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The Furrowed Brow

Comments

1. At 06:36 AM on 21 May 2007, The Stainless Steel Cat wrote:

   So a top police bod says CCTV cameras are turning us into an Orwellian society where the state tracks all of our movements, meanwhile the state votes to hide its doings from the public for spurious reasons.

   ...you know I think DCC Redhead might be right?

   Also, the New St. Trinian's film finishes production this week. Good or bad? You decide. Call or premium rate vote line now. (Proceeds to the "Buy me a complete set of Alistair Sim films Fund".)

2. At 07:15 AM on 21 May 2007, mittfh wrote:

   Firefighters are dempening down the remains of the Cutty Sark, after the boat caught fire earlier.

   According to Today, the masts, figurehead and some planking had already been removed into storage, so the question is how much of what remained has been consumed by the flames.

3. At 08:12 AM on 21 May 2007, wrote:

   SSC, I must admit to being concerned about the level of surveillance (sp?) that's considered "normal" by politicitans. Yes, by all means investigate, follow, toap the phones of suspects (The last under judicial review). However, monitoring the whole population "just in case you do something in the future" surely means that those who wish to disrupt normal life in the UK would have succeded. Ours is a generally liberal society, where the freedoms of the individual count for a lot. If these freedoms are curtailed, then I fear for this country
   

4. At 09:11 AM on 21 May 2007, wrote:

   PS re the St Trinians film, I think we'll just have to wait & see. I hope it's a lot better than the Carry On they did a few years ago...
   

5. At 11:31 AM on 21 May 2007, wrote:

   Reliance on technology rather than human contact and good, thorough police work dehumanises us all.

   Over reliance is even more dangerous as it somehow leaves people feeling that technology will take care of everything and removes the need to apply common sense in individual decision making. The appearance of cameras in places with low crime rates is likely to make people feel more threatened than they actually are.

   Finally the abuse of material caught on camera may be widespread. I remember the occasion when security cameras at my place of work caught a couple in flagrante, outside the premises - didn't prevent the security staff from re-showing it and since they probably knew the individuals was to my mind an intrusion too far. Easy to imagine such a scenario leading to blackmail.

6. At 01:13 PM on 21 May 2007, mittfh wrote:

   We could run with the Cutty Sark disaster, but I'd like to say a few words about a certain TV programme tonight.

   "Wi-Fi is dangerous!"
   Right, so you're saying a study should be launched into the effects of radio transmitter technology with a power 100 times less than that of a mobile telephone...
   Mind you, with Panorama joining the Sindy (Independent on Sunday) and a minor teacher's union (PAT), it's going to get hyped up to the extent that many people will believe Wi-Fi is just as evil (if not more so) than mobile telephone base stations (do an internet search for "WiFi health" to reveal stacks of documents)

   My only problem with Wi-Fi in schools (having been a former ICT technician) is that access points are only designed to cope with 10-15 clients maximum each (the bandwidth is shared between all the clients connecting to it, so the more clients you connect to an AP, the less bandwidth is available to each one). Hence for a class of 30, you ideally need the room to be covered with 3 access points. Each must broadcast at a slightly different frequency to avoid conflicts - and although theoretically there are 11 frequency channels available, only 3 are usable. If you have several adjacent rooms with Wi-Fi connectivity, you're going to run out of channels pretty quickly, unless you put metal sheeting in the walls to prevent signals escaping the room.

   There's also a security issue - if the school buildings are located close to housing, then it's possible for nearby householders to connect to the school's network and 'poach' their bandwidth. So it's vitally important schools have decent web usage logging and filtering (many schools already block downloading as well as adult material and social networking sites, but the filters don't always catch third-party proxy sites).

   Besides which on the health front, in schools notebook PCs are likely to rest on a desk, with the antenna (which surrounds the screen) a good couple of feet away from the head and chest. Resting notebooks on the lap is something you're more likely to encounter at home, where your primary health concern is likely to be ...

7. At 05:27 PM on 21 May 2007, wrote:

   Thanks for that Mittfh,

   As I sit with laptop on my knees, wearing jeans and knit boxers, as usual, I make sure the cooling fan has a clear exit. Never had a problem. Wireless antenna is in the screen, I think, and around 60cm from my nose. Just what is the flux, and is it set up as directional, i.e. all directions except operator? WAP is at one-thirty (left of centre), and ~40m away.

   Of course, I'm bombarded on all sides, as are we all, by radiation of all wavelengths, natural and man-made, much of which is strong enough for me to capture anything from microwave to long wave and decode the signals to hear radio 4, aircraft talking to Prestwick Flight Control, police or television signals, as well, of course, as satellite and cell phones and their masts, though the nearest mast is a mile away.

