A dream of dreams

Iron Man

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:34:29 GMT

Origin stories are dull™ and Iron Man suffers from this defect. As a movie it ticks all the boxes. The actions scenes are extensive and well done, while not dominating over the plot. Even the romantic sub-plot did not appear to have been tacked on at the last minute. However, the result is dissatisfying. You know the story, you know the ending, and characters play their parts with the tedious inevitability of a soap opera or the worst celebrity-saturated pantomime of a mid-sized Northern resort.

Parody is a complicated thing. Get it right and the most inane unintentional remark can lead to a riot of laughter. Get it wrong, and it either you'll make the most asinine commentaries on a subject, or worse people won't know you intend to parody anything at all. Iron Man, if it is its intent to parody the high-tech, low-diplomacy culture of the American military fails. Problems caused by technology and man's attitudes are resolved by still greater technology. The motives of the terrorist group who appear to be the enemy are not explored at all.

It is okay to ask a lot of your audience if you give a lot in return; however those looking for a intellectual or philosophical experience here are going to be disappointed. We are expected to notice the conflict and change in the lead by some poorly written monologue. Similarly one can make excuses for the lack of plot development on the part of the freedom fighters, sorry, terrorists, by expecting the viewer to be familiar with the situation in Afghanistan, and the clash of civilisations and draw their own conclusions, but in challenging none of our own assumptions this ends up simply as a lazy way to avoid replacing action scenes with plot.

I have yet to walk out of a movie, but here, had I not been with a friend, I would have.

A new meme

Tue, 13 May 2008 12:37:28 GMT

Predictions are fun!

Make predictions for three events which will happen within the next: year, decade and century. Specify whether the event would have been true were you to make the prediction this time previously - i.e. for a prediction of an event in the next year, would it have come true if you had predicted it a year ago.

You can choose what headings you want to make predictions under.

UK Politics:

Year:

* The date of the next general election will be announced - I'll even go so far as to speculate on the date: 11 June 2009 (Date of the next European Parliamentary Elections).
- No, there has been no UK general announced in the past year.
* None of the major parties (big three) will announce a new leader.
- Yes, well No; erm Gordon Brown became leader of the Labour Party on 24th June 2007.
* The Labour party will lose a vote in parliament.
- I don't think so. The votes of terror were earlier than the past year, weren't they?

Decade:

* A solution will be found to the West Lothian Question.
- No, if anything the question has become ever more relevant as Scottish and Welsh devolutions has continued apace.
* A UK-wide referendum will be held.
- No, although regional referenda have been held.
* All hereditary members of the House of Lords will be eliminated.
- No.

Century:

* The UK will not exist as an independent state within its current boundaries - either by entry into a European Superstate, or else by independence of one of the constituent countries.
- Yes - the independence of Rep. of Ireland from the UK was within the last century.
* A reformation will happen to the Westminster voting system, in which FPTP will be amended or replaced.
- No in Westminster, but regionally this has happened.
* The dominance of the big three parties (holding more than 90% of the seats in parliament) will be broken.
- Arguable this is a direct consequence of the above.

International Politics:

Year:

* No resolution of the Kosovo question will be found.
- Well - no solution has been found as yet.
* Montenegro will be recognised as a candidate country for EU membership,
- Not yet.
* Diplomatic tensions between Russia and the West will continue to rise.
- Yes.

Decade:

* At least one new country will appear in Europe. This includes de facto independent states (Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia] becoming de jure independent, but I'm excluding Kosovo (which some people may not consider independent, yet).
- Yes; Serbia and Montenegro.
* At least one country will join the European Union
- Yes; 12 countries have.
* No new state (including existing states fissioning, or non-state territory becoming a state (such as Puerto Rico) ) will emerge in the USA.
- Nope - the last state to join the US was in 1950something.

Century:

* The EU will consolidate to such an extent that it exists as a single nation state.
- Some would argue it already has.
* A solution will be found to the Cyprus question.
- No, although the current head of the Greek Cypriot government is working to achieve this.
* No state of war will exist between any of the twenty largest economies of the world.
- Yes; second world war...

Science, Nature and the Environment:

Year:

* At least one month will beat a temperature record in a positive manner (warmest August on record, etc)
- I think so - didn't February do this?
* No results revealing the existence of the Higgs Boson will be released.
- Well, there were suggestions, but I think they're older than a year.
* A new species of mammal will be discovered.
- I think it has, they occur every so often.

