cotch dot net

yeah, i've heard the same said. but why invent a conspiracy to explain a cockup? i'll do my best to assume that this is the work of some dim and badly trained junior cops and plastic police before concluding that it's systematic malice.

as for a search: they spent a moment looking, with little real interest, at my bike tools. asked me what i was carrying them around with me for. i pointed at the bicycle that i was sat on.

Posted at 2010-01-26 22:38:50 - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

193.35.132.150

So did you actually get searched? I've heard it suggested that the cops are do this, s&s'ing people for no reason, to level the stats so they don't appear to be singling out any ethnic or faith groups for excess scrutiny. It's been proposed that white people should answer 'pakistani' to the ethnicity question they cops are supposed to ask in order to jam the system and force another 2 meaningless s&s's to happen in order for the cops to maintain the statistical pretence.

Fwliw I got stopped by some cops back in the 80's while taking cliched long exposure shots of cars going round a roundabout at twilight. Turns out there was a public toilet on the other side of the roundabout which the second cop ran over and investigated while the first one talked to me, Only later on it occured to me that they probably thought I was either a homosexual about to photograph an 'cottaging' orgy or perhaps a blackmailer of homosexuals.

Posted at 2010-01-25 15:47:13 - [Ban] - [Del]

Alan Bellis

www.creationism.co.uk

alan@creationism.co.uk

79.68.44.138

See:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/photographers-protest-stop-search-terrorism-police

Posted at 2010-01-23 22:04:13 - [Ban] - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

193.35.132.149

http://genes2brains2mind2me.com/

sucks dentures* back in the 70's it was called the post office tower and the IRA were largely interested in blowing it up because it was owned by the Queen... And they've always had a thing about the post office. There's quite a history of terrorists targeting dull bits of infrastructure, the Anc used to dynamite electricity pylons back when they were called terrorists and the Ira used to phone in bomb threats on motorway bridges in the 90s (without having the decency to actually plant any explosives most of the time). The terrorist game in England was largely about pissing people off rather than actually hurting anyone till recently.

Posted at 2010-01-20 03:10:33 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

20091221_1510

oh? which two were the straw men? they were johnny ball's claims, not mine...

Posted at 2010-01-18 22:32:16 - [Del]

DieDaily

diedaily77@gmail.com

70.67.27.63

20091221_1510

Wow, what an article! How to knock down a couple of straw men there.

Posted at 2010-01-18 21:43:46 - [Ban] - [Del]

Trackback from Redundant Allele

20091221_1510

Johnny Ball on Little Atoms Christmas Special

I listened to the Little Atoms Christmas Special podcast featuring Johnny Ball yesterday. It is so sad to see this man, whom I held in such high regard as a child,

Posted at 2010-01-05 21:00:33 by 64.130.10.13 - [Ban] - [Del]

origins g

johnfossella@gmail.com

74.105.47.90

20091206_1515

http://genes2brains2mind2me.com/2009/02/09/happy-200th-birthday-charles-darwin-heres-an-inherited-acquired-characteristic-for-you/[spigenetics and evolution

I took a crack at the epigenetics question a few months ago ... absolutely love your photography and blog!!!

Posted at 2009-12-06 17:48:48 - [Ban] - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

74.125.16.68

20090920_2304

What is the cost of making a journey such as that in london? I'm to travel 12 miles e/w per day by bus over one of the most scenic roads in england (on a clear day) enjoying views of the distant mountains of snowdonia over the verdant cheshire plain and observing at close quarters the moorland wildlife as the seasons turn. Full price Ł3.30 day rtn - with my discount card less than a pound a day.

Posted at 2009-09-28 12:19:13 - [Ban] - [Del]

Barry

barryjhutchins@aol.com

195.93.21.68

blackmore_vale

Being a photographer for more years than I care to remember I loved the beginning but after seeing the 10th page I was getting bored. You would be better off condensing the photo's to 5/6 pages and get rid of the cows/ferns/sunsets and consentrate on the buildings and put them in Town order.

Sorry just my 2p worth.

