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Jericoa

Listed below are comments made by Jericoa between Friday, 20th November 2009 and Tuesday, 24th November 2009 (15 Hours Ago) .

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Information: Have you ever paid for it? 10:32pm on 24 Nov 2009
In the interests of preserving traditional jornalism, albeit in a miniscule way.

I took the extraordinary step of being careful about spelling and grammer (in so far as I am capable of that having recieved a 'progressive' 70s comprehensive school curriculum in a poor area which included no spelling and grammer lessons in favour of concentrating on underlying meaning...).

Anyway, I sent off one of my recent topical contributions on the NN editors blog (a bit of a rant about climate change which got some good feedback) to the editor of a real live newspaper.....well it was the Daily Mail actually....I tried the Sun and the Mirror first but they dont seem to have letter pages.

The last time I wrote to a newspaper was in the early 80's (I think) as a kid I wrote to the Daily Mail (I think my grnadma read it) objecting to Zola Bud being granted british citizenship so she could run in the olympics. Funily enough it was never published, I only found out later that it was the Daily Mail who were sponsoring her! ...A schoolboy error you might say!

Anyway, I just wanted to see if the old ways were still the best of getting a message accross.

I will let you know if it gets in, they owe me one anyway for rejecting the journalistic advances of a young lad simply because they were sponsoring a white South African to run for GB whom otherwise would not be able to go to the olympics at that time.

As I recall in the event she tripped up the american golden girl (mary decker) in the final and lost. After the olympics she went back to south africa, she never lived in the UK.

I guess even back then in my youth i could see through bull s**** but i guess i learnt early, telling the truth does not get you published.

So i became an engineer instead.
Information: Have you ever paid for it? 1:37pm on 24 Nov 2009 Paul,

I just read your previous post on Contract Journal's demise.

I suspect most people missed it because it was posted just a few hours before this post but after reading it, it has put your current post in a different perspective for me.

I see the dilemma now and empathise with the financial oppression quality journalism is becoming besieged by, it is unfortunately a force beyond journalisms grasp because at its source is human nature itself.

With freedon comes great responsibility, we are big on freedom and very low on responsibility as a consequence of the lack of ideological debate since the fall of the Berlin wall.

High quality journalism has become contaminated with the consequences of too much freedom and too much choice (words which have almost become sacred over the last 15 years).

It would appear we have collectively chosen (when given the choice), to read free titilation journalism online instead of high quality investigative analysis. Newsnight is one of the few remaining preserves of what was the journalistic norm.

It just goes to show that we can not be trusted with our 'selves' collectively. Hence we came up with various religions and ideological concepts to keep 'the self' in check historically. Repression is the down side of that, but it would appear we are not mature enough as a species to function properly without it in some measure.

There is much philosophical work to be done.
Information: Have you ever paid for it? 11:13pm on 23 Nov 2009 What value (social or otherwise) does the modern news have?

News must be percieved as being useful to the reader in order to have value they will pay for.

Most news nowadays is titilation masquerading as something 'useful'.

In the past news that the vikings were coming to attack your settlement was incredibly useful.

Nowadays news is mostly entertainment.

The really useful stuff never gets told.
Monday 23 November 2009 4:18pm on 23 Nov 2009 Part of my training is in geology, the only fact I am sure about concerning climate change is that it has been happening as a natural process ever since we had a climate on this planet!!

Remember the ice age anyone..?

Be it from slight changes in the earths rotational axis, slight changes in the suns output energy or phenomenon like large volcanic eruptions, the Co2 levels and average world temperatures and sea levels along with it change all the time, all of which is outside mans control and always will be!!!

Who is to say that the extra co2 in the atmosphere now will now protect us from getting too cold due to some other factor over which we have no control like a period of historic low volcanic eruptions or entering a period where solar activity is slightly reduced?

Sea levels (in geological time) have been going up and down like a whores draws ever since records began and human beings have adapted to these natural changes.

In our technological arrogance do we really think that we are the only ones who influenence climate?

Have we forgotten the story of king Canute?

The truth is I fully support the push to use less fossil fuels, not becuase of climate change but because of the simple fact that we can not rely on something which is not renewable because ...derrrrrr...we will run out of it! We will then probably end up fighting and murdering each other to control what is left when it starts to become scarce (Iraq was not about oil of course........).

