From ignobel at oxlug.org Sat Mar 6 13:07:26 2010 From: ignobel at oxlug.org (Alasdair G Kergon) Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 13:07:26 +0000 Subject: [OxLUG Announce] Ig Nobel UK Tour 2010 - Thurs 11th March (8th Week), 7pm Message-ID: <20100306130726.GL3513@arachsys.com> The Ig Nobel Prizes honour achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. What and who: The shows feature Marc Abrahams, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prizes, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and Guardian columnist, together with a gaggle of Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers. Marc Abrahams will review the past year's improbable research and Ig Nobel Prize winners. Several Ig winners (and/or colleagues) will try to explain what they did and why they did it, and will field questions. Many of the speakers are new to the tour. Some are returning after previous appearances, now armed with surprising new topics. Each show will include a unique combination of individuals. Here are some of the stars of the Oxford event: Elena Bodnar, a physician, is a 2009 Ig Nobel Prize winner in public health, for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander. Chris McManus wrote the study "Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture" for which he later received the 2002 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize. He is Professor of Psychology and Medical Education at University College London. On this year's tour he will explain some of the ways left and right get mixed up through honest error, stupid incompetence, and malicious intent to deceive. Dan Meyer, a sword swallower, shared the 2007 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize for the penetrating medical report "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects". In 2010 he will present evidence of some of the unexpected physical objects people have swallowed. David Sims, 2008 Ig Nobel Literature Prize winner for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations". Thursday 8th Week (March 11th) 7:00pm - 8:45pm. Doors open 6.30pm. PLEASE NOTE THE EARLY STARTING TIME Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford You can turn up on the day, but capacity is limited so PLEASE RESERVE A PLACE IN ADVANCE to be sure of getting in. There's a charge of 3 pounds per person (cash on the door) as a contribution towards the costs of the tour this year. Organised in association with the Oxford University Physics Society. Free reservations (honoured till 6.50pm): https://www.ox.compsoc.net/ignobel/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=347021463456 http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/ig-uk-tour/ From dom at earth.li Fri Jun 11 22:16:09 2010 From: dom at earth.li (Dominic Hargreaves) Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:16:09 +0100 Subject: [OxLUG Announce] JISC Software sustainability workshop, London, 7th July 2010 Message-ID: <20100611211609.GZ4484@urchin.earth.li> [Forwarded on behalf of the organisers] Are you a software developer interested in providing a long-term future for your work? Do you have the time to attend an expenses-paid*, one-day JISC workshop in London on 7 July 2010? If so, please read on to see how you could contribute to development recommendations from the JISC. To register for the workshop, email events at software.ac.uk with the subject ?Workshop registration?. Developers can spend years creating software only to see their efforts lost because their software?s future wasn?t adequately planned. Planning for the long-term future not only conserves development effort, it also helps the funding councils see a better return on their investment. We intend to find the best methods for achieving a long-term future for software. We will refine these methods with help from developers, and publicise them so that the whole development community can benefit. What are the best methods for providing your software with a future? That?s where the workshop comes in. It?s only worth recommending methods that developers will actually use, so we will hold the workshop to meet with developers, ask them for their advice and gain their opinion on our ideas. The outcomes of the workshop will shape both the JISC?s guidance given for software development and the work of the newly formed Software Sustainability Institute. By attending the workshop, you will have a chance to guide software policy and ensure that it reflects the needs of developers. The workshop will run from 10.30-16.00 on 7 July and will take place at Brettenham House (London, WC2E 7EN). The day will start with a few short presentations on sustainable development, but will mainly consist of small groups of developers discussing their ideas and refining our ideas. For more information, visit the workshop website (www.software.ac.uk/SustainingSoftware.html) or contact events at software.ac.uk. We are a team of software experts from Curtis+Cartwright (curtiscartwright.co.uk) and the Software Sustainability Institute (software.ac.uk) who have been funded by the JISC to investigate the best methods for preserving software. Our study will lead to recommendations on topics such as how to choose which software to preserve, which sustainability model to adopt and how to develop for a long-term future. More information ? Registration email: events at software.ac.uk ? Questions: matt.shreeve at curtiscartwright.co.uk ? Workshop website: http://www.software.ac.uk/SustainingSoftware.html ? Venue: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/contactus/findus/london.aspx ? Curtis+Cartwright: http://www.curtiscartwright.co.uk ? The Software Sustainability Institute: http://www.software.ac.uk ? Software preservation blog: http://softwarepreservation.jiscinvolve.org ? *Reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed (standard class train tickets or equivalent). The workshop and the accompanying lunch are free. -- Dominic Hargreaves | http://www.larted.org.uk/~dom/ PGP key 5178E2A5 from the.earth.li (keyserver,web,email)