On what is wrong with PFI: An anecdotal case study.

EDIT: Since scribbling this three further points have occurred to me:

1. The school is achieving. The kids seem happy and relaxed in a challenging catchment area. The staff are generally good at their job (only needing my excellent classroom behaviour management skills occasionally!) and appear to enjoy working there - there aren't many TES job papers in the staffroom - a key indicator in any establishment.

2. The relationships between the companies on site IS POOR. Everyone blames someone else.

3. The relationships between the companies on site and the staff IS POOR. The staff find the processes frustrating and complicated. Where is X project billed? Who can help with Y? It's a mess and often nobody has the answer and calls are made to MEGACORPHQ to work out exactly how much more money can be generated from whatever issue there is. That's wasteful and unfair. It creates friction because although the wage slips for a member of school staff and site or IT staff come from different places, their job should be a united front to offer the best environment, resources and teaching that they can. 
--- ---

I work in educational IT. A niche field of the sector that has been created to maintain the large, unique networks of computers, servers and software that exist in nearly all schools, colleges and universities in the UK in 2014. As a contractor I work wherever I am needed and have seen, first-hand, how broken the private finance initiative (PFI) model is.

When I moved from the world of technical support in a private company to a school in 2007 I found myself in a largely cooperative environment which I found very refreshing. In short, we helped each other out. The purpose of our being at work was to deliver a service, for me supporting a network of computers, servers and network infrastructure. From time to time my duties would be very different than that! We all helped out.

Need a hand setting up the stage? Audio equipment? Do you mind helping out with Sports Day? Of course! Part and parcel of the job was that we were all part of the life and community of the place we shared for eight (or more) hours a day... sometimes driven by pure passion, sometimes for the variety (who really wants to sit in a small office or freezing cold, air-conditioned server room all that time) and sometimes as a favour, the point is that almost everyone CARED.

Skip to 2014 and I am looking at a very different situation. I am a contractor to a sub contractor in a PFI school. A contractor to a contractor of a contractor. Yeah.

My employer has a contract to supply an IT service to another contractor at the school that manage 'the site'. That employer has over 400,000 employees. EVERYTHING is laid out bare in complicated contracts between all the service providers which state exactly what can be done and who can be involved and this leads to some very messy arrangements that act against the staff and students.

Case in point? The kitchen tills are computers that sit inside another contract. They're not different or difficult to work on and I have been expected to work on this model many times before. I am not allowed to fix them. I have had to explain this, several times, to confused kitchen staff that the company responsible is based 'in the North somewhere' (under yet another contract, as are the cleaning staff). I can't do anything. She can't do anything. Everything grinds to a halt until they send a local contractor to site for anything as simple as a loose cable :(

Her comment? 'This is madness!'. I concur.

If I don't make you want to gouge out your
 ears then I'm not doing my job properly.

When there is a fire alarm drill we are supposed to perform a twenty-five minute shutdown of the core network switches, then remote switches, then physical servers and then the virtual servers. A review of this last week highlighted the fact that it was a ridiculous thing to expect but the sticking point was not the safety of such a policy, but the fact that non-technical staff would require training in this because the contract doesn't fall to the subcontractor, it falls to the mega-contractor of 400,000 employees. I am, suffice to say, completely stunned.

The site closes at 6. Dead on. Everybody out. That's the contract.

I've never worked in a school like it. Teachers need some extra time to plan? Maintenance work is overrunning? After school clubs? It's going to cost. Everything is detailed and billed to the school and it costs them a lot of extra money because it's 'outside the terms of the contract'. This is money being paid, by the government, to a large multi-national corporation which made generates over €20,000,000,000 (seriously, that is the correct number of 0s, I looked it up!) a year. Any wonder. Beginning to get a picture of how this doesn't benefit anyone?

What else does IT normally manage in schools? The MIS, a large central database which deals with the mass of student and staff information in modern schools - registration and attendance, exam grades, behaviour, dietary requirements, health and medication - another contract...

