Science – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Future Ireland / Why Include Ulster Protestants in a New Ireland?

Soapbox on January 8, 2019, 10:02 am

| Readers 8588

This week, we’re featuring submissions from readers on the theme of ‘Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union’. Competition winners will be published on Saturday. By Dilcy, a nationalist living in Belfast. Why Include Ulster Protestants in a New Ireland? Answer 1 They’re here already and may as well stay. Answer 2 We say stay, but we really hope they will eventually leave. Answer 3 They are really Irish anyway. Answer 4 We really need their help to …

Could Blair’s analysis of Brexit offer a realistic way through the mess?

Mick Fealty on December 15, 2018, 9:01 am

| Readers 5613

I’ve never been a Blair fan boy nor one of his haters. He left enough mess behind in NI to know not everything he’s done was perfect, but I do think it’s worth listening to his interview on the Today programme yesterday. In it he outlines a course of action that may not have seemed practical a few days ago (although it’s not a million miles from my own suggestion on Nolan earlier in the week). My scenario was predicated …

Bitcoin must die

Andrew Gallagher on October 12, 2018, 6:00 pm

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The UN this week released a report urging world governments to take immediate action to mitigate the effects of the coming climate catastrophe. It is no longer a case of whether catastrophe is coming. It is just a matter of how bad it will get. When tackling any problem two approaches can be taken, which are often complementary. The long term approach is to restructure the root causes and so lay the groundwork for lasting change. This takes political will, …

Future Ireland / Northern Ireland and the Humpty Dumpty World of Schrödinger’s Cats

Sean Danaher on September 29, 2018, 8:00 am

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Apparently you follow the rabbit down a hole and you emerge in a wonderland …. Ken Clarke – House of Commons “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” Lewis Carrol – Alice in Wonderland The …

Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations About Unity and the Union

Claire Mitchell on September 15, 2018, 9:00 am

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The future of Northern Ireland is deeply uncertain. Brexit, the rise of English nationalism, Scotland, Stormont deadlock and demographic change make Irish unity a realistic alternative. The polls vary greatly, but some have unity very much within sight, especially if there is a harsh Brexit and a disruptive border. People are talking about this at kitchen tables across the north. But whilst we are highly engaged about if we would like unity or the union, and many of us have …

With no power comes no responsibility – Northern Ireland sleepwalking towards an electricity crisis

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on July 30, 2018, 7:56 pm

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When Kilroot power station failed to win an auction to supply the all-island Single Electricity Market (SEM) held in December last year, its owner AES announced that the facility was to close. Despite announcing that the power station was to close in May 2018, at the time of writing it remains open. The closure of Kilroot, and the already scheduled closure of part of Ballylumford power station, means that Northern Ireland will lose over 900 MW worth of electricity generating …

Dementia and the pathology of leadership…

Robert Campbell on June 7, 2018, 6:56 pm

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I described previously the problem of the ‘Pathology of Leadership’ (here), with a further post mainly devoted to dementia in our leaders (here). It’s not just political leaders who have health problems. I mentioned Ferdinand Sauerbruch in the second post. It’s difficult now to overemphasise just how renowned a surgeon he was in the inter-war period. From very modest origins, he rose to be the top surgeon in the top hospital, the Charité in Berlin, in Germany. He was deservedly internationally famous …

We can acknowledge Powell as a significant historical figure, without resurrecting his politics…

Soapbox on April 17, 2018, 9:33 pm

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The decision by the BBC to broadcast Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech on Saturday was always going to be controversial. The speech, made by Powell 50 years ago on 20th April, had a long-term impact on British politics, and transformed the climate on race relations in Britain. In the speech, Powell spoke out against Britain’s liberal immigration laws, predicting dire consequences for the country if immigration was to continue unchecked. He also attacked the race relations legislation that the …

A Snowball’s Chance in Rome: Climate Change Scientists Are All Agog at Cold Snap

Peter Doran on March 1, 2018, 8:57 am

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‘The North Pole is warmer than much of Europe right now.’ That was a Tweet on Sunday (25.02.18) from lead climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, Robert Rohde. The big chill or ‘Beast from the East’ that has prompted warnings across the United Kingdom and Ireland is responsible for a deluge of colourful descriptions as climate scientists compete with headline writers to come to terms with the ‘wacky’, ‘unprecedented’ and ‘dramatic’ weather patterns in the Arctic. So what’s behind the drop …

Two Irelands, One Planet: Thinking Like an Eco-System Can Help Bind New Executive

Peter Doran on February 11, 2018, 4:06 pm

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While the North continues to languish as one of Western Europe’s ecological backwaters a gap has begun to open up with the Republic of Ireland when it comes to policy innovation. Two recent developments may prove to be tipping points in legislating for climate justice and environmental rights in Dublin. The most recent came just last week in the Oireachtas with the successful passage to Committee Stage of an opposition-sponsored initiative, the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) Climate Emergency Measures …

Professional Arrogance in Health Care: is it a systemic cultural problem?

