiki later confirms, this is a "symbolist" play, and we had good fun spotting "symbols", which was most of it. For example at one point there is an odd scene in which Yniold sees the sheep not…
stoat | February 16, 2010Wolf Hall is a now-immensely-well-known tale of a slice of Henry VIII's reign; a period I know little about: we skimped it at school and it gets throroughly mythologised anyway. The chief hero is Cromwell (not Oliver) who is portrayed (correctly,as I understand it) as a brilliant administrator and generally competent chap; as to whether he was really nice underneath, I neither know nor care.
What is chiefly interesting is the playing out of certain grand themes in the period. It was part of the development of civilisation, really, a time when people, under pressure of necessity, realised that…
milhayser | February 16, 2010
On Framing Science, Matthew C. Nisbet anticipates putting "an end to anonymous commenting" on his blog. Matt writes that people are "more willing and likely to be uncivil" when they don't have to face "social sanctions from others." Other ScienceBloggers disagree. On Adventures in Ethics and Science, Dr. Free-Ride appreciates the value of a pseudonym, noting that some opponents will leverage "our full names and true identities" as a way to "scuttle the dialogue before it has happened or scare us off from taking part in it." DrugMonkey writes that excluding anonymous comments is like…
stoat | February 3, 2010A rush of controversial comments has pushed the burn rate up, and we're over the 10k barrier. You can all stop now :-).
And I'm pleased to say that I have a worthy winner, with no need for me to fudge it (not that I would have done so, oh no indeed): Hank Roberts, with "Your willingness to identify yourself publicly is likely to depend on personal experience..." from von S getting tired of the ranters?. Eli misses by 1 - soooooo close, better luck for 20k.
Now all we have to do is decide on the prize. Which should, I think, either be a guest post or a post by me on a subject of Hank's choice.
stoat | January 24, 2010
Sometimes I have to admit I'm completely outclassed, and people who can find this kind of stuff win hands down.
stoat | January 19, 2010 This is one of my favourite proverbs. I quite often find myself turning it over in my own mind as some particularly dense person fails yet again to see the bleedin' obvious.
And yet I discover that it doesn't appear to be a "standard" proverb, at least as revealed by 5 mins of not-very-exhaustive google searching. If you know better, tell me.
The meaning, of course, is that once a certain minimal level of literal or metaphorical illumination has been shed on a subject, increasing the level of illumination or quantity of explanation will not allow the foolish to understand any more. Very…
milhayser | January 8, 2010
ScienceOnline 2010 will take place January 15-17, and ScienceBloggers Janet Stemwedel and Dr. Isis will co-lead a session on "online civility." Janet sparks the discussion on Adventures in Ethics and Science, asking if civility online entails something different than it does in real life. On Bioephemera, Jessica Palmer responds that an "us/them mentality" already fosters misunderstanding in the real world, and unless we want the internet to be "a bunch of bickering echo chambers," we should listen to each other with respect. On A Blog Around The Clock, Coturnix notes that written language is…
stoat | January 8, 2010Cold, isn't it? And quite dark too (is that the [[Equation of time]]?).
But I'm rather enjoying this snow - it is clear and crisp, so far. I've only fallen off once.
[Update: Looks cold but lovely from above [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/8447023.stm
]. Mind you, it is warm elsewhere]
There are sandals underneath that, in case you'd missed how hard I am :-)
stoat | December 24, 2009'Twas the night before Christmas and all the blogs were silent as mice.
The usual fare will return. For now, comments are off. Happy Christams to all!
[Update: comments are back]
tqa | December 11, 2009
Earlier this evening, Judge Nina Gershon issued a preliminary injunction barring the government from enforcing a law that bars any Federal money from going to the controversial community group ACORN, or any of ACORN's "affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations". Gershon's ruling will remain in effect while ACORN's lawsuit challenging the law is active.
Predictably enough, the decision has sparked an epidemic of exploding Conservative heads, with Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) leading the charge:
âOn the same day that ACORNâs violation of Delaware state lobbying laws was…