Turing finally pardoned

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25495315

This is absolutely a step in the right direction and is too long overdue for such a brilliant scientist and cryptographer.

However, I'm equally as sure that 'pardon' is not the right way to put it. Turing did nothing wrong and was chemically castrated and, possibly, pushed to suicide for his homosexuality. Pardon implies that he had done something wrong whereas it is actually the society which treated innocent men in this manner for narrow conservative and religious reasons that needs absolution.

Cameron vs Plevneliev - advantage Plevneliev

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25484456

I'm still not happy with the Lib Dems for their cynical betrayal of pretty much every election promise they made but you have to admit they represent the saner side to the current Coalition.

It is a sad day when the President of Bulgaria has to remind our elected leader that we have a tradition of respecting international agreements and welcoming the migrants that our economy has always relied upon.

Benefit Software Debacle - The poor execution of a bad idea

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iain-duncan-smith-insists-benefit-reform-is-on-track-8992509.html

£40 million wasted on useless software by the admission of Iain Duncan Smith. So much for the Coalition's austerity.

Iain Duncan Smith, of course, being the same inept minister who publicly claimed that he could live on the £53 per week that some on benefits are forced to subsist on.

Well, Mr Smith, if you had actually put your money where your mouth is and accepted the Change petition calling on you to try it (http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/iain-duncan-smith-iain-duncan-smith-to-live-on-53-a-week) you could have subsisted on the wasted software money for 754,717 weeks (approximately 14,514 years).

In short, you might want to consider the cost of your hypocritical and blinkered attack on the poor and disadvantaged before you cause even more real damage to the people of this country.

Space Cthulu wants you!

http://rt.com/usa/nro-satellite-octopus-emblem-854/

Typical Russia Today paranoia exhibited in their article reacting to the logo adopted by the Americans for their reconnaissance satellite launch of 8 December 2013.

However, it does seem an odd decision for the NRO to have used such a Machiavellian-looking Cephalopod. They must know that their public image is not at a peak right now!

Tensions in the Pacific

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25133957

See China, this is the problem with drawing lines in the sand. Everyone else involved will just cross them to show that they can. A diplomatic solution is always the best option in these circumstances.

Greenpeace fights back

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/16/arctic-30-greenpeace-petrol-stations-protests

Well done Greenpeace! The travesty of Russian attacks on legitimate protestors against Arctic exploitation just shows how out of control the energy giants are in a world that urgently needs to wean itself off fossil fuels.

As for Shell's reponse, it is beyond contemptuous. If they should have learned one thing from the recent fuss over price hikes it is that they cannot hide behind secrecy and obfuscation any more. A debate over potential Arctic resources is preferable to allowing the grasping opportunism and cowboy behaviour that prospecting firms have exhibited elsewhere on the globe.

Cyclist deaths mount in London

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/15/boris-johnson-adviser-deaths-cycling

I agree with Andrew Gilligan' sentiment that a little risk is acceptable when deciding whether to cycle as a form of transport. People do get injured and even die while cycling but the health and environmental benefits are fantastic and if more people took it up we would ease congestion in our cities and possibly even meet those emissions targets we are meant to be working towards.

However, what a bone headed way for the London authorities to react to the spate of recent deaths caused primarily by buses and large lorries. Blaming the victim is not the way forward and will do more to discourage cycling than any number of infrastructure failures.

A far more realistic approach is that of Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe who, while hinting that cyclists should be considerate to other road users, accepts the statistical fact that cyclist deaths are not primarily caused by bad behaviour but by the 'killing machines' that they are forced to share roads with due to a totally inadequate network of cycle paths.

Drox Ancients adds some much needed spice to the mix

So I was an earnest fan of Drox Operative. For a few weeks I couldn't be dragged away from it and blogged embarrassingly gushing reviews and accounts of my exploits. Unfortunately it eventually became a bit samey and I abandoned the grind for other games of emergent behaviour such as FTL and Don't Starve.

However, the release of the first major expansion, Invasion of the Ancients, has rekindled much of my enthusiasm. The alterations are fairly slight; one new playable ship, the Scavenger major race, the titular Ancients who have serious chips on their collective shoulders and a rather fiddly upgrade system for components using computer chips.

As ever the joy is not in any individual change but in suddenly being confronted with something new or seeing how a novel factor can completely rebalance a system's dynamics For example, I assumed that the invasion by a nakedly militaristic Ancient race would automatically lead to a union against them but, as in human history, jockeying for position and even outright wars between other races continued unabated.

So here is the inevitable account of how I got in in my first three Post-expansion galaxies. Having gained some familiarity with the setting I now play 'Hardcore' as standard.

Game 1: A fairly uneventful opening. Naturally I picked the new Scavenger ship to try out their new warlike model. I was pleased to find that the Scavengers were also generated as one of the resident races although they played little part in proceedings. I picked up missions in abundance and sailed to an economic victory with only one minor war to interrupt things.

Game 2: After this workmanlike beginning I was plonked down in the middle of a warlike galaxy inhabited by Brunt, Lithosoid, Cortex, Fringe and Hive. The latter were exterminated before they reached them but these vying races should have given me adequate cover to fulfil my secret objective of wiping out Cortex. However, in an unexpected twist they became my best and only real allies meaning that there never seemed to be an opportune moment to betray them. We ultimately prevailed in a major war against the Lithosoids and after approximately 50 ship kills and a couple of planet destructions I managed a Fear victory.

Game 3: The Herzog (the only Ancient race I have yet encountered) had made a brief appearance in the second galaxy but I had quickly exterminated them for declaring war on me. However, it was in this game that I saw what they could manage if left unchecked. Starting with a single rogue destroyer they managed to sweep the Utopians from a dangerous galaxy and establish a beachhead of two planets. By the time I moved to meet their threat they had already seized three planets in the next system and driven out all rivals. In an epic battle I single handedly swept them back to their first conquests. A raid into this territory found that they were in an unending war with the resident monsters there and by picking off their weakened fighters I managed a Legend victory. However, worryingly their survival meant that the Herzog 'emerged' as a race. I suspect that this will have bad consequences for future scenarios.

The Heavy Water Coup of 1940

Now this is a story that deserves to be as well known as the legendary activities of the Norwegian commandos and British bombers that destroyed the heavy water production capabilities of the German nuclear program.

These actions explain why the Germans were unable to make use of Norwegian heavy water after 1943 but of course the plant had been open for nearly a decade before that. One of the reasons why the Germans didn't find a nice cache of heavy water waiting for them on the occupation of Norway is that the French government had already obtained the entire world stock, approximately 40 gallons, on the instructions of Lew Kowarski and Hans von Halban.

In the chaos following the fall of France and amidst the installation of the Petain government the two scientists smuggled all of the heavy water by automobile and British ship to the United Kingdom where it could be commandeered by the Allies. For a characterful and idiosyncratic account of this adventure read sections II and III of this interview with Kowarski in 1969:

http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4717_1.html

... and just in case that doesn't grab your attention the captain of the boat that recovered the heavy water was a wonderfully piratical, bomb-diffusing Earl of Suffolk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard,_20th_Earl_of_Suffolk

Downed drone in Israel

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24794960

Funny that the Israeli Defence Force have spoken out on this one. I seem to remember in the wake of the recent strikes into Syria they made the mind boggling statement that they were not prepared to comment on individual strikes (despite the implications for any attempt to monitor their compliance with international law).

I guess the rules are different when the IDF feels that it is being portrayed in a negative light. Obviously whether or not the Palestinian rebels have the capacity to shoot down drones is far more important than any moral or legal concerns in the media about Israel's belligerent actions.  

Buscemi vs the Tea Party

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/20/steve-buscemi-shutdown-elections-boardwalk-empire

This quickly tracks back to being a run of the mill Hollywood interview but it is still worth a read.

