This is another archival repost from the old blog — this one from March 2008. Wow, a slow news day, eh? The BBC, shunning predictable Chinese military aggression, another turn of the tides in Iraq, and yet more boring news about the economy, lead with “Brown criticised over embryo bill“. […]
A quick review of this week’s Law In Action on Radio 4, which looked at photography and the law — particularly jobsworth office managers who think it’s their job to harass people, and other police initiatives that lack any credible evidence-base. Read it at cotch dot net.
This is an archival re-post of something written last summer on the old blog. Any Questions, one half of BBC Radio 4’s weekly foray into the realm of mindless US-style talk radio bigotry, this week invited a panel of historians, novelists, and journalists to share their poorly considered thoughts on […]
Christina Odone reviewed Bill Maher’s film Religulous on Radio 4’s Front Row (start: 9m). “He gets some very good replies from some terribly soft targets.” She’s thinking particularly of creationist-sympathising US Senator Mark Pryor (D-AK). She goes on, “… but the most revealing moment is when Maher faces down a […]
I want to take a short diversion from normal service to add to the occasional series “arguments so bad my jaw literally drops.” I have forgotten exactly what radio programme I heard it on, but it was probably one of those vacuous pseudo-intellectual radio four programmes staffed by Daily Mail […]
Academic publishing, and peer review in particular, was headline news in February — from stem cell researchers claiming that their work was being sabotaged by reviewers with conflicts of interest, to mainstream news noticing the absurdity of the impact factor situation. BBC Radio 4 must have decided that now was […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog, originally from september 2008. It’s a right good science fest on Radio 4 at the moment. If you missed it, you must listen to Physics Rocks (available until 17/9). It’s Brian Cox talking to comedians about their enthusiasm for science. It’s […]
Humphrey Lyttelton, 1921 – 2008 Humph tells me he has to leave us now as he’s been invited to a club night by St Peter, and this is something of a climax for him. He’ll drop everything to be taken to heaven by St Michael. He says he can’t wait […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog, this time from jan 2008 Tina Beattie was on Start The Week this morning, talking about the New AtheismTM. I only caught little bits of it, but I’ve managed to find the time to flick through the podcast. You can guess […]
This is another archival repost, from jan 2008 Many people in Britain have been campaigning for a repeal of the blasphemy laws, which have had a bit of bad PR since they were used in an attempt to censor Jerry Springer: The Opera a few years ago, and since we […]
This is an archival repost of something I wrote on the old blog way back in 2004, when I was a first-year genetics undergraduate. I long ago learned to not listed to the Moral Maze. I’ve just been listening to this evening’s Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4. The programme […]