   The only safe place would be a deep cave, but there I'd encounter Radon gas from the Uranium in the local granite, of which all our buildings are built. What's a body to do?

   xx
   ed.
   

8. At 08:55 PM on 21 May 2007, wrote:

   "Government is trying to outsource education to parents", bemoaned Professor Frank.

   Up to that I was nearly won over by his argument that parents want to be left alone to get on with parenting: I for one do. It is a parent's first duty to educate a child. Parents educate children from morning to night through their actions, their words and their emotions. We teach them to talk, to walk and to eat. Then we outsource part of this education process to the Government, or the Church, or whoever runs the school we send them to.

   Government cannot outsource education! They don't own it or the ideas it forms: they run it with our consent. This is why parents have a right to demand high quality education establishments and highly skilled teachers, and why they have the right to pay more and even to intervene if they feel the service provided is not good enough.

   The Government comes in to help with the consent of the parent and for part of the day. It is important for parents to get involved in homework not because they are being fobbed off with second rate teaching, but because they need to know what their children are learning, and to provide feedback to the child on what they know and believe, and to be sure that the concepts taught during the day are re-enforced at night. It is no accident that high academic results come from families where parents are involved with their children and their schools.

   Good parents know how to take advice, know when they need help. The Professor is right: we don't need it rammed down our throats. However, good parents also know that eight year old children should not be on the streets with their friends at ten o'clock at night, that eleven year olds should not hang around street corners drinking cider. So clearly there are some parents who think like Professor Frank that education is the State's job. Those parents need reminding that school ends at 3 o'clock, but education does not. I'm happy for the Government to spend some of my money doing that.
   

9. At 09:07 AM on 22 May 2007, wrote:

   Ed & mittfh;
   And, of course, the largest magnetic field around us all is the Earth's own. Larger by orders of magnitude than anything put out by a mobile phone, a laptop Wi-Fi antenna or an electricity pylon, etc.

   How come the Earth doesn't wipe us all out?

   Why is it that people who see the Aurora Borealis (Earth's mag field interacting with the solar wind) don't transmute into cabbages, or something equally weird?

   Si.

10. At 10:52 AM on 22 May 2007, The Stainless Steel Cat wrote:

    FF (4):

    On remaking old, beloved series of films...

    I think the reason that Carry On Columbus and the St Trinians remake in the 1980's were both so bad was that they were both trying to recreate something out of its time.

    The Carry Ons with their saucy humour fitted perfectly with the late-50's/early-60's sense of increasing freedom. When that humour became tame around the start of the 70's, the quality of the films dropped.

    The original St. Trinians films were part of the gentle humour and even satire of the 50's and transferring that to the knowing, cynical 80's or 00's may be asking for trouble.

    The thing is - and this is why I'm talking about this in The Furrowed Brow - that as a society, we have a deeply ingrained sense of nostalgia which we see not only in the urge to revive cosy films and TV series from the past, but also we cling onto old ways of doing things, old measurements, old policies, not because they're right for just now, but because that's the way we used to do things, so they must be right.

    David Cameron may well be right to question the role of grammar schools in the 21st century. All *I* know is that those people slamming him for even questioning it are wrong. We need to look at everything we do and believe and see if it still works.

    Then again, nostalgic revivals can work very well. Look at the popularity of the new Doctor Who series.

    So I'll give the new St. Trinians film a fair look when it comes out (even without Alistair Sim and George Cole) and I'll listen to what David Cameron, Alex Salmond and Gordon Brown have to say and judge them on the merits of the situation today, not on preconceived ideas...

    (I really should also mention that I've *been* to St Trinians, or at least to what remains of the old St. Trinneans school in Edinburgh that Ronald Searle used as his original inspiration. Sadly, no sixth-formers appeared to wreak havoc on my person...)

11. At 11:50 AM on 22 May 2007, wrote:

    Forthside Feline,

    I believe Frank Zappa said the world would end in nostalgia.
    xx
    ed

12. At 08:05 PM on 17 Jul 2007, Andy Smith wrote:

    I have been ruminating (geddit?) on the topical question of flatulence and I am at a loss concerning the implications. You, Eddie, can help me, if anybody can. Here's the issue. Cows emit more methane than do people. For similar reasons, vegetarians produce more methane than do omnivorous folk. Where does the balance lie? Would the stratosphere be better served by culling beef cattle and enforcing vegetarianism, or by the opposite strategy of eliminating vegetarians?