Earlier this year, in common with other media, this blog pledged its support to a campaign to save the Royal Institution from financial oblivion. In doing so I may have given the impression that the Royal Institution is a venerable and highly esteemed organization dedicated to the task of bring science closer to the public and inspiring future generations with its exciting range of outreach activities, including its famous public lectures.
However, in the light of the Royal Institution’s recent decision to trademark the phrase “Christmas Lectures” , I now realize that this was misleading and in fact the Royal Institution is just another rapaciously self-serving organization, run by small-minded buffoons, which is dedicated to nothing but its own self-aggrandizement. It has further become clear that the RI will do anything it can to maintain its cushy existence in a fancy property in Mayfair to the detriment of all outreach activities elsewhere, and should therefore be shut down immediately as a threat to the future health of UK science.
Moreover, as a protest, this blog calls upon all University science departments in the United Kingdom to organize their own series of Christmas Lectures Yuletide Discourses under the title Not the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, beginning each presentation with a lengthy preamble describing the unpleasant and idiotic actions of the Royal Institution and explaining why its Christmas Lectures® should be boycotted.
I hope this clarifies the situation.
P.S. For more blog outrage, see here, here , here…. (cont., p94).
In the Dark 