tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83081862024-03-13T12:55:22.125+00:00A Cloud In TrousersA bad argument in support of a good cause is still a bad argument.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.comBlogger722125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-63059473269004917262012-04-14T16:36:00.000+01:002012-04-14T16:37:22.483+01:00Book SortingI'm sitting down surrounded by books. Some books I have to reshelve. Some books have to go to my Oxfam book shop to stop me drowning in a sea of books.<br><br>
Here's <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelens/2573005577/sizes/m/in/set-72057594106027565/">a photostream of pictures of books. Look and dream</a>.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-49866340663531737182012-04-03T22:09:00.001+01:002012-04-04T21:26:28.570+01:00A Spy in the House of WarFrom an interview in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/26/ather-of-the-email-attachment">the Guardian with Nathaniel Borenstein</a> I found this <a href="http://guppylake.com/%7Ensb/WarSpy/">amusing essay on consulting for NATO in the late 1980s</a>.
<br />
<blockquote>
<i>Bizarre update: In March, 2011, by chance, I found out that in 1991, this article was recognized by New York University with its "Olive Branch Award" for writing about peace. For some reason neither they nor the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ever told me about this fact. It probably would have just gone to my head, anyway. </i></blockquote>
It's worth a read. At the conference he attended the NATO officers seemed like the ones wanting peace whereas the Dr Strangelove's, ignoring potential disasters stemming from their work, were the commercial weapons scientists.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-73283388072195396852012-03-08T14:22:00.002+00:002012-03-08T14:24:36.159+00:00Involuntary WitnessI have just finished reading <a href="http://www.bitterlemonpress.com/new-books/involuntary-witness.asp">Gianrico Carofiglio's thoughtful first novel Involuntary Witness, translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh</a>.<br /><br />
It is a thoughful work that discusses self perception and the perception of others and the way that witnesses see what they think they are seeing rather than what they actually see, and the way that a leading question can lead a witness to believe they saw something that, really, they didn't. It also paraphrases Einstein's "it is the theory tht determines what we observe".<br /><br />
He also uses a quote from Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, that discusses what it means to be human.
<blockquote><em>Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind.</em></blockquote>Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-78689881982836879072012-03-08T10:15:00.001+00:002012-03-08T10:17:14.874+00:00Medium is the MassageMarshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore put together a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Medium_Is_the_Massage">wonderful illustrated little book called The Medium is the Massage</a>, punning on McLuhan's famous sound bite "the medium is the message".<br /><br />
Anyway, as <a href="http://rullsenbergrules.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-praise-of-tube.html">Rullsenberg points out he BBC have been showing a wonderful three part documentary on the Tube.</a><br /><br />
Now why haven't <a href="http://www.rmt.org.uk/">the RMT</a> promoted this wonderful advert of their members at work?<br /><br />Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-81146033557199039222012-01-18T13:00:00.003+00:002012-01-18T13:23:38.594+00:00Pyongyang and CubaIn the current <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n02/tariq-ali/diary">LRB Tariq Ali writes of his first visit, in 1973 to Pynongyang in the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea</a> (which as a phrase is a bit like the Holy Roman Empire, or even the Socialist Workers Party, in that very few of the terms apply to the organisation). Ali meets some Cuban students who take him to meet the Cuban ambassador:<blockquote><em>The ambassador was a veteran of the revolution. Sending him to Korea had not been a friendly act: ‘I’d got a bit critical of Fidel and the way things were being done in Cuba. I talked to many others about this and Fidel got angry. I would have preferred prison but they sent me here instead. It’s worked. Havana’s a paradise and Fidel is god. Just get me out of here. I’ll never open my mouth again.’ It was the most enjoyable evening I spent in the DPRK.</em></blockquote>Just as paradise needs its fallen angels, its Lucifer Morningstar's, so any society needs its dissidents to stay healthy. Without dissidents, and dissidence, society becomes stale and loses any belief in progress.<br><br>
In the case of Cuba you get several types of dissident. There are those who wish the revolution had never happened ( but most of those, and their descendents, now live in the US), and these can be dismissed as reactionaries. <br><br>Then you get those who support the revolution but believe things are stuck and need changing (like opening the borders for travel). This dissidence can be seen as seeking to extend the revolution.<br><br>
Any society is healthier for being able to satirise the leaders or call the leaders useless or corrupt or anything at all. Irreverence to leaders is healthy. After all you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-21225409107380226852012-01-18T12:54:00.000+00:002012-01-18T12:55:50.551+00:00Why Dis-Credit Rating Agencies SuckWe all think that Standard and Poor, and Moody's are a bunch of incompetent, corrupt and politically motivated gangsters, destroying value in the wake of every announcement.
