Friday, August 31, 2007

YouTube

Is it just me or has YouTube got really slow and boring?

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Academic Literature

Science is a collective effort in which we build on and expand the work of others. One of the most fundamental steps in the scientific process is the literature survey. If a scientist has an idea for an experiment or a theory they go and check all the published scientific work to see if anyone else has tried it. Keeping up with the literature is crucial because it can generate new ideas for work; so-and-so has some evidence for this but they need more proof using a different type of experiment or 'I wonder if they measured this or that'. Having access to the body of scientific journals is, therefore, crucial. In the olden days paper copies of each volume of all the journals would be kept in the library or academics would send off for copies of articles the library didn't have.

Now things have changed. The library here at York is getting rid of a lot of its journal volumes. They don't need the space. York has just had a second huge library built next to the existing one. They claim it is because no one loans the journals out. This is ridiculous. Of course no-one borrows the journals. They just photocopy the one article they need then put it back on the shelf. But why is this a problem? Aren't the journals available online now I hear you ask? No. We only have access to articles from 1995 in some of the main journals. We here in the surface science department only have access to articles in the journal Surface Science from the last 12 years even though there are important articles in that journal from way back. OK we have paper copies in the library but the process of thinning out resources means that for some articles there is no overlap and we have to send away for copies. This used to be free. Now they are to charge £2 per article. That's £2 of public money for a photocopy of a few A4 pages. The upshot of all this is that academics might be tempted to stick with the journals they have easy access to . Hard to obtain articles will only be brought in when the author is certain of their use. Important work or ideas might be ignored or not noticed and the well could dry up.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Lee Hughes

Football player Lee Hughes killed a man and severely injured another in an RTA in which he was drunk and driving recklessly. In court he showed no remorse and behaved with total arrogance. After 3 years in prison he is now out and has immediately been signed to play for Oldham athletic. How has he been able to stay football sharp whilst in jail? Should he have been allowed to continue his football career upon release? Should the inevitable abuse he will suffer from away fans be quietly applauded or has the guy been punished enough? The question is the same one that we had to think about when the guy who stabbed Phillip Lawrence was released earlier this month; did the punishment fit the crime and should the offender be granted their full rights as a free man upon release? For starters Lee Hughes should have a lifetime driving ban. And a percentage of his earnings should go to his victims and their families. He should also be allowed to continue his football career.

In other motoring news a banned driver who led police on a high speed pursuit risking lives was caught and the judge gave him.... a driving ban. Sigh.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

My iPod and Linux

This weekend I had a go at getting my iPod working under my Ubuntu Linux OS. The first problem was that I couldn't write or delete anything on the ipod, even as root. So I had to visit my brother to use his Windows XP laptop to wipe the ipod and reset it to factory settings. This helped with the write problems.

So far so good. Next I tried to write my music library to the ipod via the Amarok interface I use (which is, for every other use, superb). The files write OK but only in short batches. If I try and write more than, say, 10gb then something falls over and the whole thing crashes. The files are present on the ipod but the contents database isn't there (Amarok must write this after it writes the music files). The end result is that the music is there but the ipod clickwheel menu system doesn't show it as present. I need to read into this a bit more. My current workaround is to use Amarok to manage my music collection and gtkpod to do all the to and fro business with the ipod. Not ideal.

This is how things are with Linux in my experience. Lots of fiddling around to get things working. I don't mind this though because a) everything is free and b) when things do get working they are superb in terms of reliability and functionality. However, I must admit that at times this weekend I've felt like buying a Mac.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Crime Crazy

The whole of the UK is frothing at the mouth at the moment about crime. An 11 year old boy was shot in the back of the neck whilst playing football and he sadly later died from the loss of blood. This horrible tragedy is another item in the catalogue of shootings, stabbings, school fights filmed and put on YouTube and the general antisocial behaviour that seems to plague our consequence free liberal society.

The left have come out with the usual watering down arguments. August is a slow news month because the politicians are on holiday like everyone else. The Guardian said that this slow news effect is why we always hear about youth crime in August. Erm. No. It's because the kids are off schools that they can be the victims/perpertrators of crime.

The right have suggested National Service for all those who do not find work on leaving school, hard labour in prison, punishment for parents of unruly kids, removal of financial incentives in the welfare system that make a single mother better off than a couple who stay together to raise their children, a 2 year time limit on benefits for unemployment, tougher hands on policing/regular patrols and on and on.

The one person who has made sensible comment is Ian Duncan Smith, former head of the Conservative party. He said a many facetted approach is needed. Identifying problem families early and giving parenting support together with tough methods in crime fighting. Carrot and strong stick.

