The Filter^

European Scientists in America

The Library of Economics and Liberty is a wonderful organisation; it's website provides topical commentray as well as links to treasured texts of the past. As a publishing source, it contributes greatly to my personal library.
Recently, a debate about the exodus of European Scientists to America has emerged, and I've thrown my hat into the ring.
I'll direct you to the posts here and you can see for yourselves.
It is indeed an important indictment of current UK higher education that there are less than 10 English-born students, studying post-graduate courses in economics, in the UK at the moment. (I'm afraid I can't provide a source, but it sounds about right).....

Anyway, follow the link and see me described as "a hypocrite and a simpleton...a person of very limited understanding and questionable powers of reason"

(Chuckle)

In Our Time

Meet the Minibosses, a four-piece from Phoenix, playing only music of games on the original NES. From Wired:

...the Minibosses contemplate the set list for LA. Taped to the wall, it reads like a kid's Christmas list circa 1988: "Rygar," "Mega-Man II," "Kraid," "Punch-Out." Brackets indicate a medley, "Castlevania II" flowing into "Contra." Wood, the drummer, makes them run through "Rygar" again so he can work on his timing.

Cool! When are their rivals going to emerge, playing only Sega Megadrive tunes? Would love to hear Street of Rage played live!

Improbable Research

As reported in the Guardian's educational suppliment, there has been a recent surge in research into "Designing and Testing an Improved Packaging for Large Hollow Chocolate Bunnies". Obviously this is a field of similar importance to the recently abandoned proposals for new research into brain diseases through primate testing at Cambridge, and should be considered by all those who cynically dismiss the importance of higher education.

A recently reviewed paper describes the problem:

"To test the properties required for the packaging of hollow chocolate easter bunnies to resist any hazards in the distribution environment"

Such as attack from hollow chocolate foxes one presumes. It's comforting to know that such research is tackling real problems, and not mearly satisfying the wims of the dreaming spires brigade. You want more evidence of the importance of higher education funding?

"PM Vilela at Pontificia Univeridad Catolica del Peru published a corker three years ago...Viscoelasticity:Why Plastic Bags Give Way When You Are Half Way Home"

For more improbable research, click here

Hutton and Bayes

Tony Blair has been absolved from wrong-doing by Lord Hutton, and people are acting in a predictable way; Tony Blair using the inquiry as an absolute resolution to the issue:

The report itself is an extraordinary thorough, detailed and clear document. It leaves no room for doubts or interpretation. We accept it in full.

and Charles Kennedy dismissing Hutton's words lest they obscure his prior prejudice:

The remit of Hutton, was quite correctly, restricted to the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's death. But the report leaves big questions unanswered, because inevitably they were not addressed.

I thought I'd interpret the findings in a way suggested by Bryan Caplan: Bayes Rule. This probability equation shows how belief is ammended with new information.

Lets say I gave a prior probability that Tony Blair misled MPs over the leaking of Gilligan at 80%. (You can use your own figures...) This implies that I hold the honesty of Blair at just 20%.(!)

Since the Hutton report appears to be well-researched, and a very reliable source, the probability that Lord Hutton found the evidence to absolve Blair, whilst in actual fact Blair had misled is only 30%. I'll also say that the probability of the Hutton findings producing the results they have, given that Blair did not mislead was 70%.

With these figures, we can work out the probability of the Hutton findings, given our prior belief that Blair was wrongdoing.

It is (0.3*0.8) / [(0.3*0.8)+(0.7*0.2)]
=63%

In short, the confidence in the Hutton report has drastically reduced my opinion that Blair misled MPs (from 80% to 63%), yet I still think he did.

