Infographic

Found a neat little infographic (kind of like a fancy poster) showing what really goes into making a Formula 1 car.

Enjoy !

Dave

And now for somethig completely different..

In the following essay, Mike Ward offers a very personal reflection on his early career as a sociologist. This autobiographical piece offers many thinking points for sociologists of education. 

Sociology and me: the battle with the little red pill

By Mike Ward, Cardiff University

At the end of the 1990s the science fiction film The Matrix was released. The film is set in a post-modern global city situated in a simulated world called the Matrix, which was created by computers and machines. In the Matrix, humans are controlled and live in an illusionary dream, unaware of the true oppressive reality of their lives. In the back of a dark taxicab, the lead character Neo is offered a choice that will change his understanding of the world around him. He is given a simple decision to make, to take a red pill and see the world in a different light and how it really exists, or to take a blue pill and to wake up the next morning none the wiser in the world as he had always known it. He chose the red pill.

After the BSA 60 annual conference at the LSE, I must confess I was feeling rather disillusioned with my own academic subject, sociology, and its future. I began to reflect on what the point of sociology was in the face of so many changes. I wondered why I was persevering with the discipline and an academic career. How can we as social scientists pursue others that the sociological imagination is valid and worth possessing? I thought of the red pill Neo had taken in The Matrix and which had awoken him from his illusionary existence; I wondered maybe it would have been better if I had taken the blue pill instead?

My own sociological journey began almost by accident, very much like David Mellor’s (who wrote about his own journey in a recent BSA blog). It was the autumn of 1999 and I was in my final year of my A levels in a comprehensive school in the South Wales valleys. I was searching for an interesting course to put onto my UCAS form as I knew I didn’t want to study something for another three years that I was doing at the time (English Literature, History and Geography). Neither of my parents or my stepparents had been to university, so they suggested above all else that I did something I would find interesting. So following their advice: I started to look for something else. I wasn’t doing particularly well in my subjects and I realised I was never going to get into Oxbridge or a ‘proper’ university, but knew I wanted to go and to do something which was to do with people.

I literally stumped onto the subject one day in the tiny sixth form library (a single filing cabinet!) while flicking through the prospectus for the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol. It seemed perfect. There was a course called sociology which appeared to be about how and why people behaved in certain ways and how they were shaped by the time and place they lived in. Autobiographically it seemed the right fit. Both my Grandfathers had been coal miners and active trade unionists. Politics and current events were always talked about around the dinner table with my mother. Sociology seemed very much about the underdog and looked like it fitted in with many of the conversations I’d been brought up with. The university was also away from South Wales which was one of my main requirements, but not too far if things got lonely. Contact time was low (eight hours a week), entry requirements were moderate (one C and two D’s) and if I deferred a year (as I planned to do some volunteering in a children’s home in America) the grades would be lowered to three D’s. The modules on offer also seemed interesting with courses ranging from the ‘Individual and Society’ to the more exotic ‘Anthropology, Magic and Wicca’. When my results came through that August and I received three D grades I checked to see if UWE would still have me the following year, I was told that they would and looking back now, paid it little further attention.

After a disastrous time in America and nine months woefully dealing with PAYE tax for the Inland Revenue, I arrived at the University of the West of England Frenchay campus in September 2001. I was unaware of it at the time, but it was here that I took my red pill and my outlook on the world began to change. I owe a debt of gratitude to the likes of Bill Hill, Maeve Landman, Arthur Baxter, Steve Garner and Dave Green who were all at UWE at the time, for helping me through those early years. I failed my first ever essay on Marx and Weber, receiving a miserable 34%. In part I’m sure was due to me spelling Weber with two B’s throughout the essay. I was no over-night sociologist, but I kept at it, kept reading and writing, and after three years I received a 2.1 at the end of it.

