Oriel and Rhodes

Posted on 10/06/2020 by Jon Butterworth

I spent six years at Oriel College, Oxford. I learned a lot of physics, from some exceptional tutors and an exceptional tutorial partner. I also had a lot of fun, made a lot of very good friends (one of whom I am married to) and was educated in life in ways I could not have anticipated before I went to University. What I didn’t learn was anything about Cecil Rhodes.

That’s despite the presence of the now famous statue, and the fact that some of said friends lived in the Rhodes Building. So much for the educational value of monuments.

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Stinks

Posted on 11/05/2020 by Jon Butterworth

I’ve been smelling a familiar smell recently, a dangerous and unpleasant smell that I sort of recognised but couldn’t quite place. An email from from the organisation I work for has finally jogged my memory, and I recognise it.

The email contained polite, measured lines to the effect “Whatever the government may or may not be saying at the time you read this, please don’t come back to work this week, if for no other reason than the fact that a big change like that takes time to prepare for.” 

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Stay at Home Festival

Posted on 10/05/2020 by Jon Butterworth

I just did a live Q&A with Hannah Fry, Helen Czerski and Robin Ince. If you watch it you can learn all kinds of stuff about quarks, champagne corks, charts & graphs, zero gravity flights and the dangers of trying to share screens on skype…

Also there’s a question about rainbows, here’s something I wrote about them once upon a time which might be of interest.

Check out other cool stuff at the Stay at Home Festival.

 

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Margin of Error

Posted on 02/05/2020 by Jon Butterworth

We have achieved 100k COVID-19 tests in day hurrah! Bang the pots and pans and stuff.

There’s a certain amount of cynicism, with even the BBC fact-checking itself. Some of the tests are in the post, and several were on the same person. But there’s enough coverage in reality for the claim to be made (it doesn’t take much) and actually I find myself wondering about Matt Hancock.

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