Just Finished Reading: The Glass Cage – How Our Computers are Changing Us by Nicholas Carr (FP: 2014)

Automation has been a great boon to the world – most especially the developed West – with decades long increases in productivity, wealth and much else besides. Advanced countries could not be where they are without it but what else has happened as robots take over factories, artisans become machine minders and more of what we used to do ourselves is done by the machines we are developing?

This is the question that the author tries to answer in this interesting book. Beyond the intentions of engineers, managers, IT gurus and politicians are the unintended and, sometimes at least, dangerous consequences of all of the advances we live with each day. With the very best of intentions (plus to both make and save money – naturally) increasing automation was supposed to lead to more leisure and, hopefully, to more fulfilled lives for all concerned. It’s a laudable aim. After all who wants to be forced to undertake dirty and dangerous jobs when machines can do them more safely and more efficiently? It’s pretty much a no-brainer, right? Of course it is. So we automate. We reduce danger, we reduce effort, we reduce stress, we reduce training, we reduce the need for intelligence, we reduce a job to pushing the occasional button and, if things go wrong, jumping in and fixing things – unless all of that watching and waiting hasn’t put the operator into a coma. This is, the author maintains with evidence to support him, what happens when humans are put in to a supervisory role with machines. Humans are not built to concentrate on things for extended periods of time. We are not ‘wired’ to be able to respond instantly and accurately after hours (or days) staring at a screen before something goes wrong. It takes time to ‘wake up’ and realise there’s a problem, it takes time to find out what the problem is and figure out a way to resolve it – most especially if it’s been weeks (or longer) since you last actually operated the machinery. When that machinery is a passenger jet and you have less than 2 minutes to save everyone on board that could be, and has been judged to be, a very real problem.

But the malaise, the author contends, is not just with airline pilots and machine operators – it’s with me and you too. How do you get around these days? Do you have a GPS device sitting on your dash or plugged into your ear when you walk around even a familiar place? Do you take any notice of physical landmarks or do you listen to the seat voice saying ‘turn left in 200 yards’ and then you do so without thinking or, possibly, looking what’s ahead of you. Why do we hear regular stories of truck drivers stuck under low bridges or bus drivers decapitating their vehicle likewise? I’ve seen my friends use GPS to get home from their local cinema – a journey that they’ve done HUNDREDS of times. Our apparent reluctance to actually navigate ourselves around – whilst potentially annoying (and sometimes dangerous) is only a symptom though – of our increasing outsourcing of knowledge and expertise to machines and software apps. We are increasingly refusing to learn difficult skills or knowledge knowing that there’s an app for that. It’s why many people walk around gripping their phones as if they are more than symbolic life preservers. It’s because far too many of us no longer know where we are and no longer have the skills (or the will) to find out. With the world becoming more complicated by the day and, coincidentally, we adopt more technological aids to get us through the day, we are increasingly in danger of making ourselves incapable of solving or even responding to the problems coming our way. Technological fixes, especially when they seem to solve our problems efficiently and cheaply, should be treated with caution and this book importantly underlines that fact. Recommended for anyone concerned about the future and the technology in their hands today. Much more technology to come….

Cartoon Time.

Me... In my Teens........

A Change of Direction – To Infinity & Beyond!

A few weeks ago I was presented with a choice. I could continue on with things that had been in place for years or I could strike out on my own into pastures new. Partially due to good timing and part due to cost (and a recommendation from a friend) I changed my ‘go to’ game from World of Warcraft to No Man’s Sky (Next).

I have to admit it was a risk, if a small one – a mere £20. When the game originally came out in 2016 it promised much – the entire Universe actually – and pretty much failed to deliver. Here, two years later, they seem to have got it right. Not that I thought so to begin with! The game is touted as a ‘survival sandbox’, something that I had honestly never heard of before. But when I loaded into a new game I found out – fast. Actually I learnt what it was all about in the first 8 minutes before dying horribly. You see when you ‘spawn’ there’s a very good chance you’re on a planet that is trying to kill you – either with heat, cold, radiation or toxicity. Mine was radiation. I started in a damaged spacesuit, an unknown distance from my ship (if I had one!) with no idea what to do about the warning ‘radiation protection falling’ screaming in my area. After trying to find something (anything) to keep me alive I keeled over dead. EIGHT minutes into the game and I had failed in my primary objective of staying alive. It wasn’t exactly a great beginning to exploring the galaxy. My (primary gaming) friend was less than impressed. He downloaded it the same day. Likewise died after 8 minutes and hasn’t playing it since. Meanwhile I have racked up around 60 hours and have only died twice more (possibly three time) in all that time. Once was through my own stupidity (eaten alive by ‘biological horrors’) and the other was in a space battle with pirates (outnumbered and outgunned).