Decade:

* An extrasolar earth-mass planet will be detected by means of transit or Doppler shifts
- No. Although planets with a few (c. 5) times earth-mass have been detected.
* At no point will there not be a man in space (even Near Earth Orbit)
- I think there was only a brief period between MIR and the ISS in which there was no man in space.
* A sample return mission will take place from Mars.
- Missions are planned, but have been repeatedly delayed. I think they are now planned for 2015ish.

Century:

* Humans will walk on the surface of a celestial body, other than the Earth and Moon.
- No, well I'd probably have phrased this differently in men hadn't walked on the moon in '69.
* The population of Earth will peak, and start to decline.
- No.
* The hole in the ozone layer will heal to such an extent that it no longer poses a concern.
- No, although I'm not sure if the hole is still expanding.

Business and Economics:

Year:

* The price of oil (West Texas intermediate crude) will surpass $150 a barrel.
- Hasn't happened yet. Oil has reached $125 a barrel.
* House prices will show an annual fall.
- The last month has shown a small fall, and before that prices have been static for a while.
* The UK interest rate will fall below 4%
- No - I was getting a bit desperate here though.

Decade:

* The price of oil (West Texas intermediate crude) will not fall below $70 a barrel.
- Oil has been below $70 in the last decade, within the last year I think.
* Global oil production will enter a permanent decline.
- It may have already happened, the data are confusing.
* China will become the largest economy in the world.
- Its currently the second largest I believe. Pretty much inevitable.

Century:

* Individual nations currencies will consolidate into a number of large blocks.
- Is already happening in Europe (the Euro), and in the dollarization of South America. There are also plans for Arabian and African currencies.
* Hydrogen will not become the replacement fuel for oil in personal transportation.
- This is just a feeling. Its probably the least justifiable of any of my speculations.
* At least one mega engineering project will take place, linking continents or a major landmass to a continent (akin to the channel tunnel) - e.g. a bridge across the straights of Gibraltar.
- Inevitable isn't it?

Personal:

Year:

* I will publish another paper.
- Yes.
* I will visit another continent.
- No, but I do have a trip planned.
* One of my friends will announce their engagement.
- Yes, it happened.

Decade:

* I will live in a single residence for longer than a year
- Yes, if you include my parent's place, no otherwise.
* One of my closest circle of friends will become a parent
- No, or at least not so far as I am aware.
* I will meet someone with whom I want to spend the rest of my life.
- No, or at least I don't think I've met them yet.

Century:

* I will die ;)
- No. Surprisingly I haven't died yet.
* I will visit every continent
- Not yet - already have visited Europe and N. America, and have plans to visit Australia.
* I will have children.
- It would be a miracle.

Geeky Problem

Tue, 13 May 2008 09:27:28 GMT

I need some help with regular expressions if there is anyone out there who knows enough about them:

CONTEXT: As some of you may know, I do research into variable stars. Now, as well as variability inherent to the star, my data will also have noise caused by the instrument. In order to characterise this noise I am looking to find stars which are not variable at observable amplitudes, or are variable with a sufficiently rapid periodicity that any variability will be unobservable.

THE SETUP: Spectral types are defined by a string which typically contains the following data:
* A two character string, consisting of a letter [O,B,A,F,G,K,M], and a number [0-9] which tells you the temperature of the star (okay - it actually tells you about lines in the emission spectra, but they're strongly correlated)
* A Roman numeral which tells you about what type of star (Supergiants, bright giants, giants, sub-giants, main sequence, [and rarely used, sub dwarf and white dwarfs]) - from I through V (common), and VI, VII (rare). We need only concern ourselves with the first five here. There are also annoying stars which are marked as being in transition between two types - e.g. IV-V. Sometimes the numeral will also have a letter specifying a sub-type (a,ab,b)
* Possible additional letters which specify anything special about the star - e.g. 'p.e' peculiar emission.

You can learn more at the Wikipedia page.

Here are some examples: B3Vp, K5III, B8Ia, M1: comp, M2Ib, F5IV-V, B0.5IV, B1V, B1III, A0Vvar, A7IV-V

THE PHYSICS: As stars get larger, the period of oscillation becomes greater - e.g. in the Sun (G8V) these oscillations take 5 minutes, in Arcturus (K1.5III) which is roughly 25 times larger, they take three days. They also scale in relative size with the luminosity of the star (where L/L_sun = (T/T_sun)^4(R/R_sun)^2) - i.e. are much larger in stars of a greater radius.

