Dadblog

And your sons, as well. A Flash demonstration of how model shots are Photoshopped for use in magazines. Go*bb*ls would have been very proud (N*zi propagandist obfuscated in vain attempt to evade nutjobs).

Got an email from the Pledge-a-Picket people this morning (I posted about them quite a while ago).

Thanks to you, our patients and volunteers had something new to look at as they entered Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania’s Locust Street health center in October and November. Instead of graphic and intimidating signs from protesters, our patients, volunteers and staff focused on the sign of growing support from the community. We are so happy that you took part in our Pledge-a-Picket campaign.

Although the number of protesters did not decrease during the campaign, the public awareness goal was a tremendous success. President and CEO Dayle Steinberg gave several interviews with local and national media, including WHYY/NPR, Bust Magazine, and the Associated Press.

The Pledge-a-Picket campaign is also about empowering those who turn to us for high quality reproductive healthcare and comprehensive sexuality education. By making such a generous pledge, you helped to provide a safe and welcoming atmosphere for all who enter our doors.

As a reminder, you pledged 10¢ per protester, capped at $20. We had 285 protesters in the months of October and November, making your pledge total $20.00. Please use the enclosed envelope to fulfill your pledge or go to www.ppsp.org/donate.asp to make a secure online donation in the amount of your pledge total.

Thank you for supporting PPSP while taking a stand against intimidating and harassing protesters. If you have any questions about the campaign or PPSP, please contact Megan Boatright at 215-351-5530 or megan.boatright@ppsp.org.

Even if you didn’t pledge, go and make a donation, and tell them why. Particularly on a morning when the newspapers are filled with hateful middle-aged men forcing their obnoxious views on the world by telling us “sodomy is a sin” outside ceremonies for gay civil partnerships. As Sarah Montague said on the Today programme yesterday to one of them, what is it about their views which makes it OK for them to force them down our throats?

Gwyn Topham’s written something on Guardian Unlimited today about how black people never win reality shows, which has attracted this comment:

I was ashamed to live in this pathetic excuse of a country after Colin Jackson’s failure to win the final Strictly Come Dancing.

Hmm. So no problem with the fact that our national wealth was built on the slave trade, that we invented concentration camps, that our children are poorly educated and our political system’s screwed and our friends all hate us now because we sided with George Dubya. All these pale into geopolitical insignificance when viewed in the light of Strictly Come Dancing and the X Factor.

And why can’t I place a spread-bet on the date that Shayne is “outed” by a tabloid newspaper? Note to lawyers: this is a remark about tabloid newspapers, not about Shayne’s proclivities, such as they may or may not be. But he does seem to love his Mum a lot, doesn’t he?

One of the things in life which I find endlessly fascinating is how some people have the capacity to shout out facts about themselves while out in public and not worry about whether anyone else is listening. To me, this is a kind of psychosis - it reduces other people to the status of ghostly objects, because if they were real people, wouldn’t they be listening to what I’m saying?

This morning, though, I found myself sitting outside a day surgery (nothing serious, thanks very much), listening to the patient before me talking to the doctor. But the patient, who spoke very loudly, wasn’t aware that the door to the consulting room was a bit broken, and was thus slightly ajar. Meaning that I heard every….single….word. I know what he was in there for (to have a huge cyst cut out), where he lived, where he worked, and, in one very weird moment, exactly what his name was because he had to spell it out. In fact, I’ve probably got enough on him for blackmail, if not identity theft.

Terrible, isn’t it? I’m just a few keystrokes away from publishing private medical details about this chap on the entire Interweb. Good thing no-one reads this blog, eh?

I’m pretty optimistic about the future of the human race (blimey, how’s that for the start of a blog post?). I know it looks like we’re going to hell in a hand basket, with George W at the wheel and a bunch of carbon-emitting developing economies (hello China! bonjour Russia!) in the back seat. But I remain confident that somewhere we’ll figure it out - the technology solution that somehow makes carbon emissions redundant or maybe even irrelevant.

But will we (I mean you and I, the scientific cretins) know when it happens? Is science just so complicated now that it’s become impossible for someone to hold a press conference and say “it’s OK, people, we’ve figured it out, here’s the solution”. Take the news, for instance, that Danish scientists have figured out a way to transport hydrogen safely:

The hydrogen tablet is safe and inexpensive. In this respect it is different from most other hydrogen storage technologies. You can literally carry the material in your pocket without any kind of safety precaution. The reason is that the tablet consists solely of ammonia absorbed efficiently in sea-salt. Ammonia is produced by a combination of hydrogen with nitrogen from the surrounding air, and the DTU-tablet therefore contains large amounts of hydrogen. Within the tablet, hydrogen is stored as long as desired, and when hydrogen is needed, ammonia is released through a catalyst that decomposes it back to free hydrogen. When the tablet is empty, you merely give it a “shot” of ammonia and it is ready for use again.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? And satisfyingly like Doc Brown’s onboard fusion reactor in the De Lorean from the future. But is it real? Or is this just another cold fusion-style stunt? When will we know? Who will tell us? If science is run by a bunch of specialists with very little knowledge of each other’s disciplines, and journalists are frankly just plain unable to describe the advances in science, let alone have opinions about them, who is going to be able to tell us when it’s sorted?

I want a UN committee set up right now to arrange a World Saved party. I want bunting and bands and marching. I want a committee of scientists to decree that mankind has been saved from itself by the achievements of science (this could be called the Gene Roddenberry Committee) and that we can all stop worrying and drive off into the sunset in our hydrogen cars. But I fear what we’ll actually get is something like “carbon emissions declined for the first time last year, by 0.15%. Have a biscuit.” Oh well.

Alll you Muppet fans out there: Statler & Waldorf are reviewing movies every week at movies.com. Particularly enjoyed their scoring system for “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”:

WALDORF: “A toupee, unrealistic and trying too hard”

STATLER: “Comb over on a windy day, better off staying at home.”

WALDORF: “Ah, I used to have a comb over. Remember being 65?”

STATLER: “Yes, they were the days. Two kidneys.”

Genius.