Steve Buscemi, famous for his roles in Boardwalk Empire and A list movies, rails against the recent govenment shutdown and entirely blames it on the radical's hijacking of the Republican party.

Towards the end of the talk it suggests that he is slightly disenchanted with Obama too but I think this is a fairly common feeling among those on the left (and is maybe entirely warranted after the hype that the media built up around America's first black president).

Perceptions of African ivory poaching

So I've seen a couple of newspaper articles recently arguing that poaching is on the rise in Africa with a disastrous impact on conservation efforts. Only a couple of months ago there was the case in Zimbabwe where elephants were targeted with poisoned watering holes and now Kenya are proposing to introduce micro-chipping to safeguard rhino's horns.

Hopefully this initiative will be successful and will help stop selfish individuals and businesses from slaughtering the beasts that benefit African economies far more effectively when preserved and kept in national parks.
 
I do find it a bit myopic though that every article about this trend focusses on the use of ivory in Chinese traditional medicine as the cause of poaching. Of course it is true that this is a cause of poaching and should not be allowed to threaten the existence of endangered species. However we don't feel a similar need to discuss the big game hunting Victorians or the chaos sparked by bungled decolonisation in every article about ivory poaching. A superficial analysis of poaching as the fault of the Chinese ignores the historical factors that have caused environmental catastrophes across Africa and the globe and leads to a misleading 'not our problem' attitude towards these issues in the West.

USA gets its act together (finally)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24563189

A good result but I can imagine more interesting ways that Obama could have ended the crisis. How about cutting the funding for anti-terrorism raids in Africa and the Middle East or military aid to Israel until the Republicans let the government do similarly crazy things like pay federal workers or run lucrative tourist sites.

The whole thing just shows the two faced nature of the lunatic right in a country that makes other country's extremists look like Salvation Army members. They talk about their desire for lower taxes and austerity through cuts in welfare services but then waste billions of dollars in posturing.  As ever the politicians who masterminded this travesty were only concerned about any threat to a society of economic inequality and privilege rather than about any genuine commitment to the economy.

US shutdown drawing to a close

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24557469

"Unfortunately the Senate chose not the follow the House," Sen Cruz said, "Had Senate Republicans united and supported House Republicans, the outcome of this I believe would have been very, very different."

The image that springs to mind is of a man jumping over a cliff and then blaming bystanders for not catching him on the way down.

Taking the leap - Skyline

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyline_2010/

So why are all the critics so negative about Skyline?

It's true that the characters are all one-dimensional walking cliches, that the story doesn't really go anywhere and that at times even the stunningly rendered special effects fail to distract from the tedium and illogicality of it all. You might even question why the name of the film bears so little connection to the content if it weren't so blindingly (geddit?) obviously that the producers had no idea what feature of the film they wanted to stand out as original or engaging.

However that doesn't necessarily mean that it was bad watching. The unintentional humour in some scenes is great. "They're on a timer" says Turk from Scrubs in a doom-laden voice as the blinds rise and leave the cast open to attack by alien fighters. None of them attempt to do anything about this (presumably) easily remedied feature of the flat's consumer electronics or thought to mention it beforehand. I didn't know whether to laugh or weep for humanity.

Also brain-harvesting aliens as the twist? In this cynical day and age? Truly brilliant.

I genuinely don't know whether I'm being sarcastic or not since every indication is that I should have turned it off in disgust after approximately 7.9 minutes. Give it a try - maybe it will trigger a similar 'so bad it's kinda watchable' response in you too.

Russians vs Aliens

http://rt.com/news/russian-space-troops-aliens-631/

Well now we know. The Russian military do not yet think they can combat extraterrestrials. I wonder if anyone has asked the Americans the same question. They do have a larger budget.

[Edit] Although since Russia Today is also leading with this article about the perils of jellyfish causing nuclear power plants to temporarily shut down.

http://rt.com/news/jellyfish-nuclear-plant-shutdown-626/

I believe they may simply be trying to distract reader's attention from the real story about Russia this week:

http://rt.com/news/greenpeace-piracy-activists-624/

A little perspective, please?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24343698

So the Republicans have shut down American government for the second time in two decades. Lets make that clear. This is not Obama's fault but a conscious policy by the right to obstruct and filibuster like their lives and fortunes depend on it. Or maybe we're just meant to accept that the World's largest economy, with its gargantuan military spending, cannot afford to pay veteran's pension cheques or keep the Library of Congress running.

The shut down is an absolute disaster for a fragile world economy and for democracy itself. However abstract it can become, democracy is meant to be government by the will of and in the interest of the people. I don't think a majority (or even a significant fraction) of the American people would support what has happened today.

Raising the stakes (or a predictable Tory comeback)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24339347

So Miliband does something brave and makes a claim that got people excited. Energy freezes might be economically messy and environmentally disastrous but at least Labour were doing something slightly left wing again by offering a popularist policy.

The Conservative response being to assume that he is consciously lying and try to top it with a more outrageous economic lie. A budget surplus without raising taxes? Austerity is demonstrably not bringing prosperity while causing damage to our social policies and infrastructure that could take decades to heal. Forget about pie in the sky, Osborne, and give us economic stimulus, real growth and jobs instead.

Another Cold War near miss .....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24183879

Confirmation has arrived that a malfunctioning aircraft almost led the Americans to nuke their own country in 1961.

"There has been no official comment to the newly declassified details."

Well of course there hasn't. The American military complex doesn't have a great track record on accepting when it has done wrong, is still doing wrong or maybe should think about stopping doing wrong.

Peaky Blinders - Razors and Racketeering in Birmingham

So despite having a name that fails to roll off the tongue this one has wowed me.

Post-WW1 Birmingham makes a fantastic setting for a crime series and brings in a cluster of historical themes that don't get nearly enough airing - from the mental and financial struggles of veterans to the paranoia of the British government about strikes, communists and Fenians.

Cillian Murphy is impressive as usual and is ably supported by the rest of the cast. Like many British crime flicks I especially like the focus on the smaller bit characters and the underdogs. While American action heroes may be able to scythe their way through legions of enemies with little care for appearances or treating others as human beings, it is a stalwart of British drama that anybody who underestimates the underdogs tends to end up being buried by them.

Anyway two episodes in and I hope it can live up to a promising start!

Lib Dems our only hope?

Nick Clegg says that we need to vote for the Lib Dems at the next election to stop the other parties from messing the country up.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24137394

.... but after all the broken promises of the last election who can we rely on to stop you messing up Nick? It is a bit too late to portray yourselves as the best of a bad lot when you've already helped to endorse a disastrous Conservative government that lacked the votes to stand on its own.

Don't go near the mirrors - Black Swan

So my sister deliberately left this DVD at our house because she had given up on watching it. This probably should have given me an initial hint that Black Swan would not just be a slightly edgy drama about the stresses of life as a ballerina.

Instead it turned out to be as disturbing and bleak as mainstream films come. The focus on Nina's obsession with physical degeneration and the horror movie like use of creepy mirrors and hallucinations leaves the viewer unsure of what is reality and which scenes are conjured up by Nina's unstable mind. This rarely makes for pleasant viewing.

The film works on many levels and effortlessly brings together a combination of ugly themes. You could view it as a simple critique of the competitive commercial dance business and the predatory attitudes of certain male managers. One of the reasons for Nina's degeneration is unquestionably the stress of the lead role that she is given and Thomas' attempts to initiate an inappropriate relationship.

Part of the cover that Thomas uses for his advances is the idea that Nina cannot play the titular Black Swan when she is herself so innocent and controlled. The focus on the world famous Swan Lake may appear overdone and cliche to those with a greater familiarity with ballet. However, for those lacking such knowledge it makes things much easier that the film sticks so closely to a clear, well-explained narrative.

