Author: David Bradley

Wishful Thinking

An eclectic mix of electric, acrostic acoustic indie rock from the man Dek Ham calls “The Geordie Glenn Tilbrook”. Tracks remastered for high-quality download via BandCamp.

Winter Warmer – Taking the road to redemption: “An awesome tune”, “Very cool song. I love the guitar work and the ambient background sounds”

Love’s Offline – A tale of long-distance love in the age of the Internet: “Lovely song. Loved the vocal melodies and arrangement”, “Had tears whelling up in my eyes”

Security High – They’re watching you, watching them, watching you: “Nice song. A bit of classic REM in there”, “Very cool vibe, production and musicianship!”

Collateral Damage – War and peace and its post-traumatic harm: “Really great structure and breaks. Totally dig the harmonies and the vocals.”

“Creative structure throughout, hot licks and tasty riffs, a sweet bass line, and more potent words from your serious-songwriting mind delivered by your amazing voice,” “Standing ovation dude! This is great… lyrics, vocals, fiery guitars all work together wonderfully”

Golden Light – Life’s journey takes many turns, seek out the light: “Amazing…epic”, “Insanely good”, “Frightening music and lyrics, but really good!”

Wishful Thinking – My head’s in the clouds, but my feet are on the ground: “I really dig it. The lyrics are very good…and those guitars sound fantastic. Great production as well”, “I love the song…. I stayed completely enthralled with the song from start to finish”

Cut and Pasted – Down and out on Fleet Street: “Unique changes are paired with very accessible melodies”, “One of the sweetest and coolest bass lines I’ve heard in a long, long time. Kudos.”

Dawn Chorus (Bonus Track) – Imagine the morning after Get Lucky: “Steely Dan meets Jamiroquai meets Chic”…”with a splash of Phil Collins or maybe Glenn Tilbrook”, “This is a sophisticated piece of music”, “Great groove”

All songs by Dave Bradley. Acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar percussion DB. Except: Winter Warmer – synths by Derek “MonoStone” Ham and Dawn Chorus – Groove and inspiration by Adrian “Don’t Look, Listen” Hillier.

Also now available work in progress here.

Abbreviated copper nanotubes

Back in the 1990s, during the height of my prolific writing about chemistry for the likes of New Scientist, Science, Chemistry in Britain, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph etc, I covered a lot of the emerging chemical science, obviously. At the time, we had chemists lighting up conducting organic polymers, which eventually became the ubiquitous OLEDs in so many displays and screens we use today. We had others kicking around buckyballs (fullerenes) and other chemists rolling up carbon nanotubes…quickly abbreviated as CNTs.

One recent paper is something of a gift for juvenile Brits, crude headline writers, but perhaps not sub-editors. This paper was about copper nanotubes. It has been published in a rather niche scientific journal. The paper was all about the production and properties of a metallic analogue of the carbon nanotubes.

Copper, of course, is Cu, from cuprum. So, we must assume that the authors, reviewers, editors, and proofreaders of this journal, all of whom we might also assume did not have vernacular English as a first language, were wholly innocent in writing and reporting copper nanotubes and using the abbreviation CuNTs…

You can bet that once word gets around puerile chemists and science writers with a chemical bent will slyly mention it at conference bars and sneakily reference it in their own papers and online. I should point out, that even before the copper paper when we first wrote about carbon nanotubes, some of us imagined copper analogues and how we might avoid embarrassment in using the obvious abbreviation.

Structural and electronic properties of single-wall copper nanotubes, Science China Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy, 2014, 10.1007/s11433-013-5387-8

I later discovered that my alma mater, Chemical Communications, had foolishly published an unedited paper with abbreviated copper nanotubes back in 2007. That paper was mentioned in The Register after a tipoff from “Philip in Cambridge”. I wonder where they worked, given that the RSC’s offices are on the Cambridge Science Park…

An even earlier paper, had discussed Cu nanotubes, but didn’t abbreviate fully.

