1 Local authorities are asking that the Ministry of Defence provide storage for recycled waste for which there is currently no market
2 Sales of national lottery tickets have risen by 7½% in 6 months
3 Album sales fell by 17% in the UK & by 24% in the US in the second week of November
4 VSO is receiving twice as many enquiries as it did this time last year. In October the number of applications from people with a background in business management was 10% higher than in September
5 Sales of Kit Kat are up by nearly one-fifth this year
6 At Harvey Nichols Restaurants, booking a table has never been easier, according to a half-page ad appearing in the press
7 Wal-Marts profits rose nearly 10%
8 Rooms that once cost $400 a night are now being priced at $1,000 in January at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington DC. Tickets for the inauguration are trading for as much as $20,000
9 Sales of mince have risen by 16%
10 Nine out of every 10 pearl necklaces in the world originate in the mussel farms of Zhejiang province, but prices have dropped dramatically. It is not clear how much of this is due to the financial crisis, how much to a glut in the market
11 London is in the grip of an unprecedented cycling boom. The number of cycle journeys in the capital is now more than half a million a day. In the morning peak in the City, 40 per cent of the vehicles are now bikes.
12 Silicon Valley has cut 140,000 jobs this year. Google is considering the position of 10,000 contract workers
13 Leading credit card companies are to share a wider range of data to keep track of how customers use their cards
14 The Office for National Statistics has to decide whether the government’s equity stakes in 3 banks means they should be counted as Public Financial Institutions in the National Accounts. The size of the national debt could double at a stroke
15 The government is borrowing much more short term than it used to – 43% of all gilts issued this year, compared with a normal 18%
16 The cost of insuring against the government defaulting on its debt has gone up by 50%
17 A wealthy female surgeon has just commissioned kennels for her 2 Great Danes at her Cotswold home. The cost will be £1,400,000
18 New lending for house purchase is expected to be less than the amount repaid to banks & building societies next year
19 We have been buying more condoms & things to ease our weary feet. SSL, the owners of Durex & Scholl have seen their profits increase by 46%
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Coquettish pi
A poem by another poet new to me – Peter Howard
It was first published on the Snakeskin webzine and I saw it in Oxford Poets 2001
It makes me laugh
It is the latest addition to my haphazard collection of the poetry of mathematics
And it may be the only poem I have ever read which uses the word statistics
I used to twist men round my little finger.
They wanted me to be simple
to fit their idea of aesthetics
but I was a coquette. I trailed
an infinite series of decimal places
behind me, like a wedding dress
and wouldn’t lie down & be a proper fraction:
no square pegs for me. I got around:
diversified into magnetism, flirted with statistics,
insinuated myself everywhere.
I’m embarrassed to let you see me come to this:
raised to that upstart’s power, multiplied
by a clown I seriously doubt the existence of,
the result of a cheap trick, worth less than nothing
Two of his other poems in this collection which I particularly liked were This is a No Smoking Zone and Yromem (backwards memory), which could be read as a special poem for all those rocket scientists who failed to foresee the credit crunch
It was first published on the Snakeskin webzine and I saw it in Oxford Poets 2001
It makes me laugh
It is the latest addition to my haphazard collection of the poetry of mathematics
And it may be the only poem I have ever read which uses the word statistics
I used to twist men round my little finger.
They wanted me to be simple
to fit their idea of aesthetics
but I was a coquette. I trailed
an infinite series of decimal places
behind me, like a wedding dress
and wouldn’t lie down & be a proper fraction:
no square pegs for me. I got around:
diversified into magnetism, flirted with statistics,
insinuated myself everywhere.
I’m embarrassed to let you see me come to this:
raised to that upstart’s power, multiplied
by a clown I seriously doubt the existence of,
the result of a cheap trick, worth less than nothing
Two of his other poems in this collection which I particularly liked were This is a No Smoking Zone and Yromem (backwards memory), which could be read as a special poem for all those rocket scientists who failed to foresee the credit crunch
Swinging London
Two pictures from the Times archive show London in the 1960s & 1970s. It looks like a totally different world, & yet it is the world I knew
One shows a porter in the old Covent Garden Market, just before the fruit & vegetable business relocated to Nine Elms
As hard up 1960s students we were grateful for the wastefulness of the old market practices. Get up early enough in the morning & you could glean a huge bagful of treasure from the cobblestones – stuff which had dropped off the back of a lorry or a porters handcart. Some bruised, some a bit furry, some in near perfect condition
Washed, trimmed, cleaned & chopped back home, you could cook up a mighty vegetable stew in your biggest pan. Bulked up with barley, or lentils, or rice, or dumplings. Maybe with the addition of bones, which the butcher might give you for free or for pennies if one was a marrow bone, for protein.
