What a week.
Leeds twice in a week...This is getting an expensive pass time. Which is not good considering as the Job Centre says that I can now claim Employment Support Allowanve but only get £17.00 a week because of Andy's income. Aha. I gues that pays my gym membership or a train ticket to Leeds? maybe.
Supervision on Tuesday was good. Thursday's meeting with my supervisor also good. And a lot more positive but I SOOO need to find a better working relationship with him rather than the current teacher/pupil one.
My supervisor thinks that I need to get a better grasp of the British Army 1815-1850. He told me to go away and read books by the "expert" on the subject, a guy called Strachan. Now hes done some good work but desperately tries to prove the British army didnt sit in a doldrums of t hought after Waterloo...and he goes too far trying to do this. He says Britain kept pace with Frech thought but fails to realise the books that were being translated into English were out of date in France by at least 30 years and were not current thinking. The British army relied heavily on Wellington and the writing of a Swiss General who briefly served France as a Staff Officer called Jomini. He didnt die untiil the 1860s and conintued to write upto his death yet the British relied solely on one book, written in 1812, and even then it wasnt a complete translation. They also relied heavily on material from Prussia which was translated into French in the 1770s but had its origins in the 1750s! Again they thought it current. When it wasnt. Strachan says that the British kept pace with the French...but again thats due to a knee jerk from developments in France such as the 1830 Drill BOok, adoption of Rifles 1838, Percussion caps 1840.......etc. France does it and Britain panics and follows on about two years later.
Todays three hour waste of time lecture was on Engaging with the Public. basically told me nothing new other than some scarifying stats:
In the UK apparently 28% of people think the Sun orbits the Earth
In the US this rises to 43%
In the UK 30% of people miss-trust science/ scientitsts and science reporting
In the US this is over 70% (is that due to less or worse reporting? or religion?)
In the UK 8% of people thought early humans were around with Dinosaurs
In the US 26% thought that.
These were all given to us to discuss about how to relate research and academia to the general public. And also show us what the 'General Public' know or think that they know. Relating research and results thereof in an understandable, engaging way AND educating the public is vital for academia, and it seems more and more neccessary. It was easy to sit in a lecture ina Univresity and laugh and the people who thin the Sun orbits the Earth but sersiouly... that something so basic as that and for example the Earth is millions of years old isnt getting through. Somehow.
We also had some press releases from UK, US and Near Eastern newspapers about Science. The scary thing is the weight given to the Christian Fundamenalist view of Creationism as a bona-fide scientific theory in the Near East.
So yeah several hundred years after empirical observation proved the Earth goes round the Sun (and that in itself about 1500 years after the Greeks observed it) people think it's the other way round. This is scary, especially the US stats. I'd love to know the demographic of the people who think the Sun goes round the Earth is - either the terminally dim or Religious nut jobs. Is there a differance?
The session on engaging with the public in research mostly rubber stamped what I already knew nad did but did make me think about the "So what" of the research and in particular the "So what" of my project which, to be honest, isnt the work I want to do but the work of my supervisor.
I am also of the increasing opinion fat people should buy two train tickets if they are so fat as to not actually fit in the seat on a train. I was quite literally squished on the train by some fat bastard who was one pie away from exploding. He'd book his ticket - aisle seat - I was in a window seat and he took up his seat and half of mine. He wouldnt swap seats so that he was inteh window seat and I could ease myself sort of half way off the aisle seat. heyho. Standing then all the way back from Manchester.
Supervision on Tuesday was good. Thursday's meeting with my supervisor also good. And a lot more positive but I SOOO need to find a better working relationship with him rather than the current teacher/pupil one.
My supervisor thinks that I need to get a better grasp of the British Army 1815-1850. He told me to go away and read books by the "expert" on the subject, a guy called Strachan. Now hes done some good work but desperately tries to prove the British army didnt sit in a doldrums of t hought after Waterloo...and he goes too far trying to do this. He says Britain kept pace with Frech thought but fails to realise the books that were being translated into English were out of date in France by at least 30 years and were not current thinking. The British army relied heavily on Wellington and the writing of a Swiss General who briefly served France as a Staff Officer called Jomini. He didnt die untiil the 1860s and conintued to write upto his death yet the British relied solely on one book, written in 1812, and even then it wasnt a complete translation. They also relied heavily on material from Prussia which was translated into French in the 1770s but had its origins in the 1750s! Again they thought it current. When it wasnt. Strachan says that the British kept pace with the French...but again thats due to a knee jerk from developments in France such as the 1830 Drill BOok, adoption of Rifles 1838, Percussion caps 1840.......etc. France does it and Britain panics and follows on about two years later.
Todays three hour waste of time lecture was on Engaging with the Public. basically told me nothing new other than some scarifying stats:
In the UK apparently 28% of people think the Sun orbits the Earth
In the US this rises to 43%
In the UK 30% of people miss-trust science/ scientitsts and science reporting
In the US this is over 70% (is that due to less or worse reporting? or religion?)
In the UK 8% of people thought early humans were around with Dinosaurs
In the US 26% thought that.
These were all given to us to discuss about how to relate research and academia to the general public. And also show us what the 'General Public' know or think that they know. Relating research and results thereof in an understandable, engaging way AND educating the public is vital for academia, and it seems more and more neccessary. It was easy to sit in a lecture ina Univresity and laugh and the people who thin the Sun orbits the Earth but sersiouly... that something so basic as that and for example the Earth is millions of years old isnt getting through. Somehow.
We also had some press releases from UK, US and Near Eastern newspapers about Science. The scary thing is the weight given to the Christian Fundamenalist view of Creationism as a bona-fide scientific theory in the Near East.
So yeah several hundred years after empirical observation proved the Earth goes round the Sun (and that in itself about 1500 years after the Greeks observed it) people think it's the other way round. This is scary, especially the US stats. I'd love to know the demographic of the people who think the Sun goes round the Earth is - either the terminally dim or Religious nut jobs. Is there a differance?
The session on engaging with the public in research mostly rubber stamped what I already knew nad did but did make me think about the "So what" of the research and in particular the "So what" of my project which, to be honest, isnt the work I want to do but the work of my supervisor.
I am also of the increasing opinion fat people should buy two train tickets if they are so fat as to not actually fit in the seat on a train. I was quite literally squished on the train by some fat bastard who was one pie away from exploding. He'd book his ticket - aisle seat - I was in a window seat and he took up his seat and half of mine. He wouldnt swap seats so that he was inteh window seat and I could ease myself sort of half way off the aisle seat. heyho. Standing then all the way back from Manchester.