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/16/time-control-credit-ratings-agencies">Aditya Chakrabortty at the Guardian ofers his take on the record of dis-credit rating agencies</a>:<blockquote><em>Why should S&P and Moody's earn such vast sums? Certainly not for their oracular genius – the agencies have as much foresight as Mr Magoo. In my working life, the credit-rating duopoly has failed to warn investors about the Asian financial crisis, Enron, the subprime crisis, Lehman Brothers – and Greece. My particular favourite, Moody's report dates from December 2009 and is titled "Investor fears over Greek government liquidity misplaced". Six months later, Athens received a $147bn rescue package.
Nor are they much cop at analysing corporates, either. Consider this statistic from Sukhdev Johal at Royal Holloway University of London: of the corporate debt rated by S&P as AAA, 32% has been downgraded within just three years, 57% within seven years. That is a huge discrepancy and one that you and I end up paying for through losses on our pension funds.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>...
...
...</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Since they can't rest on their records, the dis-credit agencies prefer to drape themselves in the cloak of science, claiming the work they do is highly technical and independent. But the anthropologist Alexandra Ouroussoff has spent years studying the agencies; she remembers how in the middle of last January's turmoil in Tunisia, S&P issued a report warning of "downward ratings pressures" on neighbouring governments if they tried to calm social unrest with "populist" tax cuts or spending increases. That extraordinary intervention in the middle of a revolution amounted to one dictum: screw your people and screw political stability; to remain financially viable, you have to stick to your spending plans.</em></blockquote>They are paid to give opinions that the people paying for the opinions like and want to hear. That's not very honest. Sweep them away into the dustbin of history.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-62736586342016890142012-01-10T16:45:00.001+00:002012-01-10T16:45:40.691+00:00Books, books and organisationLike the proletariat, my books need organising.
Here's an article in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jan/10/books-shelf-live-stop-motion">the Guardian all about book organisation</a>.<br><br>
Here's a <a href="http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA">brilliant stop-motion film re-organising a bookcase</a>:<br><br><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zhRT-PM7vpA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br><br>
Here's a <a href="http://youtu.be/SKVcQnyEIT8">brilliant stop-motion film about re-organising a bookshop</a>:<br><br><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SKVcQnyEIT8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br><br>
This one's for Rullsenberg.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-73905942201483562852012-01-09T12:27:00.000+00:002012-01-09T12:29:52.943+00:00Joe, I'm Only DancingHere's a party:
(from an Interview between Teresa Toranska and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakub_Berman">Jakub Berman</a>, Granta 17, (Autumn 1985), pp 47-65, p48)
<blockquote><em><ul><li>Berman: 'Once, I think it was in 1948, I danced with Molotov?'</li>
<li>Interviewer: 'You mean with Mrs Molotov?'</li>
<li>B: 'No, she wasn't there; she'd been sent to a labour camp. I danced with Molotov - it must have been a waltz, or at any rate something simple, becuase I haven't a clue about how to dance - and I just moved my feet to the rhythm.'</li>
<li>I: 'As the woman?'</li>
<li>B: 'Molotov led; I wouldn't know how. He wasn't a bad dancer, actually, and I tried to keep in step with him, but for my part it was more like clowning than dancing.'</li>
<li>I: 'What about Stalin, whom did he dance with?'</li>
<li>B: 'Oh no, Stalin didn't dance. Stalin turned the gramophone: he treated that as his duty. He never left it. He would put on a record and watch.'</li>
<li>I: 'He watched you?'</li>
<li>B: 'He watched us dance.'</li>
<li>I: 'So you had a good time?'</li>
<li>B: 'Yes it was pleasant but with an inner tension.'</li>
<li>I: 'You didn't really have fun?'</li>
<li>B: 'Stalin really had fun.'</li></ul></em></blockquote>
