General

I used to be a fully paid-up card-carrying skeptic, eager to confront and attempt to correct scientific silliness wherever it raised its muddled head. I conferred, I debated, I pointed and counterpointed, null hypothesized and t-tested, and all to no avail. Now I generally save my breath to cool my porridge. Well mostly. A bit. [...]

Catching up with my electronic “life” after a period of enforced non-connection used to worry me. Had I avoided infection by the latest viral fancy? Did one of my favourite sites feature something incredible, something I just had to share? What if someone had posted something really interesting to their blog? Worse, what if someone [...]

Hats off to Birke Baehr. The young man has courage, and convictions, and he displayed both talking to a huge crowd at an independent Ted event in Asheville, North Carolina. So much so that he ended up featured on the mother ship at Ted.com, which is how I came to see his performance. It was [...]

Some time ago in an American airport a man came up to the man in front of me in a line. He had a packet of white powder in his hand. He showed the man in front of me a very official looking badge (although he wasn’t in uniform or anything) and asked the man [...]

I was momentarily distracted while listening to Lord Bragg on Women in Enlightment Science trying to recall whether I had ever seen the famed double-portrait of the Lavoisiers. So as soon as I got to the desktop I went looking, and I don’t believe I had. My original intention had been to just nick the [...]

Friend Derek’s website is so bleedin’ cool that I have to have this discussion on my own premises. I’m not even sure it’ll work, but here goes. In a recent daily he notes that: ¢ 1 cosa non mi riCordo menTioned in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire … is [...]

I learn from PLR News that part of my income is to be reduced by 15% over the next four years. So, what’s 86% of about three bob?

On World Food Day few interventions will have as powerful effect on the world’s poorest as access to micronutrients. I see a line like that and I think, “Wow, someone gets it.” Then I read on and I discover that Go Keith is talking about supplements. Not surprising, I suppose, as his website tells us [...]

Hold the front page! Genetically modified canola (rapeseed to less sensitive souls) has been “found growing in North Dakota”. According to Nature not one but two types — one from Monsanto and one from Bayer — were found “at large distances from areas of agricultural production”. Better yet, researchers discovered some plants that carried both [...]