1. New Simonyi Chair appointed

Comment #273659 by RussC on October 29, 2008 at 4:35 am

I think this is an interesting choice. I didn't see it coming even though I am well aware of him through various TV appearances. I think he's managed to make maths interesting in his TV work. The Christmas Lectures are definitely worth watching in my opinion, even more so than the recent "History of Maths".

I think Marcus du Sautoy may just turn out to be a very good choice. Good luck to him

2. Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess

Comment #260774 by RussC on October 6, 2008 at 3:14 am

Vaal wrote

I suppose if you can't pay it, it will be because of your "sin"?

Just what I was thinking. It's the ultimate "get out of jail free" card. 'You didn't get what you wanted? It's because you didn't pray hard enough'...or didn't give enough money to the church

3. Pullman defiant over US protests against Northern Lights

Comment #257031 by RussC on September 30, 2008 at 1:02 am

"Religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good," he said.

Nicely put Mr. Pullman. A new quotation for me to use.

It never ceases to amaze me that objectors don't seem to see that their protests give publicity to the very thing they wish would go away.

4. 'Big Bang' experiment starts well

Comment #245212 by RussC on September 10, 2008 at 12:19 pm

From the stuff I've read, and also heard on BBC radio, the progress today has been much better than expected. They were planning to send the beam in one direction only, but actually sent them both ways. I guess they were being cautious with all the media attention.

There's been a lot of coverage of the LHC. Sadly, a lot of stories have still been of the ill informed "will this machine destroy the earth" variety, but not all.

Can't wait for the first discoveries from the LHC.

5. Bettany and Connelly to Star in Creation

Comment #243197 by RussC on September 5, 2008 at 9:23 am

I hope this film does justice to Darwin's work. If so it'll be a good film so I look forward to it in the hope that it does. Agree with Dhamma though that it is an awful title.

Damn! William Kaiser beat me to the Ben Stein gag. It had to be done didn't it?

Russ

6. Large Hadron Collider readies for world's biggest experiment

Comment #243192 by RussC on September 5, 2008 at 9:16 am

Comment #243172 by sheepscarer

See the BBC4's 'The Big Bang Machine' - a great documentary with Prof Cox looking like a young rock star rather than the geeky wild-haired physicist usually portrayed

To be fair Sheepscarer he is, or ar least was, a young rock star. Brian Cox used to be the keyboard player with D:Ream (a reasonably successful UK dance/pop act for anyone who hasn't heard of them). He was actually touring with them whilst doing his PHD! Very impressive.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the LHC finds out about the universe. Maybe by the time they find something I'll actually have made it to the end of Roger Penrose's book "The Road to Reality". Whether I'll have understood much of it is another thing though.

7. The Return of Religion

Comment #212296 by RussC on July 17, 2008 at 1:35 am

First a quick ad Hominem
Scruton = alt. spelling of scrotum as in 'bollocks'??

Shonny - more accurately, a scrotum is a container for bollocks...sums Roger S up pretty well I think.

8. 'Condoms won't change HIV rates'

Comment #212280 by RussC on July 17, 2008 at 1:05 am

Guys, and Gals, this is REALLY Big:

3. Comment #212080 by SPS on July 16, 2008 at 3:14 pm
On a related note:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715165520.htm

Totally agree chuckgoecke, much more interesting than the ramblings of some religious apologist.

SPS, that article is a great find. Looks like science may be on the path to an HIV vaccine. Just a shame the words "Holy Grail" appear in the article, but that's a standard lazy writer thing I guess :-)

Everyone should visit the link in comment #3

Russ

9. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #192389 by RussC on June 13, 2008 at 12:29 am

Excellent article, and two new books to read (Pennock's and Miller's).

I particularly like the gift from leading ID proponent Phillip Johnson in the form of the quote in the article. I can see me using this a lot:

"If nature is all there is, and matter had to do its own creating, then there is every reason to believe that the Darwinian model is the best model we will ever have of how the job might have been done."

10. In God's Name

Comment #182770 by RussC on May 21, 2008 at 12:42 am

AdrianB

I wonder if the Orthodox Jewish community have deliberately raised their breeding rate, maybe even sub-conciously - "come on everyone, we're slipping behind the other religions, time to catch up".

As a Brit, the whole programme is tough to watch. I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the number of faith heads that are becoming MPs and even Prime Ministers. And we don't have a constitution to keep church and state separate.

Russ