Overall I'd say that this was another triumph for Darren Aronofsky and that its apparent weaknesses are simply aspects of his distinctive style. He showed his skill in charting the confusion of a disordered mind in 'Pi' and 'The Fountain' and if that leads to slightly incomprehensible and disturbing films then the beauty of the spectacle and his adaptness in directing certainly compensates for it.

Not quite Elysium

Elysium is not a bad film.

It has many of the elements that made me really enjoy District 9 (Neill Blomkamp's earlier sci-fi outing). There is the credible near future warfare, the critical social commentary and the lack of aversion from gory or disturbing scenes.

However, it somehow doesn't mesh quite as well as District 9 did. Matt Damon puts in a workmanlike performance but fails to bring the energy or humour to the protagonist's role that Sharlto Copley provided. Copley himself shows his range as a psychotic, Katana-wielding mercenary but the cast generally feels a little lacklustre.

Further the political angle becomes less effective as it becomes more abstracted from real world politics. Elysium imagines a future where the rich-poor divide is enshrined by the evacuation of the elite to an orbital where they live idyllically with the service of robotic soldiers and near perfect medical technology. It is an interesting set up but doesn't feel as fresh or original as District 9's controversial take on Apartheid.

Mix this with a few plot holes (why doesn't the orbital have any defences beyond agents with rocket launchers on Earth?) and superficialities (I'd like to have heard more about life for the super rich - all we see is an ongoing English garden party and some unconvincing political machinations) and it becomes a film that you want to like but which doesn't quite live up to its promise.

No really, Don't Starve!

So after some initial scepticism I've made the dive and got into this gothic survivalism game.

I'm extremely glad I did. It's one of those indie games that is perfect in conception and execution with, apparently, solid ongoing support from the developers.

You start as a gentleman scientist with the enviable ability to grow a luxuriant beard (creepiness factor escalated rapidly when I discovered that you could shave and use your beard for fuel) in an initially baffling but extremely vibrant wasteland populated by anthropomorphic pigs and deadly predators.

After a few hours play, I've reached the point where survival has become routine. The game has a steep learning curve but easy player death means that you learn of necessity. My first two deaths related to timing the construction of an evening fire. First I made it too early and forgot to feed it. Next I tried to hold off until the last moment and was caught unsuspecting by sunset. The humiliating losses showed that the game would do me no favours and ensured that I quickly got the hang of fire management.

Anyway it is definitely a game that benefits exploration rather than simply being told about. I need to get back to my game - I'm currently bemoaning placing my science camp so far from the rabbit field  as a treeman chases me and frustrates my attempts to hunt.

Bypassing an unpleasant controversy

So I've wasted hours of my life in pointless argument. People who know me may be less than surprised by this. I usually rather enjoy arguing, even at cross purposes, after a few drinks to bring all involved to the optimum level of incoherence and stubborn intransigence.

However, the argument of bike vs car is an especially unpleasant one that tends to bring out the most tribal and selfish attributes of both sides. As with most 'lifestyle' arguments it quickly devolves into a sprawling mess of interrelated issues. Ethics, environmentalism, safety, legality and anecdote intertwine as temperatures rise and everybody involved tries to justify their heart-felt beliefs and habits. It usually ends with hurt feelings all round along with a general nasty atmosphere.

So I was relieved to stumble across a tactic that bypasses all of these poorly understood and applied issues and reduces the debate to a single question. Probably I'm being as intolerant as everyone else but it is a question that is addressed to car drivers and will probably strongly appeal to cyclists and other road users.

The question is '... would you prefer X more cars instead'. Allowing for selective perception we can conservatively estimate that for every one cyclist/bus/motorbike that annoys a motorist there are four that they simply don't clock or have no problems with.

Annoyed by the extra six seconds it takes you to pass a cyclist on a steep upwards stretch? Instead you could add another four cars to your traffic jam,

Inconvenienced by a bus rudely pulling out in front of you or taking a while to safely reach a bus stop? The alternative might be fifty more cars - enough to clog any main road.

The brilliant thing is that it doesn't work the other way round. Most bus passengers, cyclists and motorbike riders would be glad to see more people adopt their favoured mode of transport. For the former it could only bring ticket prices down (possible after a transition stage while the infrastructure began to benefit from increased revenue). For cyclists and motorbikes it would just lower the chance of accident or death. I don't think anyone would mourn the decreased emissions.  

Checks and balances

So Snowden's revelations continue to show what the American intelligence services are getting up to in their strenuous efforts to protect us from all those pesky terrorists.

I especially like the NSA's response to the Guardian in response to the latest information about XKeyscore, a program that allows them to browse huge databases of online activity. Reassuringly the NSA stated:

"Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring."

The first and second sentences may well be true, although in the wake of the Wikileaks scandal and Snowden's inconvenient honesty the Americans should perhaps be learning that even those they trust with their powerful gadgets and technological toys may have their own thoughts and agendas.

However, the last claim really made me seethe and froth at the mouth. So they had checks and balances in the system that they didn't even reveal to the people that they supposedly protect and serve? We have our own set of checks and balances in the form of representative democracy. Covert operations that breach rights to privacy are clear attempts to circumvent such democratic responsibility and the perpetrators shouldn't try to tell us that they know better when they are caught out.

Japan weighs in on the EU referendum

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I've been doing some serious job hunting which while ultimately successful was fairly time consuming. For the last two weeks I've been travelling with friends in Spain and France and had very infrequent access to the internet. However, I'm back now and with any luck things will be back to normal in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23393856

It staggers me that the Coalition can stomach the cognitive dissonance from their conflicting stances on the economy and Europe/immigration. If we are expected to stomach major cuts to our much-loved welfare state then could we at least have some restraint from the Conservatives when it comes to popularist EU-baiting. Cameron and Osborne have been told again and again that immigration and EU membership are essential to our economy but prefer to win brownie points with sceptical voters than accept reality and financial prudence.

Julian Brazier's comments are similarly asinine. The eurozone is in trouble but these are tough economic times and few nations have emerged unscathed. The way forward is in mutual commitments and political/industrial links rather than in ignoring the needs and opinions of important trading partners.

Taking a look in the mirror...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/edward-snowden-whistleblower-still-missing-at-moscow-airport-a-908023.html

Bravo, Der Spiegel! Clearly the only mature response to the mystery of Snowden's current location is to join in with some vaguely Russo-phobic speculation about what dirty reasons Putin's secret services might have for harbouring/kidnapping/interrogating him. A little evidence would be nice.

American hypocrisy in action

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23053915

The Chinese raise a good point here.

How can the USA complain about Russia's or Hong Kong's disinclination to extradite Snowden (bearing in mind that no extradition treaty exists between Russia and America) when it has just been revealed that they have been running a secret program designed exclusively to spy on the internet activity of foreign nationals?

As with Bradley Manning there has been no suggestion that whistle blowing was inspired by any foreign intervention. Those involved simply did not share the government's steadfast belief that it is acceptable for the state to breach privacy and keep vast amounts of data confidential in order to better protect the American people from those nebulously defined terrorists.

Maybe America should take a break from its rabid pursuit of those who challenge the interests of its surveillance state and instead consider what effect such revelations are having on its already tarnished global image.

Chomsky speaks out

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/04/us-disaster-race-noam-chomsky

Interesting article by Chomsky on the responsibility of the most affluent and powerful countries of the world for the environmental and nuclear threats to civilization as we know it.

Some bits are more on the mark than others. Chomsky is openly and publicly anti-American and sometime underestimates the extent to which the anti-Americanism of other can be mistaken for a genuine concern for the environment. Projects like Ecuador's Yasuni are fantastic and should be supported strenuously but in many cases there is a big difference between making a speech about the environment in order to embarrass powerful neighbours and actually acting to bring in green policies.