After my degree, sociology slipped under the radar for a year or two and I worked for a while as a produce manager for a supermarket saving to travel and then backpacking around Asia, Australia and New Zealand. After I returned to the UK I realised I could not commit the rest of my life to the retail industry and returned to study; this time at Cardiff University, for a PGCE in further education specialising in sociology. At first I found it a struggle to get back into reading and writing again but over the first few months got back into the swing of things and developed confidence in my teaching skills before going out to my college placement to teach sociology AS, A2 and Access courses. Although it was extremely tiring planning and delivering lessons from scratch, I found it much more rewarding than managing a department in a supermarket. However, I still had some doubts about just spending my time teaching other sociologists theory, ideas and research. I wanted to do my own studies.

While applying for full time teaching posts in F.E. colleges across the country, I also had one eye on a +3 PhD studentship in Cardiff. Unfortunately I didn’t receive funding. In August of 2007 I had a choice to make. I was offered full time teaching position and a surprisingly high salary for a first post to teach sociology at an F.E. college in Cornwall. I pondered over the decision for a few days. I still wanted to do the PhD at Cardiff, but realised if I went to Cornwall this would realistically be the end of my research dream. I wanted to teach but I also wanted to make my own impact on the subject; finally, I decided to opt for a research methods course (which I self funded from money I’d saved from the bursary I’d received from the Welsh Assembly Government to do the PGCE) and hoped I would be awarded funding for the PhD the following year. My father in particular couldn’t quite believe I’d turned down a well paid job for yet more study. He’d left school at 16 and worked for the same company for 40 years, so it just didn’t make sense to him.

For the next year while studying full time for an MSc in research methods, I continued to teach sociology (and, bizarrely, home economics!) part-time at an F.E. college. Working closely with my supervisors at Cardiff, I submitted a PhD proposal in the spring, which sought to look at the lives of young men and their educational choices post-16 through carrying out an ethnographic study in a deprived community in South Wales. In the spring of 2008 while taking a home economics cookery lesson (possibly one of my greatest achievements in teaching to date!) I received a phone call offering me a +3 PhD studentship at Cardiff. Barely holding it together I excused myself from the classroom to listen to the rest of what I was being told and, holding back the tears, gratefully accepted the offer. Over the last two and a half years my PhD has been a roller coaster ride, from moments of great highs such as presenting my work at a conference in Sweden or taking one of the worlds greatest masculinity scholars, Raewyn Connell, for lunch and sightseeing around Cardiff; to lows that I never thought would happen when one of the young men from my study tragically died in a horrible car accident just weeks after his nineteenth birthday.

So has the red pill been worth taking? Of course it’s helped me look at the world in a different way and to challenge taken for granted assumptions. In my particular field of sociology, the sociology of education, I have seen through my empirical work how educational choices, achievement, opportunities and future life chances are directly linked to issues of social class, gender and ethnicity. Nonetheless, because of these insights I find myself angry a lot of the time. I find it hard to watch or listen to the news on the TV or radio or read a magazine without analysing it as I go through it. I shout comments at the TV whenever I hear a politician speak, and mutter to myself in the cinema at ridiculous plotlines and blatant product placement. I’ve watched The Wire and cried with utter frustration at the end of every series and found a new love for Bruce Springsteen and his song lyrics. I am also dearly thankful that I was at the Gender and Education conference during the royal wedding so I could avoid it all. My friends and family outside academia (there is another world out there!) call me cynical and tell me I think about things too much: that, I am sure, is certainly the case. But I have noticed that they do discuss the news and what’s going on in the world and the communities they live in. After all, people aren’t passive dupes. Even in The Matrix Neo did find his own way to that red pill.