Perhaps the safety of the equipment - the industry standard PA testing (another ATM machine, this one... it's known as a PAT test) - yet another contract!

IN UR SKOOLS. EATING MONEYZ.

Printers? Completely outside our management. An outside company has a virtual print server sitting inside the network which manages printing and bills the school for leasing the hardware and supplies the toner and paper. It's an incredibly expensive contract - schools no longer function without large multi-function photocopiers in each of the five IT suites, main office, reprographics room (has two - but these are under ANOTHER contract) and staff room and a high capacity laser printer in every classroom and staff office.

However, something incredibly strange happens when the toner runs out. Take this in and try not to explode with the way that our government is shovelling money into a Fortune Global 500 company. When a toner runs low the school is automatically billed for the cost of a replacement (at their contracted rate), it is shipped and placed into storage so that there is always a stock of toner in the school for every printer. This is in spite of the fact that there are only two models. Crazy? This is what then happens when it runs out. The member of staff alerts the central helpdesk (call centre) and they raise a job to the company I am contracting for who accept and then bill the company for picking the toner up off a shelf, walking the two or three minutes to the classroom or office, lifting the lid, removing the old and installing the new. The cost? £50.

£50 to install a toner.

As my colleague so rightly pointed out upon learning this, 'Someone is definitely raking it in'. 

The coffee and water machines? They're a subcontractor.

The grass, trees and shrubs? Another.

So, I do my best. I work as hard as I can on what I'm allowed to but constantly find that I walk a fine line of not stepping over the parameters of the strict contracts in place. Gone is the flexibility. Gone are the interesting projects and collaborations with other departments. The staff in each area of support are there to perform a set of basic functions.

I used to run the Breakfast Club in the mornings. I used to help out with Science Club after school. Interested and interesting teachers (you know who you are, Jim, Graham...) would come to me with ideas and projects and we'd use the resources available to make things happen. I wouldn't look at them like a shifty builder or mechanic, shoot a glance and declare, 'Oooh. That's gonna cost ya!'. This is what I'm observing and it sucks.

I'm not the only one in this position and that's simply not good for the school.

Too many cooks...

Too many fingers in pies...

I've seen how broken it all is, from the inside, and I want to cry.

On cycling in London.

Decided to film my commute for the first time yesterday.

The result was mostly footage of the floor in Tube trains but the morning rush was moderately livened up by me forgetting to turn off my heating and cycling home again (after getting on the first Tube) and by seeing how fast I can make my way through Bank station - it genuinely looks like the film is playing at double speed - and personally I find this amusing. I am a real Londoner :)

On the way home however, this happened:

In under one minute I capture a car jumping a red light, an indecisive Honda almost taking me out and then a Ford deciding to drive straight across my path. She wound down the window and said the word 'INDICATING' as if this somehow gives anyone with a flashing orange light on their vehicle a free pass to use the roads dangerously.

Perhaps the Highway Code will eventually be rewritten to include this because, as of today, it doesn't actually feature as an exemption. I am shocked to discover.

I will now be recording whenever I can and submitting footage to the Metropolitan Police Service via their RoadSafe Form. I recommend that other road users do the same - Big Brother may be watching but a saturation of civilian drivers with helmet/dash cams can only make the roads safer for everyone.

I hope.

MET Police RoadSafe

On Old Harry's Game - BBC Radio Four comedy series

Old Harry's Game is a UK radio comedy written and directed by Andy Hamilton, who also plays the cynical, world-weary (or rather, underworld-weary) Satan. "Old Harry" is one of many names for the devil.

(that's the Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V from Wikipedia done!)

I discovered at #QEDCon that a lot of people hadn't even heard of this mid 90s work of comedy genius so I've taken the time to upload a total of 36 episodes which are now available as a YouTube playlist :)

Enjoy!

