All fourteen of them, with the words provided as well! Now, all together...
"I wanna be the very best, like no-one ever was..."
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Monday, 5 November 2012
Please to Remember
Yes, it's Guy Fawkes' Night tonight; and Cranmer offers us his customarily thoughtful angle on what happened all those years ago that resulted in this annual event.
It's a good one, reminding us how the actions of a group of Catholics (along with a couple of Jesuit priests) led to a religion-based exclusion in a number of important areas of occupation of Catholics from the capital of England. The incident helped make it easy to add to a period of existing persecution of Catholics here at that time.
His Grace's closing paragraph sums it all up, as an ongoing lesson for us all...
Any deferral for wiser counsel to ultimately prevail will be attributed to dithering, cowardice or even of being secret complicit in the crime (or whatever it was) – and when one has political opponents they will use any such delay in any or all of those ways, and no doubt others as well, if they can devise them.
Such is human nature, and the ability of the unscrupulous and self-serving to manipulate others and events to suit their own ends. It is one of the reasons I am so hot on the trail of that aspect of political life, and why I expose it from time to time, to remind my readers that this is how some operate. I could make a full-time job of that side of things alone, but that would become tedious and, eventually, even boring – so I moderate that part of what I do here.
However, as an object lesson, the fallout from the Gunpowder Plot serves as a useful lesson from history that applies equally to today's world, and even to today's England or Britain.
We have seen how whole groups, able to be described in simple enough terms to be used as tabloid headlines (for example), have been tarred with a particular brush, even in recent years. Sometimes there is a broad correlation between the category/description and the problem/criminality, whereas in other cases there isn't.
We, as a species, need to mature enough to avoid the pitfalls of easy categorisation (if that's a word!) which we clearly haven't done so far. Because of the numbers game, and having to appeal to – and be understood by – the lowest common denominator in our society, simplistic solutions are an easy and attractive option.
As the Gunpowder Plot shows, though, simplistic extrapolation on the basis of (say) a religion is not, certainly in most cases if not all, the right approach, and can so easily lead to completely disproportionate and inappropriate consequences..
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the essence of today's lesson: be prepared to let wiser and cooler heads prevail without pressuring them when one's thinking is clouded by excessive emotion. Passionate feelings about something can be a useful tool when applied wisely, but all too often lead us all astray, especially in mob, party and other group situations.
We all need to be alert to the danger, and resist the pressures of others to head in a bad direction, especially at times of outrage...
It's a good one, reminding us how the actions of a group of Catholics (along with a couple of Jesuit priests) led to a religion-based exclusion in a number of important areas of occupation of Catholics from the capital of England. The incident helped make it easy to add to a period of existing persecution of Catholics here at that time.
His Grace's closing paragraph sums it all up, as an ongoing lesson for us all...
"Today we celebrate our national freedom, and remember the many innocent observers who were caught in the fray. Never again must a foreign prince have authority in this Realm, and never again must religion be a tool of hatred, oppression and persecution."It can be very difficult, when an authority figure or body is under pressure from a mass of outraged public who are demanding action, to avoid falling into one of the prepared (by the devil, usually) traps. In an attempt to satisfy the people that action has been taken to avoid a repetition of anything of similar nature, a common element that can be identified and therefore managed can be the only apparent way out of a situation.
Any deferral for wiser counsel to ultimately prevail will be attributed to dithering, cowardice or even of being secret complicit in the crime (or whatever it was) – and when one has political opponents they will use any such delay in any or all of those ways, and no doubt others as well, if they can devise them.
Such is human nature, and the ability of the unscrupulous and self-serving to manipulate others and events to suit their own ends. It is one of the reasons I am so hot on the trail of that aspect of political life, and why I expose it from time to time, to remind my readers that this is how some operate. I could make a full-time job of that side of things alone, but that would become tedious and, eventually, even boring – so I moderate that part of what I do here.
However, as an object lesson, the fallout from the Gunpowder Plot serves as a useful lesson from history that applies equally to today's world, and even to today's England or Britain.
We have seen how whole groups, able to be described in simple enough terms to be used as tabloid headlines (for example), have been tarred with a particular brush, even in recent years. Sometimes there is a broad correlation between the category/description and the problem/criminality, whereas in other cases there isn't.
We, as a species, need to mature enough to avoid the pitfalls of easy categorisation (if that's a word!) which we clearly haven't done so far. Because of the numbers game, and having to appeal to – and be understood by – the lowest common denominator in our society, simplistic solutions are an easy and attractive option.
As the Gunpowder Plot shows, though, simplistic extrapolation on the basis of (say) a religion is not, certainly in most cases if not all, the right approach, and can so easily lead to completely disproportionate and inappropriate consequences..
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the essence of today's lesson: be prepared to let wiser and cooler heads prevail without pressuring them when one's thinking is clouded by excessive emotion. Passionate feelings about something can be a useful tool when applied wisely, but all too often lead us all astray, especially in mob, party and other group situations.