However, when he moves on to nuclear warfare he is absolutely on the button. The West cannot adopt the moral high ground on Iran or North Korea's minuscule weapons programs while turning a blind eye to Israel's plausibly deniable stockpile and tendency to destroy any installation that they have suspicions about. If nuclear weapons are to be banned effectively, and in the interests of humanity they should be, then it must be done without favour or prejudice. Any other method merely encourages back sliding and shows of nervous aggression by those who feel unfairly treated by the USA and its allies.

The Dark Ages revisited

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00zbtmr/The_Dark_Ages_An_Age_of_Light_The_Clash_of_the_Gods/

If you've got access to BBC iPlayer you really should give this a watch. It is everything that History television should be; engaging and thought provoking with a very charismatic presenter who definitely tries to do things differently.

It sometimes seems a bit non-specific and I can't really speak for its historical accuracy (I'm more of a modern historian) but at least Waldemar Januszczak does not look like he is being held hostage, as some academics tend to when they get in front of the cameras.

Tory Whip resigns in shame

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22727903

Tory skeletons are really tumbling out of various closets at the moment, aren't they?

Although in my opinion it is not the racism or business links of individuals that we should be worrying about. Mercer's earlier racist comments are only a shade worse than Mayor Johnson's comic bumbling about minorities and political correctness, which only serves to endear him to the Conservative grass roots support.

Similarly one can't come down too hard on an individual who lobbies for his paying sponsors when his own party simultaneously lowers taxes for the rich and turns a blind eye to multinational's tax evasion while bringing in bedroom taxes for the poorest in society.

However, such scandals can only weaken the Coalition in the next election and they are a welcome triumph for the investigative journalists at the BBC and Panorama.

Pohl's experiences in the US Air Force

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/

Frederik Pohl is in the process of writing a series of blog posts on his time in World War II. As one might expect they are wry, witty and do not portray the American Air Force in the most positive light.

The first post especially sheds some light on the mind that came out with the classic 'Gateway'. He notes a night when he saw five planes, crewed by fifty men, destroyed in senseless accidents. Such an event is dwarfed in the magnitude of the Second World War but must have had a profound effect on an intelligent and already slightly disillusioned weather observer.

Howe vs Cameron

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/18/david-cameron-control-geoffrey-howe

Truly scary - not only is this an article by a former Tory foreign minister (and one of Thatcher's closest allies at that) that I almost entirely agree with, Howe seems so disillusioned with the current Conservative leadership that he actively encourages the other parties against them.

Geoffrey Howe is only the latest high profile figure to point out the facts of life to Cameron and Co. Britain's economy, security and influence abroad all depend largely on retaining good links with the European bloc. To throw all of this away in an attempt to claw back a few UKIP voters may be the most egregious display of poor judgement in modern British history. However, the Tory party lurches around the issue with no concern for the damage it does to our prospects for economic recovery and our image abroad.

UKIP takes flak in Scotland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22566183

Mr Farange is learning the lessons of his recent electoral success. The first of these is that greater press attention is a risk as well as a blessing.

Up until now UKIP's lack of policies has assisted them in attracting disaffected voters. They have represented a protest vote for those who dislike Europe or immigrants without requiring any further consensus on economic or domestic policy. Now they are expected to have positions on things like Scottish nationalism and, if their trip to Edinburgh is anything to go by, they lack the political maturity or joined-up thinking to deal with them like adults. Instead they end up looking like the amateurs and bigots that they really are.

We will have to see how long Farange's image stands up to the harsh glare of the media spotlight. It is hard to continue to play the easy-going man of the public, beer and cigarette in hand, when your only response to opposing voices is childish petulance and blanket insults.  

Rage against the simulation - Source Code

(Spoilers ahead)

So I finally got around to watching the network premier of 'Source Code' last night. I remember being intrigued by this film when I saw the trailers but never got round to watching it at the cinemas.

It didn't quite live up to the hype but it made a solid effort. Surprisingly for a film that could have ended up with a very intricate plot, the best scenes were right at the start. The structure of the film means that you initially share Colter Stevens confusion. You are thrust into the middle of conversations that you didn't hear the start of and are confronted with a new twist or revelation whenever you seem to be getting a handle on the plot.

However, after this promising start it becomes a lot less tight and settles into predictability. Inception showed how a film can present original ideas and remain innovative by changing the rules on the fly. Instead with Source Code we are confronted with unimaginative twists (of course Colter was dead/dying all along - it's a standard scenario when characters wake up unexpectedly inside a technological virtuality, especially if we are forewarned that their last memory is being shot at while in a helicopter). The film also focuses more on the relationships between the characters (some off screen) which, while engaging, are nothing out of the ordinary. The motivations behind the bombing are left rather vague and the villain remains undeveloped with the ending generating more questions than it answers.

Nevertheless, worth a watch, just don't expect to be kept guessing throughout the whole film.

More bitcoin madness ...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/02/crafty-mining-esports-leagues-secret-bitcoin-slaves/

Is anything about this newly popular digital currency not entirely insane?

Hard to tell where this will go to be honest. Ethically it is all very grey area as people's resources have been harnessed for the gain of others without their consent. However, it is hard to see that any major harm has been done to the users and the application of laws to such online situations is always messy.

However, these are exactly the sort of kinks that need to be worked out if bitcoin is to develop any real utility except as a novelty and mild political statement.

Voluntary Government?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22327335

Iain Duncan Smith continues to illustrate how out of touch he is with the people that his policies affect. As it it wasn't enough to make rash claims about how easily he could adapt to life on the poverty line (sign the petition at https://www.change.org/en-GB if you disagree!) he has now claimed that rich pensioners should voluntarily surrender benefits they don't need without any intervention from the government.

You can see why the Works and Pensions Secretary would want to avoid annoying the growing numbers of pensioners in this country. They tend to have long memories and, unlike other potential interest groups, actually turn up at the voting booths. However, somebody should probably point out to him that this is the sort of rhetoric that only flourishes in fantasy land and tends to spontaneously combust in the real world.

When it comes to money we can't rely on the better natures of the rich. Just look at how many rich individuals and businesses have refrained from dodging taxes because it could be seen as ungrateful and unethical to do so. Alternatively consider the lack of restraint that banks showed as they cooked their own books and sold ever more risky financial products for a quick profit. Smith's decision not to take action is especially two-faced at a time when the disabled are being stripped of benefits and council house residents are being penalised for a few underused rooms.

It is up to the government to ensure that those who need support can get it and that those who may be able to abuse the system do not selfishly do so. If he disagrees then what will he suggest next? Scrap the international aid budget and rely on private philanthropy? Or maybe get rid of the armed forces and trust conscientious citizens to spend their savings on assault rifles and battleships?

Perhaps the eminent Secretary should just stop prevaricating and take some responsibility for his actions.  

Another funny story from Drox Operative

.... assuming you have the requisite geeky sense of humour of course!

So I'm now up to approximately level 49 and am theoretically half way through the game. Of course if I continue to have as much fun as I have had so far there are always the other race ships (I've tried Hive and Human and much preferred Hive) along with the Ironman mode to experiment with.

The previous system provided me with the slenderest of victories. The randomly generated sector was large, thinly populated and extremely hostile to space-faring races. I shared a starting system with Cortex and basically ended up running their colonisation programme. Due to some unlucky colony destructions I ended up taking on missions to transport colony modules to each of their three planets at one point or another.

Eventually I managed to navigate through the inhospitable border sectors and found Human. At approximately the same time I was informed that Brunt had been obliterated by Overlord without my ever having met them.

I subsequently switched allegiance to Human and ran a barrage of anti-monster missions in their home system and an adjoining infested system. Eventually I built up enough reputation for an alliance with them and promptly exterminated their enemy, Cortex (although I did feel a bit guilty about it).

