Cartoon Time.

Living Inside Books.......... [grin]

Just Finished Reading: We Have Been Harmonised – Life in China’s Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter (FP: 2019)

Imagine you’re walking home from a late night drinking session with friends. You’re still 10 minutes away from your apartment but you’re desperate for a pee. You look around. It’s 2am so the streets are empty and there’s a handy dark corner near some large bins. Seconds later you’re feeling much better and even begin to hum a tune to yourself. You phone beeps with an incoming text message. Maybe it’s from that girl you met tonight. You fish your phone out and look at your phone in horror. You’ve just been fined for your public urination and what’s more video of the act has been posted to screens located outside your apartment, the nearby bus stop you use to get to work and outside your office. As this puts you over the monthly limit your Internet connect has been throttled back to its minimum setting and your high-speed train ticket has been revoked so no visiting your parents this weekend. One getting home you discover a printed note taped to your door from the landlord. If you don’t get your Harmony Score up in the next 30 days you’ll be looking for somewhere else to live. Time to clean up your act.

Is this the future? No, it’s present day China – a society dedicated to bringing Harmony through Technology. The author who has lived in China on and off for decades outlines the lengths that the authorities will go to in order to make its citizens toe the line, and it’s a LONG way. Surveillance of the public space as well as online activities is ever present and growing every day. The technology, including the addition of increasingly powerful AI software, is becoming more accomplished as whole cities become testbeds and countries across the world are becoming interested in applying lessons in their countries too and China is more than happy to help. This pervasive and intrusive technology might help outsiders to understand how the Chinese authorities apparently controlled the recent outbreak of COVID-19 so quickly and so effectively. Contact tracing was easy as they already knew a great deal about people’s day to day contacts. Isolation was a breeze as the authorities arrived, immediately identified the people they had come for with facial recognition on their phones, and whisked them away into quarantine without so much as a murmur of protest. Clamping down on apartment blocks, streets or whole cities was as easy as pushing a button and watching a handful of monitor screens.

This was a scary enough read when you think about it happening in China but it gets scarier as you realise that not only are the Chinese exporting this technology freely across the globe but that our countries are looking at this way of ‘harmonising’ their citizens too – maybe not as forcefully, maybe not as openly – but you can see them salivating at the power it gives them. It’ll be sold, naturally, as a painless way of protecting you from crime, from terrorism, and protecting your children from predators and it will work. After all, if you’re doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear, right? I’m sure that European Jews said the same thing to themselves in 1932….. Highly recommended if you can keep your paranoia in check. Much more on China to come.

Translated from the German by Ruth Martin     

Probably reading one of his own books.... [lol]

Plucky.... [grin]

Cartoon Time.

..at least we can dream of being outside.

So.... As a reading project.... This could take quite a while! [lol]

Just Finished Reading: Rejoice! Rejoice! – Britain in the 1980’s by Alwyn W Turner (FP: 2010)

The 1980’s were my decade and not just for the music. I moved away from home for the first time – and never went back except to visit, I went to University and, after a short period of unemployment, moved to London and a job that lasted me over 30 years. So, yes, a pretty important decade for me.
But the dominant thing about the 80’s was – apart from the music – the Prime Minister: Margaret Thatcher. She dominated the decade the way few (if any) PMs have done before. She in many ways defined the 80’s and British history of that time cannot be spoken of without reference to her. Rather surprisingly I voted for her (the first time I voted age 19) in 1979 and again 4 years later. Reading (and remembering) about the opposition at that time which, as today, was a total shambles it doesn’t surprise me that she got my vote. I can’t remember who I voted for in her third term though. I suspect it was Labour – in the guise of Neil Kinnock – but I’m not sure. But like most of the country I’d turned against her at that point.

Some of the reasons I tried hard (and repeatedly) to go to University had to do with the high unemployment rate throughout the 80’s. 3 years out of the job market plus leaving with a degree, I thought, would both allow things to improve (they didn’t) and make me more employable (it didn’t). But finally I got a job in the capital and experienced – or at least saw the fallout from – the Poll Tax riots and, of course, the IRA bombing campaign and the heavy handed government response, and it still amazes me to this day how quickly we got used to seeing police officers carrying sub-machine guns in body armour on the streets of central London where before we hardly saw any armed police anywhere.