I want to extract the Roman Numeral 'bit' of the spectral type.

THE PROGRAMMING: I have an IDL function which will take a string and a regular expression, and return a boolean value based on whether the expression is present. I need to find regular expressions which will match each of the Roman Numeral exclusively.

My current versions are:
* Matching V : '[^I]V'
* Matching IV : 'IV'
[I actually have something here where I match 'IV-V', and subtract a number of points to reflect the fact that the previous two will have matched as well which won't actually work I've just realised]
* Matching III : 'I{3}'
* Matching II : 'I{2}'
* Matching I : 'I'

Which kinda works, but not really - 'III' will match with the last three, and IV will match with the last one.

So - I don't have too many programmers on my list, but any help at all would be appreciated, to state the problem again in summary:

I need six expressions which will find each of the Roman Numeral strings V, IV-V, IV, III, II, I; while not matching to any other in the set.

EDIT: It works, by using a different method to how I was thinking though.

Doctor Who

Sat, 10 May 2008 17:49:15 GMT

COP OUT!

Complete and utter cop out.

I am not amused.

Now to watch the rest of the episode, and attempt to get off my high-horse.

EDIT: Still not happy, but, well... I want a Jenny spin-off.

Income Distribution Pollage

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:14:37 GMT

In a further poll regarding my thoughts on the New Media, I would be obliged to people who filled in the following:

Edits: Okay - questions are now in place above the poll.

Okay - Live journal slightly sucks; it won't let you put explanatory text in the middle of a poll; so the following is stuck here.

For the first four questions (3 radio buttons and a text entry field) the following meta-question applies;

Considering purchasing a music track, excluding costs of distribution (e.g. the cost of making a CD, distributing an electronic track), how much of the remaining sale cost do you think should go to:

and for the second set of questions, the following meta-question applies;

Considering the creative team behind a single music track, what proportion of the proceeds you have identified above should go to:

View Poll: Creativity , Fairness and Income

Voting

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:15:34 GMT

As some of you may know I'm pretty darned interested in voting systems, and more specifically trying to ensure that a system is fair and representative.

I don't have too much work to do right now so I thought I'd have a play with implementing some system with actual data, and thus try to determine which produces the 'best' results. This is where you people come in.

We are going to be hosting an election for the 'best' colour. The candidates are:
i) Red,
ii) Blue,
iii) Green,
iv) Yellow,
v) Orange,
vi) Purple,
vii) Pink,
viii) Black,
ix) White,
x) Brown.

Can you please comment with the following [See below for descriptions of the voting methods]. Assume in all cases that a single member is to be elected:
i) A 'true' ordering of your preferences - that is a ranking independent of any tactical concerns regarding which options you think are most likely to win.
[For the following two please consider strategic voting concerns (see notes below) - if these do not change your preferences then you may indicate 'as above']
ia) A ranking of candidates for use under an 'instant run-off' (single transferable vote) voting system.
ib) A ranking of candidates for use under a 'Borda count' system.
ii) Which single candidate you would vote for in a 'plurality' (first past the post) voting system.
iii) Which multiple candidates you would vote for in an 'approval voting' system.
iv) A score for each candidate in the range of 1 - 10 points (using whole numbers only) for using in a range voting system.

If you have any questions or comments can you make independent comments for votes and queries as to ensure a private ballot comments and screened by default - however I may choose to un-screen useful queries or comments.

NOTES:
* Plurality voting

In single winner plurality voting, each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the winner of the election is whichever candidate represents a plurality of voters, that is, whoever received the largest number of votes. This makes the plurality voting system among the simplest of all voting systems.

To a much greater extent than many other electoral methods, plurality electoral systems encourage tactical voting techniques, like "compromising". Voters are pressured to vote for one of the two candidates they predict are most likely to win, even if their true preference is neither, because a vote for any other candidate will be likely to be wasted and have no impact on the final result.

* Approval voting

Approval voting is a single-winner voting system used for elections. Each voter may vote for (approve of) as many of the candidates as they wish. The winner is the candidate receiving the most votes. Each voter may vote for any combination of candidates and may give each candidate at most one vote.