But in those 60 hours…. Well, I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…… But first I had to fix my ship (whilst keeping alive which turned out to be comparatively easy once you know how), fuel it and get off the radioactive rock I started on. Once in space I looked for somewhere a bit more hospitable. It was here that I realised something that should have been obvious. There might be LOTS of planets out there – according to some there 18 Quadrillion in the game (that’s 858 BILLION years of gaming if you land on each one for 1 second) – but the vast majority of them are not exactly nice places to be. Even the nice ones – one of which was labelled a ‘paradise planet’ – might have periodic dangerous or deadly storms. I think of around 35+ planets so far only one could be called Earth-like apart from, that is, the colour of the vegetation or the WEIRD lifeforms wandering around.
That is, of course, where things get interesting. I LOVE exploring and poking my nose into things. I want to see what’s over the next hill, what’s under that stone, what’s in that cave. So it’s kind of the game for me really. Plus there’s a mystery at the heart of it all. I’ve decided not to follow the main story (yet anyway) but you can’t but help coming across strange abandoned installations where, obviously, something BAD happened years or even centuries ago. But what was it? Where is everyone and what’s that pulsating gloop on the console screen……? I want to know. I’m formulating theories but I might just have to go to the centre of the galaxy to find out. With limited warp capability (so far) that could take a while.

But, so far at least, things are pretty peachy. I haven’t died for a while, I’ve seen some very impressive landscapes, some TOTALLY strange fauna, made a bit of money (who knew that SALT was so tradable), traded in some ‘junkers’ for reasonably swish (and working) star ships and I’m finding my space legs. Jumping across 100 light years no longer ‘phases’ me and I’m getting to love desert planets (apart from those superheated dust storms – those I can live without). Over every hill I wonder what I might find and who I could sell it too. You never know… One day I might even bump into another player but the odds are WAY against it…..     

Cartoon Time.

Body scanners to screen LA subway riders

From The BBC

17 August 2018

Body scanners will be used on the Los Angeles subway to screen passengers for explosives and weapons, the local transport authority has announced. It is the first mass transport system in the US to adopt the technology. Portable scanners will be used to screen passengers as they enter stations, without them having to pass through a security checkpoint. Authorities said the screening would be "voluntary", but those refusing a scan will not be allowed to travel. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) said it had ordered equipment from UK manufacturer Thruvision. The company's equipment is not currently used on UK public transport, but it has been trialled at the Farnborough Airshow. The scanners have a wide field of view and can screen passengers as they ride an escalator or enter through ticket barriers. The company says its scanners can detect suspicious items from up to 32ft (10m) away, and can scan more than 2,000 passengers an hour. However, it will be used on a pop-up basis rather than permanently installed at specific stations in LA.

David Pekoske, from the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), told the Associated Press that the country faced "persistent threats to our transportation systems". "Our job is to ensure security in the transportation systems so that a terrorist incident does not happen on our watch," he said. Alex Wiggins, from the LACMTA, said the authority was looking for weapons that could cause a "mass-casualty event" such as explosives and assault rifles, rather than smaller weapons. The authority hopes to buy additional scanners that can follow individual suspects. The TSA has previously tested body scanners in New York's Penn Station, which is described as the busiest rail hub in North America. In December, a 27-year-old man was injured when he set off a "low-tech explosive device" in a subway passage near Times Square, New York. Three other people suffered minor wounds when the device blew up in an underpass.

