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Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4 If not Latin, then what? Please see the links at...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3 Plants and the moon. For thousands of years, people...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2 An i for an i ? Not nymphs: women! There are...

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #1

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #1 Tom, Dick and Harry explain a statistical method. ...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 73 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in language acquisition and computational linguistics. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge... Read More »

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NHS Should Cease Funding Homeopathic Medicine - Cross-Party Group

NHS Should Cease Funding Homeopathic Medicine - Cross-Party Group

Feb 22 2010 | comment(s)

NHS Should Cease Funding Homeopathic Medicine - Cross-Party Group



On 2nd Feb 2010 I asked Is Homeopathy Good For The British Economy?

In a reductio ad absurdum I concluded that if homeopathy works, and is cheaper than other therapies, then the UK could save billions by switching its NHS to the use of only homeopathy.

The House of Commons cross-party science watchdog commitee has just released its findings:

there is no evidence that homeopathic
remedies work beyond the placebo affect.

More Bang Per Buck In The Steam Age

More Bang Per Buck In The Steam Age

Feb 21 2010 | comment(s)

Getting More Bang Per Buck In The Steam Age


Once the physics of steam engines began to be understood, engineers were able to focus their minds on how to get more power for the same fuel, or the same power from less fuel.

A simple way to get more useful power from a steam engine is to lag the boiler.  Coal which was used to produce waste heat could be used to produce more steam.  This gives more miles per ton of coal.  Of course, the railway engineers knew that they could carry on using the same amount of coal over the same mileage and go for higher speed.  Which they did.  And then some.
A Personal Belief Tester : Batteries Not Included

A Personal Belief Tester : Batteries Not Included

Feb 20 2010 | comment(s)

A Personal Belief Tester : Batteries Not Included



We all have our personal beliefs; it's a part of being human.  Mostly, we can believe just about anything we want at a purely philosophical level.  But when we interact with others and with our environment, our beliefs may well cause harm to us, to others or to our environment.
Context Is Vital

Context Is Vital

Feb 19 2010 | comment(s)

Context Is Vital

The meaning of a string of words can seem to be entirely opposite in intent if it is placed in the wrong context.  The device of spreading false ideas by quoting people out of context has a long and dishonorable history.


It is not just words that can be twisted by manipulating the context.  No supposed scientific 'fact' should be trusted in isolation.  Science is not a set of isolated facts - it is a beautiful canvas woven with the finest silks.  The fact that one damaged thread can be plucked out does not constitute proof that the whole picture is flawed.

Pushing The Moon Away With Victorian Machinery

Pushing The Moon Away With Victorian Machinery

Feb 19 2010 | comment(s)

Pushing The Moon Away With Victorian Machinery

This is a further article in my occasional series about coal, engines and energy, heat and thermodynamics.  In this article I am going to show you how to push the Moon further away using some very basic machinery invented by 19th century scientists and engineers.  Yes!   Really!


This Earth of ours is so huge in scale compared to our puny bodies.  How could it be possible that by our ordinary actions we could alter the whole Earth climate system?

Let me try to give you a perspective on that, at the scale of a classroom globe:
Millions Fed : A Recommended Read

Millions Fed : A Recommended Read

Feb 18 2010 | comment(s)

Millions Fed : A Recommended Read

Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development is a recently published free pdf book which details case studies in sustainable food production methods.   The data is extensively peer reviewed and offers much of interest in many fields of science.