Some new words and definitions

I couldn’t resist sharing these new words and definitions. I found out about them in an e-mail from a friend, whom I have acknowledged separately. I think they are brilliant!

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.  Some clever ones here…

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time

Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until
you realize it was your money to start with.

Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn’t get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these
really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s
like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in
the fruit you’re eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words

Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only
a nightgown.

Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

There are other good ones on the web site. Enjoy!

 

The irony of the recent trade union attacks on Labour

I wrote this post last week, but what with recent exam marking and not having a computer with me on my most recent trip, there was no time or opportunity to post it until now. The subject has rather gone off the boil, but it’s still relevant, so here it is.

I suspect the irony of the recent attacks on Labour by some trade union leaders has not been lost on many people. This is especially true given that Ed Miliband’s success in the leadership election owed much to the trade unions, who thought that he would be more sympathetic to their cause! How ridiculous then, that as soon as someone in the shadow cabinet (initially Ed Balls, but later, Ed Miliband himself), said something they disagreed with, they were immediately up in arms.

In the present economic environment, in the aftermath of the banking crisis, and with the world economy looking fragile, any government must exercise fiscal responsibility. Labour would simply have no credibility if a future Labour government didn’t show such responsibility, but some trade unions seem to have a problem with this. The difference between Labour’s approach, and that of the ConDems is simply that we wouldn’t make cutbacks at such a damaging pace that these would slow the pace of any future recovery. And we wouldn’t target those least able to withstand such cutbacks, including the disabled and unemployed, both of whom seem to be current favourite targets of this coalition government. The trade union leaders who think we can just carry on as if nothing had happened are clearly living in a different world to the rest of us. In an interview I heard some of yesterday, Ed Miliband said that it was important for the party to continue its association with the unions, because it keeps us grounded and in touch with working people. Of course this is true, but I sometimes wish that the leaders of some of the trade unions would wake up and smell the coffee, as the expression goes. It might make our alliance a bit easier.

In conclusion, I wanted to mention an excellent piece that appeared on LabourList  last week, written by Andrew Lomas (@andrewlomas on Twitter), entitled ‘Why do we bother?  Anyone who is having any doubts about their support for Labour, or even anyone who doesn’t see what we’re on about, should read this. It contains the following point about the Conservatives, which we would all do well to remember: ‘Conservatism, beneath the gloss, is a defence of privilege: it’s critical to remember this fact and see that every policy concession made on the margins is made solely with that defence in mind.’ All Labour supporters are truly in this together, and whether we are members, practising politicians or trade unionists, we would do well to bear this in mind, and remember what we are up against.

Technological and communications deprivation

I currently have two PhD students funded by AWE. Their projects are not weapons-based, and I am very grateful for the funding, especially at a time when the EPSRC are trying to leave people like myself high and dry. An important part of a research collaboration is, of course, meetings. Not everything can be done by e-mail, chat (e.g. IM, Skype etc) or telephone, and face-to-face discussions are vital. But, here as they say, is the rub. The AWE don’t allow laptops or mobile phones onsite. You can see the rationale in terms of protecting secret information, but it’s rather hard to apply this to our particular projects! Nevertheless, rules are rules.

We have our next meeting on Thursday. I planned the date because I have another meeting tomorrow in London, so I can stay over and travel the comparatively short distance to Reading on Thursday morning. But I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time! It means 2 days, yes, 2 days without a mobile phone or a laptop, which for a connected (OK and internet-addicted) individual like me is almost impossible to contemplate. Internet cafes will have to provide some respite, but they are not my favourite locations. And my diary and contacts are all on my phone …

I should of course say that you can take mobile phones and laptops and leave them at AWE’s reception. But I’m not prepared to do that, as anything is left at the owner’s risk, and it is not a risk I am prepared to take.

Of course I’ll survive, but I do think it is ridiculous that in the 21st Century there are still places that have these restrictions.

But it’s time to stop wingeing and get back to the marking!