[My first thought was a flash to the subway scene in Total Recall but it looks like the technology isn’t quite that sophisticated. It’s essentially an infra-red detection device that picks up on ‘dark’ areas on a person’s body that might reveal concealed weapons or suicide vests. If the trail is successful I’m guessing that such things will be showing up at all mass transit facilities and the police will start using them, or something similar, on the streets before long. Oh, what a brave new world we have created for ourselves….]

"If you never have to worry about not knowing where you are, then you never have to know where you are."

Nicolas Carr, The Glass Cage, 2014

There's always at least one joker in the pack....

Just Finished Reading: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (FP: 1927)

Harry Haller has a problem. All around him he sees decay, mundane living, and the daily drudge. The world is flat, uninviting, monochrome. What few pleasures he takes from life are all too fleeting and he sneers at his own weakness in needing them. Harry’s problem is that he is split in two – with a human half seeking reason and order and an animal half seeking chaos and intense emotion. Harry is a wolf from the steppes – a Steppenwolf – in human clothing fitting into neither world and suffering in both. Or at least so he believes….

After verbally attacking his host at a late night get-together Harry finds himself in a nightclub in need of a drink. Before he can start drinking himself into oblivion he is approached by Hermine, a cute almost boyish young woman full of life and the knowledge of the night. Seeing him for exactly what he is Hermine takes charge ordering Harry food and drink and forcing him to rest whilst she dances. Entranced by his new found friend Harry promises to do whatever she says. What she wants is to teach him to dance and to laugh and to enjoy himself. Reluctantly Harry agrees and so begins his new life of dancing with strangers, finding a new young lover (procured by Hermine), enjoying Jazz music, taking various drugs (supplied by his new friend Pablo) and learning how to laugh. For all of this however Hermine demands a price – on their first evening out she extracts a promise from Harry, that when he falls in love with her he must do the one thing he can barely bring himself to think about. On the night he falls in love he must kill her to put her out of the misery she feels every day.

This has been sitting on my shelf for some years now untouched. It was one of those books that almost everyone had heard about but almost no one had read. Back when I first bought it I didn’t even try to read it – maybe I thought I could just absorb these classics by literary osmosis? Tried that – didn’t work. So read it I must! It was to be honest rather weird. The last 5th of the book was the weirdest of all (essentially an extended dreamscape) but the rest of it preceding this was, by and large, a standard narrative (with a few sprinkles of magical realism thrown in). What I did honestly find fascinating was his descriptions of Harry’s inability to fit into or accept standard bourgeois society. This was because, Hermine explained: “Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours…..” Well, it was like a German author from the late 1920’s was talking directly to me. That, to be honest, knocked me back on my heels for a while! And that wasn’t the only passage that resonated deeply with me. His understanding, not only of German culture between the wars, but of human nature itself was profound. He certainly gave me many moments for thought. This was, despite my rather rambling synopsis, a gem of a book. It probably won’t sit well with most people but the Steppenwolves out there will know exactly what he’s talking about. Care to find out if you’re one……?

Translated from the German by Joseph Mileck and Horst Frenz

Cartoon Time.

A (Temporary) Loss of Focus…..

Over the last few months I’ve noticed an odd lack of focus – on reading. Part of it, I’m sure, is to do with the unseasonably fine summer weather. After all this is England and the last thing we expect in the summer is day after day of hot dry weather. It’s not affecting my sleep as much as I thought it would but it did have an effect. Then there’s the dry and the dust which effects my eyes. Not so easy to read when your eyes are watering (not taking in to account my hay fever).

On top of that I’ve been spending quite a bit of extra time on YouTube watching US News shows, bits of gaming videos, motivational videos (I kid you not) and anything else that attracts my notice for a few minutes. It’s all rather addictive once you get going! Finally I have a new game which is eating up quite a bit of my time – although mostly late at night when I’m too tired to actually read but it’s not bed time yet. The game is No Man’s Sky (Next) which was half price on Steam and one of the guys alerted me to the fact. So I downloaded it…… 30+ gaming hours later I’m just finding my feet (on alien worlds) and am really enjoying it. I can’t play it much until later in the week because, until Wednesday, I’m playing Company of Heroes 2 with my primary gaming partners. So, what happens on/from Wednesday? The latest expansion to World of Warcraft drops….. Now normally I’d be all over that and would have been spending the last few weeks getting ready. But as I now have NMS(N) I feel that I just can’t devote the time to TWO open ended games. So I had to choose and I chose to explore an entire friggin’ UNIVERSE in a completely new game rather than continue in a game I had been playing for the last 5+ years. Seemed eminently sensible.

