Ok, so I had a new look for this blog and then I decided I wanted to change it. Let’s be simple, really. I love minimalism (even for someone who has far too many possessions that clutter space).
It’s almost a year since I last wrote on here and if I were to leave this page too long, it wouldn’t be achieving its purpose, so I’ll try to write a few tidbits once in a while. Meanwhile, I have longer term plans for a feature to this site, but it will take me a while to get there.
In the meantime, here are a few thoughts for you:
- The Nobel Prizes were awarded this month and while some of the prizes (such as the Prize for Chemistry) were very much worthwhile, I can’t help but think that the Peace Prize is much of a joke. To award prizes to Barack Obama in 2009 and Liu Xiaobo , a civil rights campaigner in China, in 2010 doesn’t seem right. Not to belittle their achievements so far, but neither has actually brought about change as yet, and there are plenty of others who have achieved much more but have not been recognised. I can’t help but feel that the Nobel panel is trying to send a political message about its vision of change, and less about rewarding those who have created good for the wider public. Shame really…
- Meanwhile, the IgNobel prizes were a little more interesting. Held every year as a humorous award ceremony for research that “makes us laugh and then think”, there were the usual crop of amusing wins. Since the prizes are awarded by real Nobel laureates, so the prizes are coveted by some as much as a real Nobel prize. For full details of the ceremony, see here. And then you can find out, amongst other things, that it’s been scientifically proven that bats also perform fellatio.
- Finally, I’m sad to hear of the passing of Benoit Mandelbrot. Many of us of my age will remember his fractals being adorned on almost every maths teachers’ classrooms, next to the Eschers and the 3D stereograms. But the art of his most famous fractal was only one side of his influence. His work had more serious impact in the world of digital compression, which is the base of most of the digital imagery and information that is transmitted in our technological world today. Thank you Benoit.
Tagged: Benoit Mandlebrot, IgNobel, Mandlebrot, Nobel, Nobel Peace Prize