Voting strategy under approval is guided by two competing features of approval voting. On the one hand voting for a candidate can cause that candidate to win instead of a more preferred candidate. On the other hand not voting for a candidate can never help that candidate win, but can cause that candidate to lose to a less preferred candidate. Either way, the voter can risk getting a less preferred election winner.

An optimal approval vote will always vote for the most preferred candidate and not vote for the least preferred candidate. However, an optimal vote can require voting for a candidate and not voting for a more preferred candidate.

Other strategies are also available and will coincide with the optimal strategy in special situations. For example:
* Vote for the candidates that have above average utility.
* Vote for any candidate that is more preferred than the expected winner and also vote for the expected winner if the expected winner is more preferred than the expected runner-up.
* Vote for the most preferred of the two leading candidates.
* Vote for the most preferred candidate.

* Range voting

Range voting (also called ratings summation, average voting, cardinal ratings, 0–99 voting, or the score system or point system) is a voting system for one-seat elections under which voters score each candidate, the scores are added up, and the candidate with the highest score wins. Range voting is not known to have been used for any public elections.

In most cases, ideal range voting strategy for well-informed voters is identical to ideal approval voting strategy, and a voter would want to give his least and most favourite candidates a minimum and a maximum score, respectively. If one candidate's backers engaged in this tactic and other candidates' backers cast sincere rankings for the full range of candidates, then the tactical voters would have a significant advantage over the rest of the electorate. When the population is large and there are two obvious and distinct front-runners, tactical voters seeking to maximize their influence on the result is to give a maximum rating to their preferred candidate, and a minimum rating to the other front-runner; these voters would then give minimum and maximum scores to all other candidates so as to maximize expected utility.

However, there are examples in which voting maximum and minimum scores for all candidates is not optimal. What has been observed to happen in exit poll experiments is that voters tend to vote more sincerely for candidates they perceive have no chance of winning. Thus range voting may yield higher support for third party and independent candidates than other common voting methods, creating what has been called the "nursery effect", unless those candidates become viable.

* Instant Run-off

Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a voting system used for single-winner elections in which voters rank candidates in order of preference using one ballot. No further voting rounds are required. If no candidate receives a majority of first choices, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated, and the votes cast for that candidate are redistributed to the remaining candidates according to the voters' indicated preference. This process is repeated until one candidate has a majority among votes for candidates not eliminated.

IRV can prevent the spoiler effect, in which a minor party splits the vote with a major party and tilts the election toward the other major party, hurting its own cause. IRV therefore seems to allow supporters of minor parties to cast protest votes without "wasting" their votes. This advantage is illusory, however, because it applies only as long as those minor parties are sure to lose. As soon as one of those minor parties threatens to become a major party and actually win, its supporters vote for them at the risk of hurting their own cause, just as in the current plurality system. Under IRV, votes for minor parties are therefore symbolic at best, or dangerous at worst.

[Tactical voting considerations are complex - see this website for more info.]

* Borda Count

The Borda count is a single-winner election method in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. The Borda count determines the winner of an election by giving each candidate a certain number of points corresponding to the position in which he or she is ranked by each voter. Once all votes have been counted the candidate with the most points is the winner. Because it sometimes elects broadly acceptable candidates, rather than those preferred by the majority, the Borda count is often described as a consensus-based electoral system, rather than a majoritarian one.

Like all voting systems, the Borda count is vulnerable to tactical voting. In particular, it is vulnerable to the tactics of 'compromising' and 'burying'. Compromising: voters can help avoid the election of a less preferred candidate by insincerely raising the position of a more preferred candidate on their ballot. Burying: voters can help a more preferred candidate by insincerely lowering the position of a less preferred candidate on their ballot.

An effective tactic is to combine these two strategies. For example, if there are two candidates whom a voter considers to be the most likely to win, the voter can maximise his impact on the contest between these front runners by ranking the candidate whom he likes more in first place, and ranking the candidate whom he likes less in last place. If neither front runner is his sincere first or last choice, the voter is employing both the compromising and burying tactics at once. If many voters employ such strategies, then the result will no longer reflect the sincere preferences of the electorate.

EDIT: There is also a straw poll being conducted by atreic on her journal now if you want some idea of the popularity of various options.

