Dystopian reality

 Over the years I've read a lot of dystopian science fiction, I've watched the movies and I've read the comics.  I never dreamt that I would be living the reality in 2021.  This morning I was out in the freezing cold queuing to get my first shot of the COVID vaccine, wearing a face mask.  I got on buses that were near empty and saw crazy people hanging around central station.

It's fucked.  On top of this, Donald fucking Trump continues to be the president of the united states of america, at least for the next couple of weeks and he basically incited an attempted coup that involved the storming of the capitol building in Washington D.C. by a bunch of freaks including fucking Ariel Pink.  In the UK we have an evil Tory government with Boris Johnston as out prime minister and cunts like Jacob Rees Mogg causing as much badshit as they can.

10,000 people in the UK have died with COVID-19 since Christmas leading to a grand total of 80,000 deaths related to a new disease in under a year.  Shit is majorly fucked up.

I miss my dad and some of my friends who are dead but in a way I'm glad they don't have to live through this shit.  I'm ok, I have a comfortable middle class existence but Scotland right now is fifty shades of bleak thanks to idiots voting for things like Brexit and the Tory party.

I hope the vaccine works at least a bit.  Not sure if anything will fix the damage to the UK after Brexit and COVID.  Hoping for Scottish independence but suspect that is unlikely.

Podcasts

Over the past few years I've started listening to a lot of Podcasts.  I always liked listening to the radio although I didn't always find the broadcast shows to be very exciting.  Podcasts are homemade radio shows that you can download and listen to at a time that suits you.  They also often cover more offbeat or esoteric subjects that appeal to me.

Mostly I listen to real life mystery podcasts, American political podcasts (mainly ones about Trump), Twin Peaks related podcasts and comic book podcasts.  And the Private Eye podcasts.

One of the first mystery style I started to listen to was Thinking Sideways - in this podcast three presenters take turns to present a mystery every week and discuss various theories on what went on.  The first episode that I listened to was on the 'Glasgow effect'.

Another slightly more fantastical podcast that I enjoy is Astonishing Legends - this podcast goes into strange tales in a great degree of detail.  They exude an X-Files type vibe and they are often rather credulous but the production values are good and I enjoy the shows.

From a comic book point of view Fatman on Batman produced by Clerks director Kevin Smith as part of his Smodcast empire is a good starting point (if you like Batman).  The early episodes in the archive are great, often focusing on individual comic book writers or artists and Batman related stuff. More recently the podcast has developed into a general forum for discussion of sic-fi, superheroes and anything Smith wants to talk about.

The Stuff You Should Know network has several good podcasts including Stuff They Don't Want You To Know and Stuff to Blow Your Mind (both of which have a sort of counterculture vibe) as well as the more mainstream, flagship Stuff You Should Know series.  All of these are fairly interesting.

In terms of Trump bashing Trumpcast is fairly funny and a good place to start.  The Pod Save America team have more White House connections and often have serious guests on to interview although they are often pretty funny too.

No Such Thing As A Fish  was one of the first podcasts I listened to, a spin off from the BBC QI series, where strange facts are discussed in an amusing manner every week.  It's good for a smile every now and again.

There are many more podcasts to check out - a few more are below
Page 94 - The Private Eye Podcast
The 2000AD Progcast - some great 2000AD chat
The Politico Nerdcast
A Twin Peaks Podcast

Enjoy

Jerusalem by Alan Moore

I've just finished listening to the audiobook of Jerusalem by Alan Moore and I'm a bit blown away.  I chose to listen to the audiobook because of the sheer size of the book.  The hardback is 1200 pages long and I think the word count is more than a quarter of a million.  The audiobook is 60 hours long but at least I could listen to it on the train, in the bath and while I was doing housework.  The audiobook narration also helped me get through some of the more challenging sections such as the bit about the daughter of James Joyce.

I will read bits of the book again.  I will dip in and out.  I really want someone to write a book about this book and I look forward to character guides and websites becoming available on the internet.  What a ride!

I wonder if Jerusalem is a reworking of Big Numbers, his abandoned collaboration with Bill Sienkiewicz.  That work was to be set in Northampton and the plot was intended to rotate around the building of a new shopping centre.  Even if the two works were not destined to tell similar stories I am sad that we don't have the complete Big Numbers to compare with Jerusalem.  I will need to dig out my old copies and have a look.

I was also reminded of Voice of the Fire.  This is not unreasonable as both books mythologise Northampton and are written by Alan Moore.

Moore deals with life, death, existence and time.  The book is funny and full of supernatural elements.  There are moments of horror and you worry about what fate will hold for the characters.  The narrative is also complicated by multiple viewpoints and multiple identities for some characters.  A few diagrams and annotations would add a lot to this book and I feel that multiple re-reading will pay off (although a kindle copy will probably be much more portable).

This book could be Moore's best work.  It's a different beast to Watchmen.  At times he appears to have thrown everything into the mix, possibly even the kitchen sink.  At one point the KLF even appear, burning a million pounds.