Old Harry's Game by Andy Hamilton. BBC Radio Four comedy playlist.

On missing out a part of a video you're recording...

So, I took too many photos during the day at #QEDCon and filled up my SD card on the camera! Luckily for you kids, I had an audio recorder running at the same time so here's a transcript of the missing section of video:

So I want to shift gears here for just a minute because I think it’s important to make this point. The vast majority of people who have heard my family’s message of condemnation and divine hatred respond with some form of, well, that’s not my God. It’s seen as a lot more personal in the United States. They say something like, my God is a loving God and a caring God who’s not capable of hate. 

And, well, of course each of us is entitled to believe what we want there are often times facts that conflict with those beliefs and one of the facts that cannot be disputed is that the theology that my father has fashioned is well grounded in the words of the Bible. This book that’s generally interpreted today as the words of a benevolent God, contain all of the passages necessary to come to the conclusions they had come to. In fact this version, their version of Christianity was the mainstream version only two hundred years ago. 

Proof of that can be found in the sermon that was referenced often by preachers of that day, the sermon by American theologian Jonathan Edwards entitled ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’. The essence of that sermon can be summed up in this sentence from it ‘There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.’
So this isn’t some kooky idea that they’d conjured up, they basically got stuck in the past. So when I hear people say that their God is nothing like the God of the Westboro Baptist Church is simply disagree.

Now, back to the video (in the right place)

Nate Phelps - Leaving Hate Behind (@ 29m32s)

On Nate Phelps - "Leaving Hate Behind"

At this year's #QEDCon Nate Phelps (@n8phelps) gave an inspirational talk about growing up in the Westboro Baptist Church, his father, Fred Phelps, leaving the church, battling with his faith and journey towards atheism.

I've subtitled (Closed Captions) the talk to make it more accessible to the deaf and hearing-impaired, non-English speakers, people without speakers or in a noisy environment (and those that just can't make out some of the words!)

Enjoy!

Special thanks to Nate who gave his blessing (sorry) to this video/transcript.

edit: Here's Dr Maz's (@noodlemaz) Storify of the talk Nate Phelps at QEDCon 2014

On #QEDCon, Manchester April 2014

Year four certainly didn't disappoint!

Here are links to my public photos:

Mixer Evening / Day One / Day Two

- please feel free to share/use or even play around with in PhotoShop :)

Firstly I want to again thank all the organisers, volunteers and hotel staff for facilitating a fabulous celebration of critical thinking, skeptical activism and rationality. You are incredible.

Unfortunately a few weeks before the event I sustained a shoulder injury and the painkillers I was prescribed meant I will have seemed a little slower than normal to anyone who spoke to me. Luckily, this didn't distract from how wonderful it was to see all the friends I've met over the last few years, share a few drinks and catch up.

After checking in and working out how to navigate the new venue, getting our bearings and then had a couple of drinks in the room and third floor terrace. After that we headed downstairs to the main bar and the official social/mixer event on the Friday night. The usual huge variety of conversation subjects between people of all ages and from all over the world. It's such a beautiful thing to see and be part of and reminds me very much of a music festival - most skeptics are visibly comfortable and the groups are fluid and welcoming. Here's a short video of the evening:

The first day! Here's how the event started, QEDCon opening video featuring the ace skeptic magician Paul Zenon (@PaulZenon) and a few others - see who you can spot!

I'm not going to go into depth analysing the talks - that will be done in many other blogs by much better writers than myself and I'll update this with those posts. Personally I moved between a few and saw the following on the first day:

SHAM-poo and CON-ditioner - Beauty by the Geeks

BbtG (@BeautyByGeeks) I thought that the majority of the talk would be already well understood by most of the audience and the delivery could have been more confident. I felt it was pitched to a younger audience and can see it working very well to school or college students and the methods they use would be very effective. I would have liked to see a practical element.

