Blog posts

you know how sometimes research seems to state the obvious?

The intended Saturday didn’t happen. The morning came and went and we didn’t appear in the town square. I stayed still, but only till I woke up and activity took me. Occasional other moments of stillness were noticed, but they were mostly while I tried to decide how to present an argument or a concept. It wasn’t just me. I think we will try to stand again. Maybe a month from last Saturday, when more deadlines have passed. But I think that last Saturday worked best as an experiment. We’ll repeat it, and see if it works, but it was more a transitional thing which (while worthwhile in itself) showed that some of these crazy ideas can become our practice. It’s certainly led to a lot of interesting conversations which I think have challenged all concerned. We don’t need a reason why. ...

The World Economic Forum’s meetings this year have been rather pushed out of the spotlight they’ve enjoyed of late. The protestors are still there, but the small matter of governments scraping the barrel to find a reason for war in the middle east seems to have the media somewhat preoccupied. Nevertheless, a certain amount of digging on the BBC website brought this to light. Sadly it seems that they still don’t get it. I guess it’s a vain hope, but perhaps one day those inside the summits will realise that the protestors aren’t necessarily saying they’re all bad people. Rather, it’s the gross lack of transparency and the back-handed deals which are the current issue at stake. If we’re going to elect these leaders, we’d kinda like to be told what they’re up to. Yes, most of those protesting probably wouldn’t like what they are up to, but then that’s their right. How exactly are they supposed to make constructive contributions to the relevant debates unless someone lets on about what’s actually happening. How exactly is democracy supposed to work if our politicians hide their activities from their electorate. ...

Yesterday, I failed to stand still for half an hour. I put it down to my failure to eat properly over a couple of days, a failure which resulted from a combination of factors, chiefly: not having much food in the house and not being in the house to prepare it if there had been any. So it was that after 25 minutes, I had to walk over to a bench and sit on it. ...

For those interested in the future of the web, the current debate about XHTML2 raging in blogland is essential reading. For my part, I’d understood that if I engineered my pages to fit the XHTML standards then a few tweaks aside that would be it, there would be the appropriate XML definitions in place and I wouldn’t need to use XHTML 2 unless it were appropriate for my documents. But that does make the naming unclear, version 2 suggests to me a suggested upgrade path rather than an alternative offered. ...

How are we supposed to believe our government is truly concerned about Saddam Hussein’s treatment of his own people when we wake up to news stories about how pleased they are that they’ve cracked down on Iraqi Kurds seeking asylum in this country? If we were truly concerned, surely we would be finding ways to welcome these people, to strengthen them, and to prepare them for a time when they could go and rebuild their homeland. ...

Is a corporation a virtual person? Does freedom of speech mean the freedom to lie? Who knows?

New Statesman’s close connections to New Labour have put me off in the past. Aside from one fun party all they seemed to be giving me was ridiculous articles about how the anti-globalisation movement was like al-qaeda. So I gave up on them. But yesterday’s cover grabbed me and I had another read. Something would appear to be afoot when a magazine of this sort runs a cover story asking “can the church stop war?”. ...

As a physics undergrad I’ve heard a lot about nuclear processes and nuclear fuels. A few years back I was barraged with propaganda from BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.) about how they had the solution to the world’s fossil fuel crisis. I remain unconvinced. But having read a lot of that propaganda, and understanding that the arguments for nuclear power are strong ones, I’m somewhat bewildered as to why the term ‘crisis’ is being used in connection with North Korea. In 1994 North Korea’s government signed an agreement sponsored by the USA, Japan and South Korea, to halt its “graphite technology nuclear program” in return for two “light-water nuclear reactors” (information from this site). It has recently disclosed that it has terminated that agreement. And that has apparently precipitated a ‘crisis’. ...

Yes, I am online. Yes, it is Christmas Day. This leader in the Guardian warmed up my Christmas Eve, which was otherwise filled with Casablanca, the Life of Pi, some updates to britlinks (!) and a little more of some other work than might have been hoped. Now it’s just time for a few last minute e-mails and then off to await the morning.