Leeds UCU Rally

Pictures from last week's Leeds UCU Rally:

Twittering

I've succumbed and created a Twitter account for myself - not really out of a burning desire to start using it, but rather because last week I gave a lecture to my students on how Python could be used for Internet programming at the application level. I already had examples of how to access Flickr and Google services, but Twitter seemed like another good example to use because students are familiar with it as a 'Web 2.0' service and because there is a nice, easy-to-use library available for its API: python-twitter.

I showed the students a simple program to post a status update. I ran it using my newly-created Twitter account (python33r) and then showed them the tweet appearing on my Twitter page.

I didn't think I'd want to continue using the service, but I happened to start following a few people/organisations of interest to me and it has provided a couple of useful notifications already.

Relegation

It seems that the UK risks relegation from the 'Premier League' of scientific nations. Sir Martin Taylor, former vice-president of the Royal Society has said that "we are a bit like Manchester United, but if we are not careful we could end up a bit like Leeds United".

Ouch.