Assault with Batteries - Robert Llewellyn

Utterly brilliant. Robert (@bobbyllew) is an incredibly confident speaker and I was completely captivated by a very interesting talk about battery technologies, electricity production and electric cars. Never before have I wished (sorry) that I lived in the future as my laptop battery gave up the ghost (sorry, again) before the end of the talk!

InKredulous
This was a live podcast recording presented by Andy Wilson (@saxman1000). Loved the panel, Andy was on top form and I'll post the full show when it's available. Funny, entertaining and enjoyable. I have to admit to resorting to Google to be sure that I was getting the questions posed to the audience correct!

Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (SCAM) Myths - Mark Crislip

Mark (@MarkCrislip) gave a talk about a subject very close to the hearts of many in the skeptical community. Unfortunately it is very true that “We have evolved to survive reality, not understand it”. A strong talk that rounded off the formal talks for the day very nicely.

In between talks we had more opportunities to socialise and even meet our regular Young Earth Creationist protesters :) After the talks we headed out to a the rebel-rebel-rebel dinner for a tasty burrito while the gala dinner folks suited up.

After the Skeptic Magazine (@TheSkepticMag) Ockham Awards, the evening entertainment kicked off and it was great fun. Gemma Arrowsmith (@mmaarrow) has been a personal favourite of mine for some time now and the packed Grand Room clearly agreed. Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) was equally hilarious. Here's what the room looked like:

We were also treated to Richard Wiseman's much celebrated teatowel>chicken 'trick' which has already attracted a 'thumbs down' on YouTube. I find this hilarious.

Day Two.

Psychic Blues: Using Guerilla Skepticism to Fight Psychic Fraud - Mark Edward

From my perspective, Mark's talk was one of the most discussed in the bar. Basically given a choice between fighting 'fire with fire' and a much more *British* appeal to believers in various woo I found myself in many debates afterwards. His attitude was very much one of diving in with all guns blazing and I think that can be fun but variety and moderation is equally important. Very interesting nonetheless and a great talk to inspire conversation. I was disappointed that he failed to answer the question posed by Tom Bruce (@semilogical) who asked if (as they had displayed on a banner in protest) "Was the fact that Sylvia Browne was a convicted felon was the best argument they could have used?" - Mark immediately dismissed the question (and questioner) and clearly didn't share the opinion of anyone I met over the weekend. Felon or not, evidence is the key to good critical thinking.

Camp Quest UK: Growing a Community of Young Freethinkers - Samantha Stein

Sam (@Samantha_Stein) discussed the movement of youth freethinking communities and Camp Quest. Love the fact that these exist and are so successful and wish they had been around when I was younger, much younger!

Nathan Phelps (Nate) - Leaving Hate Behind.

Nate @n8phelps Wow. I can't express how huge the amount of respect I have is for this chap. A deeply moving personal account of his experiences growing up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Awe inspiring talk and I feel genuinely honoured to have heard this talk. Presented as fully as I could, below:

Thank you again everyone. It was emotional. See you in 2015!

Links to other write-ups from this year's QED:

• Hayley Stevens (@HayleyStevens) "Taking out the garbage: on approaching Skeptical Activism"
• Colm Ryan (@Colm_Ryan) "QEDCon 2014 – A Roundup"

For anyone feeling nostalgic, here's my review of QED 2012 - "On #QEDCon 2012 :D"

On 'An 8-bit History Of The World'

This is my favourite music video and song at the moment. An inspired creation brought to you from the mind of Will Varley

Weddings & Wars (An 8-Bit History Of The World)

Check it out!

On music...

Pretty convinced that nobody reads this anymore... no going to check the analytics or anything though. No. Too interested in wasting time looking at my YouTube :)

Anyway, just in case I one day write something that people want to read and someone stumbles on this page, I'd like to share some music with you. Listen to these people immediately. If you don't like them you are wrong. I'm sorry you had to find out like this.