UPDATE July 2024: As this paper has now caught the attention of the wider public, a decade later, thanks to the brilliant Hannah Fry (FryRSquared) I would add that there have been several papers since the first that allowed this awkward abbreviation through. Why didn’t anyone tell the authors or the editors? It must get flagged and filtered endlessly in online literature searches! Why?

For those who still don’t understand the issue, the abbreviation is suggestive of a crude word for the female external genitalia. Of course, there’s a whole journal the abbreviation for which is often pronounced crudely with a schoolyard giggle to sound like the male reproductive organ, PNAS, so maybe it is par for the course.

I must admit that I’ve occasionally used the phrase abbreviated copper nanotube as an insult to avoid being censored when expressing my dislike of various ne’er-do-wells online, usually bigots, right-wing politicians and pedlars of pseudoscientific nonsense.

Pro vaccination campaign – Polio

There is a lot of #BS talked about the harm vaccines might cause, most of it unproven scaremongering by patient advocates, lawyers, quacks and tabloid journalists. There is almost a religion growing out of the antivax campaign that seems to walk hand-in-hand with conspiracy theory nonsense and the gibberish peddled by those who think governments shouldn’t advise us on what to do when it comes to health, even if it could save lives. Here are a few answers to the antivax brigade.

Pro-vaccination campaign polio

Iron lung photo spotted here - http://www.nullebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/83858344/ – 5—10% of patients with paralytic polio die due to the paralysis of muscles used for breathing.

Pro vaccination campaign – Rubella

There is a lot of #BS talked about the harm vaccines might cause, most of it unproven scaremongering by patient advocates, lawyers, quacks and tabloid journalists. There is almost a religion growing out of the antivax campaign that seems to walk hand-in-hand with conspiracy theory nonsense and the gibberish peddled by those who think governments shouldn’t advise us on what to do when it comes to health, even if it could save lives. Here are a few answers to the antivax brigade.

Pro vaccination campaign

Baby cataracts from Wiki here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubella,_congenital – Babies that contract rubella in the womb are at risk of being born deaf (58% of patients), eye abnormalities (43% of patients), congenital heart disease (50% of patients).

Pro vaccination campaign – Measles

There is a lot of #BS talked about the harm vaccines might cause, most of it unproven scaremongering by patient advocates, lawyers, quacks and tabloid journalists. There is almost a religion growing out of the antivax campaign that seems to walk hand-in-hand with conspiracy theory nonsense and the gibberish peddled by those who think governments shouldn’t advise us on what to do when it comes to health, even if it could save lives. Here are a few answers to the antivax brigade.

pro-vaccination-campaign-measles

Child with measles rash – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles – Deaths from measles are rare, but complications can occur, bronchitis, fatal panencephalitis, and in immunocompromised patient, mortality is much higher because of pneumonia risk.

Pro vaccination campaign – Mumps

There is a lot of #BS talked about the harm vaccines might cause, most of it unproven scaremongering by patient advocates, lawyers, quacks and tabloid journalists. There is almost a religion growing out of the antivax campaign that seems to walk hand-in-hand with conspiracy theory nonsense and the gibberish peddled by those who think governments shouldn’t advise us on what to do when it comes to health, even if it could save lives. Here are a few answers to the antivax brigade.

pro-vaccination-campaign-mumps

Boy with mumps – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumps – Mumps is rarely lethal but can cause orchitis in adolescent and adult males with a risk of infertility, miscarriage in pregnant women in first trimester (27%), mild meningitis (10% of cases), inflammation of the ovaries in adolescent and adult females with subsequent fertility issues, pancreatitis, encephalitis, deafness. (Yes, I know the boy in the photo isn’t an adolescent).

Dawn Chorus – a funking song

With an Addictive Drum beat from Adrian Hillier I attempted to emulate the Nile style of guitar funk on the verses of this new song. I riffed up the choruses a bit in a Red Hot Chili Peppers style and then did a heavy-handed Geddy type bassline live across the groove. I then ad libbed some lyrics to ad the vocal. Adrian added his take on the guitar for the choruses and did a guitar solo. He also added a virtual horn section and mixed down the track to give us something akin to the b*st*rd offspring of Get Lucky and Californication.

