tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238272466190431632024-03-14T08:49:02.066+00:00Alice in GalaxylandMusings of a Citizen ScientistUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-3314565633098779792013-10-15T15:17:00.003+01:002013-10-16T01:40:53.994+01:00A galaxy of cells, an NHS supporter and a wonderful world"I am a galaxy."<br />
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Well, that's definitely one way to begin a book. And I've <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-passion-for-science-and-ada-lovelace.html" target="_blank">been learning</a> quite a bit about the process of writing books in the last few weeks.<br />
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Recently I attended my first book launch: <a href="http://www.marcuschown.com/" target="_blank">Marcus Chown</a>'s <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571278396/marcchowhomep-21" target="_blank">What A Wonderful World</a>. It took place in a bookshop near Holland Park. There were vast tables of books, a great many about travel and cookery. There were a few tables of wine, juice, and nibbles. And there was Marcus, helping get everything ready. His publicity agent, Ruth Killick, remarked to me, "I've never worked with anyone as lovely as Marcus. Most writers don't pitch in and help set everything up the way he does!"<br />
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There was an enormous cake . . .<br />
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. . . and Marcus did quite a lot of book-signing and talking to people . . .<br />
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Among the guests were <a href="http://simonsingh.net/" target="_blank">Simon Singh</a> and <a href="http://hencoup.com/nigel/" target="_blank">Nigel Henbest</a> - who had a nasty bump on his head from a recent zero gravity experience, and who I was able to thank for writing <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Space-Atlas-Picture-Atlases/dp/086318829X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381846517&sr=1-3&keywords=The+Space+Atlas" target="_blank">The Space Atlas</a> with <a href="http://hencoup.com/heather/" target="_blank">Heather Couper</a>, my second childhood astronomy book that really got me hooked. There was also Marcus's editor Neil Belton. In their speeches, they told the story of how Neil pushed Marcus to "go outside his comfort zone" and write a book not about his usual physics and astronomy, but about "everything": biology, evolution, geology, economics - generally how human society, and our planet and Universe, have come to be the way they are.<br />
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As part of their launch, they're <a href="http://www.marcuschown.com/Chown%20Blog%20Tour%20poster.pdf" target="_blank">doing a blog tour</a>, and I'm today. (I suppose it would sound silly to say "Sorry I didn't have it ready this morning, but I had a headache yesterday"?) Various bloggers are writing with their impressions of the book. That is, I'm told, a very effective way to find readers!<br />
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It's a lovely huge chunky book. Marcus has been having fun giving it to <a href="http://t.co/mqPRFDRYoM" target="_blank">astronauts</a> and the <a href="http://t.co/tUvoxK30ar" target="_blank">Clangers</a>. We begin with cells. Each of us has more cells than a galaxy has stars - hundreds of billions. As <a href="https://twitter.com/marcuschown/status/389851162738180096" target="_blank">Marcus tweeted</a> a few hours ago, "Your body will assemble 30 million new cells in the time it takes to read this tweet. Each has the complexity of a medium-sized city." We find out what a cell is made of and why they should be so complex - and what a huge leap it was that they should start joining together and forming multicellular organisms.<br />
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The interesting thing about this chapter, and other early chapters, is that they . . . well, not exactly contradict, but don't really quite match what I learned in GCSE and A level biology. I found myself arguing. "Yes, that's called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_bilayer" target="_blank">phosopholipid bilayer</a>. Hang on, it's <a href="http://www.isna.org/faq/y_chromosome" target="_blank">not always the case</a> that men have XY chromosomes and women have XX. Wait, we get our energy from oxygen linking up with carbon, not hydrogen. Or as well as hydrogen? Wait, I must check that! How exciting!" (That's <a href="http://www.marcuschown.com/Baby.jpg" target="_blank">the rocket-fueled baby</a> in chapter 2!) So, I was frowning and biting my lip, but . . . well, if there's one thing I found out from teaching, it's that the science curriculum does not actually have much in common with real science. So a lot of what I've learned in school biology might need some relearning. (The chromosomes knowledge has come from conversations with trans* friends on Twitter, but this is an exception.) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg" target="_blank">Werner Heisenberg</a> used to joke that he had learned physics the wrong way round - particle physics first, classical physics second. And I, too, learned about galaxies from <a href="http://www.galaxyzoo.org/" target="_blank">Galaxy Zoo</a> long before doing any actual astrophysics courses about them. Marcus wrote about how, knowing what he considered nothing about various subjects, started from scratch and phoned up experts. It's good to learn things, or re-learn them, in a new way. So I'm very glad my school knowledge has been so brilliantly challenged.<br />
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I was particularly interested to find out what Marcus would write about money and capitalism, given his activism to save the NHS! Marcus is part of the NHA Party (as am I) and most of <a href="https://twitter.com/marcuschown/" target="_blank">his tweets</a> are related to this. (We've been on demonstrations together and he, I and his wife Karen, who's a nurse, were going to bandage one of the lions in Trafalgar Square, but the police stopped us.) Initially I raised my eyebrows to read about a sweet ideal of money: that a fisherman can catch eight fish at the same time as an axemaker can make four axes, and if they tried to do each other's tasks they would do less well at them, so they trade. I needed not have worried. We follow history through the word "salary" coming from "salt", an early form of currency, and progress to all the dangers and the suffering caused by unchecked capitalism today - including the 2008 crash; the hypocrisy of developed countries imposing a "free market" on developing countries, ignoring their own economic histories; and the idea that the market is too unpredictable and complex to understand, how this has become an easy way out of trying to regulate it, and how some organisations deliberately make it more opaque than necessary. I wish my old economics teacher had read something like this - she extolled the virtues of the Tories and the horrors of any market regulation at us lesson after lesson . . .<br />
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One of Marcus's favourite activities is collecting together surprising facts, and this book is bursting with them! Slime moulds have 13 sexes, DNA in all species is so similar that we share a third of ours with mushrooms, we age more slowly at ground level than above, that the advantage that modern humans may have had over Neanderthals was sewing (I say "might; I don't feel I know enough to be sure), and that the Universe may have been a giant hologram. And this great favourite:<br />
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It definitely is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4yJTDZKqjo" target="_blank">a wonderful world</a>, and I've been having great fun reading this book. Thanks for including my blog in your blog tour!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-39516917548902855102013-10-08T17:23:00.001+01:002013-10-15T13:26:44.166+01:00"A Passion for Science" and Ada Lovelace Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://findingada.com/" target="_blank">Ada Lovelace Day</a>, created by <a href="http://chocolateandvodka.com/" target="_blank">Suw Charman-Anderson</a>, is a yearly celebration of women in science, maths, engineering and technology. It started with pledges to write about women in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_fields" target="_blank">STEM</a> on a particular day - <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/ada-lovelace-day.html" target="_blank">here's my attempt from 2010</a> (yes, I should have done more since!). It's well documented, including by experiments, that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-few-women-in-science.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&" target="_blank">women still face barriers in these fields</a>, and Ada Lovelace Day is one of the initiatives to challenge this and to celebrate unsung heroines.<br />
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If you want to get blogging on Ada Lovelace Day, just pick one (or more) women in STEM to write about on 15th October this year and <a href="http://findingada.com/get-involved/" target="_blank">let Suw know what you are doing</a>! I may not be able to as I'm writing something else on 15th October, so apologies for that.<br />
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This year, Suw's put together <a href="http://findingada.com/events-2013/" target="_blank">what looks like a fantastic event</a>. I'm going, and maybe I'll see you there. It's at 6pm at Imperial College London on (you guessed it) 15th October. There are going to be lots of speakers on lots of different types of science, plus a healthy dose of comedy, and it looks to me like it will be immense fun. You can get a ticket <a href="http://ald13.eventbrite.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>, and use the code "friendofALD" to get £5 off - there's a "enter promotional code" box just above the big green Order button. It's suitable for age 12 and over, which sadly may exclude my mental age when it comes to jokes, but the rest of me will be there.<br />
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Also, on 15th October, <a href="http://findingada.com/book/" target="_blank">there will be a book coming out</a>. It's called "A Passion for Science", is edited by Suw, and is to fund Ada Lovelace Day. It will start as an e-book, but Suw hopes to have a paperback version too.<br />
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The book is about 25 people who broke with tradition to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics. One of them discovered pulsars. Another wrote the first computer program. Another used her illegal radio set to help the resistance during World War II. Another discovered that stars are made of hydrogen and helium.<br />
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You've probably guessed it: all these trailblazers were women (though we're not being too loud about this, so that those who don't think women can do science will still pick it up and maybe learn something. I'm assuming that you're not one of these idiots, since you're reading a blog that's obviously written by a woman). And here's my big news: I wrote a chapter about Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who is my favourite ever astronomer. (I've blogged about her <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/different-sort-of-sine-qua-non-cecilia.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/opening-doors-of-heavens.html" target="_blank">here</a>.) I am very fond of Payne-Gaposchkin. Her discovery was, really, <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/ak/nkannan/SciStudent.html" target="_blank">just as significant as that of Newton, Einstein or Darwin</a> - what the Universe is made of - yet very few people know her name. She used some of my favourite pieces of science - the then very new quantum physics to take a new look at <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=274537.0" target="_blank">spectroscopy, the study of light and matter</a>. Although she was kept as a lowly "technical assistant" for many years, and after her PhD had limited freedom to pursue her own research, she went on to make many more discoveries about stars, novae, and much more.<br />
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I love her for possessing many of my own "bad points" - she was quietly obsessive, moody, jealous, and terribly untidy. She - like me - particularly liked drawing together huge amounts of information from various sources, and putting it all together in a clear way. She was a kind, funny and wonderfully brave and compassionate person, fascinated by everything from astronomy to art to languages to cooking to woodwork to music to etc etc. I first read about her in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-The-Stars-Friendship-Obsession/dp/034911627X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381247684&sr=8-1&keywords=Empire+of+the+Stars" target="_blank">Empire of the Stars</a> and then, more compellingly, in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Magic-Furnace-Search-Origins/dp/0099578018/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381247743&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Magic+Furnace" target="_blank">The Magic Furnace</a> (the latter is my favourite science book, by the way), and longed to know more. When I found <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cecilia-Payne-Gaposchkin-Autobiography-Other-Recollections/dp/0521483905/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381247814&sr=8-1&keywords=Cecilia+Payne" target="_blank">her autobiography</a>, that was one of my main motivators to study science more deeply and do an MSc in Astrophysics.<br />
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So, I've been researching Payne-Gaposchkin for the last three years, and plan to do a lot more. In fact, I wrote such a long chapter that poor Suw had to cut quite a bit of it out in order not to turn the book into "Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin with a sprinkling of other amazing scientists squeezed in". But I hope to share it all with you in time . . .<br />
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In the meantime, you should definitely follow <a href="https://twitter.com/Suw" target="_blank">Suw</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/FindingAda" target="_blank">Ada Lovelace Day</a> on Twitter. And Suw's feline owners, <a href="https://twitter.com/Grabbity" target="_blank">Grabbity</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SirMewton" target="_blank">Sir Izacat Mewton</a>. Happy Ada Lovelace Day next week!<br />
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Update: Check out the cover! I love it!<br />
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Update II: You can now <a href="https://findingada.dpdcart.com/cart/view?referer=http%3A%2F%2Ffindingada.com%2Fbook%2F&product_id=70319&method_id=72666&__dpd_cart=2420a8e4-c181-4ea9-b167-6985d2e63d63" target="_blank">buy the book</a>! I hope some of you will - it's full of wonderful stories and inspiration.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-16816666007005021772013-09-11T03:11:00.002+01:002013-09-11T22:57:57.530+01:00So I took cake to a police station last SaturdayIt was going to be a good Saturday. I've had a very stressful summer, and I've been ill and had to miss a lot of things, but I was on the mend. That day I was going to have to myself. I was going to play games and perhaps do a bit of cooking and cleaning, but nothing major. I was going to be lazy and I was not going to worry. Well, I might be a <i>little</i> tense for a few hours: a few of my friends were going on a demonstration, but they'd said they were going to be careful and move away from anywhere that looked like trouble. They'd text me when it was over and they were safe. It was going to be fine.<br />
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I love old-fashioned games like Theme Hospital and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 has some pretty high targets to win the levels - "Have 3,500 guests in your park by the end of year 5" - so sadly you don't get time to enjoy the levels and build roller coasters bit by bit; there is, however, a tool to design them in advance. So I was playing around with types of roller coaster I don't usually build. Excitement rating this, intensity rating that, nausea rating the other. Oh, a text. From a close friend. "Kettled at Tower Hill approach. S with me. Arrest looks likely."<br />
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My insides shrank and everything around me seemed to fall away for a moment. My heart began to pound painfully. It was hard to breathe. There was nothing I could do. I could only send a supportive reply back, trying not to sound too scared, and attempt to carry on playing, but it was hopeless. I went onto Twitter to see what was happening. My hands were shaking so much I could hardly type. My phone, which is old and unreliable, kept saying "Message sending failed". I couldn't even send words of hope.<br />
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Twitter was well aware of the kettle. A picture began going round - the best description I saw of it was "Overkill much?" As you see, the people in it are very much outnumbered by police. I had no idea if that was where my friends were or whether there were other kettles too.<br />
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I soon found out that only a few of my friends had gone on the demo and that most, like me, were awaiting news. For a while things seemed to look up. The next text said: "Still kettled in a group of 50 people at Tower Hill Approach. Maybe won't be mass arrested because I can't see any arrest buses, only lots of cops, police horses and about 5 vans. I think they are just keeping us here."<br />
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It's true - you <i>do </i>breathe a loud sigh of relief. I felt a bit weak. But my brain was racing. They might be in the kettle for a very long time. Should I take some food there, to greet them with as they got out? Would that put me in danger too? Where were they - and why? What had they done to get kettled? What was going on? I knew my friends wouldn't do anything stupid like be violent . . . but I have heard some horrible stories of police accusing people of being violent - "Stop kicking me, stop punching me" - while they are standing still. You don't believe this kind of thing when you first hear it. But when you hear it from many sources . . . and when incidents such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson" target="_blank">Ian Tomlinson</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/dec/15/jody-mcintyre-protester-dragged-from-wheelchair" target="_blank">Jody McIntyre</a>, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/alfie-meadows-calls-on-ipcc-to-reopen-investigation-into-student-protest-8529544.html" target="_blank">Alfie Meadows</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes" target="_blank">Jean Charles de Menezes</a> seem to be increasingly common; when you've been to <a href="http://www.takingliberties.com/" target="_blank"><i>Taking Liberties</i></a> and seen the footage of police attacks on a road you used to walk up every day in Brighton; when your own close relatives have been shoved around, trampled on by a horse and forbidden to walk up the street they live on because they live near a football ground - well, those safe certainties start feeling cornered, and wherever they try to run, there's nowhere to go.<br />
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I asked my friends what I should do if they were arrested. I was told to tell another friend, and to call <a href="http://greenandblackcross.org/" target="_blank">Green and Black Cross</a>. They joked nervously about waving from the kettle picture and assured me that even if they were arrested, they would be OK. Messages were getting through very slowly - possibly, I panicked a few times, the network had been blocked, or more likely there was just a high volume of texts going back and forth. Then I heard that another friend had been injured. She has a long term spinal injury and is often in a lot of pain. She tried to explain this to the police, but a policewoman hit her with her baton so hard that she fell to the ground. Several of us tweeted to the <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceevents" target="_blank">@MetPoliceEvents</a> account to ask that she be let out as she needed an ambulance. It was a long time before they let her go. One other friend was allowed to accompany her. It turned out it was a blessing in disguise, because as they got into the ambulance, several unmarked buses arrived and the mass arrests began.<br />
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Talking to another friend who'd stayed at home, I learned of a lovely activity called "arrestee support", where you go and wait outside police stations to help activists as they are released. They are often very hungry or thirsty, released into an area they don't know, and if they're especially unlucky they've had their possessions confiscated so are unable to buy bus or train tickets home. I had been sitting still in a fizz of adrenaline for the last few hours, and doing something positive would make me feel better, so I went to bake some little chocolate cakes. I'd bought a jar of Nutella only to find out I didn't like it much, so I spooned the chocolate cake mixture into the tins, put a teaspoon of Nutella on top of it, and then another teaspoonful of cake mix on top of that. I ended up with 28 little cakes, and ran back upstairs to hear of any news - had the police followed my friends into the ambulance, or had they been let go? - where should I take the cakes? - did anyone know?<br />
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It wasn't yet certain where the arrestees were being taken. I tweeted out to ask if anyone would need the cakes and initially got no reply. However, I heard from my friend who had been hurt. Her injury might well have been inflamed and she was in a lot of pain and keeping very still, but she didn't need to go to hospital. She was going to give it a few hours and then three of them were going to do arrestee support. A fourth friend and I asked if we could join.<br />
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I got a reply to my cake tweet advising me to ask Green and Black Cross. I was under the impression that they provided legal support, not cake delivery, but they promptly sent me a number to call. It felt most silly and surreal. "Hello, this is @PenguinGalaxy . . ." "Ah, are you the baking lady? Can I give you a call back in just a moment?" "Yeah, sure!" It was late afternoon now. Over two hundred people had been arrested. Twitter was bickering and the last few cakes were refusing to rise because they'd had to go in the bottom of the oven and had cooked too slowly. It was a mundane day. But I just felt I had to do <i>something</i>.<br />
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Green and Black Cross called me back and told me that people were being taken to four police stations: Colindale, Sutton, Lewisham and Croydon. I hadn't even heard of the first two and the line was bad, so I had to get them to repeat it. I told them my friends and I would like to help out. They gave me another number to call "to coordinate arrestee support". I said I would pass this on to a friend who has better connections than I do. I'm not very political, I'm not in any activist group - I currently don't call myself an antifascist or anything like that - and I would be a useless coordinator. I could simply see that a lot of people had been arrested for not very much and would need some help - and I wanted to learn more about what went on.<br />
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I passed on the information, waited a little while, and soon heard back that they'd decided which station to go to and that they'd meet me there. What with Green and Black Cross calling me "the baking lady", and there being ten times as many people arrested as there were cakes, I added some more supplies - tissues, some Pepsi given free with a pizza, plasters - and went via the supermarket where I bought crisps, chocolate, fruit juice and disposable cups. Money is very tight, but I found all the special offers.<br />
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It was a long journey to the police station, and it was in an area out of my pocket A-Z, so I had to rely on a pencil drawing I'd done using Google Maps earlier (my phone is too old to cope with maps). It was almost dark by the time I arrived. Finding the police station was easy, but none of my friends were there. I stood in the deepening blue air and looked around for them, then got out my phone - and saw one of them emerge from the building. I was astonished. What were they doing in there? Was it safe? Turned out, it was. They were all inside - details were not taken on the spot. The ones who'd been kettled apologised again and again for my worry earlier, even though they'd hardly asked for it to happen and had suffered much worse than I. I hugged them all emotionally - my injured friend very carefully - feeling a great rush of gladness that they were safe. Except one, who was very busy with a notebook, talking to a man I didn't know. He was shaking and visibly on edge; he was one of the arrestees, the first to be let out. He'd come on one of two large buses full of people. It seemed that Green and Black Cross had set my friend to collecting information for them - what people were arrested for, their bail conditions, when they'd have to go back, and did they have a solicitor or anyone who could give them legal advice?<br />
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It was a small waiting room in a super-modern building, looking rather like the leisure centre of a university campus or similar, and it was full of people. Several clearly spoke little or no English and seemed to be anxious relatives of arrestees. There were six seats, not enough for us all, and naturally much pacing about. The door kept opening automatically and each time its metal handles clanged loudly on the metal railings outside. I didn't really know what I could usefully do, so I opened up some of the bags and boxes of food. Most people didn't want anything, but the cake slowly began to disappear. I remembered the "peace" cake <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGZr2m4r7M" target="_blank">that got Mark Thomas's friend ordered to leave Parliament Square</a>. (I keep meaning to take a cake with "peace" iced on it to Parliament Square just to see what will happen, but I haven't yet got round to it!) Bit by bit, I talked with my friends and began to learn what had happened.<br />
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I have not yet heard any reports of violence. It seemed that people were being arrested for "breaching sections 12 and 14" - all they knew was that they were walking up an empty street, some with banners, some without, and hadn't even met the EDL, when they saw police coming at them from all sides and were unable to escape. It seemed that certain areas had been designated as out of bounds without warning. Figures of arrests were between two and three hundred. The EDL (English Defence League, one of the two main far-right organisations in the UK, which <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8661139/Norway-killer-Anders-Behring-Breivik-had-extensive-links-to-English-Defence-League.html" target="_blank">has links to Anders Breivik</a>) had chosen Tower Hamlets as their marching point - specifically <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altab_Ali_Park" target="_blank">Altab Ali Park</a> - because of its large population of ethnic minorities and their apparent belief that it is "under Sharia law". (They do have some rather odd beliefs, such as <a href="http://funnypicturesplus.com/edl-attacked-the-brighton-pavilion-thinking-its-a-mosque.html" target="_blank">that Brighton Pavilion is a mosque</a>.) As far as we knew then, two EDL members had been arrested (I have since heard fourteen), including Tommy Robinson again. I had seen a tweet earlier that they were extremely drunk and were escorted by many police across London Bridge, but I don't know if it was true, or, if it was, whether this "escort" was protecting or restricting them or both.<br />
<br />
It was a long time before anyone else was released. The next person out was a quiet girl who'd come in from outside London by herself. She hadn't been charged, but bailed and told to return in late October. She was extremely thirsty. The policeman with her directed her to the nearest train station, but by this time it was too late for her to get home. My note-taking friend told us how she'd felt to be arrested at a demonstration and then released in Basildon, which is way out of London, with no means of contacting anyone or getting home, but how she'd been helped by arrestee support.<br />
<br />
Suddenly another bus arrived. It was a red, unmarked single decker, and it was full of people sitting very still. I learned later that they were all handcuffed. The kettling had begun some eight hours before now. I had never seen so many people with such miserable expressions. My friends ran outside and shouted greetings to them. I followed and tried to give them a supportive smile, wondering what they were all thinking, how much longer it would be before we saw them again. A policeman told us to move away and that we could be "arrested for obstruction". We were standing on the pavement, well out of anybody's way! "Are you proud of yourself, supporting fascists?" one of my friends asked him as we went back inside.<br />
<br />
Gradually it got darker. The windows suddenly became mirror-like instead of transparent. A few more people were released. Their bail conditions forbade them to "engage in demonstration within the M25 where the English Defence League, English Volunteer Forces or British National Party are present". In other words, the far-right organisations may protest, but those who protest against them may not.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Some people released had heard of Green and Black Cross; others had not. One was in a state of shock because his solicitor had told him that his flat in the North of England may have been raided by the police - it was uncertain whether it had or not.<br />
<br />
A couple with limited English arrived and waited a long time at the counter to be seen. I tried to work out whether they were more worried relatives or here for something else, but I wasn't sure. In the end, I just offered them cake. The woman took one with a huge smile and then began to cry. She didn't have any tissues, so I went and got her some as discreetly as I could. She managed to say "It gets better!" and soon after that, they were called through a door. I never saw them come out. Other relatives had less luck. Some were there from when I arrived to when I left three hours later. One woman who had initially refused any of our supplies changed her mind. Eventually a policewoman called four or five of them forward and told them that only one would be allowed to come inside to speak to them. I heard her say "Do you speak English?" and "I don't care" several times in quite an aggressive voice. It was a stark contrast to how wonderful the police had been <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/train-tracks.html" target="_blank">the day I called 999</a> when a man had been attempting suicide at Leytonstone station. I felt bewildered and sad.<br />
<br />
One of our group offered the girl who couldn't get home a place to stay. Two of us had nasty colds and badly needed hot drinks; my friend who'd texted me went off in search for anywhere still selling them. There was a toilet, but it had no lock and no paper; I made a mental note to bring <i>lots</i> of tissues next time I did arrestee support.<br />
<br />
I went off in search of my coffee-bearing friend and when we got back, two more buses of arrestees had arrived. I went to the gates, unable to believe my ears - I had already heard that all the cells were full. There was a double decker and a single decker bus, and they were parked behind the building, the engines and lights still on, and nobody was coming out of them. Evidently the buses themselves were being used as holding cells. It was then that one of the recently released people - a remarkably cheerful person who'd come from the South of England and refused a cake due to being a vegan - told us that nobody was allowed to talk on the bus. "Sounds like school!" I said. He laughed. "Yes, exactly that!" We could only laugh and try to remain upbeat and strong. We were in shock, but would keep our spirits up for each other.<br />
<br />
How could the figure be only up to three hundred, I wondered? It looked like nearly that many were at this police station alone. And people were only being released every half hour or so. How long would it take to release them all?<br />
<br />
We all talked, a little. One of the arrestees rolled up his trouser leg. The worried relatives were intrigued to see it was covered with heavily inked telephone numbers. He explained that it's a standard activist tactic: pieces of paper and mobile phones can be removed, but your limbs cannot. My limited experience has taught me that you should use a thicker pen than a biro - upper arms are very soft.<br />
<br />
I went home at elevenish, so as not to miss the last trains. I later learned that three of my friends stayed until 2am, when a new shift of support workers took over. Between some time before 8pm, and 2am, my friends helped fifteen people. (A couple more hadn't wanted to talk to us - understandably, since we could have been anyone.) Of these fifteen, three were simply members of the public who had had nothing to do with the demonstration, but had simply been walking up the street and then driven into the kettle. By about 9am the next day, Green and Black Cross tweeted that everyone was out of that police station. My estimates of how many had arrived were too high; "only" 286 people had been arrested - the largest number in one go since at least the student protests of 2010.<br />
<br />
It was a slightly shattering experience. One assumes that you're safe from arrest until you break the law. I've yet to hear any evidence that the people arrested were even disruptive - none of the people that I saw released were charged with anything. That's not to say that I think antifascists are all completely peaceful. I don't. Actually, I don't call myself one because I know they include some very unpleasant people. I'd tagged along on one demonstration before and overheard some sexist and ableist remarks being made, as well as a lot of showing off. But the notion of antifascists being a screaming, violent, uncontrollable mob - the picture we get many times through the media and through other people's remarks - was utterly at odds with the calmness I'd seen on Saturday, the support and care people showed each other, the quiet and controlled behaviour. One would have thought that for 286 arrests, there must have been some kind of riot. But I have heard (only through rumours; sadly, when there is no trust, most information comes via rumour, so we can never be certain of anything) that mass arrests were planned that day. And one senses from the bail conditions that the aim is to put people off demonstrating.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/human-rights/the-human-rights-act/what-the-rights-mean/article-11-right-to-protest-and-freedom-of-association.php" target="_blank">Demonstrating is a fundamental human right</a>. The EDL have the right to speak their minds, and so do antifascists. I have seen the sentiment that antifascists are removing the EDL's right to peaceful assembly by demonstrating and using phrases such as "they shall not pass". I have also heard the contrary sentiment that fascism and racism are illegal, so why should the EDL get to march at all? My personal take is the least "controlled" of all: that the EDL do have the right to demonstrate, and the rest of us have the right to tell the EDL that they are neither right nor welcome. To deny anyone the right to say what they think, no matter how horrible it is, opens up too many doorways to abuse (I wrote more about this <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/cults-laws-and-free-speech.html" target="_blank">here</a>). But since the antifascists are not law-makers, they cannot forbid the EDL to assemble; they can, however, disrupt such assemblies - disruption often being a very peaceful and effective tool. But let's face it, choosing to march in Tower Hamlets is not abstract debate or a polite message to Parliament. If it's not a deliberate attempt to intimidate and inflame, I don't know what it is.<br />
<br />
One of the arrestees told me that she was sure the police dislike the EDL and the antifascists equally. I have heard others claim that the police favour the EDL. I don't know. I only know that, last Saturday, I witnessed a very heavy-handed official response to people's expression of their views. And I know that since the ghastly Woolwich murder, some of my non-white friends are afraid whenever they are out in public. One has been stopped and held up for a long time arriving at Glasgow airport, while white people who were being loud and disruptive were waved through without question. The atmosphere is fairly easygoing here in Ilford, with its large Asian population - indeed, people in shops especially seem to be going out of their way to be extra nice. But when I go to other places, I feel the tension.<br />
<br />
I have not named which police station I went to and have avoided revealing any details of my friends or anyone else there or marching. If you were there and would like to reveal yourself, please by all means do so, but please respect others' privacy.<br />
<br />
And I hope you got some of my cake.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-64971211441978013562013-04-18T17:42:00.004+01:002013-05-24T19:12:29.640+01:00In sleep a king<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_87" target="_blank">. . . as a dream doth flatter,</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_87" target="_blank">In sleep a king, but, waking, no such matter.</a></blockquote>
Ten years ago I would have hailed <a href="http://helenlewiswrites.tumblr.com/private/47859091039/tumblr_ml72547vSl1rpijql" target="_blank">this</a> as exactly what I wanted to say. This piece has been judged excellent, well thought out and a breath of fresh air by many people I like and respect. It claims that it is impossible to write fluently without someone jumping on you and accusing you of oppressing people who may be female, disabled, trans, gay, non-white, etc. That language itself is being ruined by attempts to be "correct". That what people says is being lost in accusations of oppressing someone, while in fact far more people who genuinely don't know what "correct" language is are being alienated and left behind.<br />
<br />
When I was young, I <i>hated</i> political correctness. I hated racism even more, and made a point of spending as much time as possible with the international students. In fact, political correctness seemed to me to be racism, but with a shiny veneer: "Oh, I won't say 'black coffee', because it <i>is</i> a problem to be black, but I'm too polite to say so. I won't use any word which refers to your colour, positive or negative or neutral; aren't I nice?" To be fair, I did know some people a bit like that. I was also once <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/how-to-prove-youre-inclusive-be-slick.html" target="_blank">publicly held up as a racist</a> in front of a hundred-odd other people because I'd fallen into a deliberately set trap. I was distraught (especially when one of the people praised for their "correct" attitude then went on to say "that Paki" the very next day).<br />
<br />
It makes me shrink to say this, but it's true: I was particularly upset that my friends would repeatedly talk about how unacceptable it was ever to even mention the word "Jew" or "Jewish" because that was not only racist, but pro-Holocaust. My family had been ostracised by some Jewish people - a very small minority, I didn't doubt then and don't doubt now - who had refused to speak to us, even to give us directions when we were lost, because we weren't Jewish. (At school, my dad had been in a football team of mostly Jewish boys, who had named themselves "The Smelly Yids"!) I was sympathetic in speech but irritated in private when a friend complained that the university campus made it hard for her mother to walk as she had weak ankles: did she want the whole place knocked down? (It was a campus largely made of steps and pyramids and walkways. An amazing place. But definitely designed without disabled people in mind.)<br />
<br />
I look back on my younger self with mortification. Did I ever say terrible things about anyone just because I felt My Right to do so trumped political correctness? Did I make things worse for anybody? It haunts me. Which, of course, doesn't help anyone.<br />
<br />
I think, now, that what I was seeing and hating was a <a href="http://notalwaysworking.com/a-rebel-with-too-many-causes/27078" target="_blank">caricature</a>. Much like the caricature tabloids write of health and safety policies, which stop people buying cheese and saying "Christmas", rather than are enforced to save lives. Or of immigrants, who are here to take all our jobs and live off all our benefits (you know, in right-wing minds they can do both at once).<br />
<br />
Caricatures can distract from reality. They divide and rule.<br />
<br />
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<br />
As <a href="http://www.jourdemayne.com/" target="_blank">Deborah</a> put it in <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/1401/The-Natural-Historie-of-the-European-Werewolf" target="_blank">a talk she gave recently to Hackney Skeptics</a>, it was common in medieval times for women to accuse other women of witchcraft because that was pretty much the only social leverage they had. If you're at the bottom and unable to confront those at the top, it's all too easy to turn on those also at the bottom with you. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what the government and tabloids want the working classes to do - <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/disabled-people-have-never-had-it-so-bad" target="_blank">to spit at disabled people and call each other scroungers</a>, rather than take our grievances to the government and to large-scale tax avoiders.<br />
<br />
Another problem was that I was very ill at the time. It was an invisible illness. No allowances could be made for me. As far as I know, there's no special insult for "person with a major intestinal disorder who suffers from nausea and pain and anxiety" (as there is for many mental conditions or loss of mobility, for example) that could be not used. There were no physical adaptations that could be made. There was nothing to help me. I was jealous of those who <i>could</i> be helped and were.<br />
<br />
Looking back, those who forbade mentions of various races or colours were invariably white. The girl who told me not to swear in her presence because she was a Christian also boasted about how she had destroyed her mobile's sim card to get a new phone on insurance. My Ghanian housemate was happy to talk about being black - but that was years later; he was not party to such discussions. I never heard what Jewish people thought of anyone mentioning the word "Jewish" or "Jew".<br />
<br />
Well-meaning people wanted to speak in their support. Other well-meaning people disagreed with <i>how</i> to speak in their support.<br />
<br />
The voices that should have been loudest were not even there.<br />
<br />
So there I was, full of my own problems and without awareness of those I didn't understand - that I <a href="http://stavvers.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/gaslighting-power-and-differences-of-opinion/" target="_blank">had no way of understanding</a>. Until circumstance made me understand.<br />
<br />
Three years ago I found work in a charity that provided information and hired out mobility equipment to disabled people. It was "run by the disabled for the disabled". I was the only person without a physical or mental disability. It was the most supportive place I'd ever known. My physical problems (the pain and nausea and weakness) and my mental problems (my depression, anxiety, workplace phobia as a result of bullying, and lack of confidence) were accepted and no big deal, but my colleagues were always there to listen and support me. I found myself doing the same for them. And a new part of me began to blossom.<br />
<br />
I was <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/blaming-vulnerable.html" target="_blank">appalled by the rage I saw</a> in some of the newsletters, such as Disability Today. They seemed to personally loathe anyone whose legs worked properly. But I was equally appalled by the slurs levelled at disabled people not only in the newspapers, but from a random man who took it upon himself to walk into the office and berate me for handing out blue badges to his neighbour who he was certain didn't need it. And I began to realise that slurs were spoken, judgments were made, policies were drawn up, without the involvement of the people they affected.<br />
<br />
Perhaps one problem with knowing that others are disadvantaged is that decent people have an immediate instinct to speak up for such people. The trouble with that is that it gives those who don't actually have much knowledge a false idea of how much they do know. There's a point when you just have to say: I don't know what it's like to be coloured, disabled, or trans. And I have to shut up and listen.<br />
<br />
There are men who write in favour of feminism, who speak volubly and passionately about how much they care and how anyone who thinks them sexist is hateful and misunderstands - but who will then ignore women's voices as soon as they don't like them. I doubt they realise they're doing this. They want to do good. They already get stick from those who disrespect their feminist stance, and this hurts, but they keep going. They genuinely mean well. Just as I meant well to say that political correctness was racism made respectable.<br />
<br />
There are men who simply retweet women's words without comment, who chase away harassers, who protect vulnerable women <a href="http://harvardontheside.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/the-ist-list/" target="_blank">even after their friends have been shot doing so</a>, who don't tell everybody else what to do. These men are much harder to see.<br />
