Apparently it is controversial to be "evidence based" #DailyFail

It is with great delight that I link to the is Daily Mail story.

The reason is in the opening line where the Daily Fail say:

"Senior Liberal Democrat MPs have escalated their controversial campaign to force the Government into decriminalising drugs."

The controversy of course is that Tom Brake has laid down parliamentary Early Day Motion 2404 which states:

"That this House notes the serious harm caused by drugs; recognises the need for evidence-based policy making with a clear focus on prevention and harm-reduction; and calls on the Government to establish an independent panel tasked with carrying out an impact assessment of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, reviewing the approach adopted by other countries, and making recommendations for reform."

It calls for an independent review on drug policy, it calls for recommendations to be based on evidence. Yes this may prove controversial as it may very be that evidence suggests that the safest way for drug addicts to get their drugs is through monitored medical sources rather than through street suppliers who mix all sorts of contaminants into their supply in order to get greater value for money. Many of these are more deadly than the  drug use itself, that if proved by evidence may lead to a licensing of certain classes of drugs so that supply and quality can be guaranteed and so that life and support to wean off drugs can be monitored.

It may well lead to a revenue stream for government through licensing of such supply.

But the key element of the so-called controversial proposal is that it is evidence based. With such a knee-jerk response from the Daily Fail the one thing they don't want it the evidence to be looked into carefully as it may shake their world view.

A Wee Dram for the Road...

...well not literally as I don't want to be seen encouraging drink driving. No what I'm talking about is the fact that Scottish scientist have found a way to turn "pot ale" and "draff" into biofuel.

For those who have yet to go on a distillery tour the pot ale is the liquid from the cooper still and the draff is the spent grains. Therefore they are by products of the whisky industry, things that would otherwise just be disposed of.

The scientists from Napier University found they could make Butanol from the two main by-products at Glenkinchie Distillery*. There are copious amounts of both produced in the distilleries across Scotland, and cars do not need to adapt in any way to run on Butanol.

The main concern about some of the biofuels that are produced is that the organic material that is needed to produce this is a primary source and the planting of it takes up valuable arable land that could be being used to feed people. However, as the Napier scientists have discovered a use for otherwise thrown away products is the direction that biofuels should be looking. What organic waste is not going into either human or animal consumption anyway that could be used to this end? We can't start planting the developing world to grow crops for our fuel while they starve.

* Yes, I have toured this East Lothian distillery in my tasting travels.

How About Some Science Fact Tom?

It looks like Tom Harris is having a go at Nick Clegg over policy regarding the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). He says:

"Hang on a second – "interfering in the advice they are given"? What on earth is [Clegg] talking about? If he means that literally, then he’s accusing ministers of changing the advice that the council gives them before they give it. Since this has never happened, I guess that what he actually means is that ministers – now brace yourself for this and have those smelling salts within easy reach – sometimes reject the advice they receive."

Err now Tom, I think you will find he is talking about the reality of the situation that is the implosion of independent experts prepared to serve on the ACMD, currently counting seven individuals either sacked or resigned since Home Secretary Alan Johnson sacked Professor David Nutt last October as Chair of the ACMD.

Don't take mine or Nick Clegg's word for it here's what Professor Nutt said at the time he was sacked:

"If scientists are not allowed to engage in the debate then you devalue their contribution to policy making."

Or look at what Polly Taylor's statements on her own, the sixth, resignation in March:

"The government's first response [to the guidelines] was highly unsatisfactory and appeared to justify ministers appointing and dismissing independent scientific advisers according to trust, which is an arbitrary and subjective matter."

Going on to add.

"I feel that there is little more we can do to describe the importance of ensuring that advice is not subjected to a desire to please ministers or the mood of the day's press."

Then look at Professor Nutt who was sacked by the Minister as Chairman of because he made a statement based on science:

"I am very concerned that too many scientists have been left in the position of having to decide between advising government and maintaining their scientific independence.

"I established the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs because I felt it was vital to develop scientific knowledge on drugs independent of the perception or reality of political interference. The new guidelines on scientific advice suggest to me that the government has still not understood the matters of scientific principle at stake, nor what it means to work respectfully with independent scientific advisers."

What the Lib Dems are saying and it is on page 74 of the shiny new Manifesto that landed on my doorstep yesterday:

"Always base drugs policy on independent scientific advice, including making the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs completely independent of government."

