Alun Salt › Comments

"I think that's a very good point. They certainly wouldn't have been able to build locomotive boilers initially but other problems, like concrete, show they were capable of making improvements. However, with the political system as it was, there was no big incentive for incremental improvements to boilers. I'd completely overlooked the possibility of improved aqueducts, which might have been an offshoot from similar work." - Alun Salt

cont. - in that people think carefully about how and why they conduct their research in the open. There is comparison of lab books and electronic lab books, but what about the PROCESS of actually doing science? Does anyone test that? - Jo Badge

You might also want to check with Don Pellegrino - he is studying the science of doing science http://friendfeed.com/donpell... - Jean-Claude Bradley

"Alas, I've spotted another basic error above and I can't let it go. I referred to falsifiability as logical positivism. It is in fact critical rationalism. It's not just jargon, because I was thinking of Popper who was a critic of logical positivism. Still, it's a nice example that people should read me uncritically either. Merry Christmas." - Alun Salt

"Scientific discourse happens when there's a scientific debate. I happen to have received a few emails, including a bizarre rant from my local MEP based on the ramblings of Christopher Monckton. Now, if someone is pulling out an imaginary Chinese fleet, I think there's reason to question if the discourse is scientific. Nonetheless if you look at the points above the most offensive thing I've done is taken them seriously. Let's be honest there's probably reason to question if the Competitive Enterprise Institute has a financial interest in downplaying the effects of pollution. However, I haven't said they're in for the money. Instead I've shown that the argument 'natural=good' is nonsense. The 'Mars is warming' argument is also bizarre. Readers in the UK may not know that the Heartland Institute is a right-wing think tank, I didn't think it was relevant so I didn't mention it. Still, they'll know I thought the argument about Mars is inane, because of the way I drew an analogy. The..." - Alun Salt

"I'll cheerfully admit I don't have the intellectual stature of Sarah Palin when it comes to science. Thankfully I can rely on carefully honed arguments of some of the top skeptical minds when tackling the Titanic. I'd like to thank you for your considered responses to the points above. The complete lack of effort in addressing them means I can be similarly lazy in rebutting them." - Alun Salt

"It's a winner trust me. Don't think of it as cutting research, it's investing in ignorance with £600m of Economic Impact." - Alun Salt

"Thanks. I really hope I'm talking nonsense, but so far I haven't seen how. If the government were serious about impact, they could improve things very simply. They could insist any research benefiting frompublic funding was published with Open Access. Sadly they seem to be anti-access." - Alun Salt

Spotify reminded me of Ultra Vivid Scene today. That makes me feel old. - Alun Salt from Blip.fm

I'm guessing 'hips' has another meaning to the one I know - but I haven't the faintest idea what it is. - Alun Salt

"I'm not clear if PLoS (and PLoS One specifically) counts towards REF?" - AJCann

Being specialized in imaging, I always have a hard time to assess papers without any illustration (or equation) new to me (I have seen binomial distributions before). So I'm wondering whether some illustration of (the alignment of) some of these temples wouldn't have facilitated the appreciation of the subject by people not familiar with it. - Daniel Mietchen

"That's certainly a plausible idea, especially as the ancient Greeks considered Delphi the centre of the world. Off the top of my head temples in Turkey also tend to point east - but I don't know if anyone has looked at them systematically. I think there are good physical reasons for a temple to point east, like facing the sun so that it drives out the damp more quickly. Even so that wouldn't rule out more temples facing west than would be expected. It's an interesting idea and could help if there are two general motives in play, astronomy AND topography." - Alun Salt

"At the moment I'm not seeing a lot of difference between this and native Wordpress commenting. But if it became a standard through a cluster of blogs then the collective reputation management and networking could add a lot more to all the sites. For example the ability to reblog comments on my site isn't much use me when I'm commenting on my site. But if it was widely picked up amongst history blogs then it could make a difference." - Alun Salt