<br />
A few months ago, a new website for feminist writing opened, and they asked me to submit an article. I wrote about my two sides of what I consider feminist activism: <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/She%20is%20an%20Astronomer" target="_blank">women in science</a>, and <a href="http://www.galacticorchids.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Galactic Orchids</a>. They turned me down. They wanted their first article about female genital mutilation to be from someone involved in the relevant culture. I was hurt - rejection always hurts - but they were right. I should be quietly supporting and amplifying voices of those actually affected. Not leading the discussion.<br />
<br />
It wouldn't be right for me to tell my trans friends how to survive, or my non-white friends when to consider someone racist and when not. I don't know what that's like and it's not for me to say.<br />
<br />
This is a difficult post to write, because if you're on Twitter you probably know there's been a big blow-up between prominent feminists over the issue of language. I have friends on both sides of the platform. Passionately so. One side says: they attack you if you don't know the words "intersectionality" or "WoC"; you can't open your mouth without them jumping down your throat. The other side says: you can be polite and they ignore you; you can get angry and then get labelled a bully. One side says: there's a core group of trouble-makers who are making this space <i>less</i> safe for women. The other side says: they just don't want to listen, they don't want to learn, their only solution is to continue oppression and marginalise anyone who dares disagree.<br />
<br />
It is heartbreaking to be told you've used an oppressive word, such as "cretin", when you only meant "someone who has done something very silly and very funny" - and when you've just spent a huge amount of time and energy supporting someone with mental health problems, listening to them, pointing them to places that can help, leaving yourself drained. It is all too easy to leap to the defensive. "You KNOW I didn't mean that. Why do you assume the default position is that I'm ableist when all the evidence points the other way? Who cares about words over actions?"<br />
<br />
But why spend an awful lot of time and effort for a cause if you're then not willing to listen those you're supposed to be supporting? Over something that really won't hurt you in practice? Calling out someone actually doesn't have to mean "you're ableist scum, I hate you and I'm going to shame you before the entire world. You will never live this down" - even though it feels that way. When people have pointed out I've used a word I shouldn't, they've generally only meant, "Please don't do that. I know you don't mean to, but it hurts, and it adds to the problem."<br />
<br />
That's all I've meant when I've asked men (especially on Facebook) not to keep posting pictures or jokes that objectify women - that discuss us as if we're pieces of meat, that rate us by our attractiveness, that tell us to accept it was our fault for dressing wrong if we were raped, that we are too emotional and illogical to be scientists. Many are resistant. <i>They</i> know what they mean. I should keep quiet and accept it, right?<br />
<br />
"Do call me out if I screw up, as I'm sure I must do from time to time, being white," <a href="https://twitter.com/scattermoon/status/324670729834614787" target="_blank">wrote Scattermoon on Twitter</a>. A different approach from defensiveness: Teach me. I will see it as teaching. Not accusing. I will grow.<br />
<br />
Joining <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/" target="_blank">Galaxy Zoo</a> and <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Skeptics%20in%20the%20Pub" target="_blank">Skeptics in the Pub</a> meant that I had to be very ready to accept correction if I ever made a scientific mistake. Being a feminist - and one who includes women (and men, and transfolks, and etc etc) of all colours and abilities and backgrounds, which is my current understanding of the word "intersectional" - means I have to be ready to accept correction, too. In my family we never used "nut" to describe mental health problems - it was often an affectionate word, sometimes actively complimentary, in praise for a really silly joke. But just as I learned a new language when I moved to Spain back in 2003, I learned a new language when I left home.<br />
<br />
It really hasn't hurt to watch how I use the word, and similar words, now. To adapt a little is a very small price to pay for knowing a vastly more diverse group of people than I used to - and knowing so much more as a result.<br />
<br />
It's true that lots of people don't know what "intersectional" means and there's no point assuming they do. That doesn't mean the word has to be rejected out of hand, though. New words do spring up. "Cis", for instance, to describe "not trans". "Straight", for example, to mean "not gay". Yes, language is complicated, and frankly, columnists, you can't please everybody - it just isn't possible. Any read of any comment section will demonstrate that.<br />
<br />
As I read on a blog yesterday which I now can't find (if you know the one I mean, please post it in the comments!), it is very easy for a campaign to seem whiny and unimportant if you don't know what it's about.<br />
<br />
And the only way to learn what it's about is to listen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-75731196764135575912013-04-15T01:52:00.000+01:002013-04-15T01:54:26.021+01:00Orbit<br />
Come take my hand and run swift with me,<br />
Leap high till we skim over road and tree,<br />
Till oil-painting fields fall fast down below<br />
And wind burns our faces, and cotton clouds grow.<br />
<br />
Come take my hand and fly round the world<br />
Race faster than falling, up into the cold<br />
Slingshotting us into the deep blue of sky<br />
Soft pale horizon, dark airless roof high.<br />
<br />
Hold my hand tight as stars stream overhead<br />
And Orion turns cartwheels and our sheer speed has led<br />
To our satellite orbit round Earth blue and bright<br />
The landscape tingles with stars in the night.<br />
<br />
The Moon and the space station make paths like a spell<br />
We roll steady and safe in Earth's gravity's well.<br />
Come take my hand and fly high with me<br />
Join the dance of the planets in our galaxy.<br />
<br />
I've never been satisfied with a poem I've written, but hey, it's always good to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Seriously, with space suits and considerably less gravity than the Earth's - say, a large asteroid - this is actually possible. Or a rocket. The reason things stay in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit" target="_blank">orbit</a>, be they moons or binary stars or the International Space Station, it's because there's a perfect balance of speed and gravity. Everything in orbit is in freefall, but moving so fast that the falling only amounts to being pulled around in a stable ellipse or circle.<br />
<br />
Do you think, from the aeroplane window, that British fields look like oil paintings? I do. Spain, with all its olive trees, looks like black-dotted yellow graph paper. Norway looks like dark green papier mache, and Nova Scotia - which I think is the black-and-white icy mountainous area we flew over when I went to America two years ago - looks <i>absolutely amazing</i>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120101.html" target="_blank">This</a> is one of my favourite ever pictures of space. I'd love to do this some day.<br />
<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-31222656612452081412013-04-01T19:08:00.001+01:002013-04-01T19:08:59.599+01:00Crowdsourcing a Galactic Orchids talk: What are your astronomy questions?Why do stars live in galaxies, rather than being spread out evenly through the Universe? Where did the Big Bang actually happen? Doesn't the Moon pull on water and therefore affect us? These are just three questions I've been asked and have got round to answering on this blog (<a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/why-do-stars-live-in-galaxies_14.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/where-did-big-bang-actually-take-place.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/38-things-you-might-not-know-about-moon.html" target="_blank">here</a>, in the same order) - and now, inspired by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/brain-flapping/2013/mar/15/parallel-worlds-sexy-koalas-comic-relief" target="_blank">Dean's Comic Relief crowdsourcing efforts</a>, I'm inviting you all to send me astronomical questions out of which I might make a whole talk.<br />
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My most major astronomical activity these last few months has been <a href="http://galacticorchids.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Galactic Orchids</a>, a series of talks to raise funds for the <a href="http://orchidproject.org/" target="_blank">Orchid Project</a> and <a href="http://www.dofeve.org/" target="_blank">Daughters of Eve</a>, two charities fighting (in very different fashions) to end female genital mutilation. I have <a href="http://galacticorchids.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-astronomy-talks.html" target="_blank">about seven talks</a> now, but I'm running out of ideas for them, and would like to keep going in autumn 2013 - so I'd like your ideas, please! What puzzles or interests you about astronomy? What would you want to hear about?<br />
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Your question might have a short answer, such as: Why is a lunar eclipse red? Or it might be major, such as: What exactly have we done so far to explore Mars? So I hope to make an entire talk out of short questions, and I also hope to make a few talks out of longer ones. Feel free to suggest what you'd like an entire talk to be made of!<br />
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If you'd like to come, the next two will be Wednesday 10th April and Wednesday 8th May, both at 7pm at the <a href="http://new-unity.org/" target="_blank">Newington Green Unitarian Church</a> in Stoke Newington. There'll be tea, coffee and biscuits available afterwards and a question and answer session - it's very informal. We began in October 2012 and have so far raised over £300.<br />
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You can ask questions or suggest topics by leaving a comment here, tweeting <a href="https://twitter.com/PenguinGalaxy" target="_blank">me</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/GalacticOrchids" target="_blank">Galactic Orchids</a>, or visiting <a href="http://www.facebook.com/GalacticOrchids" target="_blank">our Facebook page</a>.<br />
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Thank you very much!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yO4b2KuvPKU/UVnKQ8gHksI/AAAAAAAABPw/cKtLNgeo9ls/s1600/The+Rose+zoomed+out.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yO4b2KuvPKU/UVnKQ8gHksI/AAAAAAAABPw/cKtLNgeo9ls/s320/The+Rose+zoomed+out.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?ra=203.04323895&dec=62.76775942" target="_blank">NGC 5218 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey</a>. At <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/" target="_blank">Galaxy Zoo</a> we call it "the rose".</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-44546356193459493022013-03-26T14:30:00.000+00:002013-03-26T17:23:52.655+00:0038 things you might not know about the Moon(Unless, of course, you are extremely keen on the Moon, in which case you probably do. Anyway . . .)<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">1) Our Moon is the largest moon relative to the size of its planet in our Solar System.</span></b> Some moons are larger - Titan and Ganymede, for instance - but are hundreds of times smaller relative to Jupiter and Saturn. This of course leaves out Pluto and Charon, which besides no longer belonging to the "planet" class are more of a several-body system. On that topic, our Moon is more than five times the mass of Pluto!<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>2) It's as bright as a sunspot and as dark as coal. </b></span>A <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/sun/atmosphere/sunspots.html" target="_blank">sunspot</a> is a darker point on the Sun's surface. If you could isolate it, it would shine as bright as a full Moon - which looks extremely bright in the sky, especially when full. But its rocks are about the colour of coal. Its apparent whiteness is because it's nearby, and we see it contrasted against a darker space. Its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo" target="_blank">albedo</a> is roughly 0.1, which means it only reflects 10% of the light that hits it. (Ice is about 0.9, meaning it reflects 90% of the light, and charcoal about 0.04, meaning it reflects about 4%.) The Earth's albedo is about 0.3, though of course it varies from place to place. Mercury's is similar to the Moon's.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">3) In pictures, the Moon is almost always drawn much bigger than it really is - because it is so bright and captures our imaginations.</span></b> Its angular size in the sky is between 29.43 to 33.5 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_of_arc" target="_blank">arcminutes</a>, which is actually very small. The Andromeda galaxy appears six times larger than the Moon from Earth - but then, of course, we can't usually see that.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">4) The size of the Moon appears to <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071025.html" target="_blank">vary because of its elliptical orbit</a> - and not because of where it is relative to the horizon.</span></b> The famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion" target="_blank">"Moon illusion"</a>, the fact that the Moon appears huge when it's on the horizon, has been documented at least since Aristotle. Various theories have been put forward to explain it: one from Ancient Greece was that the Earth's own atmosphere had a magnifying effect. In fact, it doesn't - and you can check this for yourself by holding an object of fixed size next to the moon, at a fixed distance from your eyes. The cause is probably from the way we see the sky: we imagine it as fairly flat, or at most, a gently curving dome, making objects near the horizon seem further away than objects immediately overhead. There are also more landscape features like trees and buildings to compare the moon to on the horizon.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">5) Actually, it's not quite simple.</span></b> The Earth's atmosphere <i>does</i> have a lensing effect on the Moon which can turn it into funny shapes - but you need to be lucky to see it! It can be due to layers of air with different temperatures, such as <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090620.html" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGG5wJh_HZ4/UTvrAS49zaI/AAAAAAAABNY/wW3_Pp9h5-Q/s1600/moon+illusion+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGG5wJh_HZ4/UTvrAS49zaI/AAAAAAAABNY/wW3_Pp9h5-Q/s320/moon+illusion+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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From the International Space Station, <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/21/squishy-moonrise-seen-from-space/#.UTvp6NbxXoI" target="_blank">astronauts have seen a "squishy" Moon</a> as a result of the Earth's atmosphere diffracting sunlight!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">7) The Moon is 1/81th of the mass of the Earth, but its gravity is 1/6th.</span></b> Why? Because of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_law_of_gravity" target="_blank">Newton's laws of gravity</a>. (To be pedantic, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Gravitation" target="_blank">inverse square law</a> specifically, which was not Newton's alone.) Gravity gets stronger the closer you are to the centre of something. If you have two bodies of exactly the same mass, but one is smaller than the other, the smaller one will have a greater gravity, though over a smaller area. This is why, in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_star" target="_blank">binary star system</a> where one star has died, the white dwarf, neutron star or black hole will often <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/spaces-explosive-candles.html" target="_blank">start accumulating matter from the star</a>. As the Moon has a much smaller radius than the Earth, an astronaut standing on the Moon is much closer to the centre of the Moon than she would be to the Earth's standing on the surface of the Earth. Surprisingly, this effect is more significant than the mass of the body - double the mass and you double the gravity, but halve the radius and you multiply the gravity by four.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">8) There is no atmosphere or liquid water on the Moon, meaning there is no weather.</span></b> The escape velocity of the Moon is 2.38 kilometres per second (so it's much easier to fire rockets off the Moon than off the Earth). At Earthly and Moonly temperatures, this is easily low enough for all gases to escape immediately. (At a very, very cold temperature, such as Pluto and Charon, gases move far slower, so it's easier to hold onto them.) This has many implications . . .<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>9) . . . for example: Moon dust is dangerous to astronauts and their spacesuits!</b></span> It's extremely abrasive - because no water has rubbed it and rounded it, the way rivers make pebbles smooth on Earth. It's very hard, because meteorite impacts give it a melted, glassy coating. This hardness and abrasiveness means it pierces spacesuits easily. It's very fine, and having no air or water to drive this fine dust around or turn it into soil, it stays there - static and clingy, getting into the Apollo craft and into the astronauts' lungs. The static comes from UV light which knocks electrons off the atoms and molecules. <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/08-52.htm" target="_blank">All this will need to be taken into account if we want to live on the Moon</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">10) It has often been thought that there is water on the Moon - the Tintin characters, going there in the 1950s, see stalactites and stalagmites - and that hypothesis was correct: there is</span></b>. It's ice, of course, and trapped within the rock - no rivers or lakes exist, and any water that seeped to the surface would immediately boil or be rapidly <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/chemistry/photodissociation.html" target="_blank">photodissociated</a>. But <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=274537.0" target="_blank">absorption spectra</a> by NASA's Moon Minerology Mapper <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090928.html" target="_blank">show the presence of a tiny amount of water within the rock</a>. This <a href="http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/mile-long-lava-cave-on-moon-could-support-lunar-base-2011034/" target="_blank">has wannabe lunar colonisers very excited indeed</a>. Recently, researchers at the University of Michigan did a study on moon rocks which <a href="http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2013/02/18/Moon-water-complicates-formation-theory/UPI-20701361222471/" target="_blank">suggested that the water seems to have been there from the time the Moon formed</a>. This is odd, because the Moon is thought to have been very hot when it formed, which would have boiled off any water. (The same, I suppose, goes for the Earth. Our water may have been brought via comets from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment" target="_blank">Late Heavy Bombardment</a>.)<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">11) A "blue moon" is actually not a blue coloured moon at all, but simply the second full moon of any given month.</span></b> Since the Moon's orbit is 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes, and your average month is 30 days and 10 hours, this doesn't happen often - every two or three years. Occasionally some Facebook page will tell you that a blue moon means something incredibly significant and spiritual. It doesn't: it's simply an inevitable lining up of human generated unequal series of numbers. Calendar months are entirely human choices. Sorry!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">12) The Moon is red during a lunar eclipse because the light that reaches it is filtered through sunrises and sunsets.</span></b> To visualise what is happening, look at <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110904.html" target="_blank">this beautiful picture</a> of Saturn:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBo52tMqE7s/UTv8H_QnZGI/AAAAAAAABNo/Xu_Ha7dY4Ys/s1600/Backlit+Saturn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBo52tMqE7s/UTv8H_QnZGI/AAAAAAAABNo/Xu_Ha7dY4Ys/s320/Backlit+Saturn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Saturn's air itself is carrying the Sun's light around the planet (as the air does on a cloudy day on Earth). Earth's atmosphere does the same thing: the atmosphere around the edge of the planet carries the light on and diffuses it into Earth's own shadow. It's red light, for the same reason as sunsets are red: blue light is scattered and all goes off at an angle, leaving red light's path comparatively clear. There are also plenty of particles in the Earth's atmosphere, and particles tend to turn light redder. Light filtering through a sunrise and sunset has the most atmosphere to travel though. That's why people say there's "no protection" when you get sunburnt at noon: the Sun's light goes straight through the thinnest layer of air.<br />
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I made a silly little diagram to illustrate this for my <a href="http://galacticorchids.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-astronomy-talks.html" target="_blank">March Galactic Orchids talk</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aybo44yER0Q/UU6cs5Gj9RI/AAAAAAAABOA/Pbw6pHODAng/s1600/Noon+vs+sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aybo44yER0Q/UU6cs5Gj9RI/AAAAAAAABOA/Pbw6pHODAng/s320/Noon+vs+sunset.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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and incidentally, exactly the same thing happens when looking at spiral galaxies face-on versus edge-on:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-03OAaruojPY/UU6dy3NT1LI/AAAAAAAABOI/Fb2YxVciqDQ/s1600/edge+on+versus+face+on+spirals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-03OAaruojPY/UU6dy3NT1LI/AAAAAAAABOI/Fb2YxVciqDQ/s320/edge+on+versus+face+on+spirals.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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(This lovely pair are NGC 4126 and NGC 3814. From the <a href="http://sdss.org/" target="_blank">Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope</a>.)<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">13) We see perfect solar eclipses because of a wonderful cosmic coincidence: the Sun and the Moon appear exactly the same size.</span></b> The Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times further away. Actually, this varies - if the Moon is near apogee (furthest point away) due to its elliptical orbit during a solar eclipse, it won't quite block out the Sun, and we get the <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090125.html" target="_blank">"ring of fire"</a>.<br />
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The shadow of the Moon on the Earth is actually surprisingly small. From the <a href="http://phl.upr.edu/library/notes/eclipseofmay20-212012" target="_blank">Planetary Habitability Laboratory</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CxaSRJ54aXM/UTv_EPQCy5I/AAAAAAAABNw/mglWPS_gSfQ/s1600/Eclipse+shadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CxaSRJ54aXM/UTv_EPQCy5I/AAAAAAAABNw/mglWPS_gSfQ/s320/Eclipse+shadow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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(Eclipses are very emotional events. If you want to cheer yourself up, I strongly recommend watching <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/science/space/realmedia/skyatnight_apr06?size=16x9&bgc=000000&nbram=1&bbram=1" target="_blank">this Sky at Night episode about Chris Lintott's trip to Turkey</a> to see one!)<br />
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There is almost certainly no other planet on the Solar System where we could see such perfect solar eclipses - and this is in time, too, as well as space, because . . .<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">14) . . . the Moon used to be closer to Earth than it is now - and is moving away from us at the rate of 3.8 cm per year.</span></b> We check this constantly by firing laser beams at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector#Retroreflectors_on_the_Moon" target="_blank">retroreflectors</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment" target="_blank">placed on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts</a>. As we know the speed of light, we can time how long the reflection takes to get back to us and get the Moon's distance to an accuracy of millimetres. In my lifetime, so far, it's moved away about 1.16 metres.<br />
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On average, that is. Its elliptical orbit varies by a huge amount more than that. But there's a slow progression. And the unavoidable conclusion is that the Moon used to be a lot closer to Earth than it is now. Tides would have been more dramatic; the Earth's own crust would have been under more strain, as would the Moon's. The friction this caused is why the Moon's face is always pointed towards us - and why we are heading the same way . . .<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>15) Earth's own orbit is slowing down, so one day we will always be showing the same face to the Moon, too.</b></span> Our faraway descendants will never see a <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130130.html" target="_blank">moonrise</a> . . . But that will not be for a very long time. At the moment, we only need to add a "leap second" less than once a year.<br />
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<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2008/12/31/take_a_flying_leap_second.html" target="_blank">As Phil Plait put it</a>: "I hope you liked 2008. Because you're going to get an extra 0.0000031689% of it today." (2008 was possibly the worst year of my life so I was not pleased, but the extra 0.0000031689% passed quickly!) As he explains, the Moon isn't the only influence - there's also the Sun, the fact that the Earth's structure is part solid and part liquid and generally uneven, earthquakes and tsunamis, and even the weather. So it's slow. But it seems that one day, a lunar orbit and an Earth day will be the same length - 47 of our present Earth days.<br />
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We know <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=earth-rotation-summer-solstice" target="_blank">from fossil records and even rocks</a> that the Earth's day was once 21 hours when life was very young, and 23 hours in the time of the dinosaurs. Coral is particularly good at showing this - they grow leaving marks like tree rings, marking days and years (or rather, periods of light and dark, and seasons, respectively). The older the records, the more days there seem to be in a year - indicating that days were shorter.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">16) The Moon is speeding up!</span></b> <a href="http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae695.cfm" target="_blank">This is why it is receding from us</a>, and how it will eventually only see one side of the Earth, as we do it. Essentially, it's taking energy from the Earth's rotation around its axis and putting it into its own orbit - like grabbing the hand of a spinning ice-skater. However, even though the Moon speeds up, it takes longer to complete its orbit, since it's further out.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">17) The Moon may be responsible for the seasons.</span></b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt#Other_objects_of_the_Solar_System" target="_blank">Some planets are very tilted</a> (some ridiculously so, like Uranus); some are very sensibly aligned, with their equators on the same plane as the Solar System. Earth's is pretty tilted, and it keeps the tilt consistent as it goes round the Sun - hence, of course, the seasons. If the Moon was created in a giant impact (see later), this would have knocked us over; Uranus is thought to be tilted for the same reason. However, Earth also has a "wobble" (a very steady one; it's not going to fall over like a spinning top) which is shown in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles" target="_blank">Milankovitch cycles</a>. However, all these are steady and fairly minor, unlike Mars, which wobbles all over the place as its two titchy moons fail to exert any stability against the massive objects such as Jupiter pushing it around in the Solar System. The Moon has been shown to have a stabilising effect on the Earth's orbit - though this, much like the eclipses, will cease as it gets further away from us.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">18) It may seem obvious, but art does not always capture it: the appearance of the Moon indicates where the Sun is, like an arrow.</span></b> You will <i>never</i> see a crescent Moon looking like an open parachute: if the crescent is on its side, the "horns" will point upwards, indicating that the Sun is"below" the Earth's horizon. A full Moon indicates that the Sun is "behind" the Earth. My favourite ever scientist, <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/01/different-sort-of-sine-qua-non-cecilia.html" target="_blank">Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin</a>, wrote in a 1954 astronomy textbook, agreed at the time to be the best in the world: "It is an amusing pastime to note the 'impossible moons' portrayed by some artists: a new moon high in the northern sky, for instance; a full moon near sunset in the west; or a crescent with horns pointed downward." (That is probably the American version of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-astronomy-Cecilia-Payne-Gaposchkin/dp/B0000CJG72/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1364114607&sr=8-4" target="_blank">this book</a> - I wonder if I have bought the only 1954 copy on the market?)<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">19) The Moon has a molten core and magnetic field.</span></b> Both are very small - but it's <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/electric-moon.html" target="_blank">enough to perturb the solar wind from the Sun</a>. The molten core was found <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/at-long-last-moons-core-seen.html" target="_blank">with the help of seismometers left by the Apollo astronauts</a>. This is pretty interesting, since not all planets have a molten core or magnetic field - <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/14949/mars-magnetic-field/" target="_blank">Mars's, for instance, has pretty much shrivelled up</a>, and Martians have no protection from the solar wind.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">20) Tides are caused by gravity. Nothing else.</span></b> Contrary to what you may have heard, the Moon does not preferentially pull on water. It does not affect us "because we are mostly water". True, the Moon does have some cultural effects, hence the werewolf, the word "lunatic", and the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6723911.stm" target="_blank">Sussex police claiming that there's a rise in crime around the full moon</a>. I've heard people tell me in all seriousness that they "feel different when it's a full moon", that they "felt really angry when the Moon was red during an eclipse", but the Moon isn't picking some of the molecules in your body and dragging them around whilst ignoring the others. I'm not going to pretend I know why these mood alterations seem to happen, but I suspect a lot of it's simply that we <i>expect</i> them. Moonlight is a wonderful, shivery thing, after all - I will never forget taking a walk in a moonlit wooded area around the lake on my university campus. The water was black and silver and the moonlight reflected astonishingly off the silver birch trees. The thrill was slightly marred by the fact that it was so muddy that one of my companions had wrapped his shoes in plastic bags . . .<br />
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The Moon's gravity - not to mention the Sun's - pulls on <i>everything</i>, including the Earth's crust. CERN had to take this into account building the Large Hadron Collider, if I recall correctly what was said on <a href="http://chrislintott.net/category/guest/" target="_blank">my visit there</a>. There are tides because water moves around easily. As for the Sussex police, I also recall Chris Lintott's comment on a podcast called "Living Space": "Anything to do with the Moon in Sussex has got to be Patrick's fault."<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">21) The much-missed Sir Patrick Moore wrote his first paper about the Moon when he was only 14.</span></b> He was invited by a local astronomer, W.S. Franks, to come and use the Brockhurst Observatory which was very near where the young Patrick lived. Mr Franks was suddenly killed by a car knocking him on his bicycle, and Patrick was asked to take over the observatory. He presented a paper to the British Astronomical Association named "Small Craters in the Mare Crisium". You'll find the Mare Crisium on the far right <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110303.html" target="_blank">here</a>. "I sent it in, and was notified by the Association's Council that it had been accepted, but I felt bound to explain that I was not exactly elderly. I still have the reply, signed by the then secretary, F.J. Sellers: 'I note that you are only fourteen. I don't see that this is relevant'." (This, by the way, is exactly what you should be saying to young people interested in science.) You can read more in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Patrick-Moore-The-Autobiography-Sir/dp/075094014X" target="_blank">Sir Patrick's autobiography</a>. (You can also <a href="http://www.banguniverse.com/sirpatrickmoore/" target="_blank">leave a tribute for him here</a> - and <a href="http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/patrick+moore/" target="_blank">yes, he did play the xylophone</a>.)<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">22) The darker areas of the Moon, "the man in the Moon", are called maria, meaning seas. Tell that to someone you know named Maria, if she'd be interested?</span></b> The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_mare" target="_blank">maria</a> are of course not seas - they are in fact old lava flows, quite possibly made as the result of impact craters that filled with lava. There still seems to be debate whether the impacts caused an upwelling of lava or whether it was volcanism. They are dark because they are more iron-rich than the rest of the Moon's surface, indicating that they come from closer to the core. (Just like the Earth, the Moon has more iron towards its centre, because iron is heaviest, and it started off molten so heavy things sank to the bottom.) <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080208.html" target="_blank">In this picture by Alan Friedman</a> you can see a large lava basin which then received a later impact:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rZMYHpUdnqQ/UU6-D0CMgHI/AAAAAAAABOY/0g-2-A4PSRM/s1600/iridium_100407friedman_c800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rZMYHpUdnqQ/UU6-D0CMgHI/AAAAAAAABOY/0g-2-A4PSRM/s320/iridium_100407friedman_c800.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">23) There isn't a "dark side of the Moon".</span></b> There <i>is</i> a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moon_Farside_LRO.jpg" target="_blank">"far side"</a> of the Moon that never points our way. But, as you can see for yourself, every side of the Moon experiences day and night with its rotation just as the Earth does. We can see the far side of the Moon, however, using spacecraft such as the <a href="http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter</a>:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">24) The Moon does not, strictly speaking, orbit the Earth.</span></b> Rather, the Earth and the Moon orbit a common centre of mass. This <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_mass" target="_blank">centre of mass</a>, or barycentre, is just under 2000km below the surface of the Earth. That means that Earth goes round in a little circle, and the Moon goes round in a big one. (If they were the same size and mass, the centre of mass would be exactly halfway between them.)<br />
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The Earth and Moon feel equal and opposite forces: gravity balances a "centrifugal force" (I say that in inverted commas, because there's actually no such thing as centrifugal force, and the idle use of the term drives some physicists crazy. It's actually the law of inertia: the urge of the body to keep going in a straight line. If either body started going in a straight line, it would be going away from the other one. It doesn't, of course, because of gravity. When you whizz lettuce in a salad whizzer, it is flung against the wall of the bowl because it "wants" to go in a straight line, but the container prevents it from doing so). That's why we have two tides, not one. Water nearer the Moon feels the Moon's gravity more, and wells towards it. Water on the far side of the Moon feels the "centrifugal force" more, and moves towards outer space.<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>25) There are more maria and larger craters on the "near" side of the Moon that points our way, and the core is about 2km closer to Earth than the actual centre.</b></span> It is tempting to conclude that all this is because the Earth's gravity pulled the heavy parts of the Moon towards us. But the Moon feels exactly the same effect as in the item above this: it has an equal and opposite "centrifugal force" pulling it away from the Earth as towards. It could be due to a massive impact (or several) coming from roughly Earth's direction; but we don't know. Perhaps one day we'll find out?<br />
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(It is not shameful, by the way, to answer a scientific question with "we do not yet know". It doesn't mean "scientists are stupid or lazy", but that the Universe is too big for us to have explored the whole thing yet. Otherwise we wouldn't need any scientists! Indeed, it's often when we think we're close to tidying up and claiming to understand the Universe that the greatest surprises of all occur - relativity and quantum theory, for example, or the accelerating expansion of the Universe. OK, rant over.)<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>26) The Moon is the second densest moon in the Solar System. </b></span>The densest is Jupiter's volcanic moon Io.<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>27) Because of the Moon's elliptical orbit, we do get to see occasional corners of "the far side".</b></span> This is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration_of_the_moon#Lunar_libration" target="_blank">libration</a>. Here, have a pic and get nice and dizzy.<br />
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There are other reasons for the libration: the moon's own axis is not quite at right angles to the plane of its orbit, so we see a "nodding" movement; and the fact that we're over 6000km from the Earth's centre, so we ourselves see the Moon from a very slightly different angle at the beginning and end of a night.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">28) Phil Plait has a huge list of debunkations for conspiracy theorists who claim that the Moon landings were faked.</span></b> You can read it <a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I'll just go through <a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html#dust" target="_blank">one</a>: the idea that upon launching, the Moon's dust "should have been blown around more".<br />
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Do an experiment. Next time you get out of the shower and the bathroom's full of steam, watch that steam for a while. Then blow on some steam quite far away. Or a balloon, if you desire; or a boiling pot of water or the kettle or a candle half a room away - whatever takes your fancy. You will notice that there is a pause, and then it will start swirling about. What did that?<br />
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Air, of course. The air from your lungs? Well, partly. But also all the air that's in between you and the steam. The air from your lungs knocked into air molecules, which knocked into more air molecules, which knocked into . . . well, on the Moon, this doesn't happen. Blown air, or blown anything, meets a vaccuum. Only that which is right next to the blowing gets touched. On the Moon, air will quickly dissipate into space.<br />
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For more lighthearted stuff, <a href="http://stuffucanuse.com/fake_moon_landings/moon_landings.htm" target="_blank">the Clangers are always willing to help</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">29) For Moon observers, the best time to look at details is not at full moon, but when it's a crescent so there are lots of shadows.</span></b> (This is only something I've been told. I'm a rubbish observer; I've used my telescope twice and then broken it!) Shadows show detail. Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/grahambowes" target="_blank">Graham Bowes</a> for this amazing image:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">30) We've known for many centuries that there can't be air on the Moon, because its edges are sharp.</span></b> Look at the Earth's own horizon, and it'll be misty, blue, and blurred. That's air getting in the way. You don't see that on the Moon. William Herschel, however, <a href="http://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/sir-william-herschels-belief-in-extraterrestrial-life/" target="_blank">speculated</a> that there might just be air in the craters - at the lowest points on the Moon's surface - and that aliens might live in these. He pointed out that at craters are on average 50% lit and may be lit from any angle, so alien buildings capturing the warmth of the Sun would probably be circular. Incidentally, Herschel has craters named after him <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_(lunar_crater)" target="_blank">on our Moon</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_(Mimantean_crater)" target="_blank">on Saturn's moon Mimas</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">31) Very occasionally, we see abrupt changes on the Moon, such as a spot turning brighter or darker or changing colour.</span></b> These are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon" target="_blank">transient lunar phenomena</a>, thought to be caused by impacts, outgassing etc. You can hear a lot about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon#Description_of_events" target="_blank">first ever recorded instance</a>, in 1178, in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos". Some monks at a monastery in Canterbury saw "a splitting" of the very new crescent moon, and reported fire, smoke, darkening, and that the Moon "writhed" and "throbbed", "like a wounded snake". This was probably a large impact, and <a href="http://www.h2g2.com/approved_entry/A993297" target="_blank">has been suggested to be the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater</a>. Other odd phenomena include that static, UV-light-blasted moon dust, from number 9: the Apollo astronauts saw <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_dust#Moon_dust_fountains_and_electrostatic_levitation" target="_blank">"twilight rays"</a> towards the horizon, which was probably dust in a continually rising-and-falling state from the surface.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">32) Going to the Moon made us much more aware of our own Earth.</span></b> If you've ever spent a long time in a country other than your own, you'll know that you learn a huge amount about your own country, too. The <a href="http://photography.nationalgeographic.co.uk/wallpaper/photography/photos/milestones-space-photography/earth-full-view/" target="_blank">first ever complete photograph</a> of the Earth from space, "The Blue Marble", taken from Apollo 17 in 1972, and <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/17jul_discoveringearth/" target="_blank">"Earthrise"</a>, taken by Bill Anders as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in 1968, had a great effect on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble#History" target="_blank">people's environmental awareness</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">33) We're now pretty sure the Moon was formed by a giant impact on Earth, probably by an object the size of Mars.</span></b> We can tell this from the fact that the Moon is made of fairly similar materials to the crust of the Earth, but not the core (it's less dense). <a href="http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/moon/moon_formation.html" target="_blank">Other theories of formation</a>, historically, have included that it was captured, that the Earth and Moon formed together, or that the Earth was spinning so fast a piece of it bulged out and broke off!<br />
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It would take extreme luck to capture a passing body that was going at precisely the right speed to start orbiting the Earth, rather than colliding or simply escaping. If they had formed together, the Moon's iron core would probably be larger. This is also the case with the spinning theory. The giant impact hypothesis is supported by the fact that the Moon's composition is fairly similar to the Earth's crust. A <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/moon_formation.html" target="_blank">more recent hypothesis</a> is that there was a three-body collision, out of which the Earth and Moon formed together.<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>34) The temperature variation on the Moon is huge.</b></span> At "night" - and a night lasts 2 weeks, since the Moon rotates at the same rate as it orbits the Earth - the temperature falls to -173
ºC, while by daytime at the equator, it rises to 127ºC.
