stripped

Well the time will come
When the wind will shout
And all the sinners know
What I'm talking about
When all the creatures of the world
Are gonna line up at the gate

And you better be on time
And you better not be late

Well you know in your heart
What you gotta bring
No big mink coat
No diamond ring

Well take off your paint
Take off your rouge
Let your backbone flip
And let your spirit shine through

All the men we got
Well they're goin' down the drain
And when I see your sadness
On a river of shame

You got to raise up
Both the quick and the dead
With no shoes on your feet
No hat on your head

Ain't nothin' in my heart
But fire for you
With my rainy hammer
And a heart that's true

prologue to an open letter

Considering the historical technologies for doing science, it makes sense that public funding for research is administered via a competitive, hierarchical model. Science is too big for everyone to get together in one room and discuss. However, contemporary communication technologies and open practices seem to promise something different: a sustained public conversation about research. The new way of doing things would "redeem" the intellectual capital currently lost in rejected research proposals, and would provide postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers with additional learning opportunities through a system of peer support.

JISC recently ran an experiment moving in this direction (the "JISC Elevator"), but the actual incentive structure ended up being similar to other grant funding schemes,with 6 of 26 proposals funded. It strikes me that if we saw the same numbers in a classroom setting (6 pass, 20 fail), we would find that pretty appalling. Of course, people have the opportunity to re-apply with changes in response to another call, but the overheads in that approach are quite high. What if instead of a winners-take-all competitive model, we took a more collaborative and learning-oriented approach to funding research, with "applicants" working together, in consultation with funders – until their ideas were ready? In the end, it's not so much about increasing the acceptance rate, but increasing the throughput of good ideas! Open peer review couldn't "save" the most flawed proposals; nevertheless, it could help expose and understand the flaws – allowing contributors to learn from their mistakes and move on.

With such an approach, funding for "research and postgraduate training" would be fruitfully combined. This modest proposal hinges on one simple point: transparency. Much as the taxpayer "should" have access to research results they pay for (cf. the recent of appointment of Jimmy Wales as a UK government advisor) and scientists "should" have access to the journals that they publish in (cf. Winston Hide's recent resignation as editor of Genomics), so to do we as citizen-scientists have a moral imperative to be transparent about how research funding is allocated, and how research is done. Not just transparent: positively pastoral.

pipestone

'With this holy pipe you will walk like a living prayer', the White Buffalo Woman told the people, 'your feet resting upon the grandmother, the pipe stem reaching all the way up into the sky to the grandfather, your body linking the Sacred Beneath with the Sacred Above. Wakan Tanka smiles on us, because now we are as one, earth, sky, all living things and the ikce wicasa — the human beings. Now we are one big family. This pipe binds us together. It is a peacemaker. There is a pool of blood somewhere, a place you came from. You will find this blood petrified into stone and it is red. It comes from a sacred spot common to all people, where even enemies are turned into friends and relatives'. And it is probably from this time onward that the Sioux people started the custom of ending all important ceremonies with the words Mitakuye oyasin - all my relatives - plants, animals, humans, all one big universal family.

Lame Deer, Seeker of visions, 1972

the philosophy of crime

"What does this tell us? Not much? No! The Count's child thought see nothing, therefore he speak so free. Your man thought see nothing. My man thought see nothing, till just now. No! But there comes another word from some one who speak without thought because she, too, know not what it mean, what it might mean. Just as there are elements which rest, yet when in nature's course they move on their way and they touch, the pouf! And there comes a flash of light, heaven wide, that blind and kill and destroy some. But that show up all earth below for leagues and leagues. Is it not so? Well, I shall explain. To begin, have you ever study the philosophy of crime? `Yes' and `No.' You, John, yes, for it is a study of insanity. You, no, Madam Mina, for crime touch you not, not but once. Still, your mind works true, and argues not a particulari ad universale. There is this peculiarity in criminals. It is so constant, in all countries and at all times, that even police, who know not much from philosophy, come to know it empirically, that it is. That is to be empiric. The criminal always work at one crime, that is the true criminal who seems predestinate to crime, and who will of none other. This criminal has not full man brain. He is clever and cunning and resourceful, but he be not of man stature as to brain. He be of child brain in much. Now this criminal of ours is pre-destinate to crime also. He, too, have child brain, and it is of the child to do what he have done. The little bird, the little fish, the little animal learn not by principle, but empirically. And when he learn to do, then there is to him the ground to start from to do more. `Dos pou sto,' said Archimedes. `Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world!' To do once, is the fulcrum whereby child brain become man brain. And until he have the purpose to do more, he continue to do the same again every time, just as he have done before! Oh, my dear, I see that your eyes are opened, and that to you the lightning flash show all the leagues,"for Mrs. Harker began to clap her hands and her eyes sparkled.