I continued to run missions for Human although it seemed that economic, fear or legend victories remained distant. However, the pressure was ratcheted up when I returned from a run and found that the two Human planets had, through some unknown cause, ended up utterly wrecked and would almost certainly be wiped out in the near future. One was destroyed even as I ran the next mission.

Needing to do something drastic I sped into the next sector. I knew that Overlord was there somewhere but had previously been deterred by the legions of surrounding monsters. However, my luck held and I discovered their planet just as it was hit by a large comet. A few shots from my guns and I had my Military victory.

The saga didn't end there, however. I arrived back and barely had time to refuel before the other Human planet was destroyed by monsters. To add insult to injury it was replaced by another Overlord colony. If I had thought about it I might have sensibly shrugged this off and flown away. However, instead I promptly declared war on Overlord and purged the last race from the sector.

This might have merely been a moment of pique but it triggered the lose timer. I had to rush around and use consumables to restore some of my ship's health and do my exchanges with my stash in record time. Worse, I was left with no friendly planet to repair at or trade with.

On the plus side, of course, I did get rewarded and promoted despite leaving a smoking and lifeless system in my wake! Unethical methods but they got the job done.

War within a war (within a submarine)

So 'The Cold War' is the first Doctor Who episode of the new series that I have unequivocally enjoyed. Kalashnikovs, a ruthless and implacable villain and (excuse the misogyny) Oswin on a flooded submarine in a fairly skimpy dress made for great viewing.

It was tightly scripted and there were no jarring deus ex machines or especially noticeable logic errors. The lack of Russian accents was a shame but was suitably lampshaded by the usual appeal to Tardis translation. If only they could have resisted the temptation to give a covert Western agent on a Russian submarine an obviously American revolver (exposure risk anyone?) it would have been perfect.

Having not watched old Doctor Who I had no nostalgia for the Ice Warrior concept but it fitted well into the wider view of how war and the potential for mutually assured destruction fits into our ethical philosophies and can end up determining our behaviour. It was also interesting to see the series return to a perhaps less well known period of history even if it did require a bit more exposition than usual.

All in all, a definite return to form after the disappointing 'Rings of Akhaten' and the unremarkable 'Bells of Saint John'.

Hollywood-style prison escape in France

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22136482

Sounds extremely dramatic. I wonder if anyone has picked up the movie rights yet?

Osborne responds badly to criticism

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22059630

"Chancellor George Osborne has said he is "in tune" with "the great majority of the country" on changes to welfare." as the BBC summarises his comments on a political show.

Good for him I say. 36% of the population even voted for him, which surely gives him a mandate to roll back of much of our communal welfare state as he can lay his miserly hands on.

Cheap shots aside, his response shows little more than a continued focus on the lack of alternatives to suicide through austerity and an appeal to the anti-benefit prejudices of the right wing press.

The former argument is getting a bit stale at this stage. If the Coalition are incapable of producing economic growth the population may rightly decide to chance their hand with other parties even if they lack a concrete five-year-plan for economic renaissance.

As for his appeal to the experience and attitudes of the masses - we will just have to see what happens at the next elections. The coalition's attack on students, welfare, public sector employees and anyone who enjoys state supported cultural and artistic activities has alienated an awful lot of interest groups. I think we can safely say that Cameron and Osborne will not be re-elected on charisma alone and their economic policy looks weaker by the day.

On the joys of playing Drox Operative

Criminally, Drox Operative has not yet got a steam release and so may not yet yet have registered on the radars of every gamer. However, I'm not alone in loving this little gem of space exploration and combat. As usual the brilliant review at 'Rock Paper Shotgun'  encouraged me to try the game out properly.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/21/wot-i-think-drox-operative/

I'm exceedingly glad I did. After dabbling my toes in the demo previously, I have completed my first sector in as close to a single session as I have clocked since completing Halo 1's Library on Legendary difficulty.

The gameplay can be a bit confusing at times. There are half a dozen buttons that I haven't dared to press yet and it can feel somewhat incongruous to be sitting in space after a furious battle comparing the energy output of different battery arrays. However, the vividly living universe and the quality of the narratives created more than make up for the slight learning curve.

I started the game and appeared in the sparsely populated home system of the brutish Brunt. I quickly became their favourite operative as I carried out quests and handed over nuclear technology with only slight ethical concerns. As I strayed out into the wider area I realised that this sector was unmistakably a dangerous place. Notifications came in that the plant-like Dryads and expansionist robot Utopians had been eliminated by more aggressive rivals.

However, I had little trouble in locating three stargates and meeting a few more races offering range of different missions. Initially this went fine and I managed to keep the Shadow, Talons, Brunt and Drakk happy. Even as their wars began I managed to stay on the sidelines and profit from the strife.

Then in the mid-game things hotted up. On a routine run into the most dangerous area I found myself fleeing  from monster ships and braved a surprise wormhole to the previously unexplored Sion system. This turned out to be crowded with more enemies and I made a wild last stand at the Hive home planet. I was quickly overwhelmed and may have accidentally blown up the colony and exterminated the Hive faction (I certainly got rewarded for doing so).

After this blip I had to work a bit harder to keep above board. The Talons declared war on me and I ruthlessly wiped out each of their colonies with nuclear missiles. This pleased everyone else and I kept the Brunt sweet by supplying them with every technology that the Talons had researched for a meager 34 credits. However, slowly relations with each faction started to sour.

This meant that my last wild ride and its unexpected ending was a welcome relief. I picked up all the 'kill enemy' missions I could find and set out for a border area where a power vacuum had developed with the extermination of the Talons.

Thus began a 15 minute battle as I nuked my way through legions of enemies. I made sure to collect rewards as I finished the various quests and after taking down an especially nippy boss craft that easily outpaced my nuclear warheads I was confronted with the 'economic victory' screen and a tidy reward.

Granted this was the first sector and was probably comparatively very easy but if such a fast-moving space game even slightly appeals to you then you should seriously consider giving the demo a try:

http://www.soldak.com/Drox-Operative/Overview.html

The perils of using WW2 as a guide to past conflicts

So thanks to the incapacity of Belfast International airport to maintain normal service during snowfall I've come into possession of the latest 'New Statesman' - a publication I enjoy but don't get around to reading regularly.

The cover story is a rather interesting, but slightly implausible, attempt to link the current economic back-biting in the Eurozone to a consideration of the 'German question' as a driver of European history and international relations. Despite the tenuous linking of these themes it was a good read and I always appreciate any public debate that encourages an engagement with German history beyond the much picked over periods of the World Wars and the Nazi dictatorship.

However, as usual in such a sweeping history there were a couple of historical simplifications that jarred a little. Periods of German history and especially major wars were (possibly merely for reasons of space) characterised mainly in relation to one burning issue or theme. We find that the Thirty Years War was mainly concerned with the ambitions of the European powers in a time of religious turmoil while WW1 was caused by the alarming concentration of power in a unified Germany.

Of course such motivations were indisputably real. The Protestantism of the rebellious Bohemians was as influential in the origin of the Thirty Years War as France's fear of Spanish encirclement. Yet creating such a meta-narrative ignores the chaotic unpredictability of history. Where does the ambitious personality of Gustavus Adolphus or the territorial antagonism of the (universally Protestant) Scandanavian states fit into such an unnuanced narrative? If such awkward questions can be asked about the characterisation of a single war then how can five hundred years of German history before and after unification be tied together into any sort of consistent narrative?

In explaining this phenomena one could focus on the virtues of simplicity and a strong central argument or the political uses of easily understandable historical themes. However, in this post I will instead consider the effects on historical views of conflict caused by the centrality of the Second World War to British teaching of German history.

