“Her win was a verdict on the Government’s failing economic plan.”

Oh dear. That kind of soundbite comment is easy to make on the telly or in a press release but the wonders of social media and the right to reply immediately sort of make you look stupid when what you say is, well, stupid.

Out of the 30 replies to the post, these are some of the more amusing:-

 28 of the last 37 years the constituency returned a Labour MP. And they’ve held the seat since 1992. That’s hardly “a verdict on the Government’s failing economic plan.”, that’s a bunch of Labour voters voting for the Labour candidate like they have in the last 5 general elections.

Or from one of our Antipodean friends:

I’m an Australian, so forgive me if I missed something, but if I got this right.
1. a by-election was called when 73 year old MP Alan Keen lost a battle with cancer.
2. Alan Keen was a labour politician
3. The seat of Feltham & Heston was a safe labour seat.
4. The labour vote went up by 1,500 votes.
5. A new labour politician took over a safe seat from an old labour politician.

Final word on the subject to Jon, who thinks Labour’s Leader is selling the winner short:

 It is a pity that the leader of her own party can not congratulate her on winning for her own merits but puts her win down to others. Maybe he has no real confidence in her? But he did manage to get in another boring soundbite.

Of course it’s not Milliband actually writing the soundbites that get posted on G+. it’s probably a very junior member of his spin team that doesn’t understand social media. Or at least the important part, the interaction.

Facts though shouldn’t be subject to the same level of subjectivity as opinion. Yes, science is based on observation and a lot of scientific theory can be seen as “our best understanding of the empirical data at this time” but increasingly people seem to think that they can dispute research/data/current fact with the impunity they can have an opinion.

A case in point happened to me today. I have, amongst other things, a cold and tweeted as such. Being a man of course I got a lot of “fragile little darling” comments from women. It’s okay though, I expect those, because women don’t actually suffer from colds as badly as men. You see actual scientific research has shown that post menopause women’s immune system suffers an impairment in it’s ability to fight off rhinoviruses (things like colds) that reduces their immune system to the level of a mans. Pre menopause, women are actually better at resisting colds and suffer from them less than men do. The above article in the Telegraph isn’t the first example of this sort of conclusion from research, it’s the latest in a string of findings. My response from a women? “Bollocks”.

If you’re going to dispute information presented as fact, you should do so with a counter argument, not the word bollocks.

That’s not to say having a questioning mind isn’t something we should strive for. It’s important when reading research to look at:-

1. Funding. Who has funded the study and do they have their own separate agenda? A good example of this are some of the NRA funded studies that show massacres would be easy to stop if firearms laws were actually relaxed.
2. Objectivity.Does the group behind the research have a specific agenda? A study from a right wing think tank might be deemed to support their groups agenda.
3. Interpretation. A lot of studies fall down in the interpretation of gathered data. This is highlighted well by Carl Popper and his swans. It’s incorrect on viewing 100 swans flying past to state that all swans are white. The same goes for 1,000,000 swans. All it takes is one black swan to prove your assertion wrong. Causality is also a massive issue. The assumption that Y happens because of X often makes sense on first glance but on closer examination doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. A silly example is “All premier league footballers are millionaires, therefore you need to be a millionaire to play football in the premiership.”
4. Source. Reading a newspaper report on research is no where near as good as going back and reading the original research or an article in a scientific journal. Often papers pick and chose what they report on from a research paper, sometimes to the point where it’s either simplified to the point or error or rather misleading.

*or assholes if you’re American.

Click for larger image

Never trust this man with anything confidential

Take Moustache man on the right, between Euston and Coventry and was a veritable wealth of information of shopping centre management and the training of staff therein. Loudly did he use words like “i.e.” and “etc” in actual conversation, his terminology, like his facial hair, well out of step with current times. To give myself a record of the sort of inane drivel he was inflicting on me, I started tweeting quotes.