After the hectic few days at the LSE I spent the weekend with friends I’d met while travelling and who now live in North London. It was nice to get away from sociologists for a while at least! However, as always I couldn’t quite switch off. Along with my two friends – one who works in I.T. for the Bank of England and the other as a town planner for Camden council – we talked about all manner of things. These included the Olympics, how expensive London seemed to be, and how they hated the Barclay cycle hire bikes (Boris bikes) currently creeping across the capital. As they saw it, instead of these bikes making the London transport system more effective, they were just a sticking plaster on the solution to the transport problems and a way to keep people living in the city thinking that innovated solutions were being thought out. Of course this is also one innovative solution which is sponsored by a national bank! They both told me how they’d got so fed up of living in London that they had applied for visas to work in Canada. It occurred to me later after we’d parted and I had returned from London and the post conference world that my two friends also have a sociological imagination, of sorts. They might not ‘officially’ have taken the red pill, but they do not passively accept the world as it is either.

As sociologists, we see the world in a particular way, which not all of us may agree on and which is often depressing, but highly exciting and illuminating. We should still be grateful that we embarked on this journey despite the odds stacked against us. Maybe our role as sociologists and educators, then, is not just to teach people about ways of thinking and theorising the world around us in academic environments, but also to be able to provide a platform that will enable the thinking to occur in the first place? Perhaps it’s time then for us all to pass those red pills around?

And the winner is..... Tom !

I'm glad Tom Pellareau won The Apprentice last night, but i've got to say that all the business plans from all the candidates were pretty awful.... for me, Jims seemed admirable at least. Helen really ruined her big chance of the prize, and mark my words, Tom and Susan will be teamed up at some point when Lord Sugar gets around to AMScorp cosmetics (or whatever pun you can think of using AMS).

Dave

ITS JUDGEMENT DAY

It's the final of The Apprentice tonight people ! , tell me who you think's going to win by voting on my poll !

Helen seems like the runaway winner but will she have a shakey business plan ? Can Jim talk his way out things again  ?

Dave

Engineering at it's most basic

The FIA are looking into closed canopy cockpits for F1 after a spate of debris incidents (most notably Felipe Massa being injured for an entire season)

This is the video of the test they carried, firing a tyre out of a cannon at 225 kh/m !

http://vimeo.com/26098946

Enjoy !

Dave

Google + David

Hey, I have Google+ now after finally getting an invite (you know who you are). Does anybody else want an invite to this ?

If so give me a shout in the comments section and I'll see what I can do !

Dave

The Apprentice : You're almost hired !

With the penultimate episode of The Apprentice on tonight, the final (this Sunday) draws ever closer. Tonight the teams are tasked with creating a new fast food chain in another attempt to prove to SIRALAN (sorry, i'm stuck in my ways) that they are his worthy apprentice.

Helen's proving to be a strong candidate with my personal favourite Jim also coming into his own last week, which team will win ? And you will be crowned the winner this weekend ?

Vote on my poll ! (right hand side for those of you who hadn't noticed)

Enjoy !

Dave

Wiping away the Tears

All credit to Zack Fox for showing me this,

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/3286-Brink

Hilarious Brink Review

Enjoy, 

Dave

Anonymous

Here's what I have on the "biggest day in internet history" so far, will keep you all posted when I get some solid facts down

Enjoy
Dave

WOW ! Raikkonen and Vettel at Red Bull next year ?

There are rumours out there that Kimi Raikkonen will be joining Sebsatian Vettel next year at Red Bull, just days after Mark Webber ignored team instructions not to attempt an over-take on Vettel.

Raikkonen left the sport in 2007 after winning his first championship for Ferrari, moving onto other racing disciplines like Rally and NASCAR.

The pair, also very good friends, are said to be happy to be working with each other if this deal comes through. With Helmut Marko, the manager of the Red Bull drivers leaking the story which was meant for people "at the highest level"

More on this story to come I think...........

Enjoy
Dave

"The Biggest Day in History"..... brought to you by Anonymous

There's been a rumble of rumour in the tech world today as Anonymous announced on their Twitter account,


"ATTN: Tomorrow will be two of the biggest releases for Anonymous in the last 4 years. Everyone brace. This is literally explosive."


Who knows what these releases will be but with the close proximity of the News of the World scandals It's safe money that it may well be something big.


You heard it here first people !


Enjoy
Dave


P.S More to follow........

Vettel to the Metal !

