Cartoon Time.

Keeping Cool....

Two Things of Note

It’s almost 10pm as I write this and it’s still 23 degrees C out there. For the past three weeks now – and with at least another week to go – we’ve been regularly experiencing daytime temperatures hovering around 30 degrees. In most places this wouldn’t amount to much – but this is England! I’ve been trying to think of the last time we had weather this warm for this long and I can only think of 1976 which was a notable year in many ways. One of the major issues, of course, is that our buildings and transport infrastructure is designed to keep people warm rather than cool so air-conditioning is a rarity. Both of my local supermarkets have air-con so that’s ‘cool’ but my bus home – DEAR GOD that’s warm and sultry complete with tiny windows designed (naturally) to allow in a modicum of fresh air without losing precious heat!

As a Celt I am, as you can imagine, suffering quite a bit. Surprisingly I’m sleeping OK on top of the covers and I think that’s helping a lot. During the day though – that’s TOUGH. Luckily my office is nicely cool but anytime I have to go out for any length of time I come back exhausted and, often, feeling sick. That’s probably the humidity more than the actual heat but I’ve never done particularly well with heat, humidity or direct sunlight. If you want to see me collapse in just about every way possible sit me outside out of the shade on a hot day. It’s not nice, not at all, and that’s before I add in my hay fever! Thankfully with me its tree pollen which has dropped off considerably lately. Grass pollen doesn’t bother me much so my summer sneezing is pretty much done now till next year. Looking at the forecast the high temperatures ease off from Saturday and drop (at least for a while) to the much more comfortable low 20’s C. That I can cope with.

In other news it looks like the Tories are about to self-destruct over Brexit. David Davis (Brexit Secretary) resigned on Sunday and Boris Johnson (Foreign Secretary) resigned this afternoon. How that leaves Teresa May (Prime Minister) is anyone’s guess at this point. Both posts have been quickly filled but it must have done the PM some serious political damage. Plus the fact that both Davis and Boris can now freely snipe from the back benches and plot the PM’s downfall without getting into serious hot water. Of course the fact that we’re only EIGHT months away from the Brexit deadline makes everything particularly fractious. If there’s a leadership contest that could take three months. Is the EU going to continue negotiations with someone (probably) on borrowed time? Will Brexit be derailed? Postponed? Or will we, as I’ve been predicting all along crash out without any deal in place? Just when you thought that Brexit couldn’t fuck things up any further….. Interesting times, eh? But at least we have blue skies to wonder at and ice cream to look forward to…. 

Cartoon Time (click to enlarge).

Facebook finds Independence document 'racist'

From The BBC

5 July 2018

Facebook's algorithms have ruled that parts of the US Declaration of Independence are hate speech and removed excerpts of them posted to the platform. In the run-up to Independence Day, a US community paper based in Texas had been posting small daily chunks of the historic document on its Facebook page. At issue was a part of it that referred to "merciless Indian savages". Facebook later apologised and allowed the posting. The Liberty County Vindicator - which is currently unavailable in the EU - had been sharing excerpts from America's founding document to its Facebook page in an attempt to encourage historical literacy among its readers. Part 10 did not appear, with the paper receiving a notice from Facebook saying the post went against its standards on hate speech.

Editor Casey Stinnett wrote afterwards of the offending paragraph: "Perhaps had Thomas Jefferson written it as 'Native Americans at a challenging stage of cultural development' that would have been better. Unfortunately, Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans." The newspaper later confirmed that Facebook had had a change of heart and apologised. "It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn't go against our community standards," the company told the Vindicator. "We want to apologise and let you know that we've restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action."

Later, Facebook issued a statement about the incident saying: "The post was removed by mistake and restored as soon as we looked into it. We process millions of reports each week, and sometimes we get things wrong." In a blogpost, assistant editor of political magazine Reason Christian Britschgi said the decision demonstrated the problem with automated searches for hate speech. "A robot trained to spot politically incorrect language isn't smart enough to detect when that language is part of a historically significant document," he said.

[Well, looking on the bright side at least they didn’t air-brush out the fact that our cultures had very different ideas about things centuries back. Knowing how (potentially) sexist, racist and homophobic our ancestors where shows us how far we’ve come in that regard in a very short time. Without the knowledge of what our ancestors thought, believed and lived by we are adrift in a world view without all important context.] 

Must be Summer......

Just Finished Reading: The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (FP: 1915)

24 year old Rachel Vinrace is barely educated and less than worldly wise. Allowed from an early age to follow her interests she has become a quietly accomplished and largely self-taught musician. Lacking focus she drifts through life and is present on her father’s trans-Atlantic steamer to accompany her Aunt and Uncle to South America. At a coaling stop they pick up further passengers – Mr and Mrs Dalloway – who dazzle everyone with their style and elegance. Everything is going well until Mr Dalloway kisses Rachel in private. Never been kissed before she has no idea what to do and seeks the advice of her Aunt Mrs Helen Ambrose. Seeing her niece completely out of her depth emotionally she convinces Rachel’s father to allow her to accompany them to South America in order to educate her in the ways of the world and return her to London as a woman worthy of marriage. Living in a villa overlooking the harbour and within easy walking distance of the nearby hotel frequented by foreigners Rachel begins her journey coming out in what counts as society in such a faraway place. Over subsequent months the two will meet a host of characters from across the social spectrum of polite society, play cards (and tennis), go on trips (and picnics), talk a great deal about events of the day back home and the place of women in the modern world. There will be music, dancing and the possibility of love – and not just for Rachel Vinrace.

I remember trying some Woolf many years ago and crashing and burning quite badly. It’s possible that I might have tried one of her later modernist classics rather than this simple linear narrative. Although saying that I doubt very much indeed if, 35+ years ago, I would have had the patience to finish it. Despite liking her style and really liking a number of its characters very much indeed – especially Helen Ambrose and Mrs Dalloway – I still took an almost unprecedented 2-3 weeks to read just under 450 pages. It wasn’t that the book was difficult to read (it wasn’t) or that it was boring (it wasn’t really despite the fact that very little actually happened) it was just a combination of things that made it drag out day after day. It most certainly hasn’t put me off reading any more of her works. I want to see how her style progresses as her prowess advances and she because an outlier for modernist literature. I also way to find out more about Mrs Dalloway as Woolf later wrote a whole book about a very subsidiary character in this novel. I’m completely intrigued by that!

As always with this kind of book you get interesting little insights into the thoughts and beliefs of the time even if spoken through fictionalised mouths. I was intrigued by the regular discussion of a woman’s place in modern society and there were mentions of Suffrage throughout. Despite its publication date WW1 was only slightly hinted at in the context of flying. Though interestingly one of the female characters was planning on travelling to Russia to join the long anticipated revolution there. There were also numerous (and to me rather surprising) hints about sex and sexuality. As I couldn’t help comparing the style and plot to Jane Austen novels I was a bit taken aback by that. The most surprising thing though was the regular distain for organised religion and the assumption by several of the characters that Atheism was self-evident. For an English novel of that time and, presumably, aimed at the upper middle class reader I found this very surprising indeed. Despite the slowness of the read (mostly my own fault I think) I will recommend this to anyone interested in a gentile read and an insight into the Edwardian mindset.

Cartoon Time.

Catching rays.... drinking wine.... eating cheese....