Gym Fitness

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:41:47 GMT

I've recently started going to the Gym, and I'm finding that my calf muscles are aching a lot. I don't think that there is any injury as such, but it is a little painful to walk down stairs... so - as I have some people on my flist who are vaugely medical, or at least exercise more often than me - is this:

i) Something I should be more worried about?
ii) My body telling me to quit exercising for a while?
iii) My body telling me to cut back a while?
iv) Of no concern at all - just a consequence of exercise which will go away / something I need to put up with?
v) Good - an indication that the muscles are being strongly exercised and will thus grow stronger until I become SUPER NEIL - ABLE TO LEAP LARGE PUDDLES IN A SINGLE BOUND!
vi) Something else.

Wikipedia

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:08:45 GMT

Ah - Wikipedia. April 1st is when you really shine, particularly in recent years in which you have actually highlighted true, but confusing stories, for instance:

DID YOU KNOW:
...that in a few villages and towns of southern France and Spain it is illegal to die, and that there are attempts to have the same law in a town in Brazil?
...that Ben Affleck died while shoveling snow outside of his house, leaving behind an unexpectedly small estate speculated to be worth as little as US$20,000?
...that John F. Kennedy was shot dead in an ambush by government agents who had foreknowledge of his whereabouts?
...that American entrepreneur Timothy Dexter defied the popular idiom and actually made a profit when he sold coal to Newcastle?

Acropolis Now

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:14:27 GMT

It's a weird, but really cool ancient greece based radio comedy show. I though the following quotation was really good fun. Its between Socrates and another character I can't be bothered to find out the name of!

"So - no Mrs Socrates today then?"
"No - left her at home. Although I expect by now she's helping your brother in the food preparation area. The woman's incorrigible it pains me to say it - I mean I married her in all good faith... but between you and me you do realise... She's Straight?"
"No - Xanthippe's straight?!"
"Keep your voice down - you hadn't guessed then? Zeus they're cunning these heterosexuals."
"Its such a shock - I mean; is this a harmless lifestyle choice or..."
"Oh hardly. Not when she fancies people of the opposite gender."
"Oh!"
"Oh - she doesn't fancy me thank goodness."

[Edited to reflect comments - transcriptions is hard.]

Discworld Meme

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:53:29 GMT

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Lord Havelock Vetinari

You are Lord Vetinari! Supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork! Cool, calculated, and always in control. You graduated from the assassins guild, but failed a course on stealth and camouflage, because the professor never saw you there (even though you attended every class). You always seem to know what everyone is thinking, and after a conversation with you, people feel that they have just escaped certain death.

Lord Havelock Vetinari

88%

The Librarian

75%

Commander Samuel Vimes

69%

Carrot Ironfounderson

63%

Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax

63%

Cohen The Barbarian

56%

Death

56%

Gytha (Nanny) Ogg

44%

Greebo

38%

Rincewind

38%

Psychology

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:53:08 GMT

I've just taken an "implicit association" test regarding my feels towards the American presidential candidates and apparently I strongly favour Hilary Clinton, favouring Obama only a little over McCain who I favour only a little over Mike Huckabee.
New Scientist discusses the test at: http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/

Basically the test will ask you to identify either an image or a word as 'good' or 'bad' - good words include 'friend', 'happy', 'pleasant', bad words include 'hate', 'enemy', etc. Interspersed with the words are images of candidates which at the beginning of each round will be assigned to being good (i.e. one does not select good words, but good words or images of candidate A) - another candidate images will need to be placed with bad association.

Now I wonder whether this test may not so much have identified my attitudes towards the four candidates, but instead just shown how differentiable they are - that is it is a lot easier to identify an image of Hilary (a woman) over any of the men, and easier to identify Barak Obama over the two white men. I question whether the test truly identifies my attitudes, or simply reveals that I am better at identifying a woman over a man?

Presumably this test should have been calibrated for this, but given the length (under ten minutes) I doubt whether the effect could fully have been corrected for. Or maybe I do indeed, apparently like the author of the New Scientist blog entry, have a secret crush on Ms. Clinton.

RIP

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:09:42 GMT

After about 10 months my 'NAM' (National Astronomy Meeting) freebie back-pack (which I have used daily for carrying stuff to and from the Office, has been to London at least thrice, the Czech Republic once, and the Isle of Wight a good number of times) has finally broken to such an extent that it is no longer usable...