Being the Iron Lady and playing up to that iconography at every opportunity would always result in opposition and it did – from the Miners, Left wing politicians and TV comedians (and not forgetting the BBC). The 80’s were undoubtedly a great era for stand-up comedians and some of the best TV drama and soap opera of any modern age – and this was when we only had FOUR TV channels for most of the decade supplemented by SKY TV with its multiple satellite channels from 1984 onwards. I honestly loved Channel 4 in those days and I’m sure that the Government regretted its direction that the new channel should cater for ‘alternative’ tastes – which it took to with a gusto! 

In many ways the 1980’s was when everything changed. Our military decline into 3rd world status was recognised and halted after the Falklands War, nationalised industries were sold off and never went back, greed became good, industries fell by the wayside and where deliberately left to die whilst the Stock Exchange and the Banking industry were lauded and rewarded handsomely, race, gender and sexual identity all became issues and where endlessly debated – it was a chaotic, vibrant, frightening and exhilarating 10 years and the author brings that to life in spades. I laughed, I sighed, I recognised, I frowned and cheered and mostly I remembered events, people and – one more time – the music of the age. I’m not sure how much this will interest my American readers but if you lived through those times or just want to know how it was in Britain during those tumultuous years this is definitely the book for you. Recommended. More 80’s to come!   

Cartoon Time.

Ah... The Good Old Days.........

Fortunately I went to a College with a very good Library.......

A Fifth View from The Apocalypse.

Has it been six weeks already since I started these posts? I must be getting used to it…. Or not, really. I’m still having no issues (or at least minimal issues) coping with Social Isolation. To me that’s just a normal evening/weekend/holiday extended into the future. So six weeks hasn’t really fazed me – so far! After my sleep extending slightly after retirement its dropping back again to about 7-8 hours which is good. Ideal even. I’m not as physically active as I was with work so I’m watching my weight and will need to see about either eating less or burning more calories. I’ll think on that one.

I’m definitely reading more – finished 2 books last week and I’m a third of the way through my next one. That’ll slow down a bit now I’ve just downloaded a new game – Two Point Hospital – which is fun, funny and quite addictive so far. Anyway I’ve averaging 80 pages a day which will take me to 70-75 books this year if I can maintain that level (I’m not anticipating any issues).

I’m not having any issues with supplies which is nice. My local supermarket is literally 2 minutes away (I can see it from my bedroom window) so I’m leaving the house about 30-45 minutes before it closes (at 10pm) and catch them as they’re restocking the shelves. Not only do I generally get exactly what I’m after – including a 9 pack of toilet roll tonight - but the footfall is pretty low at that time so there’s a minimal of the Social Distancing dance going on. It’s good to see people taking it seriously but it can be a bit off-putting when people look at you as if you’re carrying a blood splattered machete if you get less than 10 feet away from them. I have had a few ironic shrugs of shoulders ‘what can you do’ looks which made both of us smile. Like everyone else we’re muddling through.

But I am certainly counting my blessings. So far both I, my friends and my family are all fit and healthy. From a personal/selfish point of view I definitely see myself as one of the lucky ones: I have no work worries as I’m retired now and even if I was still at work my company had already given us the tools – laptop and phone – to Work from Home. I have money in the bank, a company pension and have paid off my mortgage so don’t have any financial worries. Indeed, because of the lockdown, I’m actually spending less money than usual. So, yes, lucky.

Any problems I am anticipating are purely First World problems – like haircuts. At some point – if this lasts into the summer – I’m going to have to butcher my hair ‘style’, not that many people would even notice as I slink between the shops and back in the dead of night! I guess such things will just end us as another story to laugh about in the after-apocalypse party. If that’s as bad as it gets I think me and mine will have gotten off very lightly indeed.

So, I’m still here, still healthy and still (comparatively) sane. I hope that all is as well with my readership. It still has a way to go but there’s positive signs out there. Eventually they’ll have a vaccine and then we can get back to whatever is the new normal. I wonder if I’ll shake another person’s hand ever again. That’d be weird – not doing that and whilst I’m not a known hugger I’d definitely miss the odd one that does come my way. See you all safe and well on the other side… 

Cartoon Time.

Novel news: world's biggest bookworms revealed in study

By Naaman Zhou for The Guardian

Fri 12 Oct 2018

Do you have more books than an Estonian teenager? If you live in an English-speaking country, the answer is probably no.

A new study from researchers at the Australian National University and University of Nevada in the US has revealed which countries are the world’s biggest bookworms – and discovered that having more books growing up, even if you don’t necessarily read more, improves educational outcomes. In fact, adults with university degrees, but who grew up with fewer books, had the same level of literacy as those who left school in year 9, but who had a lot of household books as a teen. The study, published in the journal Social Science Research, found the number of household books at age 16 had a direct positive relationship with literacy, numeracy and IT skill in later years – independent of how much tertiary study a person did, or how often they read as an adult.

