In Praise of Bad Communication.

I really love these guys. Hiroki lives in the same City as my wife, Tokushima ad Andrew lives in Osaka where my wife used to live. Alex is cool, check out his Twitter account at @Kxela & Youtube account: Subtokyo It is my hope to one day appear with them in person & or on youtubw. Here is my tribute to them.



Check on Twitter @hmatsuuchi @ahawkins82 @BadCommPodcast

BAE Protest March in Hull Video

On Being Able to Fight Against the Cuts

I had never done this sort of thing before, not really. With the exception of a short rally after September 11th 2001, and an Anti-Mubarak rally I literally stumbled into in Oxford, I had never been on march, rally or demonstration – call it what you will in the name of anything. It was not through apathy or lack of understanding that I had not done so, rather it was my disability.

I have cerebral palsy and whilst a keen Labour supporter have always felt intimidated by marches, all those people, striding with purpose and apparent certainty, both in the physical and moral sense that I always used to worry that my body, was not up to the task of marching. I was honestly worried that since I have trouble walking I would be literally ran over by the person behind me, or bump into the person in front of me, or that my disability would simply prevent me from being able to walk. How foolish it may seem these were my fears.



So at about quarter to twelve midday on the eighth of October 2011 I was surprised to find myself at the Cenotaph in Hull City Centre. I was not there by accident; my local MP had told me by email that this rally was going to take place, I had got up early showered, dressed in my best, and yet as I approached the Memorial I thought ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I wanted to be there, the issue was important, jobs, particularly BAE jobs in the nearby town of Brough were under threat, if they were to go it could be as devastating as the end of shipping in Hull or mining in Rotherham. I really wanted to be there, and yet part of me still thought at a quarter to twelve –fifteen minutes before the beginning of march ‘your leg won’t hold out'.

I saw my MP and some old friends, which reassured me. The actual march began, to begin with I was still uncertain but by a quarter of the way round I was in my stride, at ease and feeling quite stupid that I had worried.

Of course, Hull is not London in terms of size, although I’d like to think that any rally counts. I just wanted to wish all those that attended that rally good luck and thanks.

Chess

Learn chess strategies!

French Names & Japanese Philosophy

Hi Minae

Whatever Happened To The Short Story?

Whatever Happened To The Short Story?

I recently rewatched some of the TV series Sex and the City a few days ago, and in the middle of the third episode or thereabouts, I realised something odd, out of place. I realised that episodes were only about twenty something minutes long. Nowadays TV programmes be they factual, dramatic or comedic are usually about forty-five minutes to an hour long, soap opera being an exception. I also noticed that there were less ‘extras’, and few there were on the DVD were called ‘featurettes’, which made feel rather nostalgic when compared to 2011 standards of there being numerous episode commentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes, interviews with the actors, writers, directors, producers and the producer’s pet cat. Whatever happened to just telling a good story, and that a pre-requisite for being ‘a good story’ did not include being long.

Do not mistake me, I am not against long programmes or extras, as a big fan of House M.D. and Doctor Who, dramas that deserve their forty odd minutes and do offer good extras, I enjoy them, but the presumption these days that there must be extras and that it must be so long does infuriate me. I imagine that there must be many good stories, especially in science fiction that would be great to see filmed, but just don’t need that much time to be told. If Saki or Franz Kafka or Carl Sagan were writing today, they wouldn’t have prayer.

There are still some programmes that have not fallen victim to the need for length, Peep Show being a prime example. I only hope others will follow their example before we get The Only Way Is Essex: The Movie, all three hours fifteen minutes of it.

Michey's Annoyance at the Lack of News About Japan on UK TV

March 11th 2011: A New Hojoki?

My wife is Japanese so on March 11th, it felt as if my heart stopped.  It was unreal.  When I saw it it on TV I kept thinking of the 'Hojoki: Visions of a torn world' by Kamo-no-Chomei.  He tells of a series of storms, earthquates and other natural disasters that happened in Kyoto in the 12th Century.  Kamo-no-Chomei retreated to a 'ten foot squared hut' to avoid all the people as they attacked each other.


THIS DID NOT HAPPEN THIS TIME.