One shows a porter in the old Covent Garden Market, just before the fruit & vegetable business relocated to Nine Elms
As hard up 1960s students we were grateful for the wastefulness of the old market practices. Get up early enough in the morning & you could glean a huge bagful of treasure from the cobblestones – stuff which had dropped off the back of a lorry or a porters handcart. Some bruised, some a bit furry, some in near perfect condition
Washed, trimmed, cleaned & chopped back home, you could cook up a mighty vegetable stew in your biggest pan. Bulked up with barley, or lentils, or rice, or dumplings. Maybe with the addition of bones, which the butcher might give you for free or for pennies if one was a marrow bone, for protein.
Or add lots of grated cheese on top. Or add an egg to poach in the hot brew
For a change, make that a fierce curry
When funds permit, buy a frozen chicken for the pot & have a real feast
The other picture is of that epicentrum of Swing, the Chelsea Kings Road. Not even the 2 dolly birds amount to a justification for the reputation
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The N word then & now
For background to this piece I just copy something from several years ago:
By the mid-nineteenth century martial law was widely thought to be against the English constitution. Different principles were applied in the colonies however, and arguments over their application in Jamaica formed the basis of the Governor Eyre controversy.
In 1865 a relatively minor rebellion in Jamaica had been met with the declaration of martial law & with force amounting to outright brutality:
In the course of the pacification of the island by the army, during a month-long reign of terror, a thousand homes were burnt, nearly five hundred Negroes were killed, & more than that number were flogged & tortured[Semmel,B, 1962: The Governor Eyre Controversy, London, MacGibbon & Kee]
George Gordon, a member of the Jamaican legislature, who had taken no part in the riots but was considered to be guilty of stirring up trouble, was taken by the Governor from Kingston to the site of the uprising & executed
'A kind of litmus paper for political assumptions' [Rose,P 1994 Parallel Lives London Vintage], the case opened up the fault lines in English society, particularly intellectual society. At issue were questions of race, science, authority, law and the 'natural' order.
The Jamaica Committee, led by John Stuart Mill, campaigned for Governor Eyre to be tried for murder, while the Eyre Defence Fund, chaired by Carlyle, argued that he was a hero defending civilisation
Mill & Carlyle had already clashed on The Negro Question. In 1849 Carlyle, incensed by reports that sugar plantations in Jamaica & Demerara were suffering from shortages of labour, published an intemperate satirical rant in Fraser’s Magazine.
Emancipated slaves were unwilling to work for the kind of wages on offer; it is also interesting, in the light of current debates on job insecurity, that former slaves considered that contracts which tied them to an employer day after day for indefinite periods were little better than slavery: farming on smallholdings or cooperatives was considered a much superior way of life.
Carlyle argued that they had a duty to work; the State required them to produce sugar, & if they were unwilling to comply, to be 'servants to those that are born wiser than you, that are born lords of you; servants to the Whites, if they are (as what mortal can doubt they are?) born wiser than you' [Carlyle,T 1869 Collected Works Vol 6: The Nigger Question London Chapman & Hall], then those who were superior had the right to force them to do so.
Mill quickly replied with a letter to the editor of Fraser’s Magazine. He argued that if society should ever find it necessary to enforce a general duty to work, it should apply to whites as well as blacks; that differences between whites & blacks were due to environment not nature, but in any case, even the inherently superior had no right to impose their will by force. 'Though we cannot extirpate all pain, we can, if we are sufficiently determined upon it, abolish all tyranny' [1850 The Negro Question in Robson,JM (ed) 1984 JS Mill: Collected Works Vol XXI U Toronto Press].
Carlyle’s response was to publish an expanded version of his article as a pamphlet, this time using the deliberately more offensive title ‘The Nigger Question’ [Robson,JM (ed) 1984 JS Mill: Collected Works Vol XXI Toronto U Toronto Press p lxi]
First reactions to the news from Jamaica were mostly of horror. The Colonial Office set up a commission of enquiry, Governor Eyre was suspended and eventually recalled.
This was not enough for the Jamaica Committee who waged a long campaign. Darwin, Lyell, Huxley & Bright were among its members, while the Defence committee was more literary, including as it did Ruskin, Tennyson, Dickens & Kingsley. [Walpole,S 1904 The History of 25 Years Vol 2 1865-70 London Longmans, Green p127].