Posted at 2009-09-24 09:41:21 - [Ban] - [Del]

Ed Gerstner

http://www.silent-typewriter.com/

junk@dr-edg.net

82.24.25.164

20090919_2241

What I fail to understand is why anyone should want to suspend scepticism of any medium, ever. Nor why Drayson feels that that's something we should be encouraging the public to do.

One could be cynical and say it's easier for politicians to manipulate a credulous public. But that's not Drayson, I don't think. Perhaps his affliction is just a matter of naive optimism.

Posted at 2009-09-19 23:17:17 - [Ban] - [Del]

Trackback from Stuff And Nonsense

20090919_2241

Science Journalism

Blogging: #SciDebate The recent debate on science journalism featuring Lord Drayson and Dr Ben Goldacre has prompted much comment on blogs and Twitter. Here are a few of my thoughts.

...

Posted at 2009-09-19 23:16:52 by 72.233.96.141 - [Ban] - [Del]

Steve Hitchcock

sh94r@ecs.soton.ac.uk

82.69.28.25

Joe, I admire you optimism, and wish open access was a solved problem and over, but the numbers suggest otherwise. Estimates are that over 80% of published research papers are not open access. That means a lot authors of these papers do not yet get open access. The problem is not journal publishers, but raising awareness among authors. You say 'we' had that discussion two years ago, but who are 'we'? I suspect your blog has a chance to reach a wider audience than that. For that wider audience, open access is not yet solved. It follows that the problem with the scientific paper is not the journal, but one step before that, with the authors. It is within their grasp to provide open access to their papers, and the solutions are in place, as you say. Most are not doing so yet.

Posted at 2009-09-17 11:07:22 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

Thanks. Indeed, I do not mention access. The reason being that we had that discussion two years ago, and so far as I'm concerned, it's over! It's decided. Some publishers have yet to catch up, and are liable to suffer as a result, but in terms of actually discussing it, the case has already been made.

It didn't even occur to me at this time to mention that access was a problem with the scientific paper: everybody already knows that it is! Not only are we familiar with the problem, but we already have the solution (albeit, not yet implemented across the board).

Posted at 2009-09-17 10:10:49 - [Del]

Steve Hitchcock

sh94r@ecs.soton.ac.uk

82.69.28.25

Joe, The solution is open access, access for all to the published results and outputs from research. You don't mention access. Yes, you refer to open access journals such as PLoS, and the open access repository arXiv, but do not use the word access. You note to the need to speed up dissemination, but do not mention access. Access: the word is key to this analysis. The Web provides the opportunity for open access. That is what is new. Everything else will follow from that.

Posted at 2009-09-17 09:29:42 - [Ban] - [Del]

Theo Bloom

tbloom@plos.org

81.99.194.244

Very interesting stuff - thanks for a great read. I think you allude to something that I see as more of a problem than journals, though: the intermingling of credit - for work done, funding spent, and so on - with the means of dissemination. If we could separate giving academics and funders credit for what they do, on the one hand, from the vehicle of disseminating their results, on the other, then journals could revert to having important functions like community-building, discussion forums, technology development and so on. Until then, academics will still need papers and journals as the units by which credit is granted and accounted for - which is not what they are meant for or best at.

Posted at 2009-09-15 19:47:35 - [Ban] - [Del]

Hannah

hturner@techset.co,uk

213.235.46.88

Hi Joe, just read your short story in Naure and enjoyed the second installment! One other point about research papers I find interesting, from a linguistic perspective, is they are predominantly written in English, more specifically American or British Standard English. David Crystal (as always) also has some interesting things to say about scientific discourse in an article at: http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/English2.pdf

Posted at 2009-09-14 17:01:57 - [Ban] - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

74.125.16.68

20090906_0025

Prolly it's cos you can get new imported stuff so damn cheap it's scaresly worth fixing a lot of stuff up that you'd not have thought twice about getting repairs for until quite recently (not necessarily your bike of course)

In the 6th form I used to do 8mi per day on a bike that I acquired from a mate of my dad for free - the frame was actually rather good (light!) but going rusty, the spanner off wheels were knackered and it had the gears for 5 speed deraulier but not the actual changer. Bars and seat post were aluminium alloy, probably they were the only bits that originally belonged with the frame.

