I think every pool should have one.
http://www.boredpanda.com/invention-animals-rescue-pool-rich-mason-froglog/
Sunday, 25 June 2017
What does "theory" actually mean ?
Alternative title : Ten Times Scientists Didn't Use The Word Theory To Mean A Well-Tested Model That's Almost A Fact Because That's Not What The Damn Thing Means So Just Get Over It Already.
Admittedly, I do keep flip-flopping on whether "theory" means, "incredibly well-tested" model or something else. This post should definitively clear that up by making it abundantly clear than everything is much more complicated than that.
Clearly there are some theories which do extraordinarily well - sometimes so well that theory and fact are indistinguishable. It might be fair to start to describe these as laws, not theories - the law of gravity, the law of evolution. Both of these things are established factual processes. Yet even these are like Russian dolls : within them we find detailed theoretical models of how they occur, and within those we find competing hypotheses as to how particular aspects proceed and even rivals to the theory - but not the laws. Gravity is a thing. Evolution happens. It's the mechanisms by which these things occur that's open to debate (at least a little bit), not their very existence.
Even if we were to insist that hypothesis only means, "explanation with little or no testing" (which it does) and theory only means, "well-tested explanation" (which it doesn't), then it wouldn't be easy to distinguish between the two. No strict criteria of what "well tested" means exists. It's probably impossible anyway, given the incredibly diverse nature of theories. You can't equate cat emotions with the distortion of spacetime around a black hole, or at least you shouldn't.
The reality is, though, that the vast majority of theories fall somewhere between these two extremes. They aren't just speculations based on limited data, and they aren't so convincing that no other explanations are plausible. They've had some testing and they generally work, but they have room for improvement. Some of them might turn out to be completely wrong, others just need tweaking.
I'm all for rigorous definitions wherever that's possible and appropriate. But in the case of "theory" I think that neither is the case. The simple truth of the matter is that science isn't always purely objective. It's a murky, messy business of turning facts into models, testing those models, rejecting some while provisionally tolerating others. Pretending that it's more objective than it actually is won't work, because it simply isn't true. Would it be nice if it was ? Sure ! But that's not what it's like, and that murkiness is sometimes what makes it fun.
No definition will stop the most ardent from bullshitting about science, because these people simply do not care - and you can't argue with someone who doesn't care, you can only have shouting matches. But for the rest, let's not set ourselves up for disaster by pretending we know things we do not. Simply admit the plain truth of it - that we know hardly anything for certain, but we're far, far more confident about some things than others. If this leaves people feeling lost and insecure, then that would be a good start. Perhaps (and I say this cautiously, knowing how damaging bullshit and stupidity can be) then they'd stop the chest-thumping for a moment, begin to realise that not everything can be quantified, and actually learn how to think.
Admittedly, I do keep flip-flopping on whether "theory" means, "incredibly well-tested" model or something else. This post should definitively clear that up by making it abundantly clear than everything is much more complicated than that.
Clearly there are some theories which do extraordinarily well - sometimes so well that theory and fact are indistinguishable. It might be fair to start to describe these as laws, not theories - the law of gravity, the law of evolution. Both of these things are established factual processes. Yet even these are like Russian dolls : within them we find detailed theoretical models of how they occur, and within those we find competing hypotheses as to how particular aspects proceed and even rivals to the theory - but not the laws. Gravity is a thing. Evolution happens. It's the mechanisms by which these things occur that's open to debate (at least a little bit), not their very existence.
Even if we were to insist that hypothesis only means, "explanation with little or no testing" (which it does) and theory only means, "well-tested explanation" (which it doesn't), then it wouldn't be easy to distinguish between the two. No strict criteria of what "well tested" means exists. It's probably impossible anyway, given the incredibly diverse nature of theories. You can't equate cat emotions with the distortion of spacetime around a black hole, or at least you shouldn't.
The reality is, though, that the vast majority of theories fall somewhere between these two extremes. They aren't just speculations based on limited data, and they aren't so convincing that no other explanations are plausible. They've had some testing and they generally work, but they have room for improvement. Some of them might turn out to be completely wrong, others just need tweaking.
I'm all for rigorous definitions wherever that's possible and appropriate. But in the case of "theory" I think that neither is the case. The simple truth of the matter is that science isn't always purely objective. It's a murky, messy business of turning facts into models, testing those models, rejecting some while provisionally tolerating others. Pretending that it's more objective than it actually is won't work, because it simply isn't true. Would it be nice if it was ? Sure ! But that's not what it's like, and that murkiness is sometimes what makes it fun.
No definition will stop the most ardent from bullshitting about science, because these people simply do not care - and you can't argue with someone who doesn't care, you can only have shouting matches. But for the rest, let's not set ourselves up for disaster by pretending we know things we do not. Simply admit the plain truth of it - that we know hardly anything for certain, but we're far, far more confident about some things than others. If this leaves people feeling lost and insecure, then that would be a good start. Perhaps (and I say this cautiously, knowing how damaging bullshit and stupidity can be) then they'd stop the chest-thumping for a moment, begin to realise that not everything can be quantified, and actually learn how to think.
In Theory
Things that are true. Things that might be true but, then again, might not be. The set of things we currently think might be true or might not be true and the methods we use to establish if we think they might be true or not.
"I fairly won the election which was rigged by Russia", says Trump
Waaait... he's saying that Obama failed to prevent the Russians interfering in a rigged election which he won ?
Well okay then.
President Donald Drumpf has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of inaction over alleged Russian interference in the US election in 2016. Mr Drumpf said Mr Obama had learned well before the 8 November poll about the accusations and "did nothing". His comments followed an article in the Washington Post which said that Mr Obama learned last August of President Vladimir Putin's "direct involvement".
The alleged meddling is the subject of high-level investigations in the US. President Putin has repeatedly denied any Russian interference into the presidential election.
Mr Drumpf tweeted on Friday: "The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?"
He followed that up with two more tweets on Saturday, the second saying: "Obama Administration official said they "choked" when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didn't want to hurt Hillary?"He repeats the argument in an interview with Fox News, which will air on Sunday.
"If he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it. But you don't read that. It's quite sad."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40395433
Well okay then.
President Donald Drumpf has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of inaction over alleged Russian interference in the US election in 2016. Mr Drumpf said Mr Obama had learned well before the 8 November poll about the accusations and "did nothing". His comments followed an article in the Washington Post which said that Mr Obama learned last August of President Vladimir Putin's "direct involvement".
The alleged meddling is the subject of high-level investigations in the US. President Putin has repeatedly denied any Russian interference into the presidential election.