On average Australians owned 148 books per house, but the largest chunk of respondents (35%) had only 65. Estonians, who lead the world, averaged 218, and 35% owned 350 books or more. Norway (212), Sweden (210) and the Czech Republic (204) also beat English-speaking countries like the UK (143) and the US (114). Turkey had the lowest average (27), with 60% of households saying they had only five books. Lead author, Dr Joanna Sikora from the ANU, said adolescent exposure to books laid the foundations for a “scholarly culture” that gave people life-long improvements in education, regardless of social advantage or disadvantage.

The benefit of books was consistent across the world, and independent of a person’s education level, their job as an adult, sex, age or the education level of their parents. Looking just at Australian data, where researchers had more detail, they even found the same trend when controlling for wealth, IQ and school grades. “No matter what we controlled for, we always got this advantage of growing up around books,” Sikora said. Previous studies have found a relationship between reading for fun and education outcomes, and between growing up with books and earning more as an adult, but this study found a stronger link across more countries, and for longer into adulthood. Researchers surveyed adults across 31 countries, between the ages of 25 and 65, and asked them how many books they had in their home when they were 16. They found the positive impact was greatest for those with higher levels of disadvantage, meaning lower income families could narrow the education gap by exposing their children to more books in the house.

“Literacy-wise, bookish adolescence makes up for a good deal of educational advantage,” the report said. Sikora said they were surprised to see that household books led to improvements even in maths and IT skills. “The tendency is to think that this is a different skill. You either are a words person or a numbers person. But if this data is telling us anything, it’s that this is not the case at all. We didn’t expect that. It is not just: if you read books as a kid, you are good at reading books later on. You are actually good at literacy in a completely different environment, the digital environment.” However, Sikora stressed that it was not the act of reading specifically that brought benefits. “It’s very difficult to put a finger on it and say ‘just do a lot of reading’. There is more to it. It is a whole complex around books and reading. It’s important for young children to see their parents and other people surrounding themselves with books.”

[Cultural differences in reading is fascinating. I wonder why Estonia comes out top?]

Just Finished Reading: 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan (FP: 2010)

New York, 1857. No matter how calculated it was still an act of desperation. With two teenage daughters needing a husband before long Emma Cunningham needed stability, financial security and a suitable address. In other words she needed to marry – and soon. She was fortunate in one way – despite being a widow she was still young and still beautiful enough to entice a suitable man into her orbit. She was also worldly enough and practical enough to realise that she might have to sleep with him a few times to bait the hook. After all desperate times required desperate measures. As her financial situation worsened her luck seemed to change. On holiday she briefly crossed paths with a fellow New Yorker dentist Dr Harvey Burdell. He was ideal – young enough without being naïve, rich enough without being out of her reach and interested enough in Emma to consider a relationship beyond friendship or a brief dalliance. After a short time in her company he seemed to be charmed enough by her to offer her rooms in his house and a position as housekeeper. It was an ideal opportunity to work on the good Doctor and bring him around to her way of thinking. As she agreed to the arrangement she could already hear wedding bells in her near future. But once in the house things do not go as she’d hoped. The good Doctor has plans too – plans to be rich off the expansion of New York’s docks and trade with the South. Plans that keep him out of the house for longer and longer periods including overnight. Does he have another mistress? Is he just using her as an unpaid housekeeper and occasional bed partner? Is there any future for Emma and her daughters or will she need to cut her losses and move on? Just days away from making her decision it is made for her. Alerted by the screams of the cook she finds her future hoped for husband lying in a pool of his own blood. With the house still locked up from the night before there is only one suspect – Emma herself – and the local DA is out to make a name for himself on the way to being elected Mayor of the city. Innocent or not Emma will hang…..

Based on a real crime that shocked New York in 1857 and a trail that made reputations this was a very entertaining murder mystery that actually kept me wondering almost up to the end. Emma was far from innocent and had what could be called a colourful past. However, did she or could she have killed her soon to be/hoped for husband? That was indeed the question raised both in the subsequent trial (I was rather disappointed that the trial didn’t figure more prominently – which is about my biggest criticism of the book) and in a series of flashbacks looking at actions of the main characters including the victim who had a very colourful past indeed! Well-paced and containing some very well drawn characters – Emma’s defence lawyer and his wife where to me the stars of the show and I’d like to see them in future novels – this was an entertaining romp which easily kept me turning pages and made me want to learn more about the time and place so ably rendered in print. Recommended.     

