Journey through a Burning Mind

Large Hadron Collider visit

Stavros — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:20:04 +0000

Just a quick word about my visit to CERN over the weekend: not what I expected.

Oh the happiness: the banker who rejected his bonus

Stavros — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:54:43 +0000

If you have not picked up the sarcasm in the title then you may want to look away... As BBC reported Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) boss Stephen Hester rejected his £1m bonus in restricted stock, following very strong political pressure. This sent shivers down the spines of the public, mostly those that are a bit out-of-touch-with-reality and have very superficial understanding of how these things (should) work. Let me use this example to talk generally about the situation with high pay and bonuses in the banking sector.

An exercise in bad reasoning

Stavros — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:49:12 +0000

Yes yes, one of our favorite subjects: magical healing and other fairy stories! From a Telegraph article by a Ms Anna Tyzack entitled: "Complementary medicine - does it work?". Of course we already know the answer for a large number of modalities that fall under the umbrella term "Complementary". This is a just dose of the same old really bad reasoning, which over the years has allowed all sorts of pseudoscience and crank degrees to creep into academia, national health systems, etc.

Catching up…

Stavros — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:09:42 +0000

Yes, it's been a very long time since I last wrote something. This is not because of a lack of interesting (in one way or another) things to write about. On the contrary, there is a lot of interesting things happening in science and technology; a lot of interesting medical work; and, of course, it's stupidity galore as always out there!

Age calculation: you are doing it wrong!

Stavros — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:53:32 +0000

Ken Ham is this very gifted guy, the leader of Answers in Genesis, an organization that promotes open thinking and science-based methodologies. Ken has recently made some fresh, highly intelligent and accurate comments. [/sarcasm]

Snake-oil salesman. Seriously!

Stavros — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:12:59 +0000

I loved this one from the Canadian Dragon's Den. A guy walks in trying to get a $2.5 million investment for 25% of his company (thus valuing his company at $10 million). He got kicked out and rightly so. In fact I think they should have called the police and arrest him for fraud. Because his company sells... water! As a cure for every single ailment in existence. Yes, including cancer.

Bad Media: Organic milk is less fatty

Stavros — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:39:55 +0000

No, it's not actually the case as it was reported in such influential and accurate media as the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. However, a new study showed increased levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, linked to benefits in human health, pushing the balance slightly (only slightly as we will see) towards consuming organic milk with some tangible excuses behind.

Fear… live

Stavros — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:12:32 +0000

"Fear" as performed by Project Pitchfork last night in Islington Academy.

Let’s cure together and be alright!

Stavros — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:48:30 +0000

I came across CureTogether.com lately, a site that relies on its members in order to provide collaborative diagnosis, and potential treatments -an instance of crowdsourcing as it's called. In essence, visitors rely on a popularity contest to determine what their symptoms mean and what the most effective course of action might be. And this is so, so dangerous!

Talk about intelligence in design!

Stavros — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:01:45 +0000

Amongst a very large number of apparent "designs" in nature that certainly won't compete for any efficiency awards, the laryngeal nerve of many mammals is a magnificent piece of bad engineering. The extreme case of a giraffe is discussed in this video by Richard Dawkins -and would make a great souvenir for Michael Behe's living room.

Is Canada such a safe place??

Stavros — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:43:42 +0000

Canadians are very easily excited. I was in Canada last week for a few days, and had a chance to walk around Toronto. As I approached a Church (of one of the million Christian branches...) I saw a drunk guy laying on the pavement and mumbling some incomprehensible words. He was dirty, obviously drunk, and possibly homeless. Did I mention he was also drunk?

Polish translation please!

Stavros — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:01:57 +0000

Can one of my Polish friends please translate the following (probably funny) diagram??

Spot the error

Stavros — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:43:05 +0000

I spotted this in a BBC Horizon episode, and it is a very common "error" based on a poor understanding of the concepts involved.

Notes to self: Go Karting

Stavros — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:13:04 +0000

Notes to self on Go Karting: No, you are not going to flip over on every corner. Why it took three laps to realise that?

No canards for me

Stavros — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:50:07 +0000

Despite the terminology I use, I am not a quack. And it's official. I have a certificate from the relevant authorities

Massive Sonic Attack or something…

Stavros — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:45:17 +0000

Anyone else thinks Massive Attack's "Pray for Rain" from the latest album "Heligoland" is a cunning resemblance of the idiosyncratic and strange melodies of Sonic Youth?? For example, I think it would fit very well in "NYC Ghosts and Flowers". Even the vocals sound similar!

Oh joy! Homeopathic vaccines!

Stavros — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:03:31 +0000

Of course we already knew this. At least, and assuming one does not live in an isolated bubble of delusion, one could suspect and expect this kind of criminal behaviour from a cult that believes in magic water with no shred of evidence

Is there hope for UK science?

Stavros — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:13:03 +0000
For once some encouraging news from the UK education front: "Science is undergoing a dramatic resurgence in secondary schools" as the Telegraph reported. In a period when pupils are generally going for the "sexy" non-sciences, this is indeed good news.

Skydiving!

Stavros — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:01:20 +0000
Thirty seconds of free falling were probably enough to justify the high price of tandem skydiving! The moment you leave the aircraft the brain gets confused, heart goes berzerk, senses absorb everything. Unique experience!

Depth First Search. Best geek joke ever?

Stavros — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:39:36 +0000
This is the beauty of xkcd, which last week produced one of the best (if not the best) geeky joke/comic I have ever seen.