Mr Drumpf tweeted on Friday: "The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?"
He followed that up with two more tweets on Saturday, the second saying: "Obama Administration official said they "choked" when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didn't want to hurt Hillary?"He repeats the argument in an interview with Fox News, which will air on Sunday.
"If he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it. But you don't read that. It's quite sad."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40395433
Saturday, 24 June 2017
Friday, 23 June 2017
A self-driving, road-going train
Well it's certainly more plausible than that double-laned monstrosity that was hitting the headlines not so long ago, but I'm rather skeptical of the claims. The article requires disabling adblock, which annoys me so here it is in full :
China has unveiled an innovative public transportation solution to ease commute in the form of a hybrid self-driving vehicle that looks half like a train and half a bus and may be the world's first railless train.
Termed as the Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) the elongated vehicle was shown off in the city of Zhuzhou in Hunan province. The transit looks similar to a train and has three standard train/tube like compartments but runs on a virtual track rather than rails, making it technically a bus.
The ART, which is capable of holding up to 307 passengers and hitting speeds of up to 70km per hour, is currently being tested for 6.5km track in Zhuzhou. CRRC, the company that built the vehicle hopes will be operational by next year. The ART not only aims to tackle congested areas but also the alarming pollution level. It is completely battery operated and can get 15 miles on a 10 minute charge.
As shown in the images it is like a modular train or a modern day tram and carriages can be added or removed to accommodate people. The train-bus hybrid follows a pair of white lines painted on the street and has sensors fitted like autonomous vehicles to avoid obstacles.
Work on the ART began way back in 2013 to ease congestion in China's crowded urban centres. The government also wanted to build a cost-effective solution to traffic congestion and the CRCC has managed to build the ART at nearly the same costs as a regular bus in Chinese urban centres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd3N9CFKe9M
Via Markus Keller.
Originally shared by Rick Li
#China has unveiled an innovative public #transportation solution to ease commute in the form of a hybrid self-driving vehicle that looks half like a train and half a bus and may be the world's first railless train.
Termed as the Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) the elongated vehicle was shown off in the city of Zhuzhou in Hunan province. The transit looks similar to a train and has three standard train/tube like compartments but runs on a virtual track rather than rails, making it technically a bus.
#DigitalStrategy #DisruptiveStrategy #DriverlessVehicles #DisruptiveInnovation #DigitalEconomy #DigitalDisruption #FutureTech #AutonomousVehicles #SelfDrivingVehicles
World's first railless #train? China unveils hybrid self-driving electric vehicle
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-first-railless-train-china-unveils-hybrid-self-driving-electric-vehicle-1625186
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-first-railless-train-china-unveils-hybrid-self-driving-electric-vehicle-1625186
China has unveiled an innovative public transportation solution to ease commute in the form of a hybrid self-driving vehicle that looks half like a train and half a bus and may be the world's first railless train.
Termed as the Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) the elongated vehicle was shown off in the city of Zhuzhou in Hunan province. The transit looks similar to a train and has three standard train/tube like compartments but runs on a virtual track rather than rails, making it technically a bus.
The ART, which is capable of holding up to 307 passengers and hitting speeds of up to 70km per hour, is currently being tested for 6.5km track in Zhuzhou. CRRC, the company that built the vehicle hopes will be operational by next year. The ART not only aims to tackle congested areas but also the alarming pollution level. It is completely battery operated and can get 15 miles on a 10 minute charge.
As shown in the images it is like a modular train or a modern day tram and carriages can be added or removed to accommodate people. The train-bus hybrid follows a pair of white lines painted on the street and has sensors fitted like autonomous vehicles to avoid obstacles.
Work on the ART began way back in 2013 to ease congestion in China's crowded urban centres. The government also wanted to build a cost-effective solution to traffic congestion and the CRCC has managed to build the ART at nearly the same costs as a regular bus in Chinese urban centres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd3N9CFKe9M
Via Markus Keller.
Originally shared by Rick Li
#China has unveiled an innovative public #transportation solution to ease commute in the form of a hybrid self-driving vehicle that looks half like a train and half a bus and may be the world's first railless train.
Termed as the Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) the elongated vehicle was shown off in the city of Zhuzhou in Hunan province. The transit looks similar to a train and has three standard train/tube like compartments but runs on a virtual track rather than rails, making it technically a bus.
#DigitalStrategy #DisruptiveStrategy #DriverlessVehicles #DisruptiveInnovation #DigitalEconomy #DigitalDisruption #FutureTech #AutonomousVehicles #SelfDrivingVehicles
World's first railless #train? China unveils hybrid self-driving electric vehicle
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-first-railless-train-china-unveils-hybrid-self-driving-electric-vehicle-1625186
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-first-railless-train-china-unveils-hybrid-self-driving-electric-vehicle-1625186
Tribalism in science is stupid and you know it
Apparently I'm wrong about tribalism in science. Apparently it's actually a perfectly acceptable practise and even a good thing, and instead of trying to stop it we should encourage it. Even when it's about trivial matters of no real importance, we should deliberately piss people off.
Aaaaaarrrgggh.
Sometimes I don't know why I bother, I really don't. If anyone needs me I'll be busy beating my head against a wall for the next few hours.
(I wouldn't bother posting this were it not for the fact the OP is an otherwise intelligent and respectable individual)
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Short on shorts
My school had the problem of insisting we wore shorts to PE lessons even if it was freezing cold and raining. It doesn't toughen kids up or any of that nonsense, it's just stupid.
Some 30 boys have worn skirts to school in protest at being told they were not allowed to wear shorts. The pupils from ISCA Academy in Exeter asked permission to modify their uniform because of the hot weather.
One of the boys who took part in the protest said: "We're not allowed to wear shorts, and I'm not sitting in trousers all day, it's a bit hot." Head teacher Aimee Mitchell said shorts were "not part" of the school uniform, as first reported by Devon Live.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-40364632
Some 30 boys have worn skirts to school in protest at being told they were not allowed to wear shorts. The pupils from ISCA Academy in Exeter asked permission to modify their uniform because of the hot weather.
One of the boys who took part in the protest said: "We're not allowed to wear shorts, and I'm not sitting in trousers all day, it's a bit hot." Head teacher Aimee Mitchell said shorts were "not part" of the school uniform, as first reported by Devon Live.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-40364632
SOLAR FREAKIN' BORDER CONTROL WALLS !
Yes, this is definitely completely consistent with all his previous statements about bringing back coal and making Mexico pay.
US President Donald Drumpf has told supporters that his proposed wall along the border with Mexico could have solar panels fixed to it. Addressing a rally in Iowa, he said the panels would provide cheap energy and help to pay for the controversial wall.
He suggested the plan was his own, saying: "Pretty good imagination, right? Good? My idea." However, solar panels have been included in designs for the wall submitted by companies.
"We're thinking of something that's unique, we're talking about the southern border, lots of sun, lots of heat. We're thinking about building the wall as a solar wall, so it creates energy and pays for itself. And this way, Mexico will have to pay much less money, and that's good, right?"
He added: "Solar wall, panels, beautiful. I mean actually think of it, the higher it goes the more valuable it is."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40363390
US President Donald Drumpf has told supporters that his proposed wall along the border with Mexico could have solar panels fixed to it. Addressing a rally in Iowa, he said the panels would provide cheap energy and help to pay for the controversial wall.
He suggested the plan was his own, saying: "Pretty good imagination, right? Good? My idea." However, solar panels have been included in designs for the wall submitted by companies.
"We're thinking of something that's unique, we're talking about the southern border, lots of sun, lots of heat. We're thinking about building the wall as a solar wall, so it creates energy and pays for itself. And this way, Mexico will have to pay much less money, and that's good, right?"
He added: "Solar wall, panels, beautiful. I mean actually think of it, the higher it goes the more valuable it is."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40363390
Sunday, 18 June 2017
Fiction can advocate without endorsing
A play has the added benefit of exploring the emotional and physical aspects of a situation, not just the intellectual ones. And plays can explore issues from many points of view. Just because something happens in a play doesn’t mean that the playwright is advocating for it. When the title character in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is assassinated, some characters think it is a good idea, some characters think it is a bad idea. What did Shakespeare himself think? We will never know.
The assassination is a transgressive, bloody act. And in case the audience at this moment still thinks that Brutus’s line of thought was correct, Antony delivers a powerful expression of outrage and emotional trauma. Brutus and Antony then have funeral orations giving opposing points of view. Whomever you agree with, one thing is clear, things do not go well for the conspirators. Brutus and Cassius wind up dead, and Rome is pushed farther down the path of tyranny toward the next Caesar: Augustus.
It is hard to imagine a production of Julius Caesar advocating the idea of assassination as a political tool.
The Breitbart article that started the controversy is — I kid you not — a review by someone who talked to someone who saw the show. This second-order correspondent also thinks the play ends with the death of Caesar, as if they are killing the bad guy at the end of a superhero movie. In fact, the assassination takes place in the middle of the play, the rest of which deals with the terrible consequences of this action. Shakespeare built the outrage into the text. Mark Antony is so outraged — for himself, and on our behalf — that outrage suffuses the play’s entire second half. If you see a production, you get outraged with the play, not against it.
https://medium.com/@robmelrose/obama-trump-caesar-f81bf985ac67
The assassination is a transgressive, bloody act. And in case the audience at this moment still thinks that Brutus’s line of thought was correct, Antony delivers a powerful expression of outrage and emotional trauma. Brutus and Antony then have funeral orations giving opposing points of view. Whomever you agree with, one thing is clear, things do not go well for the conspirators. Brutus and Cassius wind up dead, and Rome is pushed farther down the path of tyranny toward the next Caesar: Augustus.
It is hard to imagine a production of Julius Caesar advocating the idea of assassination as a political tool.
The Breitbart article that started the controversy is — I kid you not — a review by someone who talked to someone who saw the show. This second-order correspondent also thinks the play ends with the death of Caesar, as if they are killing the bad guy at the end of a superhero movie. In fact, the assassination takes place in the middle of the play, the rest of which deals with the terrible consequences of this action. Shakespeare built the outrage into the text. Mark Antony is so outraged — for himself, and on our behalf — that outrage suffuses the play’s entire second half. If you see a production, you get outraged with the play, not against it.
https://medium.com/@robmelrose/obama-trump-caesar-f81bf985ac67
Taxes should be spent for the public good, not given back
Spend your damn taxes, Kensington.
In 2014, I received my Kensington and Chelsea council tax bill and a letter from the leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, explaining that all residents who pay council tax in full would “receive a one-off payment of £100”, to be deducted from the bill. This bonus, the letter continued, was due to the council’s careful management of its finances over the years, “consistently delivering greater efficiencies while improving services”. ... For years, the Royal Borough has got away with bribing the electorate with its own money.
As the toxic ash of Grenfell Tower’s vanity cladding falls over the neighbouring streets, we are left with the acrid truth in our throats: regeneration in the Royal Borough is in fact a crime of greed and selfishness. I took the refund. At the time, I felt uncomfortable with this decision and the ways in which I justified it to myself. And then I forgot about it, until the smoke drifting into my flat in the early hours of Wednesday woke me up. Today, I gave it back. It wasn’t ever mine to keep.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/16/my-council-tax-rebate-from-kensington-and-chelsea-is-blood-money
In 2014, I received my Kensington and Chelsea council tax bill and a letter from the leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, explaining that all residents who pay council tax in full would “receive a one-off payment of £100”, to be deducted from the bill. This bonus, the letter continued, was due to the council’s careful management of its finances over the years, “consistently delivering greater efficiencies while improving services”. ... For years, the Royal Borough has got away with bribing the electorate with its own money.
As the toxic ash of Grenfell Tower’s vanity cladding falls over the neighbouring streets, we are left with the acrid truth in our throats: regeneration in the Royal Borough is in fact a crime of greed and selfishness. I took the refund. At the time, I felt uncomfortable with this decision and the ways in which I justified it to myself. And then I forgot about it, until the smoke drifting into my flat in the early hours of Wednesday woke me up. Today, I gave it back. It wasn’t ever mine to keep.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/16/my-council-tax-rebate-from-kensington-and-chelsea-is-blood-money
Saturday, 17 June 2017
Astronomy outreach for schools done properly
More like this, please.
The new Sky Explorers club at Wheatfields Junior School in St Albans is making use of a night sky camera which has been installed on the building's roof. "I am really looking forward to doing all the great stuff we are going to do with the camera," says eight-year-old Cameron. "Looking at space is really exciting."
Throughout the night, the camera takes a long exposure shot of the whole sky once a minute and the resulting thousands of images are made into a time-lapse film for the children to view the next day. The club members will be on the look-out for shooting stars or meteors and will log where they appear, their direction and the time and send the data to the international All Sky Camera network.
Dr Geach, who studies galaxies, also has a second task for the children, directly related to his own research. He plans to give the children access to images from the Subaru telescope on Hawaii, which takes pictures of deep space, to look for interesting or unusual looking galaxies. "Some of them will not have been seen before and could be very exciting," he says. He will come to the school every two weeks to run the club, answer the children's questions and evaluate their research.
