Travels of a Fish Nut

Almost 18 months ago I wrote about the uselessness of the British government when it came to their advice regarding masks. At the time we had seen some of the highest rates of coronavirus infection and death in the world - 303,110 confirmed cases and 42,589 deaths - and yet were in the process of reopening non-essential shops and services. Since then we have gone through a further two lockdowns and have had, to date (21/11/21),  9,845,492 confirmed cases and 166,730 deaths . In the last seven days over 1,000 people have died of coronavirus. Those numbers are shameful. Every single one of them represents a failure of our government to protect us. And a huge part of that failure is due to their woefully inadequate messaging and inability to follow the science. When I wrote my original post I avoided discussing the research around coronavirus. Mostly this was because it was irrelevant to the piece but partly it was because I'm not a virologist or epidemiologist and didn't feel ...

"There were protests around the world after the filmed murder of George Floyd, whilst being arrested in America. All Black Lives Bristol organised a protest against police brutality and racial inequality. On 7 June 2020, an estimated 10,000 people gathered in Bristol. Protestors pulled down a statue of Edward Colston, graffitied it and threw it into the harbour. Four days later, Bristol City Council retrieved it. Museum conservators stabilised the condition and preserved the graffiti... This temporary display is the start of a conversation, not a complete exhibition. we want to hear your views to help decide what happens to the statue next. Let's sketch out a plan for Bristol's future. All voices will be heard." These are the words that greet visitors to the new consultative display on the statue of Edward Colston (1636 – 1721). It is a small display, tucked away in the corner of one of the galleries upstairs at M Shed. It is signposted by floor markings, and the numb...

The Discworld books are a series by Terry Pratchett that, at their core, consist of 41 novels published between 1983 and 2015, a few months after his death from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. I began reading the series as a teenager in the mid-90s following the recommendation of a friend, and quickly became hooked. I caught up with the back-catalogue and followed the rapidly-expanding series through the release of the new paperbacks. Once I reached adulthood (and realised just how much re-reading the books would have to withstand!) I switched to hardbacks and now have a mixed collection of all the novels, as well as a few of the associated works.   The series started as a parody of fantasy novels, but quickly evolved into something far more substantial. The Discworld is, as its name suggests, a flat world, disc-shaped. It sits on top of four elephants which themselves stand on the back of a giant space turtle called A'Tuin. The world is inhabited by all sorts of creatures al...

  “PM Heralds Vaccine Victory for Care Homes”, “Vaccine rollout to care homes complete”, “UK Breaks Vaccination Record with 600,000 Jabs in a Day”, “9M Jabs… On Our Way to a Great British Summer!” All front-page headlines from today's papers . All deservedly praising the amazing rate of vaccinations in the UK. But these papers are portraying this as a triumph for the government and for Johnson in particular. Yet this is not a triumph for the government, nor for Johnson, and we must not buy into the propaganda. Instead the success of the vaccine roll-out highlights just how badly Johnson and his government have fucked up at every step of this pandemic.   How, you ask?    Simply this:   The vaccine roll-out is not being run by the government, but by the NHS . It's their long-standing organisational and logistical skills that are being used to get this vaccine out to so many people so quickly. The government has (at last) taken a hands-off approach and left the exp...

Physics has fundamental forces as its core. Chemistry has its elements. And the fundamental unit of biology is the species. In this regard it's been likened to stamp collecting. A more modern analogy might be to Pokemon - gotta catch em all! Like chemists studying elements, once we know the different species we can work out how they interact with each other and how they work. And in so doing we can learn about our natural world. Fun stuff! But what actually is a species?   What is a Species? You probably learned the "biological species" definition at school. This definition states that: species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups (Mayr, 1942) This is an often-used definition, which is why you learn it in school, but there are problems with it. For one thing, there are species that are parthenogenetic , meaning they don't breed but reproduce asexually, with the egg developing ...

James O'Brien has a podcast called Full Disclosure in which he "hosts a series of compelling conversations with fascinating people". According to the blurb on Apple Podcasts ,  These are revealing interviews with people who rarely give in-depth interviews, be it from politics, entertainment or news. It sounds like a great podcast and I began listening when it started back in March of 2019. The first interview was with Tony Blair, not exactly someone who shies away from the limelight but certainly a coup. Then it was Ricky Gervais, a comedian who seems to thrive on controversy. Then it was Simon Amstell, another comedian and TV presenter. The fourth interview was with Dragon's Den "dragon" Deborah Meaden and I realised that this was the first interview with a woman. Four interviews and only one woman. Huh. That sort of gender imbalance is getting increasingly noticeable and not in a good way. But maybe it's just a case of scheduling and there'll be m...