Every now and again you find a little gem that everyone noticed except you. Last night, I discovered that the astronomer/cosmologist Simon Singh had complained about Katie Melua’s song “Nine million bicycles” (or perhaps I should say “byskells”).
Singh was concerned at Katie’s “understanding of the scientific method” and the public perception of scientists making “subjective guesses” rather than scrutinising data and finding a best fit. He rewrote the second verse, which now begins,
We are 13.7 billion light-years from
the edge of the observable universe,
That’s a good estimate with
well-defined error bars
Katie Melua heard about the rewrite and invited Simon along to hear her record his version, complete with non existant scanning. If I was filling in their report cards, I’d give them full marks for paying attention, sense of humour and grabbing opportunities given to them.
And it’s another brilliant example of a real story to spark off interest or discussion in any library or classroom.
repeat after me…
“There are no c’s or k’s used in ‘dux’,
that’s a fact…”
For anyone else who happens to read the comment above and is confused, a colleague had collated a series of photos of our school awards ceremony and spent a lot of time lovingly creating a DVD which could be shown at parents’ nights and so on.
Unfortunately, her school never used the term “dux” for the pupil who came first in exams – and much hilarity ensued.
I would suggest to Mark that if he is ever in the States and needs to rub a mistake off a sheet of paper and does not have an implement to do so, he asks for a loan very carefully. I would hope that Mark makes Valedictorian, but he probably won’t-ha!
Simon Singh is neither an astronomer nor a cosmologist (nor, come to that, a cryptographer or a number theorist). He’s a journalist.
See the danger of assumpting?
His website quotes him as follows: “I am an author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics, the only two subjects I have the faintest clue about.”
Since I do actually have a faint clue about information literacy I hang my head in shame.
So much for checking up on sources. Have given myself a smacked wrist.