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">35) There is a place near the Moon's south pole which is the coldest known place in the Solar System!</span></b> There are <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17810-moon-is-coldest-known-place-in-the-solar-system.html" target="_blank">very deep craters</a> where sunlight never reaches the bottom. These have been measured to be -240ºC, 33ºC above "absolute zero" and 10ºC colder than Pluto. Of course, there might be similar permanently shadowed and even colder places in the Solar System just waiting for us to find them . . .
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>36) The Apollo astronauts brought back 2,415 separate samples of lunar rock, weighing a total of 380kg. </b></span>You can <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/loans/moonrock.aspx" target="_blank">go and see a piece of it</a> at the Science Museum in London.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">37) Nobody owns any land on the Moon.</span></b> This has been decided in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty" target="_blank">a treaty</a> which specifically prohibits any country's sovereignity or its use for military purposes. So if someone tries to sell you a plot of land on the Moon (or to name a star after your loved one, or what have you), they are defrauding you - no matter how fancy the certificate you receive.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">38) You can help explore the far side of the Moon and classify its craters with citizen science.</span></b> Go to <a href="http://www.moonzoo.org.uk/">www.moonzoo.org.uk</a>.<br />
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Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/GrahamBowes" target="_blank">Graham Bowes</a> for this <a href="http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html" target="_blank">ghostly galleon</a> too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-63452445376200172832013-03-08T02:40:00.000+00:002013-03-12T07:36:45.714+00:00International Women's Day 2013On <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/" target="_blank">International Women's Day</a>, <a href="http://wow.southbankcentre.co.uk/events/" target="_blank">there are numerous events</a>, and there are continuities. Many people wish each other a happy International Women's Day, while others whine that there is no International Men's Day (<a href="http://www.internationalmensday.com/" target="_blank">here it is</a>) or claim that in today's "honour", they have "put the washing machine on".<br />
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It's important to remember - as many women point out when we begin posts about feminism - just how far we've come in not very many years. Rape and violence including within marriage are no longer acceptable in many societies. Women can now be politicians, when a century ago we didn't even have the vote. In theory, at least, we're supposed to have equal pay, though this certainly doesn't happen in practice (two recent figures are <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mro/news-release/gender-pay-gap-falls-to-9-6--in-2012/ashe1112.html" target="_blank">9.6%</a> and <a href="http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=321" target="_blank">14%</a>). And - by the way, this often makes me incredibly happy - most men I know are all for equality. Most treat me with as much respect as they treat men. Some, who are initially dismissive of feminism, change their minds when they learn more. Many comment on how the patriarchy damages men too - <a href="http://adragonsbestfriend.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/patriarchy-messes-things-up-for-us-men-too/" target="_blank">Puffles, for instance</a>. And I hope most understand that when I mention sexism, I am not bashing men in general, or any specific man unless I say so - just <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/13/opinion/op-solnit13" target="_blank">a sheer cultural force of habit</a>.<br />
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Recently some of the most moving pieces I've read involve <a href="http://myiwd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/edited-lowlights.html" target="_blank">horrific behaviour going unchallenged</a> and the <a href="http://www.girlonthenet.com/2013/03/07/on-your-power/" target="_blank">permanent fear in which this leaves women</a> (note: this last site has posts for over-18s only - not including that one). Yesterday there was a hilarious <a href="http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2013/01/23/cameron-pours-his-curves-into-suit-for-europe-speech/" target="_blank">NewsBiscuit</a> take on how differently males and females were represented in the media, which prompted the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23thingspeopledontsayaboutmen&src=hash" target="_blank">#thingspeopledontsayaboutmen</a> hashtag ("He's a bit hormonal today"; "Can career men have it all?"; etc.). It may sound trivial to those who have not experienced such things, but this entry on <a href="http://www.everydaysexism.com/" target="_blank">Everyday Sexism</a> pretty much sums it up (click to enlarge):<br />
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In other words, just the fact that we are openly talking about sexism is a major stepping stone to victory. Projects such as Everyday Sexism are vital to this sort of thing. The method of a bully is to make the victim feel powerless and alone. This bully might be a schoolkid who tells their victim nobody likes them, a (male or female) domestic abuser, or a dictatorship that makes all its citizens terrified their neighbours will report them, or anyone big or small - and as any woman who's called out sexist remarks can probably attest, she will be accused of overreacting, being a bitch, ugly, frigid, paranoid, a man-hater, etc etc, which has just this isolating effect. But it's a lot harder to say this when 20,000 people tell similar stories!<br />
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So, what am I doing for International Women's Day, other than ranting? Probably not much, as I'm unwell - though I hope to go along and see the <a href="http://www.dofeve.org/" target="_blank">Daughters of Eve</a> stall <a href="http://wow.southbankcentre.co.uk/events/wow-parties-2/" target="_blank">here</a>. I should probably write my presentation for Wednesday: it'll be the <a href="http://galacticorchids.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-astronomy-talks.html" target="_blank">March Galactic Orchids talk</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/152873131539142/?ref=22" target="_blank">"Many Mysterious Moons"</a>.<br />
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Our own Moon has some decidedly odd characteristics. Some of them are intrinsically odd; some are perfectly unremarkable but make you stop and think. For instance, its gravity is only one-sixth of Earth's. But its mass is 1/80th. How can that be? That is because, when we stand on the Moon, we are comparatively nearer its centre, so more strongly affected - you need Newton's laws for that. And then there's the fact that our Moon is much, much bigger than every other planet's moon in comparison to the size of its planet. And then there are other moons: some destined to crash into their home planet one day, some that make gaps in the planet's rings, others that actually <i>create</i> the rings, a few that are hopeful candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life . . . I'll write more about these when I've done my talk. I hope you'll be able to come! 7pm this Wednesday, <a href="http://new-unity.org/" target="_blank">Newington Green Unitarian Church</a>, 39A Newington Green, Stoke Newington, London N16 9PR - a talk followed by questions and answers, then tea, coffee, biscuits and quite possibly cake. The nearest train stations are Dalston Kingsland and Canonbury on the Overground line.<br />
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<a href="http://www.galacticorchids.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Galactic Orchids</a> hasn't exactly been my life's smashing success: 13 has been my largest audience so far. I advertise on Twitter and Facebook, contact local news outlets etc - though the latter seems to draw nobody in. (Oddly, when I lived in Wales and travelled to give talks at other places, I'd often have audiences of 50 or more. Now I'm in London, it's very rare for people to come to my talks. Perhaps everything's just higher quality here? Or perhaps I'm really just not very good at advertising.) Recently, suffering from depression and low confidence, I've ended up rushing my presentations a little - and then of course feeling disheartened that they're just not as good as I wanted them to be.<br />
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On the other hand, people tell me earnestly that they learn a lot and enjoy the evenings, and I have a small but lovely "hard core" who keep coming back, which is the best possible sign. A couple of especially wonderful people can be relied on to help with the setting up and then clearing up after we've drunk our tea, and some have brought space-themed food! We've had some great chatty evenings as a result. We've been able to donate over £100 each to Daughters of Eve and the <a href="http://www.orchidproject.org/" target="_blank">Orchid Project</a>, plus some minor expenses for me and a donation to <a href="http://www.new-unity.org/" target="_blank">New Unity</a>, which gives me their venue for free. A friend kindly lent me a projector, then said I could keep it! One of my aims with Galactic Orchids is not so much to make people experts in female genital mutilation - the more I learn about that, as with astronomy, the less I feel I know; even campaigners don't agree on everything - but simply to make it, like sexism, more acceptable to talk about. I mean, it's not exactly easy to trample into the subject of private parts permanently injured in a cultural practice believed (incorrectly) to be required by religion, is it?<br />
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The resulting ignorance about female genital mutilation is heartbreaking. Take <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/please-help-i-dont-want-to-be-cut-like-my-sister-when-we-go-back-to-africa-8520736.html" target="_blank">this story</a> of an 11-year-old two years ago, whose 12-year-old sister was cut in Africa without even her parents' knowledge. They only found out when she cried watching a television program about it back in the UK. The 11-year-old was terrified that the same would happen to her when they next visited extended family, and sought help from a teacher. The teacher did not know to contact police, or even a specialised charity.<br />
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Things are progressing, though. <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/qa-its-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-fgm/" target="_blank">A journalist recently took on the subject in Liberia</a> which broke a major taboo - putting herself and a lady she interviewed in danger, but both say it was worth it. After Nimko Ali from Daughters of Eve <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/met-will-prosecute-parents-who-send-their-girls-abroad-to-be-cut-8499328.html" target="_blank">got into the Evening Standard</a> (for which she received death threats, accusations of "hating being a Somali" and so on), <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/uk-pledges-35m-to-fight-female-genital-mutilation" target="_blank">£35 million was pledged to battle the problem</a>! It's not going to be an easy task, but at least it's now an open, acknowledged problem. And it's a problem that is part of a wider culture of violence and subjugation of women, which affects us all, men and women, of every country. My tiny part to play is raising a small amount of money and what little awareness I can for people who can help much better than I can alone, I guess. There are events and there are tiny, inching steps.<br />
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Incidentally, there's a long but fascinating podcast about female genital mutilation <a href="http://www.stretlaw.com/news.html" target="_blank">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-65235930651676802012012-09-16T02:19:00.000+01:002013-04-08T19:05:41.010+01:00And, Therefore . . . Part II: Proofs that women shouldn't mention sexism!A couple of years ago, after the <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/i-survived-homeopathic-suicide-because.html" target="_blank">Ten23 overdose</a>, I read more comments on newspaper and social networking sites than usual and became rather overly well versed in pro-homeopathy logic. <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/and-therefore.html" target="_blank">The result</a> was startling - it ended up on various Spanish websites, a German one, and even as part of a university course.<br />
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Since <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/leave-us-alone.html" target="_blank">my rant about sexual harassment</a>, the wonderful website <a href="http://everydaysexism.com/" target="_blank">EverydaySexism</a> launched, and <a href="http://www.alexgabriel.co.uk/post/29156274141/things-that-are-and-are-not-bullying" target="_blank">one or two</a> <a href="http://skepchick.org/2012/06/why-i-wont-be-at-tam-this-year/" target="_blank">instances of misogyny</a> coming up among the (depressingly fragmented this year) skeptical movement*, the same has started to happen with feminism. The more I read of feminist issues, the more people I see trying to cover them up, and the more annoyed I'm getting!<br />
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To be clear, most men I know are nice, fair, un-sexist, and upset when they see sexism occurring. And I have come across some who have genuinely been astonished and distressed to discover a behaviour they thought normal (groping, for example) is damaging and horrible, and changed their perception. So this probably rather unpleasant rant is only directed at** a small - but vocal - minority, which is highly offended at sexism's ever being pointed out or discussed. In the spirit of <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/and-therefore.html" target="_blank">my homeopathy proofs</a>, I thought it was time to make a note of their logic . . .<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>*For "movement", if you wish, please read "community" or "unherded cats" or whatever takes your fancy. That is </i><u>seriously</u><i> not something I can be bothered to have an argument about.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>** For "directed at", please read "actually, not directed at them at all. Rather, directed at those who have attempted to engage with them, and need a laugh as an alternative to banging their head against a brick wall!"</i></span><br />
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THE AESTHETICS ARGUMENT<br />
1) Feminists are always ugly.<br />
2) Aren't they?<br />
3) Look around. Yeah, everyone's laughing in agreement with me. So that's all right then! Shut your face, you frigid bitch, and go and iron my shirt.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM CALMNESS<br />
1) You're overreacting.<br />
2) You're also doing women who are real victims of sexism a disservice by getting so hysterical. They won't get taken seriously next time they're assaulted, all because of you whining so much that nobody believes women any more.<br />
3) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE PERSONAL PREFERENCE OF WORDS ARGUMENT<br />
1) Somebody used the word "misogyny" incorrectly.<br />
2) A LOT of people do that; that is proof that their understanding is incorrect.<br />
3) Obviously my own interpretation of the word is correct. There is no argument about that.<br />
4) Therefore, nobody should use that word in any context other than that which has my signed approval.<br />
5) Therefore, that covers the entire issue.<br />
6) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE REVERSE SEXISM ARGUMENT<br />
1) But women can be sexist towards men too!<br />
2) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE REVERSE SEXISM ARGUMENT (2)<br />
1) Why are you only talking about sexism towards women in this particular instance? That's really sexist of you! <i>You're</i> the ones at fault here!<br />
2) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE NO TRUE (SCOTS)MAN ARGUMENT<br />
1) <i>I've</i> never catcalled a woman in the street.<br />
2) Therefore, why are you moaning where I can see it? That's not fair on me.<br />
3) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE HUMOROUS ARGUMENT<br />
1) We didn't mean it <i>seriously</i> about how this woman needs a good rape and that one should be in the kitchen making sandwiches. We're really confused about why you should criticise such comments.<br />
2) Therefore, you're too serious.<br />
3) And also too emotional to have a rational discussion with.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM SMALL HOLES<br />
1) You made a statement which I consider to be incorrect or misrepresentative, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with the subject in question.<br />
2) Therefore, the rest of your argument is also invalid.<br />
3) Also, you're doing a great disservice to the people you misrepresented.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE CAUSATION ARGUMENT<br />
1) I am not blaming women. I am just trying to analyse the <i>causes</i> of sexism.<br />
2) That you have not covered every single one of my ideas and excuses in your blogpost or article is evidence that you do not care about the causes, you only want to blame men.<br />
3) Like all feminists.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM MY POINT<br />
1) This feminist has missed my point.<br />
2) They always do that.<br />
3) Yes, my point is much more important than all the opinions and experiences of all women in the world put together.<br />
4) No, there is definitely no chance that she did understand your point, but disagreed with it.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE COMPLI(E?)MENTARY ARGUMENT<br />
1) But isn't it a compliment to be catcalled or groped?<br />
2) You should be grateful men notice you. Fat or old or ugly women don't get this attention.<br />
3) Yes, of course you live entirely to gain men's attention. Come on, you're a <i>woman</i>!<br />
4) But it's not anyone's <i>intention</i> to scare, disgust, threaten, corner, embarrass or belittle you.<br />
5) My interpretation is also valid while yours is not.<br />
6) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE COUNTER ARGUMENT<br />
1) It is also possible for men to be sexually assaulted by women.<br />
2) This by definition negates the entire issue of sexual assault of women by men.<br />
3) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE RAPE = THEFT ARGUMENT<br />
1) Of <i>course</i> it's not right to say that a woman should dress modestly in order to avoid rape, there is no excuse for rape.<br />
2) However, would you leave your house door unlocked?<br />
3) That rape is violent assault on a living, moving being, whilst theft is of inanimate objects for a totally different purpose, is utterly irrelevant here.<br />
4) Therefore, women should dress modestly in order to avoid rape. This is only common sense.<br />
5) And it's illogical to complain about it.<br />
6) And it is not insulting to men, because if it was, that would mean everyone thinks I'm a thief.<br />
7) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism (or victim blaming, or rape).<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM BIOLOGY<br />
1) We poor men just can't help it.<br />
2) God/evolution/whatever made our eyes to be receptive to visual signals.<br />
3) Therefore, it's your job to be <a href="http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/browse" target="_blank">modest</a>.<br />
4) We're only trying to help you here.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM POLITICAL CORRECTNESS<br />
1) I'm not racist.<br />
2) Therefore, I can't be sexist either.<br />
3) Therefore, I shouldn't have to put up with this being discussed around me.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE LACK OF OFFENCE ARGUMENT<br />
1) What's your problem? <i>I'm</i> not offended by what s/he did/said.<br />
2) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE HISTORICAL ARGUMENT<br />
1) You young things these days don't know how lucky you are!<br />
2) When I was young, my mother was expected to do all the cooking and ironing. <i>She</i> didn't complain!<br />
3) You young girls need to stop messing about on the career ladder and find yourselves a nice man!<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM THE VICTIM CARD<br />
1) She's just playing the victim card.<br />
2) Therefore, she can't be being honest.<br />
3) Therefore, we don't welcome her opinion of sexism.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM THE VICTIM CARD (2)<br />
1) But this woman was really horrible to me once.<br />
2) Therefore, all women are horrible.<br />
3) Therefore, any accusations of sexism are just part of their dishonesty and nastiness.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM THE VICTIM CARD (3)<br />
1) Men only catcall and harass women to impress other men.<br />
2) They are insecure. They need to look big in front of their mates.<br />
3) Therefore, their perpetuation of a toxic culture and the effect it has on the victims and bystanders is irrelevant.<br />
4) Also, you should be blaming society for feeding men sexist images like Page 3.<br />
5) NB the above is valid whether you have suggested a cause or not. If you mention sexism, you're attacking men and avoiding analysis.<br />
6) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM THE VICTIM CARD (4)<br />
1) A woman once mentioned me in her blogpost about sexism.<br />
2) That was horrible of her and you are stupid to agree with anything else she's ever said.<br />
3) Therefore, everything you and she say is wrong.<br />
4) And this is all about me.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE SOPHISTICATED ARGUMENT<br />
1) Will you stop pretending things are as black and white as that!<br />
2) It's not as simple as you make out!<br />
3) For example, what if a man has already started shagging a woman by the time she says no? Is it rape then?<br />
4) Therefore, everything is complicated.<br />
5) Therefore, it is better not discussed.<br />
6) Also, you're dumb.<br />
7) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM INTERNETTIQUETTE<br />
1) Don't feed the trolls.<br />
2) If you mention sexism, you're only going to be feeding the trolls.<br />
3) That is unpleasant for other people.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM LANGUAGE<br />
1) It's not misogyny to use misogynistic language in an <i>ad hominem</i> attack on a woman.<br />
2) It's merely that I disagree with her views.<br />
3) The fact that I attacked her in this manner, rather than state why I disagree with those views, is evidence of your obsession and paranoia.<br />
4) Therefore, you can't tell the difference between misogyny and the good argument I made.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE GOOD OLD DAYS ARGUMENT<br />
1) Well <i>I</i> was brought up to be a gentleman, me.<br />
2) I was taught to offer my seat to ladies and to hold doors open for other people.<br />
3) These young girls go around wearing less* clothes than I go to bed wearing!<br />
4) And then they blame other people when they notice that!<br />
5) What do they expect? No sense of responsibility, these young things today.<br />
6) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">*The appropriate word here is "fewer". Yes, I am a pain in the arse.</span></i><br />
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ARGUMENT FROM A WELL-KNOWN CONCERN TROLL<br />
1) She looks like junk.<br />
2) Therefore, she can't be telling the truth about being sexually harassed.<br />
3) Also, I agree with my friend that most people's views on this kind of thing are highly suspect.<br />
4) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
(Can't provide the source, sorry - I've blocked her, so no longer have access!)<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM THE ECHO CHAMBER<br />
1) You have been caught speaking to other feminists.<br />
2) Therefore, you are just shouting to an echo chamber.<br />
3) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM DISTRACTION<br />
1) But other nasty things happen too.<br />
2) Therefore, you should be writing about those instead.<br />
3) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
(<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/laura-bates/everyday-sexual-assault_b_1847497.html" target="_blank">Source</a>)<br />
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THE DAWKINS ARGUMENT<br />
1) Women are better off in Britain/America/wherever the woman is than in some other countries, where oppression is worse.<br />
2) It is not possible that sexism has varying degrees, and that a "mild" incidence of sexism could possibly be compared to a less mild one.<br />
3) Also, mentioning one issue means, by default, that all other issues in the world must be being ignored.<br />
4) Therefore, it is exceedingly damaging to women who are being oppressed worse if a woman mentions sexism.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE ELEVATORGATE ARGUMENT<br />
1) Elevatorgate.<br />
2) Well, you know.<br />
3) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM GETTING ANNOYED WITH SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET<br />
1) But this woman who was talking about this the other day <i>really annoyed</i> me.<br />
2) She treats women like poor little flowers, all this "trigger warning" business.<br />
3) She was only insulted, stalked, had her address published and threatened with rape because she was so annoying.<br />
4) That's nothing to do with sexism.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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THE PROVOCATIVE ARGUMENT<br />
1) If you're sexually harassed, it's your own fault for what you were wearing.<br />
2) What has the fact that you weren't wearing anything provocative to do with my argument?<br />
3) It's <a href="http://atheism.about.com/b/2010/06/02/how-does-the-burqa-protect-women-sexual-assault-in-egypt.htm" target="_blank">all evidence-based</a>.<br />
4) It's your own fault, you're just whinging and avoiding responsibility for your behaviour.<br />
5) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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ARGUMENT FROM CONFUSION<br />
1) Sexism is treating the opposite sex badly.<br />
2) Assault is assault.<br />
3) No, the two can never possibly be related.<br />
4) <a href="http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/28/everyday-sexism-it-isnt-restricted-to-adults-even-young-girls-in-school-uniform-share-their-experiences/" target="_blank">This article</a> "seeks to blur the lines between the two."<br />
5) Therefore, this article is wrong.<br />
6) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism (in relation to sexual assault).<br />
(Source: some of the comments. I don't recommend a read!)<br />
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THE APATHY ARGUMENT<br />
1) I don't see what the big deal is.<br />
2) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
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Feel free to add your own.<br />
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Update, April 2013:<br />
THE I DON'T LIKE LAURA BATES ARGUMENT<br />
1) I never noticed this was a problem until Laura Bates pointed it out.<br />
2) Therefore, it wasn't a problem before.<br />
3) But now it is a problem.<br />
4) That makes life worse for women.<br />
5) That means Laura Bates is creating problems.<br />
6) Or maybe I just don't like <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/laura-bates" target="_blank">Everyday Sexism having a newspaper column</a>.<br />
7) Therefore, it shouldn't.<br />
8) Everything would go so much better if you just stopped talking about these things!<br />
9) Therefore, women shouldn't mention sexism.<br />
(Has anyone else noticed this argument in the comments of a lot of Everyday Sexism columns? I have, and it's driving me nuts!)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-23370666874453934422012-08-07T15:07:00.001+01:002013-03-08T02:42:06.156+00:00Astronomy talks for the Orchid ProjectI'm in the process of setting up a new project, which hopefully should have its own website soon, though I'm still looking for a name. I will soon be giving a series of astronomy talks, aimed at the general public, to fundraise for the <a href="http://orchidproject.org/" target="_blank">Orchid Project</a> which works with communities to bring an end to <a href="http://orchidproject.org/category/about-fgc/what-is-fgc/" target="_blank">female genital mutilation</a>.<br />
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I love giving astronomy talks, and have several left over from <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/tea-with-stars.html" target="_blank">Tea with the Stars</a>, plus ideas for many more. Hopefully, this autumn, I'll be starting talks at the <a href="http://www.new-unity.org/" target="_blank">Newington Green Unitarian Church</a>, who with amazing kindness have offered me their building for free! (The talks will have absolutely no religious affiliation; they're open to anyone who likes astronomy.) You can find the place <a href="http://www.new-unity.org/contact-us/find-us/newington-green" target="_blank">here</a>; it's incredibly friendly. It looks like we'll be able to have tea, coffee, biscuits etc. too.</div>
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The talks look as if they are going to be once a month, probably on a Wednesday evening. A lot remains to be decided, such as the exact price and length. A few expenses will be involved, such as steward fees, but the rest will go to the Orchid Project. (I will of course provide spreadsheets of all the money that comes in and where it went, though I know nothing about accountancy.) There are so many human rights violations I want to help stop, and it's impossible to "pick one", but I choose to concentrate, for now, on female genital mutilation.<br />
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Female genital mutilation is the cutting off - often with scissors and unsterelized equipment, with no anaesthetic - a girl's external genitals. It is a very painful and dangerous practice. The Orchid Project explains in graphic language <a href="http://orchidproject.org/category/about-fgc/what-is-fgc/" target="_blank">here</a>. It may be part or all of her clitoris, clitoral hood or labia. At worst, the wounds left are sewn very tight shut, leaving only a tiny hole for menstrual blood and urine. She will then have to be cut open again for sexual intercourse and for labour, and may even be sewn up again - so she will have to be re-cut later - after birth.</div>
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This is not something unique to a few isolated African tribes, or insert stereotype of choice here. It happens in <a href="http://28toomany.org/" target="_blank">28 countries</a> across the world. And one of them is the United Kingdom. </div>
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This was recently highlighted by programs such as Newsnight, and there was a spate of articles in the press. It was the beginning of summer - when girls as young as five may be taken to their parents' or grandparents' countries <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/annmarie-wilson/children-female-gential-mutilation_b_1686559.html" target="_blank">to be cut</a>, or even to have it done <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18900803" target="_blank">right here in a British town</a>. </div>
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The Orchid Project have a success rate of over 70% of encouraging communities in Africa to give up FGM - and to publicly announce that they are doing so. In 2011, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/victory-in-sight-for-revolution-over-female-genital-mutilation-6579560.html" target="_blank">two thousand communities rejected the practice</a>. This means not just passing laws, but informing all local people that you are doing so - to raise awareness of why, to point out that the practice is not required by any holy book, and to let your neighbours know that any girls they marry from your town will not be cut and why. </div>
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Why, then, does it still happen in the UK? <a href="http://orchidproject.org/category/about-fgc/where-fgc-happens/" target="_blank">Orchid Project point out</a> that when populations emigrate - become "diaspora" - they may try to retain their cultural identity even after their original countries have moved on. At the beginning of the 20th century, most women in China still had their feet bound. Within twenty years, the practice abruptly dried up. It was clung to for longer, however, in populations in California.</div>
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The other reason it happens in the UK is worry about intruding on other cultures. I have to tackle with my own private voice - "Who are you, an unaffected white girl, to tell people you don't know how to bring up their children?" The best answer I can give is that I believe religious rights end when human rights are violated. France and the UK made the same laws at the same time, but France enforces them while we do not. Despite an estimated over 20,000 girls being mutilated, here or abroad, the Crown Prosecution Service has not prosecuted a single person. People in France - and, most significantly, ladies from the ethnic minorities in question - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18900803" target="_blank">ask why</a>.</div>
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Makumi McCrum, a policy advisor to the Scottish government, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/annmarie-wilson/children-female-gential-mutilation_b_1686559.html" target="_blank">remarks that FGM is</a> "a violation so intrusive and personal that many people adopt a culture of silence as it is humiliating and embarrassing to talk about." More worryingly, Nick Cohen <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2012/07/the-racism-of-the-respectable/" target="_blank">writes</a>: "Anti-colonialism is no longer an opposition to foreign occupation but opposition to the ‘inappropriate’ imposition of ‘western’ values on the formerly colonised. Fear plays its part in the silence. I know doctors who worry they will be accused of racism if they protest about the mistreatment of girls. They suspect that their employers will not report protesting parents to the police but punish them instead."</div>
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A woman named Muna, who left Somalia and now lives in Glasgow, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18900803" target="_blank">told the BBC</a>: "They are so terrified and they are using cultural sensitivity as a barrier to stop them from really doing anything. What would you do if the girl had blue eyes and blonde hair? Would FGM still be carrying on in the UK?"</div>
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On a similar note, Iram Ramzan tells us, <a href="http://iramramzan.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/shafilea-ahmed-it-is-not-politically-correct-to-continue-ignoring-the-plight-of-ethnic-minority-women/" target="_blank">"It is not politically correct to continue to ignore the plight of ethnic minority women."</a> As with "honour killings" (which rather than simply being called "murder", which it is, have their own special sensitive name), this is violence, and should be treated as such. This is not some delicate or essential religious practice. It is about the control and subjugation of women. There are no benefits, and there are terrible physical and psychological consequences. (If of course an adult woman <i>wants</i> it done, that's a different matter altogether.)</div>
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There's a place for cultural sensitivity, and that is not allowing children to be wounded and women to be put in agony and danger.</div>
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So what am I doing about it? At the moment, I'm not directly getting involved. I don't know how and I don't feel I know enough yet. Instead I'm doing something I love doing, and that can bring people a bit more knowledge and enjoyment. Hopefully, that will not only help Orchid Project and women in danger, but also raise awareness among people in London.</div>
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I expect the talks will aim to last 40 minutes or so, and be followed with question and answer sessions. Subjects will probably include: Galaxy Zoo; the Cassini mission; relativity and black holes; the life of a star; astrochemistry; spectra; various aspects of astronomical history and women in science. And probably more as I think them up. What I can't do is practical astronomy. The only thing I can do with telescopes is break them. Of course, if anyone wants to bring a telescope along . . . Hopefully someone from the Orchid Project will come along to at least one of them, too. And if any other charities or organisations fighting FGM would also like to come and spread the word, or even just post me along some leaflets to hand out, please do.</div>
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You can also <a href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/35313" target="_blank">sign the petition</a> to allocate more funds to enforce the law banning FGM. (Not make more laws. We already have them.)</div>
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Nothing's finalised yet. But I've been in enough communication with the Orchid Project and with NGUC that it's time to announce what I'm up to! If you have any ideas, or would like to come along, please let me know. And most importantly . . . </div>
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I need a name for this project. It's likely to run for a few months and I want it to be special. I want it to include something to do with women, stars and/or astronomy, and perhaps even orchids. But I'm open to other suggestions! Please do leave a comment or <a href="https://twitter.com/PenguinGalaxy" target="_blank">tweet me</a> with yours. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c4uHFyktNsA/UCEeHtFO9hI/AAAAAAAABLY/HirHYWFO8qs/s1600/The+Rose+zoomed+out.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c4uHFyktNsA/UCEeHtFO9hI/AAAAAAAABLY/HirHYWFO8qs/s320/The+Rose+zoomed+out.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A galaxy we call "The Rose" at <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/" target="_blank">Galaxy Zoo</a>; from <a href="http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=203.04324837&dec=62.76772979" target="_blank">SDSS</a>.</td></tr>
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Maybe I'll see you there.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-12774045133218185312012-07-26T19:13:00.006+01:002012-07-26T22:09:33.053+01:00Leave us alone: a P.S.It's five weeks since I wrote <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/leave-us-alone.html" target="_blank">that ranty post</a> about being sexually harassed in public. That post generated <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/leave-us-alone.html?showComment=1340194135757#c3886901844353985439" target="_blank">a lot of excellent comments</a>, a great many tweets, conversations, recommendations, e-mails, and someone I didn't think I even knew coming to sit next to me at a science event to tell me what a good post it was. It also drew the disapproval of a man who tweeted "Another day, another feminist who is missing my point", and the scorn of a woman who tweeted a friend of hers that the post was "very suspect" because I "look like junk". But something else I didn't expect has happened.<br />