Let us all have 1 minutes silence.

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:12:13 GMT

Don't you just hate it when you like a band and then it turns out they're Canadian?

No - seriously; my music collection is scarily Canadian, including:

Avril Lavigne,
Celine Dion,
Alanis Morisette,
Shania Twain,
Nickleback,
Sum 41...

and that's just the ones of whom I own Albums.

EDIT: Am listening to them now, reliving teenage angst :: smile ::
Sings: "Yesterday was the worst day ever, and tomorrow won't be better... it's history repeating"

Population Studies

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:53:17 GMT

I'm quite chuffed - I've found a map of the UK population density on the Internet.

Its something for which I have been searching, on-and-off for a fair amount of time, and while the current map isn't perfect (the resolution is quite bad, 312 by 312 points covering a larger area than the UK itself, and I suspect that it isn't a true representation of the population density, but in fact a representation of the density of the population of the local government region within which a point is found [if that makes sense]) I'm already able to think of a number of interesting things to do with it.

The first is to attempt to find the 'centre' of the UK population. This is a complicated thing to define as there are several contradictory ways in which you could choose to define this, for instance as simply the 'mean' location in population (i.e. as a weighted centre of gravity definition) - this yields a centre a little to the North East of Birmingham.
Other ways of defining it may be as a function of radius - for instance popdensity*radius will give a point where, subject to certain horrendous assumptions, all of the UK could drive and minimise the total time. This turns out to be a similar point to the previous. Finally suppose that you want to build an attraction or business to which having to travel a distance will put people off. Here one would get something like inverse radius relationship (distance places are less attractive) and the point of maximum popdensity/radius would give you the best location for your site. Unsurprisingly this turns out to be in London.

I'd like to do other things with the data, but it will take me a little while to get around to them - for instance:

i) What would be a mathematical best transportation network covering the country?
Assume that all journeys are person-to-person. The number of people going from and to a given point is thus simply a function of population density. We can define a function, probably of the form 'a/r^{b}', to give a 'benefit' function of the benefit of having a transportation network nearby, and a 'cost' function of something like 'c*d', where d is the length of the network. By maximising the benefit relative to the costs we can get an idea of where in the country it would be best to build our network.

ii) 'Fair' constituencies.

The scale of my current map is currently probably too small for this to work, but it could be done for the EU parliamentary election regions...

Consider a parliamentary constituency. To ensure that no party is offered an advantage by the placement of boundaries it would be best to define some kind of (mathematical?) definition of what makes a fair region. Ideally we would want each constituency to have the same population, for each to be as compact (i.e. have as small as possible boundary given the area) as possible (to reduce transportation costs for candidates) and for boundaries to pass through regions of as low population as possible (to prevent towns being arbitrarily split in half). We can again write a cost function, running it would give us a 'fair' division of the country.

Of course it reality this probably wouldn't be a reasonable way to make constituencies in the UK. The boundaries thus defined would bear no relation to present cultural, political or geographic regions (i.e. a region may cross the boundaries between England and Wales, or place both N. Ireland and parts of Wales in a single region).

Any other ideas?

The 'centre of gravity' of the UK population is located just to the North-East of Birmingham.

If you want a site which is close to a lot of people, the London seems to be the way to go.

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:40:22 GMT

Total comments: 1391

1	vanishingrad	221
2	neoanjou	163
3	x_equals_speed	124
4	diremongoose	97
5	necaris	86
6	saf2285	74
7	ahsha	46
8	pozorvlak	39
9	crimson_king126	36
10	maxwell_s_demon	34
11	dragoncookie	28
12	dukeblack	21
13	yartek	20
14	sebastienne	20
15	half_of_monty	19
16	hildabeast	19
17	mi_guida	18
18	nik_the_russian	18
19	androidkiller	17
20	steveotep	16
21	steerpikelet	16
22	vampire_kitten	15
23	sir_rosealot	15
24	neojezebel	14
25	rossb	14
26	chrisvenus	13
27	shiny_and_new	13
28	mentalfirewall	12
29	atreic	11
30	withiel	11
31	synergetic	11
32	benparker	10
33	sebastiality	9
34	jacinthsong	8
35	arifirh	7
36	liminereid	7
37	lunariia	7
38	r_e_mercia	7
39	trevordubya	7
40	stronglight	6
41	countess_rezia	6
42	foreverdirt	6
43	anotherusedpage	5
44	mejoff	5
45	9headeddragon	4
46	rudolfrocker	4
47	oxfordgirl	3
48	sunset_guy	3
49	foulds	3
50	small_and_blue	2
51	frank_snow	2
52	neoscientia	2
53	pinklady1705	2
54	baloobas	2
55	Anonymous	2
56	isioviel	2
57	fi_h	1
58	p_fish	1
59	petal1983	1
60	picklgrem	1
61	cultureofdoubt	1
62	darwinian_woman	1
63	cursedcait	1
64	enlight_bystand	1
65	adqam	1

