OneHourAhead

CNN are reporting that Sarah Palin, the current Governor of Alaska is McCain’s choice for his VP.

So either a black President or a female VP - exciting times.

Due to our man in Dundee, I have been listening to Dusty Springfield all week. So here is a little more for your delight:

University College London seems to have been chosen by the Wellcome Trust and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to host a new £140-million centre dedicated to the research of neural circuits and behaviour. From the UCL website:

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation (Gatsby) is delighted that the Wellcome Trust (Wellcome) is collaborating with them for the purpose of developing a new Research Centre in Neural Circuits and Behaviour, to be called the Sainsbury–Wellcome (S–W) Centre, and to support individual researchers in the field of Neural Circuits and Behaviour elsewhere in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Gatsby and Wellcome, advised by an international panel of eminent neuroscientists, have selected University College London (UCL) as the preferred host for the Centre. It is hoped that a final decision and formal agreement with UCL will be reached before the end of the year. Further information about the initiative will be made available in due course.

UCL already has a strong neuroscience department so this will really set out the university and London as being the centre for neuroscience within Europe.  From Nature News:

The institute will reportedly work mainly with model organisms such as mice, fruitflies and nematodes. It will employ newly developed techniques such as optogenetics, which allows researchers to switch genetically modified neurons on and off using light. It is believed that the institute will eventually host some 12–15 research groups at a new £60-million building on Huntley Street in Bloomsbury, near both the Wellcome Trust and UCL’s central campus.

Exciting (if you’re a neuroscientist)

If you look at my sidebar you’ll see under the ‘My Mux’ RSS feed

An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

A quick trip to the site gives us the reason

Yep, Muxtape, a site that was doing no harm to anyone, that linked each song to where you could buy it on Amazon, that had had no complaints from any artists, a site designed to spread the word of unknown music has been taken off the air while they deal with the RIAA.

The say the outage is just temporary and I hope so.  When it comes back up I urge you all to go and make your own mux to spread your own eclectic tastes to the word.

Just watching skins on BBC America.  They have had to subtitle it.

So much to choose from, where does one start?  Actually reading back through my list of posts at Alex’s suggestion I realised that most of it was tat. I am actually quite ashamed. I think my new blog year resolution should be to write a bit more thoughtfully so that come this time next year I rule the world.  Bwhahahaha.  But here are four posts which I would like you to re-read, even if not actually worthy of votes at LDV towers:

1. An early description of La Nuit des Musees in Lausanne.  I still don’t know whether anything like this happens in the UK but if any local councillors are listening…
2. How it might be possibly to invigorate the economy in the world’s poorest regions through science.
3. I still have this idea in the back of my head even if others seem less enthused.
4. My final post from Switzerland, looking at life in the Alpine enclave.

And if you still have time, you should still watch The Wire instead of Dr Who (just put that one in to piss off Alex!)

So it is time to choose which one of us is the greatest.  It is, of course, me, but let’s, just for fun, pretend for a moment that someone else stands a chance and think about who that might be*.  I am not shtupping anyone in the party so this is an unbiased list:

Best new Liberal Democrat blog

• It hasn’t quite been clarified as to whether she is eligible for this award, but if so, my first choice for best newcomer goes to Jennie at the Gob.  Why? Well a) I think she comes from the same brand of liberalism as I do (essentially the “Will you just eff off and leave me alone, and by the way nice coat” strain), b) she is a might more interesting than most, and c) her analysis of events always seems to me to be spot on.

If she doesn’t qualify then I will pick someone else (NB. Just, if you were wondering, I do qualify for this category.  You know, if you were wondering.)

Best Blog from a Liberal Democrat holding office

Tricky one this, but for all the right reasons:

• You have the blogging MP’s such as Featherstone, ol’ Webbo and the Hem-monster all blogging well about their respective briefs or issues close to their hearts.
• You’ve got the politicians from the hinterlands such as Peter Black, who seems to be one of the most popular bloggers around, regardless of political affiliation
• You got blogging lords, most evident in Ros Scott, but also some Lib Dem lords blogging as part of Lords of the Blog.
• and of course you’ve got the various councillors dotted around the country telling us all about their small corner of Britain.

So who to choose, who to choose…

• My cheer goes to Mary Reid.  I have never even been to Kingston but I find now that I have a certain affection for the place.  She is also a cheerleader for the use of new technology in politics to get the message to as many people as possible.

