UCL reaches 4th in the world!

(First written 8th October 2009)

So the THE World University rankings 2009 were published this morning. It shows UCL (my alma mater) climb yet again to make it the 4th university in the world and moving ahead of Oxford to 2nd in the UK. This is an amazing feat and probably well deserved given the profile of research undertaken there. Certainly in my field (life science), UCL research or an academic from UCL is often quoted in the media – showing both how well respected the research and researchers are thought of.

So in terms of research output, I am quite prepared to believe that UCL is 4th in the world, but to prospective students beware. In my view, UCL is not a world-leader in terms of undergraduate satisfaction. This is borne out by the National Student Satisfaction, shown at UniStats. At least (and again in my field), UCL performs badly at things like assessment and providing good feedback to undergraduates.

That said, especially in 3rd year when doing research projects, there is a feel for being in an amazing research environment and having tutorials with lecturers and academics whose names you recognise from having read and cited their prominent papers in your own essays.

I would say that UCL is a great place to study (and has a great student union) if you are able to work by yourself and are quite self-reliant. If you are looking to have your hand-held a bit more – move along.

Science in the European elections

With all the current talk about the recession and the economic meltdown – to use two of the oft used phrases – it is important to remember that the European elections are about much more than economics.

The MEPs we elect tomorrow will be making policy on a huge number of areas for the next five years and while some of these economic pledges may sounds like a great quick-fix, I think it is important to review all the policies of a party rather than voting on the headline grabbing ones.  The point is demonstrated particularly well by the The Times’ discussion over the Green Party’s scientific manifesto, but I think the point generalises to all parties and all areas of policy.

The Campaign for Science and Engineering has a breakdown of all parties’ scientific policies here. Also, VoteMatch is a webiste that can tell you your overall leaning, based on asking you about your thoughts on some policies.

Certainly something to bear in mind before we hit the polls tomorrow.

Humble Beginnings

Still trying to sort through the photos that I have taken since buying the 450D.

I think I have what might loosely be called “assignments” coming up which will be exciting, covering UCLU doing the Superhunt and then the Mandy Walker Games.

At some point in the near future I must set up a Flickr account and start sharing some of these photos. Hopefully after my weekend of shooting!

Scandals ending in "-gate"

I posted this to Twitter the other day, but I am quite bored of the media referring to more or less anything the public might find scandelous as “-gate”. This was spurred on by the most recent spot of  “expensesgate” on the BBC website the other day. Other recent -gate scandals have been “smeargate” culminating in the departure of Damian McBride, “Sachsgate” about the rude phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross and “Liegate” (actually at least a funny pun, having the word “ligate” to fall back on) regarding Lewis Hamilton and the F1 lies. Apparently the -gate scandals don’t need to involve central Government any more.

I just think this classic “newsroom joke” is past it now. I had to look up when the Watergate scandal actually was. 1974. This pun (if you can call it that) has been running for 35 years. I also think it has been somewhat cheapened given the original (and best?) involved the departure of the President, compared to some sportman telling porkies to the regulatory body.

Can we end it soon please, journalists of the world?

Social networking is a good thing

I read this article in the Mail on Sunday yesterday and it got me thinking about a few things.

The article recounts how a guy from Oxford told a girl in America that he was going to “do something I’ve been thinking about for a while then everyone will find out“, after speculating about suicide. She managed to contact the British authorities and ultimately saved the boy.

Aside from the obvious human aspect of the story – and indeed everyone from the girl in America to the Thames Valley officers that found the lad did a fantastic thing – there is perhaps a much broader story of how social networking sites do manage to provide just that – a social space.  Much of what is written about facebook, MySpace, Bebo and the like is almost always derogatory. Whilst I was looking for the online copy of that article, I came across another facebook mentioning article by Janet Street-Porter. This article (and the others of which this exemplifies) seem to stem from a very simple fallacy:

Facebook friends ≠ real friends

Once you come to understand that it isn’t about conversing with a myriad of random people then the whole thing makes a lot more sense. I don’t want anyone to be able to access information on me, but it is useful for my friends to be able to look up my phone number etc.

Notice that I am not classifying where these friends come from. Real friends may indeed be known only from the internet, but if they have achieved friend status then why not converse with them over the internet. It is a darn sight cheaper than phoning people long-distance.

The other criticism is that people are losing social skills by conversing primarily over the internet.  Again, an accusation I find hard to take.  By the very act of making conversation you are using and developing social skills, regardless of situation. It is much harder to make yourself understood in a text-based conversation that in a face-to-face one, as expression and intonation is lost. This means a text-based message must have even greater clarity of phrase than when spoken, and makes it harder to keep the other parties interested.

Clearly I am not saying the same social skills are used and developed, but equally I think that this quote “ I worry that millions of others  –  and especially the young  –  may be losing the social skills they need to lead fulfilled lives, hold down a job and communicate effectively and honestly with their partners” is a little over the top. And besides, potentially they are gaining a new set of skills needed to lead fulfilled lives.

To quickly conclude (for I have spent far too much time and effort on this), I think that social networking sites, far from leading to a generation of socially-inept, will lead to a socially savvy generation. Also, I think the popular definintion of “friend” needs to move away from the “face-to-face” concept. It is perfectly possible to have friends you have never met, as friendship is about actions (to sound a tad cliche). I don’t think anyone could say that girl in the US wasn’t acting as a friend to that boy, by listening to what he said and raising the alarm.

A truly crap piece of Journalism (No, not this…)

I’m talking about Paula Murray’s frontpage article on 6th March (Sunday Express). There are PDFs online, as the original article has since been pulled by the Express’ website.

The article is about the lives of some of the survivors of the Dunblane shootings 13 years ago. The survivors have since turned 18, and so it seems they are fair game for the Express to mount a character assassination of. The article broadly collated information from their Bebo/Facebook/social networking profiles – drinking, lads nights out etc, and presents it as scandalous given there background.  I’m going to go ahead and state the obvious – we should be glad they have been able to get on and lead normal lives. How much worse would it be to have gone to ground and let the atrocity take over their lives. I’m sure they remember that day every day of their lives – given the article picks on those who were actually shot – but that isn’t to say that they can’t have fun!

The entire affair is summed up very well on a variety of sites,  I like this one quite a lot. I’m not really adding to the story here, but I do feel that as many people as possible should see this despicable piece of “reporting” and judge for themselves.