Despite widespread financial gloom, 2009 has been an excellent vintage for physics and astronomy. The Hubble Space Telescope's final servicing mission was declared a resounding success, LHC finally powered up after last year's false start, several new astronomy satellites were launched and astronomers have tantalisingly reported a possible first-ever detection of dark matter particles. But in the UK, the year was closed on a blue note following an ominous pre-budget report in early December and the subsequent announcement of drastic cuts to the particle physics and astronomy programmes by the country's Science and Technology Facilities Council, STFC.

Alistair Darling's pre-budget report released on 9 December projecting £600 million of savings from higher education by 2012 showed a glimpse of things to come. In the following week, in which Herschel astronomers showcased their first results in Madrid and the CDMS scientists reported their dark matter research results, British scientists received a cold shower when STFC announced wide-reaching cuts to its entire programme, to fill a hole of around £40 million.

Addressees, Institutions, and Goals of the British Propaganda

To this day, 91 years after the end of hostilities, the First World War still holds a special place in the European Consciousness. The name was already coined during the hostilities, based partly on the enormous casualties, but also on the impression in 1914/15 that it would be “The War that will End War” (H. G. Wells in 1915) no matter how high the price of victory would be.

Last week, we saw the House of Commons' Science and Technology Select Committee question 'expert' witnesses in a review of the evidence for homeopathy. In the aftermath of what was a fairly dismal performance by homeopathy advocates, the BHA have issued the following, dire press release:

Robert Mathie, the BHA's Research Development Adviser, told the committee that there is evidence that homeopathy has an effect greater than placebo. You can read the BHA's written submission to the committee here.

The paper I'm about to present was written in 2002, and in the fast-paced world of the internet may seem out of date - after all, Youtube hadn't even been invented then, and Wikipedia and Google were shiny new businesses. But in fact, Davies et al's study of anti-vaccination websites is as relevant today as it was then - perhaps even more so [1].