Fixed up into a nice bike much cheaper than the lowest quality new bike then available, which would have weighed a lot more.

I sometimes worry about how quickly we've got used to buying new and throwing away.

Posted at 2009-09-10 22:54:50 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

20090906_0025

in the past year or so i've had to replace both wheels, both gearsets, the rear derailleur, chain, pedals, and saddle. all due to standard wear and tear after three years of (15mi a day) use.

so it's basically a whole new bicycle anyway...

Posted at 2009-09-09 21:16:36 - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

74.125.16.68

20090906_0025

Damn those busses eh? I'm alarmed to hear that your bike maintenance is running close to the cost of a new bike though. When I was a lad suspension on bikes was something from the science fiction world of tomorrow like levitating trains, humanoid domestic robots and passports for pet animals, nobody seemed to mind that it hadn't been invented yet, maintenance consisted of periodic chain oiling, puncture repair and worn-out tyre changing though I did once have a seat pillar snap on me. What are the expensive to maintain items on a bike these days?

Posted at 2009-09-09 20:34:48 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

http://www.mentalindigestion.net

Thanks! I must get around to writing the next part somewhen this weekend.

Posted at 2009-08-29 10:46:29 - [Del]

Jim

dr.jims@gmail.com

80.225.68.231

http://blog.openwetware.org/scienceintheopen

Good summary, I would agree with this; ironically, at the same time you posted this, I was writing a blog on the process of writing a scientific paper.

I like your lablit by the way; I followed you here from the Gower Street Cuckoos in Nature. I was at Science Online too, though didn't bump into you on the Friday or Saturday, but then there were many I didn't.

Can't wait for the next meeting of minds however ;-)

Posted at 2009-08-29 03:01:16 - [Ban] - [Del]

Cameron Neylon

cameron.neylon@stfc.ac.uk

130.246.132.26

I'd add one more step to the how the paper is made at the beginning. Funders fund some science, often with implicit or explicit demands on the scientists to publish in some set of forms (which might or might not include papers)

Posted at 2009-08-25 08:46:10 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

oops. there should be a "don't" in my comment somewhere.

you won't find me arguing that PR don't regularly get things wrong.

Posted at 2009-08-24 15:33:24 - [Del]

Joe D

London

Sorry Ian -- I Googled and got so many hits that I thought I had it right!

Hi David -- yes, you won't find me arguing that PR regularly get things wrong, and sometimes have different motives to the researcher. I just thought it worth noting that this is probably the first time I've heard a group of scientists admitting to having a problem themselves.

Posted at 2009-08-24 14:40:26 - [Del]

Ian Mulvany

ian@mulvany.net

195.138.194.1

http://www.dcscience.net/

'mulvany', not 'mulvaney'. Common error. p.s. you don't need to post this comment.

Posted at 2009-08-24 10:51:45 - [Ban] - [Del]

David Colquhoun

d.colquhoun@ucl.ac.uk

128.40.96.30

www.devon-explorer.co.uk/

"good PR is good for the scientist's career"

I'd much prefer to say that good science is good for a scientists's career. PR is often no better than paid lying. I actually had to stop our Press Office from putting out a Press Release on a recent Nature paper, They couldn't get it accurate enough -all vacuous hype and anyway the subject was too esoteric to be of much interest to the public -the purpose of the press release was really to benefit UCL, not to .the public).

Posted at 2009-08-24 07:10:34 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

20090429

Oh, and sanctimonious? Of course. The recipient is a politician, remember.

Posted at 2009-04-30 09:00:38 - [Del]

Joe D

London

20090429

Heh. Why, yes indeed I was! In Islington, indeed.

But then, as you can see, this post is not about the demos.

Posted at 2009-04-30 08:57:54 - [Del]

Gareth Henkly

gareth@yahoo.co.UK

71.162.111.211

20090429

You sanctimonious cunt.

