chesneycat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7373940.stm

The UK has been left looking like an "unreliable" and "incompetent" partner for international science, according to a committee of MPs.

...

The study pins much of the blame on the head of the main funding body, and says "urgent changes must be made".

...

"We are at a loss to understand how Professor Mason could think that secretive reviews would have anything other than a divisive effect on the community and undermine confidence in any of his future decisions."

They also condemned "lamentable" communications, which had ultimately cost the STFC the "trust of the community".

"We conclude that STFC's communications are inadequate, particularly its internal communications," the report said.

"This raises serious questions about the role and performance of the chief executive, especially his ability to retain the confidence of the scientific community as well as to carry through the necessary changes."

Some suggest this is a thinly-veiled call for Professor Mason's resignation."

Abso-bloody-Word.

I've just had a rather interesting review for this drabble over on the Pit of Voles.

The review goes thusly:
Most of these stories are very believable. This one, chap 79, is not. Hatchlings don't attack those they don't choose unless that person stands in their way while searching for or making their way to their rider. The little queen would lock eyes with the candidate and then, upon not finding what she was looking for, ignore the girl and continue to search for her lifemate. She wouldn't take time to attack the girl. These babies hatch *hungry* and want to find their food provider as quick as possible.

Oh. Dear.

That particular drabble?  Describes the hatching of probably the most famous queen dragon on Pern.

*attempts to smother giggles*

*fails*

Tell it to Anne, dearie.  But you'd better hurry, because the failboat leaves in the next five minutes....

Allow me to draw your attention to the BBC news website's reader's comments section for the UK's earthquake today, in particular this little gem:

EDWARD PALUSINSKI - RUGBY, WARWICKSHIRE
I live in Rugby and the tremor was quite severe. It was about the same as the Dudley quake in 2002 which was 5 on the Richter scale. I cannot understand why Dr Brian Baptie, of the BGS, said: "An earthquake of this size, of magnitude five or thereabouts, will occur roughly every 10 to 20 years in the UK" when the last one was only six years ago.

*sigh*

Sounds like someone thinks that 'roughly every ten to twenty years' is synonymous with 'appears on schedule with a better punctuality than British Rail ever managed'.  Here's a quick clue-by-four. You don't decide what a scientific average is on the basis of two datapoints, not if you're going to use it for anything meaningful.

Anyway, Jez was woken up by the quake as it rattled our freestanding mirror along the bedroom wall. And we're both bloody glad that we had the unsupported chimney-breast supported for the first time in god knows how many years just last month.  If we hadn't... well, there'd probably have been two cases of people pinned beneath fallen stacks.

This kind of stupid-inspired injustice really hacks me off.

TK Diagnostics is my favourite pregnancy/ovulation test e-bay seller, and definitely not today's featured idiot.  They're fantastic, and I'd recommend them to anyone. I was just looking out their details to pass on to someone here in the UK, when I spotted that, bizarrely, they'd had some negative feedback.

Here it is:
    all tests gave a negative result even on a 7month pregnant person

Er, yes.  So?  You're seven months pregnant, dearie, and probably have enough HCG floating around in your urine to sink the Titanic.  What the hell kind of chance does a 10mIU/ml ultra-early test have when faced with that?  Didn't you read the printed literature that they send out with the tests, specifically the bit that points out the high likelihood of false negatives in late pregnancy due to the 'prozone' effect?  Look, I'm sure no-one expects you to understand the science behind it, but surely you can still read.

No? Then let me spell it out in words of one syllable.

If you're up the duff BIG time... They. Don't. Work!

Idiot.

On sunday, we encountered a woman driver who was indisputably full of Fail.  Jez had parked outside the co-op, a couple of feet behind a small-ish estate car.  Plenty of room for the car to be manouevred out, especially since she had another two feet of empty space in front as well.  But, as we closed the car doors, she came running up to us.  Apparently, a space that I could've squeezed out of if it was a quarter of the size was far too small for her.  Could we please drop the car back another half mile or so? She was ever so sorry, but had just popped in to the shop to buy a pint of milk, and didn't think any other road users might just happen to park behind her while she was inside.  Because it's not the busiest local shop in the world or anything...

Oh, we silently obliged, but I'm sure the look on my face told her all she needed to know.   Lady, I know parallel parking can be tricky, but if your driving skills are THAT poor, you should NOT be on the road!  Sheesh, but you're giving your sex a bad name.

Rant number two - debt. I have every sympathy for people who get themselves into debt, but a story on the news this morning pissed me off a little.  They began it by explaining how this woman had suddenly found herself 40K in the red, but oh, she DESERVED our sympathy because it wasn't spent on luxuries, but on bills and mortgage payments which had doubled, and OH WHO COULD HAVE EXPECTED THAT?!

Sorry, but no.  Since when have interest rates always remained the same?  And it's not as if we don't have the memory of rocketing rates and repossessions in the 80s (and to a lesser extent, the 90s), is it?  Seriously, what do you EXPECT is going to happen when your lovely three-year fixed rate mortgage expires, and you end up on whatever the standard rate is today?  Come ON people - it's not rocket science!  Stretching yourself for a mortgage is bad enough if you know you can't really afford it, but displaying a level of willful ignorance that'd put an ostrich to shame...?  Nope, you're getting zero sympathy from this corner.

On a less snarky note, last night I gave a talk to our local astronomy society, and it went down wonderfully.  I'm so chuffed with myself.

EDIT - when I tag my posts with either "idiot of the week" or "rant of the week", surely a snarkfest isn't unexpected?  Oh, internet, you make me weep!

The phone just rang...   M=me, I=idiot on the other end.

I: Hello, can I speak to Joanne?

Really, it's a good thing Jo isn't around to answer, as she's rather picky about her name.

M: I'm sorry, JoannA's in Italy.
I: Oh, what time will she be back?

What am I, everyones secretary?

M: Ah... next week.
I: Okay, I'll ring her at home then.

And you expect an answer from her at home how, exactly?

M: *hangs up, bemused*