Happy Galileo Day!
We’ve received a record number of inquries about the Galileo Day download packs this year. It is great to see so many people embracing the holiday. Where ever you are and whatever you are doing – have a good one.
I, on the whole, support tuition fees. Why? Because I do not think that poor people, with less earning potential than myself, should have to subsidise my education. If someone is working really hard driving a taxi every day, why should they pay for me to go to some fancy-pants university and get a piece of paper that entitles me to earn more money than them?
But I am not entirely decided on the issue. There are lots of good reasons to support not having tuition fees. For example, it probably puts people off going to university (I have not checked the stats, but I imagine this is the case). That argument in itself has factors that both support and oppose tuition fees.
The alternative, as well as realise though, is not a free education. I cannot be “free”. It has to be paid for in a capitalist economy. The alternative is an education paid for by the state, and thus reclaimed from taxes.
Either way, some one pays.
You could argue though that in a progressive tax system, the same person pays. Imagine these two scenarios:
Scenario 1, tuition fees. I pay £20,000 to go the university, except I do not pay it, because it is a student loan, taken by PAYE when I start earning. So I pay nothing up front to go to university. I go, do my degree and then graduate. Then I get a job and if I earn plenty of money I repay my student loan via the PAYE tax system. If not, I do not pay it.
Scenario 2, no tuition fees. There are no tuition fees so I pay nothing up front (just like above). i go, do my degree and then graduate (just like above). Then I get a job and if I earn plenty of money I pay a higher tax because the government has to fund all the education (as above). If not, I do not pay it (as above).
The scenarios above are basically the same. Either way, university is free at the point of access and funded by reclaiming the money using taxation. What difference am I missing?
Happy Darwin Day!
Today I am Toastmaster at White Rose Speakers and will be discussing Darwin in my introduction. Not just because he was an awesome guy that did a huge amount of advancing our understanding of science. But also because he was a cautious man, possibly a man who needed confidence – alas, Toastmasters was not around to give it to him.
Luckily, the same is not true today however.
Having read the first two novels in the Sherlock Holmes series, I recently finished the first set of short stories. These are collectively known as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
They started off in a similar vein to the novels. By that I mean they were not very interesting. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does not seem to have mastered the skill of structuring a truly captivating story at this point. The language is enjoyable but the plots and the structure are not always particularly well thought out.
As the series goes on however, these points seem to come together to create more and more interesting stories. By the end I could not put them down. Metaphorically at least.
This video has been doing the rounds on the social network.
Of course it is difficult to know the full story. Maybe the guy had been drinking. But Manchester Evening News have the full story. He had not – it was a stitch up by the police.
What do the greats have to say on the subject? Adam Rutherford reminded me of this inspirational message:
For me however, the entire message of life is much better encapsulated in these two lines:
1. You are reading this.
For 2-14, please see 1.
I would go into a lecture about how much time we are all wasting on BuzzFeed, but quite frankly I have a lot of BuzzFeed articles to get through so I just do not have time to write that right now.
Ubisoft have just released the R.E.M. song pack. Irritatingly, rather than just posting the news when you load up the screen, they have also put the songs in my song list. They are right at the top when I order it by recommended songs. But selecting them just takes you to the store and asks you for money. Shameless.
Also I continue to be angry at Mark Knopfler. He has no respect for his fans. Look at this:
Green Day are a band that respect their fans. You learn one shape and you can pretty much play their entire discography. But look at this video! No guitar pick. Not even just strumming, but random flicks as well as plucks! How is anyone who is not a guitar-playing robot supposed to do that?
A friend recommended that I read “How to be a Bad Christian: … And a Better Human Being” by David Tomlinson. So I did. His message seems to be that organised religion is not really relevant or useful, it is all about loving Jesus. Meanwhile, he works as a vicar.
He started a church in a pub, called Holy Joe’s, that is pretty cool.
Overall, I did not find it the most interesting read however. I do not think the book was really aimed at me. I think it was aimed at Christians who do not go to church and generally feel guilty that they do not practice actively enough. For them, it would probably be quite an enjoyable read.
Yesterday I rocked so hard that one of my guitar strings exploded.
Luckily I had another set of strings ready so thanks to a few YouTube videos, and a bit of help from Chris when I one of the balls got jammed in the bridge, I managed to re-string it.
Here is the video:
And part 2:
The new strings are pretty cool. They feel about the same as the old one, but they produce a slightly different sound. In the case of the low E string, it really produces a notably different sound.
Also they are far more visible. When people said that strings dulled over time, I was assuming they meant sound-wise. But the new strings are are clearly much easier to see when I am looking at them than they were before, probably because they have more of a shine to them.