Inspired by my post on the book The Rest is Noise , my niece kindly bought me a copy of Electric Eden by Rob Young for Christmas, which I have just finished (something of a mammoth feat, as the book is over 600 pages long before you hit the notes. It's sort of on the 20th century British folk music revival and the development of folk rock, though it goes beyond this in many ways. This isn't a musical form that I've had a lot to do with, and it was really interesting to find out more about it. There were three aspects that really stood out for me. One was the early 20th century stuff, where the likes of Vaughan Williams and Holst were rediscovering folk music live from old country performers and bringing it into serious music. Then there was the group, the Strawbs. I knew the name, but I didn't know either that they did a form of electric folk or that, bizarrely, their keyboard player was briefly that wonder of the synthesiser, and now grumpy old man, Rick Wakeman. ...

A car (not the one I bought) I have just bought a car and I hated the experience. It wasn't for me, it was for one of my daughters. (Of itself, this is just wrong . You shouldn't be buying cars for people whose nappies you have changed.) Now, apart from one disastrous experience that put me off buying privately for life, I have always bought cars from a proper dealership. It's a process in which you feel cherished. I know they're only after your money, but they take it off you very nicely. Unfortunately, dealers don't sell cars of the sort of age I was looking for, so I had to look elsewhere. Specifically, I looked at the Car Shop, a huge secondhand car 'supermarket' that apparently has over 1,000 cars on site. And that's where I bought the car - but I wish I hadn't. I didn't mind too much the strange Argos-like operation. You specify the kind of thing you want, the salesman writes it on a card, goes away and comes back with a list of ma...

I get a lot of press releases. Many of them are sensibly related to books, science or technology, but some seem a little off the wall. In fact I got one the other day that had more than a hint of spam email about it. There was something about the way that it was phrased that suggested that English wasn't the author's first language, even though the name at the bottom implied a UK origin. It didn't start auspiciously. 'Dear Editorial,' it said. I can just about understand 'Dear Editor', as I do sometimes style myself editor of www.popularscience.co.uk , but this mode of address seemed to suggest I was an inanimate object. However, this didn't matter too much if the content was spot on. What exciting new development would it reveal? A study has shown that cold calling is becoming customary, according to a group of consumers. What? Cold calling is becoming customary? What does that mean? Could it be that rather than say 'Good morning', the c...

Have you heard, it's in the stars, next July we collide with Mars goes that catchy little number by Cole Porter What a Swell Party this Is . And that is astrology's greatest contribution to human culture. The rest, as they say, is rubbish. Now, I had assumed that this was hardly news. We surely no longer need to hammer out the mantra: Astronomy and astrology are not the same thing. Astrology has no scientific basis. It's something newspaper editors do to fill up the space. It's a bit of fun. But no. It seems that this apparently obvious state of affairs is not at all obvious to some. Apparently the Astrological Association of Great Britain (ahem) has taken umbrage because Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain said both 'astrology is rubbish' and 'astrology is nonsense' on the BBC. The little tinkers. Like alchemy, astrology does have an interesting history, and just as alchemy started people on the way to real science, so did astrology, and for that we...

It's hard to imagine anything more steeped in tradition (even if much of it is rather artificial tradition) than Burns Night. Yet those nice people in the Scottish government have managed to put a few of their Scottish pounds aside to drag Burns Night into the 21st century by producing a Robert Burns iPhone app. If you've ever been to a Burns Night celebration (and I hope all photographs of my improvised kilt have, by now, been destroyed) you will know that as well as consuming haggis, neeps, tatties and whisky (never, ever, whiskey) it is traditional to recite from the works of the great Robert. Download this free little app and you will have 558 of hisself's poems to hand, enough to last more than an evening. I do find it quite amusing that the press release describing the app makes a big thing of Auld Lang Syne. We are told: ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as being one of the top three most popular songs in the English language. ...

I've been writing a lot about sustainable business recently for a secret reason that will soon be revealed. One of the lessons I came across time and again when researching the subject (and one I've already commented on elsewhere) is that it's absolutely great having, say, environmentally friendly products. But if you really want to be serious in sustainability, you have to be able to sell those products at a similar price to the non-friendly alternative. People do want to be sustainable, but not at a huge price. I really thought manufacturers had got the hang of this. Then along comes the Nissan Leaf. My main car use is pootling around on 5 to 20 mile journeys, so for me an electric car would be ideal. (When I do long journeys I swap cars with 'er indoors.) The Leaf looks superb. Usually the cars I feel that I really want are totally impractical. (Words like Aston Martin and Morgan spring to mind.) But I genuinely would love a Leaf. It looks good, the performance is ...

