popular science and the human ego

a avid collector and reader of old science books i tweeted both professor brian cox and professor jim al khalili both physicists turned because by their own wishes into TV pundits about the similarity of their broadcasts and themes to the radio and book popular science of the early 20th century physicist sir james jeans

neither replied even through they do to other tweets what the @!
but both must sadly believe themselves TV media superheroes and educators of the psionic massses
and try to act hip and wicked and tweet to people who ask about GCSE course work or comment on the latest music

ie as on 29/02/2012 Jim al tweeting thanking people for comments about how they enjoyed his programme and Prof B plugging the dimberley lecture by sir paul nurse pallo being the cell biologist who believes that scientists should speak out on public affairs and challenge politicians who support pseudoscience - suppose he does mention cell biology occasionly if only to keep his hand

Prof B of course does tend to "go above the heel"a lot full of outraged hip/ wicked criticism about mystical drivel

i also mentioned to Prof B and Jim Al that i had read and liked their books even reviewing them both on my blog and on amazon plus added link to my poem breaker of the sky this is in praise of the universe that is unreached but realised

perhaps still reading a early 20th physicist i seem fuddy duddy to Prof B has he even read Jeans or are old science books to be treated like old wet sauropod dinosaur books
pity neither Prof B or Jim Al could give me an opinion on jean's tidal hypothesis theory

no wonder the only poetry i wrote about todays science as a university subject is "a million places of lonely science"

or as Sir james Jeans says and Prof B and Jim al should realise
"Science should leave off making pronouncements: the river of knowledge has too often turned back on itself"

no ghosts here -be very afraid

i created this poem when i last read a ghost book it has been one of my most popular but plays up to the legend and romance of ghosts rather than the eventual scientific reality of a weak shadow existence after death
http://youtu.be/j8na_URrDtA


read virago book of ghost stories mix of victorian lost loves, terrible memories and haunting of the living and the dead only good story roaring tower by stella gibbons

ghostly adventures a guide to most haunted hotspots in america more lost loves, terrible memories and microseconds hauntings the true life ghost story feeds the fiction and vice versa

star trek vanguard what judgement comes seventh in a series of eight set in the original series unioverse thin plot with tholians and klingons thrown in because they are so familiar predicable and set mainly as a spy story on a docked orion starship lots of these canon quickies about but little real interesting and origianl sci fi beyond the multi volume wearisome werefinder trilogies set in the kingdom of as is asgard or long out for the count future sub magicals
elixir a history of water anf humankind by brian fagan a history of ritual water, irrigayion management and hydro engineering from sumer to the nile and from chimu to maya and on to china and las vegas

flag of nowhere in america

i had dreamt about the future namely the state of the USA by 2100 no longer the united super power but mainly a culture rather than a national consensus with the flag we recognise now changed but still flying with no stars and stripes neither terran empire nor folksy apocalypse in the future how the world ends up without the idea or existence of separate countries by 2079 i do not know - just an idea we grow out of!

read the force unleashed II more of a game plot than a novel with the all the game piece charactors the stormtroopers and battle droids , clones and star destoyers, lord vader and rebel scum

a series of fight scenarios and diferent levels of print based capture nad rescue scenarios around the same as before tale of lord vaders dark apprentice starkiller only in this case a good for the force clone only thing missing jar jar binks leading a crack legion of jawas and ewoks deep behind imperial lines but expect that is still awating publication good for game level in that you can kill jar jar binks again and again because he is only a clone well thats my excuse anyway

Beside the Seaside: A Celebration of the Place We Like to Be by jane struthers a tyical wikpedia of a book with short text piecwes on everything form identifying palnts that grown on sand dunes to how to make lemonade and onto smugglers ballads and legend of the finfolk strangely good

The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember yet enough internet bad in places book

yet anothert diatribe against googlefacetwitterflickr

this has one theory that the internet with its clicking on hyperlinks is thr technology of forgetfullness gives carr a chance to talk about his 1986 mac plus with 1mb of memory and recall the pleasures of using hypercard !

reading this got my all full of fond memories of CP/M and osborne 2 first computer in 1986 the luddite! but tended to distract from what Carr was saying which was the psychology of the hyberlink and learning process changing to adapt to it

the first blitz by neil hanson the secet german plan to raze london to the ground in 1918 yet another book on the german air raids 1915-1918 from zeppelins to gothas the actual unrealised plan to firebomb london and paris does not appear until the last chapter

getting back to the stone age a hopeless prediction

good old diamond jubilee where are the steampunk alternative histories of robot lizzy ? if we truly trace our dynasts back to the saxon kingdoms why not hoist their flags and give them a salute

read the inheritors by wilaim golding far better than any eargs chidren or ug the caveman romance the Neanderthals are credible if sad characters and their basic beliefs and thinking processes depicted well

Spies and Commissars: Bolshevik Russia and the West by robert service careful what i say as do not want to get in another orlando figes - robert service legal action over a book review

Russia 1917-1924 billed as the last untold story of the century but i had read a book on the exaclty same theme less than six months ago

from reily ace of spies to arthur ransome loving the soviet from john reed to joseph stalin some good comtent and a mass of detail of revolution, mutiny and political congresses carrying on despite wars and famine

never in a milion years a history of hopless predictions a easy read book that takes most of its content from my favourite websites paleofuture and blog modern mechanic now we laugh at 1960s predictions of 2012 mars bases personal help rockets and homes powered by atomic power the websites did this much better- try googling them

my prediction for 2091 the year will see the first successful transference of human consciousness into a state of non corporeal pure energy but don't quote me on it

mammoth book of paranormal romance 2 mass of crude novellas shows that if you fall in love with a vampire werewolf who is also a demon you just tick the same old boxes

ghosts and drummers

read the nazi seance by arthur magida the story of a jewish psychic in hitlers court ,vivid investigation of a world about to be destroyed i
t told the story of a austrian stage magician fortune teller who associated himself with a rising political party the nazis in the 1920s and eventually paid a terrible price not long after they came to power

the curious case of the clockwork man by mark hodder an alternative steam punk adventure of
buton and swinburne mark hodder demonstrates more wit , imagination and outright humour in this one book than i have read in 100 other steampunk novels involving time travelling president rasputin, medieval ghosts swearing parrot telegraphs, rotorships and the tichborne claimant set in a realistic plotted alternative london in the days of king albert a good read for all of its 461 pages

the tin drum gunther grass the great novel of interwar germany returned out to be quite good and told the story of the perenial three year old oscar and his tin drum observing germany fall and fall
the english ghost peter ackroyd pleasing fireside book of the english ghost

up the Republic

with the queens diamond jubilee everyone

getting excited God bless her everyone

Even through no monarch has had a legitimate claim to the english throne since the deposition and murder of king Richard II in 1399 /1400 and that this dynasty of colburg stems from its protestant foundation and even futher back to the battle won accession of Henry VII who claimed right to the throne through his mothers cat being a descendant of the pet cat of edward III's fourth son

often thought about the british republic would life be any different ?

here are the main ideas

the tricolour flag above

an elected President head of state from the field of performing arts

A senate made up of volunteers who serve for 4 years and who deal with social and environment issues and if any business leader is elected to the senate they must give up all their business dealings

the parliament is elected by PR and all MPs who serve a maximum of two four years terms monitored for signs of corruption

the national motto is The Nation is the People The Nation is the Law

this replaces the current motto "for God and my Right "

i have written my own jubilee poem to celebrate