4% of Universe Known; No-one At The Times Watches Star Trek Then

If you’re wondering what the LHC might do for you, how’s this: it might just find a whole quarter of the universe. The collider is hoping to create some particles of what physicists call “dark matter”, an enigma that is thought to make up roughly 25 per cent of the universe. Then there is the “dark energy”, a mysterious force that seems to be ripping space and time apart. In total, a whopping 96 per cent of the universe has gone AWOL. Unless, that is, we’ve got our maths all wrong. Watch this space.

So Michael Brooks of The Times writes. How silly. He probably borrowed it from a physics site such as top ten physics problems for stupid and lazy journalists but failed to register that no-one can tell us what percentage of the unknown we do not know.

Margaet Thatcher as Coriolanus

She would not do the tea rooms. The BBC's drama makes it clear that her downfall equated to the tragedy of Coriolanus.

Gail Trimble, Knowledge, Intelligence and Memory

Gail Trimble seems very nice to me.

The internet abuse seems to be subsiding and being topped on search engines by more favourable posts. This is as it should be.

Even so, some of these "good" posts fundamentally confuse analytical intelligence with mere recollection of facts quickly. In fact, Trimble is in ample possession of both faculties but the distinction still needs to be maintained.

Savants can remember huge sequences of numbers but may not always be able to put that ability to any analytical use.

Trimble can do both. One faculty is helpful to an intelligent person but not necessary. The other is essential.

Some of the questions on University Challenge test only the ability to recollect facts but others did test Trimble's analytic intelligence as well. For instance, the questions on the periodic table and the questions on Roman numbers.

So she entirely deserves the accolade of being probably amongst the most intelligent people to appear on University Challenge but not simply because she has a good memory. That simply diminishes her fantastic achievement.

Fools And Their Money

Been fooled by a ponzi scam? A 419 advance fee fraud? Bought anything at all from Mr Madoff? Could you be? Have you? Would you?

Take the test.

You will have seen a link that says:

You are the 988,744,113th visitor to this site. You are guaranteed a prize. Click here.

Did you click?

Now you know the answers to the last three questions without needing any help from Einstein.

NB: If you said yes, immediately check all your bank accounts. Also, develop some wisdom (particularly concerning impossibly - not just improbably - high numbers of claimed hits).

An Illusion

Above is a picture. Below is the same picture. Your task is to explain how that can be so.

Compare the MeerKat

This is my new TV advertisement. It seem some people still visit this site for cheap car insurance deal, so this time I have make absolute clear difference. Only mongoose could not understand.

This is not an advert for anyone except those who created my favourite advert in years. It is incidental that their client gets more free exposure.

They even set up a real (advert laden, of course) meerkat site and it is all hilarious or, at the very least, chucklesome.

Petition Thought For The Day

Thought for the Day on Radio 4 is a time honoured institution.

But the believers should not have it all one way so I have signed the petition to have secular presenters. I did put in a word for an alternative solution. We could have Rabbi Lionel Blue every day. He has a consistently human (and therefore humanist) approach. He is also, without question, the wittiest presenter.

If you want to sign go to the title link.

Oh, yes, that is Dawkins above. I am happy to publish cartoons ridiculing people I respect. When can I expect religious bigots to reciprocate or, at the least, not to threaten to kill other people who do?

PD Oscar is Innocent!

THE REAL OSCAR WINNER

Mr Walker (a retired solicitor's clerk) drank 10 pints of beer and half a bottle of wine. He was found in charge of a car which he had been driving. He ran away. PD Oscar gave pursuit. In the course of securing the arrest of Mr Harris he bit him. Mr Harris sued the Chief Constable for damages for personal injury. A PD is a police dog.

You might think that chasing criminals and assisting in their arrest is what PDs are for and how they earn their cookies and other treats. In fact, you might think that it is a PD's public and contractual duty to chase criminals and sometimes they may have to bite them. No arrests, no cookies and treats.

Of course, they must (as with all officers of the law) use no more than reasonable force to secure an arrest. This may not in a lot of circumstances involve biting. Most people when confronted by a PD will heed his handler's warning to stand still. In that event, a properly trained PD will simply circle you and bark at you a bit.

So did PD Oscar exceed the bounds of his authority? Well, that must depend on what Mr Walker did in order to resist arrest. With 10 pints and half a bottle of wine inside whilst trying to drive a car Mr Harris could hardly say that PD Oscar did not have good grounds to arrest him.

Now it must be emphasised that the following is an agreed factual account of what happened. Agreed, that is, by Mr Harris. When you read it you are going to wonder what possessed him to bring his case to the Court of Appeal or who (if anyone did) advised him that he should. There is a twist in the tail. See further below.

On the admitted facts Mr Harris did a lot more than run away:

"PC Harris ... saw that there were two white males in the car and he thought that they were aged about 50 or so. He tapped on the window but got no response. He tapped again more loudly. He got no response again, so he opened the door and asked the two inside if they were all right. PC Harris noticed that inside the car it smelt strongly of alcoholic liquor. PC Harris concluded that Mr Roberts had been drinking, as indeed he had. He asked Mr Roberts if he had been drinking and Mr Roberts replied "no". At that stage the car's engine was running. PC Harris asked Mr Roberts to turn off the engine. Mr Roberts would not do so, so PC Harris lent over and took out the ignition key.