A few days after the earthquake a Twitter friend send me a picture of Tokushima-shi where my wife lives just to put my mind at rest.  The British comedian David Mitchell  twittered me, hoping I and my wife was well.  Everyone from the UK, Europe, Japan, whether they know me or not have been so supportive, and I thank them.

To Minae

Philosophy, Alan Turing & Me

People sometimes ask me what got me interested in philosophy, well the answer is simple, Alan Mathison Turing did.  I never met him, lived from 1912 – 1954, unlike me he was primarily a  scientist, and  unlike me, gay.  We had very little in common, except for one thing: he was incredibly curious about the world.  Whilst doing a BTEC in Computer Studies in 1994 – 1996, I had to study logic gates and algorithms, which fascinated me, I asked my teacher where these ideas came from, and he gave me Turing’s ACE Report – literally blueprints for a computer, written in the early 1940’s.  I was intrigued, but at that time had very little material to develop my interest.

However, in 1996 I did A Levels, and in Psychology came across an article ‘Can Machines Think’ by Alan Turing. I went back to my Turing, reading ‘On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem’ and anything else I could get my hands on. I was excited by the idea of whether thoughts can occur in something other than a living human brain, a question with which Turing was concerned. I also learnt of his chemical castration in 1952 for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality and of his death in 1954.


Turing led me to Wittgenstein, and through them both, philosophy of which I am now a PhD. He deserves my thanks, which I give Turing gladly.




Anti-Mubarack Protest Oxford, UK 9th Feb

BREAKING NEWS: New Blog Post

Over the past 48 hours plus, BBC News and almost every rolling news channel and station in the world that I know of, has been reporting about the situation in Egypt. This is important news, however on late Sunday 31st, I noticed that the banner ‘Breaking News’ had been on the BBC’s rolling news channel for around 48 hours. Is an event that has been going on for two days is it still ‘Breaking News’? Or, rather isn’t simply, ‘News’?

I guess broadcasters use the term to underline the importance of the situation, and the problems in Egypt, when resolved, will change the political landscape of the world. It is important. However, so are many other things that happen in the world that are not treated as ‘Breaking News’. Not every statement by a President or Prime Minister are reported, not all deaths of important people are treated the same way. Protests in Manchester and London against Cuts and Fees were never treated that way, and there are some countries that are largely, though not entirely ignored. Japan would be a case in point. Yes there often is a correspondent in Tokyo, but there is a Volcano erupting as I type this that only makes it on to websites and Twitter, not the News channel.

Do not mistake me, I love Twitter, but what it lacks, but journalism can provide, is sensitive discrimination. I would not expect this blog post to make the news, I would expect Protests in Britain to do so. The weather do not change half-hourly – even when there is snow. I would also expect events around the world to be covered more widely, and I am still waiting.

Still, I am off to tweet this!

Protestweets: Student Protests on the 29th January

As I said in my last blog entry, I wanted to be at the Manchester Protest so badly. Many who were there have sent messages to me. Since I really love Twitter, I followed it religiously on the day of protests, looking at some from Manchester and some from London. My interest was awakened when I found that my last tweet advertising my latest blog entry, had been retweeted by ‘belledejour’ the Twitter name of Dr Brooke Magnanti, to whom I am most grateful. InTwitterland, I am ‘Peckitt’ and our story in Twitterland starts with:

belledejour_uk RT @Peckitt On Coming Student rally in Manchester http://bit.ly/fjiFH9 about 8 hours ago via web

Please remember that the carbon copy of twitter messages was taken at 19:30 – 20:00 on the 20th of January. It was very kind of belledejour_uk to retweet this, and I am in her debt. It continues:

EdinUniAntiCuts Manchester walking north - loads of police - reaching uni - seen one arrest (red coat male) about 6 hours ago via TweetDeck

EdinUniAntiCuts were in Manchester and will feature highly in this blog entry, they really blogged well.