Tim OT - Unheard Voices

Ruby Day - Doubt

Gaz Brookfield - Be The Bigger Man

You can thank me later for immeasurably improving you life. I will post more soon. I enjoy this.

Also, I'm learning to play the guitar.

/messy post

On Ealing Skeptics in the Pub.

This is a little late arriving but Ealing Skeptics now lives. He/she/it is now over two months old and I'm very proud of my latest baby! Our first talk was given by BBC Click's Kate Russell about Google, creativity, kittens, crowdsourcing and many other interesting areas. We've also hosted Rob Brotherton with a fascinating look at conspiracy theory/theorists.

Our venue at the moment is The Rose and Crown in South Ealing but we're exploring a larger venue in Ealing Broadway. If you have suggestions or want to get involved in anyway please let me know.

The details of talks are in the usual place http://ealing.skepticsinthepub.org

Don't worry, Kingston Skeptics isn't dead at the moment, it's *resting* :)

On the EDL...

The EDL are a massively important part of my life. I urge you all to support their work as much as possible.

English Disco Lovers

Happy Friday everyone! :)

On @JenClone

On female dinosaurs and cars.

On Skeptics in the Pub

Been meaning to write this for a few days, seems lazy Sundays are actually for something!

Glad to see the return of the Portsmouth Skeptics (@sitpPortsmouth) that Trish (@cherryblack) and I started in January 2011! (I have your portable PA system and will return it soon!)

Inspired by Heather Stevens (@AbrasiveShrub) recent blog post about running Oxford Skeptics I thought I'd mash together some of my thoughts, feelings and a bunch of stuff I just wanted to say and attempt to carefully craft them into some words on the internet.

Kingston Skeptics (@KingstonSITP) has been running for a number of months now. I love the evenings and it's been wonderful to hear so much positive feedback from so many people who have enjoyed attending. I am also aware that I'm probably the worst possible person to be doing introductions and announcements - I mean, does anyone remember me telling them where the fire exits are? Of course not. Unfortunately I have a long-standing fear of speaking a room of people that moments before I'm very happy chatting away to. My mind goes blank and suddenly I am struck down with a panic that, quite honestly, baffles me. It's probably my fault and the result of deliberately avoiding any opportunity my educators presented to gain confidence and hiding in the computer lab or going down to the park to smoke cigarettes with the slightly-cooler-than-me kids instead of performing my drama homework!

I'd also been meaning to apologise at the November meeting for my complete failure to organise or actually attend an October meeting. So, sorry. I honestly hope it doesn't happen again. This was completely my fault - I wasn't feeling great and the speaker had been forced to cancel, giving me plenty of notice, some time before. Both of these things  lead me a begging slot - if you're at all interested in helping out with the evenings, booking speakers or anything else it would be very much appreciated and should prevent a repeat situation. Two (or more) heads/bodies are definitely better than one when it comes to running a SITP.

The next meeting is on the 6th December at the Ram Jam Club/Grey Horse in Kingston. The speaker is Matt Parker (@standupmaths). Matt a is simply brilliant comedian, entertainer and communicator and I, for one, can't wait :)

The venue capacity is not anywhere close to the audiences that Matt normally attracts in London so I've had to make this a ticketed event. I want Skeptics in the Pub to be open to everyone as much as possible but I also think I have a responsibility to ensure the experience is as enjoyable as possible. There will be as many tickets as the room is legally allowed - I'll confirm this week and make the remaining tickets available. The price for the Early Bird tickets has been set at £3.50. This is higher £2 suggestion I've been asking at previous events because I don't want to be in the position where I am paying the difference between donations and the speakers expenses - I want Kingston to grow and have the resources to invite new speakers.

The limited number of tickets are available here: http://kingstonskeptics.eventbrite.com

I really don't want anyone to miss out. Please feel free to contact me - email gileswendes AT hotmail DOT com or comment on any of the above - I've thrown Kingston Skeptics together but it really is yours so get involved!