'Detox' has for a good number of years been one of those words that is bandied around by companies to sell products because it sounds good, without actually meaning anything much. Infamously the Prince of Wales' Duchy Originals sells a detox tincture (now available through Waitrose, hurrah!) that is supposed to be 'a food supplement to help eliminate toxins and aid digestion'. Despite the ASA upholding a complaint about their advertising, the stuff is still on sale. Even worse, I saw in a women's magazine the other day (don't ask) blurb for a 'detox diet' that told us 'a detox diet can be just as good as botox!' According to the magazine: This diet will rid you of stored toxins so your complexion clears and skin tone and colour becomes even Excess water is flushed out, taking with it debris and toxins, reducing puffiness and dark circles around the eyes Antioxidant foods combat the aging damage done by free radicals in your body when you...

We've all done it. You put the phone down, and then you think of all the clever things you should have said. It was like that for me yesterday. The phone rang with that strange caller ID that usually means it's a sales call from another country. I picked it up. 'Hello, this is Mark calling you from Windows...' Now, from his accent, 'Mark' was clearly not Mark - and unless Windows is a suburb of Mumbai, probably not calling from Windows. I hadn't had breakfast yet and couldn't be bothered. 'Sorry,' I said, very loudly. 'I can't understand you. It's a very bad line!' And hung up. To give 'Mark' his due, he had perseverance. Five minutes later the phone rang again. 'Hello, this is Mark calling from Windows.' I tried the 'Bad line, can't hear you,' approach for a bit, but this got boring. 'What do you mean?' I suddenly said. 'How can you be from Windows?' 'Windows,' he said, ...

Many people have spent much of their life looking for satisfaction, for bliss, for that feeling of being loved. I think I know where to find it. In the roof space of supermarkets. Let me explain. I know some people hate them, but I am very fond of supermarket self-checkouts. I like being able to zip through when other people are queuing. I like the speed with which I can make the transaction. And despite the complaints of the 'society is going to the dogs' brigade, I like not having to speak to another person when I'm in a hurry, feeling anti-social or generally not in the mood for inane chat. If you use a self-checkout regularly you will be so familiar with those little remarks they make. 'Unexpected item in the bagging area' has  become a catchphrase. But there is one of these remarks that often gets missed - and this is why I think there's an opportunity for a feeling of being appreciated up in the ceilings of supermarkets. The very last remark the ma...

Bananas, caught in the act Dear God, I wouldn't trouble you as a rule, but I wanted a word about something I don't understand. It's bananas. I don't mean 'it's bananas' in the sense of 'it is lunacy', I am referring to bananas in the sense of fruit. You know, the bendy yellow things. I like bananas very much, but they have to be just right. Too green and they are like eating medicated soap. Too ripe and they become disgustingly gooey, with the texture of sick. (I'm sorry, but this is true, and presumably sick is one of yours too.) So, fair enough, you have to catch them when they are just right, with a tinge of green but before those black spots arrive. But here's the thing. They only seem to spend approximately 37 minutes in this state. For ages and ages they sit in the bowl looking hard and green, then you turn your back to make a cup of coffee and when you turn round they've gone black. It's not good enough. I'm not as...

In the UK there is only one significant chain bookseller left - Waterstones. They aren't perfect by any means - but they're a lot better than nothing. Yet nothing is what a fair number of towns look likely to be left with soon. I gather the HMV chain, which owns music/video store HMV and Waterstones has had a bad quarter. They still made a profit, but profits were down on the previous year. Because of this, they have decided to close 60 shops - 40 of them HMV and 20 Waterstones. But here's the thing. It is the HMV part of the chain that has done really badly - Waterstones isn't the problem, yet 20 bookstores are to go. I don't know if this on top of, or as a well as a separate announcement I saw that Waterstones in Maidenhead and in Slough are to close. This seems like someone with a grudge - these are adjacent towns, leaving a big hole in West Berkshire's book buying capability (I know there's Windsor still, but even so...) Lovers of independent books...

Here's a deep philosophical question. Why did chemistry sets get young people all excited, then let them down? Because, try as you might, it was very difficult to make explosions. Let's face it, as any chemistry teacher will tell you, bangs and flashes are what grab the attention. So when the Royal Society of Chemistry decided to add compounds to its series of podcasts on elements, the first one that sprung to mind for me was nitrogren triiodide. This black powder is pretty well useless in the real world. But we are talking a substance that explodes when you touch it. Listen to the story of a schoolboy chemist's dream .

The other day I was trying to hum the tune of Copeland's Fanfare for a Common Man , and what came out was the Channel 4 News theme. I can't believe that I have listened to C4 News for so many years without realizing that it's a variation on the theme of Fanfare . In case you doubt me, here's the evidence (note in both cases you have to go through a bit of initial burbling before you get to the main theme - it starts at 14 seconds in C4 News and 21 seconds in Fanfare ). Here's the C4 News theme:   And here's Fanfare for the Common Man : Convinced?