Mill in particular was determined not to let the matter drop, but after 3 attempts, which all resulted in juries refusing to return indictments, the case finally came to a close in 1868. As the Spectator (then a Liberal journal) summed it up:
The upper & middle class of the English people, especially the latter … are positively enraged at the demand of negroes for equal consideration with Irishmen, Scotchmen, & Englishmen … proceedings which would have cost the most well-meaning of weak-judging men his head if they had taken place in the United Kingdom … are heartily admired as examples of "strong government" when they take place in the British West Indies [quoted in Semmel]
One final outcome of all this was the end of John Stuart Mills’s parliamentary career. His opponents from the Eyre Defence Committee joined a vigorous campaign against him in his constituency of Westminster. Amidst a Liberal landslide, when every other London constituency returned a Liberal member, Mill lost badly to a Tory
I had felt quite queasy & startled to find the offensive title of Carlyle’s essay in the library catalogue and, in multiple editions, on the library shelves. But this was history & it had happened
Then I went to search out the reply from John Stuart Mill, in the impressive Collected Works published by the University of Toronto
I could not find this particular piece at first, but with a bit of diligence tracked it down under the title ‘The Negro Question’. I have to say that my first reaction was: Has modern North American political correctness trumped academic & editorial fidelity? But a bit more digging & I found the footnote which explained the sequence of events
Academic scrupulosity had prevailed
But the issue which so enraged Carlyle reverberates, in some form, to this day. Part of the planters’ case was that they could not afford to pay higher wages because they had to compete with slave-produced sugar from Brazil & the USA
The great sugar shortage in this country of 1973/4 was caused by rows about the effect of EEC entry on the West Indian sugar trade, as it does still in international trade negotiations (though the passion seems to be generated more by bananas now)
And the decision by the British government to use indentured labour from the Indian sub continent to replace slave labour caused racial tensions & unrest which are with us still
The great sugar shortage in this country of 1973/4 was caused by rows about the effect of EEC entry on the West Indian sugar trade, as it does still in international trade negotiations (though the passion seems to be generated more by bananas now)
And the decision by the British government to use indentured labour from the Indian sub continent to replace slave labour caused racial tensions & unrest which are with us still
Links
Taking responsibility
I do not know what to make yet of the arrest of Damian Green & the searching by counter terrorist police of offices at the House of Commons.
My first reaction was that this feels like a habeas corpus moment
Otherwise, I am just stunned, like many others, including David Cameron, to judge by how he sounded
I am also struck by how far we have come from Crichel Down, when both the Prime Minister & the Home Secretary seem to think it a complete defence to say: Nothing to do with me, guv. I didn’t even know about it
My first reaction was that this feels like a habeas corpus moment
Otherwise, I am just stunned, like many others, including David Cameron, to judge by how he sounded
I am also struck by how far we have come from Crichel Down, when both the Prime Minister & the Home Secretary seem to think it a complete defence to say: Nothing to do with me, guv. I didn’t even know about it
Misty weather
Strange weather we are having today
All the sports people on 5 Live were talking fog & mist – some fixtures even cancelled
Outside it was all blue sky & sunshine with just a few patches of lingering frost on pavement & windscreens
Three miles up the road – thick mist & very cautious drivers
All the sports people on 5 Live were talking fog & mist – some fixtures even cancelled
Outside it was all blue sky & sunshine with just a few patches of lingering frost on pavement & windscreens
Three miles up the road – thick mist & very cautious drivers
Friday, November 28, 2008
Isolated families
I grew up in North Derbyshire, on the west side of the Pennine hills which run through the county like a backbone, from the dark millstone grit of the north to the limestone further south
Apart from a few small 19th century mill towns it is an area of dales & moorland, isolated farms, small villages & hamlets. And, a feature which puzzled me even as a small child, here & there a row of not more than a half a dozen houses squeezed at the side of a narrow road, pushed up against the hillside. I guess they were probably built to house the families of men who worked the quarries or the small scale mines
Most of these places now fall inside the National Park & are desirable commuter villages for Manchester or Sheffield
But before the age of mass car ownership they were isolated & lonely, especially in winter when they could be completely cut off
The people were reputedly suspicious & wary of outsiders
Some of the novels of John Buxton Hilton capture this atmosphere & Val McDermid’s A Place of Excecution gives a modern take
And, in the old days, ‘everybody knew’ that incest was common
So we were perhaps less surprised than some by the story about incest in neighbouring South Yorkshire
Even my jaw dropped however, at the thought that 2 women could between them notch up 19 pregnancies without any health professional deciding to intervene
But then we have been living in an age when medical professionals in particular are supposed to be non-judgemental in sexual matters
And so they should be
And if nobody makes a complaint, or owns up, what do we propose? Enforced DNA tests for all possible fathers?
Apart from a few small 19th century mill towns it is an area of dales & moorland, isolated farms, small villages & hamlets. And, a feature which puzzled me even as a small child, here & there a row of not more than a half a dozen houses squeezed at the side of a narrow road, pushed up against the hillside. I guess they were probably built to house the families of men who worked the quarries or the small scale mines
Most of these places now fall inside the National Park & are desirable commuter villages for Manchester or Sheffield
But before the age of mass car ownership they were isolated & lonely, especially in winter when they could be completely cut off
The people were reputedly suspicious & wary of outsiders
Some of the novels of John Buxton Hilton capture this atmosphere & Val McDermid’s A Place of Excecution gives a modern take
And, in the old days, ‘everybody knew’ that incest was common
So we were perhaps less surprised than some by the story about incest in neighbouring South Yorkshire
Even my jaw dropped however, at the thought that 2 women could between them notch up 19 pregnancies without any health professional deciding to intervene
But then we have been living in an age when medical professionals in particular are supposed to be non-judgemental in sexual matters
And so they should be
And if nobody makes a complaint, or owns up, what do we propose? Enforced DNA tests for all possible fathers?