Top Gear last night where Sebastian Vettel became the fastest driver around the Top Gear track, with a time of 1min 44 seconds. Beating the next nearest competitor (Rubens) who's time was 1min 44.4 seconds.

For me, I think this proves beyond doubt that Sebastian Vettel   IS   a fast driver, and regardless of what people say about the class of the Red Bull car he is still a worthy champion.

Top Gear proved it.... so it must be true.........


Dave

Silverstone Sunday

Who's going to win the Grand Prix tomorrow ?
Answers in comments please

Dave

Wow....

Had to show you guys what I think is an extraordinairy photo, taken by a pilot of an F-15 Fighter Jet

Dave

Atlantis Take-Off Footage

Just found a video of the Atlantis take-off for those who are interested.

Enjoy

Dave

The End of the World.....

After 168 years, the News of the World (The biggest selling newspaper in the western hemisphere) is being put out of production this Sunday. For those who are un-aware of the circumstances behind this, the paper was caught hacking the phones of celebrities, soldiers who lost their life in duty and victims of crime such as Milly Dowler.
 More of the story can be found here, arrests have been made, with the head of the newspaper Rebekah Brooks facing accusations and calls for her resignation. There's more to this story for sure..

Dave

F1 2010 on Xbox 360

Just received my copy of F1 2010 from Amazon for a very reasonable £17. For any F1 fans out there this is an exceptional game, you can tailor the experience to your will much like the driver aid's on Forza 3 (be it Assisted Braking, Racing Line etc).

Starting as a rookie for driver for one of three teams, HRT Cosworth, Virgin or Lotus. You pick a name, get a team-mate and get thrown into the deep end on the track in Bahrain. As a racing game fan, I've played games ranging from the excellent Forza and PGR to the ..... questionable Need for Speed series and the game physics and handling in this game are easily one of the best. You feel the car pick up more grip and the tyres get warmer, touching the gravel makes a noticable change in handling and pushing the car too much will enivatably end up with you facing the wrong way.

Here's some gameplay footage to put what I've written into perspective.

You can take part in all 56 laps of a race, or as little as 12. Completing practice sessions to achieve team goals (culminating in more upgrades for your car) , taking part in qualifying to put down your fastest lap to the thrills and spills of racing. Theres no better feeling than overtaking Sebastian Vettel near the end of a race.

Please buy this game F1 fans !

Dave

P.S  listening to Fleetwood Mac while playing this really puts the icing on the cake.

Caption Competition !

To urmm.... "celebrate?" getting 300 views of my blog i've decided to create a caption competition. Please put your witty humerous anecdote hats on and come up with something for none other than man of the moment, Mr Sepp Blatter ! Put your answers in a comment, and i'll pick a winner this Friday ! Who knows, you may get a prize?

Have fun ! (Don't worry about keeping it clean)

Dave

Google + +

Heres some more information on Google+ for those of you who are interested.

Link

Enjoy !
Dave

The End of an Era..

 On July the 8th, at 3.26pm precisely, the Atlantis orbiter will make it's last trip from the Kennedy Space Station to the ISS (International Space Station). After which it will be retired and the next phase of space exploration will take place (unmanned robots and private ventures). It's payload includes a years worth of food, which will help with the next phase of private venture if they struggle to meet their deadlines.

Of course for those of you who know the date today (and yesterday), the shuttle will take off the day after Independence Day, it's a bit like the film. The four lucky astronauts are Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim. For those of you who are interested in seeing the launch, NASA will be providing live footage of the event on their website.

I'd just like to finish up with some Space Shuttle related facts,

"The 8 July ascent will be the 135th shuttle launch and the 33rd of Atlantis.

In total, 355 individuals will have flown 852 times on those 135 missions since the very first shuttle flight on 12 April, 1981.

The five orbiters used over the course of the programme have flown 864,401,200km (537,114,016 miles) - a distance roughly similar to travelling from the Earth to the Sun and back three times.

