Almost fact free science reporting

From the BBC website... yet again. This time it's about left handedness: Scientists at Oxford University have identified a gene LRRTM1 that appears to be linked to left handedness, but there's a hitch according to this article the gene is also linked with schizophrenia. Except for this idea seems at the moment only an idea which hasn't yet been investigated there are too many mays and nothing definite - the article says the risk is only slight, well how slight, 1 in 1 000, 1 in 10 000, a million? and the killer quote for me is.

We don't yet know the precise role of this gene.

If the BBC reported the arts or politics in such a slapdash manner there would be uproar, questions in the House of Commons and general carpeting of the editors but science it doesn't matter as long as they can twist something sensational out of it.

Dressing Up For Adults

All That Glitters Is Not Gold, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

For the first time in ages we have had a weekend off. No decorating, no travelling to see family, no nights tripping the light fantastic in a marquee as the rain lashes down outside. So we took a leisurely bimble into King's Lynn, I think we had a successful trip into town, Si got himself a rather smart man bag for his stuff and will also be useful for the honeymoon and a couple of pairs of summer shoes. I also got shoes, a pair of summer sandals and these beauties above. At their full price £20 they would have been a bit too much to justify but at only £5 I can break them in (ha) around the house and stick them into the dressing up box waiting for just the right occasion to give them an airing!

Air Show

Some pictures.



The chap stood next to me had the most amazing camera set up. I don't think he took any pictures though, just hugged the camera



There wasn't a display by the Red Arrows this year but we did have a Hawk from 100 Sqn to look at.



And vintage bombers too.

Ads I loathe

Normally I'm fairly laid back about the adverts on the telly (cue hollow laughs from the sofa next to me) but right now there is a crop of really annoying crap adverts. They are memorable that's true which is one of the aims of any advert but these fail the biggest test of making me want to buy. Any half decent ad plants the idea into your head, right now Becky is trying to persuade me that we should go to M&S tomorrow to do our weekly shop so that we get the free fairtrade dipping chocolate. Now that's an ad that works we want chocolate we want it now and we want it from M&S however we will not be getting it as we were strong and more importantly Marks and Sparks are closed right now.

No these ads just make me want to never try to the product.

The Kellogg's Bran Flakes advert with all the fake health fads - just eating a bowl of Kellogg's, a bit of fruit and drinking more water is not going to make you healthy: you have to stop eating crap and this ad is shit.

MFI - Arguing, horrible families - why would anyone want to associate themselves with that?

Orange Mobile Phone - Faux naive songs seemingly aimed at morons hate, hate, hate.

Princess Tiaamii.

I actually sort of like Jordon and Peter André, not enough actually make any effort to read about them or buy their record from the other year or watch a programme about them if there was anything better on (better being almost anything from the umpteenth rerun of how they make chocolates on Playaway, a seminal film I'm sure you would agree)


but they seem to make a happy couple and it keeps tabloid journalists happy with the innocent campness of it all.

But... But....

Congratulations on the birth of their daughter and all but what were they thinking with the naming thing? "Princess Tiaamii." It's cruel the poor wee girl is going to get teased from the get go. It's also a form of self aggrandisement by the parents "arn't we special and a cut above the rest by being so original" instead it comes across as being uber chav and stupid. Poor kid at least she can change it when she grows up.

Dwarf Bread

As part of our exciting get slim at a sensible pace regime we have been eating a lot of fruit and vegetables as you would expect but each diet or reducing methodology no matter how sane it claims to be and is in many cases has it's own quirks and favoured products which get frequently mentioned in recipes and "handy tips". So along with the cottage cheese and mullerlight yoghurt we've been trying scan bran



Scan Bran is the dwarf bread of slimming, it is exceptionally dry, tastes like plywood and can sap moisture out of anywhere, I've broken it up to see if it was possible to crumble it or whether that was just an urban myth and I could feel it wicking all the moisture from my finger tips. Our consultant swears by it, "look at so and so she eats lots of scan bran and she's managing to lose weight despite the pork pie habit." But she doesn't claim to eat it herself. It seems to work on the basis of: you're hungry, all you've got is scan bran but by the time you've managed to soften a small corner you've fallen asleep.