The folly of grandeur
I wonder what use will be made of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Edinburgh headquarters now that 58% belongs to the nation?
It is a cliché, but I knew that the bank was heading for a fall when that grand complex featured in one of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels
It is a cliché, but I knew that the bank was heading for a fall when that grand complex featured in one of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels
End of an era
I got my first proper job in Woolworths – one with a pay packet & a National Insurance card – when I was 14. A Saturday job for which I think I think I got paid about 11s 6d (57.5 p). We did not pay the full National Insurance, just industrial injury & National Health as I recall, so there were 2 separate stamps stuck to the card each week. Only pennies, but still, 10% of our earnings
For reasons best known to the management I was put on the electricals counter, rather than something more desirable like make up or biscuits. At least I knew the difference between all the various types of plug & could measure & cut all the different kinds of wire
It was not the sort of counter you stand behind, more like a long shelf across the back of the store. I stood by the till in my green overall. At least once each Saturday somebody would ask me if we had a wotsit. Can you see one? I would ask. No there’s none out. Can you go & look in the store room for me? And, after asking what sort of thing I was looking for, off I would go, on a frequently fruitless search. Heaven knows what other customers did while I was away
The pre-war sixpence must be worth about £1 these days. Woolworths prospered during the depression of the 1930s with the promise that nothing cost more than 6d (though our parents always said that you had to buy two single gloves for a total of 1 shilling rather than a pair), so we can look forward to the Pound Store Empire being a darling of the 2020 stock exchange
For reasons best known to the management I was put on the electricals counter, rather than something more desirable like make up or biscuits. At least I knew the difference between all the various types of plug & could measure & cut all the different kinds of wire
It was not the sort of counter you stand behind, more like a long shelf across the back of the store. I stood by the till in my green overall. At least once each Saturday somebody would ask me if we had a wotsit. Can you see one? I would ask. No there’s none out. Can you go & look in the store room for me? And, after asking what sort of thing I was looking for, off I would go, on a frequently fruitless search. Heaven knows what other customers did while I was away
The pre-war sixpence must be worth about £1 these days. Woolworths prospered during the depression of the 1930s with the promise that nothing cost more than 6d (though our parents always said that you had to buy two single gloves for a total of 1 shilling rather than a pair), so we can look forward to the Pound Store Empire being a darling of the 2020 stock exchange
Related post
I love £ stores
I love £ stores
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Poet laureate
For the record, my nominations for the new Poet Laureate would be:
Benjamin Zephaniah
Michael Rosen
Patience Agbabi
We could do with some gaiety, verbal acrobatics, fireworks & fun. And connection
Benjamin Zephaniah
Michael Rosen
Patience Agbabi
We could do with some gaiety, verbal acrobatics, fireworks & fun. And connection
Niggles
For various reasons I have been thinking about the N word recently.
One reason was a comment that ‘at least he did not say niggardly’ – made by someone for whom this word is offensive
Like most British people I was surprised when that particular dispute blew up, since the word was familiar & not associated, in any of our minds at least, with the N word. But when even experts said the etymology was unknown, we took note of the offence it could cause
The slave etymology was not overwhelmingly convincing & this time round I found myself considering possible alternatives
It could well have a connection with niggling, meaning paying excessive attention to detail when applied to a person or causing slight but persistent discomfort, anxiety, or annoyance when applied to a pain
However, niggle itself is of uncertain origin, and in one , now rare use, can even mean the F word!
And then I thought of the place called Nigg, a very ancient name in Scotland
Of course! We all know that the Scots are famous for their meanness! Niggardly means as generous as someone from Nigg!
All things considered, definitely a word worth avoiding
One reason was a comment that ‘at least he did not say niggardly’ – made by someone for whom this word is offensive
Like most British people I was surprised when that particular dispute blew up, since the word was familiar & not associated, in any of our minds at least, with the N word. But when even experts said the etymology was unknown, we took note of the offence it could cause
The slave etymology was not overwhelmingly convincing & this time round I found myself considering possible alternatives
It could well have a connection with niggling, meaning paying excessive attention to detail when applied to a person or causing slight but persistent discomfort, anxiety, or annoyance when applied to a pain
However, niggle itself is of uncertain origin, and in one , now rare use, can even mean the F word!