Bet your were in a gastropub during the demos

Posted at 2009-04-30 02:52:02 - [Ban] - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

74.125.16.68

20090404_2335

It was a production of the religion and ethics department and imo it showed. I was watching this last week as it went out but I started to tire when he appeared to be setting up his reasonableness fallacy and wandered off to make a cup of tea when he was getting onto memes. Though I remember reading something in the new scientist about the Scopes trial and how it wasn't motivated by the same sort of young earth creation crowd who are making the running these days, years ago, book review I think.

Posted at 2009-04-07 09:21:57 - [Ban] - [Del]

Tris

tbracey@cantab.net

90.198.95.129

20090404_2335

Did Cunningham really think that memes are necessarily parasitic? If so, how can the beeb lend legitimacy to such ill-researched piffle?

I'm going to watch it later, but I'll be on the lookout for any actual reconciliation between a simultaneously deliberate and undeliberate means of creation. My hopes aren't high.

Posted at 2009-04-06 21:45:36 - [Ban] - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

66.249.84.12

20090328_2013

Seems to me there's a reason why the professional skeptics make such a song and dance about keeping an open mind and going through such a pantomime of impartiality each time they set about investigating a claim of paranormal powers even though they appear to know better... They don't expect to expand human knowledge but it's important to deflate any counter claims that scientists are in effect a caste of priests going round passing judgement on what is and is not possible couched in impenitrable (to the uninitiated) mumbo jumbo. They're operating more like the ideal criminal justice system in a democracy rather than as nightclub bouncers, Cos it's not only important that justice is done, it's important justice is also *seen* to be done. I wouldn't have the patience to do what they do, I think there's some merit in it though - for public education, at least while they're just using up their own time and money there doesn't seem to be any harm done.

Posted at 2009-03-30 21:11:26 - [Ban] - [Del]

Mark

mark_a_land@yahoo.co.uk

82.32.3.141

devon

Nice photos, actually some of the best of have seen of Devon and all over. Most of the places I know, but Calstock and Kit Hill = Cornwall. Im bookmarking your site anyways for inspiration, thanks! Do you surf? Got some offshore conditions at Croyde. Mark

Posted at 2009-03-25 17:02:34 - [Ban] - [Del]

Andrew

http://biotext.org.uk/

andrew.clegg.signups@gmail.com

128.40.46.187

20090310_1932

Nice pics. I work in the same building and it took me over six months to get round to visiting the museum. Slack...

Posted at 2009-03-17 14:58:14 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

Why (Almost All) Cosmologists are Atheists

not sure if it's right that cosmologists are most likely to be religious, but the comment reminded me of this classic essay from sean m carroll (the physicist, not to be confused with sean b carroll, the biologist):

Posted at 2009-02-26 22:54:26 - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

72.14.193.5

I suspect all scientists are not equal in this respect. A few years ago I heard Oliva Judson being interviewed on the radio to promote the Dr Tatiana tv series, she was saying amongst otherthings that it's been shown that American scientists in biology and related fields are notably less religious than average for scientists and cosmologists are the most religious. Sounded interesting but I couldn't google up anything that sounded like a paper backing that statement up, There was some survey in the mid naughties (Ecklund) but all I could find with google was the rehashed press release which was preoccupied with the finding that social scientists are more religious than natural scientists, oh and btw biologists were least religious of all. It'd be interesting to see what the entire hierarchy of scientific disciplines looked like, but I can't find one on the internet, least not for free.

Posted at 2009-02-26 13:54:14 - [Ban] - [Del]

Joe D

London

oh, engineers just seem to pop up in creationist circles an awful lot -- the previous post that i reference here also concerns one. i think it's because they design very complicated and fine-tuned devices, and, believing the job to be a very hard one, refuse to believe that the same can be achieved without any such designer. doctors also seem to be relatively prominent in creationism.

i think it must be analogous to scientologists recruiting celebs: creationists love to promote their doctors and engineers in the absence of any actual scientists, because those professions sound quite sciency, even though neither actually requires any understanding of how science works.

Posted at 2009-02-25 23:04:00 - [Del]

Jon d

Nospam-Joinedup@yahoo.co.uk

66.249.90.136