 

Authors and books in 2011 (and early 2012)

For me, 2011 was the ‘year of the Kindle’. Having a Kindle led to me reading far more books, and discovering new authors, than in previous years. Also, the link with social networking sites has helped me to discover new authors and their latest creations.

In general, I go for books on crime and espionage, as well as some with a political dimension.Here’s a list and brief discussion of what I’ve read over the last year.

The first book I downloaded was the second in Stieg Larsson‘s Millenium Trilogy,’The Girl Who Played With Fire‘ (having read the first one in paperback form in 2010). I subsequently read the the third book, ‘The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest‘ later in the year, and last week I very much enjoyed the film adaptation of the first book in the trilogy, ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo‘.

I have read and enjoyed Val McDermid‘s books, and I read two in 2011. The first was ‘Trick Of The Dark‘, which is one of her books that doesn’t feature Tony Hill. The second was the latest in the Tony Hill novels, ‘The Retribution‘, which features a former adversary, Jacko Vance. It was gripping and exciting, although as I commented after I read it, I was rather disappointed with the ending.

I read two books by Peter Robinson in 2011. The first ‘Bad Boy‘, involved DCI Alan Banks, and the second, ‘Before The Poison‘, was a stand-alone story about a Hollywood composer who moves back to England, to a house in Yorkshire, and is drawn into the history of the house and its former occupants.

Peter James is another one of my favourite authors, and I read three of his books in 2011. The first was ‘Dead Like You‘, featuring DS Roy Grace, which was followed by ‘Dead Man’s Grip‘, in the same series. ‘Perfect People‘, however, was a stand-alone story that looks into the future and the potential peril associated with ‘designer children’. This was an amazing book, with a totally unexpected twist at the end. I’m looking forward to ‘Say Grace Once Again …‘, the next Roy Grace novel which is due out in 2012.

I’ve been a long devotee of Ruth Rendell, and I enjoyed reading ‘Tigerlily’s Orchids’, and ‘The Vault‘. In the latter, Wexford comes out of retirement to advise in solving a case. I wonder if this will be the last book featuring this very interesting character?

Stephen Booth is another favourite author; I enjoyed reading ‘Lost River‘, and look forward to ‘The Devil’s Edge‘ which has just become available as a Kindle edition.

Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler novels are always good, and the sixth in the series, ‘The Betrayal Of Trust’ carried on this tradition. John Le Carre’s ‘Our Kind Of Traitor‘ showed that this author can still write compelling and absorbing books. Interestingly, 2011 was the year when one of his earlier novels, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy‘ came out as a film (which I enjoyed greatly).

I also tried a couple of Jo Nesbo‘s books, ‘The Leopard‘ and ‘The Snowman‘, mainly because they were highly publicised, but I found them rather hard going. Perhaps I’ll give them another try in the future!

I’ll turn now to the new (i.e. new to me) authors that I came across in 2011, partly through Kindle recommendations, but also through social networking sites. Twitter is particularly good for this, and Facebook is good for keeping up with authors who have pages that you can ‘like’. I”ll just give a list of authors and book titles, as many of these I have mentioned on Twitter/Facebook, and in a couple of cases, reviewed on Amazon.

Adam Blake: ‘The Dead Sea Deception‘

James Craig: ‘London Calling‘, and ‘Never Apologise, Never Explain‘

James Douglas: ‘The Doomsday Testament’

Glen Meade: ‘The Second Messiah‘

Julian Noyce: ‘Tomb Of The Lost‘

Emlyn Rees: ‘Hunted‘

Guy Saville: ‘The Afrika Reich‘

Steven Savile: ‘Silver‘

Simon Toyne: ‘Sanctus‘

All of these are highly recommended! And if like me you travel a lot, and/or are running out of bookshelf space, e-books are the way forward.

Happy reading!

P.S. another outstanding read in 2011 was ‘Grey Wolf’ by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams, which describes a scenario where Hitler escaped to Argentina at the end of WWII, It’s not, as far as I know, available in Kindle format (yet), but I made an exception and bought the hardback! Again, it is strongly recommended.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 58 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

2011: a review

As we enter the last hours of 2011, it’s time to look back over the year and its highs and lows. I spent the beginning of the year at my mother’s house, and I’m pleased to say that she is still doing very well, having celebrated her 91st birthday in August.