The dominant narrative and focus on World War II in the classroom and seminar hall allows teachers to focus on the horrors of war while absolving most of the blame from the victors of the conflict. The occurrence of ethnic cleansing and brutal attacks on civilians can be acknowledged by a focus on the mass killing of Jews and minorities during the Holocaust. The suffering of the ordinary soldier can also be emphasised through a focus on the discomfort of conscripted American soldiers, thousands of miles from home, and the privations of Allied paratroopers behind enemy lines.

However, such grim descriptions of the consequence of war are stripped of much of their subversive content by the ascription of the majority of the blame to the losers of the war. The ethnic cleansing and totalitarian acts of Germany can be used to obscure any war crimes or mis-treatment of non-combatants by the Allies. For example, the abandonment of Dutch resistance forces to German repression is justified by the need to end the war (and thus the killing of the Jews and other persecuted groups) as quickly as possible. The American use of nuclear weapons on civilians is condoned by the need to avoid the greater horror of clawing back island after island from fanatical Japanese troops. Such events are portrayed as horrific and distasteful but are ultimately justified by the necessity of combating the evil of Nazism and totalitarian expansionism.

In making this argument I am not sticking up for the Nazis and their authoritarian allies. I would far rather live in a world where the Allies won the war through pragmatic measures than in one where Hitler's grisly extermination of minorities continued beyond 1945. However, such standard justifications of Allied behaviour do influence our perception of previous conflicts. When we consider earlier wars we are conditioned to adopt an equally pragmatic approach in ascribing motivations. We assume that wars must have been fought for a central reason and that the actions of involved states must be explicable by rational necessity. In identifying such central and all-encompassing rationales for past conflicts we risk jettisoning large amounts of necessary historical context. We fail to consider such temporally and geographically specific factors as the difficulty of communicating with distant armies during the Thirty Years War or the incentive for soldiers to continue fighting when their only methods of logistical support were looting and extortion. Similarly we neglect the differences between a war initiated by a (theoretically) unchallenged Monarch and those directed by elected and (theoretically) easily replaced politicians.

This is not to say that there is no place for wide narratives in an understanding of past conflicts. However, care must be taken to avoid smuggling in assumptions by organising analysis around overarching motivations. The context of particular historical situations and motivations should always be considered and a meta-narrative only sustained if it can be extrapolated from an in-depth study of each considered historical example.

Keeping up with the Czechs?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-winners-and-losers-of-drug-liberalization-in-the-czech-republic-a-888618-2.html

Clichéd, I know, but Christoph Scheuermann's article on the 'losers' of Czech liberalisation has inspired me to imitate the majority of amateur political bloggers and wade into the murky debate on drug policy and the potential benefits of liberalising recreational drug use.

The Spiegel article focusses on the social consequences of the Czech Republic's decision to legalise possession of small amounts of drugs (both hard and soft) while continuing to prosecute those who carry large supplies or deal. Inevitably it stresses the plight of individual 'losers' who have been harmed by this policy.

Such anecdotal cases have little value to any real understanding of any issue, despite their attraction to investigative journalists. However, they do reveal genuine tragedies caused by addiction to drink, drugs or gambling. I would only quibble with the connection that is drawn between these sad cases and Czech legislation. You could write an identical article with similar tales about drug use in the USA, UK or dozens of other countries.

The writer's case is also markedly inconsistent  He briefly discusses the plummeting price of drugs and the claims of native dealers that the marijuana business is now in the hands of Vietnamese immigrants to the Czech Republic.

He doesn't dwell on the fact that this suggests some positive effects of the legislation. If Czech dealers are making little profit then a source of revenue for illegitimate use has completely dried up. The American war on drugs has done little to stop Colombian paramilitaries or Mexican narcotics gangs from using drug trade profits for other political, criminal and violent activities. By contrast, if times are bad for Czech dealers there is little reason or opportunity for criminal gangs  to set up shop in the country.

Perhaps realising this flaw in his argument, Scheuermann then switches his focus to the border problems caused by the flow of drugs from the Czech Republic to its neighbours. However, he continues to rely on weak assumptions. The existence of a cross-border trade cannot be laid purely at the feet of the Czech government. There is only regional drug flow because of the differing harshness of legislation in the different Central European countries. If prices are low and production is relatively easy in the Czech Republic then it makes sense for dealers to try to muscle into nearby markets. All it would take to remove this incentive is some coordination between enforcement agencies or, more radically, the adoption of similarly liberal drug regulation by surrounding European nations.

Being Human ends with everyone, well, being human

Well if I was going to have to pick a day to be ill with the lurgy, I could have done worse than the day on which the finale of 'Being Human' and the second part of the 'Top Gear' Africa special came out on iPlayer.

The former crept up on me somewhat. It was only after watching the fifth episode of the current species that I discovered that the BBC were not planning on making any more. As it turned out 'The Last Broadcast' was a competent sending off for an innovative series but an episode that never entirely reached greatness or memorability.

(spoilers ahead)

Firstly, as a Bristolian born and raised, I am glad with how the location change worked out. Bristol got the halcyon days of Mitchell, Annie and George while Barry got messily exterminated during the threatened Apocalypse. Now I'm not saying that the two things are linked but maybe other television producers should consider the example before abandoning the South West. 

On a more serious note, I thought that the finale was, perhaps necessarily, a bit exposition heavy. So far the current series had had to mainly focus on fleshing out the new trio of main protagonists. This meant that the  overarching story had only been patchily developed and the Devil only had his hour to shine in the last episode. 

... and shine he did. He has been a singularly unpleasant enemy from the start and his brand of suicide inducing, head-screwery made a nice change from the more institutional and physical threats that previous series have dealt with. The scenes of chaos throughout the city emphasised what he could do unchained but there was no last minute transformation into a skyscraper rivalling hell demon and he remained a more psychological threat to the cast.

It was pleasant to see a relatively happy ending to the series. I've noted in the past its tendency to become a bit Titus Andronicus like at times as well-liked characters were swiftly axed for dramatic effect and casting reasons. It made a refreshing change from the status-quo worshipping normality of most television series but people do like the odd untarnished victory for the good guys.

It was strongly hinted that the elimination of the Devil led to the 'normalisation' of all Vampires, Ghosts and Werewolves. This seems a neat but unsatisfying ending to the series' examination of the experience of living while being different. If the supernatural types have at times seemed analogous to junkies, misfits and even AIDs sufferers then this extremely artificial removal of the problem gives no clues as to what the directors really think can resolve problems of inclusion and belonging. The actual mental and social issues that lead to alienation are unlikely to be brought to an end by such a quick fix and it would have been nice to have had a less explicitly 'magic' wrapping up of these themes.

All in all though, a pretty good finish to a series that has tried some new things and kept my attention throughout.  

Not quite getting it ...

When I pop into the supermarket I always make a point of grabbing a copy of 'i' - the mini-newspaper published by the company behind 'The Independent'. While this is not my usual reading material for browsing news and current affairs, I do like the idea behind a 20-30p print newspaper that avoids the excesses of tabloid-ism. Paying a pound or less each week seems worthwhile to support the experiment.

The editorial this week was especially reassuring. Executive editor Stefano Hatfield takes a swing at those snide commentators and pub bores who have taken it upon themselves to denigrate 'International Women's Day' with the usual cries of 'They've never had it so good!' and 'Why do we need Feminism anyway?'.

However, his support for the principles of equality and fair treatment might have been even more well received if he'd kept a keener eye on what was going on in the rest of the paper. Reading through to the 'Food and Drink' section we find experienced journalist and editor John Walsh giving a literary kicking to a new range of Eastern-themed London restaurants. Usually the sort of thing I'd skim or skip but my eye was drawn to the description of the bar stools as "painted a tart's-lipstick-red".

Maybe such a phrase can be explained away as artistic license or flowery description but does such borderline offensive language really deserve a place in a paper that opens with a defence of International Woman's Day?  