[as recounted in Vinen, Richard. (2002). Taking Sides. In: A History in Fragments - Europe in the Twentieth Century. 2nd ed. London: Abacus. p302]Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-80610791186960032172012-01-01T17:49:00.000+00:002012-01-01T17:50:45.851+00:00Temporary PerfectionsLiving as we all do in a kakistocracy it's good to have temporary perfections. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/30/humans-hardwired-read-books">It's also good to read, as it opens up new pathways in our brains, according to Gail Rebuck</a>.<br><br>And it's good to read <a href="http://www.bitterlemonpress.com/new-books/temporary-perfections.asp">Temporary Perfections by Gianrico Carofiglio</a>. <br><br>How can you not like a book that references fictional detectives; gives a list of movies that make you cry; quotes Umberto Eco on Charlie Brown; and comes out supporting the intelligent and lazy and warning of the dangers of the stupid and enterprising?Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-17898680213185836032011-12-13T09:33:00.003+00:002011-12-13T09:36:36.561+00:00Why I Read The GuardianHere's justification enough. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/dec/12/proposals-praise-for-tax-transparency">Two letters, on the same page: one about tax transparency; and the other about whistleblowers and the appalling behaviour of HMRC</a>. <br />
<blockquote><em><i> like the idea that information collected by the government should be available to anyone (Cameron prescribes NHS reform in bid for economic upturn, 5 December). But it's not just the NHS data that might be interesting. What about the Inland Revenue? It has an equally large data bank. I will be quite happy to toss information about my prostate, varicose veins and mild asthma into the limpid pool of transparency, if the chief executives of big pharma and other FTSE 100 companies will share the intimate details of the development of their taxes over a similar period. They are also welcome to my tax details as an incentive. I propose two sets of online directories, one containing all information about everybody's health and the other holding all information about everybody's earnings and the tax paid on those earnings. That would be a start for a hugely transparent society.
Will Taylor
Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon
</i></blockquote></em><blockquote><em><i>• I was shocked to hear the HM Revenue and Customs solicitor Osita Mba is "facing disciplinary procedures" for disclosing to parliament details of the Goldman Sachs tax debacle (Report, 9 December). These documents were not furtively leaked for personal profit, but presented honourably to parliament to enable it to better perform its duty of holding the Revenue properly to account. Mr Mba is a public benefactor who deserves praise for his courage, not intimidation from his embarrassed bosses. This squalid hounding of a courageous whistleblower should be seen as a contempt of parliament, and the HMRC managers responsible should be hauled before the relevant parliamentary committee to explain themselves.
Dr Martin Treacy
Cardigan, Ceredigion</i></em></blockquote>
No further comment required.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-77515614365147922952011-12-11T22:19:00.001+00:002011-12-11T22:21:03.352+00:00Come On InHere's a welcome, make yourself at home sign outside a pub in Cromford, Derbyshire:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfub7hVBKKysa5vF8DIyHaiwC8gW_CXzGx7wHlY5dqEOYJSAK51h0od6-4zk7X5CJ9jSGmV1g5SxdEt45PQlfIm27ZW1W6H_BoJySuQiUOQd2Rvh8R9HNorIzrdus-hFtwZTV/s1600/111210-cromford+%25287%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfub7hVBKKysa5vF8DIyHaiwC8gW_CXzGx7wHlY5dqEOYJSAK51h0od6-4zk7X5CJ9jSGmV1g5SxdEt45PQlfIm27ZW1W6H_BoJySuQiUOQd2Rvh8R9HNorIzrdus-hFtwZTV/s320/111210-cromford+%25287%2529.JPG" alt="Muddy boots, wet bums, soggy dogs, Welcome" /></a></div>Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-69746307147975324692011-12-11T22:14:00.001+00:002011-12-11T22:18:00.200+00:00Noties at Arkwright's MillHere's a "noties" from the site of Arkwright's Mill at Cromford<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GTTU2Dnsr4stZUKy7ohUdNElC0GDxGU9eZBaC4N3xvWi6NB5VfUoekxyVtmO3JwpJhjiw0Mx8vI44ZtkndSParwcjwfB-QhlDBce40CRPiuNsd2bH1ltd7ZAY5p_84nxGLPN/s1600/111022-cromford+%25289%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GTTU2Dnsr4stZUKy7ohUdNElC0GDxGU9eZBaC4N3xvWi6NB5VfUoekxyVtmO3JwpJhjiw0Mx8vI44ZtkndSParwcjwfB-QhlDBce40CRPiuNsd2bH1ltd7ZAY5p_84nxGLPN/s320/111022-cromford+%25289%2529.JPG" alt="Arkwright's Mill Site Noties (sic)" /></a></div>
And here's some info from another notice:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNHUUtUBDTcSWPV2a7F_fywcRoI3-XW4QwZ3NEw15O12aNVOXKycs8b3Bbu6ECfrzUIqBJGS4CPNOoTGnFkchCGDRMgAeclCpDHgTgkWZnfEGIQ_7RbNBLdcAAbhYQLYXpB-f/s1600/111022-cromford+%252810%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNHUUtUBDTcSWPV2a7F_fywcRoI3-XW4QwZ3NEw15O12aNVOXKycs8b3Bbu6ECfrzUIqBJGS4CPNOoTGnFkchCGDRMgAeclCpDHgTgkWZnfEGIQ_7RbNBLdcAAbhYQLYXpB-f/s320/111022-cromford+%252810%2529.JPG" alt="Arkwright's Mill - history and work in progress notice" /></a></div>Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-65776237716899234932011-12-11T21:49:00.001+00:002011-12-11T21:54:16.325+00:00Don't borrow my towel notice by anonymousSome people like putting up notices:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_SWbgBDQnHXPMpu8QX4ebreRV3VGb0jlt5S3rms-qJvNthKMiOb7dePkCreV9X3rR7Dd2vXYIvetZY_I-WisK6hQq54PymnpiCVGMfmloJZlAN7cy_2Myyro1u6HwHIik3Sd/s1600/111209-locker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_SWbgBDQnHXPMpu8QX4ebreRV3VGb0jlt5S3rms-qJvNthKMiOb7dePkCreV9X3rR7Dd2vXYIvetZY_I-WisK6hQq54PymnpiCVGMfmloJZlAN7cy_2Myyro1u6HwHIik3Sd/s320/111209-locker.jpg" alt="don't use my towel you immoral cad- locker sign" /></a></div>