This kind of engagement by scientists with primary pupils is "one of the things we need to do, as this age is when you can really get them switched on as scientists", he adds. This view has strong support from Dr Becky Parker, director of the Institute for Research in Schools. "Students get a diet of quite factual based science in school and yet they have the potential to contribute," she says. "Why not involve them in doing real science? Teachers find it keeps them inspired and keeps them right at the cutting edge of their subjects."
"Too often a lack of resources in schools makes encountering real science very difficult. But, for example, you would be appalled if students had never put pen to paper when doing art GCSE, or never made any kind of music while doing music A-level. If all you have done is learn the facts of what biology or chemistry have shown us, you haven't actually engaged with what it is. We are passionately committed to making sure that pupils get as rich an experience of science as we possibly can."
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-40125352
The new Sky Explorers club at Wheatfields Junior School in St Albans is making use of a night sky camera which has been installed on the building's roof. "I am really looking forward to doing all the great stuff we are going to do with the camera," says eight-year-old Cameron. "Looking at space is really exciting."
Throughout the night, the camera takes a long exposure shot of the whole sky once a minute and the resulting thousands of images are made into a time-lapse film for the children to view the next day. The club members will be on the look-out for shooting stars or meteors and will log where they appear, their direction and the time and send the data to the international All Sky Camera network.
Dr Geach, who studies galaxies, also has a second task for the children, directly related to his own research. He plans to give the children access to images from the Subaru telescope on Hawaii, which takes pictures of deep space, to look for interesting or unusual looking galaxies. "Some of them will not have been seen before and could be very exciting," he says. He will come to the school every two weeks to run the club, answer the children's questions and evaluate their research.
This kind of engagement by scientists with primary pupils is "one of the things we need to do, as this age is when you can really get them switched on as scientists", he adds. This view has strong support from Dr Becky Parker, director of the Institute for Research in Schools. "Students get a diet of quite factual based science in school and yet they have the potential to contribute," she says. "Why not involve them in doing real science? Teachers find it keeps them inspired and keeps them right at the cutting edge of their subjects."
"Too often a lack of resources in schools makes encountering real science very difficult. But, for example, you would be appalled if students had never put pen to paper when doing art GCSE, or never made any kind of music while doing music A-level. If all you have done is learn the facts of what biology or chemistry have shown us, you haven't actually engaged with what it is. We are passionately committed to making sure that pupils get as rich an experience of science as we possibly can."
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-40125352
Friday, 16 June 2017
Multitasking is bad for you but I don't care
I read this in between pressing the "random" button on assorted webcomics and writing a paper on the evolution of turbulent gas clouds in galaxy clusters. Now I feel guilty...
As a rule, I prefer to "multitask" (actually, flick back and forth between different activities) when I have something boring and tedious to do (or just plain long). This makes them all collectively much more interesting, which is apparently because chemicals :
Multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation. To make matters worse, the prefrontal cortex has a novelty bias, meaning that its attention can be easily hijacked by something new – the proverbial shiny objects we use to entice infants, puppies, and kittens.
I tend to do this an awful lot at work, but much less so at home. If I have a single, definite problem to tackle and a clear way forward, that's different - I'll work at it constantly and try and shut out emails etc. as much as possible. Or even if it's not so straightforward but interesting to think about then I tend very much to focus. Oh, I might still be doing other things, but I'm not really concentrating on them, they're more in the hope of catching an inspiration particle than being genuine diversions (except for walking, which is the single best way to induce concentration). It's when things get boring that so-called multitasking comes into effect. And I'm not sure I'd really want to work any other way - if someone forced me to write the paper and banned all access to webcomics, I'm pretty sure productivity would go down, very sharply.
Fortunately my phone is rarely used for anything and I don't have the other problems of being inundated with messages in various formats described elsewhere in the article, however :
Because the very act of writing a note or letter to someone took this many steps, and was spread out over time, we didn’t go to the trouble unless we had something important to say. Because of email’s immediacy, most of us give little thought to typing up any little thing that pops in our heads and hitting the send button. And email doesn’t cost anything. The sheer ease of sending emails has led to a change in manners, a tendency to be less polite about what we ask of others. Many professionals tell a similar story. One said, “A large proportion of emails I receive are from people I barely know asking me to do something for them that is outside what would normally be considered the scope of my work or my relationship with them. Email somehow apparently makes it OK to ask for things they would never ask by phone, in person, or in snail mail.”
The most common variant of this I have is being asked to watch lengthy documentaries about things I'm not at all interested in, mostly UFOs. Listen, bub, if my best friends suggest a TV series to me I'll get round to it within the next six months or so if they're lucky, so what makes you think I'm going watch something I keep telling you I'm not interested in by next Tuesday ? Not gonna happen.
Worse are requests for art. I had one recently from a reputable company (I couldn't actually figure out what it is that they do from their website, but it looked shiny) and not two days later I got a reminder email. Two days ! I don't always respond to work emails that quickly, let alone strangers. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile...
And worst of all are people - just random strangers on the internet - asking for Blender files. Why not just ask for a stool sample while you're at it ? Hell no, you can't "just have" my Arecibo or Orion models. Do you know how many tens of hours they took to produce ? Lots, that's how many. They're not even for sale, so no, mysterious stranger*, you can't "just have" them. They're mine, so sod off.
* This does not apply to people I've already established trust with.
Peter Milner and James Olds, both neuroscientists, placed a small electrode in the brains of rats, in a small structure of the limbic system called the nucleus accumbens... Olds and Milner called it the pleasure centre. A lever in the cage allowed the rats to send a small electrical signal directly to their nucleus accumbens. Do you think they liked it? Boy how they did! They liked it so much that they did nothing else. The rats just pressed the lever over and over again, until they died of starvation and exhaustion. Does that remind you of anything? A 30-year-old man died in Guangzhou (China) after playing video games continuously for three days. Another man died in Daegu (Korea) after playing video games almost continuously for 50 hours, stopped only by his going into cardiac arrest.
I would hazard a guess that that level of terminal addiction develops from a combination of the chemical effects of addiction but coupled with a life lacking in meaning (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html) or a serious underlying neurological condition. I doubt very much it's easy for normal people to become so chronically addicted to video games or smartphones or emails.
Multi-tasking has an actual energy cost: ‘Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task.’