In the approximate words of JM Keynes ~ "when the facts change, I change my mind"

Here is Lord Hutton's Report

Spending £9,000 is easy

Stephen Moss today, in the Guardian, on the merits of university education:

Was my degree - in modern history - worth £9,000?...I went to at least three lectures - £3,000 a shot?...I got a superficial knowledge of a thousand years of British history (minus the 14th and 15th centuries, which seemed to be excluded from all known courses). But while mildly engaging, I fear it was all rather pointless....Humanities students don't really need to go to university, and if the government wins the day over tuition fees I hope most will save their money...

While I share Moss's general conclusion, that university education, especially for specialists in Humanities, can be "engaging, [but] rather pointless", and people who are interested in the "acquisition of knowledge" do not necessarily need to go through the university system, I fear that his lazy journalism is rather annoying.

Three points:

i. His obsession with 14th & 15th century history courses: a quick Google reveals that dozens of UK universities are offering undergrad modules on the history of the 14th and 15th centuries;

ii. It's easy to assert that "Mastermind always used to be won by cabbies, postmen and railway workers." A quick glance at Quiz Players shows that Moss's assertion is an under-researched myth.

iii. "The University of Life is free" - well this is quite incorrect. It is not easy to get hold of specialist books from the public library system, but they can usually, even if only as short one-day loans, obtainable from any decent university. Therefore, it actually makes the "University of Life" rather expensive, in two ways, (a) the costs of gathering a good and well-rounded reading list are extremely high; (b) the actual books themselves are expensive!

Bill Gates Knighted

What links:

Steven Spielberg, George Bush Snr, former French President Mitterrand and now Bill Gates?

They're all Knight Commanders of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

As foreign citizens they are not entitled to the prefix 'Sir', and must make do with the suffix 'KBE'.
Also, they are not dubbed by the Queen; the ceremony where she rests a sword on each shoulder.

'Dubbing' foreign citizens? - clearly that's the Duke of Edinburgh's job! (scroll down to the bottom).

Note: to some British jesters, 'dub' is a slang term for insult

White Boots

No matter what level of football you play, there'll always be at least one flash git wearing coloured boots. Personally, I think they just make themselves an easy target for a kicking, but there are other theories....

Perhaps this 'badge of honour' system needs to be regulated - here's a fun article discussing the problem.

Thanks to Colin Prout.

Garth Marenghi

Greetings, pilgrim. I am Garth Marenghi, sculptor of nightmares. I hope you are sitting un-comfortably at your pc / laptop. Congrats: you have unearthed the official website of my imaginata. As many of my readership can attest, I invented the internet back in 1976 with my short story 'Mindgrid'. Many of my predictions, alas, have since borne sorry fruit, and I, too, have spent many troubled hours distracted by erotica.

Garth Marenghi is Romford's most famous literary son, and the plougher of a deep furrow in gore- horror fiction. Author of Slicer, Afterbirth (tag-line: After birth comes, Afterbirth) and the awsome Crab!! (Quote: "No way on God's green land can a crab be bigger than a Renault Estate! Can it!"), Marenghi is perhaps the only author of whom The Independant has said "Rats learn to drive in this book".

You may recognise Marenghi AKA Matthew Holness as Simon, the obstinate computer nerd in BBC's the Office.

View the carnage yourself here

Two Tales from Liverpool

i. Today's front page of the Daily Post :

The Daily Post has talked to the family of at least one terminally ill Merseysider who plans to follow the example of motor neurone disease sufferer Reg Crew, who was helped to die last year. (My italics)

Another thoroughly researched article, then...

ii. A popular sandwich shop in Liverpool, Philpotts, had to remove one of their soups of the day on Friday, because their customers were worried about the threat of bird flu. Guess what the soup was - "Thai chicken"...

Both True stories from Liverpool!

'The Office' wins 2 Golden Globes

Having just watched Ricky Gervais accept two Golden Globe awards, now is an apt occasion to quote Christopher Guest:

English humour is silliness framed in intelligence. Even when it's stupid, you know intelligent people are doing it, and that makes it a different joke.

Most surreal as the camera panned round the audience to reveal Cruise, Pacino, Eastwood, Gervais....