blogga blogga hey!

Quite apart from NH and CiF, this is about my third attempt at getting a blog going. Let's hope it lasts longer than the other two (which thankfully are long dead, so don't even try to find them).
Anyway, I spent yesterday lunchtime at ippr, and will be doing the same tomorrow.
Yesterday was a joint conference NH held with ippr on life, the universe and everything, featuring Paul Davis, Michael Frayn, and Little Atoms alumnus Laurie Taylor. It was a fascinating discussion, one of those where you genuinely come out feeling ever so slightly cleverer. Newsnight even did some filming (I saw meself on telly for all of one second last night. That anchor spot can't be long coming now).
Having organised the event, we were very glad to have the BBC there. I was a little less glad after I watched their report last night - a report that seemed to try to push him into some kind of intelligent design position. Davis is pretty clear on this: what he says is that the mechanisms behind the universe seem ingenious. What he certainly does not say is that there is some kind of genius running things. But Newsnight frustatingly didn't seem to want to hear this.
Anyway, tomorrow's talk at the ippr is on another subject that most people in broadcast media (yes, I am looking at you, Channel 4 news) really don't seem to get: political Islam. The talk is being given by Olivier Roy, a clever chap with lots to say. Full report after the drop.

Padraig