The Slightly Disgruntled Scientist

As far as I'm concerned, Andrew Bolt being sued for deliberately humiliating a bunch of not-black-enough-to-complain people is far from an attack on free speech.

It all started with Bolt, an inflammatory columnist, penning a column about how certain "career Aborigines" were not dark enough for his liking. He published images of individuals and complained about their taking advantage of a system that is in place to reduce institutional discrimination. His words were ignorant, hurtful and racist. He targeted specific people, got their details wrong anyway, and is now being sued under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

This case is now being depicted as a threat to free speech, the basic argument being that "well, we might not like what Andrew Bolt is saying, but he should have a right to say it."

Bollocks.

Another angry letter! This time it's actually about science, too.

It is almost time for the Australian Government to deliver the 2011-12 federal budget. This time around, however, it's not just funding for Sun destruction that will be overlooked (again) — we are likely to see a funding cut of $400 million to medical research and the end of a program to train science teachers. This has been met with outrage from the scientific community, patients and families who have benefited from such research, and people such as myself who just plain gave up on academic science years ago. The outrage has manifested itself as the Discoveries Need Dollars campaign, which has taken (or is about to take) corporeal form in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

The following is my contribution, a letter submitted to The Australian today.

Inspired by a Hoyden About Town rant about people failing to grok internet BINGO, and in the interest of defusing internet debates everywhere, I created a new bingo card to be used when someone complains about BINGO.

Popular science magazines: I read them, I like them. Sure, once in a while New Scientist comes out with something a little too kooky for my taste, but far be it from me to denigrate the drug-induced epiphany of an articulate philosophising scientist. I wouldn't have any friends if I did.

Personally I'm more of a Scientific American fan myself anyway.

But after working in science communication for a couple of years, I began to notice certain patterns emerge from the covers of popular science magazines. How could I help it? Years of scientific training kick in, one thing leads to another, and I find myself writing the world's first randomised popular science magazine cover generator!

One of the great things about living in Perth, Western Australia is that there is no actual way to end this sentence. And my feelings about it are sharpened all the more for having lived and travelled elsewhere.

On my most recent jaunt across the country, however, I had an epiphany — that one of the best measures of the commercial health of a city can be found in the answer to this question:

How easy is it to get a sandwich at the central train station?

If your city doesn't have a rail system, just go and sit in the corner and practise your banjo until we're done.