Monthly Archives: July 2006

Peace and surfing

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Dr Rice talks about ‘stability and peace’ in the Middle East. In that certain sequence, as in law and then order. Not ‘peace and stability’, God forbid. She should know, it’s the same difference between ‘a black woman’ and ‘a woman who is black’ – for a social scientist this question is non-trivial. It’s subject 1st, or object 1st, there is no confusion. There is a boundary diistinction between ‘reality’ and ‘normality’, to a real person or a real scientist. The same between balance and control (though control is so embedded in who we are and what we do it’s ‘our’ very deep-down-one-size-fits-all identity). Thankfully no longer mine, I crossed over the line a while back; I guess the grass seemed greener on the other side. I’m surfing now, I’m the invisible man (or should that be..).

(Trying to take myself seriously…)
Este Ricci

Chicken & egg

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What came 1st, the chicken or the egg? Personally I don’t think you can’t separate the two; it’s asking what came first is wrong. As two evolved together. It’s really a systems question, for a culture reared on the separation of user and technology; a culture which needs to know which is 1st to know which is dominant. But simply seeing the two as one and same really is a solution to age old systems problem – not that anyone is interested..as the division runs deeper than just a usability problem.

South Norfolk style

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Enjoyed hearing about the innovative use of free mobiles from O2 to young people in South Norfolk to get them to engage more with the ‘democratic process’ in today’s Guardian. Vivienne Clifford-Jackson, Liberal Democrat leader of South Norfolk district council, says she’s keen for young people in South Norfolk to have their own cabinet and budget. “Unless we start effectively engaging with them, in 25 years’ time nobody will be voting.”

And of course my own reasons, having spent two years as a reporter on the Norfolk and South Express in South Norfolk, I have an affectinon for the area. Best memories? The leader of Harleston Council baking me a chocolate cake on news of my departure to seek fame and fortune in the Big Smoke. Or the case of the Harleston Two, a strange kidnapping story which excited the national press, and gave me a taste of my own ego when I leaped up on stage at a meetign in the Swan Hotel and announced my paper’s backing to free the kidnappers!

Or better still being there in 1992 for the Hoxne Roman tresure find, and talking to Eric Lawes who took the treasure home in his car boot, and bought a colour TV with the proceeds. Reportedly the largest hoard of late 4th and early 5th century Roman silver and gold ever discovered in the United Kingdom, Lawes split the

Hit the road with you inner child

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Getting to grips with the ‘inner child’..thanks to Gran Turismo 3 (on offer at

How my generation lost the plot

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I enjoyed skimming through Charlotte Raven’s Guardian piece on how the pressures of parenthood so easily force you to lose liberal principles and accept conservative reality.

I’d just like to sympathise and say it’s parenthood, but liberalism that’s the problem. I mean that guru of liberalism, John Stuart Mills, in inadvertently hit the nail on the head when he pondered how come 19th England could be so democratic when its empire was not, particularly, democratic. Hello, that’s liberalism, that’s idealism. It is by its very nature fantastic at providing glossy vision, which is when you dig down deep, not where reality is. Hence, why Charlotte Raven is finding her liberal principles out of step with the messy reality of child-rearing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a child of Benjamin Spock (“His ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals..”) and all. But you see lots of middle class well-meaning couples who do fantastically well in their careers, only to fall down in their personal lives. Why? Er, I blame the liberalism vs reality conflict. (Tomorrow it will be something else for me to blame).

BTW not many people know this but Spock was set to run with Dr Martin Luther King Jr on a joint presidential ticket, cut short by King’s assassination.

Don’t die a web editor

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It’s Rembrandt’s 400th birthday. No wonder he looks a bit grumpy. Hey, get a real job (eg: ‘web editor’). No come to think of it, to quote Michelle, “Don’t die a web editor”!

The logic of prohibition

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There’s a report on the BBC which says “a senior police officer has joined calls for heroin to be made available on the NHS to help tackle an explosion in crack cocaine use. Cleveland Police Det Supt Tom Stoddart said heroin is a “gateway” to crack. He said by prescribing heroin in a controlled environment on the NHS it would destroy the market for dealers.”

This has been criticised by the director of the National Drug Prevention Alliance Peter Stoker as like giving alcoholics more drink in order to stop them going on to take drugs. Well, superficially that’s a compelling argument. But surely what the police officer is saying is that by prescribing heroin, that is taking its control out of criminal gangs. Second, sure giving out heroin may not stop you go onto use heroin, but examples of drug control like prescription have worked such as the coffee shops in the Netherlands in reducing drug use, so why not trial the suggestion and evaluate its benefit? Thirdly, the comparison with alcohol is false because alcohol is a legal drug. Maybe we should to be scientific though, ban alcohol, and see what happens?

Marry before/after the World Cup?

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Didn’t Brazil international midfielder Kaka say originally that he would marry after the 2006 World Cup in Germany. “I’ll get married after the Cup, hopefully with the title won,” the AC Milan player told Globo TV. I guess he had a quiet word with God, and figured that just in case Brazil didn’t win, marriage before the Cup would be a better bet. Good call Kaka.

Under Brazilian law..

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Under Brazilian law I am all but married to Shirley; just a few more months of co-habitation. And the English think they are so advanced.

Meanwhile in the Menezes case:

Criticisms aimed at the police are expected to include:

* That a written log of events was changed afterwards by an officer, but not signed

* That Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair delayed the IPCC investigation. The watchdog said if it had gone in earlier it could have stopped the log being changed, although Scotland Yard denies this would have made a difference

* That the firearms unit arrived so late to the incident, by which time Mr Menezes was underground. As police radios do not work on the Tube they then lost communications with base.

Now I see the importance of shift handover systems. But as I reported to Jason Seigal at Traction Software it’s an under-explored area. But I have a new line of research to explore, the research arm of the Health and Safety Executive, called the Health and Safety Laboratory.

And in fact the BBC report today says that Menezes prosections may in fact have to be brought under health and safety laws.

Heading South

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Oh, a film about well-healed ladies getting their kicks on the cheap in Haiti. Sounds like fun! To quote the Time Out review: “But the director doesn’t like to preach; unlike Michael Haneke, he doesn’t appeal to the guilty liberal conscience. He’s interested, rather, in the implications of our actions and the essential connectedness (and contradictions) of our world.” And that’s a subterranean theme I understand expertly.