Looking back on the twitter stream, I can see the “John was hung out to dry, his time to push was 6 months ago, there’s nothing for him now.” I also know more about the development and strategy for shopping centres over the next ten years than I really want to or have any right to. Apparently they will become niche focused, green, and contactless mobile/NFC payments will be standard. To keep people from buying primarily on the internet, they will have to focus on customer service. If current levels of customer service are anything to go by, Mary Portas is going to be astonishingly busy over the next ten years.

I also learnt that Thistle customer care is going to be simply renamed as JLA, and that he has a pack of 40 slides, with the same motivational motto across the bottom of each slide. That’s powerpoint awesomeness.

Still, at least I’m now reminded of how stupid people on trains can be.

*insert flux capacitor joke here*

Boffins have recently entered an excited state (see what I did there science fans?) about some neutrinos that appear to have travelled faster than light. Prior to this the fastest thing in the uniververse was thought to be the speed of light, followed closely by a New York Second*.

Complicated theoretical physics has always fascinated me, for example did you know there are 6 flavours of quark (elementary particles that eventually form the components of atomic nuclei)? And that some of those flavours are called strange, charm and bottom? I’m not bright enough to understand a lot of it and what I do understand I often don’t remember; after all remembering amusing lines from Ghostbusters is probably going to be of more use to me on a day to day basis.

Time travel is something that has always interested me though, from my youth as a Doctor Who obsessive (weaned on Tom Baker, and a stalwart through the decline that lead to the cancellation of the show), through to Terminator (II) and on to that sort of thick sci fi tome that has a bit more thought in it than TV centric stuff. Of course, if you live in China, any attempt to watch a film about time travelling will see you arrested. The Chinese authorities are pretending its to do with altering the history they’ve decreed but there’s part of me that secretly hopes they’re on their way to the Peoples Democratic Republics Time Machine.

Relativistic effects of travelling at speeds close to the speed of light are now a bit old hat in sci fi (John Scalzi deals with them very well in his Old Mans War series though), and there’s only so many times I can see people go on a long trip and come home centuries/millenia afterwards without getting bored.

The best implementation I’ve come across probably involved the use of worm holes and wasn’t by any means central to the plot. In Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth Saga, the Commonwealth had to evacuate whole planets of people due to a war. In order to allow them time to prepare for their arrival, they tinkered with the exotic engery matrices (or something) of the wormholes to mean that the people popped out the other end decades after they went in. That’s an innovative way of time travelling in my book.

Of course most people are interested in travelling in the other direction- backwards in time. I have an idea for a very complicated book based around this ideal and the effects it has on causality but it’s beyond me.

I did however manage to confound a magician the other day with my thoughts on time travel. He did a card trick that involved a bit of “time travelling”. I told him I was unimpressed, I time travelled all the time. True, I only tend to travel through time in a forwards direction, with a mapping of 1 time travelling second to 1 actual second, so the effect is pretty imperceptible but it is time travelling none the less. He wasn’t impressed but is following me on twitter now. If his conjurations work, I may have made a powerful enemy.

 
*the interval between the lights turning green and the taxi behind you standing on it’s horn.

Recently the shell on my SE115′s cracked so I began the arduous process of looking for a replacement. Shures current line up tempted me, the SE315′s particularly, since the cable is replaceable but at £130, they were more than I was prepared to spend, especially given the relative disappointment of the SE115′s.

I’ve toyed with cheaper Sennheiser’s before and been unimpressed. I also get the impression brands like Skullcandy are a little too focused on fashion and bass heavy dance music to suit my tastes (which are fairly eclectic).

Fortunately the Register came to my rescue with a round up of in ear phones that ranged from the tens of pounds up to the hundreds. I was surprised to see a pair of Ultimate Ears in there, I’d passed mine on to my wife for her iPod as I was that unimpressed with them (another special offer pair). Looking around at the price I was willing to spend, the Reid and Heath pair stood out, so after a bit of ‘umming and ‘arring, I took the plunge.