Terry Maguire on February 3, 2018, 5:08 pm

| Readers 1635

“Shock”, “disappointment”, “disbelief”, “embarrassment” are just some of the many comments that accompanied the findings of Sir John O’Hara’s report; The Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths. The public, not only here but across the British Isles and beyond, have been made aware of unacceptable failings in the care of four (probably five) children and the cover ups to their avoidable deaths. People are genuinely concerned and wondering how safe health care is overall. This is a reasonable and rational reaction but …

Memories of Growing Up in Northern Ireland…

Mick Fealty on February 2, 2018, 3:46 pm

| Readers 2040

Ann Allan was born in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland in 1949. She moved to Belfast in 1966 where, in 1970 in the midst of the troubles she married across the religious divide. She serves on the #OpenGovNI steering committee. Some time ago Ann started writing a series of her ‘Memories’ for her own website ‘Chatter’. Many of these have now been converted to video and paint a vivid picture of growing up in Northern Ireland during a turbulent period. The latest video is …

“Monolithic” NHS should back Northern Ireland Randox’s pioneering blood testing techniques

Brian Walker on January 22, 2018, 11:45 am

| Readers 878

Randox the global medical diagnostics company with principal research and manufacturing facilities in Crumlin Co Antrim, Dungloe Co Donegal, Bangalore, India and Washington DC has just been singled out for favourable mention by the Times science columnist Matt Ridley. He writes that its leading edge blood diagnostic techniques for cancer are not being adopted quickly enough by “a sclerotic NHS”. Randox was established in 1982 by its Managing Director, Dr Peter FitzGerald in Crumlin, and has since expanded globally. (see Wikipedia) …

Book your free tickets for the launch of the Civil Rights 50th Anniversary Programme with a keynote address from poet Michael Longley…

Brian O'Neill on January 16, 2018, 10:55 am

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The broad-based 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Commemoration Committee, chaired by Professor Paul Arthur, wish to commemorate 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights in a sober, inclusive and reflective way. We want to seek to learn from what happened, to consider the significance of the Civil Rights movement for our society today and the continuing resonance of the issues which it addressed and the ideals which underpinned it. You are invited to attend the following events. All events are free but …

Sleep; wake up to the benefits…

Terry Maguire on December 30, 2017, 3:00 pm

| Readers 1210

Sleep is finally revealing its secrets and they are proving more sensational than we ever dreamt. Sleep, that part of human functioning we treat with such contempt and distain, might be a means of improving many aspects of our lives particularly our health. Sleep, of sufficient quality and quantity, is offering a panacea for a range of medical conditions plaguing modern life. But will we listen? We; fail to take enough exercise, eat too much poor quality foods; sustain bodies …

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena…”

Pete Baker on December 23, 2017, 2:09 pm

| Readers 721

Here’s a, much needed, short instructive video on perspective from Science at Nasa. Pete Baker

Bonfires and Traffic congestion; are we seeing the medical consequences?

Terry Maguire on December 23, 2017, 7:37 am

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Traffic

DoH’s Health Inequalities; Regional Report, 2016, just published, tells us positively that in general as a population we are in great shape. In spite of our national moaning about our poor health – and interminable complaining about the inadequacies of our health service – we are as a fact, on average, healthier than we ever have been with access to the most amazing services and procedures. We now live to 80; 100 year ago the average age of death in …

Westminster asserts its power over the executive and Whitehall

Mick Fealty on December 14, 2017, 10:46 am

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To all those who think Westminster is irrelevant, last night’s development could prove significant, if not actually decisive… Boom!! Government defeated… Brexit is in the hands of our Parliament, not Executive whim. pic.twitter.com/z4JqQJABig — Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) December 13, 2017 It certainly won’t bring the government down, but it WILL give the DUP and other Brexiteers some serious headaches in landing a deal that must meet parliamentary approval, and it’s a reminder that Parliament still actually matters. NI’s only fully …

Homeopathy and the NHS…

Terry Maguire on December 13, 2017, 8:25 am

| Readers 975

So the NHS may finally be clearing its shelves of homeopathic practice and remedies. To address the current funding crisis, the NHS has announced that a number of remedies which are either ineffective, frankly dangerous or both will no longer be available. Homeopathy is one of them and rightly so. No doubt some, perhaps Prince Charles a strong advocate for homeopathy, will protest that this move will adversely affect the health of the nation but they will be in the …

Local Environmental & Planning Governance Under Scrutiny (Somewhat)

Peter Doran on November 28, 2017, 2:43 pm

| Readers 1271

On the heels of another damning report on failures relating to compliance with environmental and planning rules, Northern Ireland will be subject to international scrutiny December under the aegis of the authoritative United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Aarhus Convention. The Convention – named after the Danish city where it was adopted in 1998 – grants citizens rights and imposes on Parties (including the UK) and public authorities obligations regarding access to information and public participation and access to environmental …