Posts by James Green
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I'd like to judiciously back up what Bart is saying, including the idea that disentangling different and conflicting experts is extremely difficult outside of the field. I'm reminded of the thread around Linda Bryder's book on the Cartwright inquiry.
And on science communication, and honesty, and grant funding. In the process of simplifying work for public consumption, there is a real danger of over-trivialising, or losing important nuance. There is also further danger in systematically doing this to make your research seem more exciting/breath-taking/revolutionary than it really is. This is often positive for getting funding, but I think can have a negative impact on reputation over time, but mostly within the field, rather than the public eye.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Russell Brown,
I was wondering about this, but most people seem to called him "Lord Robert Winston". Where, then, does the "Professor" part go? I know it's full and correct to refer to "Professor Sir Peter Gluckman".
Kracklite is on it. Either [The Rth Hon] Professor Lord Winston, or Professor Robert [Winston], [Baron/Lord] Winston. The confusion is caused by life peers, whose surnames are the same as their peerage title. Wikipedia's example of a hereditary peer is John Julius Cooper [name], Viscount Norwich [title] (who also gets about as John Julius Norwich). In contrast Winston's title is Baron Winston of Hammersmith, and is his personal name is Robert Winston.
It's sort of intriguing, but also very silly at the same time. -
geek alert -- FWIW it's worth, the title "Lord" is always concatenated with the surname, so he is Robert, Lord Winston [of XX], never Lord Robert or Lord Robert Winston. In contrast, "Sir" and "Dame" attach to the forename, so it is always Sir Ed or Dame Susan, never Sir Hillary or Dame Devoy. Actually, I guess to be really geeky, I'd need to understand the reason for this.
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A year ago yesterday, we endeavoured to get from the small French village in which we were living to a small nearby French village, in order to watch the poor bastards go up one of the very steepest hills. Unfortunately, after narrowly missing a train, successfully hitch-hiking most of the way, we eventually discovered that the traffic was so awful trying to get any closer that we gave up :(
The Alps legs are much further south this year (we were trying to get to Cluses or Flumet)
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I think that it's important to treat day trading and its equivalents the same way we treat house flipping, or currency speculation
Day trading and currency speculation are taxed at your marginal tax rate. Profits are offset against losses, however. And if you are flipping houses, then you will also likely end up paying tax at your marginal rate.
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This really blows. I saw a tweet from Jen yesterday, and was thinking that you'd be in line for a better payout via the insurance company, and I'm just shocked by this. This can't be how it was supposed to be.
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OED throws up thisrather gorgeous entry for hum and ha(w):
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 588/2 He hummeth and haeth and wyll nat come out withall.
and the less fun:
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. viii. xi. 251 Don't stand humming and hawing, but speak out.
The Am and Aus "hem" is first used by Shakespeare in the 1609 ediction of Troilus & Cressida (later editions "hum") -
Most of my European cycling has been in one city in France (with a few days in Denmark & Portugal), and mostly in 1 city -- of approximately the same size as Christchurch.
Couple of interesting observations
* They had contra direction on-road cycle lanes. Mostly in the historical centre, but the bike lanes were going in the opposite direction to the one way traffic in narrow streets. This actually works stupidly well, as both cars and cyclists see each other. No chance someone is going to open a door into your path, as you are heading towards them. Similarly, in normal driving, you are clearly in their line of sight
* While the centre of town was fantastic for biking, outside the centre, and especially outside the rocard (many french cities have a circular ring route surrounding the original city) it was terrible. unsealed shoulders (so you are either *in* the traffic lane or riding on gravel), lots of trucks and just really unfriendly. It was OK again once you got out into the country, but truly unpleasant cycling through industrial areas. -
Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
If Dali had painted bikes…
He also painted a Vespa that some students were taking on a trip to see the Pope (on display at the Piaggio Museum near Pisa, along with the gyrocopter vespa, the rocket launcher vespa, the fire engine vespa, the stretched (think limo) vespa, and all manner of Piaggio madness...
(to be honest, the Dali vespa is not at all exciting compared to the other stuff)
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
My experience with nearly getting hit
I almost smashed a pedestrian yesterday, about a block south of where I got hit by a car a decade ago. She'd seen there were no cars coming, and was absolutely not paying any attention. I don't even think she realised how close I came (locked both wheels and just flicked around her).
Also, on the upthread discussion of workwear and cycling, I realised this morning that cycling in a suit jacket is much easier on a more upright style of bike.