Best use of blogging or social networking by a Liberal Democrat:

This one is tricky as well but unfortunately for the wrong reasons:

• Nothing really stands out as amazing. I never really got into Twitter so anything such as Brian Paddick’s twitter interview passed me by.  Beyond that, what has been done?  I get lots of messages on Facebook from various people for various causes but I have trouble getting overly interested. 
• For this I would probably choose the “No to ID cards” video, with special mention going to banana pet man.

Best Posting on a Liberal Democrat blog

• There are quite a few individual blog posts that could be worthy of nominations.  Most posts coming out of the Stockley, Goldie, Gore, Mortimer and Wilcock stables are worth reading a number of times.  But Jock Coats is the only blogger who consistently writes posts that make you really question the nature of liberalism.  From his list of posts I would choose his recent post Unconditional benefits: now is the time to smash that “cosy consensus”.  This post (and its two follow ups that Jock had to write to deal with all the discussion it generated, unfortunately from outside the Lib Dems) nicely summarises what he considers as issues fundamental to Liberal policy.

Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog

Outside the incestuous world of LD blogs my political blog reading comes from Iain, CH, DK, Tim, Tim, Mark, Unity and LC.

• Iain Dale I don’t find a particularly good read but can be good for bile-raising.
• Ditto also for Liberal Conspiracy, it can be informative and sometimes a good read but mainly I come away glad that I am not a member of the Labour party and that I know what the word ‘liberal’ means.
• DK, what to say, swears a lot. Fun.
• ToryHome is funny, in a foaming, mad as a box of spanners way. Or it would be if they weren’t going to be in charge of the country in two years time.
• Tim (Worstall) can be good for tearing apart idiot economics.
• Tim (Ireland) is good for pointing out when other bloggers are being idiots.
• Mark Wadsworth is someone I find it hard to disagree with.
• But the winner in this category for me is Unity at the Ministry of Truth.  His/Her posts are true essays but are so worth reading if you have the time.  He does something that gives blogging a good name - he takes an issue and goes to the  heart of it, what MSM should be doing but seems to have given up on.

(Special mention in this category from me would have to also go to Lee Griffin who I haven’t read on a regular basis but it seems is definitely someone I should)

Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year

So I think we have quite a few worthy blogs within our little band.  There is the old guard of James, Jonathan and Paul, showing us young scamps how it is done.  You’ve got that young buck writing the OneHourAhead blog.  There are the thoughtful bloggers such as Neil, Simon, Jock and Tristan.  There is OneHourAhead.  There are the quick, punchy, spicy bloggers such as Jo and Nich.  (cough) OneHourAhead.  The people looking to just make the world a bit more of a respectable place to live such as Jo, Linda and Mat. OHA.  The people just blogging about the own part of the world such as Steve and Richard. And now the place seems to be swarming with bloody youngsters like Ali, Irfan, and James.   And there are many, many more. And an Elephant.

• But, as with the Dale blog list, the blogger of the year for me is Alix. The writing, topics and ideas are better than elsewhere. Nuff said.

 

* I think we can all tell from the extravagant use of commas in that sentence that, actually, I might not be the best around!

CNN are reporting that a man walked into the Democratic party headquarters in Little Rock claiming to want to volunteer and asked to see the Chairman, Bill Gwatney.  When denied he walked into Gwatney’s office and opened fire, killing Gwatney.

The man himself was killed after a car chase with police ended in gunfire.

Updated from CNN:

Chairman Bill Gwatney died at 3:59 Wednesday afternoon after a gunman entered his Little Rock office and shot him several times in the upper body, Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.

Authorities confirmed the news shortly after former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton released a statement expressing their condolences.

“We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away,” the former governor and first lady of Arkansas said. “His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us and those who had the opportunity to know him.”

The shooting suspect, a white male, also died Wednesday afternoon after a police chase ended in gunfire, Hastings said.

Pretty damn cool

HT: Ben Goldacre

I think I just heard George Monbiot’s head explode.

From Justin at Chicken Yoghurt:

A liberal mind-hammer

How’s this for messing with liberals’ heads…

The US military have embraced renewable energy, specifically, wind turbines…

To power Guantanamo Bay.

(Via Greenpeace UK’s Twitter feed)