a sibilant intake of breath – Page 758 – climate change activist and science communicator; photographer; mapmaker — advocate for a stable global climate, reduced nuclear weapon risks, and safe human-AI interaction

Information saturation

There is no time when it is easier to get distracted from a task than when it is something long, complex, and challenging. My room is never cleaner than at the periods before exams, nor my emails so well managed as at times when I have some massive research project to complete. The number of possibilities on the web: from blogging to instant messaging, compound the danger. So too, the special stresses involved in thesis writing.

This month’s issue of The Walrus includes an article called “Driven to Distraction” that addresses the issue of how many such temptations exist in a digital age. I subscribe to 127 different information feeds: most of which get updated more than once a day, and some of which are regularly updated more than twenty times a day. Beyond that, I have email, the manual screening of spam from blog comments and wiki pages, Facebook, constantly updating access logs for various sites, text messages on my cell phone, and news websites that I track.

Just as I have frequently used music and immersion in a laptop-free coffee shop environment to try to get some reading done, I am going to try to reduce the frequency with which I am checking my various feeds: staying logged out of Bloglines and email and checking each only a few times a day (or at least every couple of hours, instead of virtually constantly). Maybe then I will be able to finish hammering out a new version of chapter two, as well as drafts of chapters three and four, before Dr. Hurrell departs for Brazil, leaving me to finish my thesis entirely on my own.

Luminox

The Luminox festival is really quite something. Essentially a celebration of combustion, it runs all along Broad Street from 7:00pm to 10:00pm for the next two days. The event involves a combination of fire-based artistic displays and live music. The whole thing seems to be paraffin powered, and it includes both static displays and manned installations that are made to flare up with the removal of chokes. Spaced along the road are braziers of coal and wax-burning metal chimneys that glow orange hot. Hanging from a crane beside Balliol College is a massive chandelier of flame.

Having such an immediate experience with fire would be impossible in lawsuit-happy North America, but it is quite engaging and beautiful. I actually took about fifty pictures, so expect to see them crop up on future days when I am too busy to find something new.

PS. Today, I also saw the inside of the Green College tower tonight, and got a photo of Mansfield for my growing collection of Oxford college images.

PPS. Did you know that you can set Google Calendar to automatically notify you of upcoming appointments by SMS? During the breaks, I have trouble keeping track of exactly which generally unstructured day I have an event in. With this free service, I have a very helpful aide memoire.

Linear model, a worthwhile aspiration?

If there is one thing my thesis has ended up being about, it is how the linear model of science-based policy-making is wrong. We do not move chronologically through a scientific process – isolated from politics – into a political process based on neutral scientific fact. Additionally, the policies that are adopted always have moral assumptions embedded in them, as well as normative consequences.

One issue that remains is whether our descriptive criticism of the linear model logically extends to it not being something to which we should aspire. Acknowledging that politics affects science doesn’t necessarily mean that we shouldn’t combat that, to such an extent we can. Administrations that have twisted science too far have often ended up looking silly for it (See Litfin). Likewise, while it is clear that various actors use scientific facts and arguments to advance their own agendas, it doesn’t necessarily follow that we should abandon aspirations towards the relatively neutral and balanced presentation of information. By way of comparison, think about adherence to the scientific method. While actual scientific practice doesn’t always follow the ideals of neutrality and objectivity as it should, that doesn’t mean that we should abandon those ideals.

The question, then, is whether the actual processes of science and politics are so far from this ideal that it isn’t even a useful guide for aspirational purposes, or whether we should persist in trying to apply such rationalist approaches.

Shedding possessions

With my departure from Oxford coming up in about one hundred days, I am getting nervous about how much stuff I have picked up while here. Since it seems that shipping things back to Vancouver would be excessively expensive, I am planning to sell as much as possible before leaving.

Here is a list of what will be for sale. If you are interested in anything, let me know.

Spring, geeky tech, and the continued tapping of thesis words

Today has been fairly productive, with one excellent break out in Oxford’s sunlit gardens and along its warm paths. I am well on the way to having the structure of chapter two revamped, though my introductory sections for chapters three and four still need to be finished. The most difficult thing is staying focused for any length of time. It is all too easy to find a more immediately satisfying way to use one’s time.