Feel the passive aggressive rage in that notice. And see that it's an anonymous angry message.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-16607529262809283582011-11-13T15:53:00.001+00:002011-11-13T15:55:57.544+00:00Libel - what is it good for?Has anyone really had their reputation cleansed by bringing a libel (or slander or defamation) case?<br />
<br />
It went well for Oscar Wilde and for Tommy Sheridan. And nobody now laughs at Max Spanker Mosely.<br />
<br />
A self-published writer is suing <a href="http://faithfruitcake.blogspot.com/">Vaughan Jones</a>, and Richard Dawkins, and Amazon, over some book reviews. I know this should be nothing to see, move along. But the complaint is being taken seriously. O for a serious legal system. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.indexoncensorship.org/2011/11/11/author-sues-reviewer-over-comments-on-amazon/">Index on Censorship</a> write: <blockquote><em>John Kampfner, the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, said: “That a family man from Nuneaton can face a potentially ruinous libel action for a book review on Amazon shows how archaic and expensive our libel law is.”<br />
<br />
Kampfner added that the Libel Reform Campaign, which is underway with English Pen and Sense about Science, is hoping to commit to a bill in the next Queen’s speech to reform the chilling effect libel has on freedom of speech.</em></blockquote>Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-59402114046941951662011-11-13T14:04:00.003+00:002011-11-13T14:15:59.043+00:00Debt - the first 5000 yearsOver the summer I picked up <a href="http://mhpbooks.com/books/debt/">David Graeber's book Debt - The First 5000 years</a>.<br />
<br />
I have just got around to starting it. Even though I'm not far in, I can recommend it without reservation. It's definitely the hot book of the moment.<br />
<br />
There's <a href="http://www.socialtextjournal.org/reviews/2011/10/review-of-david-graebers-debt.php">a good review of David Graeber's Debt at Social Text by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi</a>.<br />
<br />
There's a <a href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%e2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html">good interview with David Graeber by Philip Pilkington at Naked Capitalism</a>:<blockquote><em>David Graeber: Yes there’s a standard story we’re all taught, a ‘once upon a time’ — it’s a fairy tale.<br />
<br />
It really deserves no other introduction: according to this theory all transactions were by barter. “Tell you what, I’ll give you twenty chickens for that cow.” Or three arrow-heads for that beaver pelt or what-have-you. This created inconveniences, because maybe your neighbor doesn’t need chickens right now, so you have to invent money.<br />
<br />
The story goes back at least to Adam Smith and in its own way it’s the founding myth of economics. Now, I’m an anthropologist and we anthropologists have long known this is a myth simply because if there were places where everyday transactions took the form of: “I’ll give you twenty chickens for that cow,” we’d have found one or two by now. After all people have been looking since 1776, when the Wealth of Nations first came out. But if you think about it for just a second, it’s hardly surprising that we haven’t found anything.<br />
<br />
Think about what they’re saying here – basically: that a bunch of Neolithic farmers in a village somewhere, or Native Americans or whatever, will be engaging in transactions only through the spot trade. So, if your neighbor doesn’t have what you want right now, no big deal. Obviously what would really happen, and this is what anthropologists observe when neighbors do engage in something like exchange with each other, if you want your neighbor’s cow, you’d say, “wow, nice cow” and he’d say “you like it? Take it!” – and now you owe him one. Quite often people don’t even engage in exchange at all – if they were real Iroquois or other Native Americans, for example, all such things would probably be allocated by women’s councils.<br />
<br />
So the real question is not how does barter generate some sort of medium of exchange, that then becomes money, but rather, how does that broad sense of ‘I owe you one’ turn into a precise system of measurement – that is: money as a unit of account?<br />