Compared to some people (several regulars here!) I don’t read that much or that fast. My aim is to average 50 pages a day which I do (or did until recently) 95% of the time. These days’ 50 pages is a struggle even at weekends – although I was impressed that I read 100+ pages on Sunday. Taking that into account I thought that my reading drought (something I experience periodically) was coming to an end. I do hope so! One very noticeable effect of all of this is the reduction of my review pile – presently sitting at zero. This almost never happened in the past 10 years and has now become the norm. I expect to have a book to review on Thursday but presently I’m not too sure. Of course I’m not going to bust a gut to finish it quickly just to be able to review it for you guys (and any lurkers out there) but I have temporarily increased my lunch breaks and am making more of an effort to read on the bus on the way into work. That helps.

What I essentially need to do is focus more. These days I seem to be particularly easily distracted after 4, 5, 10 pages and will do something else for 30, 45, 60 minutes before coming back to the book. I need to concentrate more. It’s a habit I seem to have (hopefully temporarily) misplaced….. and speaking of which I’ll go red for 30 minutes (at least) before bed…… 

Cartoon Time.

Organic solar cells set 'remarkable' energy record

By Matt McGrath, BBC Environment correspondent

9 August 2018

Chinese researchers have taken what they say is a major step forward for the development of a new generation of solar cells. Manufacturers have long used silicon to make solar panels because the material was the most efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. But organic photovoltaics, made from carbon and plastic, promise a cheaper way of generating electricity. This new study shows that organics can now be just as efficient as silicon.

The term organic relates to the fact that carbon-based materials are at the heart of these devices, rather than silicon. The square or rectangular solid solar panels that most of us are familiar with, require fixed installation points usually on roofs or in flat fields. Organic photovoltaics (OPV) can be made of compounds that are dissolved in ink so they can be printed on thin rolls of plastic, they can bend or curve around structures or even be incorporated into clothing.

Commercial solar photovoltaics usually covert 15-22% of sunlight, with a world record for a silicon cell of 27.3% reached in this summer in the UK. Organics have long lingered at around half this rate, but this year has seen some major leaps forward. In April researchers were able to reach 15% in tests. Now this new study pushes that beyond 17% with the authors saying that up to 25% is possible. This is important because according to estimates, with a 15% efficiency and a 20 year lifetime, organic solar cells could produce electricity at a cost of less than 7 cents per kilowatt-hour. In 2017, the average cost of electricity in the US was 10.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

One of the things that has made OPV less efficient in the past is the fact that the organic materials have loosely bound molecules which can trap electrons and slow down the generation of electricity. So researchers have tried to get around this by putting different layers of material together in what's termed a tandem cell approach. "Tandem cell means you have two devices built together in the same structure," said one of the authors, Dr Yongsheng Chen, from Nankai University in Tianjin, China. "We have two layers of active materials, each layer can absorb different wavelengths of light. That means you can use sunlight in the wider wavelengths or more efficiently and this can generate more current."

Dr Yongsheng Chen compares the OPV to organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED. This technology has been introduced in the past few years and is widely used for high-end TVs. "These are already commercial, and they use a similar material to OPV," Dr Yongsheng Chen told BBC News. "The physical principle is the same, just a different direction, one is from solar to electricity, the other from electricity to light, the device and structure are similar. I am very positive for OPV, and it may not need five years," he added.

Flexible, printed solar cells offer a wide range of possibilities. They can work indoors and they can be made semi-transparent, so they could be incorporated into windows and generate power during daylight. They offer huge potential for buildings as they are lightweight so might be ideal for deploying on the roofs of houses in developing countries where structures might not suit heavy silicon. They could be used on the roofs of cars, and in clothes, even in glasses to charge your phone while you are out and about. "Their optional semi-transparency enables their use in windows or glass facade shading," said Dr Alexander Colsmann and expert on organic photovoltaics from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. "The very same properties render organic solar cells ideally suited to also power mobile applications - camping gear, smart wearables or phone chargers, just to name a few - which have been only insufficiently addressed by classical solar cell technologies such as silicon."