I worry that the media, by making it look like crime is the norm, encourage more crime and copycat crime. The broken window theory. If a house has a broken window already why not smash a second one? And why weren't the street gangs filmed in Liverpool yesterday wielding machetes for the camera arrested? Why was a TV film crew stoned as they drove past without the police intervening? The final insult came from the home secretary who said all this was OK because it is happening in a few tightly controlled areas - ie poor areas. But this isn't true. There have been many innocent middle class victims in recent months. Like Rhys Jones.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Emigration

Last year nearly 200'000 British citizens officially emgrated, a record number. The main causes are attributed to;

  1. Expensive housing
  2. Fears over crime
  3. Cost of living
  4. Lack of jobs outside service industries
  5. Poor weather
I can understand all of these reasons apart from the last one. This summer has been cold and wet but people emigrating last year didn't know this. Methinks there has been a bit of editorialising there. In general, the past few winters have been mild and the past few summers quite pleasant.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Learco Chindamo

The man who murdered a school headmaster outside the school gates when he was 15 years old is about to be released from prison after serving 12 years. Learco Chindamo is an Italian citizen who moved here when he was 4 years old. There are now calls to deport him upon his release. Learco does not speak Italian and all of his family live in this country. I do not think he should be deported. What would be the purpose of this? Further punishment? I accept that we should not send out the signal that one way to gain UK citizenship is to murder a UK citizen. But this man has served his punishment and is now, by all accounts, rehabilitated and making a positive contribution to society by educating children who might get involved in gang/knife crime. If we believe he is still a risk to the public we should not release him from prison and we certainly shouldn't send him to Italy. What Learco Chindamo did was truly evil, but we can't just sweep him under the carpet now he has been through our legal system. From the sort of comments I have heard in the papers and on the web I think some people would prefer that we had executed Learco for his crime and got him out of the way.

Monday, August 20, 2007

We Don't Need No Education

Professor Dylan Wiliam, an expert on exams and testing from the Institute of Education, has suggested that GCSE students (14-16 years old) are being taught in a mechanical, parrot fashion way just that material that will help them pass the test and maintain the position of the school in the league tables. He suggests that pupils should be taught to think and critically analyse just as much as they are loaded up with acquired knowledge. I agree with this is the sense that league tables should be scrapped. If a school is failing miserably then the government, which has access to the figures in private, could step in.

Professor Guy Claxton from the University of Bristol goes one step further. He suggests that 'everyone knows that the kind of performance required is about accurate retention and regurgitation. But the demand for those skills is now pretty low in the marketplace.' He suggests children should be taught how to use their initiative and ask 'good questions', skills which will be more useful to employers.

There are two issues here. The first is whether school should act to prepare children for work. If we are to mentally fatten children up for the marketplace like this then why not do it properly; teach them how to use powerpoint, how to fill in expenses claim forms, how to handle factory floor banter and how to stay awake on the production line. It is the birthright of every person to spend their formative years learning about themselves and the wider world around them. They need space to breathe and grow. They should not be prepared to be an employee.

Now the second issue. Critical analysis skills are important and so is initiative but knowledge and experience come first. In science we spend many years learning to speak the language before we attempt to debate with the native speakers. Many years spent learning all the key principles of Physics have not been to waste. Later in my undergraduate and doctoral years I have learned to critically evaluate the scientific literature and to judge whether an experiment presents a fair and accurate test or not. Only the latter was taught to me at GCSE level (in a very dilute form) and the former would have been beyond my reach.

I feel that the same must be true of other subjects. How can a history student write an essay on the role of women in the second world war without first learning all the important facts about that conflict? The best history lessons at school were the ones where I was told a fascinating story and we later went on to look at all the sources of evidence to support or refute that story. The worst lessons were where studied the theories of primary, secondary and tertiary evidence and then applied these to some small corner of history without a feeling for the events and the time.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Religion

A woman from the ancient pre-Islamic Yazidi sect in Iraq was stoned to death because she wanted to convert to Islam. Footage of the stoning emerged and the result was that three trucks full of explosives and one full of petrol were driven into the centre of the Yazidi settlement and detonated, killing hundreds. Acts like this reinforce my belief that religion is the major force for evil in the world today and throughout human history. I don't understand those who think that mass murder will make their god happy. People use religion as an excuse to treat others badly. All this is done in the name of a supernatural being that they believe to exist. I'll finish with a quote from Bertrand Russell

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

A-Level Pass Rate

Once again the A-Level pre-University exam pass rate has gone up. It is really difficult for Universities to distinguish students. A warden from the University of Oxford made an interesting point on the radio this morning. The universities want to know which students are the best so they prefer it if the students are graded relative to one another; the top 10% get an A for example. The schools want to be fair to the students and give them an absolute mark that isn't based on how well they fared against others ; they might be in a year of kids who are smarter than in an average year. The Oxford warden suggested this; give the kids a percentage mark. This way they can be both compared against other students and they also get a grading based purely on how well they did. Good idea. Problems might arise when kids miss out on a place by 1%. There might be a deluge of appeals for remarking of papers. But it has to be better than the current system of choosing between 100 kids, all with the same grade B or whatever.

