There's life in the old dog yet

My internet connection was recently as reliable as the London tube and therefore the lack of random entertainment from my side. I even bought a wireless PC card to upgrade my laptop to the state of the art of wireless computing. However, the nearby UCL access point is strangely still out of reach. Now it appears as if my halls IT manager [1] sorted out the connectivity problems.

Rather enjoyable were the recent articles in Nature and The Independent [2] about some British colleges awarding science degrees for pseudo-scientific subjects, such as homeopathy. A prominent figure in these discussions is David Colquhoun from the UCL Pharmacology department. The introductory paragraph from his website «DC's improbable science page» promises a couple of entertaining hours browsing it [3]. Enjoy!

This page is devoted to giving publicity to assorted dubious, erroneous, nutty, or downright fraudulent claims about drugs and other sorts of treatment. It includes, but is not restricted to, so-called Complementary and Alternative Medicine (acronym, SCAM). In particular, it is about the incursion of such ideas into universities.

Another interesting article about «Why do women remain curiously absent from ranks of academia?» was published in last week's Nature - on the last page [4].

[1] Or idiot, that's a synonym in this case.
[2] Scanned for your convenience.
[3] I'm especially found of the AIDS goat serum «cure».
[4] Pure coincidence?