News story with UK opposition bemoaning government “stranglehold” on science funding – “Return control of science funding to the scientists” calls Osborne. [Post Note - the opinion that follows is in response to the implicit suggestion in the reporting of that quote that, because scientists are concerned with science, they are somehow specially qualified not [...]
Entries from March 2008
Is Funding Scientific ?
15
March 29, 2008 at 9:31am
by Ian
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I used to hate Schiphol
0
March 28, 2008 at 1:52am
by Ian
Until I experienced a few transit flights through Heathrow. Truly the worst airport experience ever. Like so much UK infrastructure it shows its age and the effect of NIMBY’s and anti-central-planning free-marketers. This comparison is useful. Schiphol’s single integrated terminal always seemed so vast and the distances so great, but in fact the total distance between [...]
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Articulate Young Man
0
March 27, 2008 at 11:07am
by Ian
Sad and uplifting all at the same time. Best wishes for Robert Maltby’s future. Noticed the original crime story when it happened. How to learn something from even the most desparate of experiences.
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The Earliest Interweb-Thingy ?
0
March 27, 2008 at 10:33am
by Ian
Thanks to Dan Glover for posting this Mundaneum link on MoQ-Discuss. (And to Ron Kulp for this documentary link to the same subject.) I’ve blogged several times previously on the similarity of blogging to the approach Pirsig used to organise his ideas, and how this is a generic metaphor for the interconnectivity rather than atomism of [...]
Instruction is the scary word.
0
March 24, 2008 at 2:50pm
by Ian
But I guess the key word here is “offer”. I my time a faith-based-assembly was optional and conscientious objection was accepted, though few did. Quite rightly distinct from Religious Education. Trouble is who chooses to accept such an offer, child or guardian ?
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The Electric Monk Rides Again
0
March 24, 2008 at 2:20pm
by Ian
Couldn’t help thinking of Dirk Gently’s Electric Monk (Douglas Adams) when I saw this news story – even down to the mono-colour photographic evidence (orange rather than pink it has to be said.)
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End of Faith in What ?
6
March 22, 2008 at 1:27pm
by Ian
Several different threads here. All mentioned before – reading Sam Harris “End of Faith” itself, a discussion thread on MoQ.Discuss with End of Faith title and several spin-off threads, and a discussion thread on Chairman Parker’s Blog. My position can be summarised quite easily. Tolerance of (misplaced) religious faith is as dangerous as extremes of [...]
Shift Happens
2
March 22, 2008 at 9:50am
by Ian
Thanks to David Gurteen for bringing this to my attention. The punchline is a bit lame, or perhaps understated, but if 20% of these stats turn out to be 80% true, then the situation is mind-boggling – scary and/or inspiring at the same time. Interesting comment thread(s) on YouTube – there are several different versions [...]
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Some Time Management Paradoxes
3
March 12, 2008 at 12:48am
by Ian
A whole collection here from Dave Pollard. Particularly like the first two. Generalists / consultants shouldn’t worry (feel guilty / stressed) about not getting things done, it’s not the point of their work – the point is to figure out and pass that information along to someone who can do something with it. In fact delivering less [...]
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Mindwalk
1
March 11, 2008 at 5:32pm
by Ian
Conversation between a Physicist, a Politician and a Poet. Mindwalk with screenplay co-authored by Fritjof Capra, based on his “Turning Point”, subsequent to his “Tao of Physics”. First I need to say, that I have previously seen Capra taking the parallel’s between Mysticisms of ancient cultures and New Physics into interconnected harmonies a step too far, [...]
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Musical Interlude
0
March 10, 2008 at 7:32pm
by Ian
Saw Tommy Womack again on Saturday, this time as a double act with Alabamian Will Kimbrough, who I’d not seen before. Saw them at a Nashville venue I’d not seen before either, Norm’s River Road House. Great little basement venue, apparently in the middle of nowhere, and I discovered I wasn’t the only first-time punter [...]
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Successful Mass Collaboration
0
March 5, 2008 at 5:23pm
by Ian
Very interesting “Thinking Allowed” today with Charles Leadbeater discussing his “We-Think” (subtitle – Mass innovation not mass production). Very brief part of the programme – but I was taken by the comment that all (that is all) successful bottom-up / de-centralised / self-organising collaborations like Wikipedia, Linux etc, not only seem to have some freedom-limiting [...]
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Black Humour
0
March 3, 2008 at 9:59am
by Ian
Hope this guy turns out to be innocent … but an interesting real example of black (non-PC) humour at work. In service industries looking after the welfare of individuals (eg education, training, health-care, and to a lesser extent, food, drink & leisure retail service) Sylvia and I have often joked about the black humour amongst professionals [...]