The next problem to fix will be the creeping up of grades, year on year. Are the students getting smarter? Are teaching methods and schools improving each year? Unlikely. A sure way to test if the papers are getting easier would be to take a representative sample of the kids from this year and make them sit a paper from 5 years ago. Of course, it should be easy to look at a paper and see if the questions are easier than a few years ago. When I was at University I looked at past papers and the older papers always seemed to be harder. Older papers seemed to set really challenging problems that tested not just knowledge but understanding too. The more recent papers seemed to be an act of guided regurgitation.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

India and Pakistan

Why is everyone in the UK media making such a fuss of the 60th anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan? I don't remember the more prestigious 50th anniversary celebrations receiving this much coverage. I hope that the fact that India is now considered a 'superpower' hasn't got anything to do with it. Sucking up to a country when they get rich is bad enough but to then point out in every media report how many severely poor people in India aren't getting a share of that new wealth amounts to jealous sniping.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

A64 Motorway safety

The A64 motorway that encircles the city of York is notoriously dangerous. It is a dual carriageway with a 60 mph speed limit, many short exit entry slips roads and it is used by extremely slow moving agricultural traffic. Despite this a third of the traffic on the road travels at speeds of 80 mph and over. The mix of two lanes and traffic moving at many different speeds is a recipe for disaster. A similar two lane road near Cambridge was put under continual speed camera surveillance and the calming effect on the traffic is amazing (even though it feels like being on prozac).

The exit off the A64 I use is terrible. There are two lanes on the slip road, one to go into York and one to go away. Queues into York form at peak times and the left slip road backs up onto the motorway. Naturally, drivers use the right lane to jump the queue which backs the traffic up even more. I asked North Yorkshire police why they don't enforce the lane discipline more and I got this response;

Many thanks for your enquiry re the roundabouts at Fulfrod
I can understand your frustration at motorists using the free flow lane to shorten their wait but there is no offence in undertaking this manoeuvre however annoying it maybe.
Unfortunately it is not possible to use the stinger under these circumstances.
We are in conversation with the Highways Agency and the City of York Council over the queuing of traffic on the A64 off slip road and they are monitoring the situation at the moment to see what if any action can be taken for a long term solution.
Thank you for your enquiry
regards
Martin hemenway

Monday, August 06, 2007

Endings

I just finished the final Harry Potter book. I won't spoil the ending but the book is a great read, the ending is well executed and I'm very happy with the way Rowling has finished off my decade of reading.

I have also got round to reading the final book in the Hitchikers guide to the galaxy series of five books. I enjoyed the book but it is a very dour way to end the series and a lot of the characters from the first four books do not feature and are brushed aside. Douglas Adams admitted that he wrote the book during a bad year for him and it shows. If he hadn't died suddenly I'm sure he would have rounded his story off a bit better with another volume.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Health and Safety

The largest free music festival in Europe has been cancelled on health and safety grounds. The event, centered around the Beatles weekend in Liverpool has been run ever since 1993 and has been growing in popularity. The council have decided to ban all of the outdoor events because the large amount of building work in the city might be dangerous. There have been construction sites in Liverpool for a few years now and no one has ever been hurt at the Matthews Street festival. Might I suggest that the council is trying to save money by cancelling the event. Road closures, extra policing and litter collection are all expensive for such a large event and the council should just be honest and say it does not want to foot the bill.

In a related story kids in Bournemouth are not allowed to borrow arm bands when using swimming pools. The official line is that germs will be spread as people inflate them. As one parent said 'they would rather let the kids drown than have them catch a cold.' Methinks the real reason is cost. They don't want to have to buy spare armbands for people who forget theirs and they don't want to be sued if a kid drowns because of faulty armbands that they have supplied.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Targets in Academia

Target driven culture has had negative effects in hospitals, schools, with the police force and most other places. Physics academics are primarily measured by the number of papers they publish and how prestigious the journals in which their articles appear are. One way to play the system is to publish the same piece of work several times. I have seen some research groups take the results of the same research project and publish them with slight differences a year apart. Or even the same work published in two journals at the same time; one short article in a better journal and another lengthier explanatory article in a lesser journal. Surely this does not aid scientific communication and wastes the time of everyone involved?