<br />
In those five weeks, I have not been sexually harassed once.<br />
<br />
I haven't been shouted at, leered at, called anything, spoken to inappropriately . . . absolutely nothing. When I used to get it at least a couple of times a week.<br />
<br />
There could be many reasons for this. The entire male population of Ilford and South Wales could have read it and mended their ways, for example. Or someone powerful, maybe even a God, might have forbidden them. Or they're too busy with the hot weather. Or I get harassed more when I'm covered up from the rain than when I'm in sleeveless tops or dresses. Or it's all just complete coincidence.<br />
<br />
I think the likeliest thing is that the relief of setting it all out in public, and of the absolutely enormous and overwhelming support I got, privately and publicly, must have given me a new confidence that shows. Perhaps I stand taller. Perhaps I give off a different air. I don't consciously feel anything - other than a new-found enjoyment of my local area, a new feeling of freedom to wander through it as I please, rather than to get the hell home as soon as I can. And a new liking for my fellow folks of Ilford, many of whom are very nice, just like everywhere else.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it's worth us girls doing an experiment - that anyone who has a blog, or is in the mood to start one, should write a similar rant! I'm not sure that would be very scientific (it would be a lot of fun, though).<br />
<br />
Actually, there's <a href="http://www.ihollaback.org/share/" target="_blank">something like that already going on</a> at <a href="http://ldn.ihollaback.org/" target="_blank">London IHollaback</a>. (Note there's a <a href="http://www.ihollaback.org/" target="_blank">national one</a> and local ones.) There's <a href="http://ldn.ihollaback.org/ive-got-your-back/" target="_blank">a nice section</a> about what you can do if you are a victim or a bystander. Remind me to write to them and share this story, please.<br />
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Men sometimes ask, "So what <i>can</i> we say, then?" I answered as best I could <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/leave-us-alone.html?showComment=1340201109490#c8658090010286688822" target="_blank">here</a> (feel free to comment and disagree). But let's be honest, a gender neutral discussion is by far the most civilised in most cases. Have a read of <a href="http://www.teamawot.com/2012/07/24/street-harassment-faqs/" target="_blank">this great imaginary conversation</a> by Lauren Bravo.<br />
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And don't treat it as not a serious problem - the little woman being hysterical, etc. <a href="http://kateharding.net/2009/10/08/guest-blogger-starling-schrodinger%E2%80%99s-rapist-or-a-guy%E2%80%99s-guide-to-approaching-strange-women-without-being-maced/" target="_blank">"Schrodinger's Rapist"</a> explains why not. Yes, it is unfair on most well-intentioned men. Martin Robbins remarks in this great discussion with Laurie Penny about <a href="http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/how-should-we-talk-to-men-about-sexism/" target="_blank">how to talk to men about sexism</a>: "It’s not pleasant knowing that women feel vulnerable because of the behaviour of a – substantial – minority of my gender . . . I’m six foot two, big build, I will literally change my route to avoid, for example, following a woman up an alley."<br />
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Finally, if you need some cheering up, <a href="http://www.teamawot.com/2012/05/29/street-harassment-comebacks/" target="_blank">here are some great street harassment comebacks</a>!<br />
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Thank you all so very much for being my readers and for making this happen. I hope it happens for all men and women - let me know where I can be of help!<br />
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<br />
<b><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Update</span></b>: But, but - I didn't think anyone would seriously do the experiment . . .<br />
<a href="http://jpcgould.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/leave-us-alone-the-experiment/" target="_blank">Julie Gould: Leave Us Alone - the experiment</a><br />
I recommend a read, she explores a slightly different side; a very moving post. Thank you so much Julie!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-11788086706021543792012-06-20T12:47:00.000+01:002013-04-12T13:55:41.110+01:00Leave us alone!It is probably not good form to resurrect this blog after 4 months' silence whilst in a towering rage. Me in a towering rage is not a pretty sight. It's a good way to get writing, though. And both men and women need to read about this.<br />
<br />
I love London. It's my home. I hope to spend much of my life here. But there's one thing I hate, that I've never had to deal with so much of before, and that's the repeated street harrassment. Nearly every time I leave the house to go to the shops, or get on the bus or train, you can guarantee that some man is going to yell something across the street at me, or come right up close to me and behave as if I owe it to him to be intimate. It's a matter of celebration when I can leave the house and come back <i>without</i> this happening.<br />
<br />
It's not just London, of course. Trains in Wales are particularly irksome. On my way back here, a couple of guys sitting near me started asking me perfectly friendly questions - about how long it was to various stations, what book I was reading, what I thought about the Big Bang etc. - all of which was fine; great, in fact. Then one of them sprang up, sat next to me, snatched my book, and started reading it out in a twelve-year-old school bully sort of voice. It promptly descended to the pair of them chanting at me and generally behaving like schoolchildren who know they're going to get away with poking and hitting me all the way through Assembly, because I can't move and nobody's going to stop them. I ended up carrying all my stuff to a different seat and telling the conductor, who just said "they're getting off at the next stop" and went away. I felt so mortified and self-conscious - there was another big chatty group of people nearby, who I think knew what was going on and certainly stared at me when I moved and spoke to the conductor - but hadn't a word to say. I wanted so desperately to hide. It was me who got stared at, me who had to take the action, me on whom all the responsibility fell.<br />
<br />
That wasn't the worst incident, though. On another journey a few years ago to see my then boyfriend, a huge crowd of drunken rugby fans got on, and one man sat next to me. He kept asking me where I was going, did I have a boyfriend etc. I told him yes I did and kept my answers monosyllabic, because his manner made me uncomfortable. My looking out of the window, reading a book, etc., did nothing to deter his questions and reinforced his demanding, hurt tone. Finally I pretended to go to sleep. When I opened my eyes a few minutes later I jumped out of my skin to find he had angled his body so his mouth was right in front of mine ready to kiss me. (My face was pointed downwards before you ask.) There was nothing I could do. My voice had gone. No conductor could get through the crowds. If I yelled, his rugby mates would be the first witnesses. I just sprang to my feet (and had to climb over him) and got off the train as soon as I could.<br />
<br />
In London, what usually happens is that two guys walking in the street, or standing on a doorstep, will call "hello darling" or "come here, girlie" or "Oi! Blondie!" at me. This is annoying, but I can ignore them and hope they don't follow me. Sometimes it'll be someone alone. One frightening incident was where another large man ran up to me while I was walking up the street, fell into step with me, told me off for walking too fast for him, boasted to me for a while about how he earned £50,000 a year, and then asked me out for a drink with him. When I said thank you very much, but no thanks, he followed me into the train station (which I hadn't been planning to go to) and asked me why not in the most expectant manner. Panicking, I lied that I had a boyfriend, and dashed through the ticket barriers and went a couple of stops away. It wasn't his words that bothered me, but his taking for granted that I simply <i>had</i> to say yes. I thought he'd drag me along and do what he liked to me. The other day, I was walking home, carrying a couple of shopping bags, looking at the ground and having a bit of a happy giggle to myself about an earlier conversation that day (do you ever notice people doing that? I love it when someone in the street spontaneously smiles or giggles, and I know they're thinking about something nice). Suddenly someone's face appeared about three inches in front of mine and he hissed "HELLO SWEETHEART!". As with all the other incidents, I was just startled into complete silence. I had no answer ready. The happiness was knocked out of me. I went home angry and frightened, feeling like I was at school again where I had no right to be safe from the bullies, keeping my head low but wondering if anyone knew where I lived or was following me home.<br />
<br />
Fair enough, none of these incidences led to me actually being assaulted. They're nothing compared to what some of my friends have gone through. I used to get worse in horrible school discos where being groped and boys getting angry not to be kissed was part of the package. But they're a crap way to live your life. They make me wary and angry. They make me feel that because I'm female, I'm collective property and automatically available. The way a lot of them look at me - as if I do them wrong - suggests that they hold me personally responsible for their feelings, and that I owe them something. I just never know what they might do. They seem to think they have the automatic right to say what they like to me - what else do they think they have the right to do?<br />
<br />
It gave me a sudden memory of when my sister and I were very small, too young to understand about these things, and our mum explaining such an incident to us. All we saw was that she suddenly stopped to talk to someone in the street, as boring grown-ups do. When we walked on, she calmly told us: "He tried to cuddle up to me, so I made him tell me where [something, I forget what] was, and then I made him leave me alone." Her voice, echoing in my brain, sounded sad and resigned. She had had to talk to him, she had had to be touched by him with two toddlers in tow, and she was putting a brave face on it.
<br />
<br />
The worst part is that I can't think of anything to do to improve the situation. I could yell at them, but that takes more guts than I've got and would just draw more attention to me and doubtless get me blamed - I doubt any members of the public would leap to my rescue. I can keep my head down and run away, which is what I generally do, but that indicates to them that they can get away with it and will keep doing it. There's no teacher on playground duty in the adult world.<br />
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But that's the thing. I am female and as such I am, by many, held responsible. (Check <a href="http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/browse" target="_blank">this</a> if you don't believe this happens.)It's supposedly up to me to find some way to deal with this stuff. Never mind that it's nothing to do with being in the wrong place at the wrong time - that all these incidents occurred in public in broad daylight, not down some dark alley where respectable girls don't go. Never mind that they all occurred when I was thoroughly covered in jeans and coat and scruffy flat shoes - one time in the pouring rain with my hood up covering my hair and most of my face. Never mind that I don't wear make-up, or that the one time I did walk through London in a short dress, I was terrified the whole time and wished I hadn't worn it, but apart from a random tourist striking up an annoyingly long chat, I was left alone. Never mind that it also happens to a lady I know who is over fifty and exceedingly modest - even while she's riding her bicycle. There are many perceptions that it's down to how a woman looks or dresses, that it must be her fault.<br />
<br />
I've written about <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/blaming-vulnerable.html" target="_blank">blaming the victim</a> before. It's a problem. It's a similar problem in cases of domestic violence, where it's very common to find bizarre ways to blame the woman or to somehow absolve the man (usually, though certainly not always, the perpetrator) of responsibility - "he just needs to feel better about himself", for example, when in fact his problem is that he does not see his partner as having the same rights as he does. (I strongly recommend my friend <a href="http://god-loves-women.webs.com/apps/blog/categories/show/1253977-violence-against-women" target="_blank">Natalie's posts about this issue</a>. She's on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/God_loves_women" target="_blank">@God_Loves_Women</a>. I'm not remotely religious but I really admire her and recommend you follow her!) It's all part of thinking that because someone's female, you can treat her how you like - and <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/why-women-still-need-to-unite.html" target="_blank">this gets woven into law, and her rights seen as incompatible with other people's, where such attitudes prevail</a>.<br />
<br />
All this is so sad for men as well as women. Most men I know are angry and upset to hear of me and other women being catcalled or otherwise harrassed. They worry about this happening to their female relatives and friends. They know it's not civilised and they would never do such a thing. (In fact, one man said he finds men who do such things intimidating, too.) Nobody's said so directly, but I suspect some men may worry about asking out a woman they like, for fear of being thought of one of the catcallers. They feel guilty on behalf of their own sex, which is awful. (Incidentally, both <a href="http://rhysmorgan.co/rape-crisis-readathon/" target="_blank">Rhys</a> and <a href="http://www.justgiving.com/make-me-read-twilight" target="_blank">Lee</a> are currently fundraising for charities that work to improve things for women!) It's similar to the men who came along to the <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/she-is-astronomer-conference-day-1.html" target="_blank">She is an Astronomer</a> <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/she-is-astronomer-conference-day-2.html" target="_blank">conference</a> and are only too keen for more women to rise high in science. I hope nobody reading this thinks this blog is to criticise men!<br />
<br />
I have a bad habit, by the way. I quite often explode on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/PenguinGalaxy" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Actually, Twitter's an excellent place to explode, because it moves so fast, the subject can move on when you've calmed down. And far more often than not people will check in and see if you're OK rather than put you down about it, and it's relatively anonymous. When I exploded recently about the man who hissed straight into my face, I got I think it must have been dozens of supportive messages. But when I came back home yesterday and tweeted "Something LOVELY happened today. I went into town and was not catcalled once!!! :-)" the point was, shall we say, not well understood.<br />
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One guy asked me: "What? Are you a supermodel?" and a couple more replied to the effect that this must mean I'm beautiful. I thanked them, I hope graciously and modestly, but assured them that I am not and that this was nothing to do with it. Being catcalled is nothing to do with appearance, and it is not a compliment. Unfortunately, I was not believed by all . . .<br />
<br />
These are the nicer exchanges that took place. (Update: I had some screenshots here, with name, avatar and Twitter handle blanked out, but on reflection decided that was cruel. This person doesn't seem angry with me despite earning some furious replies from my followers. Please don't look for him. It took a long time to convince him that what was going on was not flattering or harmless, but it turned out to be genuine ignorance on his part. He deleted a lot of his tweets which were to the effect that it doesn't happen to ugly girls, so it should be seen as a "morale booster". These made me so angry - I am not Samantha Brick, I do not feel better if some random man thinks of me as better quality prey than another woman - that I unkindly retweeted him, and he got a LOT of stick. If you're reading this, Anon, I felt I should apologise for you getting all that stick, but I was stubborn and didn't want to go back on my point. And by the way, I'm sure you're not ugly.)<br />
<br />
When asked if it was a good thing that I wasn't catcalled, and I said that it usually happens is bad and that it didn't happen today is good, his reaction was that "as an ugly bloke" he'd love to have such an obvious indicator that he was attractive, and that it was surely a good thing to happen to you. He felt that he couldn't relate to it since no women have pounced on him this way, and that not being a roadworker or builder, he wasn't a catcaller, and couldn't speak for them. (This was only a small part of the exchange.) The perception was that catcalling is something that a burly, practical, rather stupid class of males do, and that it constitutes shouting "you're beautiful" to beautiful girls, who prink and preen gleefully, and probably just continue on their way, feeling superior to other women and thus happy.<br />
<br />
To give him his due, he admitted he had had no idea what it's really like and had learnt something new! And it definitely isn't like that. We get called intimate things by strangers, and are spoken to as if we are their property and should follow their orders. They violate our privacy and our space and our feeling of being able to leave the house safely. We look hysterical if we get upset, and everything we do makes it worse, and then it's our own fault for how we look or dress or just for being there among the world of men. We feel angry, helpless, humiliated, and alone.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/stellar190" target="_blank">Stellar</a>, who was honked at six times within one minute when venturing into town last week (and has also had to put up with such things as men following her, and a bus driver saying "nice tits" when she was just a young teenager), joined the conversation, pointing out at the right time that it's not what a woman wears that causes the harrassment . . .<br />
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Then this person came along, who a) has had their account suspended, and b) whose anonymity I will make absolutely no effort to preserve:
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1MXVti8G2s/T-Gqqi3-ERI/AAAAAAAABK4/aiC3ehtMtw4/s1600/revolting+tweet+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1MXVti8G2s/T-Gqqi3-ERI/AAAAAAAABK4/aiC3ehtMtw4/s320/revolting+tweet+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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She replied calmly, as did NathanielBB. He wasn't having any . . .<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bsWtWzHm7_8/T-GpN5KkrzI/AAAAAAAABKQ/vfj-ErfpRdc/s1600/revolting+tweet+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bsWtWzHm7_8/T-GpN5KkrzI/AAAAAAAABKQ/vfj-ErfpRdc/s400/revolting+tweet+2.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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I lost it.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RZJJN4hpJMw/T-GpPGdY6MI/AAAAAAAABKY/xwdgzUKk9JI/s1600/revolting+tweet+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RZJJN4hpJMw/T-GpPGdY6MI/AAAAAAAABKY/xwdgzUKk9JI/s320/revolting+tweet+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I had actually tweeted this guy a few examples of very modestly dressed women who'd been harrassed, so as you can see, his attitude was "My mind's made up, don't confuse me with facts".<br />
<br />
He may have just been a troll, but sadly what he says is hideously representative of what needs explaining. Again and again and again. Happily, it was cause for much celebration from several people when his account was suspended (it turned out it wasn't just me he was arguing with!).<br />
<br />
I had the good fortune to be sent some excellent links by fellow Twitterers. <a href="http://ldn.ihollaback.org/about/" target="_blank">"ihollaback"</a>, a site all about street harrassment in London, was tweeted to me by <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/beckypants" target="_blank">Becky</a> (<a href="http://whomadeyourpants.co.uk/" target="_blank">whose work</a> I hope to write about in a later blogpost). <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Schroedinger99" target="_blank">Mike</a> sent me <a href="http://badreason99.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/age-of-consent-slutwalk-strauss-kahn.html" target="_blank">this post he wrote</a> about what "consent" means and is often taken to mean, which attracted some bizarre comments. Speaking of consent, this <a href="http://www.scarleteen.com/article/boyfriend/drivers_ed_for_the_sexual_superhighway_navigating_consent" target="_blank">"Driver's Ed" on sexual consent</a>, at Scarleteen, is excellent! Sent by <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/java7nerd" target="_blank">Lee</a>.) And <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/FabFingertips1" target="_blank">Esther</a> reminded me of <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/mencanstoprape" target="_blank">@mencanstoprape</a>, found at <a href="http://www.mencanstoprape.org/" target="_blank">"Men Can Stop Rape"</a>, which is not the same thing I know (part of the same attitude, though, just a lot worse), which contains this delightful picture with which I shall leave you . . .<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3dnZE4h9VUk/T-G1pdYmB8I/AAAAAAAABLM/x99H3wxtMhE/s1600/10+Top+Tips+to+End+Rape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3dnZE4h9VUk/T-G1pdYmB8I/AAAAAAAABLM/x99H3wxtMhE/s400/10+Top+Tips+to+End+Rape.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>
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To fellow women this happens to, I support you. To fellow women free of it, it should always be this way. To men who disapprove and support us, and equally to men who did not know it was a problem but are open to finding out it is, thank you - you are not the problem but the solution, you shouldn't feel bad, and we need you all.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-27488107157427456372012-02-20T00:14:00.014+00:002012-02-21T06:36:32.342+00:00So you want to start a Skeptics in the Pub?<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Two years ago, when still living in Wales, I learned of the existence of </span><a href="http://www.skeptic.org.uk/events/skeptics-in-the-pub" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Skeptics in the Pub</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">. </span><a href="http://crispian-jago.blogspot.com/" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Crispian Jago</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "> made it possible for me to </span><a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/04/skeptics-in-pub-unnatural-predators-by.html" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">go along to one</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "> with the fabulous </span><a href="http://www.jourdemayne.com/" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">"Jourdemayne"</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">, and I was instantly hooked.</span><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">As soon as I got into the "skeptical circle", a common cry was: "Why isn't there a Skeptics in the Pub anywhere in Wales?" which promptly progressed to: "Why don't you start one?" Because I didn't have a clue <i>how</i>, that was why! . . . </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">. . . well, eighteen months after that I found myself co-founder of both <a href="http://cardiff.skepticsinthepub.org/">Cardiff</a> and <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org/">Hackney</a> Skeptics - with <a href="http://sciencedigestive.blogspot.com/">Dean Burnett</a> and <a href="http://www.answersingenius.com/">James Robson</a> respectively, and obviously I could never in a million years have done either without them - <span style="font-size: 100%; ">and occasionally am one of the criers of "Set one up in Place X!" to other people. So it occurs to me that I really ought to write about how to go about it.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">It's pretty simple. You need: a venue, a projector, a screen, a microphone, a collaborator, some speakers and an audience. </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">There is of course no right and wrong recipe for a Skeptics in the Pub; you can vary the ingredients, adjust the baking time and present as whatever dish you please. So this recipe comes with a strong pinch of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chloride">NaCl</a> and plenty of freedom to suit your tastes. Just be sure to grease the pan with enough <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol">C2H5OH</a> for your audience's liking (that can in fact be none, if they are not drinkers).</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">(Incidentally, these measurements are in imperial, not metric. That is, groups and accounts listed are British, not worldwide. There are worldwide groups, however, and if you are not in the UK I recommend getting in touch with them.)</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-style: normal; "><span><b>Whilst Still Thinking . . .</b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">If you're not already a regular somewhere, get a feel for what Skeptics in the Pub actually does. Check out what events are taking place (scroll down <a href="http://adventuresinnonsense.blogspot.com/">Simon Perry's website</a> and check the "Events" table on the bottom right), see when a bunch of interesting looking ones are occurring, and take a few days off work and travel around the country. Talk to the organisers and to visitors.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><b>Before you start . . .</b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Get your prospective Skeptics its own e-mail address. You will end up needing it for the following as well as to keep it organised and separate from everything else in your life.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">This sounds trite, but set up a Facebook group. Call it something like "Skeptics in the Pub in...." [your local area]. If possible, don't be too restrictive about what your local area is. I chose "Wales" as an umbrella term, since I didn't know where it was going to be. Let the skeptical community know and ask them to join - post on their walls. (Here are <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/123642454331540/">Cardiff's</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/292475307453047/">Hackney's</a> if that helps. Search around with "Skeptics" and "SITP" and so on in the Search box.) Like as not you will find various people who come along saying "Oh I've been longing for one of these round here!" I actually didn't "do" Facebook until I thought I might try it out for the very purpose of setting this up, and was actually pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of groups, if not the intelligence of some conversations. Still, if you most absolutely do not do Facebook, you probably have a friend who does.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Start a Twitter account. This is pretty simple. Tweet to the <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/sitp">generic SITP account</a> and do a <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/users/skeptic">Skeptics search</a> and follow a bunch of people. </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Important: personally, there's no way I could set up a Skeptics in the Pub by myself, so if you're like me, let people know you are looking for collaborators. (You don't have to say "yes" to anybody!) Of course, if you can do it by yourself, no need!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">And, especially, contact <a href="http://adventuresinnonsense.blogspot.com/">Simon Perry</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Simon_Perry">@Simon_Perry</a> on Twitter) who has the keys to the master website. This is where you will be able to put up events. Make sure that the "contact form" goes to your SITP e-mail address, not to your personal one, or you will end up flooded if it's successful! Keep a special folder handy on your computer for all the speakers' pictures and any documents and fliers you make.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">If anybody discourages you at any point, please read <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/05/story-of-setting-things-up.html">this</a>. Apparently it's been helpful.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b><span>Choosing a Venue</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Your ideal venue possesses all of the following characteristics:</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- A separate function room;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Wherever guests sit, they need a good view of where the slides will be;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Be calm and friendly;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Be fairly quiet - not go in for loud music, at least not while you're talking;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Sound and projector equipment for talks (you'd be surprised how many pubs have these);</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Be near a train station and car park;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Serve a variety of drinks and do food until relatively late;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Smell nice;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Be licensed for under-18s;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Have staff who are all in favour of a regular meeting taking place;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Not want all their customers to get raging drunk;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Be clean and well looked after;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Have disabled access;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Have an awful lot of spare chairs;</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">- Not charge you</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">I don't think I've yet found anywhere with all these characteristics! When it's a pub that isn't looking to hold drunken discos, but rather maintains a mature, civilised atmosphere and welcomes some guaranteed income on a weeknight, that's the main thing. One pub said they would charge us £100 for the evening unless they made £500 off our audience. I don't know if they did make that, but after our first night they never mentioned charging us again, so they must be pretty happy with us! </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">If the bar staff are unfriendly or uninterested, if the manager doesn't seem keen on the idea, don't go anywhere near the place. Also, if it's loud or dirty, steer clear. If it doesn't serve food, look up nearby outlets that do. </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">Strictly speaking, the venue doesn't actually </span><i>have</i> to be a pub. (I once received an objection that holding it in a pub excluded people whose religious faiths forbade them to enter pubs, which of course is a problem!) Hackney, for instance, is an attic rather than a pub! </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">I have to confess, this isn't my strong point because Dean and James found the venues in our cases. When I arrived on the scene at Hackney, James had already found our attic. Dean however took me round Cardiff for a day of surveying eight different places. Both of us wore science T-shirts, making it the nerdiest pub crawl that had ever taken place in Cardiff. I cannot more strongly recommend a day of such a pub crawl, or a read of <a href="http://sciencedigestive.blogspot.com/2010/06/pair-of-skeptics-in-many-pubs.html">his blogpost about it</a>.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b><span>What Day?</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Most Skeptics in the Pubs run on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night. And most run regularly, such as the second Thursday of the month, or what have you. (Cardiff is the third Monday of each month, and Hackney the last Monday.) </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Make a list of the nearest Skeptics in the Pubs to yours - or even all of them, if you have time - and write down when they are. Put them into a table and pick a day when you don't clash. (Sadly this is difficult in London!)</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Monday is a very popular night, since it's an especially quiet night for pubs. I could not recommend a weekend night less. Pubs will be having other, noisier things to do then. So, probably, will your guests and speakers.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Check what is a good day for the pub, too. If they always hold a bingo night or a Happy Hour on Wednesdays, or invite bands along on Tuesdays, avoid this day.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">I must apologise here to James, who had to change our day from Tuesday to Monday (and thus risk clashing with Westminster and London) because I have lectures on Tuesday nights. Well, he </span><i>was</i> crazy enough to take me on board as a co-founder . . . </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><b>Finding Speakers</b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">You need to pick a few speakers well before you launch. In fact, I'd personally say always leave a few months between launching in cyberspace and launching in real life! </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Pick a variety of different subjects - do not confine it all to one of, say, politics/the supernatural/alternative medicine/science. Don't shout out too loud that you are looking for speakers if you aren't prepared to cope with some possible slightly odd offers. If one of the talks you've seen seems to hit the perfect note, as <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-did-it.html">Simon Perry's did for me for Cardiff's launch</a>, then contact that speaker.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Handy resources: <a href="http://www.thetwentyfirstfloor.com/?page_id=214">the 21st Floor's List of Speakers</a> and <a href="http://ukshetalks.com/">Hayley Stevens's She Talks</a>. (Sadly the vast majority of Skeptics in the Pub speakers are male. You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to make a special effort to encourage women, or more young people or more ethnic minorities or what have you along.)</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">It's good to kick off with somebody fairly well-known - but these people may be very busy, and may also charge you a lot (not all of them, but some do!). Don't start off with a string of people coming from far away, as the travel expenses and staying over will come to a lot. If you're lucky enough to have a "local hero", make sure you snag them! </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b><span>Advertising</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">So, you have your venue and plans - your Skeptics in the Pub is cooking! Now you want as many guests as possible!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">I read a document - which I have since been unable to find - that your launch night sets the tone, and if only 8 people turn up to it, you're unlikely to have arranged much of a kick-off. I commented earlier that you should wait a few months between launching on the Internet and in real life. Pick a good time to launch: if it's just before Christmas or during the summer, everybody's going to be too busy. We timed Cardiff to kick off alongside the academic year to pull the students in. (In some places, students make up a large proportion of your attendees. In other places, there are virtually no students. It depends.) You may wish to include some fun gimmick for your launch such as a raffle or a competition to see who can come up with the most ridiculous idea for something or other.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">When you've got your day, set it up as a Facebook event. Invite all your friends you think won't be offended. (Sadly, some will!) Tweet both the website event and the Facebook event like crazy. Mention it every day or two, at different times. Ask famous skeptics for a retweet. Don't hassle or spam anyone, but don't be embarrassed to say something you've already said this week.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Promote yourself through a variety of sources. Approach local newspapers. In fact, if you google "local newspaper [whatever area you live in]", you may come up with several more local rags than you even knew existed! Look for their contact forms and their events pages. List yours as an event. Write them a short note with some exciting or weird information - which the events are likely to contain! Put in very clearly what Skeptics in the Pub is. I personally like to explain that it's not about yelling "I don't believe you!" but that it is from the Greek word "Skepticos" meaning "to enquire or find out" - this was inspired by <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/critical-thinker-explains-skepticism-vs-cynicism-36923/">a beautiful interview with D J Groethe</a>, which <a href="http://about.me/tannice">Tannice</a> from <a href="http://guildford.skepticsinthepub.org/">Guildford Skeptics</a> sent me.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">You may well also find the council lists local events - add this. Approach the local radio (if you have any mates or mates of mates in radio or media, all the better). Print off some fliers - they can be <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rfhv4lPQhSY/TFofuoVLBBI/AAAAAAAAA3Y/rxLTreFKM6s/s1600/Wales+SITP+Logo+1.JPG">hilarious</a> or they can be very simple - and distribute them round shops, pubs, museums, libraries. Personally I feel very foolish and rude doing this. I have learned to have a look round, and then go up to whoever's behind the counter, smile very nicely, and ask if you can add your flier to their collection. If the person is remotely nice, invite them along!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Even supermarkets often have a "community noticeboard". I felt a particular satisfaction in placing an advert for Hackney Skeptics in my local Sainsbury's alongside an advert for psychic sessions. (By the way, do talk to the staff before you do this.) If you are a student, or know of any, see if you/they can get something into their student newspaper or find some other way to list it as a worthwhile event.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">If you end up in an unfamiliar area - and quite a few organisers do - then make friends with local people to show you round and tell you where will accept fliers. I hope to meet a lovely lady named Sandra soon to distribute more Hackney fliers (which look </span><i>amazing</i>, by the way - not my artistry, sadly!).