I also want to see fossil fuel use rolled back because I dont like the idea of pollution in our beautiful planet, not just co2, but all the other pollution nasties which come with it along with including corruption / war human misery etc.

Why dont we simply do it on the basis as described above?

Is that no reason enough for goodness sake?

Why do we have to do it on the premise of 'climate change' and go to great lengths to pursuade ourselves we can change something ...that changes unpredictably anyway without any input from us!!.

The climate will always change guys no matter what we do..GET OVER IT!!!

It is no surprise to me at all that the hackers have found evidence of massaging the data by leading climate change research bodies.

Does anyone else remember the Y2K computer meltdown predictions? Didn't a lot of people make a career and a lot of money out of that scam?

Its odd, as far reducing our dependence on fossil fuels go we are trying to do the right thing...but for all the wrong reasons!

I dont know why I bother, nobody ever listens anyway, I should spend my lunchtime eating my sandwiches like everyone else.

What a load of nonsence and awaste of money and human ex[pertise that could be directed elsewhere.

Jericoa
Monday 23 November 2009 - the plan so far 2:19pm on 23 Nov 2009 #4 errata,

having just re-read it i did of course mean king Canute... put it down to over excitement and lack of food...

Hope you had a good laugh out of it anyway :)
Monday 23 November 2009 - the plan so far 1:25pm on 23 Nov 2009 Part of my training is in geology, the only fact I am sure about concerning climate change is that it has been happening as a natural process ever since we had a climate on this planet!!

Remember the ice age anyone..?

Be it from slight changes in the earths rotational axis, slight changes in the suns output energy or phenomenon like large volcanic eruptions, the Co2 levels and average world temperatures and sea levels along with it change all the time, all of which is outside mans control and always will be!!!

Who is to say that the extra co2 in the atmosphere now will now protect us from getting too cold due to some other factor over which we have no control like a period of historic low volcanic eruptions or entering a period where solar activity is slightly reduced?

Sea levels (in geological time) have been going up and down like a hoars draws ever since records began and human beings have adapted to these natural changes.

In our technological arrogance do we really think that we are the only ones who influenence climate?

Have we forgotten the story of king herod?

The truth is I fully support the push to use less fossil fuels, not becuase of climate change but because of the simple fact that we can not rely on something which is not renewable because ...errrrrr...we will run out of it and probably end up fighting and killing each other over it when it starts to become scarce (Iraq was not about oil of course.....).

I also want to see fossil fuel use rolled back because I dont like the idea of pollution in our beautiful planet, not just co2, but all the other nasties which come with it.

Why dont we simply do it on the basis as described above?

Why do we have to do it on the premise of 'climate change' and go to great lengths to pursuade ourselves we can change something ...that changes unpredictably anyway without any input from us!!.

The climate will always change guys no matter what we do..GET OVER IT!!!

It is no surprise to me at all that the hackers have found evidence of massaging by leading climate change research bodies.

Does anyone else remember the Y2K computer meltdown predictions? Didn't a lot of people make a career and a lot of money out of that scam?

Its odd, we are trying to do the right thing...but for all the wrong reasons!

I dont know why I bother, nobody ever listens anyway, I should spend my lunchtime eating my sandwiches like everyone else.

What a load of nonsence.

Jericoa
Rare earth: The New Great Game 9:05pm on 22 Nov 2009 #35 shireblogger

Sobering realities indeed!

If that was not bad enough, as far as I can research we only produce about 60% of the food we need to be self sufficient in the UK. It has been declining from approx 70% in the last decade.

I don't have a problem With Mandelsons hi tech economy vision, I don't think it will fly though unless it is on solid foundations, we have neglected the basics which leave us badly exposed, particularly in the UK.

To rely on a high tech economy for both your foundations and growth is to build upon the shifting sands. Technology can be easily copied now, intellectual property is becomming increasingly worthless in the age of the internet. As for professional services, a million graduates a year come out of India, more than that in China. Hence the growth of 'non jobs' for graduates in this country.