"I agree $1350 is hugely expensive for archaeology, though there's an open access option for some traditional publishers of archaeological journals which is even higher. I'm on the job market now after completing the PhD, and there is no way I could have published in PLoS One if I'd had to pay that fee. Another reason I should have added for publishing in PLoS One is that their criterion for publication is quality. That commitment makes it an attractive venue in comparison to some of the other OA journals. I think the article-level metrics could help. If I want to get funding for publishing I need to demonstrate that Open Access material is being used, and how much. Then I can go to the Society for the Promotion of Obscure Studies and show them exactly what it is that their money is likely to get them. That's something that I couldn't necessarily do with a research project aimed at a subscription journal. That means reminding funding bodies that publication isn't the end of a project's..." - Alun Salt

Telescoper explains how academic publishing works. The only thing that would improbe the post would be the theme from 'The Naked Gun' in the background. - Alun Salt

I tried some searches on google and google scholar without finding it, and I'm generally quite good at this. So good luck with that. - Donnie Berkholz

Thanks! Donnie, that was my experience, too. I'll pass on the link, Michael - it looks pretty good. Alun, I'd expect that the heterogeneity of dead bacteria would make such an analysis difficult, if not impossible. - Heather

You can make arguments in favour of repatriation of antiquities. You can make arguements against. Being on either side doesn't make you inherently foolish. But when you write that the British Army took the Rosetta Stone from the French and "returned it to the British Museum" then something has gone wrong. It's probably a case of momentary brainfade rather than idiocy, but it matters because the whole question of ownership of the Rosetta Stone is about where it rightfully belongs. Using the word 'returned' builds in the assumption that all antiquities are inherently British. - Alun Salt

Avast me hearties! Robert Fraser & Partners be scourin' the high seas in search of booty. They be fundin' Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. ter search the Caribbean fer Spanish gold. Arrr! - Alun Salt

Geoff Carter concluded he didn't have evidence for a staggeringly early cart shed in Poland. Could it have been a used to house a sledge? I've just realised I know absolutely nothing at all about the history of sleds and sledges. Not only that, but I can't recall much attention being called to them in early prehistoric archaeology other than when people want to talk about moving megaliths to Stonehenge. Yet Martha Murphy (guest blogging) shows there's plenty of questions to ask about neolithic transport. - Alun Salt

More on the problems of preserving heritage in BC. Ancient burials have been scooped out of the ground, <em>after</em> an archaeological assessment. - Alun Salt

I'd love to have a pithy and insightful opinion on this, but first I'll have to look up what PPS 15 says. it's important as PPG 15 and 16 have been the basis of protection of heritage in the UK for many years. - Alun Salt

It's all very well me saying there are ethical reasons to be against reburial, but I still haven't found the time to write them down yet. Now this post hits almost every point I was going to make, especially the point about memory. This won't stop me from writing up my thoughts when I can find the time though. - Alun Salt

Teofilo talks about Chaco and Navajo identity and discovers neither is as simple as you might think. - Alun Salt

I was going to add them here, but that would have swamped the feed. - Alun Salt

"The central axis of each building forms a straight line. Each building is believed to have faced the same direction. Such careful planning for buildings was common for palaces and temples during the Asuka Period from the late sixth century to the early eighth century. But it had not been found at sites from the early third century. " This is why I need to find an introductory book to early Japanese history. There's a huge amount of fascinating stuff there. - Alun Salt

"One of the most egregious hypocrisies we entertain in British Columbia is our cavalier attitude toward the destruction and disposal of indigenous cultural landscapes, artifacts and heritage sites. In any enlightened nation such important history would command protection - here it earns indifference and even contempt." - Alun Salt

A great idea for a gallery. There's something about the facial expression that makes even fake Moai appealing. - Alun Salt

The editor of the Leicester Mercury explains some of the difficulties in having a sincere but sceptical investigation of some local businesses. - Alun Salt

Mandelson seems to have confused quantity with quality in higher education. - Alun Salt

"From the Observer of 8th of November, UK scholars linked to 'stolen' bowls of Babylon" - Alun Salt

Dr Petra Boynton is always fantastic, but with this post she's particularly fantastic. There's a lot more to worry about with a bad formula press release than the nonsensical maths. - Alun Salt