</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b><span>Money</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Usually Skeptics in the Pubs charge £2 or £3 for expenses. Many are exceedingly apologetic about charging anything - "Our events are free; we just ask for X to cover the speaker's expenses". I'm less apologetic, personally, probably because I travelled for 3 hours there and back to Cardiff Skeptics and never claimed expenses for my tickets or petrol. If you've done a load of work for this - which you should have! - and the speaker has come all this way, people can afford what usually amounts to less than the price of a drink! Besides, it irks me to be asked for money when I've been told that something is free.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Money might be collected before the talk, or during the interval, or after - perhaps in a pint glass or similar. This involves having to go round all the audience members, and try to avoid missing anyone out, which personally I don't enjoy doing. <span style="font-size: 100%; ">At Cardiff, we neatly combined ensuring that everyone paid with welcoming everyone, by having a table at the top of the stairs people climbed, with me and often another person - often Dean's wife Vinny - sitting behind it.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">I liked this system because it ensured not only that everybody paid, but that we met and greeted all our members old and new. When they paid, we stamped their hand and had a laugh offering them a choice of stamps - a Bah Humbug, a gingerbread man, a star or a squiggly thing. (Except on the first night when I printed out a load of mini-tickets!) Have a float of pound coins ready as lots of people will give you a fiver or tenner. Have a greeting line ready for everybody - "Hi! How are you?" "Hi, thanks for coming, £3 please!" "Thank you very much indeed! Would you like a hand stamp so I don't ask you again?" At Hackney, the Picturehouse staff take care of that, which saves us a job but also removes some of the friendly personable aspect of it. (That also means that they take a fee from us, but in return they give us great service, a glitzy venue, free drinks for us and free food and drink for the speaker, so I'm not complaining!)</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Have a nice big money jar, and for goodness sake don't do what I did every Cardiff Skeptics night without fail and leave it lying around. I once left it in the pub overnight. Thankfully, Dean got over there the next day and it was on the windowsill untouched!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Some places are incredibly conscientious and publish their financial records so people can see where their donations are going. I haven't been treasurer at either place, but I can say I've never once had anyone be the slightest bit suspicious of our finances or remotely resentful of paying.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b><span>Equipment</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">At least, you'll need a projector and cable - that preferably works with both PCs and Macs! - and a screen. You may be able to borrow these regularly, or may get donated old ones. (If you know of a good place to get them please let me know.) Before you launch, test them! You may end up needing the speaker's computer and the projector on a table in the middle of the front row of the audience. (There's nothing wrong with this. It gives the audience a place to put their drinks too.) Test it out, walk to the back of the pub and see how it looks from there. If, as in Cardiff, the speaker has the windows to the back of them, invest in a black sheet you can pin up!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Usually the speaker brings their own laptop - check this in advance - but it's good to have one of yours as well just in case theirs and your equipment refuse to speak to each other.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Also test the mike as these are notorious for failing. Another nice bit of equipment to have, if you've got/can afford one, is one of those clicky things the speaker can hold which moves between slides. (What's it called?) Of course, if it's a well equipped pub, they will have a mike and sound system of their own - the staff may or may not be willing to help you with it when it turns into a recalcitrant mystery!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b><span>Looking after the speaker</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">I give these tips more from the point of view of my own experiences as a speaker - which have on the whole been terrific; thank you to my many lovely hosts - than as an organiser. (If I fail on any, or I should add anything, let me know!)</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">Well in advance, ask them how they'd like to get there - by train or car or whatever. Lots will be very generous and book, or ask you to book, the cheapest train tickets available. Send them a map of exactly where the place is, so they can plan what time to leave. They'll probably want to arrive early to set up and get something to eat (or, if they're a new speaker, they may want to eat after the talk when they're less nervous!). Make sure you, or someone you trust, can arrive early too to meet them. Give them your phone number in case of emergencies (in fact, if you have a Skeptics talk of your own, </span><i>don't</i> give it at your own venue but keep it up your sleeve just in case the speaker drops out at the last minute!).</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">If they have travelled, they may need to stay over. If you or another organiser has a spare room, that's terrific. Some speakers, myself included, are happy to crash on a sofa - but not all. Look for fairly cheap hotels about the place - also feel free to post any good links to finding cheap rooms in the comments, please!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">A travelling speaker will really appreciate having a map and directions from the station to the venue and the place they're staying in. Send these before the day they set off so they have time to print it out!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Ask in advance if and when they'd like to eat. If it's difficult to get from the station to the pub, and you have a car, it's really lovely to get picked up, though obviously only if this is feasible! If you're likely to arrive later than them, let them know. Upon arrival, ask them where they'd like to stand, so you can set up the microphone there, and check they're OK with the lights - it's awful if those are blinding or ruin the slides.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Before the talk - and I will love you forever if you do this for me - get a nice big glass of water they can reach when their throat dries up!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Be on hand for them. If the venue has several different rooms, don't scurry off with your mates into one whose existence they don't even know of so they spend the hour after their talk looking for you.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><b>The Big Night!</b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">Wow! It's actually happening! You're probably running around like a headless chicken - someone has to go and pick up the speaker from the station (their train has been delayed); you're either terrified that the seats aren't filling up (turns out twenty-odd of your audience are at the bar!) or delightedly bewildered that all your seats are full and there are still people coming in, and random pub visitors are asking "What's this?". Some clevercloggs turns up and responds to "Hi! Thanks for coming! Three pounds please!" with "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" or wants to discuss some minor objection or irrelevant philosophical point with you at extreme length. Everyone wants to know where the toilets are or where they can get food at once, interspersed with horrible moments of complete quiet where you feel you're standing there like a lemon supposed to </span><i>do</i> something and heaven knows what.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Don't start on the dot of 7:30 or whatever time you advertise - let people get last-minute drinks. It is a good idea to pop up to the microphone around that point and say hello everyone, thank you all so much for coming, we'll be starting in ten minutes, you can get drinks there and food there, toilets are that way, etc. Do go round and say "Hello, thanks for coming!" to as many people as possible. If they just smile vaguely and look blank, that's OK. If they look lost, it's OK to ask them "Hi, are you here for X Skeptics?" Don't talk to any one person all evening. It makes you look unapproachable.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">When it's time to begin . . . Just get on and do it. I have started various introductions by hitting my teeth on the microphone and, once, when I was being introduced as a speaker, by walking into a projector and knocking my glasses to the floor. (A friend told me he once started a lecture by knocking over the lectern!) I have also tripped over the microphone wire, crashed to the floor, and had the microphone fall over and hit me. If someone as clumsy as me can do it, you can. It's your show.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Spend a couple of minutes introducing yourself and the idea of Skeptics in the Pub, how it began, how you came to launch this. Introduce anyone working with you. If you happen to know of other people also looking to start a Skeptics, ask them to raise their hands so they can meet each other in the break. Tell a funny Skeptic joke or story. Make any announcements that need making. Don't spend ages, but this is your moment set out your expectations for the evening and future evenings - you can establish, indirectly, whether you want this to be a shouty sort of group or a super-civilised one, for example. Tell the guests what's going to happen this evening - the usual format is introduction, speaker gives talk, 20 minute break for drinks, and then questions and answers; but of course there may be alterations or extras! It is also a good idea for the speaker's first slide to already be up by this time - either that or your own slide with a welcoming message and/or your website.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Then introduce the speaker, shut up, and let them get on with it!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">There may be a bit of quiet hustle and bustle you have to deal with - people arriving late, or people jabbering at the back and preventing others from listening to the talk. Sadly you cannot focus your whole attention on the talk - keep an eye on your audience! If things go horribly wrong and they seem to be getting bored (unlikely!), have something up your sleeve for after the talk to make them laugh. This may also be your only chance to eat during the evening, and you will </span><i>definitely</i> need it.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Skeptics in the Pub is for dialogue and everybody is welcome to speak. But don't feel you have to let anyone abuse this. <span style="font-size: 100%; ">In the unlikely event that there's a troublesome person in the audience, don't leave it to the speaker to sort them out - you're in charge and have the right to run this how you like; tell them to either be polite or leave. </span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">The bar staff should be able to help you.</span><span style="font-size: 100%; "> (I once had an audience member who shouted annoying know-it-all comments throughout a talk I gave, but that's not nearly as bad as some scenes I've witnessed, such as an audience member giving a female speaker a lengthy flood of sweary abuse over the microphone.) Questions and answers is a particularly vulnerable time for this - establish with the speaker whether they want to pick the questions or whether you should. We once had a chap in the front row who kept asking questions without raising his hand, unaware that there were people behind him with their hands up and being made to wait for him again and again, and the speaker was too polite to ignore him. The speaker was conducting Q&A while I sat in the audience, so I opted to quietly go up up to him and tell him about the people behind him, and request that he wait. He looked annoyed, but didn't argue. Some people will frame an exceptionally long statement or complaint as a question - if this happens you may stop them and ask "What's your question?" If Questions and Answers drags on a long time - it once dragged on so long for me that I got a backache! - ask the speaker when they'd like to stop, and feel free to make some remark such as "Last question, please" or "Time for two more questions, and let's have them from people who haven't asked any yet."</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">If lots of people have come, celebrate this. If it's a few, make it cosy - for example, have everyone bunch up and speaker come and sit with them for questions and answers, and make each individual feel noticed and special. Tell the audience when the next talk will be and who it will be with (have this information on a slide). Encourage them to follow you on Twitter, join the Facebook group, and contact you if they can help with anything or have any suggestions. Have a notebook ready for e-mail addresses. Also have a not-too-tatty bit of paper and a pen ready for if anyone wants to be added to your e-mail list.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Thank the speaker and your audience for coming and bringing your dream into reality. You have collectively achieved something wonderful - especially you, the organiser - and you should be extremely proud.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; ">And </span><i>don't give up</i>!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-21799479970988254822012-02-19T03:00:00.008+00:002012-02-19T23:30:00.100+00:00Ions are the 99%<span><span><br /><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Remember what you were taught in chemistry at school? It was very exact. Water is solid at 0°C, gas at 100°C, and liquid in between. Metals are solids; oxygen and nitrogen are gases. Gases like oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and chlorine are invariably molecules containing two atoms of each element. </span></span><a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2009/11/periodic-table-in-stars.html" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 100%; ">Atoms</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: 100%;"> like their outer "shells" to be "full" and join up with other atoms to reach this stability. Oxygen is </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/Electronegative" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 100%; ">electronegative</a><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">: it likes to grab electrons. You never hear of an oxygen giving up its electrons to some other type of atom.</span></span><br /><br /><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">But there is nothing universal about this.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;">These are what, by A level at any rate, we call </span></span><a href="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-level_Chemistry/OCR_(Salters)/Standard_conditions" style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">"standard conditions"</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;"> - 25°C, Earth's atmospheric pressure, Earth's gravity, and with all the protections of Earth's atmosphere from the violent radiation from space.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;">Of course, we learn that it's not like that everywhere. The pressure at the bottom of the sea, for instance, is intense - "if you went there, you'd end up the size of a chip," my Chemistry teacher told us when we were about 13. And up at the top of the atmosphere, in the ozone layer, you hear about </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodissociation" style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">photodissociation</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;"> and </span></span><a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110410.html" style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">ultraviolet light</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;"> (the type that is dangerous if you're out in it too long) snapping ordinary two-atom oxygen molecules in half, leading to each </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_radical" style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">single oxygen atom</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;"> joining up with a normal two-atom pair to make a three-atom molecule of ozone.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;">But all this is just on our little planet Earth: a tiny, tiny place in our great Universe.</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wFJl6sdWxK4/TzCdiYa0TeI/AAAAAAAABIA/K0wQ65U7NmM/s1600/Pale%2BBlue%2BDot.jpg" style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 308px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wFJl6sdWxK4/TzCdiYa0TeI/AAAAAAAABIA/K0wQ65U7NmM/s400/Pale%2BBlue%2BDot.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706233941874462178" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: italic; ">(The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections_by_Sagan">Pale Blue Dot</a>.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;">What about on other planets? Well, we know the gas giants, such as Jupiter, are made largely of hydrogen. Jupiter is almost 318 times more massive than Earth, though less dense; and its gravity is gigantic. It is therefore hypothesised that hydrogen in its core is likely to be solid, behaving like a metal. (If you look on the </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Periodic_table.svg" style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Periodic Table</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;"> of the elements you'll see that hydrogen, H, actually rests right above lithium, sodium, potassium etc. - due to having one electron in the outermost "shell"; and arrangements in common like this create characteristics in common.)</span></span></span><div><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9Eba5Fu1pE4/TzCiE-xmebI/AAAAAAAABIM/jAOR_Vjdto0/s1600/Jupiter%2Bfrom%2BCassini%2BPhotojournal.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9Eba5Fu1pE4/TzCiE-xmebI/AAAAAAAABIM/jAOR_Vjdto0/s400/Jupiter%2Bfrom%2BCassini%2BPhotojournal.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706238934332635570" /></a><br /></span><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><i><span>(Jupiter from NASA/JPL/Cassini's <a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02873">Photojournal</a>. The Great Red Spot is on the right. On the left is a black circle - it's the moon Europa's shadow. It's worth <a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA02873.jpg">zooming in</a>!)</span></i><br /><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>But Earth and Jupiter are planets. That means they're compact, cold and - in our cases; not in the case of Mercury, for example - there is a protective atmosphere. Off a planet, this stabilising gentleness is gone.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>In space, you often get one atom - or fewer - knocking about in every cubic centimetre (it varies, of course, for example whether you're near a star or in a nebula or inside or outside a galaxy, etc. etc. In the meantime, you might enjoy <a href="http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~ryden/ast162_3/notes11.html">this little bulletin</a> of interstellar medium facts, from a lecture in Ohio). At sea level, the "standard conditions" on Earth, you get 100,00,000,000,000,000,000 or so. <a href="http://www.marcuschown.com/">Marcus Chown</a> likes to remind us that atoms are so numerous that every breath that you take will contain an atom breathed in by Marilyn Monroe!</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>This of course makes it pretty easy for molecules to find and bond with each other. In space, to be able to do this is very rare.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Apart from on nice cool compact places like planets, the only places you're likely to find actual molecules are inside nebulae. It wasn't until last August that it was announced that molecular oxygen - the type of oxygen we breathe in - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14372708">was discovered in space</a>. Molecular hydrogen of course is better known, and carbon monoxide - the same type of carbon monoxide that is poisonous - is a good "tracer". That means that it's easy to find by its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum">spectrum</a>, so astronomers look for it as an indication of what else is going on around the place.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fe_4KO6rbkU/T0GA84fFu_I/AAAAAAAABJI/MY8l2rixlzw/s1600/NGC7822_fernandez1000.jpg"><span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fe_4KO6rbkU/T0GA84fFu_I/AAAAAAAABJI/MY8l2rixlzw/s400/NGC7822_fernandez1000.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710987585925790706" /></span></a></u></div><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">There is, according to <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111116.html">the APOD I nicked it from</a> anyway, molecular gas here. It's been able to form molecules because - although even though those dark "pillars", similar to the marvellous <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100328.html">"Pillars of Creation"</a>, are devastatingly empty and thin compared to what we know - the environment is dense enough to block out a lot of light. ("Light" is a loose term for what stars give out. You've probably heard of ultra-violet radiation damaging your skin. That's the same type of thing as light, but it's a shorter wavelength we can see. Shorter still are X-rays. Hot stars and energetic environments give those out too. Longer include microwaves, infra-red, etc.) This does two things. Firstly, it allows the gas to cool and condense. Secondly, a lot of light in space (electromagnetic radiation) is "ionizing": it knocks the electrons' atoms right off!</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">99% of atoms in space are ions. Lone electrons, or (as "ion" usually means) a charged nucleus - a proton if it's hydrogen, or a ball of protons and neutrons if it's anything else. Some of these nuclei may retain some of their electrons. This completely changes their properties - they become much more affected by electric and magnetic fields, for example. </span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Stars are almost all ions - unless they're incredibly cool stars. So is most of the interstellar medium. All that radiation flying around is no match for poor lonely atoms. They might find an electron and combine with it, but chances are it'll be knocked off again before too long.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">And this is the norm. The orderly, neutral molecules that make up the Earth we know behave as only 1% of the matter in the Universe behaves. The upper atmosphere is full of ions that bear the brunt of the stronger radiation from the Sun. By having their electrons knocked off, they absorb the energy and let the rest of the planet go relatively unmolested!</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">This ionization is what we noticed going on when <a href="http://blogs.zooniverse.org/galaxyzoo/2009/07/07/peas-in-the-universe-goodwill-and-a-history-of-zooite-collaboration-on-the-peas-project/">we discovered the "Pea" galaxies</a>: that oxygen, that really electronegative atom that loved electrons, was present and getting two electrons knocked off. (Of course there was a great deal more hydrogen, but oxygen shows up better in the spectrum.) This happens pretty frequently in space, of course, but things were really firing up in those peas!</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>One of the units I'm studying this semester is called "Astrophysical Plasmas". You'll have heard that matter is a solid, a liquid or a gas. If they taught you much science, you'll have heard of the fourth state: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)">plasma</a>. Plasma, as you've probably guessed by now, is the state of matter when some or all of the atoms' electrons have been torn off, whether by radiation or electricity or intense heat. It behaves like a gas - even in the centres of stars where it is millions of times denser than any environment you get on earth. Most of the Sun is a plasma, as is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind">solar wind</a> that triggers the Aurora.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>You'll have seen gorgeous pictures of the Aurora from the ground, for example this lovely picture from <a href="http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/northern_lights_photo_tour.shtml">Alaska Photographics</a> - and also <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/01/28/real-time-footage-of-aurora-shows-them-dancing-and-shimmering/">this footage of the Aurora in real-time from the Bad Astronomer</a> is breathtaking to watch.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LdZfMx63pHk/T0CBcbRvkkI/AAAAAAAABIg/tFOBzexvzLE/s1600/Aurora%2Bover%2Bthe%2BBrooks%2Brange%2Bmountains%2Bfrom%2BAlaska%2Bphotography.jpg" style="font-size: medium; "><span><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LdZfMx63pHk/T0CBcbRvkkI/AAAAAAAABIg/tFOBzexvzLE/s400/Aurora%2Bover%2Bthe%2BBrooks%2Brange%2Bmountains%2Bfrom%2BAlaska%2Bphotography.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710706652864287298" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /></span></a></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/5577855/The-Aurora-Borealis-and-the-Aurora-Australis-from-space.html" style="font-size: 100%; ">Looking at it from space</a><span style="font-size: 100%; ">, you can see that it's going on very high up in the atmosphere . . .</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sjdqy5DKzxA/T0CBb3R2yHI/AAAAAAAABIY/dqzFv20-bP4/s1600/Aurora%2Blayer%2Bin%2Bspace%2Bfrom%2BTelegraph.jpg" style="font-size: medium; "><span><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sjdqy5DKzxA/T0CBb3R2yHI/AAAAAAAABIY/dqzFv20-bP4/s400/Aurora%2Blayer%2Bin%2Bspace%2Bfrom%2BTelegraph.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710706643201083506" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px; " /></span></a></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>. . . and, in fact, that the Earth's magnetic field direct the charged particles from the solar wind to form rings around the poles (in this case, the South pole - the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_australis_20050911.jpg">Aurora Australis</a>).</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NoUl6mpnLhY/T0CBcYa6haI/AAAAAAAABIw/g80BoI6cn2E/s400/Aurora_australis_20050911.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710706652097447330" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-size: medium; text-decoration: underline; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px; " /><span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">The Aurora is caused when charged particles strike oxygen and nitrogen in the magnetosphere of the Earth's upper atmosphere. The molecules don't zoom around in those dancing curtains. It's different areas being struck at different times - like the light from a torch moves around when you point the torch in different directions.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>What happens is ionization, or excitation of an electron - the same mechanism, but without enough energy to actually kick the electron free! Two charged particles from the Sun strike, say, two nitrogen atoms. One loses its electron altogether - and becomes an ion, one of the "99%". The other's electron gets "excited", into a higher energy state, but doesn't actually lose the electron. Later, the nitrogen ion finds an electron (maybe the one it had before, maybe another) to recombine with. This releases energy in the form of blue light. The other nitrogen atom's electron also falls back into a lower-energy state, releasing red light. (This process is described <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)#Auroral_mechanism">here</a>.)</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>The oddness of ions doesn't stop there. Our lecturer gave us the example of a gyroscope: that when you push it forwards, it will move left or right; and charged particles can behave in this counterintuitive way, too. (We write about parallel and perpendicular vectors quite a lot in Astrophysical Plasmas - and, if you don't mind, I'm not going to go into that here, for I may well make a fool of myself.)</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>I mentioned earlier that the properties change and that magnetic fields have an effect on them. Ions in a magnetic field will gyrate as if they are sliding along a spring: round and round (in opposite ways depending on their charge!), and along, sometimes at right angles to forces acting on them. And sometimes they will reach a point in the magnetic field where they are "mirrored" - it is as if they hit a brick wall and are bounced straight back in the other direction.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>And this is what helps create the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_allen_belt">van Allen belts</a> around our little blue planet.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LEcd2US3GR4/T0CFyIZl0RI/AAAAAAAABI8/JePY_rxjHLc/s400/500px-Van_Allen_radiation_belt.svg.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710711423800561938" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-size: medium; text-decoration: underline; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 220px; " /><span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>The van Allen belts, although - like the Earth's upper atmosphere - help protect us from solar radiation, are dangerous areas spacecraft have to watch out for. They are lobes of ions from the solar wind and our own atmosphere that are held in place by the Earth's magnetic fields. Some ions travel along in a banana-shaped object from the North Pole to the South, and vice versa - because when they stray too near the pole, the Earth's magnetic field lines become closer and closer together, and eventually this causes the "mirroring" of the particle - and it will zoom back off in the banana-shaped orbit. It's a bit like a skateboarder on one of those amazing curved platforms in the park, who doesn't go quite fast enough to get to the top and rushes back down again. He speeds up as he reaches the bottom and zooms his way back up the other end - but slows again towards the top. It's a constant motion, like a pendulum; potential and kinetic energy swap places again and again as the particle goes back and forth.</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Charges make particles do very strange things.</span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-30705945593160209722012-02-04T17:57:00.004+00:002012-02-04T18:49:14.938+00:00We are unable to process your responseScientific surveys are distrusted by many people and organisations. Sadly, due to the fact that surveys are not always particularly well written, this is not entirely without reason.<br /><br />Many years ago, when working for a health and safety consultancy, I was shown a newspaper article about the enforced closure of a care home after they had failed an inspection on safety grounds, such as their banisters being a couple of millimetres too wide apart. "These people aren't interested in whether or not you've got a loving home," one of the very upset care workers was quoted as saying, "they're only interested in ticking little boxes."<br /><br />More recently, the IT firm Atos has been the recipient of the outsourcing of decisions on sick and disabled people's welfare, taking these decisions out of the hands of GPs and others who know the welfare recipients, and placing it in the hands of a survey for which you have to score points to be declared unfit for work. LatentExistence describes it in more detail <a href="http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/whats-wrong-with-atos/">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/24/atos-case-study-larry-newman">this</a> is one of the results of this procedure. (By the way, if I say anything too critical of this company, my entire blog may be shut down - <a href="http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/atos-had-carerwatch-forum-suspended-over-a-five-month-old-link/">this happened to CarerWatch</a> and it took <a href="http://carerwatch.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/latest-with-atos-2/">a lot of fighting and correspondence</a> to find out that the entire forum, which is a pillar of sanity and support for many exhausted, poor and desperate people, was closed due to a link someone had posted many months previously. But I recommend <a href="http://www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/">Margaret McCartney's</a> writings on them, too - sadly the BMJ article I had in mind, and which I believe is linked to <a href="http://www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/?p=884">here</a>, no longer seems to be available.)<div><br /></div><div>In other words, a badly thought out survey can have horrific - and fatal - results. It can of course also be fairly hilarious to those who have the time and ability to pick it apart, as <a href="http://www.dcscience.net/?p=1775">bloggers did</a> to the BCA's "plethora of evidence" about chiropractic being effective back in 2009. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm currently earning my pennies by doing some scientific data entry, which involves a bit of database testing. I'm actually finding it both fun and fascinating, and also discovering just how much thought has to go into writing a survey and its results. A simple "N/A" in a box where an integer is required means that query after query gets generated, multiplying the poor data manager's work. When you create a survey, study, or report, you have to allow for various responses.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem a lot of people cite (in my experience, anyway) with surveys is that they "don't give a holistic picture", "ignore the real person", "don't treat anyone as an individual", "reduce important things to tick boxes" and so on. The trouble with this is that a really large survey <i>can't</i> treat everybody, or anybody, as an individual, except for case studies. You need to state exactly <i>what</i> you want to find out, and how much. No survey can find out everything about everybody! And if what people say isn't representative of what's really going on, or the results don't make any sense - <i>that's</i> when you've got a problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>If your tick boxes make people feel like that, this doesn't mean that surveys involving tick boxes are the problem, it means that the wrong questions are being asked - or, if it's multiple choice, that the wrong range of answers are being offered.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's a pretty good idea, I'd say, to do a trial run of a survey, and find out where these errors are coming from. No planning can possibly think of everything that will go wrong. So do a practice run, change what you need to, and then have another go. (This is much better than, say, adding a new question halfway through what you are doing - this makes the whole thing a mess.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Still, I would have thought that even a mobile phone company would have had the imagination to forecast the problems they created themselves with the survey they just sent me. I won't name the mobile company, but they've just offered me a new contract. I've accepted it, because it's a lot better than my current one, and also there isn't a minimum time on it. Let me make clear that they telephoned me while I was at work and I asked if they could call me back another time, which they did, exactly when they said they would - and they did not much underestimate the time the call would take, which was a big bonus. Anyway, next day I got the following message as follows:</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "From [X]: You recently spoke to us on [Day X] and we'd like to ask you 6 quick questions about your experience. All your feedback is free."</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Question 1: Was this the first time we've spoken about a specific problem or query? Reply with Y for yes and N for no."</div><div><br /></div><div>So far so good . . .</div><div><br /></div><div>ME: "Y".</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Question 2 of 6: Is your query or problem now resolved? Reply with Y for yes and N for no."</div><div><br /></div><div>ME: "Y."</div><div><br /></div><div>First problem. I thought I'd better add to that . . .</div><div><br /></div><div>ME: "Except I didn't have a problem/query. [MOBILE COMPANY] did."</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Error: We were unable to recognise your response. Please enter a number between 0 and 9 where 0 is 'poor' and 9 is 'excellent'."</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Question 3 of 6: That's good to hear. Overall how would you rate our advisor on a scale of 0 to 9 where 0 is 'poor' and 9 is 'excellent'?"</div><div><br /></div><div>I know a few people who work for these companies and know that if you answer anything other than the top number, they get a bollocking and lose their commission. (Mobile companies are not always kind to their staff - I recommend a read of <a href="http://sciencedigestive.blogspot.com/2010/12/too-rational-for-restaurant.html">this experience Dean had</a> with a different one.) So although it was annoying being rung up and I had to listen to the standard waffle, the guy was a good listener and answered - even anticipated - all my questions. So I decided to be generous.</div><div><br /></div><div>ME: "9."</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Question 4 of 6. How would you rate the time it took before you spoke to an advisor where 0 is poor and 9 is excellent?"</div><div><br /></div><div>I think by now it's clear that they have started off this survey by making a very specific assumption which needed clearing up before questions and answers could helpfully continue. </div><div><br /></div><div>ME: "N/A. I didn't call you."</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Error: We were unable to recognise your response. Please enter a number between 0 and 9 where 0 is 'poor' and 9 is 'excelent'."</div><div><br /></div><div>ME: "'Excellent' is spelled with two 'L's. Please take a literacy course."</div><div><br /></div><div>MOBILE: "Unfortunately we are unable to recognize the response in your message. Please try again at another time."</div><div><br /></div><div>By not allowing for a few very simple different situations, or employing a proofreader, or even allowing a Ctrl-C Ctrl-V to be used in designing error messages, this company has messed up its own surveying ability and wasted its own time and money as well as mine. </div><div><br /></div><div>And this is why it's important to learn how to design a survey before you do one.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-62192618518916000302012-01-22T22:33:00.007+00:002012-01-22T23:47:57.600+00:00And another Skeptics in the Pub. Welcome Hackney!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IbqpkJxk_A0/TxyS8yyoI1I/AAAAAAAABH0/fn9rYFZ6jxs/s1600/SITP%2Bgeneric.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 163px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IbqpkJxk_A0/TxyS8yyoI1I/AAAAAAAABH0/fn9rYFZ6jxs/s200/SITP%2Bgeneric.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700592801468130130" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Je4ZoPRw7uI/TxySBZr0LBI/AAAAAAAABHc/IREiVLoCpWk/s1600/SITP%2Bgeneric.jpg"><br /></a>Because obviously I haven't got enough to do at the moment, what with a <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=279479.0">course</a> and a <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/">zoo</a> and a <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2012/01/headless-chicken.html">bunch of talks coming up</a>, last autumn I let myself be dragged into co-founding <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org/">Hackney Skeptics in the Pub</a>.