PS. I'm working with @OliCollett and @JustTheWilliam to start the Ealing Skeptics in the Pub that was sadly never born. Watch this space (and @EalingSITP)

On the Occupy movement and protesting

Occupy may not have clear or concise goals but the problems aren't simple, so why should the solutions be?

For decades governments have 'at war' with the drug trade. The cost of this is immense and the war is not one that will ever be won. People take drugs, therefore other people will supply them.

Most recently we are now 'at war' with the concept of terrorism. This is almost as stupid as establishing yourself as 'at war' with war (although I understand the subtle differences).

These are both examples of horrific cost and waste. If I don't want my tax money spent in a particular way I have the right to make a fuss about it.

On the 31st August 2011 I was made redundant as a direct result of international public funding cuts that weren't the fault of myself or faults of my colleagues. The fact that I have a new job is not an argument or testement to the fact that things are okay. Yes, problems are worse elsewhere in the world but that's also not an argument against kicking back at the system that thinks it's reasonable to seemingly raise and cut funding recklessly. We are still paying our armed forces salaries to fire bullets (we've paid for) overseas and, at the same time, our Police to storm the peaceful protests against this of, what the media is calling, middle-class hippies. Madness.

15 October 2011 and we took to the streets. We shouted, we waved banners, we directed a message of what we thought was wrong, why and what we wanted to change. The message wasn't always concise but it was one of freedom, liberty and equal rights. End corruption, make the rich pay for their mistakes and stop ignoring us. If it had ended there we would probably have been ignored. This time we had a strategy.

The initial plan was to enter the Paternoster Square, put up tents and stay. Keep the message strong, amplify our words with each day we stayed. A permanent reminder and constant presence right in the heart of the City's financial centre. However this was not possible due to Police and security protecting the entry points to the London Stock Exchange so the group gathered at St Paul's discussed alternatives and reached consensus. We would Occupy the site outside St Paul's cathedral. The rest is history, endless court cases fighting over ownership of what is essentially public land in order to formally serve an eviction. We were forced to leave but the seeds had been sown and we knew what was possible. A community can be formed and thrive on bare paving slabs.

On the 1st May I headed into the city to show my support on the first day of planned action from a number of trade unions, UKUNCUT, Annonymous, Occupy and other campaigns. Twitter was alive with suggestions of movement, where protests were happening, what was happening. Eventually I caught wind that a core of the original 15th October occupation were on their way to the London Stock Exchange! We made it! Tents up, megaphones with messages of hope in poetry, song and rap. The theme to 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' blaring from somewhere and around twenty people singing along. One protester had somehow scaled the monument in the middle of the square WITH A TENT! Police showing up in small numbers, generally asking people to leave and chatting when we refused. The LSX security were amazing fun - really interesting conversation with everyone and a festival atmosphere. We'd done it! Although we all knew this wasn't going to last on that evening, we'd sent a message!

I'm not an unresonable person. I'm not aggressive and I think clearly. Something is very wrong when young working people can't afford more than small properties without affluent relatives dying. There's no longer a property 'ladder'. It was a concept that is currenly denying a generation reasonable prices on a basic human right. However, everyone seems to have the same attitude which generally runs something along the lines of, "Well, we're not going to change anything, so... dot dot dot.".

I can't be the only person to think that is utterly idiotic. This is our country. This is our world. We own it. We can change it.

Okay, I'm not going to change anything as a direct result of joining those that are sleeping outside in the various captial cities but what people seem to fail to understand is that this is a seed and it's not going away. We're not doing anything by Occupying, it's a tactic that gets us heard, allows us to organise and share. As one of the campaign slogans goes: 'You don't need a tent to OCCUPY'.