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I suspect that the results would be somewhat different without my game of 'Mafia' - speaking of which - does anyone fancy starting another game on-line, or meeting up one night (Birmingham people) to play for real ;).

Food(age)

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 22:27:52 GMT

I'm currently watching 'Jamie's Fowl Dinners', a description of the Chicken and Egg industry in this country. If anyone has missed it then it's bound to be repeated sometime on More4 and I highly suggest watching.

Anyway - the thing which interested me was the attitude of Supermarkets and how it accords almost entirely with my own perceptions of them, for instance in terms of farmed Chicken for meat the situation of the supermarkets was pretty much as follows:

* Waitrose is almost already 'there' with all their branded Chicken produced in properly farmed sites - although they do still use a fast growing breed.
* Sainsbury's has made a commitment to changing their practices, and hopes to bring all their Chicken up to a 'Freedom Food' standard.
* Tesco acknowledges that there are welfare problems, but is aware of the issues faced by poor families in terms of buying meat.
* Morrisons is happy to stock a range of differently farmed Chickens.
* Asda refuses to acknowledge that there is even a problem.

Maybe I'm just projecting here, but its interesting how sometimes prejudices about companies do appear to be justified.

Queer Politics and Science

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:02:24 GMT

A quote from New Scientist:

Gay Switch:

Homosexuality in fruit flies can be switched on and off by using drugs to alter the strength of nerve-cell junctions in male flies' brains. The changes makes males unable to sense a pheromone that normally stops them mating with other males (Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn2019)

Is it just me or is this bad reporting. I mean, there are two issues I primarily have with it:
# It implicitly assumes that Homosexuality means having sex with the same sex: This is a somewhat outdated attitude isn't it? I mean its one of those things whereby a homosexual is a person who chooses* to have sex with people of the same sex, but someone who has sex with people of the same sex is not necessarily a homosexual. The flies here would appear to mate with both males and females which in my book would (without my second issue below) make them bisexual.
# Its not about homosexuality anyway - my reading of this article is that the chemical changes prevent the male from determining the sex of an individual. As sexuality is explicitly dependent upon sex and gender if one cannot recognise gender then one surely cannot have a sexuality? If I were to remove the ability of a fruit fly to discriminate between living and dead flies, would I be able to conclude that this led to necrophilia?

Anyway. Meh.

Neil.

* N.B Chooses here being used in a somewhat subtle manner to mean 'is not compelled by circumstance', therefore excluding rape and those who manifest homosexual behaviour in extreme environments such as prison. I don't take a stand on nature versus nurture origins of homosexuality, but acknowledge that it is not a 'choice' in the same way that becoming a vegetarian is a choice.

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:16:37 GMT

I continue to be amazed that people's voices almost entirely fail to match up with the image I expect of them - Kenneth Horne ('Round the Horne' et al; sixties radio shows) looks like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kenneth_Horne.jpg

I wasn't expecting bald, was expect younger, and - I dunno, he's got such a smooth voice I was expecting a smoother presentation (if you know what I mean).

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:34:37 GMT

In 2007, neoanjou resolves to...

Give up europa universalis.
Admit my true feelings to sir_rosealot.
Be nicer to spidrak.
Give up acting.
Give some planets to charity.
Overcome my secret fear of astrophysics.

I especially like 'Give some planets to charity' - here ~~Oxford~~ Oxfam, take Jupiter and Venus; I don't need them anymore - and 'Overcome my secret fear of astrophysics' which is perilously close to the Truth - I am f*cking afraid of Cosmology - its all so depressing their debates upon the fate of the Universe. This is why I study the stars instead.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, neoanjou sent to me...