<br />
By the time the curtain goes up on the historical record in ancient Mesopotamia, around 3200 BC, it’s already happened. There’s an elaborate system of money of account and complex credit systems. (Money as medium of exchange or as a standardized circulating units of gold, silver, bronze or whatever, only comes much later.)<br />
<br />
So really, rather than the standard story – first there’s barter, then money, then finally credit comes out of that – if anything its precisely the other way around. Credit and debt comes first, then coinage emerges thousands of years later and then, when you do find “I’ll give you twenty chickens for that cow” type of barter systems, it’s usually when there used to be cash markets, but for some reason – as in Russia, for example, in 1998 – the currency collapses or disappears.</em></blockquote>There's a video interview with David Graeber: <ol><li><a href="http://youtu.be/SnOqanbHZi4">part one</a></li>
<li><a href="http://youtu.be/L5c5mZhDs4U">part two</a></li>
</ol><br />
The New York Times describes David Graber as: "A scholar whose books and articles are used in college classrooms around the world and an anarchist and a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World".Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-90105155570146438122011-11-06T18:28:00.003+00:002011-11-06T18:41:14.393+00:006th and MissionOver the summer we spent several days staying around Market Street in San Francisco. I have just found <a href="http://therumpus.net/2011/11/meanwhile-6th-and-mission/">this brilliant and thoughtful piece about gentrification, and the difference between 5th and 6th streets</a><br />
<br />
6th is a lacuna for fruit and veg and 5th is the place for bakeries and coffee and food for all who can afford it. As the piece says "A block away. A unverse away."<br />
<br />
People may live in the same city but what is it they share, apart from a post code? When a place changes what happens to the people? And pople are the most important part of any city.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://wendymacnaughton.com/">Credit to the brilliant artist, Wendy Macnaughton</a>.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-40724343361059233302011-11-06T18:08:00.001+00:002011-11-06T18:09:12.712+00:00Absurdly expensive shoppingJust finished reading <a href="http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Voices_2.html">Voices by Arnaldur Indridason</a>. A good Icelandic detective story featuring the misanthropic Erlandur.<br />
<br />
A line just needs sharing. A suspect in a sub-plot is wearing "a T-shirt with a designer label on one of the breast pockets, which he wore like a medal rewarding him for absurdly expensive shopping." [p167, Voices, Arnaldur Indridason].Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-43976795739568985082011-09-15T19:13:00.005+01:002011-09-15T19:31:15.855+01:00Kant, Capitalism, Immorality and Petitio Principii<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/13/teach-philosophy-in-our-schools">Critical thinking and philosophy in schools in schools is an idea whose time is now</a>. That's the gist of a letter in today's Guardian. <br />
<br />
Combine that with a course in scientific method, experimental design and enough statistics to keep the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fleece being pulled over people's eyes and that's a basis of a winning curriculum.<br />
<br />
I couldn't agree more. Critical thinking and philosophy is vital to the well being of a society. If only some of the signatories followed some of the basic rules of logic. A recent issue of <a href="http://www.chartist.org.uk/articles/econsoc/jul11brechervellender.htm">Chartist has Bob Brecher's and Phil Vellender's essay on Capitalism and Immorality</a>. I believe that capitalism is immoral but providing a watertight argument why it is is harder than it seems.<br />
<br />
Brecher rightly approves Kant's Categorical Imperative, <br />
<blockquote><i>"Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end."</i></blockquote>And <br />
<blockquote><i>"Kant's principle seems undeniable (try it). To be a person – to be recognised as such and not just a member of the species, Homo sapiens — is already to have a moral and political status. A person's life isn't merely a means to another's, or their own, ends. So if you deny Kant's principle, you're denying that you're a person - that's a contradiction."</i></blockquote>Brecher here constructs a syllogism whose premises are: to be a person is already to have a moral and political status; a person's life isn't merely a means to another's, or their own, ends; therefore we conclude with Kant's Categorical Imperative. To deny the Imperative is to deny the premise. But the second premise is just a paraphrase of the conclusion. This is like saying X is a number; X is 3; therefore we conclude that X is 3. To deny that X is 3 contradicts our second premise.<br />