Yeah let's quantify that advise on scientific evidence. After all politicians mocked Galileo when he said the earth wasn't at the centre of the universe, they mocked Christopher Columbus when he said the world wasn't flat. Thank God there were both allowed independence to prove their theories and come up with the scientific evidence. It may not have always been what the leaders wanted, but it was accurate.

Under Labour without the facts we may well find ourselves on a disc carried on the backs of four elephants called Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen, carried on the shell of a star turtle Great A'Tuin

Where Did I Leave My Mobile?

Remember all the fear about this generation growing up irradiated by our mobile phone usage. Well new scientific findings suggest that is just the right amount to offset Alzheimer's.

Now if only we could remember where we'd left the mobile.

A Short Time Ago, In a Company Not Far from Here

Episode IV

A New Hand

The Federation will in centuries know, or should that be already know, darn it is so hard to decide when Linlithgow's most famous future son managed to help invent transparent 'aluminum' [sic]*. All of course in order to transfer a humpback whale from 1986 to the 23rd Century to save mankind.

Heck even in Bathgate we had a company that made more slimline and similar in manufacture communications devices to those used on the Enterprise NCC1701. Indeed the phones that came out of the Motorola factory in the 1990s and early 21st century were probably more reliable than some of the communicators that Kirk and his crew ended up using.

Little did we know that the Rebel Alliance would also benefit from the know how of West Lothians elite scientific minds. Yes indeed! None other than Jedi Master Luke Skywalker himself may well have benefited from the inventiveness of the people around here. To be precise Touch Bionics who have just released unto the market the first bionic fingers. The myoelectic bespoke prosthesis can pick up electrical signals from the nerve endings of severed fingers or hands to enable the user to handle a fork, glass or light saber.



Of course the pedants amongst you will no doubt want to point out that the Rebel Alliance took on the Empire a long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away. So maybe that just means that some descendant of Tatooine's most famous son is now living and working in Livingston.

* Why Montgomery Scott has the American way of pronouncing aluminium I dinnae ken.

Scientist Farm

Drayson was one of the smarter pigs on Manor Farm he was an Oxford Sandy and Black by breed. After Mr Nutt the Pharmacist was driven away from Manor farm by Johnson the Eastern Yorkshire, Brown the Scottish Saddleback charged Drayson with creating some rules by which all the animals could settle their grievances.

After a few days of thought he came to Brown and said he was ready. All the animals assembled from both barns met down by by the river and listened to Brown as he read out what Drayson had previously written up on the side of the big barn in whitewash.

1. Whatever goes against science is an enemy
2. Whatever comes from open views, or has proof, is valid for consideration.
   
3. No animal mind shall be closed.
4. No animal shall heap scorn on the views of the living or dead.
5. No animal shall think another a fool.
6. No animal shall sack any other animal for their opinion.
7. All scientific opinions are equal.

All of the animals nodded and thought that they were a good set of rules by which to bring things before the council of elders that Brown had established. Some of them felt they could advise as to the needs of the sheep for fresh grass, or the chickens for little tabs of feed. Even old Benn nodded his approval as he supped on some of the fermented berries.

However, as time passed some of the ideas brought by some of the other animals were rejected by the elders. But when they were they were taken to the barn and told to look at the rules. Sure enough they read.

1. Whatever goes against our view of science is an enemy
2. Whatever comes from open views, or has proof, is valid for consideration.
   
3. No animal mind shall be closed to the way of the elders.
4. No animal shall heap scorn on the views of the living or dead with snouts.
5. No animal shall think another a full advisor with his own say.
6. No animal shall sack any other animal for their opinion shared by the elders.
7. All scientific opinions are equal.

One day however, two of the goats got all uppity about never being taken seriously on the matter that some interesting mushrooms were ideal for the animals, and not as dangerous as they had been led to believe. They went to the council of elders and said but didn't you get rid of Nutt so that we could get on with thinking for ourselves. Wasn't all opinion of equal, isn't all open views something you have to consider.

The elders said we have considered and rejected your view, the troll is more dangerous that the fire that comes from the sky, or the festered water that if you drink too much of you can die. And those mushrooms are not to be eaten.

As they walked away from the council the goats looked back at the writing and they thought there was less of it, but Brown's bodyguard assured them that they were mistaken, this was the way it had always been. The white letters read:

• Whatever comes from open views, or has proof, is valid for consideration, but will be rejected if it is against our goals.
• All scientific opinions are equal but some are more equal that others.