PC Harris then asked Mr Roberts to get out of the car and join him at the rear of the vehicle; that is, between his car and the police van. Mr Roberts refused. PC Harris wanted to give Mr Roberts a breath test as he thought that Mr Roberts had been driving whilst over the legal limit. PC Harris told Mr Roberts he wished to give him a breath test.

Eventually Mr Roberts got out of the car and went to the rear of it. PC Harris said that he could smell alcoholic liquor on Mr Roberts' breath at that stage. PC Harris asked Mr Roberts to take a breath test and asked him to wait there whilst he fetched the test kit from the police van. As PC Harris reached into the van, he saw Mr Roberts running away past his car and along the fence towards the compound gates. PC Harris concluded that Mr Roberts did not wish to be breathalysed and was trying to escape. PC Harris shouted to Mr Roberts to stop. He did not. PC Harris shouted to him again to stop. He said that if Mr Roberts did not stop he would send the police dog. Mr Roberts did not stop. At that stage PD Oscar was taken out of his cage in the van.

PD Oscar did not have a collar on him nor did he have a leash. The judge found that at first PC Harris held the dog by the scruff of his neck. PC Harris called to Mr Roberts again to stop and said that he would otherwise let the dog on him. Mr Roberts did not stop but ran towards the compound gates. PC Harris then shouted "Stop him" to the dog, which is the dog's order to go and seize a man who is running away.
...
When the dog was let go, Mr Roberts was trying to climb the compound fence. It was accepted at the time that the dog was a well-trained police dog and that PC Harris was a well-trained police dog handler. The dog was trained to look for someone running and then to try and stop that person. The dog would try to grab the person's right arm to achieve this object. If the person stopped running, the dog would circle the person or stand back and bark.

PD Oscar ran towards Mr Roberts and barked at him. Mr Roberts failed to climb over the fence and dropped to the ground. At that point the dog did not bite Mr Roberts. PC Harris, who had a torch, was trying to get in radio contact with other police officers to assist him and he was also trying to catch up with Mr Roberts. As he did this, Mr Roberts was saying to the dog "Get off, stupid dog" or words to that effect. He was also raising his arms so that the dog could not get them and he was batting and pushing the dog off.

PC Harris saw PD Oscar bite Mr Roberts' right arm as Mr Roberts was running along the fence, which was on Mr Roberts' left side. This slowed Mr Roberts down and he tried to kick the dog, who held on to Mr Roberts' arm. At this point PC Harris caught up with Mr Roberts and the dog but PC Harris was then hit across the throat by one of Mr Roberts' arms. PC Harris continued to tell Mr Roberts to stand still but he got no response. He asked Mr Roberts to stop and give himself up, but Mr Roberts ran towards his car, saying at some stage "Get lost."

At this point PC Harris had hold of PD Oscar. PC Harris warned Mr Roberts again that if he continued to move he would send in the dog. PC Harris did not want Mr Roberts to get back to his car as he did not know what might happen then. PC Harris warned Mr Roberts again but he took no notice.

PC Harris released PD Oscar to stop Mr Roberts and then PC Harris ran with the dog towards Mr Roberts. PC Harris grabbed some of Mr Roberts' clothes whilst Mr Roberts was kicking and moving his arms. PC Harris heard the dog yelp. PC Harris was hit on the right side of his face by Mr Roberts at some stage whilst PC Harris was trying to restrain Mr Roberts and get him onto the ground. There was a struggle between the two men and they fell to the ground together. At this stage PD Oscar was biting Mr Roberts, but PC Harris did not know where. A police dog is trained to bite a person who is fighting a police officer and who is not complying with an order from the police officer and who is on the ground. Moreover if the dog is punched or kicked the dog is trained to fight back.

PC Harris then called off the dog."

OK: If you read that, which Mr Harris agreed for the purpose of his appeal was accurate, you, if you are like me, do not understand what chance of success Mr Harris had in the Court of Appeal.

This is the core of the appeal:

Mr Roberts was a 57- or a 58-year-old man who had drunk considerable amounts of alcohol, as PC Harris believed he had. Mr Roberts could not therefore be guaranteed to react sensibly if the dog was released on him. His reaction was unpredictable. Moreover PC Harris knew that there was a range of reactions that a person who was drunk might have to a dog released to stop him.

Thus, even though being old and drunk would not be a defence to the offences Mr Harris committed those facts did entitle him to damages for the manner of his arrest.

Wow! The legal profession hits a new low?

Oh, PD Oscar seems to be an excellent cop, now sadly dead. Here is what his handler said about him:

PC Harris said that Oscar's death had come as a bitter blow: "He was very special and excelled as a police dog, a pet and a very good mate."

Be ashamed Mr Walker. Be very ashamed.

An eye for an eye will make us all blind

I previously posted this as my Christmas message but you really should watch it.

Sportsmanship: Could it happen today?

The "tie" in the 1981 London Marathon