So, I've been doing research - badly and then less badly until occasionally I have done it well-ish - for a while now. I am going to share - intermittently - some thoughts and maunderings about this. First up, the "Miss Triggs problem." There's the amazing cartoon from Punch which I don't think a woman... Continue Reading →
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reshuffled his cabinet and split the business energy and industrial strategy department in two. What does all this mean? Is it window dressing and intra-government manoeuvring or a necessary reset? Marc Hudson investigates. BEIS is dead! Long live the EsNZ! In an announcement on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak, currently the... Continue Reading →
In April the next (and final?) XR event will take place, in London. In January the organisation click-baited a "We Quit" statement (see here for more.) They are claiming they will get 100 thousand people to turn up and... (mill around? sell newspapers to each other? something else?) So, two things. First the numbers. There's... Continue Reading →
I spent the last fifteen months looking at industrial decarbonisation in the UK. A lot of that time was spent interviewing people (civil servants, ex-civil servants, policymakers, trade association types, practitioners). It was a lot of fun (ymmv). One thing that was obvious before, and more obvious during, was that there is the "fun" (ymmv)... Continue Reading →
And none shall be saved, not even those whose job it is to do the saving... Wish I'd read this one as a teenager, alongside "The Catcher in the Rye". Oh well. It's a hell of an achievement - a novella (75 pages or so) following the misadventures and mental decline (from a low baseline)... Continue Reading →
So the old puzzle goes - of Theseus's ship - if you replace the mast twice, the sails thrice and every plank of the hull over time, is it STILL, after all that the "original" Theseus' ship? (and, if it isn't anymore, when did it stop being so?) Then there's Lev Vygotsky, the Russian educational... Continue Reading →
A renewed target - by close of play on Tues 28 February 2023 I will juggle five balls in a basic cascade pattern. I can juggle four balls relatively confidently and I know the drills I need to do. And I have enough discipline to do them... Niels DuinkerInstructional videoTaylor GlennInstructional video1High toss three ball... Continue Reading →
Hi everyone, I encountered this poem, from 1958, in "New Departures" (got it from British Library) The text is this - Nothing less than the solar core is good enough A living cell, a unique specimen described by its discoverers as 'eminently newsworthy,' turned out, upon severe microscopy, to be compact of mud, cities, carbon... Continue Reading →
I do a climate histories site (All Our Yesterdays) and so clearly I believe there is value and wisdom in reflecting actively on what has happened before. Not in a cheerlead-y "weren't we right? Aren't we still right, still great" kind of way (though I suppose you need some of that for morale maintenance?). I... Continue Reading →
Well, back in mid-2019 I wrote this Here's an excerpt January 4th 2023 is a Wednesday. There’s probably going to be a scrutiny committee meeting or two of Manchester City Council on that day. Back-bench councillors will gather to hear presentations from officers and Executive Members, and pick over reports. (In a perfect world Manchester City... Continue Reading →
