Seasons Greetings one and all

Another year draws to a close and it's strange how many of the lessons you have to learn are done in a bunch at the end of the year. I was talking to a colleague last week who is an evangelical christian. I was concerned about two things. Firstly, how little knowledge they had about religion in general. The terms Agnostic, Atheist, Deist, Pantheist, Theist where all new terms to them. I thought that the church would be educating their parishners in these terms, if only to argue against them. The person I was discussing this with is an intelligent, witty and extremely nice person. They have a job that requires a high level of technical expertise as far as I understand what they do. But they hadn't thought to ask these questions. After talking for a little while about these terms, and generally about evolution as opposed to the creation philosophy, they stated their belief that the "Man did not decend from apes". To Evangelicals, the bible is the last word on the topic. Man was literally created by God and the Earth is only 6000 years old and probably that it's at the centre of the Universe. I wish I had more time to ask how they feel about science and it's findings. The fossil record. Carbon dating etc. Maybe I will take the conversation further next year.

This led into a conversation last night with a colleague in the pub (Well, it is Christmas :-) ). Who was arguing for the fact that it is acceptable to have that sort of belief. I don't think he really thought that but was playing devils advocate. Isn't quoting a theory, no matter how much evidence is in favour of it, just a belief system too? that was the argument proposed. I think all that calls into question is our use of the word "belief". If your only evidence is a book, written by someone several hundred years after the events it purports to describe, with no actually proveable elements, then you are on a sticky wicket as far as I'm concerned.

My second lesson was about the kindness of strangers. Standing at Holborn tube station last night, A blind guy was trying to find the door of the tube train. I only became aware of this after seeing someone trying to gently guide him towards the open door. A very small act of kindness that quite overwhelmed me. This is not something I see everyday.

Happy Holidays

The week that was!

Another busy busy week comes to an end but the Fun doesn't stop there. Working the way I do, the boundarys between the "working" week and the weekend seem to blur. I think this is something more and more people are going to find as the drive for a greener community pushes forward. No longer will most of us be bound to a desk in a building. The days of managers needing "bums-on-seats-luvvy" will soon be gone. Instead, your 9 to 5 existance will be replaced with target led performance contract. And this is how it sortof works for me now. I agree my targets with my manager. They are realistic with some time factored in for those unexpected occurances that inevitably happen. It works well and allows me the flexibility to do the other things I need to do and work the hours that suit me. One proviso is that I'm available when an urgent issue comes up. This is a small price to pay.

So, work work has been very busy this week. Isn't it funny how everyone seems to see Christmas as a deadline. Non-work things done include the usual level of study and some more updates to the OUSA-NHL website (www.ousa-nhl.org). We are getting a reasonable number of hits considering it has only been in existance for about 6 days. I'm doing what I can to make sure we have relevant information for local OU students. It's a lot harder and much more time consuming then I anticipated but I'm quite emjoying. There has been a little feedback but generally, I'm working on what I would like to see a local and mature student.

I've taken a couple of calls this week from local people about issues they are passionate about. Although all I can do is pass on thier details, I would love to try and make sure these issues are really looked at. I know how it feels to be on the end of a telephone and feel that you are getting nowhere. Anyone in that position can rest assured that if you keep at it for long enough and stamp your feet as much as possible, someone will eventually listen.

The meaning of meaning

Todays blog is brought to you by the words :

Honesty and Enthusiasm

And the number :
Pi

Lets start with the dirty words.

I went to dinner last night with two lovely friends. They cooked and asked me my oponion about the food. I said I would be honest (as I always am) and I think they where quite worried about the prospect. As it turns out, everything was delicous so they had nothing to be concerned about. Had it not been though, I would have politely given my oponion (because it was requested). Honesty is not well recieved these days. But isn't it important to give an honest opinion when asked? If you don't, doesn't that debase your opinion completely. If I say something is "absolutely superb", you can gaurantee thats how I really feel. If I said it was when it wasn't and you knew I was lying to be polite, you would be in your rights to never believe what I said to you again. So it can be done in a polite and constructive way without malice but it has to be done. Is it so these days that people expect you to give a particular answer? I don't think honesty is a well respected quality when it comes to opinions.

I'm quite enthusiastic. When I get involved with something, it gets my all. I can't help it. it's the way I was put together. More and more these days though I find myself apologising for this. If I chase a job at work or follow up on some project people seem to get upset about it. If you begin a conversation about a particular topic (especially religeon or politics), people actually get frightened if you show some passion.

Why is it so bad to be Honest and Enthusiastic?

Ok, now to Pi. I think I am beginning to appreciate peoples fascination with this number. It's an amazing entity. It can drive people mad overnight (See Darren Aronofsky's film). The square root of 9.8696.... which is probably another irrational number. It is the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter. Who made that so? It has a non repeating, infinite decimal expansion so it possibly contains every combination of every number there is,could be or EVER has been! If you could write it out in full (which you can't), with each digit no bigger then an atom, the universe would not have enough room to hold it. And people think Eastenders and Heroes is mind blowing!

Health and Safety Local government styley

I had a real laught yesterday (must quit doing that as it gives you crows feet)! I recieved a Memo stating that the Health and Safety people had said that the paths outside the office where wet and before departing for lunch, employees should fill in a risk assessment form. Part of it was real, I'll leave you to guess which bit. Promptly followed up by another that we must no longer put things on the walls with Bluetack unless we fill in the Asbestos log first and seek permission (Probably in triplicate). Has local government Health and Safety gone mad?

I spent some time in London this week with some friends watching a lecture by John Zarnecki at the Royal Society. He developed one of the instruments that went to Titan (one of the moons of Saturn). The penetrometer. I wondered how many email content and spam checking packages would allow that through! If you have never seen the lecture, go. He is a good speaker and a charismatic person. It was nice to see the Royal Society too.

I've also spent some time developing the new North Herts and Luton OUSA Branch website. One of my first attempts so not entirely professional but a good start (IMHO). Take a look at http://www.ousa-nhl.org Actually, I'm feeling a bit bogged down with things at the moment so maybe time to take in a movie this week. I hear the New Christian Slater movie is pretty good.