Much of the book is thinly veiled autobiography.  Alma Warren is a cypher for Moore, sharing the same year of birth, the same eye problems and much of the same style and characteristics of Moore.  Her brother Mick shares a name and a year of birth with Moore's younger sibling.  Melinda Debbie, artist and partner of Alan Moore is a character in the book.  I believe that other parallels with the reality of Alan Moore's family history in Northampton exist.

Should you read this book?  If you have the time and patience, yes.  It is rewarding.  I got a lot from it.  It resounded with me emotionally and it cheered me up a bit shortly after the death of my dad.  I wish he could have read it.  The audiobook is a good way to tackle the book.  People will pick this apart for years.  I know I will.

When medical science fails

As a doctor one of the most frustrating things you can experience is failure, the realisation that medical science is not good enough to fix a person.  It's worse if that person is a friend (or the spouse of a friend) and they have a health problem that is part of your specialist interest.  It is also important to note that as a doctor you should really not be involved in the medical care of your friends.

I wish medical science was better.  I wish that the drugs we have now were available 20 years ago.  I wish we were better. I wish we could stop young people becoming disabled.  I wish everyone could live full, pain free lives with no fucking problems at all.

My wishes are unrealistic.

As a doctor I want to make things good for my patients.  I know this is not always possible.  I can accept that. It's just fucking difficult to accept if it's someone you know, with a disease you work with, but sadly the boat has been missed and the great drugs came along too fucking late. It's a shitty fucking deal.  Sometimes you wish you could turn back the clock but life is not going to let that happen.

You also want to give all of your patients all of your effort all of the time but that is not possible either. As a doctor you are still human and your resources are limited.  It is impossible to fire on full cylinders all the time.

Anyway, I'm on holiday.  Rant over.

Scotland in November

On holiday in the west coast of Scotland. It's raining a fair bit but still some decent views.

Achievements

So it has been a big week for me in a way.  I had the viva for my MD thesis on Monday crowning nearly five years of research work.  My examiners liked my thesis (much to my surprise) and it will be accepted by the University.  An achievement.

Does that make me an academic? I have 3 degrees in science, medicine and research.  I do clinical work and I have clinical qualifications.  I work hard and I am probably a bit addicted to it.  Work is almost an end in itself.  Money is a happy side effect.  I have published a few useful scientific papers.  I hope they are useful as other authors have cited them but it is difficult to be sure.  I have made tentative moves to do more academic work.

How do you know when you have achieved enough? When can you sit back and relax? What drives you on?  Sometimes I feel like I have blinked and 15 years have vanished.  At times my life has been a whirlwind.

I like helping people when I can and I like to have an interesting life.  I get bored easily and I like a bit of variety in my life.  Research and teaching give me a bit of variety.  Clinical work is enjoyable too but burnout is always possible and important to avoid.  

I honestly don't know why I work so hard.  I do it because it's easy and it gives me something to do.  Work means that I don't need to think too much about anything else and I can feel like I am doing something worthwhile.  I guess I'm lucky to have a job that lets me do that.  I have a job that sometimes lets me feel like I'm achieving something.

Thesis submitted

So, after 4 years and 7 months I've finally submitted my MD thesis.  It was a massive amout of work but I've finished it.  The feeling of relief associated with this is immense.  I now have my evenings and weekends back and I no longer have a constant feeling of guilt.  It's not totally over because I still have a viva examination but this will take a few months to organise.

So,  I'm free.

For a bit.  Since August I've spent an average of 8 hours working on this thing.  Eight hours of solid unpaid work every weekend.  A big chunk of my life.  At times I wasn't sure that I  would get there but I did.  It cost about £180 to get 4 copies of the 300 page document printed.  They weighed a tonne.  But it was a good weight.

That's enough egotism for tonight.

Why us? by James Le Fanu

I was very disappointed by this book having enjoyed 'The rise and fall of modern medicine', the last book by James Le Fanu. In this book Le Fanu examines evolution, the human genome and consciousness. Sadly, he seems to bring an unwritten agenda to the book. In most scientific journals writers are expected to declare conflicts of interest that should be taken into account when reading an article. Le Fanu does not do this and I think that he should have.

Initially Le Fanu describes some of the things that we do not know. He highlights flaws in the theory of evolution, weaknesses in our understanding of the human genome and how little we know about the processes of the brain. He also describes the unpleasant uses of evolutionary theory to justify eugenics and racism.

Le Fanu comes across as a rather arrogant figure. In his eyes man is perfect and should be on a pedestal above the rest of the world. Le Fanu does not seem to believe that a scientific explanation for humanity will ever be found and so a mystical explanation is more likely. I disagree with his conclusions.

Borrow this book from a library if you want but try not to pay for it. I am unconvinced. I think science will eventually explain most things although I accept that this may not happen in my lifetime. I do not think that man should be back on a pedestal and I do not need the crutch of a ghost in the machine to cover up the gaps in our understanding of the world.

philosophy of science

I'm a medical doctor. I have a science degree, a medical degree and a post-graduate medical diploma. I'm currently working on a research degree (MD). I like science. I like learning stuff. I like to know how things work.