Fight Club vs Fight Club

So I've just finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club'. I hadn't previously read the novel but am a big fan of the movie, which stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. In creating the film they stuck very closely to the book's script (which was proabably relatively easy as it is a slim 200 page paperback) and this only makes it more interesting to see where the divergences are and what effect they have on the overall experience.

1) Tyler's Dream - The final scene of the movie, as the skyscrapers explode to the sound of the Pixies 'Where is My Mind?' is a brilliant climax. It is a remarkably upbeat ending, since the narrator has 'killed' Tyler Durdan and has achieved his dream of financial revolution against the debt agencies and major banks. While the methods are crude and completely insane, I think many people would have some sympathy with such a redistributive motivation.

The novel provides a much darker presentation of this dream. Tyler's visions of hunting elk through the ruins of North American cities evokes the desolation of 'I am Legend' and suggests mass death and destruction in an apocalyptic end to civilization. The narrator is open about the roots of this dream in his personal envy. He wants to destroy the 'beaches of France' because he will never see/possess them. Instead of destroying the skyscrapers through some altruistic dream of freeing people from capitalistic domination he wants to use them to squash the images of the past contained in museums. Small details but they remove any sympathy you might have for his actions.

2) The Ending - The upbeat nature of the movie's cliffhanger ending is not maintained at the end of the novel. We continue the story after Tyler's execution to find that the narrator has been hospitalised. This location supports your pre-existing doubts about the unreality of the narrator's story but, assuming that it was broadly true, we are left with the continued menace of the Project Mayhem operation, which is actively working to retrieve the narrator. A sword of Damocles is left hanging over him and modern civilization.

3) Greater Unpleasantness - The scenes from the novel that did not make it into the film are exactly those that present the narrator/Tyler in their worst light. The tipping of a rich woman into a suicidal depression through deceit, the murder of a political investigator of Fight Clubs and the eventual killing of the narrator's long-suffering boss are all deeply ugly scenes. Their omission from the film enables the misbehaviour of the protagonists to be initally presented in a far more comedic manner. Tyler plays with nunchucks and engages in banter with the narrator rather than being the hard-headed zealot of the novel. This gives a markedly different feel to the film despite its superficial similarities to the structure of the book.

Bahrain bans Guy Fawkes masks

http://rt.com/news/bahrain-ban-mask-vendetta-478/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/antiprotest-bahrain-bans-import-of-plastic-guy-fawkes-masks-8510615.html

So Bahrain bans the import of the eponymous masks made famous by the graphic novel and movie 'V for Vendetta'. This ridiculous measure merely highlights the power that these symbols have gained through the recent activities of the Occupy movement and the Starbucks tax protests.

No coverage from the BBC at this point. Presumably there exists some double standard whereby the most absurd autocratic acts can be excused so long as they are performed by allies of the UK and America.

[Disclaimer] - think twice before reading the comments threads on Russia Today articles. They tend towards profanity, paranoia and racism as strongly as certain Youtube video commentaries.

McCalmont's top Science Fiction films

http://www.filmjuice.com/smart-sci-fi.html

Jonathan McCalmont's top five science fiction films are definitely worth a read. I especially like his subversive take on Children of Men, identifying the crumbling post-birth world as merely an extreme version of contemporary society's political apathy and inability to consider any alternative to capitalism.

Personally I might well have been tempted to put Looper on the list but, having recently purchased the DVD, I can see that the Hollywood-style action sequences might be seen as distracting from the sophisticated  'dystopian noir' atmosphere of the film by those with more refined tastes in science fiction.

I will have to venture out for the new film of Cloud Atlas at some point. I liked the book but have a sneaky suspicion that it will take some extra-special directing to skilfully weave the interlocking narratives into a coherent and engaging film.

Thoughts on Dollhouse after the first series

(spoilers below)

Joss Whedon definitely lived up to expectations! It was no Firefly and some of the plot lines were better than others but all in all I loved his development of an interesting premise. Plenty was left open for exploration in the second series and the epilogue was a wonderful bitter-sweet sending off .

My thoughts that De Witt might turn out to be a deep-cover active were quickly quashed in the hilarious 'Echoes', where her and Topher react in the same 'natural' intoxicated manner to chemical exposure. However, I was guessing along roughly the right lines as Doctor Saunders was revealed to be an active acting as unwitting staff in the Dollhouse. Her development over the last couple of episodes was fantastic and made good use of a previously under-utilised talent.

As the series went on I was also surprised by Whedon's tendency to reuse scenes and ideas from other series. The interview process in 'A Spy in the House of Love'  was especially glaring as he had famously already used the technique of mashing the interrogation of several characters together and cutting away at different points to create an intriguing meta-dialogue. The Butchers of the Epilogue and Alpha's taste for mutilation also closely mirrored Firefly's Reavers while the use of programmable people as weapons through neural manipulation brought to mind River Tam's conditioning in Firefly and Serenity. However, it was hard to begrudge these repetitions as they were solid ideas in the first place and were appropriate to the melodramatic atmosphere of the Dollhouse episodes.

The resolution of Alpha's plot was a bit of a mix bag. I didn't see the twist coming and loved his rapid transformation from comically neurotic environment designer to dangerously neurotic rogue active. The villain's subsequent encounter with Caroline's Omega was also breathtaking and cut to the heart of the identity issues on which the premise rests. However, after the reveal he could hardly hope to live up to the silent menace that he had represented in earlier episodes and I was not sad to see him largely absent from the epilogue (albeit with one enigmatic nod to his activities during the apocalypse).

I can't wait to see what Whedon comes up with for the second series. The existence of a network of different Dollhouses remains mostly unexplored and I suspect we will be returning to the dystopian future of the Epilogue before the programme is wrapped up!

Miliband talks sense

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/david-miliband-interview-on-the-future-of-the-uk-in-the-eu-a-881974.html

"The EU costs the British people £1 (€1.15) per person per week." Ed Miliband said in an interview with Der Spiegel this week. Sensible man to actually look at the facts rather than stirring up public xenophobia and paranoia for political gain.

"You can be a good European without being in the euro." also gives a battering to Cameron's recent rhetoric.  Labour did not move the country towards sharing a currency with Europe and his ever more shrill accusations that they did so merely represent the scaremongering nature of his own policy.

Sunspots will not kill us all (but may destroy Canada)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21357909

Phew, how reassuring!

Frankly Orwellian

So Parliament will be making one of their most important decisions in the next few hours. Obviously the economy and European policy are important and vital to our collective future but the decision on gay marriage will have a profound effect on thousands of ordinary people's lives.

The oft repeated claim of some Conservatives and church figures that such a re-definition of marriage is 'Orwellian' shows a twisting of the term that really is characteristic of Orwell's big brother. How can a move towards greater equality for people of all sexualities be seen as in any way underhand or unnatural? Marriage is a social construct and, while opposition to such an idea does not make you a bigot unless it goes along with genuine homophobia, it is up to our Parliament and our society to define who can marry and what such a commitment means.

Latest attack on Cameron's Referendum

I don't usually side with the British aerospace firms in their global initiative to push weapons on any country that they can get away with bribing.

However, Robin Southwell (head of ADS) is the latest high profile critic of Cameron's pandering to the Europhile fringe of the Conservative party. Like many before him, Southwell points to the economic consequences of antagonising Europe.

"If you look at both exports and imports, the eurozone does more business with the UK than with any other trading bloc", he pointed out whilst noting that we are also now Germany's biggest trading partner.

Cameron talks a lot about his support for industry and defence but apparently short term political gains can be pursued to the detriment of both.

British troops to intervene in Mali

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21240676

Interesting - Cameron may be posturing over his independence from our European partners but apparently he is still willing to pragmatically assist their foreign engagements.