With apologies to George Orwell.

New Edict from Non-Scientific Home Office

Memo from the Home Office:

From the Inquisition Chamber,
Home Office,
Whitehall,
SW1

Effective Immediately.

We have listened to scientific advise, and after a review decided that we know best after all, therefore in the this the year of our Lord Mandelson 2 we declare:

• The earth is flat and all globes shall be taken from schools and places of learning forthwith and beaten into a level playing field (Minster of Sport to be consulted about availability of these)
• This earth is at the centre of the Universe, the sun, planets and stars revolve around us. Anyone caught mentioning Galileo is to be rowed to the edge of the world and thrown off.
• If any ape suggests we are their decedent we say shoot them. Apparently those Gorillas have been saying that most loudly, shouldn't take too long for the SAS to get rid of the remaining ones. (However, send them by boat, man wasn't meant to fly, that is just unnatural)
  
• Penicillin is just mould and we will commission Kim and Aggie to look into its effective removal.
• This going to a switch in the wall and things coming on is witchcraft. We will take all 'electrical' engineers to the nearest lake and test them for witchery by means of ordeal by water. Any floaters, we expect the majority, will be burnt at the stake.
• Vehicles that move without visible means or forward momentum are also beyond our reasoning. We will announce an amnesty for those that use such contraptions to trade them in for 2 horses so as they can pull their carts.
• Mead, beer and the smoking of the noble weed brought back from the edge of the world by Sir Walter Rayleigh are honourable pastimes and the later does not affect innocent by standers. Anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly Nutts.
• We are not too sure about the lumpy, round, root crop he also brought back and we think there is still some need for scientific research. We have asked Colonel Sanders and Ronald McDonald to get all the goodness out of this item.

Signed Alan Johnson

Lord High Inquisitor

One Small Step

So this is it. Forty years ago millions of people were glued to their TV sets as Apollo 11 made its final approach to the Sea of Tranquility and for the first time a manned vehicle landed on the moon. Of course what the world was really waiting for was the emergence of Commander Neil Armstrong to lead the way.

"This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

That was it. People of my generation and my parents were hooked on space. Even those of us who weren't around to see that first lunar walk live had the desire to follow suit. I was rewatching one of James Mays 21st Century programmes on Dave last night which started with him saying, "At the age of six I wanted to be an astronaut". Like many of us we did, until we realised when we got older me needed probably two science degrees to get unto the programme.

At 7 I wrote seven pages in my English jotter n one hour on the subject "Journey to the Moon" the teacher wrote at the end "Is this finished?". Hardly I'd barely got my Saturn 6 rocket out of Earth's gravity, but the monster had attacked the crew. Its hardly any wonder that when my father died I got offered his Arthur C. Clark and Issac Asimov collections.

But we watched sci-fi on TV Star Trek, Doctor Who, Blakes 7, Buck Rogers, not just as escapism but to wonder what was coming next. Many scientists were inspired by what they saw. My current mobile phone looks a lot like a trimmed down version of that first communicator from Star Trek. It was also made by the company that had allowed us to hear Armstrong's words from the surface of the moon.

It may well have been a giant leap for mankind when we put our first men on the moon. Since 1973 we haven't lept further. Indeed I heard one comment over the weekend (I think it was May again) the Saturn 5 rockets were the sports cars of the space age, since then we're merely pottered about opened the sunroof and peeked out into it. Not a bad description of the space shuttle really.

There is a lot of science we have done in space down the 40 years since. A lot of that is experimentation some of it is preparation. The preparation is to provide survival techniques for man to exist more than a few days away from Mother Earth and all the abundance she provides. But we've yet to aim for the third star on the left and keep going, but maybe that day will come.

Our one small step unto another world is all we've taken thus far. That's not a walk let alone a leap. Do we still dream of what going further may mean to an increasingly crowded, under-resourced, over-populated earth?

Forty years ago we did it because it was hard. We need to look after our resources now too not because it's easy but because it is hard.

Moon Faker

Forty years ago while Apollo 11 fever was sweeping the earth I was just a very sizable bump. I was merely biding time to arrive at the same time that the political party of my adulthood would have its annual conference.