Other experts in this field were generally positive. "This looks a remarkable result to me," said Dr Artem Bakulin, from Imperial College London. "The development of such new materials with previously unthinkable properties allowed them to achieve the reported record efficiency and, in general, makes OPV technology much more promising." Dr Feng Gao from Linköping University in Sweden also believes the new paper is significant. "This work is a very important contribution to organic solar cells and will certainly inspire new developments in the field," he said by email. "The tandem organic solar cells with record efficiencies in this work indicate great potential of organic solar cells for practical applications."

[Wow, this seems to be quite a breakthrough and potentially going into commercial production reasonably soon. Imagine *windows* in your house generating power or even the tinted ‘skin’ of your car or even the clothes you’re wearing as you walk around outside. It could be a brave new world in not that many years from now!]

Erm.... Miss, I think there's something in your hair.....

Just Finished Reading: The Road Not Taken – How Britain Narrowly Missed a Revolution 1381-1926 by Frank McLynn (FP: 2012)

It’s an oddity of European political history that Britain has never experienced a revolution (I’m ignoring – as does the author – the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 which was nothing of the sort). We’ve come close though, more than once. The author concentrates on the major ‘near misses’ from the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 to the General Strike of 1926 showing the background to each event, how it unfolded and, most importantly, why each outbreak of revolutionary fervour failed to produce the expected revolutionary outcome.

I think the first thing that surprised me was the fact that I knew of the very earliest would-be revolutionaries partially from previous reading but also from some of my earliest school history lessons. I wonder if the teacher who taught me about Wat Tyler and Jack Cade also taught me to lionise Hereward. After all this was the late 60’s and early 70’s and I’m sure that there must have been some teachers in working class Comprehensive schools with left-leaning and revolutionary ideas themselves! The early examples – the 1381 revolt and the later Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 – where interesting enough but my interest solidified when the book reached the 17th century Civil Wars (something I need far greater knowledge of) and the eruption of various radical political ideas such as the Levellers and, of course, the Diggers both of whom tried the patience of Cromwell’s Commonwealth to breaking point and beyond. I was particularly interested in John Lilburne (who I’ve only really ‘met’ fictionally before now) who, yet again, I’m going to have to read up on a great deal more!). Of course the Commonwealth, also known as the Interregnum, is the only (brief) period where England was a republic – hence my abiding interest. After the chaos of the latter half of the 17th century we enter into the political mess of the 18th with the Jacobite menace and the uprising of 1745. This is (again) something I had heard of in passing but had no real knowledge of – no longer! I had no idea that the Jacobite’s (supporters of the previous James Stewart dynasty) where around for so long and that they posed such a threat to the house of Hanover then in power. On then to the turbulent 19th century – I had no idea that the last 3 centuries had so much civil unrest – with the advent of the Chartists who campaigned and agitated for the increase in voting rights for all adult males – such myopia when the rights of women were concerned seems to have been part of most so-called radical political agendas with a few notable exceptions. Lastly was a detailed (and honestly fascinating) analysis of the 9 day wonder of the 1926 General Strike. I’d read about this event before in a book written for its 50th anniversary (in 1976) which failed to address exactly why the Unions collapsed so early. Well, now I know! Needless to say it involved duplicity, incompetence and self-serving. But that’s another event I need to read up about!

Overall I was very impressed by this book. I think it’s pretty clear that the author is a left-leaning historian but that was never really in doubt. This is something I don’t mind. Wearing your political bias on your sleeve is far more appreciated than trying to hide it and failing. But the author was not shy from attacking the motivations (or indeed competence) of the Left throughout the book pointing out mistakes, missed opportunities and much else besides. I found myself chuckling more than once at his pointed references to character flaws all around. More than ably written with style, gusto and deep knowledge this was a delight from beginning to end. Despite covering a lot of ground in a little over 500 pages there is a lot of detail and analysis here that will leave you wondering of might have been’s and what if’s. Highly recommended for the student of revolutionary political history.   

Cartoon Time.

Wedding Belle’s………..