<div><br /></div><div>There are already two Skeptics in the Pub in London: <a href="http://london.skepticsinthepub.org/">London</a> and <a href="http://westminster.skepticsinthepub.org/">Westminster</a>. But there are over seven million people too, and <a href="http://answersingenius.com/">James Robson</a>, who works with exotic animals at the <a href="http://www.horniman.ac.uk/">Horniman Museum</a> and runs <a href="http://scienceinthepub.co.uk/">Science in the Pub</a> with <a href="http://paolov.wordpress.com/">Paolo Viscardi</a>, thought there was room for more. In other words, you can blame James for all this . . . </div><div><br /></div><div>Westminster is the place that focusses on media, law, policy, etc. So we thought we'd be "the Skeptics with a science slant". Like Science in the Pub, we hope to run the odd silly experiment during the interval (when I gave a talk there, for instance, people were invited to taste different wines to see if we could tell which were old, which were new, which were cheap and which expensive. I forget the overall result, but I certainly couldn't). We also differ from other places in another way, by being based at <a href="http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/london/venue/hackney-34/hackney-attic-5646/">the Hackney Attic</a> rather than in a pub. I personally love pubs (the kind with pool tables and room for conversation, anyway), but this is where we are, and a damn glamorous venue it is too.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-75wlC_j1vHk/TxySBh4j-9I/AAAAAAAABHs/fXq-tKHQFPk/s1600/Hackney-Open-Pic-43.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-75wlC_j1vHk/TxySBh4j-9I/AAAAAAAABHs/fXq-tKHQFPk/s400/Hackney-Open-Pic-43.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700591783317339090" /></a><br />It's the fifth floor of the <a href="http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse/">Hackney Picturehouse</a> on <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=270+Mare+Street,+London&hl=en&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=15.84337,39.506836&oq=270+Mare+Street&vpsrc=0&hnear=270+Mare+St,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=16">Mare Street</a>, opposite the Town Hall and Hackney Empire and, as you see, in a street containing rather a lot of pretty lights. It's a fantastic venue for gigs etc and has a bar and comfortable chairs, and they serve food and can bring it upstairs - so that covers all the necessaries for Skeptics in the Pub without it strictly being a pub. Maybe that'll expand our audience. Maybe it won't make any difference at all. We'll have to see.<br /><br />Let me digress into exactly what "Skeptics in the Pub" and "Skepticism" is, for anybody new coming along. It is not cynicism or pessimism, or people yelling "I don't believe you". There are <a href="http://skeptoid.com/skeptic.php">various</a> <a href="http://www.ukskeptics.com/article.php?dir=articles&article=what_is_skepticism.php">definitions</a> of what Skepticsim is, and <a href="http://www.senseaboutscience.org/data/files/resources/16/IDontKnowWhatToBelieve_web2011.pdf">useful articles</a> about where it's needed in the face of misleading claims, but a beautiful one was recently shown to me by Tannice, who runs <a href="http://guildford.skepticsinthepub.org/">Guildford Skeptics</a>. It's by DJ Groethe, and he says:</div><div><br /></div><div>"To me, the word is best understood by looking at its roots: it comes from the Greek word 'skeptikos', which just means to inquire or to find out. We say that skepticism is the best way of finding out the truth and is precisely the opposite way of just saying 'no' to others' beliefs . . . Critical thinking is continuous with skepticism – and with science, for that matter. It is simply thinking critically about claims and issues . . . Some people think the skeptic’s work is trivial, but we think beliefs matter very much. If the majority of people believe in the claimed supernatural ability of a TV preacher to heal their illnesses, there are real-world effects: the believers won’t go to real medical doctors."</div><div><br />From <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/critical-thinker-explains-skepticism-vs-cynicism-36923/">here</a> - the whole thing is very well worth a read!</div><div><br /></div><div>The Greek word may be why we call ourselves "skeptics" rather than "sceptics", although for many of us I guess it is just a habit, a joke, a special sense of belonging. Quite a few of us feel we don't belong among many others - with severities ranging from when all the people in the office are going on about how marvellous such and such a psychic is, to being the only atheist in your family and being constantly told you're going to Hell. </div><div><br /></div><div>But the nights at almost all the places I've been to are cheerful and bonding. I used to co-run <a href="http://cardiff.skepticsinthepub.org/">Cardiff Skeptics</a> with <a href="http://sciencedigestive.blogspot.com/">Dean Burnett</a>, which was an incredibly happy year - I lived in Wales just long enough to be there for <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/10/cults-laws-and-free-speech.html">our first birthday party</a> before moving here to London and having to leave. I've given talks at half a dozen or so places, and all the events felt happy and full of learning. Granted, at the Questions & Answers there's occasionally the odd smartypants or shouter, but the evenings are carefully watched by the people running it (and the pub staff!) and I've never yet been to one where I didn't end up in several great conversations.</div><div><br /></div><div>We're launching our <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/854/Scientists-do-not-have-a-monopoly-on-assessing-evidence">first event of 2012 on Monday 30th January</a>. The speaker is David Allen Green, better known as <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/">Jack of Kent</a>. I thought he'd probably be talking about libel law or some other bad law, but he's decided to be more interesting - for that, read "stirrer" (in a smiling way). As we're "the sciencey place", his title is "Scientists do not have a monopoly on assessing evidence". In other words, while <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method">the scientific method</a> is one of mankind's foolproof - yet counterintuitive - inventions, and has driven our progress for the last few centuries, history and law (and perhaps other things as well?) can be equally evidence-obsessed. He'll be talking to us about that. </div><div><br /></div><div>We've got more events on the way - Ben Hardwidge to talk about <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/832/The-Sharks-Dont-Get-Cancer-Myth">"The Sharks Don't Get Cancer"</a> myth in February, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alokjha">Alok Jha</a> for an unconfirmed topic in March, Deborah Hyde on <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/855/Demons-and-Nightmares">the origins of zombies</a> in April (her talk was <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/04/skeptics-in-pub-unnatural-predators-by.html">my introduction</a> to Skeptics in the Pub!), and we have some cool plans for May and June too . . . </div><div><br /></div><div>The challenge I've got this time that I didn't have in Cardiff is local advertising. My experience with this is limited to going round local businesses in Pembrokeshire and asking them if they'll have petitions to <a href="http://www.pembswat.org.uk/">save Withybush hospital</a> (the only hospital with an A&E in the whole of Pembrokeshire!), so I <i>may</i> make a complete hash of this. There is a Facebook group for "SITP Organisers" where I asked about advertising and was absolutely pelted with encouragement, ideas and advice. I'll be getting a day free this week - do get in touch if you even vaguely know me or plan to come to Hackney Skeptics and would like to accompany me on some poster-posting!</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope to see you on Monday 30th!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-55108256828320058002012-01-16T23:48:00.005+00:002012-01-27T20:51:16.304+00:00Headless chickenDon't start me off on how busy I am at the moment - as soon as I have the energy I will write a post introducing <a href="http://hackney.skepticsinthepub.org">Hackney Skeptics in the Pub</a> - but it just occurred to me the other day that I appear to be giving five astronomy talks in the next month!<div><br /></div><div>Just in case you'd like to come to any of them, they are as follows:</div><div><br /></div><div>Wednesday 18th January: <a href="http://guildford.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/770/Skeptics-in-the-Pub-Alice-Sheppard">Guildford Skeptics</a></div><div>Thursday 19th January: Queen Mary university (general Galaxy Zoo talk to my coursemates) -> Now rearranged to 7th February.</div><div>Wednesday 1st February: <a href="http://reading.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/763/When-the-Universe-Came-to-the-People">Reading Skeptics</a></div><div>Wednesday 8th February: <a href="http://birmingham.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/824/When-the-Universe-Came-to-the-People">Birmingham Skeptics</a></div><div>Monday 13th February: <a href="http://london.astros.org.uk/">Astronomers in the Pub</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Never mind, keeps me out of mischief. The talks will, surprise surprise, be about Galaxy Zoo, citizen science, and the new concept of open science hopefully becoming part of society. The Skeptics ones will be more education/people orientated, while the Queen Mary and Astronomers in the Pub ones will be more Galaxy Zoo/astronomy focussed. I like both sides! Now to go and either get some sleep or finish off those galaxy-speckled Powerpoints . . . </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-34407470457014674712011-12-23T19:54:00.008+00:002011-12-24T01:23:08.251+00:0036 Symptoms of Science GeekeryScience geekery is a deadly disease, not least because it makes you so happy you never want to give it up.<div><br /></div><div>These are 36 of the symptoms I've encountered - and I don't think this is all. Most are mine; a few are other people's. What are yours?</div><div><br /></div><div>1. You look for constellations in freckles and moles on your skin. And your boyfriend's/girlfriend's - and point them out when you find them. They may be a little disturbed, which is saddening because you mean it as a compliment.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. One of the most upsetting and bewildering things you can hear is the sentiment that science takes the beauty or poetry out of something.</div><div><br /></div><div>3. You start quoting <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Lehrer">Tom Lehrer</a> at length when drunk. Or, indeed, sober and having a good time.</div><div><br /></div><div>4. Carl Sagan's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g">Pale Blue Dot</a> makes you well up.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. You have a mental list of all the science things you didn't understand in school. If you're organised you read up on them. If you're not, you just feel annoyed about them and keep planning to read up on them some day.</div><div><br /></div><div>6. You have your own mental list of what you would put on the science curriculum, if given dictatorial powers!</div><div><br /></div><div>7. Bookshops are incredibly dangerous places to enter. (For your bank account, not your physical self - unless you do your back in, of course, or indeed sit on the floor and get so absorbed reading something that somebody trips over you.)</div><div><br /></div><div>8. Once shy and lonely, you suddenly become a very talkative and enthusiastic person!</div><div><br /></div><div>9. Other people's responses to this vary. They might remark, "You get all animated!" or "You light up when you talk about . . .". However, more commonly they'll object to "these things you just blurt out" as if you've said something exceedingly offensive. Other remarks may include: "You're very passionate about . . ." in a telling-off sort of voice; "You're obviously really shy. Only shy people talk that much all in one go" and "You really remind me of my autistic relative/friend X" or gently take it upon themselves to diagnose autism or Aspergers. You tell them that is very interesting.</div><div><br /></div><div>10. Fellow geeks are always to be cherished.</div><div><br /></div><div>11. Your Facebook wall shows rather a lot of links to <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/">APOD</a> pictures. You can't help but hope that some of the desperately boring people you can't acceptably unfriend will be even a little inspired. They aren't.</div><div><br /></div><div>12. Stories such as the idea of <a href="http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/reinventing-discovery/">"open science"</a> (1st chapter <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9517.pdf">here</a>!) or the <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/12/21/eight-year-old-children-publish-bee-study-in-royal-society-journal/">children's bumblebee paper</a> put a silly grin on your face for hours.</div><div><br /></div><div>13. You sneak onto a geeky website, or at least Twitter, when clothes, make-up, alcohol and X-factor become a topic of intense and opinionated discussion in the workplace. Or, if forced to participate, you come out with all the conversation-stoppers.</div><div><br /></div><div>14. <a href="http://xkcd.com/242/">This</a> makes perfect sense!</div><div><br /></div><div>15. When your friends discuss the inevitabilities of nuclear war or the futility of trying to feed the starving or combat corruption, or treat as completely reasonable the idea of no country agreeing to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions until everyone else does (because it would be bad for their economy), science seems the obvious solution. For example, putting more money into science will drive our renewable energy, and then when everyone else runs out of fossil fuels we'll be in the lead. "Yes," they shrug, meaning "If only", or less.</div><div><br /></div><div>16. Seeing the cruelty and stupidity of a lot of the world is, every so often, a horrific shock - because you've been concentrating on science, which is so beautiful and makes you so happy.</div><div><br /></div><div>17. Indeed you feel that more science for everyone would make the world a much happier place.</div><div><br /></div><div>18. Glow-in-the-dark stars are a very good idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>19. Remarks such as "But we didn't know how electricity worked for ages, but we still used it" and "We used to think the world was flat" (usually said as excuses for thinking something unscientific and being too lazy to listen to reason) drive you up the wall.</div><div><br /></div><div>20. When someone claims that some alternative remedy works just fine, you immediately prepare a firestorm of questions about studies, evidence, the placebo effect, and the mechanism (sadly, that usually has to remain inside your head - unless you're a lot braver and more patient than I am).</div><div><br /></div><div>21. It deeply upsets you to see an inaccurate scientific article.</div><div><br /></div><div>22. The best clothes and other accessories are those containing an excellent science slogan/joke/diagram.</div><div><br /></div><div>23. After years, when young, of being personally desperately committed to all your arguments, you grow a virtue of detaching yourself from your scientific work, in order to look at it properly. That ties in with the dry, detached language of scientific journals - although you can't help agreeing they would be much more accessible if written in more ordinary language. (Now if only there was a job requiring <i>that</i> type of translation . . .)</div><div><br /></div><div>24. You look back on the times you weren't doing science and ask yourself, "What was I doing all that time?"</div><div><br /></div><div>25. The world becomes full of toys. Clouds change shape before your eyes, whiteboards invite you to write a science joke, broken machinery is there to be pulled apart, Lego is perfectly acceptable at all ages, and your glasses (if you wear them) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration">turn the edges of everything red and blue</a>. And when you arrive early for a meeting, and are conveniently there to help pour the coffee, you first arrange all the polystyrene cups (which you disapprove of, because they're not recyclable, although you wonder if you ought to check that is still true - but cool mugs are still better) into the shapes of a barred spiral, an unbarred spiral and an elliptical. </div><div><br /></div><div>26. You then excuse yourself by explaining that, now you are into science, the world is suddenly full of toys, and everyone around you grins and nods, because they all feel the same way!</div><div><br /></div><div>27. You see galaxies in your coffee. And <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=5089.0">everyday objects in galaxies</a>. And point them out.</div><div><br /></div><div>28. You can't help but check for flawed methodology in every claim and every study you see. And you see a lot.</div><div><br /></div><div>29. Organisations or groups whose principles support sometimes see you as the enemy when you point out the flaws in their methods or reasoning. This is tragic, because you want them to produce the best data and arguments. </div><div><br /></div><div>30. You are occasionally reminded that you have forgotten to do something important, such as turning off the oven, because you were so busy thinking about supernovae or similar.</div><div><br /></div><div>31. When you suddenly understand a concept or equation you began struggling with a long time ago, it's difficult not to jump or dance. You have to settle for texting your geeky friends or blogging about it later.</div><div><br /></div><div>32. Sooner or later, you will come across someone who feels that there is something childish about facts and being "right or wrong". This is a lot to do with their own maturity and having learnt to compromise and respect everyone's opinion. You think about this and go through a long thought process concluding that your own maturity about knowledge has passed various stages. As a child, for instance, you might have thought in black and white, and that is what this person usually thinks you are doing. As a teenager, you learnt to think like them (and some people never get beyond that stage). As a science geek, the maturity is error bars, acknowledged uncertainties, and a healthy respect for facts which you know can never be entirely proved, only disproved - who knows how or when? </div><div><br /></div><div>33. When people ask you to recommend Christmas presents, you give them a list of science books. You genuinely found them funny and delightful.</div><div><br /></div><div>34. You tell your beloved to paste this equation into Google: (sqrt(cos(x))*cos(200*x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2)</div><div><br /></div><div>35. A science lecture, a Skeptics in the Pub night or a stargazing/telescope session is a <i>much</i> better night out than getting pissed.</div><div><br /></div><div>36. You use the word "geek" as a compliment. Other people think you're putting yourself down. This needs explaining.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-27730733383863501122011-12-07T00:22:00.011+00:002012-05-28T01:22:27.415+01:00The train tracks<div>
<i>Before you read this post (or choose not to), please bear in mind it might be distressing or triggering - that is, bring horrible memories to the forefront of your mind. It's not something I would have intended to blog about before this happened, but now it has, I think it's important - hopefully, you'll see why. There's some help sites at the bottom of the page.</i></div>
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It's the 11th week of a 12 week term in my postgraduate course. My blogging has gone out of the window, as has a lot of my attention on other projects such as Galaxy Zoo. I'm stressed about getting work to support myself and about my not-easily-cured lack of mathematical knowledge. I love the course but I'm just exhausted now and want to sleep, but I have to get off the train to wait for the next one because the line is branching.<br />
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It's freezing out. I was having a fascinating e-mail conversation earlier and completely forgot to change into warmer clothes before leaving the house. The platform's shiny black with rain and I think about latent heat and how it can be both raining and so cold. I walk up the platform to try and get warm, my bag batting on my back. I turn back and - what?</div>
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There were two men on the train tracks. They appeared to embrace briefly, and then walk slowly and carefully back across to the platform opposite. Something stopped inside me, as if I was watching a film that had suddenly gone silent, the screen shrunk, my breathing switched off. What if a train came? They were standing on the rails - would they be electrocuted? A bunch of people had gathered at the edge and held out their hands to pull them up again. I took this to be a prank, or one of them having dropped something. I was quite far away but wandered nearer, suddenly nosy.</div>
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One of the men was holding his hands up, as if the others were pointing a gun. There was some jostling and pathetic wails of "leave me alone". It was then that I realised what was happening. Would they calm him down? Talking helps usually, doesn't it? There were a few moments of rising jostling and then calm. And then the man broke away and ran. Towards me. I was just wondering if there would be any point jumping onto the tracks myself when another man ran after him, caught him up, grabbed him, and was joined by two others who held him tight. They ended up on the ground. The man was howling now. He wanted them so much to get off so he could . . . do it again.</div>
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I looked around me. Most people were standing still, staring. No, I didn't see anyone obviously calling the emergency services. Suddenly it occurred to me that the men holding him couldn't, there were no staff around, and nobody was in charge. Nobody was going to come along and make everything all right. How could they? British Transport Police. What was their number? There were signs everywhere normally saying "If you see a train being vandalised, call . . ." I couldn't find one. Right. Can't waste any more time. You might have seconds. Action stations.</div>
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I pulled my phone out of my pocket. For some reason, dialling 999 - the first time I've ever done that - made me feel very foolish and embarrassed. Also I had started to shake wildly and it affected my voice. </div>
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"Emergency services," came a recording. Then silence. </div>
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Then "What emergency service do you require?"</div>
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"Police please."</div>
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Ring, ring. Oh, a long ring, ring. "Police, what is your emergency?"</div>
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I almost said "Hello, good evening," on autopilot. The guys still had the man held down, against the wall. His howls were just incoherent howls, like a baby crying. I couldn't even see him. I was right opposite them now, just those two horrifying railway tracks in between.</div>
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It was a very clear-voiced, calm lady. I told her which Tube station I was at and that someone had tried to throw himself onto the tracks. She asked if he was still on the tracks and I said no. I described as best I could what was going on. She asked me what he looked like. I had to be honest and say it had all happened so fast and I couldn't see him any more, I couldn't be sure. My mind was suddenly full of a list of features <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2011/11/citizens-arrest.html">David Allen Green explains here</a>: "Sex, height, hair colour, build, jacket, bottoms, trainers, fabrics, colours of clothes." (I could remember most of those, not all, and managed to come up with height, hair colour, jacket, colours of clothes. I won't repeat them because I don't want this poor guy to be identified this way.) She asked me the most obvious, race.</div>
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"What platform is he on?" Oh God. I couldn't see. I paced about trying to find the sign. I told her that he was "on the one in the middle". I found out I was on Platform 3 and told her, adding that he was opposite me, but she thought I meant he was on Platform 3. I was later able to interrupt her and say Platform 2 - I had walked to the right place and was able to see a tiny sign. She clarified with me that there were people holding him. I said there were but I thought he might well do it again if they let him go. All this while people were standing rooted to the spot. A few were on their phones but it seemed to be to friends. I really couldn't tell. None of them seemed to be aware I was calling the cops. I can't remember what she asked that prompted me to respond at one point that he basically just seemed terribly upset and needed some looking after. I still felt really silly and apologised for wasting their time if they'd received other calls about this. She said "No, no," and really sounded like she meant it. "The police are on their way," she told me after a surprisingly short time, "and an ambulance, too, just in case."</div>
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She asked me if I wanted a reference number. I told her I couldn't write it down but if it was short I could try and memorise it. I think I have! She asked for my name, but no further details. She thanked me for calling and we hung up. </div>
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I longed to yell across to the struggling guys that I had called for help but I knew my feeble, shaking voice wouldn't get to them and it would hardly impress the guy they were holding. I was contemplating finding my way to that platform but it proved unnecessary: within a wonderfully short time several policemen arrived. Slowly they seemed to be taking over the holding down, and doing some talking. The guy stayed on the floor. I couldn't make out what the police were saying but at one point one asked, "And have you taken anything with that?" I noticed a girl had her arm around him - did she know him? I got the impression nobody else did. At one point the police told people brusquely to move away, apparently including the folks who'd held him down. But in general it was all very politely executed.</div>
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It had to be ten or fifteen minutes since I'd seen the two men on the rails - of course it's so hard to tell - but it did occur to me that no trains had come, though mine had been due for a long time. Although I hadn't seen any staff, they must have been stopped. I was sort of loathe to get onto mine when it did arrive. I wanted to stay and see what happened. But it wasn't as if anything I did, or knew about, would help him now. Calling the police had been in my hands: now everything was out of them. I went home.</div>
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I was shaking a lot as I got onto the train and sat between people who had no idea what had happened. It seemed very odd that none of the dozens of folks watching had exchanged any communication. I guess it was because it wouldn't have helped. What was passing through the minds of those who hadn't pinned the guy down, hadn't called 999? Had they been appalled at the thought of him dying or was it just something to watch? Had they seen me call 999 and did they think I was doing the right thing? It didn't matter, of course. It's just that . . . well, this hadn't seemed how people are, usually. The number of times someone's spontaneously helped me drag a suitcase upstairs, or even spotted me looking lost and come to see where I was going. Or just happily begun a chat. Yes, in London.</div>
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I walked home fast, as always. It was still cold, but my own shaking had I think warmed me up. This kind of thing lets loose all kinds of emotions. I wanted to call my parents, but as they're doctors and saving lives is routine to them, I was afraid they wouldn't be impressed. I hoped that guy would be taken to hospital and get what he needed. And, of course, I wondered what the hell he'd gone through.</div>
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He must have been out of his mind to do something so publicly. Did that mean it was just attention-seeking (a cry for help), or that he was so far gone that he wasn't thinking, or that he honestly didn't think anyone would stop him? Four years ago, during that teaching course, I had three detailed suicide plans and all of them involved ensuring I was alone and, if anybody turned up, they wouldn't have time to stop me. </div>
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I certainly didn't begin this blog expecting that I would reveal anything so personal, but what the heck - once something's public anyone trying to use it against me would look bloody silly. (And if you are for example an employer who'd turn me down for a job because I've once felt suicidal, I don't want to work for you anyway.) Suicide does happen, it does affect people, and there is no point in not talking about it.</div>
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At the time, it seemed that nothing was within my control, and it was only going to get worse. I was far away from home with no real friends anywhere remotely near me, and no time to contact those who mattered. There were so many documents being demanded of me that were intrusive and personal and gave people with power too many more weapons. The reasons I wanted to teach were just the things the teaching profession seemed to wish to attack - in fact my very self as well as my dreams seemed to be their target. That and really obvious bullying, such as criticising me loudly in front of the pupils, teachers and teaching students, or the technicians keeping me waiting for 45 minutes and, while I was still standing there, greeting the other student enthusiastically and helping her immediately when she came in without an appointment. And a teacher, knowing this had happened, charging me with booking equipment that he knew I knew the technicians would refuse to provide. I reported all this and was told "oh, how sad" by the course director. My mentor and his colleagues blamed me, informing me that either this had not happened or that it was my fault it had, and upped their vigilance and destructive criticism of my teaching. I knew that nothing I did would make them pass me - that everything I did I would have to write about and that they would state that it was a failure. In short, I was dependent entirely on the judgment of other people. Home was no respite; I was sharing a very cold grubby house with a girl who among other things almost constantly played music so loud that my body and furniture shook, and screamed her head off if I asked her to turn it down. I was the only person on the course without a car and a nice place to live, and one of only two without a family or partner living in the same house being a constant support. No rest, no control, no hope, no alliance, and a weird sort of grief - that's not a combination you can easily solve.</div>
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It's a pretty basic feeling, desperation, and a pretty basic factor that stopped me. I wrote a goodbye letter to my family - at which point I saw my mother's face with an expression of knowing what I was going to do. I couldn't do it. Simple as that. In fact, I decided if I was willing to destroy my own life, I might just as well cripple myself financially, so I moved house. That did improve things. It only delayed the inevitable as far as the teaching went - but it was very uplifting to realise how very easy it was to make a major change.</div>
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There was a massive shift in my thinking. I realised this a year later when I finally found a sympathetic doctor. He asked me if I was suicidal. I said no, and meant it, but mentioned that I had been a year previously. He asked me what I would do and I told him. It occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea then (I had moved back home by then) what I would do. If I ask myself now, I have no idea. </div>
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If you're feeling like that, it does end. And no, you're not the only one. I have read of, and been told of and confided in, too many similar situations to feel that posting this is somehow going to expose me as a freak. There are so many hopeless situations, so much cowardice and bullying, so many power games in this world. And of course there are so many other reasons other people have for feeling like that; I doubt my case is remotely unique, but nor do I think it a descriptor for other people.</div>
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It does pass.</div>
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I wonder what happened to that guy. I worried all the way home that he would do the same thing again tomorrow. Can he be helped? Do we have the resources to do so? Will the right people be in the right place at the right time? Can he make a drastic change to his life - is he in a position to do it? I don't know. I would love to know if he's OK but I guess I'll never find out.</div>
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Suicide has been much in the news lately - this is written not long after the death of <a href="http://www.thecalmzone.net/2011/11/a-response-to-the-death-of-gary-speed/">Gary Speed</a>. Comments on Facebook and other such treasure troves of wisdom ask: "How could he have been so ungrateful? He had a family, didn't he realise he had any responsibility to them?" A frequent response, which is probably true, is that he was no longer in a position to think in that rational way - perhaps he felt, if anything, that they'd be better off without him. Prior to 1961, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961">suicide was illegal</a> - a book I read in my early teens, "Tell Alice" I think it was called, included a family which had lived in permanent shame because a daughter had attempted it.</div>
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Stigma and shame solve absolutely nothing. <a href="http://www.rethink.org/living_with_mental_illness/everyday_living/stigma_mental_illness/">Same with disability and mental illness</a>. Making an act shameful will not prevent someone from falling victim to circumstances that will make them carry out that act - and stigma and shame includes responses such as "he was irresponsible to do that to his family". Yes, a person in full happiness and control would be, but the very point is that that person has lost such happiness and control and needs to get that back before such things can be expected of them. <a href="http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/">This page</a> sums it up perfectly: the unbearableness has outweighed the ability to cope.</div>
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At this point I know I'm treading on very thin ground, being utterly inexpert in such matters, and I don't want to go and put out any misinformation or distress anyone for no good reason. So I won't attempt to analyse any further.</div>
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The other thing that prompted me to write this honest and soul-bearing post (although frankly what happened to me could happen to anyone, so it's not even as personal as all that) is the deluge of positive and honest reactions I got on Twitter when, still shaking, I got home and shared this story.</div>
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Several sent me virtual hugs and sympathy for having seen something so awful. A few sent me blogposts linking to their and their friends' stories, about how someone's suicide or attempted suicide had affected them, and what happened - they were frightening and painful, but life-affirming: we are all people, most of us care very much about each other, including complete strangers. So many congratulated me for calling 999, which was a little embarrassing as the heroes in the story were surely the blokes who reacted so fast and held him and particularly the one who got down on the tracks. So many expressed sorrow and empathy for the man who wanted to die. And so very many told me, publicly and privately, that I was right to bring up suicide and that it affects so many people and should be talked about more. It chokes me up just how many people have come closer, much closer, to ending their lives than I did.</div>
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If you are feeling that way, or you know someone who is, please take other options first. Talk to someone about it, contact an organisation. Don't worry about wasting their time. Don't think your needs are less than others who call them. They're there for you as well as for other people. If you feel guilty, just acknowledge that you do.</div>
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These are a list of organisations I've come across, heard of, been sent - please add to them in the comments if you wish.</div>
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<a href="http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/">Metanoia</a> - "If you are thinking about suicide, read this first"</div>
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<a href="http://www.samaritans.org/">The Samaritans</a> - you can phone them, write to them or walk in</div>
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<a href="http://www.mind.org.uk/help/medical_and_alternative_care/how_to_help_someone_who_is_suicidal">Mind</a> - information for families and friends as well as individuals</div>
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<a href="http://www.suicideforum.com/">Suicide Forum</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Suicide/Pages/Getting-help.aspx">NHS Choices</a> has a range of phone numbers and websites, including some listed here. They also suggest seeing your GP. Other places suggest going to Accident and Emergency.</div>
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<a href="http://www.thecalmzone.net/">The Calm Zone</a>, specifically <a href="http://www.thecalmzone.net/talk/issues/suicide/?gclid=COfO-Ifv7qwCFcsmtAodI1YhQA">this page</a></div>
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And, if it's already too late, <a href="http://www.uk-sobs.org.uk/help_and_support.htm">Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide</a></div>
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And a bit more lighthearted, <a href="http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=505">Questionable Content</a>. Yes, really. This arc in the story starts <a href="http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=500">here</a> (five pages earlier) and Jeph Jacques, the author, recommends an American site, <a href="http://www.suicidology.org/home">Suidology</a>.</div>
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<b>I've decided to edit this paragraph as I felt so bad about it.</b> I initially was terrified someone suicidal might come to me for help and I would need a miracle to save them, so would fail. (After I did my First Aid course I was warned that if I tried to help someone I might make a mistake and be sued. That sort of thing.) But whatever I wrote looked like I was saying "Sorry, but whatever you feel, I can't help." I then came across <a href="http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/sphone.htm" target="_blank">this list of things you can do</a> if you get a suicidal call and none of them require a miracle - they're all quite simple. I recommend a read - it contains good news for both parties: that the important things are talking and listening. It's surprisingly simple to ask for help, and it's surprisingly simple to give it!<br />