Whether or not this will be a short intervention or not depends largely on the reaction of the Tuareg rebels. They have now been expelled from all of the main Mali cities but have not put up much of a fight and seem to have withdrawn intact with weapons, vehicles and supplies. The future of Mali depends on their commitment and whether or not they see the international intervention as an invitation to guerilla war.

New Discworld game from Wallace

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/16453/wallace-returns-to-discworld-with-the-witches

***ing called it (to quote Mr Tulip).

Not many details yet but they are pushing to release in September of this year. I'm pretty optimistic about how good it will be. While others criticised Ankh Morpork, I found it a fun and chaotic little game that appealed to non-gaming family and to the more experienced alike.

Martin Wallace wisely left many areas of the Discworld mythos untouched. The Witches was the obvious expansion but if this one goes well we could certainly see games set around Cohen the Barbarian, Rincewind or the Assassin's Guild.

Cooperative play also sounds intriguing and suggests a definite change in direction from the cut throat style of Ankh Morpork.

Thoughts on Dollhouse after four episodes

So I'm an avid fan of Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' and have acquired a grudging acceptance that, while 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' isn't my cup of tea, it is well made television that appeals to lots of people with decent taste. Therefore, I've often considered viewing 'Dollhouse' and have even dipped my toe in before and watched the pilot.

Having taken the plunge, I have to say that it has certain weaknesses. Character development is too often sacrificed for sexy actresses in skimpy outfits. While the central premise is interesting it is not entirely original to anyone with any experience of science fiction and lacks an intriguing and cohesive universe to engage with.

However, this doesn't mean it is a total wipe out. The idea of the Dollhouse allows them to keep each episode fresh and to make use of a wide roster of, generally compelling, characters. Further there are certain themes that ooze with promise and intrigue. The Doctor is a supremely effective character despite her tendency towards introversion, which limits her dialogue. Her scarring encounter with Alpha reminds me strongly of Aumonier in Alastair Reynold's 'The Prefect'. Let's just hope that this central storyline resolves in an equally shocking and original manner.

So what do I expect from the rest of the series? My current hair-brained idea is that the apparent 'director' of Dollhouse is another active. In such works of fiction we are often presented with the idea that the copy can only be distinguished from the original by creativeness and character. While Adelle DeWitt exhibits the clinical precision of an imprinted personality, it is lowly Topher who quotes Hamlet and develops the infastructure on which the project depends. Further he has the human weaknesses and foibles that are rarely selected for by those seeking to create a truly effective tool or weapon.

…. and of course we all know how convenient it is to have a controllable figurehead when running a secret and potentially illegal operation ;)

Question time bluster from the PM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9806027/David-Cameron-critics-too-hung-up-on-process-of-Europe-reforms.html

Cameron continues to adopt his suicidal approach to Europe despite opposition from American democrats, his own Economy advisers and experienced British ambassadors.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/15/david-cameron-warned-opportunism-europe?INTCMP=SRCH

The effects that this is likely to have on British relations with essential European trading partners and politicians is bad enough. However, the Conservative rhetoric is also sickeningly hypocritical and poorly defined.

Cameron rejects the assertion that his prickly policy will damage the economy and yet he pushes any referendum back to beyond the next election. Hopefully by then he will be out of the driving seat anyway but this convenient delay simply illustrates his desires to pander to Eurosceptics without admitting the consequences of his brinksmanship.

Further he is clearly keeping an eye on the headlines. "If you want to stay out of the single currency you vote Conservative, if you want to go into the single currency you vote Labour, if you want to give power to Brussels, you vote Labour." he pontificates, like a chubby-faced Nigel Farange.

This is lunacy and flies against all the facts. What Labour did was acknowledge economic necessity and political common sense by avoiding antagonising our closest and most important allies in Europe. They had thirteen years to adopt the Euro if they had so desired and showed no inclination to do so. Only a struggling prime minister in a detested coalition would resort to such ineffectual tactics and bare faced lies.

Grotesque NRA advert

http://nrastandandfight.com/

This may be the most tedious piece of agitprop I've ever seen. At the risk of having my words twisted and mis-represented like the straw men 'gun control' opponents in this video, I don't think I've ever seen a more brazen display of manipulative opinion formation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21049942

Reading the BBC coverage I thought that the author might be being a bit sneaky in his claim that the NRA were saying that they had gained 100,000 members since the Newtown massacre. "Maybe", I thought, "They have been asked a leading question by a hostile journalist and then had their response quoted in a slightly misleading manner. Surely they can't really be trumpeting growing membership in the weeks after shootings."

But no, the 'stand and fight' advert actually has an NRA membership count scrolling up in the corner. Maybe the promoters should try taking a look at some real indicators of what guns mean for America. A graph showing the yearly numbers of victims killed in schools, when compared to countries with more sensible gun control laws, might convince them to adopt some less moronic stances.

I'd recommend watching this video just to see how low the NRA have sunk but, no doubt, they will use the viewing figures as evidence for the global popularity of their cause at some point in the near future.

Cameron's deluded EU policy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20996376

Even Cameron's advisers can see that leaving the EU or pursuing an aggressive and recalcitrant policy towards it courts economic disaster and weakens our foreign policy.

Apparently only our enlightened prime minister and the nutters on the fringes of his party cannot see the economic and political risks of engaging in brinkmanship over our relations with Europe.

School shooting in California

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/10/us-usa-shooting-california-idUSBRE90910H20130110

Another American school shooting on the news this evening. A student in California shot another with a shotgun before being persuaded to give up the gun by a brave teacher.

The National Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists should be ashamed that they are prepared to see such events become a monthly occurrence rather than accept sensible gun control.  

Hollande's aggressive condemnation of Mali rebellion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/11/france-intervene-mali-conflict

So predictably it is France that answers the calls of Mali's current rulers for assistance against the rebels who have seized the North of the country. France has a long history of intervention in Francophone nations and former colonies. Further the Islamic platform of the rebels and their background in the Libyan conflict have alarmed international observers and led to a low-level, condemnatory media buzz around potential damage to the historic city of Timbuktu.

However, these statements are illustrative in showing Hollande's foreign policy priorities and how his government will interact with the non-European world. His support for withdrawal from Afghanistan is shown to be tactical rather than ideological. By contemplating intervention in Mali, Hollande shows that his left-wing government is not committed to a more peaceful foreign stance than his predecessor but was merely keen to cut unpopular and unwillingly adopted positions in support of American wars.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts on the war in Mali and whether Hollande follows through on his statements of support for the government of this embattled state.

[Edit] - Now that was quick. Hollande has confirmed that French troops are already in the country and are supporting the Mali army. No mention of how many or what they are up to yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20991719

American official recommends caution on Europe referendum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20961651

The Americans are now being more sensible on the question of British membership of the European Union than our elected Conservative prime minister. I never thought I'd see the day.

Still, what else can we expect from a man who has to share a party platform with Douglas Carswell? The Clacton M.P's insighful comment on Twitter being, "A US official believes UK should continue to be ruled by EU officials. Hardly surprising - it's how officials think.".

Politicians should always be wary of advocating collective blame - which they have a tendency to attract themselves. Further while Philip Gordon can blandly be described as an 'official' he could just as easily be referred to as a respected academic and published author.

Natural Nuclear Reactors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/07/13/natures-nuclear-reactors-the-2-billion-year-old-natural-fission-reactors-in-gabon-western-africa/

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/1097.pdf

This is absolutely amazing! Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that such a process could occur naturally!

However, it does make me somewhat glad to be living in an extraordinarily stable and temperate region of the Earth where landslides, floods, volcanos and earthquakes are largely something that happens to other people.

Keeping it this way is just one of the many reasons to oppose the Tories' scheme for large scale and government-backed fracking in the UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/8999677/Fracking-company-blamed-for-earthquakes-comes-to-the-Home-Counties.html