Money for research

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As a scientist, I know just how difficult it is to secure funding for research projects. That’s why it annoys the hell out of me to see that someone (albeit not a scientist) has gone and got a lump of money to find out if television wildlife documentaries infringe on animals’ privacy.
And apparently, yes they do.

Footage of animals giving birth in their burrows or mating crosses an ethical line that film-makers should respect, according to Brett Mills, a lecturer in film studies at the University of East Anglia.
Mills compiled a report on animals’ rights to privacy after reviewing scenes from the BBC’s 2009 wildlife series “Nature’s Great Events”.

Perish the thought that some money should be spent on something important like finding a cure for HIV or addressing the growing scourge of XDR-TB.

No, let’s rather give Brett a big wad of cash to go into the woods with a video camera and see if he can make a badger blush.

Apparatjik – Snow Crystals

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One for the High-Powered Lawyer Girl:

I have been listening to more and more of the Apparatjik album, We Are Here and it’s really growing on me. Described as a “side project” for certain members of Coldplay, Mew and a-ha (hence my interest), it will appeal to anyone who enjoys any of those bands, plus fans of Radiohead, Depeche Mode or any sort of 80’s electronica.

Herewith, Snow Crystals – one of my favourites (although this isn’t the official video).

If you do head over to MySpace, I would also suggest Arrow and Bow and Electric Eye as being particularly worth a listen. And that, because I am having a torrid time of it at the moment, will have to suffice for now.

Pwned.

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As a biologist, I know that if you want to know what something does in a biological system, you remove it and see what happens. Usually, this results in a mouse dying.
Seacom decided to see what happened to South Africa today when routine maintenance work on an internet cable ran over by… ooh… ages and then observed the effects from the safety of Seacom Towers or wherever they hide away when businesses and livelihoods are being ruined.
South Africa, as with the humble laboratory mouse, promptly died.

There were rumours that the outage was going to last until Friday. And that would have been really bad. But it seems (since I’m writing this) that normal service (slow & patchy) has been resumed. It was fortunate that tomorrow is a Public Holiday and many people had taken today off to have an extra long weekend.

Thus, the murine casualties were limited. But it did show just how thin the line is between happy working internet and business stopping completely.
I only just got to write this blog post. That’s how serious it was.

UPDATE: Some agreement and some more detail from Hilton Tarrant.

Fourth Hurty

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It was approximately 1630 when Alex decided to dive head first into a rock in the sandpit at Dunes in Hout Bay: a location that he chose for lunch on his fourth birthday (which is what today is).
Previously, he and his sister had enjoyed playing there for hours in the sun while we watched over them through the bottom of several (or more) draught Peronis. And we really were thinking about heading home when we suddenly thought about heading for the hospital.
A few tears (always a good sign with a banged head) and plenty of blood (not so good) and we decided to cut things short (although we did stay for a quick bowl of ice cream while we paid the bill).

At the hospital, surrounded by osteoporotic old ladies and vomiting babies, we waited and waited and waited until finally escaping almost three hours later with a clean bill of health and some helpfully washed hair.

No stitches. No fuss. But a great tale for school on Wednesday.