As far as work is concerned, my main preoccupations are teaching and research. As you will see from some posts from this year and last year, I have spent a lot of time thinking about my teaching and how well it fits the needs of students in the 21st century. I’ve worried about the relevance and usefulness of lectures, and how to deal with the kind of low level disruption that seems to be pretty commonplace in lectures now. My conclusion, reached after much thought and discussion with others is that lectures still have a place, and that my style of teaching is still fit for purpose. As for dealing with disruption, I’ve tried various approaches, none of which have been very satisfactory. It remains a problem, but not one which I will worry about any more! Ultimately it’s up to the students to sort themselves out, since University lecturers are not trained to be disciplinarians!

Research has been quite successful this year. I attended 2 international conferences, one in Poland and one in France, where various aspects of work from my group were presented, and my PhD students attended a couple of other workshops/conferences thus ensuring our presence there as well. I managed to get two papers from my Brazil collaboration published, and a further two are in varying stages of the refereeing process. I also visited Vienna for a research collaboration, and loved the city! You can find some photos from this visit, and others, on Facebook.

I’ve seen some memorable films this year, including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, The Source Code, and The Adjustment Bureau as well as 11 others, which is good going for me. Having seen the TV adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in the late 1970s, and having read all of Le Carre’s books, I was particularly looking forward to the film, and was not disappointed. It was always going to be a challenge to accept another actor in the role of George Smiley (other than Alec Guinness), but Gary Oldman was convincing, as was Colin Firth as Bill Haydon.

It’s also been a good year for reading fiction. Thanks to having received a Kindle as a Christmas present last year, I have been able to read a lot more, and I have discovered some new authors. My first blog post of 2012 will be all about this!

So, in conclusion, 2011 has had ups and downs, but has broadly been a good year. Some issues remain unresolved, which I hope to deal with in 2012, including keeping some of my research collaborations going (of which more in future posts). But as the year ends, in this pantomime season I think back to an amazing production of Dick Whittington which I saw in January at the Birmingham Hippodrome (with Julian Clary and Joan Collins), and look forward to seeing the film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next week, which I read during 2011.

A very Happy New Year to all!

A penultimate post for 2011

I started this blog at the beginning of 2010, and at the beginning of 2011 I decided to attempt to post weekly throughout the year. I think I’ve been successful in this, although it may depend on how the statistics are calculated! I’ll find out next week. But over the year I have posted on a wide range of topics, from politics, through science communication and teaching to conferences. It’s been fun, but some of the posts might not have happened if I hadn’t made this commitment!

I’m looking forward to Christmas; I still enjoy it, although obviously in a different way from when I was a child. The things I don’t like are the crowds in the shops immediately beforehand, and the virtual shut down of most public transport on the 25th and 26th December. On the first point, I have no problem with commercialisation, but there’s no need for people to leave everything to the last minute! On the second point, having no public transport for two whole days is completely ridiculous. I once arrived in New York on Christmas Day afternoon, and of course, everything was running, and the shops were open. One effect of the shutdown is that when things start up again on the 27th December there are inevitably problems as a result, I experienced this last year, trying to take a train from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester, a journey that normally takes about 40 minutes but which took nearly 2 hours!

Anyway, I’ll be posting my review of 2011 next week. In the meantime, I wish anyone reading this a happy and stress-free Christmas.

Cameron’s European folly: a brief reaction

David Cameron’s decision to effectively exclude the UK from important financial decision making in the European Union shouldn’t have come as a surprise. There was some hope that he might be ‘moderated’ in some way by his coalition partners, who are now falling over each other in a bid to distance themselves from his actions. What is most ridiculous about this whole sorry affair is that, in naively thinking he was defending the City of London as a centre of business, he has actually threatened it. Whoever described the UK as now no longer taken seriously by both the rest of Europe and the USA was absolutely right. The damage done may be irreparable, unless the LibDems actually stand up for their principles. What chance of that?

