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Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4 If not Latin, then what? Please see the links at...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3 Plants and the moon. For thousands of years, people...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2 An i for an i ? Not nymphs: women! There are...

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #1

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #1 Tom, Dick and Harry explain a statistical method. ...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 73 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in language acquisition and computational linguistics. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge... Read More »

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An Experiment In The Causes Of Warfare

An Experiment In The Causes Of Warfare

Feb 01 2010 | comment(s)

An Experiment In The Causes Of Warfare

The President of Europe has not been elected; he was appointed in a secret meeting of the heads of government of the 27 EU member states. They chose one of their own. Herman Van Rompuy was the Prime Minister of Belgium.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4181

Many a nation has had a civil war in order to remove an unelected leader - most usually a king.
King Charles I of England comes readily to mind.
Random Noise #19 : How Many Things Have Scales?

Random Noise #19 : How Many Things Have Scales?

Feb 01 2010 | comment(s)

Random Noise #19 : How Many Things Have Scales?

Justice has scales.

Wikimedia

The famous scales of justice used to be about a fair and balanced trial.
Today, scales of justice are rates of pay  for lawyers based on how much justice the client wishes to buy - a matter of simple economics.
Random Noise #18 : We Was Robbed

Random Noise #18 : We Was Robbed

Jan 31 2010 | comment(s)

Random Noise #18 : We Was Robbed


Well, of course, that should be 'we were robbed', according to the rules of conventional grammar.  But the phrase 'we was robbed', often written as 'we wuz robbed' has become part of the lexicon of humor in the English language.

There are many kinds of robbery.  I suppose that George III might have said 'we wuz robbed' in reference to the Treaty of Paris 1783.  It must have been hard on the poor guy to lose so many colonies over so little tax1.
Government Funded? Not Me, Guv'nor!

Government Funded? Not Me, Guv'nor!

Jan 31 2010 | comment(s)

Government Funded?  Not Me, Guv'nor!

it has only been possible to find one scientist, worldwide, who
supports catastrophic warming&isn't clearly government funded
- so says Nick Craig in his blog a-place-to-stand.


Ah!  A challenge!  I do so love a challenge!

I most definitely do not 'support catastrophic warming' - that would be crazy! 
Sing A Song Of Science : Blaze Away

Sing A Song Of Science : Blaze Away

Jan 31 2010 | comment(s)

Sing A Song Of Science : Blaze Away

Blaze away can mean 'fire at will'.  In that sense, let's keep 'blazing away' at pseudoscience.
Blaze away can also mean 'burn away', 'be consumed in flame'.


Two recent news items regarding pseudoscience gives cause for celebration as we watch a couple of our troubles blaze away.

#1 - The man who single-handedly triggered the autism / jabs scare, Andrew Wakefield, has been struck off by the GMC
Self-Aggrandising Pseudoscience Castigated - Wakefield Struck Off By GMC

Self-Aggrandising Pseudoscience Castigated - Wakefield Struck Off By GMC

Jan 31 2010 | comment(s)

Self-Aggrandising Pseudoscience Castigated - Wakefield Struck Off By GMC


Following the longest medical misconduct inquiry ever held in the U.K., Andrew Wakefield has been struck off by the GMC, the General Medical Council.  The GMC, an independant charitable organisation, is responsible in the UK for the registration of medical doctors and for the supervision of their conduct.  The GMC enjoys a global high reputation for its ethics and integrity.

Brian Deer has exposed much wrongdoing by Wakefield and has been the subject of a (withdrawn) libel suit by him.  He reports in the UK's Sunday Times, 31st Jan 2010: