History as it happens or token democracy?

I’m a sucker for having historic items on whilst doing other things.Whether via the TV, radio or Internet.As I write this we’re part way through ex-PM Tony Blair giving his side of why he took Britain to war in Iraq. Twitter has probably already made up its mind as the wisdom of crowds extracts the sound bites whilst trying its hardest to find the humour in a deathly serious subject.  Maybe this is the nearest many of us can feel to being involved and having a say, It’s a token democracy.

UPad if you want to

Image via Wikipedia

It’s been hard to escape the hype and expectation around Apple’s new iPad tablet device thingy. I’ve been a long term user of Apple computers (my first was a second hand Apple IIe way back when) though of late I’ve been using linux for everything aside from advanced audio and video production.

I’ve had little desire to own an iPhone and I can’t say I currently have an iPad shaped hole in my life. That’s not to say that it isn’t an important device in the history of personal technology but my mobile needs are already catered for by a netbook (3G and WiFi capable), a device which Steve Jobs dismissed as ‘not really good at anything’.Well at least it can run the flash plugin which the iPhone and iPad do not.Oh and voip/skype. Okay no access to Apple’s app store or iBook or the print media portal but I can download eBooks from our local library and subscribe to PressDisplay to read newspapers from around the world.Oh and plug it into a larger monitor if required.And it has a real keyboard that’s not an optional extra. The point is I don’t find a netbook that limiting.

But then maybe the iPad is just not aimed at me.Or is is that the fabled Steve Jobs  reality distortion field isn’t working on me these days? I wait with interest the unveiling of the special inflated UK pricing for the iPad models when Apple get around to launching it in the UK in June.

Back to square one?

The UK is out of recession. That’s alright then. Onward and upward.Really?

If the past 18 months had been a military campaign there would be a debriefing or maybe a (whitewash) inquiry similar to the Iraq one going on at the moment. Have the banks learned anything. Have we? We all collectively still owe a galactic sized chunk of debt, right?

Obviously a fraction of a percent growth does not an end to recession make and whilst I take no pleasure in adopting a glass half empty viewpoint (no really) on the situation it would surely be worth a cautionary dose of realism to speculate that any recovery may take at least a couple of years. Paying off the debt may take a generation.

But if we haven’t leaned collectively from what got us into this recession then we’ll ll make the same mistakes again. Won’t we?

Picture by \/entolin under this creative commons license

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• UK economy set to exit recession (news.bbc.co.uk)
• UK out of recession – but how did it happen and what next? (guardian.co.uk)

A week of links

A sample of some of the items that caught my attention enough to be bookmarked by me over the past 7 days:

“When she says positive thinking, she doesn’t just mean a sunny outlook. She means a relentlessly upbeat, no- questions-asked type of optimism, where negativity doesn’t have a place. She means the fixed smiles and fakery of the “have a nice day” culture that has a nation in its grip”

The odd one out: In a world of positive thinking, the one person not smiling is Barbara Ehrenreich – http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en…

Try Air To Stay Dry – http://www.yankodesign.com/2010…

He’s been a Roxy original, the inventor of ‘ambient’, Bowie’s muse, the brain in Talking Heads and U2′s ‘fifth man’. Now Eno tells us where he’s heading next…On gospel, Abba and the death of the record: an audience with Brian Eno – http://www.guardian.co.uk/music…

Sweet Potato, Spinach and Peanut Stew – http://www.nibbledish.com/people…

LED Destroys Incandescent Forever – http://www.yankodesign.com/2010…

“How can you use a camera if you can’t see? Over 30 blind and visually impaired adults from the UK, Mexico and China have been trained in sensory photography techniques to create and experience photos. As an exhibition of some of their work opens in east London, Matt Daw, from the UK charity PhotoVoice, explains how people like Gary, Alistair and Marcus were taught how to use a camera.”Audio slideshow: Photography by blind people – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1…

Hotrats (part Supergrass) play the Sex Pistols -EMI with guest Steve Jones (Pistols) – http://vodpod.com/watch…

Meet the painter Anthony Hopkins | – http://www.twine.com/item…

“Banksy describes his first film Exit Through the Gift Shop as ‘the story of how one man set out to film the unfilmable – and failed’” Banksy film set for Sundance premiere – http://www.guardian.co.uk/artandd…

“Large companies in France are to be forced to reserve at least 40 per cent of their boardroom seats for women.” France forces boardrooms to keep 40% of seats for women – http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standar…

BBC News – Audio slideshow: Van Gogh – The Artist and His Letters – http://www.twine.com/item…

The Self-Help Psychologist Is In (Richard Wiseman’s self help with scientific rigour)- Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com – http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010…

What’s on David Bowie’s iPod? (Scriiti’s Wood Beez-who’d have thought it) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture…

Quota Rota

In most cases, it remains more difficult for a candidate who does not fit the “white, male, middle class” norm to be selected

via news.bbc.co.uk

A Duh! comment as the prospect of introducing quotas for female British MPs rears its contentious head. No talk of any further reform to the bowl of cold porridge that is the British political system. Just skewing tokenism in an attempt to look democratic and egalitarian?

Deciding not to make a decision down under

“The committee was given examples of successful parenting and fostering by gay and lesbian couples and in these case studies, adoption provided permanence, stability and security so important to children,” she said.

“However, I am also aware that there are very deeply held, divergent views on this issue and that is why a decision on this matter will not be taken at this stage.”

via dailytelegraph.com.au

The Australian state of New South Wales decides that it cannot obtain a consensus on changing the state law to enable same sex couples to adopt even though individuals who happen to be gay can already adopt.

Not in Our Class, Dear

A BBC archive programme that asks if Britain can ever be a classless society.

more about “BBC – Archive – Working Class Life – …“, posted with vodpod

With the impending UK general election seemingly throwing up the return of old class jealousies it’s interesting to view this Man Alive programme from 1966 via the BBC Archive site. The benefits of an Eton education are discussed as the programme interviews people from different points along the class scale of the mid 1960′s.

Love the tell-tale signs of an upper class home : “They fill the fruit bowl several times a week”. Oh the luxury.