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I can do that, and moving makes sense. Got an abstract deadline tomorrow though!

Make any suggestions here!

Hi all! So basically this is a place to come and discuss some journal articles, or if you've seen something crop up on the news that's sciencey and want to talk about it then we can dig a little deeper.

There's a suggestion thread for people to suggest ones they want to discuss, but if none are suggested I'll pick one. I'll probably do them on a Saturday because that makes life easier for me at the moment.

Of course, this isn't just for science, I'd like to see articles discussed from any discipline!

I really want to know how candidates get this preternatural ability to knock at my door precisely when I'm in my pyjamas at midday or otherwise in an inadequate state to open it. It's really annoying.

Please tell me you answered, I've always been tempted to creep out any door knockers, but I've never had one show up

Yeah it means I'm actually having to think about how to vote! I believe so, I have potential move in dates of 20th/23rd of March. When I registered here in Jan it only took about a week, though I can't find a deadline anywhere. It can get lumped in with all the bureaucracy.

In any case though, the rhetoric is ramping up in general.

Just discovered that my new flat will be in Norwich South, much more interesting, currently a LD incumbent with a 300 vote majority over lab, with the tories 3000 votes behind and the greens 6000 votes behind. Maybe I'll get more gems of campaign material there than here!

I had another piece of labour election material through, trying to look like a newspaper as they sometimes do. Essentially said they were the only non-tory party that could win in my seat and then wheeled out their favourite election soundbytes (NHS, cost of living etc.)

It ended up in recycling and I only found it because I was throwing something out, I'm not sure why they continue doing this, does it work for anyone?

I'm now a Norfolk person... Though March is retreat season for the lab so I'll have to look into dates once they're all sorted!

combining *even more* roles than judge, jury, and executioner

Judge, jury, executioner and postmen. Heck I'd watch that. I might give this a try sometime, but I feel like I should make sure I can devote a few hours in one go!

So I've had an idea. Would there be interest in a sort of 'journal club' like set up? Say if a piece of research hits the news, or someone stumbles across a paper and they're not sure what to make of it, or want to discuss the ideas it brings up, then they could bring it there for community discussion?

The only issue I can see is the problem of pay walls to access some journals. But there are quite a few that are open access, or that I'm sure at least of few of us here will have access to in order to comment on it.

So at my home club there were 4 or 5 of us at the same level, so it's been a culture shock moving to the new club down here, based in a place called Bungay if any people know Norfolk.

The main instructor is one grade above me and his assistant is one below, so I've ended up doing a lot of teaching. Don't mind that though, nothing quite beats seeing someone improve once you've worked with them on something. Not competed in ages though, not sure if I can be bothered getting back into it, I think I prefer reffing/judging to competing!

There are benefits to both I think. On the one hand being eliminated sucks because you just sit there and watch the others play. But then having the risk of being eliminated makes it more intense. I think your idea of two tiers is nice, but I agree with Tom that it could get complicated.

So I caught a program on this guy on my way into work this morning http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b050bcf1

What I really found interesting was just how similar everything seemed to be compared to modern day things. The main war he discusses (I forget the name) seems pretty much a treaty-driven chaos like the first world war. And the bits they mention about Athenian elections seem remarkably similar.

I was also surprised by just how extensive hellenic society was, and how interlinked they all were.

A story twist for gaming fans:
http://www.pcgamer.com/valves-former-economist-is-now-greeces-finance-minister/

Yup, the new finance minister in Greece was formerly employed by Valve. Make what you will of what that means for their new economic policy.

I think they'll be steaming ahead! (Sorry)

That's pretty cool! And a fairly reasonable explanation as far as I can tell.