Just another dent in the damage…

Sorry I’m a little late getting it up… I’ve been too busy doing NOTHING all week!

p.s. Hope y’all had a very Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!

Channel 4 has opted to end the year on a controversial note by inviting the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to give the broadcaster’s alternative Christmas message tomorrow (The Guardian).

Crazy or what!! Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offering Channel 4’s traditional alternative Christmas message!! It won’t be clashing with good old Queenie though… that’d just be way too controversial. Good on Channel 4. It’s airing at 7:15 pm tomorrow (Christmas Day) but I’ll try and get a clip up asap for those who miss out.

Monday’s Radio 4 Woman’s Hour included a short interview with Parastoo Dokoohaki, author of The Remains of the Day (Persian) about female bloggers in Iran.

Over a quarter of the population regularly use the internet and more of them post their thoughts on blogs than anywhere else. It’s estimate there are about 20,000 female bloggers in Iran.

I’ve clipped the podcast for your listening pleasure: Parastoo Dokoohaki – Radio 4

Update:

There’s more from Parastoo on the BBC webpages talking to Jon Leyne in Tehran: An Iranian Bloggers’ Story.

Steven Chu (of The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), a remarkable Nobel Prize winning experimental physicist, is to replace Samuel Bodman by becoming Barak Obama’s new Energy Secretary.

In 1997 Chu shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips for their work on cooling and trapping atoms using laser light. This technique is used in physics to alter atomic velocities by cooling temperatures in order to trap atoms in space, resulting in more precise measurements of atomic spectra and clocks.

As the new Energy Secretary Chu has been tasked with finding alternatives to fossil fuels in an attempt to ‘end US dependence on foreign oil and fight climate change’ (BBC News). As a Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California (UC), Berkeley Chu is already well known for his advocation of combating climate change and the need for carbon-neutral renewable energy sources using scientific methods. He claims:

What the world does in the coming decade will have enormous consequences that will last for centuries [and] it is imperative that we begin without further delay (BBC News).

Below is a video of ‘Growing Energy’ from the PBS series where Chu is seen discussing some early alternatives to foreign oil.

Farhad Hakimzadeh, previous Chief Executive of the UK’s Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) is a bad man! Last month he pleaded guilty to 14 counts of theft from the British and Bodleian Libraries and is due to be sentenced sometime in January. Over a period of eight years he systematically stole pages from rare book collections, about European engagement in the Middle East, using a scalpel to splice maps, illustrations and leaves of text into his own less valuable books. Of the ten British Library books he admits to vandalising he has caused an estimated £71,000 worth of damage. A single world map taken from a 1537 edition by Hans Holbein the Younger was alone worth £30,000. I agree with Dr Jensen that the worst thing about this case is that because Hakimzadeh has a ‘profound knowledge of the field [...] he actually knew the importance of what he was damaging’ (BBC News). In examinaing the 842 books viewed by Hakimzadeh over this period British Library staff believe 150 texts were multilated and that many of the stolen pages will be lost forever.

His activities only came to light after a library user notified staff of the missing pages and upon investigation Scotland Yard were alerted. In searching his £3m Knightsbridge flat a number of the stolen items were identified by matching bookworm holes with those of the original material. It makes me so angry when students steal widely available text books and as Hakimzadeh knew what he was destroying it just seems beyond belief. I don’t even think a prison sentence is enough punishment! At the very least his extensive personal library should be handed over to the public… seen as it’s every one of us that hes stolen from!

More: The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph.

The Defaced Books include:

Historia de la China From the writings of Father Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit who travelled to China in 1582 and became the first western traveller to settle there. First published in Latin in 1615. This copy was printed in Spain in 1621. Ricci learned to speak and write Chinese and his work was the first important and reliable European description of the country.

Novus Orbis An anthology of works by Simon Grynaeus, professor of Greek at Basle. Hakimzadeh removed an engraving of a world map drawn by Hans Holbein the Younger, court painter to Henry VIII.

Mithridates By the English dramatist Nathaniel Lee. Published in 1693.

Ost-indian-und Persianische Reisen By Johann Gottlieb Worm, the German philosopher who accompanied an envoy of the Dutch East India Company sent to the Safavid court in Persia in 1717. He travelled to Isfahan from India via Bandar. Published in 1745.

Science versus Religion or evidence versus faith is one of our age old great debates that, whichever way you look at it affects everyone, everyday. A report published this week in Nature Nanotechnology from The University of Wisconsin’s Department of Life Sciences Communication investigates religious and cultural attitudes towards nanotechnology and finds that ‘when it comes to the world of the very, very small – Americans have a big problem’. According to Dietram Scheufele (lead author and LSC professor) ‘nano and its capacity to alter the fundamentals of nature, it seems, are failing the moral litmus test of religion’. Twelve European countries were rated along with the US in terms of ‘religiosity’ to measure attitudes of technological acceptance and whether these findings have implications for scientists and politicians making policy decisions in regulating the usage of nanotechnology.

The main findings of this research suggest that in religiously strong countries (Italy, Austria and Ireland) people are less accepting of nanotechnology, viewing its capacity to alter the fundamentals of nature in a negative light. Yet in secular social systems (like France or Germany) the potential to modify living organisms or even inspire synthetic life with science is perceived to be more morally or ethically acceptable. For Scheufele these findings:

are important not only because they reveal the paradox of citizens of one of the world’s elite technological societies taking a dim view of the implications of a particular technology, but also because they begin to expose broader negative public attitudes toward science when people filter their views through religion.

For more see: BBC Science and Environment; Religious beliefs and public attitudes toward nanotechnology in Europe and the United States (pdf).

I was one of the lucky thousands to get to the latest All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival at Butlins Minehead. Its been one of those things I’ve been meaning to go to for years but just never did. It was a blast!!

Chips and Curry Sauce:

The Black Heart Procession;
Torche;
Rahzel;
Euromix Dance Machines;
Rofl and a Lol chortz;
Squarepusher;
King Buzzo;
Monotonix;
Lol tatts and face tatts.

Just Chips:

Fantomas;
Double Negative (although the Minor Threat cover nearly made it to Chips and Curry Sauce);
Mastodon (sounded a bit weak without Bill);
Self-catering chalets!

Raw Potatoes:

Neil Hamburger;
Butthole Surfers (ass wipes);
Joe Lally (BOR-ING);
Bad electrics (the sparky should make it to Just Chips seen as he managed to fix it but I’m still too annoyed);
The weather (too cold for my liking).

I’m thinking I might even be tempted to go again… The Fans Strike Back!