Whatever skills and expertise are required for that, Michael Gove thinks they are needed in the civil service and in government: That same determination to instil and cultivate deep knowledge should apply across Government. Too much current Civil Service training is about vapid abstractions such as ‘Collaborating Better’ rather than about what works in classroom … Continue reading
Author Archives: Richard Drake
Too Much Progress
This evening I want to think about climate, covid and racism. Nothing too controversial then. In fact, let me generalise two and narrow the third. I wish to look at progress, real and perceived, in three key areas: environmentalism, public health and racial discrimination in the USA. My thesis is pretty simple. In 1 and … Continue reading
When Code Goes Wong
Many people across the globe are currently interested in the quality of code and, even more, the quality of results that arise from code. In particular, in the UK, Neil Ferguson’s epidemiological code, that seemed to influence the government’s decision to impose a lockdown, and, on this blog at least, the code that makes up … Continue reading
Did HMG succeed in its assignment?
Here’s the thing. In our earlier busy thread, Jaime Jessop was thinking like a Haskell programmer and John Ridgway a Ruby one. Perhaps even more fascinating, what was the government thinking? References: Wikipedia : Assignment (computer science) Demystifying Haskell assignment Ruby – Operators Basic Programming – Operators What’s New In Python 3.8 – Assignment expressions … Continue reading
Covid/climate open thread
Have at it! Continue reading
Problematic bookcases
Lots of embedded tweets coming up, with little climate or climate mitigation. Please skip if either or both are a bother. Let’s begin not with bookcases but with the proud owner of about twenty, Sarah Vine, Daily Mail journalist and wife of Michael Gove, senior UK government minister. Vine tweeted this yesterday in praise of … Continue reading
Fact 13
The thesis of this post is stark: there’s no point debating climate further until Fact 13 has been established. What is Fact 13? The $1.5 trillion a year the ‘climate change industry’ was reported to have become by August 2015. Was that number even remotely right? What’s the correct one going to be in August … Continue reading
Covid-19 Shows There Won’t Be Global Action on Climate Change
Pretty much Jason Bordoff’s headline in Foreign Policy magazine today, except I left out the “Sorry”. And that’s because I’m not. Sorry, but the Virus Shows Why There Won’t Be Global Action on Climate Change Bordoff believes in what is laughably called the scientific consensus on climate change but he seems, to his credit, … Continue reading
Half-buried factoids
It can be a quiz. It can just be you showing off. Or, of course, both. Not limited to climate but bonus points if any climate factoid is deemed interesting by 97% of assembled Cliscep experts. All complaints please to DFHunter @all – since all the pubs are closed can we have a climate/general quizz … Continue reading
Culture war 2020
Jaime just said in a comment: Russell, “If the science is not faulty, then the people who deny the science must be insane, driven mad by ideology, racism, sexism, homophobism, fascism, or whatever other “ism” you can concoct.” We’re seeing that tactic fall apart big time, not in the climate change debate, but in the … Continue reading