<br />
The argument is guilty of assuming what it is trying to argue for. Avoiding the Latin, petitio principii, this is begging the question, and makes for an invalid argument.<br />
<br />
As an aside it is important to realise that it is only in the 20th century that women were considered as persons in English law.<br />
In the LRB, Vol 33 No 9 28th April 2011, Stephen Sedley wrote of <br />
<blockquote><i>"When Parliament gave women the right to stand for election, Lady Sandhurst was unseated from the London County Council by an opponent who claimed that, <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n09/stephen-sedley/plimsolls-story">not being a person, she could not be ‘a fit person of full age’</a>. But when a Miss Cobden was elected and waited till the time for challenge was past before taking her seat, she was promptly prosecuted for being a person sitting as councillor when unqualified. She put up the seemingly impregnable defence that if she was not a person for the purpose of being elected she could not be a person for the purpose of being prosecuted. Naturally, she was convicted."</i></blockquote>I think that Kant's Categorical Imperative is a fine formulation for treating people, but I bet Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder, could have adhered to the imperative, barring an accident of chronology. If you don't see all people as persons then the Imperative can easily become justification for slavery, concentration camps and Fascism. Persons are well treated, as ends and not merely as means, but people are treated however the order of the day sees fit, often merely as means.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-4392237104279955362011-09-13T20:48:00.001+01:002011-09-13T20:49:54.933+01:00Something we didn't do in San FranciscoNo. I didn't.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH92U5cfw2vJF_TtLgD9ZwVmB5onwYutcXe3aYTB_BYkhVYJLhoN1XPMfglE9yn76-6HwgNQXLiBJBeoxnvt1kalm7sxINWdsVbNQGLTAXv9_jts7cMiIonPPg4-dBTQCLeNXS/s1600/1109-sf+%2528100%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH92U5cfw2vJF_TtLgD9ZwVmB5onwYutcXe3aYTB_BYkhVYJLhoN1XPMfglE9yn76-6HwgNQXLiBJBeoxnvt1kalm7sxINWdsVbNQGLTAXv9_jts7cMiIonPPg4-dBTQCLeNXS/s320/1109-sf+%2528100%2529.JPG" alt="Male Nude Revue - Rookies Night"/></a></div><br />
I was home by the date in question.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-9311437588038450472011-09-13T20:32:00.001+01:002011-09-13T20:34:27.247+01:00Graffiti in San FranciscoSpotted in San Francisco, opposite City Lights.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Y3OwSuiLHt5L3hkARYNjiQ-oR0OBsx8ZWX7SfAwM9I4-DluzNqFadItwDjaSPVVn9_VvJQVp4DdNaggHdIEGeYaKkfIhJ7SFdNmzYOGyG-ypHmx4zkoqJAH_pAelGuSlevIy/s1600/1109-sf+%252816%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Y3OwSuiLHt5L3hkARYNjiQ-oR0OBsx8ZWX7SfAwM9I4-DluzNqFadItwDjaSPVVn9_VvJQVp4DdNaggHdIEGeYaKkfIhJ7SFdNmzYOGyG-ypHmx4zkoqJAH_pAelGuSlevIy/s320/1109-sf+%252816%2529.JPG" alt="If at first you don't succeed - call an airstrike" /></a></div><br />
And here's City Lights.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZsBCchq7x0mbzVIrs0J-zuDSQuXhBXl9WDJ_RjmBc7U87IR3YnsZo-gWZ9ghv99hH8y6_oCtu21gTscb-FNAic8BrYQJzhkyHRs4aIXMn_RwYVSXXABf2u2LPmgHT4Q9nWg5L/s1600/1109-sf+%252821%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZsBCchq7x0mbzVIrs0J-zuDSQuXhBXl9WDJ_RjmBc7U87IR3YnsZo-gWZ9ghv99hH8y6_oCtu21gTscb-FNAic8BrYQJzhkyHRs4aIXMn_RwYVSXXABf2u2LPmgHT4Q9nWg5L/s320/1109-sf+%252821%2529.JPG" alt="City Lights Booksellers and Publishers" /></a></div>Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-37019747002734938752011-08-05T18:36:00.002+01:002011-08-05T18:39:28.033+01:00Take FiveHere's the Sachal Orchestra with Take Five.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UGxUO4xChUk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
and there's more.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GLF46JKkCNg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-41221503533090380722011-07-20T13:54:00.002+01:002011-08-11T10:13:55.747+01:00Clean ClothesWho wants to go about in dirty clothes? Not me.<br />
<br />
That's why I have signed up to the <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/">Clean Clothes Campaign</a>.<br />
<br />
There's a song by the <s>folk singer Chris Wood</s> Oyster Band that talks about the saddest thing is workers in developing countries putting holes in jeans.<br />
<br />
But some companies still sandblast jeans in a <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/resources/national-ccc/fashion-victims">process that kills the workers</a>.<br />