And then I thought of the place called Nigg, a very ancient name in Scotland
Of course! We all know that the Scots are famous for their meanness! Niggardly means as generous as someone from Nigg!
All things considered, definitely a word worth avoiding
Bombay
We had just arrived at the hotel on my first ever visit to Bombay, though not to India. I had to stay behind, to deal with a lost luggage problem, while my friends left for a prearranged engagement
The problem was soon sorted out, & I was faced with the prospect of mooching around in the hotel for a couple of hours until my friends returned. It is not that I am afraid to go outside on my own, but all cities (towns & villages too) have areas where it is unwise to venture, & it is best not to take the risk before you have a sense of the place
The window of my room looked down – a long way down – on the Gateway to India, where I could see lots of family groups wandering around, even though the day was overcast. Well, I could certainly go to look round there
Once outside there was obviously nothing to stop me from wandering even further, which I happily did. I came across an exhibition of modern art by Indian artists, which provided a fascinationg half hour at least
I even found some shops where, amongst other things, I bought a nice fat friendly carved elephant, who stands about 9 inches tall. My friends were very impressed that I had managed this without a guide
That was a long time ago, & I have happy memories of subsequent visits, including one spent staying in the house of the aunt of a friend (a very formidable lady). Bombay has always seemed one of the safest cities I know
Yes, the hotel was the Taj, much more than just the resort of businessmen & tourists, a symbol of the history of a city which was founded by international trade
And though my elephant is not a Ganesh I went down last night to where he sits on the bookshelves, to rub my hand over his back
The problem was soon sorted out, & I was faced with the prospect of mooching around in the hotel for a couple of hours until my friends returned. It is not that I am afraid to go outside on my own, but all cities (towns & villages too) have areas where it is unwise to venture, & it is best not to take the risk before you have a sense of the place
The window of my room looked down – a long way down – on the Gateway to India, where I could see lots of family groups wandering around, even though the day was overcast. Well, I could certainly go to look round there
Once outside there was obviously nothing to stop me from wandering even further, which I happily did. I came across an exhibition of modern art by Indian artists, which provided a fascinationg half hour at least
I even found some shops where, amongst other things, I bought a nice fat friendly carved elephant, who stands about 9 inches tall. My friends were very impressed that I had managed this without a guide
That was a long time ago, & I have happy memories of subsequent visits, including one spent staying in the house of the aunt of a friend (a very formidable lady). Bombay has always seemed one of the safest cities I know
Yes, the hotel was the Taj, much more than just the resort of businessmen & tourists, a symbol of the history of a city which was founded by international trade
And though my elephant is not a Ganesh I went down last night to where he sits on the bookshelves, to rub my hand over his back
Related post
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The cost of steam
An intriguing item on the early morning farming programme. It challenged the idea that tomatoes grown under glass in this country have a larger carbon footprint than those grown in sunny Spain
One Norfolk farm grows tomatoes with the aid of steam which comes from a power station – but only after it has first been used by another factory to refine sugar beet
Listening with only half an ear, I missed the details of this process. In particular I missed whether we were told how much the tomato farmer paid for the steam
Over 40 years ago now I was asked to advise on a similar problem, in this case the use of steam, which otherwise was just a waste product discharged to the air, as an input for one of the stages of metal refining. The pricing had become an issue because previously the power station had been owned by the mining company, but was now being taken over by the government
I am afraid I came to no very satisfactory conclusion – there seemed no very compelling objective case for any particular solution including asking the power company to pay the mining company for taking the waste off its hands!
There are many such schemes nowadays, anything from fish farming to district heating. I still wonder if there is now an agreed method in either economics or accountancy, or is it always just what the market can bear?
One Norfolk farm grows tomatoes with the aid of steam which comes from a power station – but only after it has first been used by another factory to refine sugar beet
Listening with only half an ear, I missed the details of this process. In particular I missed whether we were told how much the tomato farmer paid for the steam
Over 40 years ago now I was asked to advise on a similar problem, in this case the use of steam, which otherwise was just a waste product discharged to the air, as an input for one of the stages of metal refining. The pricing had become an issue because previously the power station had been owned by the mining company, but was now being taken over by the government
I am afraid I came to no very satisfactory conclusion – there seemed no very compelling objective case for any particular solution including asking the power company to pay the mining company for taking the waste off its hands!
There are many such schemes nowadays, anything from fish farming to district heating. I still wonder if there is now an agreed method in either economics or accountancy, or is it always just what the market can bear?
Link
Quantum success
I was rather taken aback by AC Grayling’s review of Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell in The Times
"For Gladwell's argument is that success is not a matter of individual will triumphing over adversity, but a combination of luck, opportunity, culture, initial advantages, hard work, and enough talent and intelligence - enough, note: not necessarily vast amounts of either - to profit from the advantages and opportunities at issue … whether or not you agree with Gladwell, you will never again think as you did before about what he has to say."