lunar syllabus - what makes cancer tenacious?

"The headnote of a reported case; the brief statement of the points of law determined prefixed to a reported case. The opinion controls the syllabus, the latter being merely explanatory of the former."

telos

"You mean that universal explanation for all mysterious
disappearances, 'the cat did it'?" said Arthur.

"Yes," she replied. "What a convenient thing it would be if all
thieves had the same shape! It's so confusing to have some of them
quadrupeds and others bipeds!"

"It has occurred to me," said Arthur, "as a curious problem in
Teleology—the Science of Final Causes," he added, in answer to an
enquiring look from Lady Muriel.

"And a Final Cause is—?"

"Well, suppose we say—the last of a series of connected events—each of
the series being the cause of the next—for whose sake the first event
takes place."

"But the last event is practically an effect of the first, isn't it?
And yet you call it a cause of it!"

Arthur pondered a moment. "The words are rather confusing, I grant
you," he said. "Will this do? The last event is an effect of the
first: but the necessity for that event is a cause of the necessity
for the first."

"That seems clear enough," said Lady Muriel. "Now let us have the problem."

"It's merely this. What object can we imagine in the arrangement by
which each different size (roughly speaking) of living creatures has
its special shape? For instance, the human race has one kind of
shape—bipeds. Another set, ranging from the lion to the mouse, are
quadrupeds. Go down a step or two further, and you come to insects
with six legs—hexapods—a beautiful name, is it not? But beauty, in our
sense of the word, seems to diminish as we go down: the creature
becomes more—I won't say 'ugly' of any of God's creatures—more
uncouth. And, when we take the microscope, and go a few steps lower
still, we come upon animalculae, terribly uncouth, and with a terrible
number of legs!"

this episode brought to you by the number 5, the letter H, and the color yellow

(Coldplay vs the Innocence Mission)

AND HAVE NO THORNS TO DISTANCE ME,
WARM AS YELLOW.

And it was all "Yellow."
I wrote a song for you,
I drew a line,
BRIGHT,
Oh what a thing to have done,
HAPPY TO BE MEETING.
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
WARM AS YELLOW.
Look how they shine for you,
I'd bleed myself dry.
Look how they shine for,
Look at the stars,
Turn into something beautiful,
Yeah, they were all yellow.
I jumped across for you,
THAT I WANT TO BE SO SO
INSIDE.
And it was called "Yellow."
BRIGHT,
And all the things you do,
I DO NOT WISH TO BE PALE PINK,
It's true, look how they shine for you,
AND YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH YOUR ARMS STRETCHED OUT.
Your skin
BRIGHT, BRIGHT AS YELLOW,
I'd bleed myself dry for you,
Look how they shine.
BRIGHT,
BUT FLOWER SCARLET, FLOWER GOLD.
EVEN IF I'M SHOUTING, DO YOU SEE THAT I'M WANTING,
Oh what a thing to do.
ENTER ROOMS WITH GREAT JOY SHOUTS,
Oh yeah, your skin and bones,
BRIGHT, BRIGHT AS YELLOW,
EYE TO EYE WHEN SPEAKING.

creativity pages

Ingold, Tim
The Poetics of Tool Use: From Technology, Language and Intelligence to Craft, Song and Imagination. In The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. 406-19.

Hallam, Elizabeth and Tim Ingold eds.
Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Oxford: Berg, 2007.