Politics
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“I’m the guy who pulled the trigger”
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Dick Cheney, noted hunter, marksman and friend of the National Rifle Association, admitted today that it was his fault that he shot his friend, not that of the guy who received a face full of birdshot. Thanks, Mr. Vice President, for clearing that up. Update: The victim, Harry Whittington, has since come out of the…
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You already know what I think
There’s no need to comment on: NASA says — and forces all of its public statements to say — that The Big Bang is just a “theory”. (But there’s no lack of opinion out there, at Cosmic Variance, Bad Astronomy, Pharyngula, Balloon Juice, Stranger Fruit, Gary Farber, and Mark Kleiman…) The closure of the London…
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What enlightenment?
While I was out last night planning the overthrow of religion with my fellow amoral atheists, the BBC was broadcasting a documentary in which it presented a poll showing that nearly 40% of Britons thought Intelligent Design or Creationism is the best explanation of life on earth. So it appears that Britain, too, is being…
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Management, Money, Media
Wednesday was a busy day of politicking and schmoozing (as opposed to research and teaching, which is what I actually get paid to do). I spent the morning at a meeting reviewing the current status of developments for the Planck Surveyor satellite here in the UK (Planck will measure the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave…
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Sublime to ridiculous
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Even the NY Times has picked up on George Galloway’s antics in the Celebrity Big Brother house (ironically presented on the same TV Channel as such highbrow fare as Richard Dawkins’ panegyric to atheism). Galloway, formerly Labour’s Glaswegian MP, now a London MP for (his own party) Respect, has always been one for extremes: lauding…
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More light, more science, no subways
Yesterday was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. So it all gets better from now on (Seasonal Affective Disorder seems to me a perfectly reasonable response to the darkness). But what else? A Republican-appointed member of the federal judiciary has slammed the Intelligent Design crackpots, seeing them for the crypto-creationists they can…
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Science and Parliament II
The official aims of the MP-Scientist pairing scheme are To help scientists recognise the potential methods and structures through which they can feed their scientific knowledge to parliamentarians. To help practising research scientists understand the pressures under which MPs operate. To give MPs the opportunity to forge direct links with a network of practising research…
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Science and Parliament (UK)
Sorry I’ve been so quiet this week: I’ve just finished participating in the Royal Society’s MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme. They’ve linked 25 youngish scientists from throughout the UK with a member of Parliament, and let us “shadow” them for much of this week (as well as giving us presentations on the way science and scientists interact…
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Atomic quote
The nightmare of all art, as well as of all politics, is generalities. You cannot generalize. You’ve got to keep things as specific to the minute, as down to the wire, as possible. –Peter Sellars in Alex Ross’s “Countdown” (from The New Yorker), on Dr. Atomic, the new opera about physicist Robert Oppenheimer and the…
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Politics ain’t beanbag
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Here in the UK, the Government has been criticised for “climbing down” in its presentation of a new bill to curb smoking in pubs: instead of an outright ban, it will allow smoking in private clubs and in pubs where “food” is not served (where the definition of “food” isn’t quite settled). Whether you think…
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