I have not read the book yet but from what I have heard & read about it, it does not seem to say anything startling, though the evidence he has amassed is interesting
But if even someone like Grayling has had his thinking changed, then I have been missing something
Maybe it is just that I have always thought like this, & did not understand my peculiarity?
Statistical training must help, though I remember that when I tried out my argument about Binomial families & greater educational opportunities for girls on a fellow statistician he accused me of being deterministic
Which reminds me of another idea: Women without a brother are disproportionately likely to rise to a position at or near the top of organisations in business, the civil service etc, etc. I should be really intrigued to see if there is evidence to support this
My reasoning is that such girls are in some sense (most definitely not a Well of Loneliness sense) their father’s son. From childhood they will have more ‘manly’ discussions with their father & perhaps be more likely than other girls to help daddy as well as mummy, more confident in just being with, as well as arguing with, men as equals
Or perhaps it really is all just down to The verb TO BE
Related posts
"For Gladwell's argument is that success is not a matter of individual will triumphing over adversity, but a combination of luck, opportunity, culture, initial advantages, hard work, and enough talent and intelligence - enough, note: not necessarily vast amounts of either - to profit from the advantages and opportunities at issue … whether or not you agree with Gladwell, you will never again think as you did before about what he has to say."
I have not read the book yet but from what I have heard & read about it, it does not seem to say anything startling, though the evidence he has amassed is interesting
But if even someone like Grayling has had his thinking changed, then I have been missing something
Maybe it is just that I have always thought like this, & did not understand my peculiarity?
Statistical training must help, though I remember that when I tried out my argument about Binomial families & greater educational opportunities for girls on a fellow statistician he accused me of being deterministic
Which reminds me of another idea: Women without a brother are disproportionately likely to rise to a position at or near the top of organisations in business, the civil service etc, etc. I should be really intrigued to see if there is evidence to support this
My reasoning is that such girls are in some sense (most definitely not a Well of Loneliness sense) their father’s son. From childhood they will have more ‘manly’ discussions with their father & perhaps be more likely than other girls to help daddy as well as mummy, more confident in just being with, as well as arguing with, men as equals
Or perhaps it really is all just down to The verb TO BE
Related posts
Pleased to know your views
I was interested to hear Andrew Motion & Andy Burnham on the BBC Today programme the other morning about the arrangements for appointing the next poet laureate
Thinking I might add my twopennorth to the discussion, I went to the DCMS website
Only to find: There are currently no active consultations
A footnote to Andy Burnham’s press release however says that “The public is welcome to write to the DCMS with their thoughts on the future of the Poet Laureate’s role or with suggestions for candidates for the Laureateship”
But only by old fashioned snail mail, it appears
Thinking I might add my twopennorth to the discussion, I went to the DCMS website
Only to find: There are currently no active consultations
A footnote to Andy Burnham’s press release however says that “The public is welcome to write to the DCMS with their thoughts on the future of the Poet Laureate’s role or with suggestions for candidates for the Laureateship”
But only by old fashioned snail mail, it appears
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Stormy weather
It has only just come to my attention that the US Treasury bail out plan for banks is called the Troubled Asset Relief Programme
Anybody who has ever spent any time under canvas will know that it is not a very comfortable place to be in a storm
But trying to erect a canvas shelter when the wind is howling, lightning flashing & rain lashing ?
Anybody who has ever spent any time under canvas will know that it is not a very comfortable place to be in a storm
But trying to erect a canvas shelter when the wind is howling, lightning flashing & rain lashing ?
Direction of travel
Another thought about which way babies should travel
A tv series about child development, from a good few years ago now, showed one sequence which has stuck in my memory
It demonstrated research which had been undertaken at one of the Ivy League universities, with babies no more than 6 months old
Mum came in carrying junior in one of those small portable seats – I do not think the babies were old enough to sit unsupported anyway
After a bit of a chat with the professor, they went out to observe through a two-way mirror, seemingly leaving baby alone
Except that behind the chair was a young woman assistant with something like a bamboo fishing pole from which dangled a mobile. She gently moved this so that it was in the baby’s line of vision, though he could not see the girl
The first baby showed clear signs of surprise, then shock – arms & legs went rigid & he started to whimper. The film showed the professor put his hand on mothers arm when she automatically moved to go to comfort her baby – Just leave it a moment, he said
The baby almost immediately started to cry, in real distress, but all was well as soon as he got a cuddle
The second baby stayed completely relaxed, eyes watching the mobile, saying (in coo) Oh isn’t that pretty! Look at the colours! See how it moves!