For those of you who wondered why I didn’t post anything Thursday or Friday of last week I was at a wedding. It wasn’t mine I hasten to add [lol] but was my eldest nephews who I haven’t actually seen for around 5 years since he moved away to live with his girlfriend in Sheffield. Sheffield is an old industrial town in Yorkshire (NE England) and the journey up there took around 3 hours on the train. I arrived in the early afternoon on Thursday and took a short taxi trip to the hotel. I was rather impressed by my small compact little room which had a very comfortable ‘double’ bed to spread out on and almost immediately fell asleep as I was pretty much exhausted after not having a break from work since April. I did manage to wake up in time for my evening meal - my sister was attending the wedding rehearsal so I ate alone - (linguine). Back in my room I read for a bit and channel hopped until quite late and had just decided to go to bed when my niece arrived to say that everyone was meeting in the bar. So shoes on and I headed to the bar. With vodka in hand my sister introduced me to the best man and some of the bride’s family who all seemed very nice.

Up early the day of the wedding to ensure I ate a hearty breakfast – not eating again until later afternoon – and to get appropriately ‘suited and booted’ to make a good impression. I think that worked from the laugh my sister gave me when we met up in reception. Fortunately, due to a late change of plans, my sister and family (all 5 other ‘children’ and partner) were staying in the same hotel so I had a lift to the church. This was a good thing as the venue was miles away in the middle of nowhere – practically. It was a lovely old church though (pictured) around 500 years in the main with parts dating back 900 years. The ceremony was longer and more religious than I expected but I found that seeing it through anthropological eyes helped pass the time. I particularly remember the sharp intake of breath and nervous laughter when the bride dropped her husband’s to be ring…..

After a few group photo’s we all got back on the bus – there was a classic bus but my sister also has one with so many kids – and off to the reception in another rather grand hotel. The meal (veggie for me) was surprisingly nice, indeed one of the best such meals I’ve had at this type of event, and I spent a pleasant hour or so chatting to my table companions. After the usual speeches (of varying quality) most of us decanted outside whilst they converted part of the venue to a small dance floor. Let the festivities begin! There followed several hours of drinking, dancing and chatting to various people until the kids simply couldn’t keep their eyes open and we made our excuses and left around midnight. The funniest part of the evening for me was watching my 8 year old nephew trying to teach the bride’s mother (50 years his senior) the Internet dance sensation: The Floss. She tried, bless her, but my youngest nephew was obviously far more experienced at that sort of thing. He was also brilliantly dressed by my sister in a blue suit and waistcoat complete with pocket watch which he lovingly checked occasionally with some ceremony.

Back at the hotel around 1am on Saturday it was straight to bed and the sleep of the exhausted. Up late and another cooked breakfast to tide me over another 3 hour train journey home. It was a fun few days.

Cartoon Time.

Opt-out organ donation 'in place by 2020' for England

From the BBC

5 August 2018

A new opt-out system for organ donation will be in place by 2020 in England, if Parliament approves "Max's Law". Under the plans detailed by ministers, adults will be presumed to be organ donors unless they have specifically recorded their decision not to be. The government said it would save up to 700 lives each year. In the UK in 2017, 411 people died before the right donor was found, and more than 5,000 people are currently on the waiting list in England. A similar opt-out system has been in place in Wales since 2015. Scotland plans to introduce a similar scheme and Northern Ireland has also expressed an interest. "Max's Law" is named after Max Johnson, from Cheshire, who was saved by a heart transplant. His search for a suitable heart was followed in a series of front-page stories in the Daily Mirror, as the newspaper campaigned for the change in the law. Last year, Theresa May wrote to the 10-year-old, saying she chose the name after she heard his "inspirational story".

The legislation was subsequently introduced last year, and will return to the House of Commons in the autumn to be voted on. If passed, it is expected to come into effect in England in spring 2020 - because the timetable for its introduction will allow for a year of "transition" to the new law. The government said it would also encourage people to discuss, with their families, the issue of whether they would want to be a donor in the event of their death. Fiona Loud, policy director of Kidney Care UK, told BBC Breakfast the experience in Wales, where donations did not initially increase, showed the new system depended on widespread public support. "We must have a full, consistent public education system with faith groups, schools, colleges, universities, and with the public as well," she said. She added the new system would involve a "soft opt-out", where families could override the presumption in favour of donation if they strongly believed their dead relative would not have wanted it. Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said introducing an opt-out system in England would reflect the views of the general public better. He said: "This will also ease the agonising pain felt by many families who risk losing a loved one while they wait for an organ. It's still really important for all of us to have conversations with our loved ones about organ donation so our wishes can be met if the worst should happen."

