Originally posted @ 10:52 pm, Wed 10th Sep 2008
Today, physics made the headlines. Live coverage of an experiment. And might these masters of spin have conjured up the notion of creating black holes to attract the attention?
Whatever, the story of the last such set of ground-breaking experiments being responsible for the creation of the world wide web has been rehearsed many times over the last few days and the sense of the potential value for money has been conveyed. (Dr. Who of course would simply proclaim the human race for seeking to discover the universe for the sake of it.)
As a physics graduate, I'm pleased that the hadron collison experiment has attracted such attention. And I wondered whether at any stage, my final year "laser Doppler anemometry" project / experiment could have made good television. (Yeah, I know.)
(I was fortunate enough to have an expert in the subject visit my university during the middle of my experiment. One of the benefits of the technique cited then was of detecting problems early enough to save people's eyesight; but this was application number 7; the first 6 applications then all concerned improving the flight of ballistic missiles.)
Meanwhile, after campaigning, I found myself outside Derby Council House with 40 minutes to kill before the Red Arrow bus was due. So I went in to watch the full Council meeting, just as they were debating a proposed charter for Derby public transport users. I was just in time to hear a Conservative councillor (calling for integrated transport and) celebrating Nottingham's achievements. Nice.
The councillors' view of Arriva's services in Derby was not very positive and the charter proposed by Cllr. Bainwat could be an important step in bringing attention to the need for greater customer focus.
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