Happy Darwin Day

I hope that you've all had a great Darwin Day today. Today I couldn't get this quote out of my head:

"The ash of stellar alchemy was now emerging into consciousness. At an ever-accelerating pace, it invented writing, cities, art and science, and sent spaceships to the planets and the stars. These are some of the things that hydrogen atoms do, given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution."

That was said by the great Carl Sagan, a man who seemed to be able to verbalise a meaning to things in a way that I can only ever dream of.

If you were to take the whole of cosmic time and compress it down to a year, the history of our solar system doesn't really begin until September, and humans don't register until New Years Eve.

In another example, if you were to take the history of our little planet and condense it down to 24 hours, humans arrive on the scene literally just before midnight (we're talking in the last twenty to thirty seconds here).

So I don't think evolution has done too bad to get us where we are. That's the wonder of life and that's the awesomeness of our universe, and it is definitely something worth celebrating.

Happy Darwin Day all!

Picture courtesy of Colin Purrington.

Which exit? Help settle a dispute

UPDATE: It might be fairer to see the roundabout in context. So here it is. We were approaching from Rush Hill (top left in this picture)


Mappy goodness

Frome Road is A, Old Fosse Road B, Clarks Way C


OK everyone, I need you to picture a scene for me. I will attempt to use as neutral language as possible so that I don't influence your decision.

As you may know, Lucie is learning to drive at the moment, and I'm nice enough to sit alongside her and let her get some extra practice in my car.

Yesterday, we had what can only be described as an 'incident' where we had a disagreement after taking a roundabout exit. Here's how the conversation pretty much went:

Lucie: "Which way do you want me to go?"

Me: "Straight on"

You are Lucie, approaching this roundabout from the direction of the arrow at the bottom. Based on this, which exit would you take? A, B or C?

(Picture courtesy of google maps)

Please leave your decision below with your reason too.

p.s. if you're worried that the 'incident' is that we ended up divorcing no. We just both disagreed which route should have been taken

Follow Friday recommendations - 5th February 2010

I keep meaning to do a follow Friday. The reason I haven't yet is because I wanted to do the same format as my colleague @jakepjohnson did here, which sets out the reasons for the recommendations.

So I'm going to quickly bash something out on my lunchbreak.

A good place to start will be @jakepjohnson himself. He's my colleague, but we won't hold that against him. Frequently seen scouring Twitter for marketing tips and money saving, it's also entertaining to read his Twitter feed when he's stuck in the morning commute and moaning about people being rude on roundabouts. On top of that, he's a bloody nice bloke.

Another one of my colleagues @lgladdy also needs a special mention. He's honestly one of the most helpful guys I've ever worked with (he'll even help with a work problem out of office hours) and is worth following if you're into those video games for kids.

Those who know me will probably know that I spend a lot of my time now moaning about pseudoscience and people that are willing to leave their brain at the door and believe any bizarre claim that a random person on the internet makes. If this interests you, I need to point you towards @hayleystevens, someone who doesn't just moan about these things but is actively engaged within the community. She also contributes to the fantastic Righteous Indignation podcast, and can be quite often be heard scoffing at absurd claims whilst also providing fantastic insight.

In a similar vein I can also recommend @SkepticBarista, who to me targets bizarre claims with both wit and action - he's no simple keyboard warrior.

I should also mention @Crispian_Jago for three reasons - his blog and associated ladybird guides) are ace, I came second in his Friday mystery object competition this week, and he was behind what I consider the most devasting attack on the bizarre methods behind homeopathy - the video "if homeopathy works then I'll drink my own piss". He's also one of the people behind a movement to get likeminded people in the Hampshire area together to fight bizarre claims - another person of action.

Finally, on a lighter note, @psdisasters and @VizTopTips always make me laugh, so both are wholeheartedly recommended. Photoshop disasters spots hilariously bad attempts to photoshop pictures, VizTopTips retweets tips sent in by other Twitter users on a host of subjects (and I'm still jealous that @jakepjohnson got a tip retweeted once when I still haven't).

This has been fun, I'll have to do it again sometime, so if I didn't include you this week I might in the future!