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/18/modern-world-bad-for-brain-daniel-j-levitin-organized-mind-information-overload
As a rule, I prefer to "multitask" (actually, flick back and forth between different activities) when I have something boring and tedious to do (or just plain long). This makes them all collectively much more interesting, which is apparently because chemicals :
Multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation. To make matters worse, the prefrontal cortex has a novelty bias, meaning that its attention can be easily hijacked by something new – the proverbial shiny objects we use to entice infants, puppies, and kittens.
I tend to do this an awful lot at work, but much less so at home. If I have a single, definite problem to tackle and a clear way forward, that's different - I'll work at it constantly and try and shut out emails etc. as much as possible. Or even if it's not so straightforward but interesting to think about then I tend very much to focus. Oh, I might still be doing other things, but I'm not really concentrating on them, they're more in the hope of catching an inspiration particle than being genuine diversions (except for walking, which is the single best way to induce concentration). It's when things get boring that so-called multitasking comes into effect. And I'm not sure I'd really want to work any other way - if someone forced me to write the paper and banned all access to webcomics, I'm pretty sure productivity would go down, very sharply.
Fortunately my phone is rarely used for anything and I don't have the other problems of being inundated with messages in various formats described elsewhere in the article, however :
Because the very act of writing a note or letter to someone took this many steps, and was spread out over time, we didn’t go to the trouble unless we had something important to say. Because of email’s immediacy, most of us give little thought to typing up any little thing that pops in our heads and hitting the send button. And email doesn’t cost anything. The sheer ease of sending emails has led to a change in manners, a tendency to be less polite about what we ask of others. Many professionals tell a similar story. One said, “A large proportion of emails I receive are from people I barely know asking me to do something for them that is outside what would normally be considered the scope of my work or my relationship with them. Email somehow apparently makes it OK to ask for things they would never ask by phone, in person, or in snail mail.”
The most common variant of this I have is being asked to watch lengthy documentaries about things I'm not at all interested in, mostly UFOs. Listen, bub, if my best friends suggest a TV series to me I'll get round to it within the next six months or so if they're lucky, so what makes you think I'm going watch something I keep telling you I'm not interested in by next Tuesday ? Not gonna happen.
Worse are requests for art. I had one recently from a reputable company (I couldn't actually figure out what it is that they do from their website, but it looked shiny) and not two days later I got a reminder email. Two days ! I don't always respond to work emails that quickly, let alone strangers. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile...
And worst of all are people - just random strangers on the internet - asking for Blender files. Why not just ask for a stool sample while you're at it ? Hell no, you can't "just have" my Arecibo or Orion models. Do you know how many tens of hours they took to produce ? Lots, that's how many. They're not even for sale, so no, mysterious stranger*, you can't "just have" them. They're mine, so sod off.
* This does not apply to people I've already established trust with.
Peter Milner and James Olds, both neuroscientists, placed a small electrode in the brains of rats, in a small structure of the limbic system called the nucleus accumbens... Olds and Milner called it the pleasure centre. A lever in the cage allowed the rats to send a small electrical signal directly to their nucleus accumbens. Do you think they liked it? Boy how they did! They liked it so much that they did nothing else. The rats just pressed the lever over and over again, until they died of starvation and exhaustion. Does that remind you of anything? A 30-year-old man died in Guangzhou (China) after playing video games continuously for three days. Another man died in Daegu (Korea) after playing video games almost continuously for 50 hours, stopped only by his going into cardiac arrest.
I would hazard a guess that that level of terminal addiction develops from a combination of the chemical effects of addiction but coupled with a life lacking in meaning (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html) or a serious underlying neurological condition. I doubt very much it's easy for normal people to become so chronically addicted to video games or smartphones or emails.
Multi-tasking has an actual energy cost: ‘Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task.’
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/18/modern-world-bad-for-brain-daniel-j-levitin-organized-mind-information-overload
Dodge taxes by forming your country
It's been a turbulent year for His Royal Highness Prince Leonard I. The 91-year-old self-proclaimed ruler of the Principality of Hutt River in Western Australia, abdicated power in February. Now a court has ruled that he and one his sons must pay A$3m (£1.8m; $2.3m) in unpaid taxes.
The judge in the case dismissed their claims to sovereignty over their 18,500-acre farm as having "no legal merit or substance". The Principality of Hutt River, 500km (300 miles) north of Perth, says it seceded from Australia in 1970, though the government does not acknowledge this.
Self-proclaimed Prince Leonard Casley declared independence after a dispute with the government over wheat quotas. The farm, which has a population of about 30, created its own tax system and laws and issues its own currency, stamps and passports. Tourists can pay a few dollars for a visa and a personal tour of the site, which is bigger than the Vatican, Monaco and Nauru, but is not recognised by any government.
The Australian Tax Office has long been chasing the prince and his son, Arthur Casley - known as Prince Wayne - for overdue taxes. In 1977, the farm briefly declared war on Australia over one demand for payment.
Prince Graeme, who took over as ruler in February but was not implicated in the case, said he was "disappointed" by the court's decision. "We're a fully independent country," he told the BBC. "We don't believe the income was earned within the Australian jurisdiction." He suggested that an appeal may be lodged on grounds of human rights violations due to the "mental torture" caused by repeated court cases.
That's BS Trump would be proud of. Anyway they totally should have formed a Grand Duchy instead.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40298433
The judge in the case dismissed their claims to sovereignty over their 18,500-acre farm as having "no legal merit or substance". The Principality of Hutt River, 500km (300 miles) north of Perth, says it seceded from Australia in 1970, though the government does not acknowledge this.
Self-proclaimed Prince Leonard Casley declared independence after a dispute with the government over wheat quotas. The farm, which has a population of about 30, created its own tax system and laws and issues its own currency, stamps and passports. Tourists can pay a few dollars for a visa and a personal tour of the site, which is bigger than the Vatican, Monaco and Nauru, but is not recognised by any government.
The Australian Tax Office has long been chasing the prince and his son, Arthur Casley - known as Prince Wayne - for overdue taxes. In 1977, the farm briefly declared war on Australia over one demand for payment.
Prince Graeme, who took over as ruler in February but was not implicated in the case, said he was "disappointed" by the court's decision. "We're a fully independent country," he told the BBC. "We don't believe the income was earned within the Australian jurisdiction." He suggested that an appeal may be lodged on grounds of human rights violations due to the "mental torture" caused by repeated court cases.
