I'm not going to make New Year's resolutions this year. I've spent today watching TED videos while making food / washing up (okay, and procrastinating). Inspired by this video (also below) by Matt Cutts, I'm going to make 12 resolutions, and do one small thing consistently for a month. I'm not sure what they all are yet, but that's the beauty of it - sometimes I stop following a resolution because it doesn't fit into my lifestyle at that point. Sometimes I stop following a resolution because I have too much stuff to do. Hopefully, this way, I will stick to them at least for that month, and they may continue to be part of my routine.
Here's the video. Watch it (or listen), while washing up or brushing your teeth or whatever. It's interesting.
( Collapse ) Resolutions which are not yet provisionally assigned to a month:
Use Twitter. I know, it sounds a bit odd given lots of people resolve to use social media less. But there are a lot of science bloggers / open science activists / science communication people on Twitter, and I am interested in these things and think it would be useful, and more sustainable than trying to blog on these things myself.
Maybe to make lunch to take with me to lectures everyday, or something like that, related to healthy eating and the need to get into some sort of routine.
I don't know. Er. Suggestions, anyone?
I'm also going to start trying to fix my attitude to food, but that is for another post.
This site explains it all far better than I can, but here's the gist of it:
Simon Singh wrote an article in the Guardian expressing doubt that chiropractic treatment could help childhood diseases such as asthma and colic, as claimed by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA).
The BCA announced they were suing for libel.
The Guardian offered to settle out of court, offering a printed apology and giving the BCA a chance to publish an article of their own explaining their evidence.
The BCA refused, and made it clear they were not suing the paper, but Singh himself.
The case went to the Royal Courts of Justice, where, at a preliminary hearing, it was ruled that the article had been 'fact', not 'comment', despite being published in the Guardian's Comment pages.
The judge also ruled that it accused the BCA of deliberate dishonesty, while the author believes that he did not suggest this.
The problem with British libel laws is that the burden of proof lies with the accused; that is, Simon Singh has to prove that he did not mean this, rather than the BCA having to prove that he did. He is effectively guilty until proven innocent.
British libel laws are open to abuse because of this - the offending piece does not have to have been written in this country for the case to be brought to court here, so long as the offended party can prove they have some standing here that may be damaged by it. On top of this, it is 140 times more expensive to fight a libel case in the UK than the average in Europe.
Although the British libel system is undoubtedly a mess, that's not the real issue here. What I find hard to believe is that the BCA believe that it's perfectly alright to sue for libel rather than simply providing evidence to prove that article wrong. It goes against the fundamental nature of science - that statements are based on empirical results, not just what you feel like saying. Libel laws aren't appropriate to use in scientific cases that should rest on evidence. Keep them out of science!
Click below to sign the campaign statement and show your support.
Update on previous post: I'm not going for the placement at Imperial, but I have started looking for summer work experience in Yorkshire. I really hope that Dan gets the York uni placement he's looking at, and I find work up there for a bit too. It would be awesome :D
I really, really ought to be doing work. I finished the Materials questions, but that's nothing. I've done, quite scrappily and badly, a few QB Tripos questions, but they're just so boring.
Do you ever make random spur-of-the-moment decisions, and then stick to them? Because I keep doing that recently. I was so fed up of not being able to do anything interesting with my hair that I decided to grow it, and so far I'm sticking with that. I decided I want to learn French (because I'd like to be able to cope in Switzerland and actually understand what's going on around me), and I went and looked up courses earlier. They start in Michaelmas, so I'll sign up next year, but still. And I sort-of decided I want a new LJ, and that keeps coming back to me too. Bits of this one just keep getting on my nerves. That sounds weird, but eh, never mind.
Think I'll now go check Gaia threads, and then go back to work.
Oh! I bought a dress. For the may ball I'm going to. It's long, blue, and I really like it although it doesn't quite fit right yet. I'm gonna take pictures later.
I did very little work today. But I've decided to give up on Kinetics now. I ought to get a supervisor for it next term, and he or she will probably appreciate being able to set some questions. So, Materials tomorrow, and then I'll research what Tripos past papers are available for me to practice on... oh joy!
Spent this afternoon at Debbie's, with her and Holly, and we made brownies. They were yummy, and I need to copy the recipe out some time.
I am in a cooking-mood at the moment. Tomorrow I'm going to make risotto for lunch for me, my dad and my brother - because I have stuff to use up, and because I can.
I'm uploading Geneva photos now, so will post a selection soon. In a new post, so those of you who have me on Facebook don't get bothered by two sets XD
Oh, in other news I may apply for a summer placement at Imperial. But that may mess up my plans of house-sitting and awesome parties, so I don't know. We'll see. I do want something over the summer, any kind of lab related work experience would do.