<br />
If you want to wear distressed clothes buy second hand clothes that have been distressed and have the patina of experience. Don't wear some factory fresh distress.<br />
<br />
[ Thanks to Nick for the correction ]Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-42035009143732531762011-07-17T14:04:00.000+01:002011-07-17T14:04:57.152+01:00On DocumentaryA brilliant critique of Adam Curtis's style over substance.<br />
<br />
<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x1bX3F7uTrg?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/x1bX3F7uTrg?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object><br />
<br />
[ Hat tip: <a href="http://paulstott.typepad.com/i_intend_to_escape_and_co/2011/06/adam-curtis-cut-to-shreds.html">Paul Stott</a> ]Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-3210054380529626192011-05-29T16:35:00.007+01:002011-05-29T18:12:29.550+01:00Nazi IconographyI have a confession to make: I don't watch much football. But last night I watched Barcelona outplay Manchester United. Barcelona were superb with their control, possession and all round footballing play.<br />
<br />
Something was disturbing me about Man Utd's strip. After several minutes I realised what it was. The red arm patch with the black and white logo, of the Champions League starball, evokes the image of a Nazi arm band. I'm not saying this was an intentional design conceit but I don't think you can have a red band on your arm with a white circle with a black geometric shape without it evoking a Nazi arm band.<br />
<br />
See this image taken by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/gallery/2011/may/28/champions-league-final-in-pictures">Tom Jenkins for the Observer</a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYMhScQTtFoTnmuhwKV4_xtD9nkAdfPEpd7y6tlMbYDxCwAggMguLEnOMvjV_A4rDHho_BVOyH9v6IVDl90OifCXUirnBkiuW5R86_AE_f-v6mOom19Kgb-vpT77d_jp-RkmR/s1600/Messi-goes-past-Carrick-a-002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="259" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYMhScQTtFoTnmuhwKV4_xtD9nkAdfPEpd7y6tlMbYDxCwAggMguLEnOMvjV_A4rDHho_BVOyH9v6IVDl90OifCXUirnBkiuW5R86_AE_f-v6mOom19Kgb-vpT77d_jp-RkmR/s320/Messi-goes-past-Carrick-a-002.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The arm patch of the geometric ball on a red band evokes a nazi arm band.<br />
<br />
There is a history of designers "playing" with Nazi imagery. Often it's not through any malevolent intent but purely through ignorance of the historical and political context of the imagery. An example is when <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1548818/Bryan-Ferry-apologises-for-Nazi-comments.html">Bryan Ferry apologized for liking Nazi imagery.</a><blockquote><em> He told Welt am Sonntag: "The Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves.<br />
<br />
"Leni Riefenstahl's movies and Albert Speer's buildings and the mass parades and the flags - just amazing. Really beautiful."</em></blockquote>At the risk of summarising and simplifying too much, part of the appeal of the Nazis to 1930s Europeans, was their style, showmanship, iconography and their ability to put on a show. Another part of their appeal was scapegoating and offering brutal and simple answers but here let's just say the Nazis were a criminally bad and murderous organisation with an iconography that still sppeals to some people today. It's not that most designers use the iconography because they have Nazi sympathies, it's often because the imagery, shorn of its political and historic context, looks simple and modern. To separate the imagery from the context takes an almost incomprehensible level of ignorance but we do live in a world where too many still suffer from Beveridge's five 'Giant Evils' of 'Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness'.<br />
<br />
To summarise, as I mentioned earlier, I don't think you can have a red band with a black geometric shape in a white circle without it evoking nazism.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8308186.post-4417623709091273802011-05-17T00:12:00.009+01:002011-06-07T10:58:01.570+01:00Some Musings on UniversitiesIn trying to formulate a response to <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n10/howard-hotson/dont-look-to-the-ivy-league">Howard Hotson's piece in the current LRB, "Don't Look to the Ivy League"</a>, I found this <a href="http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/secretariat/charity/">quote about an English university</a>:<blockquote><em>The University of Cambridge is an exempt charity subject to regulation by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under the Charities Act 2006.<br />
<br />