Speaking of immediate satisfaction, this week’s Economist features their Technology Quarterly (most of the links below require a subscription). Most of it is stuff that is pretty familiar: cellulistic ethanol, solar power (mentioned here recently), data visualization, display technologies, and climate engineering. One thing that was new to me is the emergence of ‘haptic’ touch screens that are able to simulate the feeling of various materials by slightly stretching the skin of the fingers touching them. It is possible to make tapping on a screen feel like pushing a button, or even make a flat screen feel like a sharp edge. It doesn’t take much thinking to imagine some really interesting applications for such technology, particularly in terms of making technology more comprehensible and accessible.

Back in control of my sonic surroundings

I received my replacement headphones from Etymotic today. After sixteen days using the standard iPod headphones, it is like stepping into a new world. The Etys don’t hurt your ears, even after several hours, they block outside noise almost completely, and they sound amazing. I can read in coffee shops again, regardless of how grating the background music and ongoing conversations. The new pair is black, and has a more durable connector than the original white ones, though the wires feel even thinner and more insubstantial.

When my lifestyle becomes less peripatetic, I will get some big ear-covering headphones that draw a lot more power. For now, I am happy with these tiny, light, sharp-sounding earbuds.

[Update: 17 January 2008] I replaced my second filter today. I also changed the white eartips. The old ones were getting pretty grungy and yellow. Ordering supplies from Etymotic involves very high shipping fees, so I bought them on eBay instead. I had to spend an awful week listening to iPod headphones; I am so glad to be back in the world of beautiful sound.

Wales 2007 photos: fourth batch

Welsh landscape with sheep, taken on the third day of walking.

Small lake, halfway up a mountain.

Welsh valley, viewed from the highest point we reached on the third day.

Snowdonia does not suffer for lack of moss. I like the colours.

A gloomy view of Snowdon, as well as the two other peaks we climbed on the first day. This is the last photo from Snowdonia that I will be posting.

Wales 2007 photos: third batch

Bridge in the nature reserve we visited on the second day. Because of the low altitude and protected status, there was far more vegetation there than elsewhere in Snowdonia.

Pool at the base of a waterfall

Another group photo, this one with me in it

Creek flowing from the waterfall

View uphill to the ‘barn’ in which we stayed. Nearby was a small power plant, with turbines operated by water pressure. A long pipeline – resembling those for natural gas – ran down to it from a lake somewhere above us.

Task sequencing altered

Today’s meeting with my supervisor was very useful – the flaws in my draft second chapter were discussed, and a route forward proposed. As soon as possible, I am to submit a revised chapter two introduction, as well as draft versions for the opening sections of chapters three and four. These are to lay out the central purpose of each chapter, the three or four main arguments that will be made, and the structure that will be used:

Chapter two, main argument: the linear model of scientific investigation is wrong, in the context of environmental politics generally and Stockholm and Kyoto specifically
Chapter three: scientific and political consensus are not independent, the first does not chronologically precede the second
Chapter four: technical remedies to environmental problems are not value neutral (be sure to focus on remedies and scientific rationality, not economic rationality ie. Coase)

Once that is done, I am to revise chapter two into a more logical form, then write the draft of chapter three that was originally due tomorrow. The objective of all this is to have the structure of all three chapters finalized by the end of the month, as well as their introductions and conclusions. Then, when Dr. Hurrell leaves for Brazil and I go to Dorset, it will be a matter of tidying things up, adding some footnotes, and generally polishing the finished work prior to submission.

Of course, that leaves me with eighteen days to write two more chapters, as well as discuss and edit them. Amazing how the period in which the bulk of the work on a project actually seems to get done always lumps up at the end. Hopefully, all the background reading I have been doing since last year will percolate into my analysis.

Wales 2007 photos: second batch

Keeping my hat on was a constant challenge, given the lack of a chin-strip and the strong winds.

Because the winds on the second day prevented us from going up any peaks, we visited this nature reserve instead. It was nice to see some trees.

In the reserve, some of us climbed along a steep hillside to see a large waterfall from above. We also got some nice views of the valley below and the seashore.

The Welsh landscape is dominated by bare rock, separated by grassy sections. Often, you see veins of quartz in the shale that look like snow, from a distance.