That's BS Trump would be proud of. Anyway they totally should have formed a Grand Duchy instead.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40298433
Thursday, 15 June 2017
Two-headed porpoise
I admit to a certain morbid fascination with two-headed animals.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170615-two-headed-porpoise-caught-in-net-is-the-first-ever-found
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170615-two-headed-porpoise-caught-in-net-is-the-first-ever-found
An AI you can train like a dog
The Objectifier is a small device equipped with a camera and computer that runs a neural network. Using a simple mobile app interface, anyone can train it to associate the user’s actions with objects in their daily environment. For instance, you can train it to turn on the light when you wave your hand at it and turn off the light when you make a fist; to turn on the radio when you start dancing; or even to start the coffeemaker when you put your mug down in front of it. It’s totally up to the user to decide what the device “learns.”
In essence, the device is what Karmann described as an “extension cord with a eye”–you plug one end into the wall, and the other into the object you want it to control. As long as the camera, which breaks down the images it receives by shape, color, and depth, is positioned so it can see you, you can train the algorithm within about five minutes to associate any body movement with the object being controlled. Karmann says that simple tasks, like turning on a light using a hand gesture, might take as little as 30 seconds to train.
Karmann likens the training to how you might train a pet. “The dog trainers alive now might be the programmers of the future,” Karmann says. “They know the techniques. I realized how many similarities there are between dog training and machine learning.”
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90125136/if-youve-trained-a-dog-you-can-train-this-ai?utm_content=buffer05e9d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
In essence, the device is what Karmann described as an “extension cord with a eye”–you plug one end into the wall, and the other into the object you want it to control. As long as the camera, which breaks down the images it receives by shape, color, and depth, is positioned so it can see you, you can train the algorithm within about five minutes to associate any body movement with the object being controlled. Karmann says that simple tasks, like turning on a light using a hand gesture, might take as little as 30 seconds to train.
Karmann likens the training to how you might train a pet. “The dog trainers alive now might be the programmers of the future,” Karmann says. “They know the techniques. I realized how many similarities there are between dog training and machine learning.”
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90125136/if-youve-trained-a-dog-you-can-train-this-ai?utm_content=buffer05e9d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Tuesday, 13 June 2017
Finally someone sensible taking charge of things
Cometh the hour, cometh the intergalactic Star Lord.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
The year was 2017. The Conservative forces under Commander T-May had just lost their majority after a turbulent election.
Exit negotiations with the European Empire were set to begin in just seven days.
The rebels were in jeopardy.
But, out of nowhere, a new hope emerged.
Yes, Lord Buckethead has agreed to lead negotiations on Brexit.
His offer comes just as Theresa May shakes up her cabinet. Lord Buckethead could make a fierce addition to her team.
His election manifesto called for "The abolition of the Lords (except me)", and for "Katie Hopkins to be banished to the Phantom Zone". The space traveller also demanded the "Nationalisation of Adele."
It's not all hardball with Buckethead though. He has displayed an ability to compromise, proposing, "A moratorium until 2022 on whether Birmingham should be converted into a star base."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/35e52bfa-8165-4de8-99b2-07898bce3dd4?ns_campaign=bbc-three&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=FACEBOOK&ns_linkname=bbcthree
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
The year was 2017. The Conservative forces under Commander T-May had just lost their majority after a turbulent election.
Exit negotiations with the European Empire were set to begin in just seven days.
The rebels were in jeopardy.
But, out of nowhere, a new hope emerged.
Yes, Lord Buckethead has agreed to lead negotiations on Brexit.
His offer comes just as Theresa May shakes up her cabinet. Lord Buckethead could make a fierce addition to her team.
His election manifesto called for "The abolition of the Lords (except me)", and for "Katie Hopkins to be banished to the Phantom Zone". The space traveller also demanded the "Nationalisation of Adele."
It's not all hardball with Buckethead though. He has displayed an ability to compromise, proposing, "A moratorium until 2022 on whether Birmingham should be converted into a star base."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/35e52bfa-8165-4de8-99b2-07898bce3dd4?ns_campaign=bbc-three&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=FACEBOOK&ns_linkname=bbcthree
Fish use tools and solve problems
Clever fishies.
While diving off the Micronesian archipelago of Pulau, evolutionary biologist Giacomo Bernardi witnessed something unusual and was lucky enough to capture it on film. An orange-dotted tuskfish (Choerodon anchorago) uncovered a clam buried in the sand by blowing water at it, picked up the mollusk in its mouth and carried it to a large rock 30 yards away. Then, using several rapid head flicks and well-timed releases, the fish eventually cracked open the clam against the rock. In the ensuing 20 minutes, the tuskfish ate three clams, using the same sequence of behaviors to smash them.
Video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A9FNua0Q_M
Scientists have noticed similar behavior in green wrasses, also called blackspot tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii), on Australia's Great Barrier Reef; in yellowhead wrasses (Halichoeres garnoti) off the coast of Florida; and in a sixbar wrasse (Thalassoma hardwicke) in an aquarium setting. In the case of the sixbar wrasse, the captive fish was given pellets that were too large to swallow and too hard to break into pieces using only its jaws. The fish carried one of the pellets to a rock in the aquarium tank and smashed it much as the tuskfish did the clam.
An archerfish can squirt water in a single shot or in a machine gun–like fusillade. Targets have included insects, spiders, an infant lizard, bits of raw meat, scientific models of typical prey and even observers' eyes—along with their lit cigarettes. Archerfish also load their weapons according to the size of their prey, using more water for larger, heavier targets. Experienced archers may even aim just below their prey on a vertical surface to knock it straight down into the water instead of farther away on land.
Archerfish live in groups, and they have fantastic observational learning skill. Their hunting prowess does not come preinstalled, so novices can make successful shots at speedy targets only after a prolonged training period. Researchers studying captive archerfish at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany found that inexperienced individuals were not able to successfully hit a target even if it was moving as slowly as half an inch per second. But after watching 1,000 attempts (successful and unsuccessful) by another archerfish to hit a moving target, the novices were able to make successful shots at rapidly moving targets. The scientists concluded that archerfish can assume the viewpoint of another archerfish to learn a difficult skill from a distance. Biologists call this “perspective taking.”
In May 2014 a study highlighted an example of innovative tool use by Atlantic cods being held in captivity for aquaculture research. Each fish wore a colored tag affixed to its back near the dorsal fin, which allowed the researchers to identify each individual fish. The holding tank had a self-feeder activated by a string with a loop at the end... Apparently some of the cods discovered they could activate the feeder by hooking the loop onto their tag and swimming a short distance away.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fishes-use-problem-solving-and-invent-tools1/
While diving off the Micronesian archipelago of Pulau, evolutionary biologist Giacomo Bernardi witnessed something unusual and was lucky enough to capture it on film. An orange-dotted tuskfish (Choerodon anchorago) uncovered a clam buried in the sand by blowing water at it, picked up the mollusk in its mouth and carried it to a large rock 30 yards away. Then, using several rapid head flicks and well-timed releases, the fish eventually cracked open the clam against the rock. In the ensuing 20 minutes, the tuskfish ate three clams, using the same sequence of behaviors to smash them.