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If my distressing evening and my witnessing what that man did leads to one person reading this who will pick up the phone when they need help, then that's all I can possibly want. Back to astronomy at some point - honest!</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-56884548338708855282011-10-24T16:55:00.010+01:002011-10-24T19:40:14.122+01:00Space's Explosive CandlesThis blog post is an adaptation from <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=279541.0">this Object of the Day</a>, which is an adaptation from <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/10/astrophysics-here-i-come.html">my course at Queen Mary</a>. Here will go back a lot further into the history of the violent events in space that prove vital to astronomy: the <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/stdcand.html#c1">standard candle</a>.<div><br /></div><div>A hundred or so years ago, a computer went every weekday to <a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco/">Harvard College Observatory</a>'s <a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco/plates.html">plate stacks</a>, and compared plate after plate of glass. That computer was a determinedly selfless lady named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Leavitt">Henrietta Leavitt</a>; "computer" was the job title of one who analysed astronomers' results, from plates to notebooks to calculations. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_plate">"Plates"</a> in this case were sheets of glass onto which projections from telescopes had been collected by a light-sensitive silver nitrate solution, capturing the patterns of stars. This meant both greater accuracy in measurements, and a permanent record. (Today, Harvard College Observatory holds thousands, although obviously they are no longer used for observing.)</div><div><br /></div><div>A "positive" and "negative" plate could be taken of any sky area - white stars or black stars - and laid upon each other. These average out - if the two plates are exactly the same. But if anything has changed in that area of the sky, the object in question will leap out, starkly black or white against the grey.</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, this is pretty much the same technique as <a href="http://www.icehunters.org/">Ice Hunters</a> uses; more on that in <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/06/ice-blobology-in-kuiper-belt.html">this post from June</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Women were not at that time permitted to use the telescopes themselves. However, as she worked - at first, without pay - on the thousands of plates, Leavitt spotted many variable stars. (Variable stars are stars that change in brightness; they had been objects of interest for some time, but regarded with as something amateurs rather than professionals studied.) The discovery she made that earned her a nomination for the Nobel Prize - but only three years after she died, by someone who was not aware that she was dead - was <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/cepheid.html">Cepheid variable stars</a>, a type of star whose brightness rises and falls in direct correlation with its mass.</div><div><br /></div><div>Stellar mass is directly proportional to its luminosity, and as light's intensity falls in direct proportion to its distance - the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law">inverse square law</a> - it is possible to tell how far away a star is. There are three factors, and if you know two, you can deduce the third. There's a brilliant explanation here at <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/isql.html">Hyperphysics</a> about how the inverse square law of light (and gravity) works:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0MpK1cDXw60/TqWR1LokA2I/AAAAAAAABGI/4vvROjwiInI/s400/inverse%2Bsquare%2Blaw%2Bof%2Blight.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667096048957653858" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 220px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div>Leavitt did not know exactly how far away each Cepheid was, but she had a very useful sample to study: those in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds">Magellanic Clouds</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Magellanic Clouds, so named for a Portuguese explorer, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan">Ferdinand Magellan</a>, who used them to navigate while sailing around Africa, are a couple of nice little dwarf <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/search/label/Irregular%20Galaxies">irregular galaxies</a> in the southern hemisphere. Leavitt did not know the distance to these, but did realise that they were far enough away that she could treat all the Cepheids in them as being effectively the same distance away. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UgYqwPWwMik/TqWWdVId3QI/AAAAAAAABGU/Szd2Zs9hyFo/s400/Magellanic%2BClouds%2BAPOD.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667101136748666114" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 109px; " /></span></div><div><i><a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110509.html">This APOD</a> shows the Magellanic Clouds over the Very Large Array during a lunar eclipse. The link will show you a map of what everything is in the sky.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Extrapolating her results led to a bombshell. As telescopes improved, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble">Edwin Hubble</a> was able to spot Cepheids in the <a href="http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/universe_level2/andromeda_galaxy.html">Andromeda galaxy</a>, and calculate their distance. Andromeda was completely separate from the Milky Way. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_Shapley">Harlow Shapley</a>, who while showing that Earth was not at the centre of the Galaxy was nonetheless convinced that our Galaxy was the only one, was shattered when he heard. He thrust <a href="http://www.aip.org/history/cosmology/ideas/island.htm">Hubble's letter</a> to him at his young colleague <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/01/different-sort-of-sine-qua-non-cecilia.html">Cecilia Payne</a>, saying, "Here is the letter that has destroyed my universe."</div><div><br /></div><div>It turned out that there are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cepheid_variable#Classical_Cepheids">several subclasses</a> of Cepheid variables - and not knowing this led Hubble to wildly overestimate how fast the galaxies are receding from each other. Nineteenth century geologists, biologists and physicists had rocked the world by showing, through geology and evolution, and radioactive decay, that the Earth was over four billion years old rather than a few thousand as religious history taught; and Hubble's figures suggested that the Universe was only two billion years old! </div><div><br /></div><div>Henrietta Leavitt had started a new way of looking at the Universe: she revealed the first set of standard candles. It was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Baade">Walter Baade</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Zwicky">Fritz Zwicky</a> who discovered the next sort: supernovae.</div><div><br /></div><div>Zwicky and Baade were close colleagues in the 1930s, but at the advent of the Second World War, some scientific friendships fell apart (the most famous being that of <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2009/04/book-review-copenhagen-by-michael-frayn.html">Heisenberg and Bohr</a>) and theirs was one of them. But they both made outstanding contributions. Zwicky predicted <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111017.html">gravitational lensing</a> and <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/04/black-beauty.html">dark matter</a>, and Baade identified <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/starlog/pop12.html">Population I and Population II stars</a>, which taught us a lot about <a href="http://galaxyzoo.org/">galaxies</a>. But they had time to separate the already known <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060726.html">novae</a> from the much more impressive supernovae, and to predict the neutron star - the complete collapse of an object that had reached the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar_limit">Chandrasekhar Limit</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar">Chandrasekhar</a>, known as Chandra, had predicted a strange but inevitable law of white dwarfs. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf">white dwarf</a> is what is left of a star once it has burned all the hydrogen fuel in its core (the hydrogen at the edges is too far away and too cold), and it has stopped shining - though it will remain extremely hot for billions of years. However, should this white dwarf have a mass more than 1.4 solar masses (a solar mass is the mass of the Sun - about 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg, if you care) its gravity will be stronger than that of the repulsion between electrons which basically gives everything its solidity. This idea was not widely accepted, and he could not predict what would happen. Baade and Zwicky, with more observations and probably more knowledge of nuclear physics under their belts, predicted that protons and electrons would fuse into neutrons. This gives off a staggering quantity of energy, and because electron orbits make up virtually all the volume of an atom, the white dwarf shrinks to a tiny, unimaginably dense object only about 20km across.</div><div><br /></div><div>A neutron star is what is left after a supernova. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A">Supernova 1987A</a>, on whose rings the <a href="http://www.galaxyzoo.org/">Galaxy Zoo</a> logo is based, has confused astronomers by not so far appearing to have left one.) As with Cepheids, there are different types of supernovae. The most important difference is type I and type II. Both basically involve the collapse of the star's core. (Stars don't automatically collapse when their cores are over the Chandrasekhar limit because of the furious heat of nuclear fusion maintaining an outward pressure.) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_supernova">Type II</a> is the explosion of a star between nine and and up to fifty times heavier than the Sun. </div><div><br /></div><div>A type II supernova still has an outer layer. A type I supernova does not. These are divided into the subclasses of type Ia, Ib and Ic. Type Ia is the collapse of a white dwarf that has accumulated more material since the star's outer layers were puffed off into space. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ib_and_Ic_supernovae">Types Ib and c</a> are the core collapse of a star, making them more similar to a type II explosion, but their outer layers do not contain hydrogen. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_1a_supernova">Type Ia supernovae</a> have a very special property: the transition from white dwarf to neutron star always happens at precisely the same mass - 1.4 Suns, the Chandrasekhar limit.</div><div><br /></div><div>And because they are of the same mass, the explosions are of exactly the same brightness. Therefore, they are an ideal standard candle. And because they can outshine entire galaxies, these candles can be seen billions of light years away.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was examining those that are fairly far away that led to the <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/sciback_fy_en_11.pdf">Nobel prize winning</a> discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe. By "far away" I mean with a redshift of under 1, so not exactly at the edge of the observable Universe: far enough to get a really large scale of what is going on, but not so very far that we're looking back at ancient history. Near enough to give a picture of modern times. Naturally that discovery is <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-supernovae-universe-expansion-understood-dark.html">still being questioned</a>, but the papers (<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133">Perlmutter et al</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9805201">Riess et al</a>) were extremely thorough - indeed, thorough enough to be held up as examples worth learning from, as well as critiquing, as part of my course!</div><div><br /></div><div>What they found was that the supernovae were fainter than we would expect. And because this is, basically, a local effect - though one over huge scales - it means that expansion is going faster than we thought it is. We know that inflation, unfathomably rapid expansion, took place when the Universe was less than a second old. But we had been assuming the <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/01/where-did-big-bang-actually-take-place.html">Universe's expansion</a> was slowing down ever since - like a ball thrown up into the air, ready to hover for a moment, and then crash through the greenhouse windows or into a paddling pool or similar.</div><div><br /></div><div>It turns out the ball has a booster rocket, which is <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/">dark energy</a>. The density of dark energy never changes - but, as the volume of of the Universe is ever increasing, the density of matter decreases all the time. There isn't much dark energy about per given volume. But there's more all the time. And we found all this out through standard candles.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just how standard <i>is</i> a standard candle? Science is never as straightforward as would be convenient - though that only contrives to make it even more interesting! </div><div><br /><a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0848">Not all Type Ia supernovae are made quite the same way</a> - or, to put it in more scientific terms, they may have different progenitors. A white dwarf may start off as under 1.4 solar masses, but accumulate enough material to pass that limit. There are two ways it can do this, and both ways are through starting off as a binary star system. Its companion may still be a star, and it may drag off its outer layers. Or its companion may also be a white dwarf, and they might merge.</div><div><br /></div><div>(It used to be predicted every so often in astronomy that a star might grow by passing through a <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=57.0">nebula</a>, but in practice nebulae are far too rarefied for this to be more than negligible - and the star's stellar wind drives off surrounding gas anyway. Also, two white dwarves merging will not make a type Ia supernova if the both their masses add up to less than the Chandrasekhar limit. If that happens, if they have enough hydrogen, they will <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=279096.0">become a star again</a>!)</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5729">This little theoretical paper</a> predicts that the "single degenerate" supernova - the star plus whit dwarf - will explode in the direction of the host star, and contain hydrogen from the star in its spectrum; while the "double degenerate" supernova - the two white dwarves - will have a different shape and contain no hydrogen. (They are called "degenerate" because the term "electron degeneracy" refers to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_matter">"degenerate matter"</a>, i.e. matter crushed to a point where it only stops being a neutron star because of the electrons holding it apart.) It predicts, in the latter scenario, that the lighter white dwarf will break up and form a ring around the heavier - like Saturn's rings - and the resulting explosion, when it occurs, "may be expected to be axially symmetric, but predominantly of the form <b>m = 2</b>. That is, there is an additional reflective symmetry about the equator. Here the character of the explosion changes monotonically as the viewing angle moves from the pole to the equator." (I <i>think</i> I know roughly what that means, but I'm not quite sure how to describe it! Also, we do not yet know whether or not that paper's predictions are correct. Science will, hopefully, find out.)</div><div><br /></div><div>It also depends on what the white dwarf is made of, <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=279541.msg565207#msg565207">as pointed out by Robert Gagliano</a>, who is one of the major posters on <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?board=30.0">Supernova Zoo</a>. Even if the explosions have roughly the same characteristics, their <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=274815.0">spectra</a> will not, for white dwarfs may be made of carbon, sometimes oxygen, and may or may not also contain hydrogen and helium, which may or may not be ionised - all these affect the spectrum. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, and to me the most interesting point of all: as <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0848">this paper</a> points out, although there aren't necessarily two distinct types of Type Ia supernovae - there is more a continuum (like galaxy shape, really) - it is established that spiral galaxies tend to host brighter supernovae than elliptical galaxies. <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.5119">This paper</a>, from zookeeperKevin, points out that it is correlated with a galaxy's starforming rate. One of Galaxy Zoo's great finds was about galaxies and colour. "Roses are red, spirals are blue, or at least so we thought until Galaxy Zoo": spirals tend to live alone, where there is plenty of free cold gas, and therefore are blue with star formation. Ellipticals tend to live in clusters, where there is no free cold gas, and are therefore "red and dead". I've written more about this <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-do-stars-live-in-galaxies_14.html">here</a>. The exciting exceptions are blue ellipticals and red spirals. What, I would like to know, are <i>their</i> supernovae like?<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j969c57qRd0/TqWtm3jkXpI/AAAAAAAABGs/4wsl4PaQAfg/s1600/red%2Band%2Bblue%2Bspirals%2Band%2Bellipticals.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 360px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j969c57qRd0/TqWtm3jkXpI/AAAAAAAABGs/4wsl4PaQAfg/s400/red%2Band%2Bblue%2Bspirals%2Band%2Bellipticals.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667126589375405714" /></a><i>A normal <a href="http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588017730842263630">red elliptical</a>, normal <a href="http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588017110217785386">blue spiral</a>, less normal <a href="http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587736584972271628">blue elliptical</a>, and less normal <a href="http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587729777451663397">red spiral</a>, taken from the <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=279541.0">Galaxy Zoo Forum</a>.</i><br /><br />Now, if all that fried your brain, go and soak it in <a href="http://www.astro.uvic.ca/~alexhp/new/supernova_sonata.html">the music</a> of a <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110526.html">Supernova Sonata</a>, or read Alice Allen <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110430.html">adapting William Blake</a> to the supernova.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yzQ0UlQuTOY/TqWmZ0CRAKI/AAAAAAAABGg/71p-noZ77g0/s1600/Supernova%2BSonata%2BAPOD%2Bap110526.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 251px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yzQ0UlQuTOY/TqWmZ0CRAKI/AAAAAAAABGg/71p-noZ77g0/s400/Supernova%2BSonata%2BAPOD%2Bap110526.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667118668510724258" /></a><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-2356383299322426142011-10-14T23:00:00.004+01:002011-10-15T00:45:42.322+01:00Cults, laws, and free speech<a href="http://cardiff.skepticsinthepub.org/">Cardiff Skeptics in the Pub</a> turned a year old on 20th September. The day before - it also being a Monday - we held <a href="http://cardiff.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/696/The-Return-of-Stupid-Scientology">its birthday party</a>, with crisps, cakes, balloons and two very special guests: <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/">David Allen Green</a> and <a href="http://cardiff.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/344/Stupid-Scientology-From-obscurity-to-Newsnight-and-back-again-in-140-characters">John Dixon</a> to revisit #Stupidscientology.<div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4J98OD7PxY/TpiU-BR-x7I/AAAAAAAABFw/4GDwa50GvJ0/s1600/David%2Bspeaking%2Bat%2BCardiff.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4J98OD7PxY/TpiU-BR-x7I/AAAAAAAABFw/4GDwa50GvJ0/s400/David%2Bspeaking%2Bat%2BCardiff.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663440324635051954" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Thank you</span> <a href="http://twitpic.com/6nh6c3">@wmjohn</a> <span class="Apple-style-span">for this photo. Are there any more?</span></i></span><br /><br /><div>It was a good time to be all insane and swoony over the astonishing fact that our baby group had launched a whole year ago - that had been <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-did-it.html">a pretty good day</a> too. Thanks to all the speakers who've been so far: Simon Perry, Ash Pryce, Andrew Holding, Simon Singh, Hayley Stevens, Deborah Hyde, Jon Ronson, Trystan Swale, James Onen, obviously David and John, Rhys Morgan who's every so often had another news snippet for us, and the great comedy cast of July, whose names for which my memory is embarrassingly incomplete. And the people who've helped with lifts and chair stacking and spreading the word, generally being enthusiastic and supportive, and the audience for keeping us going, and the lady who brought along some profiteroles!</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Appreciation expressed, to I hope the smiles of those receiving it and not too much boredom from everyone else (Skeptics leaders love it when you visited one of their events!) - we visited the subject that had got John famous. It may look like an idiotic piece of red tape, political correctness gone mad etc on the surface, but the implications were surprisingly sinister.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div></div><div>David has written a brilliantly detailed blog post about it <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2011/09/stupid-scientology-revisited.html">here</a>; I recommend a read. In short, John, in between tweets about what he was up to in London, had tweeted that he was hurrying past a <a href="http://www.scientology.org.uk/">Church of Scientology</a> so the stupid didn't rub off. A while later, a scientology Twitter account began following him. Well over six months after this, someone complained to the council about the tweet, mentioning, I might add, that they thought there might have been two other tweets they objected to but they could now no longer find them on Google. It was a great many months more before his fellow councillors could make the decision what to do. In the end, they did not take it to court, though John gave us the impression that he might rather have enjoyed himself if they had.</div><div><br /></div><div>John defended himself with great humour and sense: someone having attempted to make him look a bigot, he was able to raise awareness of <a href="http://www.scientology-lies.com/whatswrong.html">quite a lot</a> of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/15/scientologist-girl-lie-abuse-allegation">unsavoury</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/18/scientology-torture-allegations-australia?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487">information</a> (links provided by me, not him) about the Church of Scientology that made "stupid" look like the kindest possible description. You might enjoy <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxE16RRy-X4">this video of him standing up to Kirsty Wark</a>, and being much politer than she was in her attempt to make him appear rude. David's knowledge of law gave him expertise in tackling this issue of free speech defense versus "bigotry" accusation, with weapons I would never have thought of - for example, in <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2010/07/meaning-of-stupidscientology.html">his criticism of the document by the Ombudsman</a>, he did not mention the author, because "you can't defame a document". John actually skyrocketed to fame whilst in a tedious two-hour meeting. His mobile was switched off, and he had no knowledge that David had brought the case to the country's awareness. When he switched it on, he had 700-odd new followers and umpteen tweets and voicemails waiting for him.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is of course far from the first time David has got involved with an issue like this. Not scientology, but a case where the law is being treated as a weapon, rather than a means to get justice.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Church of Scientology has as much right as anyone else to assert and protect their ultimate legal rights," <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2011/09/stupid-scientology-revisited.html">he writes</a>. "But it is misconceived and illiberal for litigation (or the threat of litigation) to be used by itself as a weapon."</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard">L. Ron Hubbard</a>, who founded Scientology, is quoted as saying:</div><div><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">"The purpose of the [law] suit is to harass and discourage rather than win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."</span></blockquote></div><div>In other words, the point is not winning or losing. As Simon Singh found out, even if you win, you have lost thousands, sometimes tens or hundreds of thousands, and years of your life. Very few people in their right mind would take that on if there was any way out. The way out is to back down, to apologise, to retract all your statements, to make out that the individual or organisation suing you has nothing to be ashamed of - and your peers will self-censor their own work, too.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had something like this happen to me 11 years ago, albeit on a much smaller scale. A boss in whose employment I had been extremely unhappy (the guy I describe at the end of <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-time-and-place-for-pain.html">this post</a>, if you're interested) took it upon himself to tell the company treasurer I had said I didn't want to be paid for my last two weeks of employment at his firm - at least, that is what she told me when I telephoned to enquire. When I wrote to the firm to challenge this, I was fobbed off for 3 months (the 3 months in which an employee must begin an industrial tribunal), then suddenly accused of theft on the grounds that I had sent an e-mail to a friend with verbal permission. I was informed that there were 4 logged occasions on which I had been forbidden to use the Internet, and that two other employees had wasted four man-hours searching for any viruses I might have allowed into the company's computers, time I was being charged for.</div><div><br /></div><div>The charges were blatantly ridiculous, since other employees had routinely used e-mails and often sent them to me, one of my duties was using the Internet, the boss was famous for never logging anything or even being able to use a computer, and he had even claimed that each man-hour cost the company £65 after I had spent the best part of a year daily logging man-hours which were £45. And, as <a href="http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461">Acas</a> told him, it is illegal to deduct pay from an employee under such circumstances; you have to bring a case against them first. If anyone tried this nonsense on me now, I would laugh in their face. But I was only eighteen, I was extremely poorly, I was inexperienced, and I had spent months being bullied and humiliated by him and had had about as much as I could stand. Now obliged to fight for myself when I was least able to do so, I went to the Citizens Advice Bureau (<a href="http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/press_20110906">now being cut all over the place</a>), and although I did not win any compensation I was given back most - not all - of the money I was owed. But it took five months, by which time my sickness had become long-term. He never did drop his threat of suing me. My sickness and the worry that he might do it went on to ruin university for me and whenever I start any new employment I still have an undercurrent of alarm that something like this might happen again. Frankly, if I could have foregone my lost wages and allowed the wrong thing to happen, in exchange for having my health and confidence back, I know which I'd have chosen.</div><div><br /></div><div>(I would love to name the individual and company that did this - and I bet I'm not their only victim - but sadly, I do not dare do so . . .)</div><div><br /></div></div><div>The mere threat of litigation is a massive weapon. For me it was merely "civil action", minor but bad enough. For someone like <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/apr/15/simon-singh-libel-reform">Simon Singh</a>, or <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2010/10/libel-and-holy-man.html">Hardeep Singh</a>, or anyone who someone with as much money as Hubbard had to use the law as a weapon as much as he pleased, the consequences could be much, much worse. </div><div><br /></div><div>The law, there in principle to do a good and essential thing, can also ruin the innocent. That's why I admire David. He dedicates huge amounts of time and energy, often free, to fighting against that, and defending those to whom it happens.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not the only way the law can be used for personal benefit rather than as it is intended.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few days ago, Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer. I've never been able to afford any kind of Apple product, but the effect they've had has really changed things - there's <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=org.zooniverse.android.galaxyzoo">an app for Galaxy Zoo</a>, for instance. <a href="http://thecuriousastronomer.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/a-bitter-apple-to-swallow/">The Curious Astronomer</a> and the <a href="http://www.lovethatmax.com/2011/10/thank-you-to-steve-jobs-from-special.html">mother of a special needs child</a> whose life was transformed by Apple have written about that. Sadly, certain people affiliated with Westboro Baptist Church were not so graceful.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cnNqhg3cd84/TpirzLO6eJI/AAAAAAAABF8/F21ar6P86b8/s1600/Westboro%2BFucking%2BLoser.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 194px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cnNqhg3cd84/TpirzLO6eJI/AAAAAAAABF8/F21ar6P86b8/s400/Westboro%2BFucking%2BLoser.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663465427095419026" /></a><br /></div><div><a href="http://i.imgur.com/5kjVw.jpg">This piece</a> of utterly hateful loser-ness <a href="http://gawker.com/5847221/god-hates-fags-church-uses-iphone-to-announce-steve-jobs-funeral-picket">circulated the Internet</a> quite a lot shortly after Steve Jobs's death. (She <a href="http://www.webpronews.com/westboro-baptist-church-assault-steve-jobs-2011-10?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WebpronewsTopNewsRssFeed+%28Top+News+Items+-+WebProNews%29">then claimed</a> that God created the iPhone purely so she could insult its founder . . .)<br /><br />Even though I didn't know much about Steve Jobs, and I'm certainly not an uncritical fan of Apple, I exploded with indignation when I read this. Death hurts. How can anyone use the occasion of someone's death to pick on their relatives? As I've just described, to be kicked when down makes you feel desperate. Why do Jobs's relatives deserve to be made to feel desperate when they're saying goodbye, already knowing the world is watching them?</div><div><br /></div><div>How, I tweeted, was this kind of harrassment even legal?</div><div><br /></div><div>I was then immediately challenged by someone I hadn't come across before: <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/Donalbaion">Donalbaion</a>, a mature student in Physics. He pointed out that I was arguing against free speech. Simple as that. To deny Westboro Baptist Church the right to harrass the grieving was anti-free speech.</div><div><br /></div><div>Initially, of course, I was even angrier. Honestly, who would be suffering from a deprivation of their rights more: the bullies, who would be told "No you can't upset these people", or, say, someone who might have to hold a funeral in secret (and therefore deny many others the chance to mourn) if they didn't want to be psychologically attacked? What kind of freedom is it when you can't even have a funeral in peace?</div><div><br /></div><div>But of course, anger alone isn't much of an argument. What would be the consequence if Westboro Baptist Church was <i>not</i> allowed to exercise its freedom of speech by picking on grieving people?</div><div><br /></div><div>Donalbaion tweeted me <a href="http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/strwhe.html">this review</a> of the book "When the Nazis Came to Skokie". In summary: in 1977, Skokie was an area in which a sixth of the residents were Holocaust survivors and their near families. In this very area, a neo-Nazi group wished to demonstrate. The residents fought against this, citing not only the worry that violence might erupt from the demonstration, but their right to live without intimidation from a group who presumably supported the horrors they'd gone through. But on the other hand, to refuse the neo-Nazis a right to protest would violate freedom of speech. The review concludes: "Strum's book shows that freedom of speech must be defended even when the beneficiaries of that defense are far from admirable individuals."</div><div><br /></div><div>In other words, once someone (say) took out an injunction against Westboro Baptist Church, who else might lose free speech as a consequence? It could be anyone, for any reason. It's just too dangerous. </div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not the end of the story. All that agonising over human rights, knowing that people are going to be bullied and degraded - that is, according to <a href="http://kanewj.com/wbc/">this piece of writing</a>, precisely what they want us to do. Go and read it now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apparently, this is not about beliefs at all. Whether or not they honestly think God agrees with all their statements about who is going to Hell, their aim is that someone else will get angry enough to try and violate their rights somehow. And then they can sue them.</div><div><br /></div><div>As "El_Camino_SS" has written:</div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">I saw that he was way too calm and collected for what he looked like in the media. I noticed that he never made personal statements against a person, which is verbal assault, and an out against a lawsuit. Also, for a religious fanatic, a group of people who pride themselves on personal attacks, he was running a protest so terribly by the books that I was impressed by it. He will not bait a person, ever. He will not make personal attacks. He will make blanket statements. He will look at a person in the crowd that he thinks is gay, walk over to his stack of signs, pull out the appropriate, well designed, easily read, laminated bright board, and hold it up and loudly proclaim that "gays are going to hell" or some such nonsense, and make eye contact, but he will never cross the line of telling that person that they're going to hell. That would be the part that would screw up the lawsuit. He just wants to get them after him, but wants to appear utterly blameless for damages.<br /><br />. . . They run too tight of a ship to slip up, and at that point, I realized that the objective of the group was not anything religious at all. </span></blockquote>Assuming the above is true - and here I do not claim to know for sure - this seems to me another misuse of law, and it's even more cynical than the type of misuse about which <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/search/label/Skeptics%20in%20the%20Pub">Skeptics</a> here in the UK have heard so much. It's not even, strictly speaking, misusing the law. It's not using archaic silly laws that are set up to benefit the already rich and powerful. It's using a hallmark of civilisation simply to try and get money out of people. </div><div><br /></div><div>And frankly, I'm not sure if there's anything we can do. With the first type, we can <a href="http://libelreform.org/sign">sign the petition</a> to change the UK's <a href="http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/simon-singhs-case.html">outdated and embarrassing</a> libel laws. With this type? We can't change <i>that</i> law, because that way almost everybody would lose their rights, rather than in the above case, where so many would gain them. After all, a civilised society does not remove its welfare state because a handful of people abuse it. And Donalbaion was right to point out that we cannot put free speech to a majority at risk because a handful of people abuse that.</div><div><br /></div><div>I suppose, in this case, that if anything can be done, it could be a grassroots, done-by-the-people effect. For example, stronger people are less bothered by banners which display the words "God" and "Hate" in the same breath - so a campaign to give people strength in some way. Perhaps similar banners could be waved, saying something like "Civilised people don't target the grieving" - using the Phelps' tactics of blanket statements and never coming across as personal. Just showing solidarity. Bringing a society to a point where it no longer cares. Of course, you good folks in the States may already be doing that; I honestly don't know. My post is about law and free speech, not about any particular church.</div><div><br /></div><div>And there are things that to some extent make up for the worst. For instance, according to that journalist's post, at least the grieving cannot be verbally attacked, and that these folks only stay for a maximum of 30 minutes. And, more importantly, they are a tiny minority. Take a peep at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/arfon/6227559483/">this Apple store in Chicago</a> (photo taken by <a href="http://arfon.org/">Arfon</a> from the Zooniverse). We may not all be Steve Jobs, but if your rights have been violated, in most cases in civilised countries it will only be a few people who've done it, rather than an entire society. Often, most people are on your side.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-54090776283579242682011-10-08T02:00:00.000+01:002011-10-08T02:46:14.529+01:00Astrophysics, here I comeWhew! I'm here!<div><br /></div><div>"Here" is London, the city I was born in and still think of as home. Through a friend of a friend I've found some lovely lodgings just outside the North Circular and am getting used to cooking for one again. All of a sudden there are things going on all around me. There are kids playing with remote controlled cars in the streets, there are buses and trains for which I seldom have to wait more than one or two minutes, there are endless food shops, there is shouting and laughter, there are beautiful parks, there are such a huge variety of people, there are all these friends I can meet without travelling for hours. And there is <a href="http://www.qmul.ac.uk/">Queen Mary University</a> and a course which, so far, looks as if it's going to be the course of my dreams.