It's sick to strip pensions, health care, education and other public services from a population when headlines are annoucing, just days before, that the FTSE 100 CEOs have secured a 49% pay rise this year.
Very few involved want to 'topple capitalism'. There are generally reasonable, intelligent people. They are very worried and so are most of the people in the UK. There is no anarchy at #OccupyLSX. They don't want to take away your money, house or any of the other ridiculous claims like to convert the UK, Europe or anywhere else to communism.

I urge you, before you tell the world how misguided the activists are, to go to the nearest protest, meet the people and find out how consistant (however varied) the aims are and how much they depend on, and defend the way you live your life. Engage in the debate without forming your ideas based just on the media.
When banks are bailed out they should become national property - anything else encourages risk.
This is just the start of a better world for everyone. It hasn't worked before because mass communication wasn't in the hands of the people - we've seen massive change in the world recently. Don't be convinced your voice doesn't count.

On the 12th May join local action. Make a banner with your personal hopes and dreams. What do you want from the world? How would you change things?

Engage, meet people, enjoy, shout, discuss, share, love, believe and never give up.

I am very proud to be one of the 99%.

On Skeptics in the Pub.

It's been hard to contain my excitement about announcing this.

I promised it at #QEDCon (still using the hashtag?) and I now offer to the world:

Kingston Skeptics in the Pub.

A little over a year ago a small group of self-confessed 'skeptics' met in a very 'local' pub in Portsmouth and since then various venues have hosted some absolutely amazing speakers on everything from philosophy to cosmology, time travel, crypozoology and juggling. Yes, mathematics through juggling.

Unfortunately, I then took the decision to accept a job in South West London and, well, it needs one here too!

The venue is:

Ram Jam Club

46 Richmond Rd
Kingston upon Thames
KT2 5EE


We will be meeting on the first Thursday each month from 7th June 2012.

Check out the website for full details of speakers:

http://kingston.skepticsinthepub.org

Of course, we're also on Twitter and facebook

I am looking for anyone else, ideally local to the Kingston area, who would be happy to help in the running and organisation. There are lots of things that people can help with and it won't take a huge amount of your time. It really is worth it.

On the power of prayer.

Do I really have to spell out that God doesn't heal?

I mean, it's obvious. Right? However, Twitter lit up today with this article:

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/314662/mps-plea-to-overturn-and39god-can-healand39-ad-ban.thtml

"MPs try to overturn 'God can heal' ad ban.


Soccer star Fabrice Muamba's recovery has sparked a group of Christian MPs to try and reverse an ad ban on saying that worship works"

Oh please (stop the planet and let me get off).

Prayer doesn't work. It may well make people feel better or like they're making a difference but it doesn't.

Here's some science: http://www.annals.org/content/132/11/903.abstract

On #QEDCon 2012 :D

Wow. QEDCon finished for another year and Twitter server admins can relax.

For the uninitiated, this is QEDCon: http://www.qedcon.org

There are few things in life that can put a smile on your face for an entire weekend. QEDCon is, and certainly did.

I'm going to make a lot of mentions. QEDCon is about the people. The science, skepticism and other fascinating stuff is a delicious bonus :)

Kicked off with the Mixer evening on Friday night. We arrived early but the party was already in full swing, Who would have thought that skeptics were such a sociable bunch? Much cider and chatting was enjoyed by everyone. I took a few time lapse videos. One is particularly amazing as the bar staff asked that it was moved, and in the another I spotted that it had attracted the attention of Tom (@skepticCanary) and includes his successful attempt to feature is right at the end. Here they all are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUzA4GkFl6Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URQl4lkasro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wezZiXXPOE

Last year it was sometimes impossible to choose which room to go to, this year was no different. So many wonderful speakers on stage and interesting discussions around the bar it was always hard to know where to be or go. Everywhere I went I found the atmosphere to be welcoming and open. Deborah Hyde (@jourdemayne) gave a brilliant morning talk on werewolves, the InKredulous recording was hilarious. Evening comedy from Robin Ince and Alun Cochrane from the best seats in the house :) Can anyone explain the hell was going on with the mechanical baby and theremin though?