The professor said that if those babies came back in 2 or 3 years time, when they were old enough for personality testing, he could almost guarantee that the first baby would show as introverted, the second as an extrovert
Any parent who wished to test the personality of their young baby could get one of those buggies which can be set up so that the baby faces either forwards or backwards. If the baby exhibits distress at facing forwards, intoversion can be assumed, & the buggy changed round so as not to inflict lifelong psychological damage
A tv series about child development, from a good few years ago now, showed one sequence which has stuck in my memory
It demonstrated research which had been undertaken at one of the Ivy League universities, with babies no more than 6 months old
Mum came in carrying junior in one of those small portable seats – I do not think the babies were old enough to sit unsupported anyway
After a bit of a chat with the professor, they went out to observe through a two-way mirror, seemingly leaving baby alone
Except that behind the chair was a young woman assistant with something like a bamboo fishing pole from which dangled a mobile. She gently moved this so that it was in the baby’s line of vision, though he could not see the girl
The first baby showed clear signs of surprise, then shock – arms & legs went rigid & he started to whimper. The film showed the professor put his hand on mothers arm when she automatically moved to go to comfort her baby – Just leave it a moment, he said
The baby almost immediately started to cry, in real distress, but all was well as soon as he got a cuddle
The second baby stayed completely relaxed, eyes watching the mobile, saying (in coo) Oh isn’t that pretty! Look at the colours! See how it moves!
The professor said that if those babies came back in 2 or 3 years time, when they were old enough for personality testing, he could almost guarantee that the first baby would show as introverted, the second as an extrovert
Any parent who wished to test the personality of their young baby could get one of those buggies which can be set up so that the baby faces either forwards or backwards. If the baby exhibits distress at facing forwards, intoversion can be assumed, & the buggy changed round so as not to inflict lifelong psychological damage
Back to the engine
I was thinking again about this business of which way a baby should face in its buggy, which has attracted quite a lot of attention
Many adults are fussy about which way they face when travelling by train. In particular, some say they cannot bear to sit facing backwards, they need to see where they are going
I was never bothered by this until I realised that it made a big difference to my back – could even affect whether I could rise from my seat without assistance when we reached our destination
Trains never accelerate very much, but they do brake quite hard, so it is better to be thrown against the back of the seat than to be thrown forwards
The train companies have always recognised that people have preferences of course, & allow you to specify when booking a seat
In the old British Rail Inter City days the booking system was not all that reliable (it could not even guarantee that seats would not be double booked), so you could easily find that the seat with your number on it did not face the way you wanted
This happened to me at Manchester one day, but the train was not full, so I moved to one which did. When the conductor came round I explained to him – thinking to be helpful – that I would not be using the booked seat, because I needed my back to the engine
He told me that, since those trains had two engines – one at either end – I should have asked for Back to Direction of Travel
Neither his face nor his voice suggested he was joking, but I smiled anyway
Many adults are fussy about which way they face when travelling by train. In particular, some say they cannot bear to sit facing backwards, they need to see where they are going
I was never bothered by this until I realised that it made a big difference to my back – could even affect whether I could rise from my seat without assistance when we reached our destination
Trains never accelerate very much, but they do brake quite hard, so it is better to be thrown against the back of the seat than to be thrown forwards
The train companies have always recognised that people have preferences of course, & allow you to specify when booking a seat
In the old British Rail Inter City days the booking system was not all that reliable (it could not even guarantee that seats would not be double booked), so you could easily find that the seat with your number on it did not face the way you wanted
This happened to me at Manchester one day, but the train was not full, so I moved to one which did. When the conductor came round I explained to him – thinking to be helpful – that I would not be using the booked seat, because I needed my back to the engine
He told me that, since those trains had two engines – one at either end – I should have asked for Back to Direction of Travel
Neither his face nor his voice suggested he was joking, but I smiled anyway
Related post
Standing by
Alistair Darling is standing by his Pre Budget Report -
You mean to say someone thought he might really have woken up this morning & thought Ooops!
Radio 5 headline news, 7:30 news this morning
You mean to say someone thought he might really have woken up this morning & thought Ooops!
Monday, November 24, 2008
M&S foods
One of the books I picked up in the library sale was Thought For Food by Nathan Goldenberg, a study of the post war development of Marks & Spencers food department, in which he played an important part as a food scientist
The first surprise for me was that M&S had been in food even before WWII, but that “by the mid 50s the food range had dwindled down to a range of long life slab cakes, pound cakes & swiss rolls; biscuits, confectionery, a small range of canned foods & fresh fruit” while the business concentrated on clothing
“He was not an easy man & was never afraid to stand his ground on matters of principle. He was, however, always constructive“, in the words of Sir Derek Rayner in the preface.