[Ok, I’m probably going to be somewhat controversial here and completely disagree with the idea of ‘presumed consent’. The very concept honestly makes my blood boil. OK, when I’d be giving the organs up I’d be dead and wouldn’t really care if they fed me to pigs but that’s not the point. This much abused body I walk around in is mine. I own it. If I want to donate its remains to others after I die that’s fine. It’s more than fine it’s admirable – but I’m not going to be ordered to do it. Of course people should be encouraged to donate after death. Advertising campaigns should be produced. You could even pay people before they die to donate organs complete with contractual obligations. But I am not a walking organ factory. Frankly, the idea of presuming the consent of 27+ MILLION adults to save 700 lives a year is farcical in the extreme. As is the idea put forward that legalised presumed consent brings the policy more in line with public opinion. Surely if public opinion was so in favour of organ donation there would be no need for the change in the law. The NHS would be awash in organs and would be flying them out across the globe to those in need. Yet again, rather than fixing a problem (and I agree it is a problem) they go for the easy solution and legislate. Of course, when it doesn’t work, they just make organ donation compulsorily 5-10 years later…..]

Frog Chorus? 

Just Finished Reading: The True Believer – Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer (FP: 1951)

I lost count of the times that I checked that publication date. Confirmed – it is indeed 1951. But, apart from many references to Nazi’s and the Soviet Union you’d be hard pressed to know that it was written over 60 years ago. Rather impressively the author is an autodidact – self-taught – studying in his ‘downtime’ between various day jobs, sleep and writing articles for newspapers and, of course, a number of books. Apparently this is his most famous – although, until I saw it recommended by Amazon, I had neither heard of it or him until some months ago. After reading it I found the fact that President Eisenhower mentioned it in one of his early television press conferences (making it a bestseller from that point on) less surprising than it might have been otherwise. This is good stuff, grounded in the everyday but deep and thoughtful. The author attempts to distil what makes people fanatics – either political or religious – and what drives them to do what they do, think how they think and interact with the other, non-fanatic, world the way they do.

Of course all of this was written before the Soviet Union really hit its stride, before the Cuban Revolution, before China became the powerhouse that it did and, most obviously, long before the present pre-occupation with Islamic Fundamentalism and the disparate groups we have become terribly familiar with. Yet, despite the political and historical distance, time and again the author hits the nail and the head and helps explain the world we have created for ourselves in the 21st century. I was honestly surprised by how relevant this book was to the news reports we see on our TV’s each and every day. It even helped me start to understand, or at least get my head around, the idea of working class Donald Trump supporters. At least I now have a greater appreciation of why people can, seemingly, vote against their own interests.

I don’t want to give too much away from this slim volume (only 168 pages in my edition) and I’m not going to try to precis his arguments here. Needless to say he looks at what makes someone a fanatic – from both the group and individual perspective – and how that fanaticism is used and can bleed into other areas of a culture. He also explains, importantly, aspects of fanaticism that exist in normal societies that are channelled for the greater good (on the whole!) including military service. Element by element the author dissects what makes a person or group fanatical and that shows how those elements arise in the first place and how they fit together – jigsaw like – to make the fanatic we are all too aware of these days. Finally he looks as the type of leader that cam promote fanatical followers and how they evolve as part of a revolutionary process.

Despite the fact that this is a book very much of its time it is also, in very important ways, timeless. The author has seemingly distilled the essence of the fanatic – the true believer – and laid them bare for all to see. This, I believe, is an important work that should be read much more widely than no doubt it is. Very much relevant today – and not only in the on-going so-called ‘War on Terror’ (BTW – When was the last time you heard that phrase?) but also in seeing popularist movements across the globe more clearly. Highly recommended. 

Cartoon Time.