Then:

thespyglass I'm with a small group who've avoided the Deansgate kettle. Deansgate kettle reportedly being moved somewhere else. #demo2011 #dayx about 4 hours ago via Socially Mobile

thespyglass was also in Manchester and has posts, which at times, are very humourous. For example after being ‘kettled’ into a pub:

sukeyData BREAKING NEWS: Manchester police have kettled students IN A PUB. Since when do police enforce lock ins? #sukey #demo2011 #irony about 3 hours ago via web

thespyglass In the pub. Sorry, kettled people. If it makes you feel any better the bouncer's having a go at us for Millbank last yr. #demo2011 #dayx about 3 hours ago via Socially Mobile


There were some worrying posts:

kaygeeuk Manchester kettle released given a Section 12 warning not to gather for 24 hours. Guess that's aimed at tomorrows @ukuncut actions about 3 hours ago via web

EdinUniAntiCuts Kettle now fully dispersed - sections 12, 50 And 60 used #mancdemo about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck

However, all was not well, in the state of Manchester as Aaron Porter was virtually given trial by rough music. It was reported at one point that anti-Semitic chants were shouting at him referring to him as a ‘Jew’ or ‘Tory Jew’. I hope and believe that it was a miss heard statement (and tweets since them seem to confirm my hopes), as the followings tweets testify to:

SophiaCR I heard and remember all the chants directed at Aaron Porter. None were anti-semitic. #demo2011 about 2 hours ago via Dabr

EdinUniAntiCuts Reports #Manchester chanting 'you're a Tory jew' to Aaron Porter today - Not true - actual chant was 'You're a Tory too' #demo2011 #dayx 12 minutes ago via TweetDeck

Now, I am going to be a bit paternalistic again. I can appreciate the student’s dissatisfaction with Mr. Aaron Porter. However, what they may be unaware of is the politics of 1997 – 98 – my own time as an undergraduate, around the time tuition fees were first introduced. At that time, the NUS, in my opinion, was essentially an arm of New Labour. They did have demonstrations, but too late. However, this generation has a chance to change things, but it will not do so by shooting themselves in the foot, which is what they are doing by attacking Aaron Porter. I do not believe for a moment that anyone mentioned ‘Jewishness’, but the fact that someone thought so speaks volumes, whether it was misheard or wishful thinking. If HE students have truly lost faith in Mr.Porter than he should go, but there better ways to achieve this than shouting him off the stage – he was after all unable to speak.

However, the students of this day are heroes to me, they are doing now what my university generation never did.

Finally the demonstration both in Manchester and London ended with:

littlemisswilde any plans for a post-protest party/drinks anywhere? #sukey #demo2011 #solidarity #alcoholism #gin about 2 hours ago via web

SophiaCR I heard and remember all the chants directed at Aaron Porter. None were anti-semitic. #demo2011 about 2 hours ago via Dabr

B3nB3ach Swarm shuts a Boots singing "We are the Tax Enforcement Society" Demo2011 #Solidarity about 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone

alphabetofbeing Group now very small. about 1 hour ago via ÜberTwitter

Peckitt Finally...positive footage of manchester march on C4 40 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®



I wish all the students good luck and once again thank belledejour_uk at:

http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/

Manchester Saturday 29th January 2011: This is the Eve!

In a few hours time students from Leeds, Hull, UCL and many others up and down the country will gather in Manchester to protest against the cuts to the EMA and and the hike in tuition fees. I really wish I could be there, but I cannot. I have cerebral palsy and have trouble negotiating a pub sober on a Friday night, never mind a crowd in Manchester. Do not mistake me I do not believe either protester or police intend any problems, it is simply, without sarcasm, physically difficult for me to attend such rallies. I will stay in, glued in hope to the goggle box (yes I am that old) to see if the demonstration will be covered by BBC or BSkyB.


I must confess to having almost paternalistic pride in the students, I was a undergraduate when tuition fees came around the first time around, and then, even the supporters of tuition fees were complaining that students were apathetic – and I my view they were right, although that has changed.

For example at Leeds Trinity they have achieved some great demands from the Senior Management Team. This is from Leads Trinity Against Cuts:

“After continued negotiations between Leeds Trinity University Management and the student occupation which has been based in the senior common room we have finally come to an agreement.

Management have met two demands that were put forward by the campaign, this being to not penalise any students for taking part in their legal right to protest against the cuts to education and wider society which is still to be revised so that we are satisfied, as well as this they have agreed to meet our demand of a permanent office space in which to continue the campaign from, as such we will be using this space to co ordinate our campaign and set up events that will further allow the student body to get involved.