...aaand I have about ten links saved that I found when reading back through my f'list earlier. Must remember to look at those.
Geneva was awesome fun. The city is gorgeous, and the weather was fantastic. Photos will be coming within the next coupla days, once I get my act together and upload them.
Let's see... I did a lot of sleeping and lazing around, and watched several films (Memento, Little Miss Sunshine, Dogma, The Girl Next Door). Ate lots of bread and cheese and biscuits. Oooh, and also we went to this rather posh restaurant that Dan's mother recommended - the meal for the two of us cost almost 100 Swiss francs! It was so good though. Worth it, I think. The other place we went out to eat was completely the opposite - an Eritrean restaurant where the food comes on a plate to share and you eat by tearing off bits of pancake, picking up stew or lentils with it, and eating with your hands. It was also very good food. Oh, and we found possibly the second-best ice cream shop I've ever been to! Fantastic raspberry sorbet, and really good cinnamon ice cream, too - those two really stood out.
...this sounds like I'm obsessed with food, doesn't it? XD Okay, true, me and Dan are both complete foodies, but that isn't all we did.
We also climbed the towers of the cathedral, and visited the giant (I mean seriously giant) fountain in the lake, and the Botanic Gardens, which have a History of Science Museum in them. The museum was pretty cool - Dan got quite geeky over some of the stuff there. Ohh, and went to France (just about) to this market which sold lots of yummy food. Damn, back on the topic of food...
Dan's family are lovely, too. Except for his brother, who's a bit of a pain - but he's seventeen, it's to be expected!
I like Geneva. I want to go back there - it was lovely and sunny, and I could see mountains, and the company was wonderful, of course. Ah well. In the summer, maybe.
Now, I ought to be working. Going to go round to Debbie's, meet up with Holly too, and bake tomorrow though!
Oh, and I don't know who might be interested, but I finally started reading the book I bought myself with my prize book vouchers - The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. Aside from being edited by Richard Dawkins, who seems to take every opportunity to advertise his own books while introducing extracts from other people's, it's rather good. I've not yet finished the first section - 'What Scientists Study' - but so far, although it seems a bit biology-heavy (and this is coming from a biologist), it has a good balance of the sciences and structure. This section started with astrophysics, had quite a lot of extracts relating to evolution, and has now moved on to psychology - very interesting.
I wonder if the Beautiful South have any songs that are about happy relationships? I remembered that I like them the other day, and I'm now searching YouTube for the songs my mother used to play when I was little. And realising they're all rather depressing! Not really what I want right now.
Sooo, tomorrow morning I get up at 6am (or earlier), leave the house at 6.30am, and go with my dad to Heathrow Airport. Get a bus to Luton, hopefully arrive on time at 9.35am, sit around there for a while... my flight doesn't leave until 1.45 pm! Luckily (?) I have a load of chemistry questions to keep me occupied. As well as some writing, hopefully. And I have a coupla character profiles to work on, although I don't have time to print out what I've done so far... Never mind.
4.30pm (European time) I arrive in Geneva, and see Dan! ^____^ It's been harder than I thought it would be - I guess just the contrast from spending quite so much time with him during term. Tomorrow will be awesome though.
So, I'm away for the next few days. Back on Monday, and will update then, probably with loads of silly and geeky pictures of things like Cromwell's statue... Will backread all your journals then, and catch up! <3
Didn't do as much revision as I'd planned to today. I did, however, do some of the things I was going to do tomorrow. Swings and roundabouts?
I have Swiss money now (it looks like monopoly money, it's so colourful!), and a gift for Dan's parents. Just need to pack, decide what clothes to take, and finish the revision I had planned... ::sigh::
I think I'm spending too much time in the Life Issues forum on Gaia. But I dunno, I quite like to feel like I'm helping people... and then again, some of the stuff in there is hilarious and very very silly XD
Just went to watch the rest of something I had on record and started earlier, and got distracted and watched all of the film Proof as well. Does it sound conceited to say the main character (Katherine, played by Gwenyth Paltrow) reminds me of myself? Only a bit, only in certain senses... there's one scene in particular. I dunno, I could empathise with her self-doubt and indecision at times. Also, I think I'm liable to flip out and be that aggressive if I was challenged over something that important. Clearly, though, I'm not as clever as her! XD
It's a pretty good film. I need to see if I can find it on DVD, because I don't think it's something I'd get tired of watching. You know there are some films that are good, but you can only watch them so many times in a certain time period? This one, I could watch again right now (if it wasn't quite so late), and probably see new things in it, and enjoy it in a different way. I expect I'd get bored eventually, but still.
Weird thing is, bits of it seemed familiar. I think it's probably a product of having seen the trailer and having the plotline explained to me, though.
Completely random: the video below is awesome. And the song's not bad either.
accomplished