The Evil European

Science can be expensive, physics in particular. The hunt for the very small requires BIG money. From the 1950s countries have worked together within a wide range of scientific fields on a huge number of projects. However, I would have to say that CERN stands out.

CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (originally Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), has been doing big science on the very small for over 50 years. Located across the Franco-Swiss border, CERN provides high energy physics facilities for a wide range of countries, not just in Europe. CERN is also the birth place of the World Wide Web.

Anyway, the next big project, the Large Hadron Collider is being put in place. National Geographic has an interesting article, 'The God Particle' on the site and some stunning pictures of inside the site. There is something 'not of this world' about the massive high powered magnets and particle detectors.

Aside from the very cool research going on into the very nature of existence, it is a shinning example of what can be achieved when we humans work together.

Educating children about the Holocaust is a gimmick, according to the Tory leader.

"The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Holocaust Educational Trust expressed disappointment after the Tory leader highlighted the government-sponsored trips to Auschwitz in a list of "Gordon Brown's 26 gimmicks" The Guardian, 23/02/08
While gimmickry is a central tenet of politics for a long time, educating children about the darkest chapter in European history is not something I would consider a waste of time.

I see the Tory leader is being gimmicky with his cries of gimmickry.

While not being technically correct, as in I have had other holidays, but it was the last holiday I booked for myself (back in time when I had money, my PhD was going well and I was still sane).

Anyway, the reason I remember the holiday was five years ago was that I passed through London during the biggest protest in British history. Ironically enough I was passing through London as I was flying to New York from Heathrow (Hell-throw).

What I remember was the energy, the buzz that surrounded people. A feeling that people had a say in the way their lives where governed. Turned out to be bollocks as poddle man went ahead with the invasion. It can be seen as a turning point in the relationship between citizens and the government.

"But the protest also represented something else, focused not so much on the issue of Iraq as on the sense that mainstream politics was drifting away from the public, and at least some of the marchers felt that in protesting, they might somehow drag Westminster back."
The Guardian, 15/02/08

Like many I feel increasingly disenfranchised from the entire democratic process. The power of business and the executives use of the threat of 'terror' to construct an every more elaborate surveillance state. God, I sound like a liberal stereotype.

If people become more and more disenfranchised it will enable an every more closed society to be constructed. Some people will just retreat while others will use non- and anti-democratic means to get their voice heard....this will in turn result in ever more draconian approaches to governance....I am not sure if I am talking about a hypothetical or an actual future.

All done.

Spent the last two days clearing out my old office. Having been chilling in Sheffield since getting viva-ed and the like, I have not been under any real pressure to clear out my crap. Enough was enough and finally cleared all the crap out.

So many trees 'murdered' to complete my thesis. What you dont see in the picture is three very large boxes filled with journal articles, documentation, drafts, thesis chapters etc to be recycled.

Its a nice feeling.....'closure' at last.

Looks like Napoleon was not poisoned....at least not intensionally. Napoleon died of stomach cancer at the age of 51 while imprisoned by the British on St Helena. He was found to have had arsenic levels 100 times higher than one would expect in your average Frenchman (Corsican if your that why inclined) or European today. However, it looks like EVERYONE had significantly higher arsenic levels in there body at that time.

"The Italian research -- which studied hair samples from various moments in his life which are kept in museums in Italy and France -- showed Napoleon's body did have a high level of arsenic, but that he was already heavily contaminated as a boy.

The scientists used a nuclear reactor to irradiate the hairs to get an accurate measure of the levels of arsenic. (COOL!)

Looking at hairs from several of Napoleon's contemporaries, including his wife and son, they found arsenic levels were generally much higher than is common today."
France24, 13/02/08

I did not know that you could use nuclear reactors for that kind of thing! Anyway, it seems that the glues and dyes used at that point of time where full of lovely heavy metals and the like. I can't believe liberaturdians and right-wingers moan about things like environmental regulation and the like.

French bashing is becoming part of the course in the US presidential process.

The elections in 2004 saw John Kerry's linguistic abilities, the fact that he could speak more than just 'American', become a liability....he speaks French. To compound his crime, he was also criticised for looking French and having French relativities.

Now Mitt Romney in his parting speech got a dig in on France.

"I'm convinced that unless America changes course, we can become the France of the 21st century. Still a great nation but not the leader of the world." France24, 11/02/08

Being British, the how French-bashing at least has a history....namely 1,000 years of war and family feuding. The main issue seemed that both sides had similar goals in terms of dominating the continent and various colonies. Took until 1904 that actually both countries would gain more working together.

The US-France bashing is a bit more confusing. If it was not for France, the US would have not been created...the French opposing the British. France was also greatly influenced by the philosophical underpinnings of the US deceleration of independence.

Maybe that why they don't get along, both Americans and the French have an arrogance about them with regards to being the 'greatest' nations on Earth.

It did not take long for things to go pear shaped on the EU-Serbian front.

"The planned signing of a cooperation deal between the EU and Serbia has been scrapped, the European Commission announced, due to what it calls the "obstruction" of Vojislav Kostunica." France 24, 6/02/08

Mr Kostunica is the current Serbian Prime Minster.

"EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Kostunica had gone back on a longstanding understanding not to link Serbia's EU ties to Kosovo, for which the EU on Monday authorised a supervisory mission ahead of an independence declaration seen this month."

Serbia could turn its back on the wider process of European cooperation AND lose Kosovo..or maybe just lose Kosovo and be bitter towards the rest of Europe. I am not sure which I prefer.

Serbia recently went to the pools in what seems to have been dubbed as a referendum on the future. The two candidates represented two distinct paths for Serbia.

Nationalist Tomislav Nikolic represented a closer relationship with Russia and the rejection of the EU, while Boris Tadic was the pro-Western candidate calling for closer integration with the EU.

Boris Tadic won by a not very convincing 51%. Serbia seems to be a country trapped by both geography and history. The events of recent years, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the final disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, the unfinished business surrounding the status of Kosovo, tied with the increased economic and social integration of the nations surrounding Serbia with the EU, seem to represent a complex cocktail of pressures.

While Serbia seems to be increasingly heading towards the west, it aint going to be a walk in the park.