Atlantis will add a further 6.5 million km (four million miles) to that total."

Enjoy,

Dave

What a tool

Don't really need to say much to be honest. Enjoy

Dave

An Apple with a worm in the middle

I'm sorry, but i've just read about rumours that the iPad 3 may see light by the end of the year ? Also finding this worrying "quote of a rumour" (not to be taken as 100% fact). 


"This is the biggest rumour of all: an iPad 3 mere months after the iPad 2. An unnamed Apple employee says that the iPad 2 was a bit of a rush job, and "the third generation iPad is the one to make a song and dance about."


At this moment in time it costs £459 (Amazon) for a 16gb wifi iPad 2, I wouldn't want to be the sorry soul who forked out for "the next generation of tablet" to be told that actually it's number 3 you want. I really find this is my problem with Apple, I really like the iPod, even going as far as loving the design on the iPhone 4. But to have the bravado to bring out "finally the all new white iphone" suggesting that it's everyone else's fault the first iPhone 4 wasn't white. Just months after those you really wanted the kit paid through the nose for the first iPhone 4.


For me, there's hundreds of different products that work equally as well as an Apple product. And until they lose their status as being "the product" to buy. I'll have to carry on being Apple free....


Dave

“The Elephant Man would never have gotten up and gone, ‘Oh, God. Look at me hair today.’” - Karl Pilkington

Just finished reading "An Idiot Abroad" by Karl Pilkington, for those who havn't heard of the man (or his legendary quotes) , he's a former radio producer who worked with Ricky Gervais (of Office Fame) and Stephen Merchant (of Office fame also) when they presented their XFM radio show. Ever since then the trio have become best friends, with Ricky calling Karl, "The funniest man alive in Britain today".
           This book is based on the diaries of the trip Karl made for Sky television visiting the Seven Wonders of the World, giving his own unique view of the sites. I can thoroughly recommend both the book and the tv series (now on DVD). I'll just finish up by giving you some more choice quotes from the man himself.

Karl makes his way around China

Dave

Ergh

Too hungover to post anything today, except a link for the Haye vs Klitschko fight if anybody missed it.
Enjoy

Dave

A new day, another Tennis match.

Am I the only person indifferent about Tennis ? I started watching the women's final but Maria Sharapova's screaming got on my nerves.

For those of you who are Radiohead fans though, the band has just released the first of their "official" 12" remixes of their latest album The King Of Limbs. I personally love them (but I would say that wouldn't I)

Any who is not a fan please give these tracks at least one listen.

Dave

Wish I had that much money.........

Sorry, but I had to post this for you people to see. Basically this is a bank receipt found in a high street in London  America, some people.............

Dave

From The Basement - A Radiohead Special

Any minute now Radiohead will be performing their newest album, The King of Limbs, live. Please watch for something special

Radiohead Live - From The Basement

Dave

Google+ = Facebook Beater ?

Anyone seen the new concept by Google their starting to roll out soon ?
Google+ Promo

From first impressions, it looks clean, easy on the eye and most comfortingly it works A LOT like Facebook. But in my opinion, in a good kind of way.
     You organise your friends into different "circles" be it your close friends, your work colleagues, etc. So for me it solves the big problem in you can now target your status' at certain groups of people. I really like you Rick, but I don't want to know what you had for breakfast, that kind of thing.
     Threads can be viewed dependant on things like location, with the interesting (if a little geeky) concept of being able to view say a Youtube video (also owned by Google) together with  a group of friends/circle. So everybodies reaction can be seen at the same time.

Supposedly on it's way pretty soon, it's still in it's Beta testing stage with limited numbers of "invitations" being given out to those priviliged and quick enough to sign. Apparently demand was "way better than expected" though this may be Google drumming up a bit of publicity.
    But I can say I am geniunely interested in their concept, because maybe it's just me but i'm getting a little bored of Facebook with it's "polls, questions, farmville requests" those of us just looking for a social platform to contact friends. However by their definition social sits only work if everyone signs up.

Dave