Why am I doing this?

A bit of introduction first.

I am a statistician who has worked on a wide variety of projects. The majority have been environmental, agricultural or medical but I have also worked on some social statistics. I also have qualifications in biology.

My interests include such things as science fiction (both written and on the screen), role playing games, war games, art, bush walking, good food and wine, comics and reading about all sorts of things.

My knowledge about some of these things is a bit spotty. Other things I have a good layman's knowledge about. Some of the things above I know a lot about. All in all I have acquired information about an unusual assortment of subjects. This sometimes leads to seeing things a bit differently. Ideas about quite a few subjects have been stewing for a long time and now I intend to serve them up.

To some extent these posts will be thinking out loud about some topics. There is also an element of tossing ideas up in the air for discussion. I hope this whole thing doesn't sound too vain. (Well, blogs are a form of vanity press.)

I will cover whatever takes my interest or whatever I feel strongly about. Science and politics are likely to be the subjects of most of the initial posts. Some of the viewpoints published here will be original, most will not. However much of the unoriginal material will be unfamiliar to many readers.