Although they’re noted as a £29.99 pair of earphones, the Reid and Heath Acoustics MA-350′s are supplied directly by Reid and Heath via Amazon, so you have to pay postage. This takes them up to a shade under £34. You can get a pair of  Sennheiser CX 870 for this price but I don’t think there’s much comparison.

I’m struggling to think of a pair of lighter and more comfortable in ear earphones I’ve ever rammed into my lugholes. Yesterday I had them in for over two hours and could have almost forgotten they were there. the MA-350′s only come with a couple of changes/different size of tips but you shouldn’t have much trouble getting a decent fit. The single piece aluminium body is both light and durable. The cable is threaded, and although the box proclaims the cable is fabric braided for a tangle free cable, that’s certainly not my experience, it tangled itself to death overnight. Still, despite the lack of weight and thin cable, the MA-350′s do feel pretty durable. Just as well, as they only come in a little drawstring pouch.

The sound quality is very good, the clarity is good, without being cold and they go very loud without distortion. They are noticeably louder than the SE115′s at the same volume setting on my Sansa Clip+. I may even be able to ditch my Fiio E5 headphone amplifier with my netbook, which will save some extra cable tangle.

Overall, I can’t fault the Reid and Heath Acoustics MA-350′s, they compare favourably to other earphones at the price and indeed in the £50-£100 bracket. They are currently available from Amazon for £29.99+P&P.

Failblog, if you want to appropriate these photos, ask this time. Thanks

Overall I’m happy with the 1215. It’s not as small or portable as the 901, and it’s not as sturdy as a result but it’s the best of the rest and was a proper steal at that price. The one area it has badly let me down in though is the sound. The clarity is fine but the volume is so low, even with a big pair of over the ear ‘phones with a battery powered bass boost, the sound is alarmingly quiet.

Fortunately I remember a tiny little device I bought a couple of years ago but found I had no practical use for- the FiiO E5 headphone amplifier. It’s about the size of one of those rectangular ipod shuffle clip things, and indeed has it’s own metal clip. There are 3 ports on the thing, a mini USB for charging, an input and output for a 3.5mm earphone jack, an on/off button, a volume rocker and a lock slider. The only other thing is a bright blue LED to show it’s on. Talk about minimalist!

The size and utilitarian design of the device shouldn’t fool you though, it’s awesome. In a blink of an eye, and the plugging of a couple of cables, the pressing of a switch and so on, my EEE1215 has gone from weedy near silence to an impressive distortion free wall of sound. A quick google has shown the sound level is an issue with the 12xx series of EEE PC’s, whether this an issue with EU sound regulations or an oversight in the design process I don’t know but what I do know is a few quid on a Fiio pocket amp is well worth the investment. The FiiO E5 (and subsequent models) are available online, Amazon sell the FiiO for a more than reasonable £13.75

“There have been mixes and dance tracks put together in the past but none have the power to outrun or equal the Megablast!”

I was 13 years old when I heard those immortal words uttered for the first time and coming back to the album they originated from after what must be a good 15 years, what strikes me is how well it’s aged. Tim Westwood still sounds as hilariously naff as he always did on his brief cameo on the start to one of the tracks. Lads of a certain age will always think of the Bitmap Brothers graphically lush (but a bit crap gameplay wise) 16 bit shooter Xenon 2: Megablast when they the song of that name. Or the Assault on Precinct 13 mix at any rate.

Dance music from the 80′s can be extremely rubbish, you only have to watch reruns of Top of the Pops to see that you can’t touch this and probably shouldn’t anyway. Tim Simenon, the chap behind Bomb the Bass, crafted a cracking album. Aside from Megablast you’ll probably recognise Beat Dis, Don’t Make Me Wait and a great cover of I Say a Little Prayer. The album is deleted and obscure enough that I doubt you’ll be able to acquire it through dubious means. Fortunately, the whole damn thing is on spotify though! Give it a listen and pretend it’s a more credible 1998 again.