Video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A9FNua0Q_M
Scientists have noticed similar behavior in green wrasses, also called blackspot tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii), on Australia's Great Barrier Reef; in yellowhead wrasses (Halichoeres garnoti) off the coast of Florida; and in a sixbar wrasse (Thalassoma hardwicke) in an aquarium setting. In the case of the sixbar wrasse, the captive fish was given pellets that were too large to swallow and too hard to break into pieces using only its jaws. The fish carried one of the pellets to a rock in the aquarium tank and smashed it much as the tuskfish did the clam.
An archerfish can squirt water in a single shot or in a machine gun–like fusillade. Targets have included insects, spiders, an infant lizard, bits of raw meat, scientific models of typical prey and even observers' eyes—along with their lit cigarettes. Archerfish also load their weapons according to the size of their prey, using more water for larger, heavier targets. Experienced archers may even aim just below their prey on a vertical surface to knock it straight down into the water instead of farther away on land.
Archerfish live in groups, and they have fantastic observational learning skill. Their hunting prowess does not come preinstalled, so novices can make successful shots at speedy targets only after a prolonged training period. Researchers studying captive archerfish at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany found that inexperienced individuals were not able to successfully hit a target even if it was moving as slowly as half an inch per second. But after watching 1,000 attempts (successful and unsuccessful) by another archerfish to hit a moving target, the novices were able to make successful shots at rapidly moving targets. The scientists concluded that archerfish can assume the viewpoint of another archerfish to learn a difficult skill from a distance. Biologists call this “perspective taking.”
In May 2014 a study highlighted an example of innovative tool use by Atlantic cods being held in captivity for aquaculture research. Each fish wore a colored tag affixed to its back near the dorsal fin, which allowed the researchers to identify each individual fish. The holding tank had a self-feeder activated by a string with a loop at the end... Apparently some of the cods discovered they could activate the feeder by hooking the loop onto their tag and swimming a short distance away.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fishes-use-problem-solving-and-invent-tools1/
Monday, 12 June 2017
Recruiting a crowd of expert reviewers
Interesting and novel approach. Via Sakari Maaranen.
I am not proposing what is sometimes referred to as crowdsourced reviewing, in which anyone can comment on an openly posted manuscript. I believe that anonymous feedback is more candid, and that confidential submissions give authors space to decide how to revise and publish their work. I envisioned instead a protected platform whereby many expert reviewers could read and comment on submissions, as well as on fellow reviewers’ comments. This, I reasoned, would lead to faster, more-informed editorial decisions.
I recruited just over 100 highly qualified referees, mostly suggested by our editorial board. We worked with an IT start-up company to create a closed online forum and sought authors’ permission to have their submissions assessed in this way. Conventional peer reviewers evaluated the same manuscripts in parallel. After an editorial decision was made, authors received reports both from the crowd discussion and from the conventional reviewers.
This January, we put up two manuscripts simultaneously and gave the crowd 72 hours to respond. Each paper received dozens of comments that our editors considered informative. Taken together, responses from the crowd showed at least as much attention to fine details, including supporting information outside the main article, as did those from conventional reviewers.
So far, we have tried crowd reviewing with ten manuscripts. In all cases, the response was more than enough to enable a fair and rapid editorial decision. Compared with our control experiments, we found that the crowd was much faster (days versus months), and collectively provided more-comprehensive feedback.
https://www.nature.com/news/crowd-based-peer-review-can-be-good-and-fast-1.22072
I am not proposing what is sometimes referred to as crowdsourced reviewing, in which anyone can comment on an openly posted manuscript. I believe that anonymous feedback is more candid, and that confidential submissions give authors space to decide how to revise and publish their work. I envisioned instead a protected platform whereby many expert reviewers could read and comment on submissions, as well as on fellow reviewers’ comments. This, I reasoned, would lead to faster, more-informed editorial decisions.
I recruited just over 100 highly qualified referees, mostly suggested by our editorial board. We worked with an IT start-up company to create a closed online forum and sought authors’ permission to have their submissions assessed in this way. Conventional peer reviewers evaluated the same manuscripts in parallel. After an editorial decision was made, authors received reports both from the crowd discussion and from the conventional reviewers.
This January, we put up two manuscripts simultaneously and gave the crowd 72 hours to respond. Each paper received dozens of comments that our editors considered informative. Taken together, responses from the crowd showed at least as much attention to fine details, including supporting information outside the main article, as did those from conventional reviewers.
So far, we have tried crowd reviewing with ten manuscripts. In all cases, the response was more than enough to enable a fair and rapid editorial decision. Compared with our control experiments, we found that the crowd was much faster (days versus months), and collectively provided more-comprehensive feedback.
https://www.nature.com/news/crowd-based-peer-review-can-be-good-and-fast-1.22072
Sunday, 11 June 2017
Small victories
This gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
Donald Drumpf has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming. The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment. “We aren’t going to comment on speculation about the contents of private phone conversations. The Queen extended an invitation to President Drumpf to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.”
The White House said in statement: “The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/11/donald-trump-state-visit-to-britain-put-on-hold?CMP=twt_gu
Donald Drumpf has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming. The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment. “We aren’t going to comment on speculation about the contents of private phone conversations. The Queen extended an invitation to President Drumpf to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.”
The White House said in statement: “The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/11/donald-trump-state-visit-to-britain-put-on-hold?CMP=twt_gu
The DUP are awful but largely impotent
I'm not actually worried by the DUP deal. Yes, they are awful people, but they are awful people no-one's ever heard of before. There's no support for their anti-science hard-right rhetoric. More than that, there isn't even any call for a debate on their positions. They can't even (reportedly) vote on most issues because of the English Votes for English Laws ruling. So in most cases the worst they could do is start a debate on issues that everyone else already considers long since settled; if they wanted to get a "creationism in schools" thing going (or indeed any of their policies, it seems) they'd have to start from zero. They're not even populists, they're just unpopular. And any changes they somehow did try and enact would happen against a backdrop of an incompetent leader trying ineffectually to negotiate with the world's largest economic bloc. They are toothless. All they'll succeed in doing is making the Tories even more unpopular and triggering another election.