Dawn Chorus

Asking for a favour, but nothing left to say
Churning up my insides still I hoped that I could stay
Making out the liar was the one who told the tales
Pushing back the limits ’cause they’re really in my way

I can’t take the pressure in the morning
But at night I know you’ll tell me how to change
I can’t face the day without a dawning
Would it be so hard for you to play, yeah

You won’t find me at daybreak
Leaving now the light has come, such an easy way to go
Don’t turn your head I’m making my escape
Got to know the time is right now that morning’s come

Asking for a favour, still nothing else to say
Turning my down insights still I hoped that I could pray
Making out the liar was the one who told the tales
Pushing on those limits ’cause they’re really in my way

No, you won’t find me at daybreak
I’m leaving now the light has come, such a lazy way to go
Don’t turn your head I’m making my escape
Got to know the time is right now the morning’s come

Addictive drum groove – Adrian Hillier
Words & Music – Dave Bradley
Vocals, funk guitar and bass – DB
Rhythm guitar on chorus and solo – AH
Virtual horn section and keyboards – AH
Arranged by AH and DB
Production – AH

Sizing up your carbon footprint

Many of us are worried by future climate change, rising sea levels, storms and flooding, hurricanes and soaring temperatures in some parts of the world predicted to occur as atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide continue their upward trend. That trend had its origins in the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century Europe and the USA – the “first world” and the rapid development and growth of nations once dubbed “second” (communist states) and “third” world.

Dave Bradley's Muddy Boots

Today, increasing road and air travel, heating and cooling our homes and workplaces and the growing pile of electronic gadgets we recharge daily are all contributing to that well-trodden cliché – our carbon footprint. Those of a guilty disposition often try to “offset” their carbon expenditure by buying into schemes that purportedly negate the impact of the carbon pollution their activities produce. Such schemes commonly involve planting CO2-absorbing trees, but there are many that simply trade carbon pollution allowances and are in some ways worse than the notion of sweeping the problem under the proverbial carpet.

To mix a metaphor, it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul, the classic double accounting used by multinational corporations who somehow trim the fat away from their tax bills by charging out their services to subsidiary companies so that their profit line is rendered negligible. Offsetting carbon, however it is done, might appear superficially to be a promising way to tackle the problem of carbon emissions, but it’s environmental double accounting: in this sense the bottom line is not a reduction of carbon emissions and so no environmental impact, rather a shuffling of paper and an offsetting of the moral obligation and the guilt associated with energy use and mass consumerism.

Larita Killian of Indiana University at Columbus, USA, might agree. She has taken an accountancy approach to the ethics of carbon offsetting and reports details in the International Journal of Critical Accounting this month. Killian reveals that while it might appear to be the ethical choice if one must take international flights, drive luxury cars, or consume exotic, non-local food and drink. But, the physical activities involved in offsetting or searching for alternative energy sources involve carbon emissions of their own.

Killian suggests that the whole offsetting industry moves the onus from the providers to the consumers and may well lull individuals into a false sense of security regarding the impact of their activities on the environment without pushing governments and corporate bodies to carry out truly effective measures such as efficiency drives on a massive scale and an enforced reduction of power consumption, the main drives for carbon emissions. She adds that, “The remedy is not to eliminate personal carbon offset accounting, but to augment voluntary offsets with more effective measures such as carbon taxes, formal restrictions on emissions of greenhouse gases, and investments in renewable energy.” Of course, that also assumes the renewable energy sources are wholly sustainable and do not in themselves generate greater emissions in their manufacture, installation, servicing, and decommissioning nor impact on ecosystems to such a degree that their benefits are outstripped by environmental harm.

Research Blogging IconKillian L. (2013). The rhetoric of personal carbon offset accounting, International Journal of Critical Accounting, 5 (6) 663. DOI: 10.1504/IJCA.2013.059026