So why is science good? Why is science valid? Why is aspirin better than a homeopathic medication if you have a heart attack? Why do type 1 diabetics prefer insulin to acupuncture? Why is the theory of evolution more credible than creationism?

I've always been interested in these questions and when I was at medical school I did a special study module entitled 'introduction to the philosophy of science'. (in medical school you normally get to do a couple of 'special study modules' to broaden your horizons and help you appreciate life outside medicine). I took this module with 2 of the more intellectually adventurous guys in my medical school. It basically involved us sitting around and having a nice chat with a professional philosopher at Warwick University for 3 hours every week. I loved it.

We were able to convince the philosopher to assess us with an evening 'poster presentation' with cheese and beer. It was great.

One of the big problems with clinical medicine is that you don't get to think much. You solve clinical problems quickly. You sort people out, patching them up and 'fixing' them efficiently so that you can tend to as many patients as possible. You graduate from medical school and all of a sudden it's 6 years later. You're 30 years old and you've barely drawn breath.

I wanted to do clinical research for many reasons. I always wanted to be a scientist and discover stuff. Obviously I realise that the concept of actually 'discovering' something in medicine is a load of bollocks but as a child it really appealed to me. I also wanted to pause for breath and check my pulse after several years of clinical medicine. It's nice to be your own taskmaster for a while and to be able to escape the Stalinist thrust of the NHS. I love the NHS but it wears you down. I wanted to keep the option of a future career in academic medicine open and I wanted some time to teach medical students and learn a bit more about my own medical subspeciality. I feel that I am achieving most of these goals.

I better return to the point of this post. As part of my research degree I recently took a further course on the philosophy of science. The course was good and rejuvenated my interest in the subject.

The course tackled several interesting subjects. The main difference between science and pseudoscience seems to rest in properties of scientific theories. If a theory is scientific it can be tested experimentally and potentially proven wrong. Pseudoscience is often untestable. Many scientific theories are backed by expermental data. Pseudosciences are often slow to produce objective evidence.

The course also tackled the relationship between science and religion. Science and religion are very different things and they probably should be kept as far apart as possible. Religion only devalues itself by trying to interfere with science and scientific attempts to disprove religion are probably futile and seem to be as meanspirited as kicking the crutches away from a man with one leg. Science and religion are non-overlapping majesteria and should probably be kept apart.

As a side issue I would say that clinical medicine is probably more of an art than a science. Patients are not experiments and we should remember that.

The course also looked at the evolution vs. creation science debate. Basically creationists are idiots who do not understand evolutionary theory or its implications. Creationists expose themselves to ridicule and their religion is damaged by attempts to describe fossils as 'a test'. Even in Darwins lifetime evolution was described as 'religions friend disguised as a foe'. The person who made this statement was observing that the process of evolution could be seen as a mechanism of intelligent design that could have been used by some interventionalist creator God. If I was a religious nutter I would be promoting evolution as evidence of devine fingerprints. Creationists are a bit too stupid to pick up on this. I'm happy to settle for Pascal's wager myself.

So, to summarise this rambling post, the philosophy of science is an attempt to explain why science is important and why it can be trusted and why it is more useful that reading a horoscope.

If you want to read a bit more on the topic try
What is this thing called science by A.F.Chalmers
Philosophy of science - a very short introduction by Samir Okasha

Simon Singh wins libel case

'I'm gonna sue you! I'll sue you in England!' - 'Tom Cruise' in South Park - The closet episode

British libel laws are draconian. British people don't really have freedom of speech or a free press. If you want to say something that a rich person disagrees with (even if it's just daft stuff about famous people) it is very easy for them to bankrupt you in an English court.

Laughing at famous people is one thing but these libel laws become very problematic when they are used to suppress scientific discourse. Simon Singh, a respected popular science writer, wrote about several non-evidence-based claims that some chiropractors had made. The British Chiropractic Association then sued him for libel. They could have bankrupted them.

Thankfully the nefarious ploy of the BCA backfired. Anti-libel campaigners systematically reported British chiropractors to advertising watchdogs resulting in numerous fines for BCA members (who became slightly dischuffed with the BCA). On the 1st of April a sensible judge kicked the BCA libel case out of court and Singh walked free. A victory for common sense, science and freedom of speech.

I was fairly happy.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8598472.stm

Homeopathy is pish

I'm sure most people realise that homeopathy is pure bollocks. As I passed though Central Station in Glasgow yesterday I saw an anti-homeopathy protest group. They were planning to take a mass-overdose of homeopathic medications to prove that these medicines have no effect.

Pretty cool idea.

You may think that all this homeopathy stuff is harmless but apparently the NHS spends £4million on this useless shite every year. That's £4million of my tax money. Bastards. I also object to private companies making a profit from the misery of people who don't know that they are being ripped off.

http://www.1023.org.uk/the-1023-overdose-event.php