The return of the Cynical Scientist

It has been a while, for which I apologize. But over the last month it has been deadline after deadline for work at uni. Now with the Christmas break, time to blog once more.

Items in the news to comment, which are slightly late, for the past month the BBC news as been dominated by "Frozen Britain", for some reason they seem surprised a) it's cold in winter and b) Britain's infrastructure has ground to a halt.

Wiki Leaks also in the news, for some reason the BBC seem to love lapping it up. I can not see how it's news story, all it is out of context quotes for personal opinions in emails and therefore not the policy of the USA government, which would make a much greater news story. The reports they produce could be made to support any viewpoint if the right parts of the emails where used, how is that a reliable source ?

Finally, student protests... the "protests" particularly in London have only cased a negative light on student across the country, by the pointless vandalism, and as a results turned any of the general public against students. See my past post of the Millbank riots.

In other news, recently brought a new laptop to replace my ageing dell xps M133o which had been a very trusty machine, however time had got the better of it.

So I now have an Acer Aspire Timeline X 4820T (tons of wonderful marketing there) however I am so after very impressed with it. Over the coming weeks I hope to report more on the performance of it.

Reaction to Millbank Riot

In the last couple hours a small minority caused trouble at Millbank Tower during the NUS protest against the raise in tuition fees and the cuts to university.

What has happened at Millbank Tower today has undermined the true and real reason of the protest. I can't see how rioting and destroying a building helps the cause of the demonstration, of example the science is vital movement ensured that in the spending review the research budget was not cut, they didn't fire cupboard, or clash with police.

I believe that we need to prepare for the coming cuts, the NUS should be putting more pressure of universities to offer scholarships of outstanding students, this insure that students are reward for their hard work, and make people think about uni not as the 3 year party as I fear that many do. Another idea maybe less popular but is to cut the number of pointless degrees.

Also universities should look for other sources of investment, whether that be companies or bodies which represent a subject area and encourage them to help with the scholarships. With the investment from companies this could be beneficial for students, one condition be that the company investing in the course could for the best student in the year offer a job, or work placements over the course of the degree, which work experience would add value to the degrees.

But on a final point, I know the problems today was caused at Millbank was due a small few student and some of the very left wing movement which oppose the cuts, but the focus of the news today was removed from the discussion of the tuition fees and university funding and focused on completely the wrong message.

Until next time.