As a result of meeting these demands Leeds Trinity Occupation will be ending on Saturday the 29th January 2011, we will along with other students and staff be marching to the coaches that will be taking us to the National demonstration against cuts taking place in Manchester that day.

Thank you to UCU, Unison, Youth Fight for Jobs & Education and all the support we have received through the campaign so far. We will of course continue to campaign to defend all jobs and courses at Leeds Trinity University College.”

Well I wish you all good luck, and from my house proclaim – ‘This is the eve!’

Police 'hitting protester' at EMA Demo in Leeds (BBC)

The Leeds Trinity Occupation is not over!

I have been in contact with the Leeds Trinity Students Against Cuts Occupiers, who have been threatened with eviction.  I have it on good authority, in fact from one of the occupiers that, as of the morning of 27th they have not been evicted, as the following quote from their website: http://ltsac.wordpress.com/2011/01/ states:

"Well, yesterday was interesting and contrary to popular belief, the occupation is still on. There were some misunderstandings from upstairs but we think we have those sorted now and things are back on track. Well, mostly anyway. We are negotiating for a new suitable room that is not going to have building work in it but this is actually a bit of an imposition. Occupations are supposed to be contentious, they are supposed to stop operations and they are supposed to make some people annoyed, some people stressed and some people supportive. We have acted with nothing but integrity and find the insinuation that we have done otherwise insulting and offensive. In the few weeks since coming back into occupation, we have caused considerable positive press and have done nothing but raised the profile of the university.

We have been accused of bringing the name of the university into disrepute and this is also offensive. Anyone who has been following the campaign, reading the articles we have been in and written, heard the interviews on radio, looked at the blogs and planning campaigns can clearly see that we have stuck to a message of “we are here because the teaching standard and time with each student is so high and that is why we feel we must save Leeds Trinity University College”. There are a number of messages we could be sending out that would certainly damage recruitment and there have been considerable conversations about whether we should or not but the point of those discussions and every discussion is whether we would be seen to be acting with integrity to do so. Our demands have the sole aim of ensuring that Trinity continues to offer the ethos we came here for and we chose this university for being forward thinking enough to provide that. If there has been any damage done to the university, then it was done by a failure to reassure students of their position in a timely manner and having everybody rely on what little information is available."

It is best to go to http://ltsac.wordpress.com%20to/ to see the rest, just I would spread the word.

More on Leeds Occupation and Protest

Today I was told that the Leeds Trinity Students Against Cuts were given an enviction notice - for more info see http://ltsac.wordpress.com/ I do hope that they will continue.  Also, during a protest in Leeds against the cuts affecting the Education Maintanence Allowance a student was "struck twice", for more information on that see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12294061

I do hope Leeds Trinity will continue its protest and wish them luck.

Message from a Leeds Trinity Student Occupier

Today, I had the pleasure of corresponding via Twitter with one of the Leeds Trinity Students Against Cuts Protesters, and this is what they had to say, I felt it best to let then speak for themselves:

I am a University of Leeds student and my university is used to being noticed, listened to and has quite a large number of students who are activists. I spent time in the Leeds uni occupation (which has now ended) so I have something to compare the LTUC occupation to.

I have been a frequent visitor to the LTUC occupation and have got to know the guys in there quite well. They have spent three weeks in there now and I think that considering their unique situation this is both impressive and inspiring. While I don't have anything negative to say about my university or it's occupation, activism is expected of them. Trinity on the other hand is a small and depoliticized university. I have seen them work 18 hour days, face apathy and receive negative comments from other students and despite this have stayed positive, united and determined that not all Trinity students will be the next generation of apathetic students. They have also been really motivated by all the messages of support they have received both nationally and internationally (once again, impressive for Trinity) and visitors such as unions, tutors, fellow students, family and friends who have all donated money and brought them food to keep them going. When all visitors have left at the end of the day, it is the positive support that is the conversation.

Like I say, I am inspired by these guys and only wish I had the energy and passion that they have for this campaign. They have made things happen that Trinity has never seen before, such as the first ever rally on campus and lots of media attention. As a few of the occupiers are first years, I am impressed by the maturity they have shown. That is not meant to be patronising, but it is their first time living away from home and they've sacrificed the usual fresher life of drinking, socialising and freedom to sleep on the floor on their university, work long hours, not shower and leave behind their flat mates, just to make their voices heard and be taken seriously. They have also dealt with any problems in the occupation really quickly and in a mature way which is why I think they have lasted so long in there.