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the years of running the <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org">Galaxy Zoo forum</a> and getting more and more interested in astronomy, I became increasingly aware of the gaps in my knowledge - the more I knew, the more I found there was to know for which knew I needed some training. Absorbing facts is one thing, but mathematics and computer code and the language I call "journalese" (in other words, the very dry style in which scientific papers are written) is quite another. My knowledge contained some of the gorgeous constructions of science, but without the nuts and bolts to hold them together or build on them. The trouble was that neither my undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences nor my attempt at teaching had been any encouragement to study any more. I had long stopped thinking of myself as academically minded. So I had thrust the idea into the back of my mind and it stayed there for years, until one tedious morning driving to a pretty useless course I was on for work when the idea of doing a masters in astrophysics suddenly popped into my head like a massive bright gold light being switched on.</div><div><br /></div><div>At work later that day I snuck onto Google and by that evening I knew which course I wanted to do: <a href="http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/msc-astrophysics">this one</a>. There weren't very many others, to be honest (at least not without also doing an undergraduate degree), but this seemed both the friendliest and the best tailoured to what I wanted. I began filling out the form, but procrastinated, worried about money and unable to get hold of one of the referees I had in mind. Then it was <a href="http://blogs.zooniverse.org/galaxyzoo/2011/07/13/insane-happiness-in-massachusetts/">off to Boston</a> for the <a href="http://aas.org/meetings/aas218">218th AAS Conference</a> and that was it.</div><div><br /></div><div>That conference was one of the happiest times of my life. I was invited into what turned out to be a waterfall of astrophysics, flooding me from all sides. Everywhere I went there was more. And miraculously, I found I actually understood a lot of it. Not a large percentage. But I did begin to notice that what I wasn't understanding was the jargon, the mathematics, the acronyms. The concepts themselves were fine. And many astronomers didn't understand the acronyms either: astronomers were specialists, so a cosmologist for example might be bemused by the many <a href="http://kepler.nasa.gov/">Kepler</a> reports on extrasolar planets - and they were quite happy to tell me so. Even more encouragingly, several astronomers wanted to talk to me at their work, and were quite happy to explain things to me in detail. Since I was writing an article for the <a href="http://www.astronomynow.com/magazine.shtml">Astronomy Now magazine</a>, and because the older I get the less self-conscious I become, I never worried about putting my hand up in seminars or press conferences to ask questions. And the upshot of that was that I heard the same thing from umpteen genuine scientists: "Where do you study?" and upon hearing that I was not a student, "Oh, you must do a PhD! Your questions are really good - you've obviously got a great aptitude for this subject!"</div><div><br /></div><div>(It's really hard work, not aptitude, but we are <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13128701">often reminded</a> that the former is <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/system/files/Intelligence%20Praise%20Can%20Undermine%20Motivation%20and%20Performance.pdf">what really makes the difference</a>. For instance, I also used to be one of the worst public speakers I know. I just curled up and mumbled. Seriously. Now, due to repeatedly bludgeoning myself with the task, public speaking is one of the things I'm best at. In fact this was one way I reasoned myself into going ahead and applying: if you can run the Galaxy Zoo Forum, co-found <a href="http://www.cardiff.skepticsinthepub.org">Cardiff Skeptics</a> and learn public speaking, I told myself, you can conquer mathematics. We'll see in the next few weeks if I was right . . .)</div><div><br /></div><div>This autumn, I'm studying Cosmology and Research Methods. The latter is quite a new course and there is some worry that it seems "soft" and is somewhat hard to teach. It's actually incredibly valuable - everything anyone studying science needs, everything I wish I'd been told as an undergraduate, everything you need to know if you want to back up some claim you've made (or debunk someone else's). The material we are reading for it is also anything but "soft"! Next term will be Astrophysical Plasmas, and Extrasolar Planets and Astrophysical Disks, both of which sound pretty mysterious! Next year will be the Galaxy, the Solar System, Stellar Structure and Evolution, and Electromagnetic Radiation in Astrophysics - these are all more familiar to me and I can't wait to take them, but since it will also be my dissertation that year, I'm glad to be getting the difficult things out of the way now. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's a part-time course because for one thing I want to go slowly and for another and MSc course is expensive, as is living in London. So I'm also looking for a job. If you happen to know of any science or science communication related jobs, please let me know. Science communication would of course be my ideal, but I realise I can't be choosy! As well as astronomy I have some background in Environmental Science and Chemistry, plus teaching English and Science, plus other supervisory roles, plus an awful lot of admin. Oh, and some experience of working with vulnerable people - which has been the subject of a lot of my outraged-at-injustice posts the last year or so. Oh, and I'm a very good proofreader and editor. (This is not a post in which I'm going to bother to be modest.)</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm hoping to get myself together and get blogging more; it's been a topsy-turvy year and I haven't done much for some time. Meanwhile, because I owe so much to Galaxy Zoo for getting me into astrophysics, and because it's so much more fun to feel as if I'm doing the course for hundreds of other people as well as me, and because it'll make sure I myself keep up to date, I'm writing about what I'm learning <a href="http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=279479.0">here on the Galaxy Zoo Forum</a>. Please come along to ask questions and join the lively discussions it's prompting!</div><div><br /></div><div>Apologies, also, for not writing an <a href="http://findingada.com/">Ada Lovelace Day</a> post. Today is Ada Lovelace Day, in which we celebrate women in science, and women who have influenced us. Can I make the excuse that I've been busy starting off on what might one day make me, myself, a female scientist? (I don't know if I will aim to do that or not yet. Let's just say that it looks a lot more possible than it used to.) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Porco">Carolyn Porco</a> recently tweeted a list of <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/10-things-that-women-invented.htm">inventions you probably didn't know were made by women</a>, and I also want to make a tribute to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_Maathai">Wangari Maathai</a>, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who died a few days ago. Her loss to the world is great: she has done amazing things for women, for politics and for the environment; you can read more about her at the <a href="http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=3">Green Belt Movement</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy Ada Lovelace Day, and may neither men nor women ever be put off from learning!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-30475839641104461482011-09-14T02:25:00.004+01:002011-09-15T01:18:10.394+01:00Why do stars live in galaxies?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n4VyKaoqsCg/TnAGfpFthLI/AAAAAAAABFo/L1kpTtJ0ri4/s1600/Coma%2BCluster.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n4VyKaoqsCg/TnAGfpFthLI/AAAAAAAABFo/L1kpTtJ0ri4/s400/Coma%2BCluster.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652024673025492146" /></a><a href="http://cas.sdss.org/dr7/en/tools/chart/navi.asp?ra=195.23358&dec=27.79086&opt="><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>Coma Cluster from SDSS</i></span></a><br /><br />This post is dedicated to <a href="http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/">David Allen Green</a>, who asked me after seeing my <a href="http://scienceinthepub.co.uk/2011/08/11/septembers-pubsci-beer-and-galaxies/">PubSci</a> talk why the Universe is full of galaxies - stars living in "cities" - rather than stars being evenly spread around, so the Universe is one big galaxy.<br /><br />People often remark that the Big Bang sounds like an explosion, or is described as an explosion - and that is a violent, chaotic, destructive event, so why did it produce so much order? I have written about the Big Bang itself in more detail <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/01/where-did-big-bang-actually-take-place.html">here</a>. David knew this was not the case. His question is, in more scientific terms, this: if it produced so much order, and everything expanded - why did it expand with some areas being denser than others?<br /><br />I'm not going to answer in the traditional way a scientist would expect. I have a tendency to answer things by telling the story in the opposite order from the traditional way. Rather than starting with the Big Bang, I'm going to start with stars.<br /><br />The Big Bang did not emit stars. It did not even emit atoms. All this stuff came later - when things had cooled and been able to clump. Paradoxically, a star cannot form from hot gas, only cold, because the atoms (or molecules, or ionised atoms and electrons) of a hot gas or plasma are whizzing around too fast to be able to stick together and condense.<br /><br />So, how can gas cool down? There not being fridges readily available in outer space, it basically needs to be shielded from radiation. This happens in dust clouds. We can't see the centre of our own Milky Way Galaxy because of all the dust in the way. Longer wavelength radiation can get through a lot of it, but not optical (visible light). Where the dust or gas is thick enough, it can cool. And that's when it gets affected by gravity. It contracts.<br /><br />Star formation typically occurs in clumps, turning the whole area apparently blue. Take a look at these two galaxies and you'll see where the star formation is occurring:<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VvdQv-N2Z1I/TnAFcXOJpXI/AAAAAAAABFY/txVxarV9YK4/s400/spiral%2Band%2Belliptical.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652023517177816434" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 202px; " /></span><div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://zoo1.galaxyzoo.org/Tutorial.aspx"><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Galaxy Zoo 1 tutorial</span></i></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>In the spiral galaxy (left), the stars are moving in the same direction. In fact, they move into and out of dense areas, rather like cars moving into and out of traffic jams. This allows regular shock waves to pass through gas clouds, triggering their gravitational collapse and setting off star formation. In the elliptical, on the other hand, each star is going on its own route (see <a href="http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/JavaLab/SOSweb/backgrnd.html">here</a> - click the arrow on the right - for some rather silly star orbits which still remain stable, like a ball falling back to the Earth after being thrown upwards). This leads to the gas being in pretty much a mess, too. There's nowhere it can comfortably clump and cool without being disturbed for a while. Indeed there are no gas clouds left - an elliptical is known for having used up all its gas and having no fuel left. (There is some, but it is too hot and thinly spread to form stars.)<br /><br />When stars do form, they often start in clusters like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades">Pleiades</a>:<br /><br /><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-URQwXRm-FSE/TnAFb26DBuI/AAAAAAAABFI/-lsuu21d4U4/s400/800px-Pleiades_large.jpg.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652023508503561954" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px; " /></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitized_Sky_Survey">Digitised Sky Survey</a>; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pleiades_large.jpg">Wiki</a></span></i><br /><br />The nearest area to us where star formation like this is occurring now is in Orion's Belt. Next time you see the familiar hunter and those three stars lined up, you can relish the knowledge that although it looks dark around them, there's a churning gas cloud there and a great deal going on inside it - APOD has a gorgeous picture collection <a href="http://t.co/gPJ9bW8">here</a>.<br /><br />Star formation stops in the cluster once the stellar wind from the young stars blows off the rest of the gas; we know the Pleiades are young because there is still a lot of gas surrounding them. Due to the gravity of stars in their local neighbourhoods, these young clusters then tend to drift apart. While in <a href="http://blogs.zooniverse.org/galaxyzoo/2011/07/13/insane-happiness-in-massachusetts/">Boston</a> I heard one theory that we may have captured some of our comets and even planets from our sister stars in the Sun's infancy. It was an odd talk . . .<br /><br />Anyway - this was not the question, but I hope it demonstrates that star formation is not straightforward, and that things need to happen to get it going. I suppose one could say space needs to settle down and get ready.<br /><br />It does demonstrate why stars don't live outside galaxies: basically, they need to form from gas clouds, and any self-respecting gas cloud that happens to collapse in space won't just generate one star at a time - it'll generate lots! The closest we can get to these is an <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/01/doctor-proctor-and-irregular-galaxies.html">irregular galaxy</a>. These are clumps of star formation without a local supermassive black hole, and without a defined structure such as spiral or elliptical. They are also far smaller than the big monster we live in and the sort the Zoo has been studying. (This is why <a href="http://blogs.zooniverse.org/galaxyzoo/2011/01/18/taking-citizen-science-seriously/">Richard's project</a> is so exciting from a purely scientific as well as a citizen science point of view - well, duh, if it wasn't good science, it wouldn't be good citizen science either. But you know what I mean. He has already found that irregular galaxies are much more starforming even than beautiful blue spirals.)<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f7wfMAunowE/TnAFcrrp_5I/AAAAAAAABFg/BYrUZERuinQ/s1600/irreg2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f7wfMAunowE/TnAFcrrp_5I/AAAAAAAABFg/BYrUZERuinQ/s400/irreg2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652023522670280594" /></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Irregular galaxy from <a href="http://www.sdss.org/">SDSS</a></span></i><br /><br />So, stars form when gas clouds collapse. And a good thing too, or we wouldn't be here - not only does the Sun give us light and heat and keep the Earth in a stable orbit, but it's nuclear fusion in stars that creates heavy enough atoms and molecules to form rocks and iron and organic molecules and water and so on that are needed to create life. (As Carl Sagan put it in <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot_(book)">Pale Blue Dot</a></span>, it's funny that we consider this the anthropic principle when it might just as well be called "the lithic principle", that the Universe was primed to create rocks, too.)<br /><br />But why should there be clouds of gas in the first place? If the Big Bang sent everything out in its own direction, and the force of the explosion was equal, sending everything in a sphere (assuming there are three dimensions - in any case, sending equal quantities of everything in equal directions) - then everything should be the same space apart.<br /><br />Picture a given area of atoms, say of hydrogen. Each is the same weight and has the same gravity. Each is equally spaced from all the others. Each is pulling on the ones around it - so each feels a force from all of its neighbours in every direction. Like a tug of war whose sides are entirely evenly matched, nothing goes anywhere.<br /><br />But the Universe did not expand quite evenly. Its evenness - its homogeneity - is very, very nearly complete. Especially after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology)">inflation</a>. When we look back at the time before any atom was cool enough to get near another, the differences were less than one part in ten thousand.<br /><br />That time is called "the dark ages" and it's the limit of how far back we can see. There's something in the way. And that's another sort of cloud - or to be exact, a plasma. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)">plasma</a> is a seething mass of ionised atoms and their electrons - atoms whose electrons have been torn off. (There's probably no net electric charge, since for every negative electron zooming around, there's a positively charged atom somewhere.) The Sun is a plasma. And the one at the edge of the visible Universe is called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background">Cosmic Microwave Background</a>.<br /><br />We can't see through it because its edge marks the end of a time in the Universe when it was so hot that light couldn't get through it. (Recall that as you look deep into space, you look back in time. When we look at the Cosmic Microwave Background, we look at a time over 13 billion years ago. When you look at the Sun, you look at a moment 8 minutes ago - and hurt your eyes, incidentally, so I don't recommend that.)<br /><br />Space was so hot and dense then that whenever a photon of light went anywhere, it promptly collided with an atom or an electron and was sent off elsewhere. It would have been like looking through a thick cloud - or, indeed, the Sun itself, where the same thing happens. (This is why the light that shines down on us is millions of years old. It took that long to escape.) But once the Universe had cooled enough, electrons were able to bind with protons and neutrons, to form neutral atoms. At that point light could get through. We cannot look back any further than that boundary; we have to look at the rest of the Universe and work out what happened before that point.<br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBE">COBE satellite</a>, which launched in 1989, made a discovery about the Cosmic Microwave Background that explained our existence: some parts of it were hotter than others. Just a bit. And you've read earlier what hot particles do. They whizz around, they bounce off each other - they don't clump together as easily as cold ones. So everywhere in the Cosmic Microwave Background that was a tiny bit cooler got that tiny bit denser.<br /><br />And that's where gravity set in. That's where the clouds of hydrogen and helium started to fall together. I have yet to read an astronomy book that doesn't jokingly relate this to capitalism - that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer - in other words, any area with just a bit of density will, over time, attract more and more material. And, conversely, the empty areas get empty. <a href="http://www.marcuschown.com/">Marcus Chown</a> has written a whole book about how the Cosmic Microwave Background was discovered, and the tiny, tiny fluctuations in it - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=afterglow+of+creation&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=9029865305&ref=pd_sl_85sfkniftj_e">Afterglow of Creation</a>.<br /><br />(I once asked <a href="http://chrislintott.net/">Chris</a> if heat alone could account for the fluctuations. Things were very hot then, and as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion">Brownian motion</a> - the random motion of water molecules that kicked a pollen grain around and therefore allowed Einstein to demonstrate that atoms did exist, and measure their size - there would be a certain amount of randomness: particles moving now one way, now another, like waves on a lake. Would that alone be enough to account for the fluctuations? Chris said no. They were caused by something more, some other irregularity in the Big Bang. I don't know what.)<br /><br />Stars and galaxies soon formed; the furthest - that is, the earliest we can find - you can read about <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/farthest-galaxy.html">here</a>. Look at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_deep_field">Hubble Deep Field</a>, a region of space containing vast numbers of very early galaxies, and you'd think that all that uniformity you'd expect from the Big Bang hadn't happened at all.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-87zfLR44fnU/TnAFboQUg-I/AAAAAAAABFA/Q_HPcqEx7Lc/s400/594px-HubbleDeepField.800px.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652023504570450914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 396px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" >NASA; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HubbleDeepField.800px.jpg">Wiki</a></span></i><br /><br />And yet . . . David was also not wrong. Not at all.<br /><br />Before writing this blog post, I dug out <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horizons-Cosmology-Exploring-Templeton-Religion/dp/1599473410">Horizons of Cosmology</a></span> by Joseph Silk, which <a href="http://astronomynow.com/">Astronomy Now</a> had kindly sent me in exchange for a review, and which prompted <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/04/black-beauty.html">this blog post</a>. I thought it would probably remind me of a few useful things, and it did.<br /><br />Galaxies live in clusters. Our own Milky Way does - and it is steadily zooming towards a larger cluster, even while the Milky Way and Andromeda circle each other, ready to merge. And clusters live in superclusters. Superclusters are the largest objects in the Universe. They are like bright filaments through the blackness of space. An accident and emergency doctor and dedicated galaxy classifier once remarked to me that they look remarkably like neurones in the brain.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vU0VL3IdPfo/TnAFcGTv_sI/AAAAAAAABFQ/MFNJ5XlJL4Q/s400/Universe%2Bfrom%2BUniverse%2BToday.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652023512637898434" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" >NASA and <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/87065/astronomy-without-a-telescope-big-rips-and-little-rips/">Universe Today</a></span></i><br /><br />Silk describes some of the deep sky surveys, the search to understand inflation and the minute differences in temperature that seeded the unevenness, and goes on:</div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" >"The larger the region, the more the universe approaches homogeneity. On average, the universe is completely homogenous. There is no dense centre, no rarified boundary region. Yet everywhere there are galaxies. In some regions, there are slightly more than the average, and in others, slightly fewer. We describe these variations as fluctuations in the average density of the Universe. Some are positive, some are negative.<br /><br />When we measure the strength of the density fluctuations, in other words, we find that the overdensity or underdensity is smaller with increasing scale . . ."</span></blockquote></div><div>Float away from our world, and look down at it: it will seem huge. Further, and it will shrink, and so too will the Sun, melding into our local group of stars. Later will come our Galaxy's spiral arm, then the galaxy itself. Then the cluster. Then strings of superclusters . . . the further you go, the more you see, the more similarity you will see. It's like when you break the world down to see atoms, and then electrons and quarks. Nature is simple. The Universe is vast. And I love it.<br /><br />(You may notice I have created a silly new hashtag called <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/search/label/Fizzicks%20Questions">Fizzicks Questions</a>. I hope to answer more - and tell you about some good answers I have been given to my own astronomy questions - in the future.)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-28933093074863585962011-09-13T16:25:00.004+01:002011-09-14T13:28:44.132+01:00Shut up and be grateful - that's an orderI confess I'm a regular reader of the Virginia Ironside column at the Independent. The dilemmas are often interesting and indeed have given me ideas for stories, as well as prodding thoughts about real people I meet. However, I don't always agree with what Virginia says, and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/virginia-ironsidedilemmas-2353606.html">today's dilemma</a> was no exception. A lady with osteoporosis in many joints is understandably infuriated with people being made anxious by her slowness and asks how to get them to calm down without being rude. Virginia responded with a blast of accusations of rudeness and being "impossible to please" - "people like you irritate me". Other letters published were all to the effect that the person writing in was basically an ungrateful cow. <div><br /></div><div>Since nobody had any practical advice to offer, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/virginia-ironsidedilemmas-2353606.html#comment-308598769">I gave mine</a>. I also thought of blogging about how all these accusations completely missed the point of the dilemma. About how fussing, while better than the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/15/disability-living-allowance-scope-cuts">horrific prejudice thousands of disabled people face</a>, is not the solution. And about regardless of how well a fusser means, the questioner had to live with this situation, and was asking about how to live it better - and being made to feel dreadful is not going to help her or anyone else. However, I don't have to, because <a href="http://brennybaby.blogspot.com/2011/09/disabled-and-dont-want-to-be-fussed.html">BrennyBaby at NewsJiffy</a> has already done it for me - many thanks!</div><div><br /></div><div>(Related post: <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2011/01/blaming-vulnerable.html">Blaming the vulnerable</a>, from back in January.)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >Update:</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div>It got a lot more interesting than that. I did not really expect the writer of the dilemma to see my comment - but not only did she see it, she's posted her original letter and got a really good discussion going right here, so please check out the comments. And please join in!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-523827246619043163.post-3404740476082255542011-07-30T17:22:00.008+01:002011-07-31T02:48:58.420+01:00On a time and place for painMany years ago I awoke very early, surrounded by sleeping people. I was on a week-long retreat with the creative writing society at university; I had just finished my degree. Curled up silently, feet away, was the guy I was mildly interested in at the time, in the arms of a girl whose arms were always covered with angry red slashes. I'd found out too late that she didn't like talking about it, which put me in a terrible bind: I ached to listen, to try and help her, and it seemed unforgiveable to ignore them, yet that boundary was one she had asked me to respect.<br /><br />It was a wonderful week, but one in an unhappy time, for various reasons such as my then poor health and generally being young, with romances that weren't meant to work out, not working out. That sort of thing.<br /><br />I couldn't bear to stay in that room. I crept downstairs. It was summer, so already light. There were more people downstairs; there were 13 of us in a house for about 5. The kitchen was empty, though. On the windowsill there were huge boxes of books. One was called "Cutting". I picked it up. I've never forgotten it.<br /><br />I don't know how good, really, the book is. I know nothing about psychology and I have the feeling the author, a psychiatrist named Steven Levenkron, was writing about his own theories and I don't know whether or not they were tested. I could go and do a bunch of research now, but this is the wrong place to go into that or the issue of self-harm, which other poeple have written about far better than I could. Because that's not the point right now. I wanted to write about an atypical case in the book.<br /><br />A 12-year-old girl was very good at gym, and seemed to be constantly training, always pushing herself harder. Sometimes she had an accident on the equipment, which hurt, but she would recover and go on. Her gym teacher grew concerned and called her parents, however, when injuries began to appear on her body that could not be accounted for by any accident he'd seen.<br /><br />It turned out that the girl was used to the fact that after hard exercise, her body ached, and she had heard that that was a sign she was really pushing herself and on the way to success. Feeling desperate for more success - due to ambition or due to feeling undervalued out of the gym or feeling honour bound to please, whatever it was - she had started inflicting pain on herself, confusing that kind of pain with the by-product of hard training.<br /><br />Now before we start shaking our heads and sighing pitifully and thinking how dreadfully obvious it is that two forms of pain should not be confused, let's remind ourselves how similar they often seem - and how much we need to reassure ourselves that the productive kind is worth going through. Isn't "no pain, no gain" a common saying? I once had an immensely illuminating discussion with a particle physicist at <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/epp/">Sussex University</a>. For some reason he and I and a few other students were talking about mathematics and how far removed it is from society. (I could not more recommend <a href="http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf">this wonderful essay</a> by Paul Lockhart on that.) This physicist's remark was: "With so much television these days, and things like that, people think they should understand something instantly, and they must be stupid if they don't, so they should do something else. But mathematics is like a language, or a musical instrument. You need to practice."<br /><br />Although the first bit sounds a bit <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/jan/11/susan-greenfield-sacking-royal-institution">Susan Greenfield ish</a>, his words resonated with both my own education, and the curriculum I was supposed to feed to the children I later taught. In short: here is the learning objective for today, all of you must get it by the end of the lesson, and we will move on. No allowance for children who might whizz through five or six of such "objectives". Nor any allowance for topics, for skills, for complexities that needed a long story, that required several lessons - and often bits from apparently unrelated subjects - until it all hung together.<br /><br />He had a point. If you don't get maths immediately, you're encouraged to stick to arts subjects. That's the attitude that, if many of us want to get anywhere, we must fight. The fighting can be painful. So can the practicing and practicing. Those of us who come to university to do a science degree, having done the kind of maths lessons that address something for one lesson, prepare you for the exam, and then leave you to forget. You have to make up for all that. It can hurt.<br /><br />It leads to a schism of two cultures. The people who feel let down by the get-things-instantly approach foster their own reactive culture of work-yourself-like-mad-to-make-up-for-it. And a reactive, they-did-this-to-me-and-it-was-really-damaging approach to things can go a bit into overdrive.<br /><br />Similarly, something being "hard to understand" can often be labelled as "and therefore, correct", along with "if you don't understand it, you just need your brain to work harder". Alternative medicine proponents use <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/03/and-therefore.html">very warped logic</a> to seem deep. Indeed, they use what they think is the language of scientists, and borrow the catchphrases of brave fighters, to look like lone, persecuted proponents of truth.<br /><br />The fact that their logic is "hard to understand" does not make it correct. Something being hard to understand may mean that it is hard to understand, but important and worthwhile - quantum mechanics, for example. It may also mean there isn't anything there <span style="font-style: italic;">to</span> understand.<br /><br />Similarly, someone I used to know got very angry when I responded to his constant nagging that I became a devout Christian with a few choice quotes from the Bible, inspired by a few handy hints like <a href="http://i.imgur.com/4bDU8.gif">this</a>. When he told me that God was all about peace, and anyone who engaged in war was directly disobeying God, I reminded him of <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+31%3A7-18&version=NIV">Numbers 31 7-18</a>. "Where are you getting all this from?" he demanded. "You're obviously not looking this up as you go along." (For the record, I do not usually go around upsetting people by pointing all this stuff out until I've been severely provoked.)<br /><br />The crux of the matter - excuse the pun - was that he would end up by acknowledging, "Yes, some of these things are hard to understand. But God is Love." Apparently, I was supposed to twist my brain around to equate war crimes and genocide with love. It was difficult, but a mature, thoughtful person could manage it.<br /><br />Sorry, I don't think I'm being immature or thoughtless to refuse to equate war crimes and genocide with love. I don't label that as "hard to understand". I label it as "barbarity that is an integral part of an important and sometimes beautiful historic document, whose barbarity should not be overlooked or embraced".<br /><br />But many people do feel that the "hard to understand" actually <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> maturity and depth. They have worked hard to find peace with it, and they feel that I should, too.<br /><br />Maybe it's not the same thing as the pain. But maybe it is. Maybe feeling that you've made a difficult, complex leap, in whatever form, feels like an achievement - when it might simply be that you've made a difficult, complex leap into a much worse place than you were before you made it.<br /><br />The reason I'm writing all this is to make a request to many teachers, employers, and other leaders out there. Not anyone I'm currently working for or with, all of whom (and I am very lucky to be able to say this) are wonderful.<br /><br />Take a man whose company I worked in when I was 18. He believed himself to be naturally of infallible honesty, but irrevocably corrupted by a cruel world. He had had to adapt. He had had to learn to exploit and deceive. He had faced the pain of watching his real self die. He had to, he felt, charge a client £600 for his trainee (me) to update a few words and dates in a document to send them, a process which took 2 hours and for which I would be paid £7, minus tax. It was not respectable to tell your clients the truth about anything. "At the end of the day", as was a favourite phrase of his other two employees, that was how business operated.<br /><br />Well, if that was what he wanted to think, that was his problem, I thought, and got on with my work. But no, he had to make it my problem as well. He couldn't stand the idea of me thinking, even privately, that one might be able to run a business without deceiving everybody, one might buy locally produced food, one might have a romance that worked, one might smile and do someone a favour without feeling afterwards as if you had personally handed them a spoon to dig into your flesh. I knew not to contradict him. I knew to look polite and listen. But my opinion must have been written on my face. I had to have daily lectures about how unacceptable my attitude was, how he had faced the pain of betraying his principles, and my not facing similar pain was equivalent to my being a bad worker (no matter how good my work was), and I had wasted company time by having him lecture me, too. I <span style="font-style: italic;">owed</span> it to him to get as badly hurt as he had, to feel as if I too was filled with poison.<br /><br />Why this was so important to him I have no idea. I'm glad I've never met anyone quite like that since. What was so strange was that I was, as he constantly reminded me, the bottom of the heap - why was it so important to him how my brain worked? He seemed to think he was doing me a favour by making me miserable. I'm sure I need hardly say he wasn't. It wasn't as if I learnt anything, other than that he wanted me to be miserable. Maybe he thought I was learning, maturing somehow.<br /><br />It was the teachers on the science teaching course I nearly completed four years ago who were even more blatant. (I've <a href="http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-prove-youre-inclusive-be-slick.html">written elsewhere</a> about some of their methods.) Let me put it this way. Two of them, a man and a woman, complained to my mentor in my hearing that I had failed to cry when they expected me to.<br /><br />Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, my commitment, effort, and indications of success were measured by my ability to weep when they criticised my teaching.<br /><br />Indeed, I recall now, all the girls in that school who I worked with had broken down in tears in public at some point or another - except me. I don't cry often or easily. It's not my thing - that's just the way I am. When someone humiliates me in public, I crawl into a shell. Surely to cry would be to let them win? I guess that was what they wanted. I guess they also didn't apply that standard to the male trainee teachers.<br /><br />If they had some point to make about my teaching, then I presumed this was to instruct rather than upset and therefore I listened as hard as I could. It wasn't as if there was any point taking it personally. Of course my teaching wasn't perfect. I was a trainee for goodness sake. I was full of human faults like everyone else. I didn't know the kids or the curriculum as well as them. I didn't have their authority. I hadn't gained the children's respect. (Well, of course I wasn't going to gain that if they shouted at me or made sneering remarks in front of the children, as some of them did!)<br /><br />And it's the same in a lot of jobs, if not to quite such a degree. Apparently "I'm stressed" and "I'm broke" is an acceptable form of boasting. To be willing to be stressed out, to be willing to be utterly humiliated, to give up your principles, to give up your dignity and important things in your life, means you are committed to the job.<br /><br />It doesn't. It means you are committed to the ego management of your boss. It means they have power. It doesn't mean you're good at your work, but I guess the former is a lot more satisfactory to them (and indeed to be too good would be an insubordination).<br /><br />Bosses? Teachers? Leaders? People with a public influence? Please think twice before being dissatisfied if those below you seem happy. It doesn't mean they're not learning, concentrating or respectful. Most of them will learn far better without extra pain. If you really need to see someone getting hurt, please bear in mind that in their lives they will all have plenty of that to deal with all on their own.<br /><br />Thanks.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1