The University is a common law corporation, being a corporation by prescription consisting of a Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars who from time out of mind have had the government of their members and enjoyed the privileges of such a corporation. By Act of Parliament 13 Elizabeth Cap. 29 passed in the year 1571 the incorporation of the University and all privileges then held under charter or by prescription were duly confirmed. </em></blockquote>I was tickled by the phrase "from time out of mind". Since, like yonks ago, to put it in the contemporary vernacular.<br />
<br />
The Higher Education Funding Council for England, <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/finance/charities/inst/gateway/">HEFCE, points out that all bar one, of England's higher education institutions, are incorporated as private charitable corporations</a>. Essentially, in England, the only public institution of higher education is Guildhall School of Music which is controlled by the, not very democratic, Corporation of the City of London. All other institutions are in reality private corporations that are publicly funded. There is little democratic control of the trustees and management of these institutions. There is little in law to stop English universities deciding to go fully private, and refuse public funds tomorrow. That surely means they are not public institutions.<br />
<br />
Hotson's argument amounts to looking at the different resources, including GDP and population in the US and the UK, contrary to accepted wisdom, the US actually underperfoms in the <a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010">THE-QS World University rankings</a>. He makes a welcome contribution to the debate when he argues that there is no evidence of private sector competition driving up academic standards, and, if anything, treating students as customers only serves to introduce grade inflation and leads to expenditure on "the student experience" instead of education. All reasonable conclusions with which I agree. However some of Hotson's reasoning is a bit squiffy. <br />
<br />
In looking at the geographical distribution of the top 100 universities in the THE rankings for 2010-11, by which I assume he means <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html">this</a>, he says "The wealthiest private universities at the top of the league table .. are concentrated on the northeastern seaboard of the United States". Now the list begins<blockquote><ol><li>Harvard</li>
<li>CalTech</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cambridge</li>
<li>Oxford</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Imperial</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
</ol></blockquote>Now, CalTech and Stanford are private institutions in California, which is nowhere near the northeastern seaboard. Perhaps he means another THE ranking?<br />
<br />
Now, just because you can manipulate numbers it doesn't mean that you should. Hotson argues <blockquote><em>According to Unesco, there are 5758 recognised higher education institutions in the US, about 1600 of which grant four-year degrees. So the 72 US universities in the top 200 represent fewer than 5 per cent of those offering four-year degrees. The US university system overall appears to offer poor value for money: none of the funding, public or private, pouring into 95 per cent of the higher education institutions in America makes any impact at all on the world university rankings. By comparison, the 29 UK universities in the top 200 represent nearly a fifth of the 165 listed by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. So British universities appear, on average, to be almost four times better at breaking into the global top 200 than their American counterparts.</em></blockquote>That is statistical garbage. If all of the top 200 places were taken by US institutions that would mean that 1400/1600 or 87.5% of US institutions were outwith the top 200 and would mean that the funding of just under 90% "of the higher education institutions in America makes [no] impact at all on the world university rankings". Only 12.5% of US institutions can be in the global top 200. It's all a matter of scale.<br />
<br />
Simply on the basis of numbers all 165 of the UK higher education institutions could get into the top 200. That would not make UK universities better at breaking into the global top 200 than other countries' universities. On the basis of Hotson's logic if a country gets 100% of its universities into the top 200, even if it only has one university, then its record at breaking into the top 200 cannot be surpassed. In this case ratios, and percentages, tell us very little. <br />
<br />
I'm not disputing Hotson's conclusions it's just that some of his arguments are nonsense.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09910624268801327202noreply@blogger.com0