Any UK published writers out there? Are you registered for PLR? It’s money for nothing – what are you waiting for? See my other blog for details.

Whenever I write ‘my other blog’ I’m tempted to add a My other blog is a Porsche bumper sticker. But I resist.

Probably most people are already aware, but apparently Ben Goldacre is being threatened in a legal fashion after pointing out the absolutely terrible continuation of the anti-MMR scandal on a radio show.

Admittedly, they are getting at him with a technically correct assertion that, without permission, his blog included a recording of the show to demonstrate just how crass the contents were. But the important thing is that LBC should not be allowed to get away with broadcasting this scaremongering rubbish. See this entry on Ben’s blog for full details.

Not that I’ve been to a bookshop to see it yet, but my latest title Ecologic is now officially published. Wee-hee!

Hosted on Flicker

In case you’re interested, here’s what it’s about:

We aren’t well equipped to deal with green issues. Our...

    The fifth issue of the philosophy journal Collapse will be out soon (the excellent introduction to this volume is available for download). Collapse V (Launch Party for Collapse V + Urbanomic event)...

I do a lot of talks to schools on science subjects, and always find it interesting what catches the attention and helps them latch onto a bit of scientific stuff. This is particularly apparent with my talk on light, which is the only pure science one I do down to junior school level -typically 10 to 11 year-olds (I have a ‘being a writer’ talk all the way down to infants, but that’s a different kind of thing).

A classic example is when talking about colours and our perception of them. I mention that (some?) hawks have a fourth color receptor that enables them to handle ultra-violet. (Vague interest.) This is how they manage to spot tiny voles and mice when they’re hovering over...

At my other blog I’ve posted some thoughts after reading another book (after Experimental Heart) that is a novel of science that isn’t science fiction – Rad Decision by James Aach.

Unlike the previous book, with this one I have no problem saying it isn’t science fiction – there is no speculative science, nor is science central to the plot. However, as there’s no lab either, I’m not sure if it’s lab lit. It’s just fiction in an industrial setting that happens to have a science content to the industry.

But as someone commented in the post above, we can spend too long getting hung up on the labels. In the end it’s a novel by a Nature Networker.

In line with the recent calls for a speculative realist politics / economics and also in order to momentarily abandon the tradition of writing witless pedantic posts, I am starting to compile a list of movies and books (mostly...

For those who happen to be in London on November 26. Geoff Manaugh of the amazing BLDGBLOG together with Antoine Bousquet of Birkbeck College will present a public lecture on 'Battlespace/s: Feral Cities and the Scientific Way of Warfare'....