There is not a day I have been in there where each occupier hasn't been running around frantically with a long list of things to do and people to meet. Even on an arranged day off, several of the occupiers spent the day writing blogs and reports for websites and helping local school kids with arranging a possible occupation for them. If there is an award for most dedicated occupation, Trinity win!

I think the management at Trinity have a group of students to be proud of and should be working with them rather than being on side with the government. To me, Trinity owes these guys for putting their university on the map and be known for something other than the union bar and should be backing their fight all the way.

On the Leeds Trinity Students Occupation Against the Cuts

I rarely like to make predictions, especially at the beginning of a year, however I feel confident in saying that 2011 will be the year of the student. The reason I believe this is because of the students of Leeds Trinity, who, since January 4th 2011 have re-occupied parts of Leeds Trinity University. Through contact them on Twitter, they kindly gave me an interview, I asked them several questions and this is what follows are my questions and their replies. In the interest of fairness, I have edited their responses as little as possible. I, the questioner is identified as ‘Peckitt’ and they as ‘OccupiedLTUC’ – our twitter names:

Peckitt: Put simply, why are you, the students of Leeds Trinity protesting or occupying?

OccupiedLTUC: We are occupying to oppose all the cuts brought in by the coalition government. We feel they are not only savage and ideological but unnecessary. We will be organising and marching at every opportunity and using the occupation as a base of operations to oppose the cuts and organise people from the community and our own studentship. We are also making sure that our own institution acts with integrity and includes the students in any decisions going forward that we feel we, as stakeholders have a right to be involved in.

Peckitt: How long do you intend to occupy and what exactly are you occupying?

OccupiedLTUC: There are no limits to the occupation, we are optimistic and the big aim for everyone in the anti cuts movement at the minute seems to be the TUC March on March 26th, whether we will be satisfied by the result of that or not is another matter. We have just moved at the minute and are occupying what used to be the staff common room. It was about to be refurbished, which we are hoping to halt. The staff feel they need this space and at this difficult time, we want to work with them and ensure they have a space to call their own, with a drink making facility and a means to get involved with our movment. We are very lucky with the staff here and they deserve our support. At a UCU meeting yesterday, we received their full and unanimous support, which shows how great they are.

Peckitt: Have you had support, formal or informal from Leeds Trinity Senior Management Team - for example have they given you the right to anonymity,a promise not be penalised with regards to attendance and exams. Have any Staff come in with food and so on.

OccupiedLTUC: The senior management team have offered some support certainly. We are co-operating at the moment and are negotiating in many circumstances for facilities etc. There has been no formal offer of anonymity however and no promise not to prosecute. Bothe these things were included in the list of demands presented in the occupation before Christmas but we feel the response we received was in no way sufficient or taken seriously.. So, there are some levels of support but we are far from receiving all of it.

Peckitt: There has been some bile from some quarters, regarding Aaron Porter, calling for his resignation. - how do you feel about this?

OccupiedLTUC: Aaron Porter and many other Labour feed position politicians have got away too long and too often with paving the way to a comfortable Labour seat without ever considering what it might be like to be an average constituent or individual within the systems or unions they control. If it were not for Labour abandoning their role as a working party, this situation would not be nearly as grave as it is now and the party who used to have such great working class politicians have become as elitist and mild mannered as their rivals. We feel that Aaron Porters self processed "spineless"ness and his following contrition are both born of a selfish desire for support and election and are tired of flacid promises from uninspiring politicians who will say anything to get elected and withdraw it as soon as they need a favour from someone with a familiar school tie. If the unions are to progress, they need union leaders, not aspiring politicians, as we are finding out, the politicians we have are liars, cheats, unprincipled and morally bankrupt.

Peckitt: Since it will become into effect from 2012 Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg & PM Cameron won't reverse it, what do you help to achieve by the occupation?

