Short and Sarcastic

New Blog Address

2008-05-21T07:18:00.001Z

This blog has moved... and hopefully I'll start using it

You can find it here

www.shortandsarcastic.co.uk

Whiteboard Blog

2008-01-28T09:57:00.000Z

Trying to produce a blog that is slightly more useful than this on. I'll probably keep this one for some of the more frivolous things that come to mind.

But for now, if you want to read more about how to use Interactive Whiteboards in education, then please go here: www.whiteboardblog.co.uk and leave a comment or two.

Free Burma

2007-10-04T15:41:00.001Z

Today, Thursday 4 October, has been proclaimed International Bloggers' Day for Burma.

As the Free Burma website explains, the organisers of this campaign "want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons."

Please visit the website, show your support, sign the petition and spread the word.

OK, not quite the last word

2007-06-20T22:29:00.000Z

The WiFi discussion rumbles on with the Professional Association of Teachers, jumping on the bandwagon with a very one sided article that cherry picks only those articles that suggest problems with WiFi. I wish these people would fully research some of the sources of this stuff before quoting it.

Their article here. Plus this post.

A nice rebuttal (as always) on Ben Goldacres site.

Last Word on WiFi

2007-05-28T07:09:00.000Z

The last word in the WiFi debate (for now) should go to the teacher who was asked to have Panorama come into his classroom. You can read all about it on the Bad Science blog.

Ooh its well into the red there,” says reporter Paul Kenyon, holding up the detector (19 minutes in). Gosh that sounds bad. Well into the red on what? It’s tricky to callibrate measurements, and to decide what to measure, and what the cut off point is for “red”. Panorama’s readings were “well into the red” on “The COM Monitor”, a special piece of detecting equipment designed from scratch and built by none other than Alasdair Philips of Powerwatch, the man who leads the campaign against WiFi. His bespoke device is manufactured exclusively for Powerwatch, and he will sell one to you for just £175. Alasdair decided what “red” meant on Panorama’s device. So not very independent then.

Actually, all this would make a great case study on how not to carry out a scientific investigation.

And for the definitive last word, here's a great cartoon.

Something Whiffy about WiFI?

2007-05-23T07:43:00.000Z

OK so its been six months since I started this blog that I have finally got round to making a second post. I was spurred into life by the Panorama report on Monday night about the supposed dangers of WiFi. With the tabloid approach by the Beeb, and the Daily Mail getting in on the action, I can see parents running around now terrified that WiFi is going to scramble the brains of all their children.

Of course all these children are carrying around mobile phones belting out radiation and they're totally happy with that - as long as the mobile phone mast is in somebody elses back yard. They'd be the first to complain if they couldn't get a signal at their house.

Anyway, some nice rebuttals of the Panorama programme can be found on the more scientific websites out there. Here are a few to check out.

http://www.badscience.net/?p=414

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/24/open_letter/

http://wongablog.co.uk/2007/05/22/panorama-on-wi-fi/

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2084525,00.html

http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/05/wifi_is_killing.html

BBC Have you Say is a good place to make your case.

Hello World

2006-11-29T12:18:00.000Z

Well here goes, it's about time I got myself a proper blog. It may not get used too often, but at least it's a start.

It's all part of googling myself up a little. And by that I mean I have signed up for some google addresses to cut down on spam reaching me, and also at the same time signed up for this blog space while I was there.