When I first graduated civil engineers from the UK could work all over the world, now it is becoming increasingly rare except for the very top end brilliant engineers who design landmark projects, by their very nature that is a small export market and ever shrinking as the global population becomes more educated.

There is no way we can be sure to stay ahead of our competitors sufficiently to pay our way in the world using the type of economy madelson and baroness Ashton seem to believe in (Empires of the Mind). Their individual careers and prosperity have been built on intellectualising problems and communicating answers quickly i.e. nothing that is 'real', hence the growing disconent between the political class on those it is supposed to serve.

As a nation we should hedge our global position against exposure to energy and food security, not by invading Iraq, but by the alternative type approaches we have been discussing here.

Human conflict is often related to food and energy security. We should surely be concentrating on those first and look to roll out that good governance and basic sustainable technology to the rest of the world. But we need to do it here first and it is possible if we stop wringing our hands and start believing in a collective vision again.

How to pay for it? Borrow more or tax more you suggest are the options.

There are other options but they have become taboo to talk about as they involve challenging the superior notion we seem to carry of ourselves at the moment, the notion that as an advanced economy our population does not have to roll its sleeves up, get its hands dirty and pitch in to contribute to the delivery of something worthwhile.

If we were on a war footing we could build the severn barrage in a few years because all the red tape would get thrown in the bin and the full measure of human industriousness and inginuity could be utilised.e

I have worked on some very worthwhile badly needed overseas projects, the sense of comaradery that develops in the team and well being you get from it far outweights the renumeration part, I would have done those jobs for food and shelter, not because Ii am a saint but because I felt like a complete human being by so participating in them. As a human being you feel happy, as a nation we would be happier once you get past this dreadful culture of 'the self' that has developed here fed by rampant consumerism which has filled the vacuum that was left when communism collapsed and took any ideological debate with it.

I can not do the math on the nuts and bolts of how it gets paid for (maybe you can?)as I am not an economist, I just know it can be done, we have the technology, we have the education, we have the geography all we need is genuine political leadership.

The current crop of 'professional' politicians seem to have come up through well established institutions and think tanks, they have not (for the most part)earned their stripes by being engaged in any kind of ideological or physical struggle.

Governance has become reduced to the level of theoretical intellectual sparing matches between rival brains, to which it matters not who wins or loses, few real people feel any affinity with politicians any more. That did not use to be the case.
Rare earth: The New Great Game 12:59pm on 22 Nov 2009 no.33 hawkeye

Maybe it is boring agreeing all the time, but, again, I agree, but I would add how it is interesting how these same threads on the lines of your post above keep re-appearing here under many different topics and from many differnt people who clearly come from different backgrounds.

I would go a little further, the same affliction which blights the proper functioning of the economy also blights mans perception of itself.

There is am impasse between the intellectual knowledge and it being manifested as real value in the real world. We are in the era of Churchills '' empires of the mind'' .

we live so much in our heads now that we mistake solving the intellectual problem for solving the problem itself, when, in fact, the intelletual part is only the beggining.

''knowing is not enough, you must take action'

otherwise a 'eureka' moment, no matter how profound, whether it be a Paul Mason scoop on rare earth or a hawkeye unravelling of the fundamental basis of the problems we face in the economy make no difference.

Back to the chinese again, and their manufacturing and resource empire building. It would appear to me that the Chinese are the ones that do understand that ' knowing is not enough, you must take action to effect change'.

They understand the current status of money, they are using it to aquire 'real assets, esource leverage and behind the scenes diplomatic influence. They are turning the money into something of real value, they are ''de-intellectualising' money and in sso doing obtaining great influence.

On the other hand the west (as Shireblogger has also alluded to in his perceptive comments on baroness Ashton) seem to believe that we dont need the 'real stuff' anymore to add value.

hence we dont build landmark syustainable power projects, we intellectualise them, we talk about them endlessly and worry about intelleftual impacts on this that and the other spending billions of intellectual pound in the process.

It seems like this 'empire of the mind' is so entrenced now that we will not snap out of this trance until the real world slaps us accross the face and compels us to 'wake up'.

That will probably happen when the real value of stirling is such that we can no longer afford the nations energy and food requirement by the purchase of imported goods.