On that basis then, here's a poll I've signed and you might want to as well.
https://www.change.org/p/winston-theresamay-to-resign-no-to-the-the-democratic-unionist-party-dup-postmanpratt1
On that basis then, here's a poll I've signed and you might want to as well.
https://www.change.org/p/winston-theresamay-to-resign-no-to-the-the-democratic-unionist-party-dup-postmanpratt1
Friday, 9 June 2017
Quick predictions
A snap opinion on the election result without much in the way of proper reflection or any time to see how things develop :
May is in trouble. She'll try to form a minority government with the DUP, and it will work for a little while but not for long. Her campaign was initiated (purportedly) on the basis that we need to deal with Brexit by giving her a strong mandate in the negotiations; that hasn't happened. Although the largest party and entitled to try and form a government, the personal pressure on May is going to escalate. When Bexit negotiations start, other countries will laugh at the idea that we have "strong and stable" leadership, let alone are insisting on the hard Brexit that May was demanding to appeal to the lunatic fringe. And May does not do well under pressure; she called the election out of a peculiar sort of desperate opportunism, and we've seen her increasingly degenerate into robotic performances that make little or no sense. Sooner or later - probably sooner - she'll break.
Labour are harder to gauge. If Corbyn really does have any political sense at all, he'll go on the strongest attack possible against May. If he does that, he may yet rally his MPs to his leadership if not all his ideologies. If, however, he reverts to his chronic problem of doing bugger all at key moments, pretty soon Labour are going to realise they're in bad shape. They made respectable but ultimately modest gains in the election - they still have a very long way to go to challenge the Conservatives by themselves. Once they realise that and find that they're sliding back into the doldrums, all the old animosities will re-surface and they'll split.
But who knows, a meteor may strike or the Queen might abdicate or something, such is the nature of politics.
May is in trouble. She'll try to form a minority government with the DUP, and it will work for a little while but not for long. Her campaign was initiated (purportedly) on the basis that we need to deal with Brexit by giving her a strong mandate in the negotiations; that hasn't happened. Although the largest party and entitled to try and form a government, the personal pressure on May is going to escalate. When Bexit negotiations start, other countries will laugh at the idea that we have "strong and stable" leadership, let alone are insisting on the hard Brexit that May was demanding to appeal to the lunatic fringe. And May does not do well under pressure; she called the election out of a peculiar sort of desperate opportunism, and we've seen her increasingly degenerate into robotic performances that make little or no sense. Sooner or later - probably sooner - she'll break.
Labour are harder to gauge. If Corbyn really does have any political sense at all, he'll go on the strongest attack possible against May. If he does that, he may yet rally his MPs to his leadership if not all his ideologies. If, however, he reverts to his chronic problem of doing bugger all at key moments, pretty soon Labour are going to realise they're in bad shape. They made respectable but ultimately modest gains in the election - they still have a very long way to go to challenge the Conservatives by themselves. Once they realise that and find that they're sliding back into the doldrums, all the old animosities will re-surface and they'll split.
But who knows, a meteor may strike or the Queen might abdicate or something, such is the nature of politics.
Why Parliament is so well hung
This is a nice, detailed description of why we're currently in the "no idea at all" phase of the proceedings.
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40209087
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40209087
Wednesday, 7 June 2017
Bald men are filled with gold
Greetings, alien visitors ! Welcome to 21st century Earth, where we think bald men have heads filled with gold because that totally makes sense when you think about it.
Bald men in Mozambique could be the targets of ritual attacks, police have warned, following the recent killing of three bald men for their body parts. Two suspects have been arrested in the central district of Milange, where the killings occurred. "The belief is that the head of a bald man contains gold," said Afonso Dias, a police commander in Mozambique's central Zambezia province.
Albino people have also been killed in the region for ritual purposes. The suspects are two young Mozambicans aged around 20, the AFP news agency reports. "Their motive comes from superstition and culture - the local community thinks bald individuals are rich," Commander Dias is reported as having told a press conference in the capital Maputo.
A regional security spokesman, Miguel Caetano, told AFP that one of the victims had had his head cut off and his organs removed. The organs were to be used by medicine men in rituals to advance the wealth of clients in Tanzania and Malawi, Mr Caetano said, citing the suspects.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40185359
Bald men in Mozambique could be the targets of ritual attacks, police have warned, following the recent killing of three bald men for their body parts. Two suspects have been arrested in the central district of Milange, where the killings occurred. "The belief is that the head of a bald man contains gold," said Afonso Dias, a police commander in Mozambique's central Zambezia province.
Albino people have also been killed in the region for ritual purposes. The suspects are two young Mozambicans aged around 20, the AFP news agency reports. "Their motive comes from superstition and culture - the local community thinks bald individuals are rich," Commander Dias is reported as having told a press conference in the capital Maputo.
A regional security spokesman, Miguel Caetano, told AFP that one of the victims had had his head cut off and his organs removed. The organs were to be used by medicine men in rituals to advance the wealth of clients in Tanzania and Malawi, Mr Caetano said, citing the suspects.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40185359
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Gay vultures adopt baby
A Dutch zoo says two male vultures in a long-standing relationship have become parents after successfully hatching an egg. Staff gave the gay griffon vultures an abandoned egg, which they cared for in their nest for two months. Zoo keeper Job van Tol said the two fathers are "a very tight couple" and are doing the job perfectly.
"We have had them for some years. They always build a nest together, bond and mate together," he told the BBC. "But, as two males, the one thing they could not do was lay an egg." So when staff discovered a lone egg that none of the other vultures would adopt, they first cared for it in an incubator, and then decided to place in the male couple's nest.
"It was a bit of risk as we had no guarantees of success, but we thought, finally, this is their chance," said Mr Van Tol. Artis Amsterdam Royal Zoo said the new parents are very protective of their fast-growing chick, which is now 20 days old, and they have been breaking up its food to make it manageable to eat. "As in some penguin species, vultures do everything the same, they alternate all the jobs. Females lay the eggs, but they breed together, they forage for food together. Males are programmed to have that duty of care," said Mr Van Tol.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40118134
"We have had them for some years. They always build a nest together, bond and mate together," he told the BBC. "But, as two males, the one thing they could not do was lay an egg." So when staff discovered a lone egg that none of the other vultures would adopt, they first cared for it in an incubator, and then decided to place in the male couple's nest.
"It was a bit of risk as we had no guarantees of success, but we thought, finally, this is their chance," said Mr Van Tol. Artis Amsterdam Royal Zoo said the new parents are very protective of their fast-growing chick, which is now 20 days old, and they have been breaking up its food to make it manageable to eat. "As in some penguin species, vultures do everything the same, they alternate all the jobs. Females lay the eggs, but they breed together, they forage for food together. Males are programmed to have that duty of care," said Mr Van Tol.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40118134
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