OccupiedLTUC: We feel that if Ed Miliband, Clegg and Cameron will not reverse the tuition fee rises, then they need to be replaced by someone who will. Since Labour, Lib Dem and Tory have basically become the same party since Tony Blair introduced the third way, there is nothing open to the working class as a voting option. We feel this, combined with some disgustingly racist policy from the last government and this one, is the biggest reason we see the working class voting for facsism. Fascists are in our opinion the worst form of political ideologists but they speak to the working class directly. They are being allowed to capitalise on a disenfranchised working class and social underclass and in many ways, this far right extremism is encouraged by politicians like Nadine Dorries, who want the tory party to travel further right, it is not acceptable but the major parties are doing nothing to combat it, which we feel highlights their take on the voters from this social strata. Put simply, they feel the bottom 5% do not even matter. It is unfortunate that the parties with the greatest moral integrity, will not take corporate money to fund their campaign and feel that as the campaign gains strength we will be supporting the changing of the laws as to how campaigns are funded.

Or more concisely, if the major parties are not supporting what we want, then we will support replacing all of the major parties with good ones. We have not considered an end date as yet. The things we are fighting for are large enough to potentially keep us here for a long time but that will depend. The occupation is only going to be useful as long as it shows results from us being here. We will certainly not be backing down any time soon and will continue to post demands and statements, which we feel will help shape our cause and our support.

I would usually end such an article with some analysis, but I feel that is best to leave the interview as it is, and let your good selves make your mind up. However, I will give the following information.

Leeds Trinity Students Against Cuts Website: http://ltsac.wordpress.com/

Twitter Name: OccupiedLTUC

Vote Debbie Abrahams for Oldham East and Saddleworth

Forgive me, but there really is very little I can add. If any one has stories from working on the campaign, do comment or twitter me!

Do look at: http://www.debbieabrahams.org.uk/

The Coalition: Catch it, Bin it, Kill it!

Flu and the Coalition: Catch it, Bin it, Kill it?

At the end of December, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley defended the decision not to have flu adverts before the Christmas period. In a BBC interview he compared such an action to “crying wolf” (‘Andrew Lansley defends flu advert campaign timing’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12096136). This would be perfectly reasonable if a number of people had not died of flu and flu-like illnesses, it is not crying wolf when the wolf is already at the door. Why was the ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’ advert not ran earlier? Of course, one does not want to scaremonger with such a delicate issue, and no sane person would hold any member of the cabinet personally responsible for influenza deaths, but the buck has to stop somewhere. The advert has been run as a matter of course before, did the Coalition think there would be no flu this year, and in snowny winter with sub-zero temperatures making access to local GP’s difficult, was it really thought no response was required? Mr. Lansley’s defence given to the BBC was simply unsatisfactory and people deserve better.

Boozing with PM Cameron

In a recent article in The Daily Telegraph 'Don't buy a round in if you want to end binge drinking' (3/01/2011), it was reported that Prof. Richard Thaler of Chicago University and a key behavioural economics adviser to the Prime Minister suggests splitting a tab at the end of a nights drinking than buying in rounds.

Now, I can appreciate that economics can alter behaviour, although that is where my knowledge of economics ends on this issue. However, I have learned that not ordering the second round will certainly prevent binge drinking, splitting a tab, not paying until the end of the night may give people a false sense of monetary security, as they don't pay until the end of the night.

And with that sober thought, I am off ro bed.


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

WARNING! All Mechanical Clocks Down!

The Blackberry Times

Monday 3rd January 1951

Due to the recent problems with time pieces all grandfather clocks have lost the ability to strike 12 midnight. Watchsmith's everywhere apologise for this problem which they name the '11 59' issue. Experts say if one uses a clock older than 1937 one will enjoy the clock strike midnight. The problem will be resolved after twelfth night.

I am joking of course, although I feel a little smug about not owning an iPhone tonight! I was all set to dump on Apple, but my heart wasn't in it. Forgive my nostalgia, but I was simply worried - what on earth happened to alarm clocks, good old-fashioned mechanical clocks? I own three!

I must seem ancient but were people really inconvenienced by the iPhone problem in the New Year? To hear the media report people were turning up late for work and missing planes because of it. If they did, I am sorry for them, but I do like to think people with things to do are more focused!

And with that, I shall blow out my bedside candle.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device