Fuel costs continue to creep up by a process of stirlings steady de-valuation and incresing demand again as the rest of the world recovers, food will follow, inflation will follow that, as sure as night follows day.

As i (and many others) have said we must use the last of stirlings intellectual credibility in world markets, not to buy ourselves a VAT ccut but to buy ourselves a new vision, which involves updating our energy and food production infrastructure fi for the 21st century.

The victorians did not build an intellectual empire, they built a real one, we are still living off the victorian legacy of the UKs infrastructure, whether it be the london underground or the network or dams and pipework that keeps us in fresh water and deals with our human waste.

The chinese are in the process of doing what the victorians did, except they are building it fit for 21st century purposes (huge sustainable energy projects etc as others have mentioned).

we have the intellectual know how and, believe it or not, the money to build our country fit for the 21st century and beyond, far better than the chinese are, we could lead the way.

instead over the last 15 years the divident has been spend on NHs computer systems that do not work, and the creation of several hundred thousand 'non jobs' in the civil service ( champions of street football , diversity consultants, quangos etc etc.).

we have everything we need except the grander vision to pursue, noboddy is offering it to the people. it is supposed to be a democracy but we are not offered real choice.

I wish camerons ' emergency budget' within 50 days of an election is something on the lines as i have described above.

It will be very disruptive to the current modus operandi of this country but we are good at pulling together in a crisis, we are good at pursuing sharing and making real a collective vision.

All we need is our so called 'leaders' to give us a coherent vision to get behind so we can provide a compelling new example for the world to look to based on good governance coupled with technology and mechanisation in a sustainable way.

It is all possible and we can do it, but we have to snap out of our collective catharsis first and i fear that will be via an external shock rather than an internal realisation.
That was horrid, Henry 5:33pm on 20 Nov 2009 tHE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH IT IS TO HAVE A 'CHALLENGE' SYSTEM SIMILAR TO TENNIS, EACH MANAGER CAN CHALLENGE UP TO 3 REFEREE DECISIONS ON GOALS, PENALTIES,RED CARDS AND FREE KICKS WITHIN 15 YARDS OF THE PENALTY AREAONLY WHO THEN REFERS IT BACK TO THE VIDEO REFEREE.

dID IT OR DID IT NOT CROSS THE LINE?, WAS IT HAND BALL?, WAS THERE CONTACT IN THE PENALTY AREA? IT WOULD BE SO EASY TO DO AND THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR TALK OF REPLAYS ANYMORE.

I ACTUALLY THINK THAT WOULD ADD TO THE SENSE OF DRAMA IN THE GAME, AND BY RESTRICTING THE NUMBER OF CHALLENGES THAT CAN BE MADE AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES THEY CAN BE MADE UNDER IT WOULD NOT STOP THE 'FLOW' EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT.

iT WOULD ALSO STOP THE MANAGERS COMPLAINING ALL THE TIME AND DISCOURAGE CHEATING BY PLAYERS.

THIS MUST SURELY BE THE RIGHT ANSWER FOR FOOTBALL AND WOULD NOT UNDERMINE THE REFEREES AUTHORITY.
Rare earth: The New Great Game 4:49pm on 20 Nov 2009 #28

Nicely explained and reflects a lot of my views on this as well. As an engineer getting anything built (whether it is of vital strategic importance or not) is anightmare or proceedures and consultations in the UK.

The current badly needed scheme I am working on at the moment was first identified as being essential to the development of an area of the UK in 1974!! 3 false starts and several planning enquiries later it looks like it may actually happen this time...it will take about 18 months to build it....

Meanwhile in China when they see something is needed for strategic national importance they just do it!!

Instead of a VAT cut why dident we ''just do'' one or both of the major tidal barrage schemes that have been talked about for 40 years?

In so doing we would have created tens of thousands of jobs actively engaged in something that would keep the lights on in a sutainable way for our children for generations to come.

instead we use the money to 'stimulate the economy by encouraging people to buy cheaper goods in the shops....made in China!!!

the lack of a coherent vision and desire to execute it in this country drives me (some may have noticed) absolutely crazy!!!!!

Its such a waste of hundreds of years of socio- economic and political development, often hard one by the struggle of our ancestors.

ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

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