Reporting on real life
THE PSYCHOPATH TEST
The Psychopath Test is one of my favourite Popular Science books. Jon Ronson’s writing style is interesting and accessible; he covers unusual topics and brings them to an audience who might otherwise dismiss them as mere oddities. He covers topics that are serious, but are difficult to take seriously.
NEW IMMIGRATION RULES FOR NON-EU CITIZENS
It’s been a week in which I’ve wanted to write on lots of topics that have been reported in the media – and I don’t have time to do it all. But there are a few things that are really important in engineering at the moment so I’m going to stagger them over the course…
YOU’RE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG
I have received this piece of feedback a number of times in the past, along with variations on the same theme: “you’re not doing anything wrong”. This is often followed by “but….” or a long speech about how whatever it is that I am or am not doing fits in with the whole project (in a sort of woolly…
500 WORDS OR DIE
I’ve recently had a lull in output, and so I’ve set myself a target to deal with it. Some of the Ph.D-ers I follow on Twitter set themselves goals of a certain number of words per day, and so I thought I’d give it a go.
9/11 CONSPIRACIST DEBATE
Recently I attended the type of event that I wouldn’t usually go to – but I heard about it from a friend of a friend, and it sounded interesting (more on this shortly), and it got me out of the house on a Sunday afternoon. I’m not really sure how to best describe it, as…
WOMEN ASKING QUESTIONS
I attend a lot of public talks (usually of a scientific and skeptical nature), and frequently most of the audience questions come from men. It’s been noted that more women attend the talks in the first place over time (good), but it’s still the men that are the most vocal.
ENCOURAGING WOMEN INTO ENGINEERING
This is a thorny topic for me. On the one hand, yes, this country has a shortage of engineers, and a great way to resolve that is to encourage more women to take up roles in this field. On the othe…
MALE & FEMALE BRAINS
One of the things I got to do during my solitary Christmas was watch a lot of videos on YouTube. A favourite channel of mine is TEDx Talks, partly because I’d really like to do one myself one day. I really enjoyed this video from TEDx Jaffa, Are brains male or female?
BEING BUSY VS. BEING CHALLENGED
I’ve had the unfortunate experience of working on a team that’s understaffed. The company was taking on more work than we had people to perform it, and we were all stretched way beyond the limits of time and sanity. I was already allowing my studies to suffer because of the pressure to work longer hours…
ART & ENGINEERING
Recently, there were calls for engineers to consider the arts in their work. I think this is great, as it forces us to consider the wider implications of our work and introduces the public to the beauty of good engineering design. Currently at MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry), there are some really cool…
MANCHESTER ARMCHAIR PHILOSOPHERS – WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?
I previously posted about one of my trips to Chorlton to engage the locals in debate at the Manchester Armchair Philosophers group.The group is set up for people to discuss topical (or not) matters, and while many people do have a lot of knowledge about formal philosophy, the idea is that anyone can attend, and…
KARMA
The recent comments by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on women’s ‘superpowers’ remind me of being taken on for my last engineering role. With great expectations of managing my own team and making the important decisions, I got put on a dead-end project, with incredibly unchallenging work, no respect or status, and no prospects for progression…
CLIMATE CHANGE & POPULATION GROWTH
I receive updates from ASHRAE regularly, and I noticed a link to an interesting article in the New York Times – Reducing Carbon by Curbing Population. The article rightly points out that much of the conversation on Climate Change is linked to reducing emissions, but we don’t look past this to consider some of the…
MANCHESTER ARMCHAIR PHILOSOPHERS – CENSORSHIP
I attend the Manchester Armchair Philosophers group, and we meet once a month at the Royal Oak in Chorlton to discuss a preselected topic. The topics are varied, and often unconventional. This month’s discussion was on a topic that is a little more commonplace, but sure to get everyone’s attention.