“In my early days at M&S I was surprised to find how little importance was given to the taste & flavour of the foods produced by some manufacturers & especially so at the end of the shelf life of the project” and “The idea that foods of high quality cannot be produced in dirty factories under unhygienic conditions was also accepted only gradually” give some idea of what Goldenberg himself found in “my early & rather difficult years at M&S”
Some rather hair raising stories help to explain why friends of mine, who are in the food hygiene business, seem paranoid about the state of their fridge etc
The story of faecal streptococci found in tinned ham after suppliers in Holland & Denmark had both been asked by the US army in Europe to reduce heat treatment (time & temp) in order to diminish the amount of jelly & fat
Or how it was discovered that any bacteria on the hands of a production line operative could get on to wet warm cans of peas & then be drawn through the very small space between the lid & the can itself by the force of the vacuum developing in the air space in the can as it cooled
How mould spore could be drawn in to plastic drink bottles by static charge, until the conveyor belt was altered so bottles did not rub together
It is salutary that measures we take for granted now took time to develop & be accepted as standard
1 Use of the right raw materials for each product
2 Good processing standards to ensure consistent quality
3 Good packaging standards
4 High standards of hygienic food handling & factory sanitation
5 Foods both clean & fresh, and good to eat
6 Shelf life & sell buy dates to ensure foods are fresh when eaten by the consumer
7 Cold chain techniques for handling high risk foods
8 Working with suppliers whose management supports these principles
9 Suppliers to employ technologists, laboratories & hygiene officers
In the 1970s, as M&S moved in to chilled foods in a big way (especially chilled, rather than frozen, chickens) I rather resented the over-scrupulous attention to sell by dates – or at least the policy that led to them carrying only small stock levels to ensure that they were not left with unsaleable goods on their hands
This meant that you really needed to get into an M&S store before about 11am to have a real chance of getting what you wanted
And I felt doubly miffed during the Winter of Discontent of 1978/79 when Time magazine carried pictures of empty supermarket shelves in Britain
I do not remember food shortages being a problem that year – in contrast to what happened during the miners’ strikes or the Great Sugar Shortage
And anyway, the shelves were clearly Marks & Spencers, so it was just a normal afternoon
Nowadays I suppose I fret more about the large amounts of unsold stock you can see being removed from M&S shelves towards the end of the day
But Time magazine went down in my esteem in 1979
The first surprise for me was that M&S had been in food even before WWII, but that “by the mid 50s the food range had dwindled down to a range of long life slab cakes, pound cakes & swiss rolls; biscuits, confectionery, a small range of canned foods & fresh fruit” while the business concentrated on clothing
“He was not an easy man & was never afraid to stand his ground on matters of principle. He was, however, always constructive“, in the words of Sir Derek Rayner in the preface.
“In my early days at M&S I was surprised to find how little importance was given to the taste & flavour of the foods produced by some manufacturers & especially so at the end of the shelf life of the project” and “The idea that foods of high quality cannot be produced in dirty factories under unhygienic conditions was also accepted only gradually” give some idea of what Goldenberg himself found in “my early & rather difficult years at M&S”
Some rather hair raising stories help to explain why friends of mine, who are in the food hygiene business, seem paranoid about the state of their fridge etc
The story of faecal streptococci found in tinned ham after suppliers in Holland & Denmark had both been asked by the US army in Europe to reduce heat treatment (time & temp) in order to diminish the amount of jelly & fat
Or how it was discovered that any bacteria on the hands of a production line operative could get on to wet warm cans of peas & then be drawn through the very small space between the lid & the can itself by the force of the vacuum developing in the air space in the can as it cooled
How mould spore could be drawn in to plastic drink bottles by static charge, until the conveyor belt was altered so bottles did not rub together
It is salutary that measures we take for granted now took time to develop & be accepted as standard
1 Use of the right raw materials for each product
2 Good processing standards to ensure consistent quality
3 Good packaging standards
4 High standards of hygienic food handling & factory sanitation
5 Foods both clean & fresh, and good to eat
6 Shelf life & sell buy dates to ensure foods are fresh when eaten by the consumer
7 Cold chain techniques for handling high risk foods
8 Working with suppliers whose management supports these principles
9 Suppliers to employ technologists, laboratories & hygiene officers
In the 1970s, as M&S moved in to chilled foods in a big way (especially chilled, rather than frozen, chickens) I rather resented the over-scrupulous attention to sell by dates – or at least the policy that led to them carrying only small stock levels to ensure that they were not left with unsaleable goods on their hands
This meant that you really needed to get into an M&S store before about 11am to have a real chance of getting what you wanted
And I felt doubly miffed during the Winter of Discontent of 1978/79 when Time magazine carried pictures of empty supermarket shelves in Britain
I do not remember food shortages being a problem that year – in contrast to what happened during the miners’ strikes or the Great Sugar Shortage
And anyway, the shelves were clearly Marks & Spencers, so it was just a normal afternoon
Nowadays I suppose I fret more about the large amounts of unsold stock you can see being removed from M&S shelves towards the end of the day
But Time magazine went down in my esteem in 1979
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