We all need to be alert to the danger, and resist the pressures of others to head in a bad direction, especially at times of outrage...
Tweet of the Day – 4 November 2012
From Sophy Ridge of Sky, on the US presidential race...
Meanwhile,over here, Paddy Power have already paid out the 'winnings' to those who bet on Obama – two days early!
"In Colorado Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson looks to be stealing more votes from Obama than Romney.Vote on knife edge,could make big diff"With just two days to go, this is significant late-in-the-day news. In fact, Romney is probably doing better in general than some think – though whether it will be enough we shall not know until it's all over and the final result is announced.
Meanwhile,over here, Paddy Power have already paid out the 'winnings' to those who bet on Obama – two days early!
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Tweet of the Day – 3 November 2012
One for the IT geeks, from FactHive, re-formatted for ease of reading...
In fact, this was tweeted a couple of days ago, but I don't follow FactHive (I hadn't even heard of the account before) and picked it up from a re-tweet dated today. I thought it might be of interest to at least a few of my regular readers, so worthy of inclusion in this series.
The point this tweet makes is of course the old one about the costs of any particular technology reducing over time. Once the costs of developing a new technology have been recouped, that can come off the sale price of the end product, aided also by refinement in production techniques gained with experience, mass-production when it goes mainstream in the marketplace, and competition from others in the same line of business.
It happened with pocket calculators (originally sold for well over £100, now often given away with something else) and many other technology-based innovations. I saw a lot of it happen within the hi-fi market during my time working in that sector's retail business, so for me it is old hat: I've known of the phenomenon for more than four decades now.
"Price of 1 gigabyte of storage over time:
- 1981 $300,000
- 1987 $50,000
- 1990 $10,000
- 1994 $1,000
- 1997 $100
- 2000 $10
- 2004 $1
- 2012 $0.10 "
In fact, this was tweeted a couple of days ago, but I don't follow FactHive (I hadn't even heard of the account before) and picked it up from a re-tweet dated today. I thought it might be of interest to at least a few of my regular readers, so worthy of inclusion in this series.
The point this tweet makes is of course the old one about the costs of any particular technology reducing over time. Once the costs of developing a new technology have been recouped, that can come off the sale price of the end product, aided also by refinement in production techniques gained with experience, mass-production when it goes mainstream in the marketplace, and competition from others in the same line of business.
It happened with pocket calculators (originally sold for well over £100, now often given away with something else) and many other technology-based innovations. I saw a lot of it happen within the hi-fi market during my time working in that sector's retail business, so for me it is old hat: I've known of the phenomenon for more than four decades now.
Friday, 2 November 2012
Long Before the iPad
The current popularity of 'tablets' such as Apple's iPad is an interesting development. The earliest such device I am aware of, though, goes back to 1996 – yes, sixteen years ago!
This was Acorn's NewsPAD (News Personal Access Device) that downloaded news and similar information automatically, according to your specifications. Thus you could pick from categories, and also set up include or exclude filters (e.g. include pets but exclude hamsters) to tailor your downloads.
Here is the NewsPAD...
The device was designed specifically for Spain, where the data structure and download facilities to provide the information and work with the (then new) technology were being put in place. The NewsPAD itself operated via a touch-screen as is the norm for such devices...but note from the photograph that it was a RISC OS system (the icon bar is a real give-away) on a 10·4" display of 800 x 600 pixels.
It could also drive an external monitor at up to 1,600 x 600 pixels, though at a reduced colour depth. As one might expect, it had CD-quality stereo sound capability and even a built-in speaker, as well as the headphones output for top-quality listening.
Of course, it also featured the world's best and clearest text display with no colour fringing (unlike on Microsoft and Apple systems, for example), there was a docking station facility and much more besides.
Thus it is worth remembering that, when you next power-up your shiny new iPad or whatever, it's really not that new an idea at all...
This was Acorn's NewsPAD (News Personal Access Device) that downloaded news and similar information automatically, according to your specifications. Thus you could pick from categories, and also set up include or exclude filters (e.g. include pets but exclude hamsters) to tailor your downloads.
Here is the NewsPAD...
The device was designed specifically for Spain, where the data structure and download facilities to provide the information and work with the (then new) technology were being put in place. The NewsPAD itself operated via a touch-screen as is the norm for such devices...but note from the photograph that it was a RISC OS system (the icon bar is a real give-away) on a 10·4" display of 800 x 600 pixels.
It could also drive an external monitor at up to 1,600 x 600 pixels, though at a reduced colour depth. As one might expect, it had CD-quality stereo sound capability and even a built-in speaker, as well as the headphones output for top-quality listening.
Of course, it also featured the world's best and clearest text display with no colour fringing (unlike on Microsoft and Apple systems, for example), there was a docking station facility and much more besides.
Thus it is worth remembering that, when you next power-up your shiny new iPad or whatever, it's really not that new an idea at all...
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