Paul Smith's Blog

LABOUR MP John McDonnell demanded that the Brown government make "a choice between democracy or oligarchy" at the weekend. At Saturday's Hands Off Venezuela national conference in London, he condemned new Labour's ongoing hostility towards Venezuela and pledged to make solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution an issue that "no MP would be allowed to dodge." Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack roused the 200 activists present when he attacked the hypocrisy of the British government in accusing Venezuela of corruption last week....

Chavez gave a speech last week, and I have to say what I've read of it so far is the most refreshing yet. "...workers councils will come into being in the factories, in the workplaces, but they should reach out to the communities and be fused into other councils of popular power: community councils, students councils, etc... What for? To shout slogans? To go around shouting long live Chavez? No!... To change the relationships in the workplace, to plan production, to take over piece by piece the functions of the government and to finish up by destroying the bourgeois state....

This evening the Yeovil Labour Party held its hustings event to select a candidate to stand in the next general election. Three candidates stood for the position, Colin Counter, and Colin Rolfe who stood for us at the last election and lastly myself. I'm pleased to announce I was selected with a majority vote. Below is the rough outline of the speech I gave at the hustings: The Labour Party was founded for a noble cause, to represent the working people of Britain by becoming a mass party of the working class....

The Guardian published an article written by Jeanette Winterson (not a scientist), on why she thinks homeopathy is wonderful. Another reason why topics like this should be covered by dedicated science writers. Dedicated science writers would not base an entire article on one anecdotal experience. Picture this. I am staying in a remote cottage in Cornwall without a car. I have a temperature of 102, spots on my throat, delirium, and a book to finish writing....

I just went out tonight (spotted a Leonid!) and noticed Comet Holmes has vanished, well it hasn't vanished it is still there but I couldn't make it out among the light pollution with just my eyes after a few minutes of dark adaption. I wouldn't call it an easy naked eye object anymore. Part of the trouble comes from its angular size, it spreads the light out over an area larger than the Moon which makes it difficult for our eyes to detect....

The government has pumped £25 billion or so into Northern Rock. I believe the only way to safeguard the public's money is to nationalise Northern Rock, ideally with the major shareholders getting no compensation, this will safeguard people's money and jobs and ensure £25 billion of public money isn't just used to prop up failing private business. I see Richard Branson and friends are circling like vultures, US companies are expected to make bids too....

So the religious lunatics are at it again. The rise of fundamentalism in the United States is a real problem and needs to be stamped out. This time Reverend Ken Hutcherson and his (to quote the Telegraph) "evangelical megachurch has vowed to take over Microsoft by packing it with new shareholders who will vote against the company's policy of championing gay rights." Microsoft is fairly well known in the United States for supporting a solid policy of employee diversity....

Although Apple is already under investigation within the European Union for a number of different issues, I don't think things are moving fast enough in this area. iTunes is forced upon iPod and iPhone users, often this takes place without the user knowing at the time of purchase they need to install this other program. I suppose what bugs me the most is how poorly written iTunes is, it has got a wide reputation for being one of the worst media players on Windows, probably not as bad as Real Player, but nevertheless something most people, if they had the choice would rather not install....

Absolutely pathetic, ever since the Japanese space agency released the footage from their lunar orbiter I've heard the "HD" thing far too many times, it popped up again in more of my RSS feeds today, this time on more mainstream websites, which was the last straw, so it is time to rant. The sole reason it seems to me for them to use this term is to get this mentioned on technology websites, and as such is nothing but marketing nonsense....

Last night was very clear, so I dragged everything out to see what Comet 17P Holmes has been up to during the last 17 days. It has moved closer to Mirfak (Alpha Persei). It has also grown in size quite significantly, now it is about the same size as the full Moon. This has however lead to a slight reduction in brightness. It does however now look more comet-like and less like a planetary nebula....