If you see a beggar...
A recorded announcement on the train from London to Hampton Court:
"Beggars occasionally board trains. Please do not encourage them by giving them money. If you see a beggar on the train, please inform a member of staff."
US-style Christian fundamentalism on the move in UK
From British blogger Sunny Hundal's frontpage contribution on Talk To Action:
Christian fundamentalism has well and truly arrived in the UK. And it is rapidly reaching the upper echelons of the Conservative party.
.....
The human fertilisation and embryology controversy and the argument over hybrid embryos, abortion and gay rights is merely the start of a larger cultural battle that they will want to wage across Britain for years to come.
.....
[T]he first tactic of fundamentalists is to deny their links to each other until they're confident that coming out more openly won't jeopardise their agenda.
Hundal's diary is in part a response to the Channel 4 documentary of the current Dispatches series, "In God's Name."
TMurray on Talk To Action also provides an update on Conservatives' attempt, funded and coached by the D.C.-based Alliance Defense Fund, to proposed a bill in Parliament intended to restrict abortion.
(The documentary "In God's Name," is available in its entirety on the sanctioned torrenting site--a "P2P," meaning "peer-to-peer," file-sharing website for large files--for UK-produced programs, UKNova.com. Search for "Dispatches: In God's Name." UKNova is available for a limited number of members, but memberships expire frequently--probably several a day--as users fail to maintain activity on the site. So, if you can't successfully register at first, keep trying periodically; a new membership slot will open up eventually. Programming on UKNova is available for only a limited time, and no programs are allowed to be shared that are commercially available; so if you'd like to see the documentary, don't dally!)
Happy b-day, Wilko
Jonny Wilkinson (Rugby Union player: Newcastle Falcons and England Rugby) is 29 years-old today.
In October 2007, he became the highest point-scorer in the history of the World Cup; during a 2008 Six Nations match against Italy he became the first English player to score 1,000 test points; in March 2008, he became the international rugby record points scorer. He is the world record drop goal scorer in international rugby (a total of 29).
Photos: (L) Jonny doing what he does a lot--even on Christmas morning--heading out to practice...in this case during the World Cup in France, 2007. (UR) Jonny in the English countryside. (LR) Jonny doing what he does best: launching into a successful drop goal.
Red Ken can be a jerk.
Yes, I'm a Labour-lover, a registered Democrat who as an American intern worked for the Labour Party Spokesman on Trade & Industry, but "Red Ken" Livingstone--the Labour mayor of London--has been, at best, erratic and autocratic as late. A pity. Now Ken's blocked funding for the Gay World Football Championship. Ken, what are you doing? You're losing ground to Conservative candidate Boris Johnson. Do you think you have the LGBT vote that solidly?
One of Livingstone's opponents in the election is Brian Paddick, who I first mentioned on this blog in May 2006. A former London police commissioner, he's running as the candidate of the Liberal Democrat party.
The election is on May 1, 2008.
(Photo, L to R: Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick, Ken Livingstone.)
IT'S SCOTLAND WEEK! March 30th to April 6th.
It's that time of year again in NYC, D.C., Toronto, Boston, and other cities around the US and Canada -- It's Scotland Week!
From March 30th to April 6th.
You gotta love opportunities like free haggis at Broadway and West 52nd Street in Manhattan! (April 5) I mean, forget the other events like the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert and whiskey tastings. We're talkin' an opportunity for haggis!
Oh, and let the count down to St. Andrew's Day begin!
If you're heading to Scotland for holiday, I recommend Potteryhouse B&B near Inverness. This recommendation has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I know the owners, honest. (Congrats, guys, on the first daffodil of spring.)
Arthur C. Clarke: Space elevators, geostationary orbits and more
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, CBE died at the age of 90 yesterday in Sri Lanka, where he'd lived for more than 50 years. I got a text message last night from a friend with the news. I was a big fan of Clarke's. He provided the first in-depth description of using geostationary orbits for communication satellites, popularized the idea of the space elevator, and wrote a lot of good science fiction, including his early short stories "Rescue Party" and "Encounter in the Dawn," on which in part was based, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film he and Stanley Kubrick wrote and created. Clarke worked on the novelization of 2001 concurrently with the film project. The film is widely considered by historians and film professionals and buffs alike to be one of the most significant movies of all time. NASA's Mars Odyssey mission was named after Clarke's tale. Clarke also has an asteroid and a dinosaur species named after him. The Clarke Orbit is named after him; it's the orbital area into which most man-made satellites are placed. Clarke also helped cover the American moon landing for the BBC.