Twelve vanishingrads drumming

Eleven politics piping

Ten incubus a-leaping

Nine physics dancing

Eight starbucks a-milking

Seven books a-reading

Six planets acting

Five astro-o-o-ophysics

Four nine days

Three europa universalis

Two history books

...and a drama in a medieval history.

This is just in general great - I love 'four nine days' and '...and a drama in a medieval history.' is just inspired.

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:01:32 GMT

O2 Advertisment:

"There are 90 billions 11 digit numbers..."

Erm, well no - there are 100 billion - its just that some (well- 10 billion of them) have leading zeros, still - I suppose one could argue that from one perspective (minimum decimal representation) you're right.

However - YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT PHONE NUMBERS! They ALWAYS have leading zeros!

Stupid advert.

Science

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:01:35 GMT

I've just updated my 'science' journal, neoscientia, which I started in May and has had a grand total of... erm, well one (including today) science based posts to it so far. Anyway, I've updated it with 'An introduction to Helioseismology' - I hope I've pitched it well, any comments are welcome, either there or here.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:01:14 GMT

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (whenever someone started this meme). Bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.

Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22 (saw a stage adaptation though - was very good)
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights (not my fault - I left it in Cambridge)
The Silmarillion (complicated - have read some of it; as my friend once said - its like the Bible, and one would intend to read it all (would one?) )
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice (It was at school, but I'm counting it)
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway *
Great Expectations
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha (I've seen the movie adaptation)
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula (kinda - think I read a young persons adaptation)
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984*
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verse
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune (Just the first novel, IIRC I own the first six)
The Prince(again - is this something you read? I've dipped into it at times)
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

So there we are - I have not strong desire to read most of the others to be honest (maybe just to mood I'm in right now!)

Latest Meme

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:24:29 GMT

Taken from steerpikelet

Write a personal ad for yourself (in which you assume that you are single or otherwise available).
1) It has to make you sound as unappealing as possible
2) It has to be honest - you can't lie at all
3) It can't sound as though you're deliberately making yourself sound unappealing.

Here's mine:

6' 4" slender to the point of emaciation, male Asteroseismology - that is the study of small amplitude oscillations in stars which can be used to determine certain properties of the interal structure; its really quite fascinating; if you're interested I have a paper avaliable online, or maybe you'd enjoy reading my thesis? - PhD student, MPhys, Oxford graduate seeks tall, intelligent, educated, beautiful, long-haired brunette; Oxbridge graduate preferred; for profound political and philosophical conversations, arguments and discussions. Low self estime a preference.
Must be prepared to accept wildly variable levels of affection, and a near complete absense of intimacy.

Careers Meme.

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:10:42 GMT

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the ~~top ten~~ [I didn't like my top ten] top twenty-five results

1. Biomedical Engineer
2. Computer Engineer
3. Mining Engineer
4. Electrical Engineer
5. Petroleum Engineer
6. Agricultural Engineer
7. Industrial Engineer

What's the deal with Engineers? I never should have said that I wouldn't mind working with machines!

8. Oceanographer

Humm - could be fun. Does strike me as potentially involving trips on small boats through the cold and streaming rain though which wouldn't be so cool.

9. Environmental Engineer
10. Chemical Engineer
11. Mechanical Engineer
12. Aerospace Engineer

More Engineers - sigh.

13. Historian

Woot! I love it!

14. Computer Programmer

Meh - probably wouldn't be too bad, but I prefer programming for my own means

15. Curator

Interesting - another one I wouldn't mind.

16. Director of Photography
17. Multimedia Developer
18. Director

Lol - that's what you get when you say you want to work with actors and be creative.

19. Materials / Metallurgical Engineer

Noooooooooooo. (seriously - my friend who works in materials says it's really dull)

20. Hydrologist / Hydrogeologist

Interesting again.

21. Astronomer

WOOT! Finally!

22. Meteorologist

Meh - would be kinda cool, but not really my kinda thing.

23. Physicist

Lol.

24. Mathematician

I used to be really into mathematics but it was always a little too rigorous for me - I prefer the Physicist solution of 'it works'.

25. Business Systems Analyst

WTF?

Interesting Factoid

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:45:11 GMT

According to Wikipedia's 'On this Day' feature, then today was the date that the two-day Women's Rights Convention, the first women's rights and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls, New York.

Thats quite interesting, but what shocked me was the year - 1848!