Apologies to Trish (@cherryblack) for offending her with the sight of my bare, naked feet.

@EmmaJaynewithaY sent me this tweet: I've got my fingers crossed for next year LOL

Mr Ash Pryce (@AshPryce) is not only thoroughly charming company he is also an epic dancer/ pillar-hugger. Nothing else is bloggable I'm afraid :D

Hayley (@HayleyStevens) is a blogger, paranormal researcher and confirmed ghost and was someone who I'd chatted to online on a number of occasions and I was delighted to finally get a chance to meet her in person. What a genuinely lovely human. She was even up for me photographing her '42' tattoo next to @gellerby's 'don't panic' AND it was what would have been Douglas Adam's 60th birthday. Therefore, empirically, this is one of the finest images ever captured.

Quite, quite perfect. Inspiration hit me and I had to create this and put it in one of the lifts. I'd like to thank everyone for the love it got, anyone know who the proud owner is now? @Arakwai? (You may have spotted other references around the hotel... ta to the staff that provided the Post-Its!). QEDCon is the perfect place to find and share random snippets of comedy.

Also, great to chatting to DJ Grothe (@DJGrothe) and all the Dublin Skeptics, Steve (@66Steve) in particular deserving a mention just for lending me his hat for the below, yesterday evening:

Rhys (@RhysMorgan), sorry. Just sorry. I'll keep Jen and George away from you next time :P For hilarity go and check out Rhys's tweets (inc. @gellerby/@gwendes/@LudditeWebDev and the, only occasionally, terrifying @JenClone!)

Delighted to have the chance to go and personally thank Richard Wiseman (@richardwiseman) for writing '59 Seconds' which found me at exactly the right time in my life. It's quite, quite brilliant and a must read.

#nerddancing? Well, there was plenty. Sorry I was a little late for the first but I got sidetracked by George (@gellerby) and ended up discussing Darwin with Robin Ince (@robinince). Everyone that made it will no doubt agree I arrived in style and 100% redeemed myself with the selection of Frank Turner's wonderful 'Glory Hallelujah'. Spontaneous jazz hands at the end was one of my personal highlights! #There is NOOOOO God, so clap your hands together. Oh yes!

The second bout of #nerddancing happened in conjunction with #nerdkaraoke had the additional fun factor as a result of featuring a very dangerous dance floor. #nerdsliding? Of course we did!

I was very proud that #QEDConAdvice got a mention at the end. This is our community to own, it's not run from the top-down and that's so important. I do have a very, very important addition to make though:

#QEDConAdvice: Book the Monday off work. 

Most people will be aware that I was pretty efficient at losing my possessions but hopefully you'll be glad to know that everything has been located now and I'll be in contact with Keir (@endless_psych) to sort out the return of my Kindle. I can highly recommend making a stencil and spray painting your laptop:

A lot of love for my t-shirts so I've decided to offer them up as vector images, here's the first few of them including the ones I didn't actually print! Right-click on the links and save, then open with Inkscape if you want to do any editing.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24940064/babel.svg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24940064/doug1.svg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24940064/elevator.svg

What next? Well I'm currently investigating running a summer skeptical mini festival, codename #Skeptival in the south, probably London. Anyone interested in getting involved or speaking please get in contact - it will happen if the community is behind it.

I'm also aware that Tannice (@Tannice_) and Brighton Skeptics (@BrightonSkeptic) are looking at arranging a southern QEDCon-esque event of some kind. I am 100% behind that and sure other groups in the south will be too (@sitpPortsmouth). Kingston-Upon-Thames #SitP will be born eventually too... give me time to settle back into reality first! Again, any offers much appreciated :)

Finally, sadly, QEDCon has decided that it is unable to marry me :( I am crying.

Massive, massive amounts of love to you all and thank you for making this weekend one of the best I've ever had.