Some of the things imagined in the film have come to pass, including:
*Flat-screen computer monitors (simulated by rear projection in the film)
*Small, portable, flat-screen television sets
*Glass cockpits in spacecraft
*The proliferation of TV stations (the BBC's channels numbering at least 12)
*Telephone numbers with more digits than in the 1960s (to permit direct national and international dialing)
*The endurance of corporations like IBM, Aeroflot, Howard Johnson's, and Hilton Hotels
*The use of credit cards with data stripes (the card Heywood Floyd inserts into the telephone is American Express; a close-up photo of the prop shows that it has a barcode rather than a magnetic strip, as some present-day ID cards have PDF417 barcodes)
*Biometric identification (voice-print identification on arrival at the space station)
*The shape of the Pan Am Orbital Clipper was echoed in the X-34, a prototype craft that underwent towed flight tests from 1999 to 2001
*Electronic darkening of a normally transparent surface (Bowman uses a helmet control to darken his visor during an EVA)
*A computer that can defeat a human being at chess
*Personal in-flight entertainment displays on the backs of seats in commercial aircraft
*Voice recognition / voice controlled computing (although not as powerful as HAL) are seen today in things as simple as telephone systems and video games.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
"I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy." - Arthur C. Clarke
"Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories." - Arthur C. Clarke
All good things come to a sort of end
Jonny Wilkinson (photo)
, the all-time points-scorer in rugby history, champion of England Rugby's 2003 World Cup win, Jonny Wilkinson, has been replaced by England's coach with Danny Cipriani, the "Marquis of Mayfair," as England fans call him.
Jonny plays for the Newcastle Falcons, Cipriani for the London Wasps.
(2nd photo: Jonny and Cipriani.)
My letter to Jacqui Smith MP concerning Mehdi Kazemi
As reported in The Independent:
Mehdi Kazemi is a gay teenager from Iran. He sought sanctuary in Britain after his boyfriend was hanged for homosexuality. So why is Britain so determined to send him back to Tehran – to almost certain execution?
I believe no British Government should aid even indirectly the homophobia of a theocratic state.
I sent the below as an e-mail to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. You can do the same. Click here to e-mail her.
Dear Madam Secretary,
I am writing to urge the Home Office not to deport Mehdi Kazemi. Iran is a theocratic state that treats gay men and lesbians inhumanly, subjecting them even to execution. Mehdi Kazemi’s boyfriend was executed in Iran. I believe it would be horrible for the Labour Government to force Mr Kazemi to return. Once in Iran, Mr Kazemi’s life—should he be allowed to keep it—would be a living hell given the Iranian authorities’ primitive attitudes towards homosexuality. What is more, it would send a signal to the world that the United Kingdom is not the welcoming place that I know it to be, and that the Government is not a beacon for pragmatic progressivism that I know it aims to be.
Thank you for considering this matter.
Please consider echoing my sentiments by e-mailing the Home Secretary.
Statement of UK commander in Iraq
The British Embassy in Washington D.C. has sent out by e-mail a Ministry of Defense release in which Maj. Gen. Barney White-Spunner (photo), who is the general officer commanding the Multi-National Division South East and commander of all British troops in southen Iraq, outlined his perspective and some developments.
From the release:
The British came to Iraq to help. We have never seen ourselves as an occupation. Some have disagreed. But I hope that now we have withdrawn from [Basra], handed over security and wish to devote ourselves to development and training, there can no doubts about our intentions. While the multi-national forces have the military technology and power to support your security forces, we will not be here forever. The recent reductions in UK forces here in Basra demonstrates this, but it also demonstrates our confidence in the Iraqi security forces.
.....
[T]he people of Basra....seek to make Basra the great regional city and commercial centre that its history demands it should be.
.....
The first meeting of the Basra Economic Forum last week was a major step. Next week the Basra Development Commission is holding 'Invest Basra 2008' in Kuwait to bring regional investors and Basra businesses together.
The Anglosphere
On January 15, 1993, I arrived in Britain for the first time. I took courses at the University of London and interned for the Labour Party Spokesman on Energy, Martin O'Neill, MP. Now seems as good of a time as any to highlight from The Economist this look at US-UK success (and one could include Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere) as described in Russell Mead's new book "on why the much-loathed Anglo-Saxons have kept on winning—and messing up,"
The anglosphere's long streak of luck has preoccupied the losers more than the winners. Winston Churchill excepted, most Britons don't like being tied to modern America; Americans can't see what ancient Britain has to do with them. Yet for outsiders the link between the English-speaking peoples was horribly clear from the start: only a few years after the American revolution the French were sending back horrified reports that New England really was new England in spirit.
Outsiders also have plenty of explanations for the anglosphere's success. Some of them are unworthy (with anti-Semitism a constant theme) but most centre on the idea that the winners relied on perfidy and violence abroad and cruelty and inequality at home. In the old East Germany, officials had a list of terms to describe Britons: “paralytic sycophants, effete betrayers of humanity, carrion-eating servile imitators, arch-cowards and collaborators.” A Muslim journalist observes: “We worship God by loathing America.”
And Mead also sees this trend of the last 300 or so years:
Anglo-Saxons have a rotten record of predicting what will come next, nearly always declaring some version of a new world order, only for a new evil to emerge. Often they seem blissfully unaware of the ire their success has caused.