Therefore last night I was quite shocked to find this compelling evidence that the lunar landings were faked (may I encourage younger readers to read the whole way to the bottom before throwing stuff at me*).

Today I am however glad to find that there are of course a list of twelve things that we do know are on the moon.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a craving for soup and cheese.

(Demon Drawer would like to thank Dr E. Vibenstein for unearthing the first of these.

* Sorry Irfan.

Sunday Blog Love

Before he departed on extended holiday, lucky sod, to the far east Jeff would often engage is a little Friday Blog Love, so when I say this I thought of him. Don't worry Ann not in that way.

Apparently those clever scientists have found evidence that the early highs of love are still present and reachable by those who have been together for 20 years. Ah bless. When showing pictures of their loves ones there was as much passion detected in brain scans in those long term couples as those deemed to be in the first throws of love.

Previous research had shown that the rollercoaster ride of mood swings and obsessions deemed to fill the first stages of romance started to fade after 15 months, and that after 10 years the chemical tide would have ebbed away. But this latest research into what the scientists call "swan couples" ie that they've mated for life shows that the emotions they had at the start are still as real 20 years on.

So folks it appears that there is still hope for love and passion in this world. Sadly while the Times headline says that scientists have unearthed the secret of love it doesn't tell us how to get started on the right track.

Back to the research people, quick, quick.

World Still Exists! Is this Due to One Way Traffic?

OK the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been fired up, but before everyone breathes too big a sigh of relieve protons are currently only going in one direction. you see they having starting the ones going in the other direction yet, nor the deflection of the two once they hit full speed.

Not that I'm necessarily a doom sayer but rumours of the Earth's survival have yet to be cleared up, counted clarified and appraised after the scientists make crash test dummies of us all.

So just in case you haven't received* the directions from Prak on how to get to God's final message to his creation written in large letters of fire I'll let you into a little secret.

Meanwhile in tribute to the words of Michael Caine we ask the scientists to only blow the doors off and keep to that remit.

UPDATE: Since I wrote this I got to thinking. If LHC is trying to replicate the bib bang surely the least likely outcome would be that we'd get sucked into a quantum singularity or a black hole. Surely at the point of big bang there be explosion not implosion and we end up getting scattered to the ends of the galaxy waiting for the micro gravity of our component parts to cohere together to form glubs of mass somewhere out in the void. So it looks like it may not be a Vogon Construcutor Fleet we have to worry about after all. People of earth your attention please.

* That includes Scottish Tory Boy for one, more than likely, based on this. Though not Holyrood Patter.

The Nutty Professor

Sometimes I cannot believe what some scientists produce in the face of overwhelming counter evidence. Today step forward this article in the Scotsman about Professor Bjorn Lomborg wrtier of the Skeptical Environmentalist.

OK I agree with him on one point that we need to spend more on tackling global poverty. However, how does he expect us to be able to do so if we are unable to support ourselves properly by not simultaneously tackling climate change.

Here are some flaws in that article:

He says a two degree increase in temperature would benefit developed countries like Scotland.

1. How does he intend to stop it after only a 2 degree rise. Has he discovered and patented some magic switch than can stop the trend.

2. He says that 2 degree increase will be beneficial to developed countries, does he fancy saying that to the Netherlands, Belgium, Louisiana, Florida or the people of East Anglia for starters.

3. The two degree estimate is a global average. The environmental impact possibly on Scotland might be reversed. We enjoy current good temperatures courtesy of the Gulf Stream will that flow of warmer water still end up at this latitude if global temperatures increase by 2 degrees, the last time this happened was during the time of the ice fairs on the Thames. Therefore Prof Lomborg may be condeming more Scots to death due to cold weather rather than less.

Ironically he says that what is needed is for Scotland to set aside National Parks, he's obviously forgetting the Cairngorm National Park (3800 sq kms) and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs (1865 sq kms). But in setting these aside he also says we should set aside over fertilisation and industrial pollution.

Now hang on. If we cut down on industrial pollution especially emmissions are wwe going some way to combatting climate change? Now I don't know how much Environmental and Economic Studies Prof. Lomberg did during his Political Science studies, however, he would have been studying the same experts on that subject as I did at the end of the 80s and early 90s. Since then the trend has become even more strongly in favour of tackling climate change.

Professor Lomborg says tackle global poverty and forget climate change. I say what is wrong with doing both, concurrently and sucessfully.