Every now and then you see the use of a number that takes your breath away in the total lack of intelligence in the way it is used. This particular misuse was described on last week's More or Less , the excellent Radio 4 show that specializes in naughty numbers, but it so startlingly stupid that I have to describe it too. The sad thing is, the initial misuser appears to be Channel 4 News, which of the UK TV news shows is, I believe, the best - but, hey, everyone has their off days. The story was also picked up by a number of newspapers that should have known better. It concerned a contraceptive implant called Implanon. This uses slow release of hormones to provide contraception for up to three years. Channel 4 was horrified to discover that nearly 600 users had unwanted pregnancies. Shocking! However, on its own, that number 600 (actually 584, but 600 is easier to publicize) is totally useless. How many is it 600 out of? How does this compare with the alternatives? Statistics a...

I gather that that mighty political force in the land, the Mumsnet website, has been moaning about a storyline in BBC 1's flagship soap opera Eastenders . I'm afraid I don't watch this programme (life is miserable enough without having misery for entertainment, Coronation Street please note), but it appears that around Christmas, Eastenders featured a storyline involving a cot death and the grieving mother swapping her baby for another. The BBC had several thousand complaints, apparently in some large part due to a campaign by Mumsnet, and as a result has curtailed the storyline. It seems this storyline was disliked by the site because of the combination of a distressing theme which would impact on some of their readers and the unlikeliness of the substitution story. This really isn't good enough - either that anyone should think this argument worth listening to or that the BBC should actually respond to it. It is a fact of life that we all go through unpleasant ex...

I like New Scientist . It might have a love of over-the-top headlines that promise more than the article delivers, but it provides up-to-date science news and good features. However, like everyone else it occasionally gets it wrong, and I'm rather disappointed that it seems unwilling to recognize this. In December the entertaining Feedback column decided to have a go at TV cleaning guru and nice person (as opposed to the other one), Aggie Mackenzie. They pointed out that Aggie is fronting up a range of cleaning products with the brand name 'Probiotic.' Having used Wikipedia to provide an explanation for us of what probiotic means (could do better, Feedback), the piece goes on: So if you feel like adding thousands of extra micro-organisms to the ones that already live in your toilet, go ahead and buy the ones Aggie is offering. We don't think we will, though. I thought this was a bit heavy handed, as did Aggie, who came back the same day with a response. She pointed o...

We are all used to undertaking a balancing act between security and incovenience. When we fly, we accept (for the most part) that it is necessary to go through all those hurdles to get to the plane, as long as they don't become too personal or take too long. On the news last night we heard how Christians in Egypt, about to celebrate Christmas, have had to install metal detectors at the entrance to their churches because of attacks by radical Muslims. Again, they might not be happy with the measure, but they think it is worth the inconvenience for the added security. Well, I've got an example where I don't agree. It's nothing so serious or life threatening - just a matter of internet security. But it's very irritating. My bank (I won't name them, but the picture is a bit of a give-away) has recently introduced a system for business accounts where, instead of providing a second password, you now enter an 8 digit number generated by a calculator-like electronic k...

With the paranoia that goes with my trade, I have a Google Alert set up to see who is mentioning me online. Occasionally this leads me to new and wonderful places - and I have just discovered that you can rent me (or at least my books). The British Council has an English language library in Mumbai called mylibrary which has a really rather excellent online service - not only can you access ebooks, but you can select online physical books that you want to read. They are then delivered to your door and collected when you've finished with them. And some of my books are in there. So, for instance, here is my book for teachers, Getting Science . Over and above the entertainment value of the juxtaposition of the word 'rent' and books, I think this is a great idea. The big pain with using libraries is getting round to going. We are so used to delivery pizzas, delivery shopping... why not a delivery library? I love it.

I've given it a little while to settle in, but I want to take the opportunity to welcome a new science blogging environment, Occam's Typwriter* onto the scene. I first started blogging through a science blogging environment, Nature Network. This had pros and cons. On the plus side, I met and become friends with several other excellent blogpersons, some of whom I have since met for real. And the association with the journal Nature gave the environment considerable gravitas. But there were negatives too. Nature management were quite fussy about exactly what you put on your blog, and the blogging environment was from the stone age. Relatively recently they upgraded to a new version (the fabled MT4) which certainly added some features, but makes the whole thing so byzantine as to be practically unusable. I had already pretty much left by this point, but MT4 and some mismanagement seems to have been the final straw for a number of Nature Network regulars, who set up their own ne...