PhD oral exams: is the system still fit for purpose?

The UK system for PhD examining is very much on my mind at the moment; I chaired a viva at Keele on Friday, and I am external examiner for vivas at Sheffield and Trinity College Dublin (which operates the same system as in the UK) in the near future. In the past, as well as being internal and external examiner for PhD exams in the UK and Ireland, I have been involved in PhD exams in Brazil and South Africa. As a result I have a wide experience of the UK system, but have also seen how some other countries do the same thing but in very different ways.

The traditional system that operates in the UK is to have an external and internal examiner. There can be minor variations where the candidate is a staff member at the institution (sometimes 2 externals are appointed in this case), and at Keele all vivas have an Independent Chair (more of which later), But all of these have in common the basic idea that the candidate is questioned by two examiners, at least one of whom is (hopefully) an expert in the subject of the PhD. Some institutions specify a maximum length for the viva, and some stipulate that there should be a break after a certain time has passed, e.g. 2 hours, but the basic idea is the same.

I have two concerns about this system. The first is that it can be hard to find a suitably qualified external examiner who is willing to put the time into reading the thesis and preparing questions, etc for the viva. OK, if it is exactly in your field, then maybe this isn’t a problem, but if it is only partially related to your research, and isn’t directly what you do on a day to day basis, then preparing for the viva can be both difficult and time-consuming. But I always feel that it is unfair to the candidate if you don’t put the effort in to this (and I am sure most examiners feel this way). After all, the candidate has worked hard to do the research and write the thesis! The problem, as I see it, is that as the time commitments on academic staff increase, particularly in teaching and administration, there may come a time when potential external examiners are hard to find. Basically the system currently runs on good will, and Universities don’t (to my knowledge anyway) explicitly recognise the time their staff spend on PhD examining.

My second concern is the fairness and relative comparability of the system, both within the UK and internationally. When I was an examiner for a PhD in Brazil, I was on a panel of 5, and I know similar systems operate in some other European countries. How can you compare the experience of a student examined in that way with one going through our system? Keele introduced the idea of an Independent Chair to try to ensure vivas were run comparably across the faculties, but in practice I’m not convinced it does anything more than make the process more bureaucratic! More generally, is it time to review our two-examiner system for PhD examining?

I don’t believe that doing nothing is an option. My first concern, which relates to finding suitable examiners, will, I am sure, become a serious issue in the years to come. And the second concern is relevant as our courses become more internationalised, and PhD students may do their research in more than one country.

Comments, as always, are most welcome!

Musical activities

On Saturday I played in a concert with one of my current two orchestras, the South Cheshire Orchestra. It wasn’t the most exciting programme, but there were two pieces that I enjoyed playing, Rossini’s ‘Thieving Magpie’ overture and Borodin’s ‘Steps of Central Asia’. The first of these has some challenging (and very audible) scale passages for the trombone section, and the second, although not particularly challenging, gave me a chance to use my alto trombone for a change! The concert went well, although we had the usual rather small audience.

Next Saturday it’s the turn of the Middlewich Concert Orchestra, where I’m involved in 2 pieces. Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture is a real favourite. He uses the trombones to good effect, and it’s always good to play Mozart (given that he didn’t use trombones in his symphonies or in some of his other operas, e.g. the Marriage of Figaro). The other piece is Brahm’s 2nd symphony. I like all Brahm’s symphonies, and my only slight issue with the second is that we are underused! But when we do play it is interesting, and (hopefully) effective. I’ll be using the alto trombone for both of these, although I recently read a discussion of Brahms’ orchestration which suggested he intended the first part to be played on a tenor trombone. If that was the case, the players involved must have had very good high registers, since the first part is written in the alto clef for a reason. The other factor might have been that the trombones in use then had narrower bores, and therefore required less displacement of air. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes! I’ll no doubt report back on Facebook and Twitter after the concert.