The Report

The rain stopped for long enough for us to have a go on the dodgems and for me to win a coconut on the coconut shy. It rained for the fireworks but there were big heavy umbrellas laid on so that we could stand outside and watch. They were magnificent, but I couldn't hold the umbrella and take photos at the same time. I did get some photos of the evening here are the best of them. Words to go are here

I Blame Ian MaCaskill

We're going to a ball tomorrow evening, I'm getting rather excited now, I picked up our tickets today, we are promised champagne, chocolate fountains, bands, cocktail bar and fireworks. Pimms and canapés on the Veranda, that sort of thing. It should be absolutely spiffing except this....



it's going to look like a posh Glastonbury by the dodgems so tomorrow I'm going to be scouring the shops of Lynn for gold lamé wellies.

Possibly The Worst Movie Evah

Film 4 are currently showing The Core - this movie is completely dreadful I can't think of anything nice to say about it and the science in it, oh the science it's not science it's crap - words written by writers who cared so little about what they were doing that they didn't bother find out the facts or they were too lazy or too thick to do the simplest research. For a more detailed run through of its awfulness the Intuitor Insultingly Bad Movie Physics Site have a loving review enjoy: The Core Review.

Actually it would make a great drinking game - take a shot every time a cliché or a basic science error is made. Or perhaps not you'd be slaughtered within the first 5 minutes.

Get Yer Cameras Out For The Awkward Squad

Last year Becca Bland a professional photographer and slightly woolly thinker, decided that 17 July 2006 should be the first non photography day. Her reasoning for having such a day are too muddle headed for me but see here. Shortly after first hearing about this, Becky EnVérité a bolshy amateur photographer, decided that she wasn't standing for that "no one tells me not to take photos" and

OB - Outside Blogging

I'm at my brother's on the patio watching him subdue the bar-b-cue into submission. So far it's Little Brother 1 BBQ 0. Due to the power of the wireless network I'm blogging outside. Which is nice.

Our excuse for visiting was to find a bridesmaid dress for my niece. That happened yesterday, we went into Winchester then Southampton, my niece seems to have inherited my love of glitz and tack -

I Can Do Science Me

Bored? WoW no longer wowing you? run out of quests in Everquest? Second Life constantly crashing? Then why not do a bit of gentle galaxy spotting. There are millions of galaxies out there and still the best technology for identifing them is the human eye and brain in conjunction, more fun than looking at badly composed pictures on flickr and with the potential to give a warm glow of a job well

50,000

It's taken just over two years, but I've finally staggered past 50,000 unique visitors. Yay me and thank you everyone who has visited. I know I shouldn't count but it's fun to have markers.

Kill The Wabbit

Bugger Copyright - I have to agree with the Bad Astronomer - This is brill: What's Up Opera


50 years old this year the inventiveness, the attention to detail, the parody are superb and probably one of the best summaries of Wagner you'll see in 6'52"

Crackle

Just got back from work, an hours' drive normally but today, oh my. A thunderstorm over Wisbech turned the skies to black and the roads to streams. The heavy rain was ok but the it was not much fun driving along in the heavy rain but when it started hailing so hard I couldn't hear the thunderclaps and the viability reduced to a few metres the jollyometer dropped down towards zero and the

Never Trust

Tesco disposable bbq. They are not much cop and the one we used on Saturday evening tainted the meat with the taste of firelighters even though Simon had followed the instructions to the letter. It was inedible we ended up going to the chippy for mixed kebabs - which were freshly cooked to order and very nice.



We were decorating the flat again, this time the walls. Crumbling to the dictates

I Need A Car-Cam

I really must start trying to capture some of the images of my travels across the fens every day. There are some fascinating things out there, take tractors and other things that farmers drive for instance. Being a city slicker who knows her way round Waitrose I did know what tractors looked like. They looked like this.



I never expected the variety of vehicles that I've seen in the fields

Best Satire On Telly

The Thick Of It - It's the best fucking satire on telly, filmed in a pseudo documentary way it's a pure class, our "hero" is a spin doctor who makes Alistair Campbell look like a 1st year at a convent school, trying to ensure that he spins himself safe after the prime minister suddenly resigns. It's classic Armando Iannucci. For you lucky people who haven't seen it yet the two parter is going

In Defence of Catherine Tate

So Catherine Tate is going to reprise her role as Donna the misfortunate bride and join the Doctor in the Tardis. I've no doubt that there are howls of outrage across the blogisphere, outbreaks of misogny and ad hom attacks on Ms Tate going on right now.

However I think that she's got every chance of doing well. So I didn't like her comedy show, I didn't find it very funny although plenty of

test

just testing