Our straight talking Lancashire lass takes a sideways look at the daily news.
The sky at night meets Mock the Week
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This week I’ve been enjoying the delightful company of Dr Brian Cox and his physicist friends via the medium of Stargazing Live on BBC 2, and I have to admit that it’s been the best live TV I’ve seen in ages!
There’s something wonderful about settling into my sofa with a cup of hot chocolate, watching a group of astronomers enthuse about astrophysics. It doesn’t just make science accessible, it makes it fun. In fact I now want to be an astronomer. Physics really can be phun. Sorry.
Of course Dara O’William’s comedy(ish) input softens the edges and bridges the gap between uber-boffins and the general public. There is an element of clowning around (I thought last night’s Meteor Wine - wine with meteor rocks added to the barrels - was a nice touch), and it may be a case of the Sky At Night meets Mock the Week, but it works.
And I’m not the only one who enjoyed a nice bit of theoretical quantum physics. Last night, over 3.8 million people tuned in to talk about the stars, and retailers report a 500% increase in the sale of telescopes. I’m not even making that up.
It means that us Brits have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and rather than being patronised with endless reality TV guff, producers should not be afraid to give us more intelligent viewing. If we can enjoy Einstein’s e=mc2, then we can enjoy anything.
Which brings me nicely onto the next bit of news. Wikipedia has been blacked out for 24 hours in protest over the proposed US SOPA and PIPA laws. This American legislation may be enforced across the pond, but it will eventually affect everyone who uses the Internet.
These bills pretend to offer protection against copyright infringement and piracy, but in reality it would completely stifle free speech online and we can kiss goodbye to our open and free World Wide Web.
The Wikipedia blackout will last until tomorrow, so anyone doing homework, research or just looking for information about stuff will have to do their research elsewhere.
Frankly, this blackout has driven home just how much we use the Internet, and how much we’d miss it if it changed…
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