I can't keep up with the fads

I tried quite hard for a while to keep interested in the blogging fad, but it is pretty obvious that it didn't keep my attention for too long. To my defense, I have been busy in the weird and wonderful world of Bubbles.

I am presenting my first paper at a conference in Reading in a couple of weeks and predictably I am now getting a little nervous. Hopefully I should be fine.

Paolo Di Canio and the olympic flame

I like Italians and I have some good italian friends. I also really like italian food, wine and their contribution to western culture. What I do not like is their complete unwillingness to do something about the plague of racism in sports. Not only is it seemingly ok to stand in the football grounds singing neo-nazi songs and wearing neo-nazi imagery, but someone who openly salutes these facists and neo-nazis is chosen to carry the olympic flame before the Turin winter games. This was not the first time Paolo Di Canio has given the Lazio extremists a fascist salute, and he has publicly said he will continue to do so. Yet, the italian olympic commitee does not see any conflict between Di Canio's public ideals and the olympic spirit.

Great band night

We had a great Make Poverty History gig in Swindon last night. About 180 people turned up on a wednesday night to watch four bands perform live in support of Oxfam and the well known campaign. The night before we were getting a bit worried that nobody would turn up, a fear that turned out to be unfounded. A great night with great music, lots of beer, and a solid amount of money raised.

Sweatshop

I recently had this idea for a reality TV show called "Sweatshop". In this show, ten lazy chavs from around Britain get sent to a real sweatshop factory in some country in South East Asia. The last to hold out the awful conditions is the winner of the program and a fair bit of money, out of which half go to some charity in the country in question. The charity bit you only mention in fine print so that you can film their face when they get told they only get half the money.

The program could work as a reality show with "educational elements", but could also be turned into a scripted spoof of reality shows. I can see some chav complaining about the sense of style among his asian co-workers, or some poor scandinavian guy who doesn't speak english well and though he was going on a nice package holiday to Thailand. In the spoof you could be nastier and claim the contestants can't go home until they've paid off the plane ticket both to and from the country.

Tired of Intelligent Design

I'm now officially sick and tired of discussions about intelligent design versus Evolution. Most arguments are rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the word "theory" and misunderstanding Evolution and the theory of natural selection.

First of all, a theory is not the same as an hypothesis in scientific terminology. An hypothesis is a proposal to explain something. A theory is an hypothesis that can be falsified and tested and is backed up by observable evidence. It normally takes a long while for an hypothesis to be promoted to theory.

Secondly, evolution and the theory of natural selection are not the same thing. Evolution is easily observable on flies, bacteria and other organisms in laboratories. Intelligent design uses evolution but tries to challenge the theory of natural selection. Where natural selection proposes that evolution has been happening through the survival of the organisms best suited to their environment, Intelligent design proposes that evolution was guided by a designer, which of course means God. Intelligent design is, however, not a theory. It can never be falsified, tested scientifically and most importantly it will never be useful for scientific purposes.

Finally, why shouldn't we teach children that natural selection is a theory and not a fact, so that they can keep an open mind? Because we don't do the same with any other theory we teach. Teaching this specifically for the theory of natural selection would unfairly make it seem like this theory is any less accepted than most scientific theories. We don't tell children to keep an open mind about newtonian physics, we simply teach it as fact. This is even though Newton's laws of physics, unlike natural selection, have since been superceded by other more general theories. Natural selection has of course been modified through the years, but the basic idea is still the same.

Personally I see no conflict between belief in God and the theory of natural selection.

Movable docking station for cordless mice

Cordless mice often run out of power when you need them the most. I propose a wireless mouse which can be put inside a mice-like docking station when it runs out of power. You just put it down into the docking station and keep on using it until it gives off a friendly microwave bling when fully charged. The best of both worlds!