Cartoon Time.

Happy Birthday to Me! 60 today!!!!! O..M..G!

Just Finished Reading: Leila Khaled – Icon of Palestinian Liberation by Sarah Irving (FP: 2012)

I don’t know if I actually remember it or I read about it later. I have an image in my head of that famous photograph (below) in my parent’s newspaper but that could be a false memory planted there to backfill my other vague memories. I’ve seen the three planes blowing up in the desert but that footage has been shown time and again since the 1970 event itself. I’m not sure if I was aware enough – then aged 10 – to know very much about the hijacking going on around the world and just why the Palestinians were taking them at gunpoint, flying them off to Middle-Eastern airfields and, more often than not, blowing them to pieces to bring attention to their cause. Leila Khaled hit the world’s headlines first in 1969, when her iconic photograph was taken, and then again in 1970 when her attempted hijacking of an Israeli airline failed and the plane was diverted to London (from Amsterdam) where she was arrested by the British police. Later released, much to the disgust of Israel, in exchange for the release of British hostages held on another hijacked plane she retained to the Middle East to continue the struggle against Israel and the Occupation of Gaza.

Spending much of the rest of her life in Syria (long before the Civil War), Jordan and the Lebanon she was very frustrated that her unlooked for iconic status – both inside the Palestinian Liberation orbit and throughout the West (often competing with Che for dorm wall space) – prevented her from taking up armed struggle and relegated her to the more prosaic task of organising aid for refugees and promoting the welfare of thousands of displaced women and children often under difficult conditions and gunfire. She was elected to a number of posts within the Liberation organisations and spoke for Palestinians within the UN and elsewhere. Refusing to retire, even at 75 years of age, she still fights for her people and her homeland.

This short book was definitely a work of two halves for me. Her early life and her two hijackings (plus her time in custody in Britain) I found to be really interesting but her time in the refugee camps and arguments over her feminist credentials – not so much. It was good to understand what happened to her afterwards, after her brief brush with international fame/infamy, but I did find the whole thing a bit of a slog. Although I didn’t fully skim the feminist critique I must admit that I wasn’t giving it my fullest attention. It is interesting though how young women in these situations – who are equally as able and are equally as dedicated to the particular cause they’re involved in – are criticised for giving up their femininity in order to fight as if their gender is more important than the need for people who can point an AK in the right direction. Any fighting force that turns away 50% of its population in desperate times of need is definitely doing something wrong. But, as the book, and Leila herself points out, going against centuries of cultural baggage – especially in Middle Eastern societies – will forever be an uphill struggle. Reasonable.       

Absolutely friggin' brilliant! I LOVE the British sense of humour SO much..... We needed the laugh, so thanks for this!

Cartoon Time.

51% of UK adults read a book in the last year

By KIRSTY COOKE

06.03.2019

We mark World Book Day [2019] by looking at purchase behaviour and reported reading habits in the UK…

51% of UK adults say they have read a book in the last year, according to TGI consumer data from Kantar Media. 34% of those adults who read books are categorised as ‘heavy readers’ – that is, those who have read 10 or more books in the past year. Claire McClelland, Category Analyst for Entertainment at Kantar Worldpanel, says the market is looking healthy. “The average shopper spent £60.98 on hardback and paperback books in the past year*, which is up by £3.34 since last year. 40.6% of the UK adult population have purchased a book in the past 12 months. The average shopper has purchased 9 physical books each in the past year, compared to 8 the year before.”

James Powell, Senior Marketing Manager at Kantar Media, highlights that there are differences in book preferences based on gender and age. “Men are 40% more likely than the average book reader to read science fiction and almost twice as likely to read about sports, whilst women are 58% more likely to read romance novels and 25% more likely to read contemporary literature. Those aged 15 to 24 are almost twice as likely to read fantasy and adventure books and 59% more likely to read science fiction. But those aged 65 or over are 35% more likely to read about home, gardening and DIY, and 37% more likely to read historical fiction. The 34% of book-reading adults who are ‘heavy readers’ are 26% more likely than the average reader to be aged 65 or over, according to TGI data.

Meanwhile, looking at purchase behaviour, Kantar Worldpanel finds that 50% of heavy book shoppers (that is, those in the top 20%) are from a 55+ shopper base, who have grown share since last year by +0.8ppts. McClelland notes: “Heavy book shoppers spend on average a whopping £202.15 a year on physical books, which is £36 more than the heavy book shoppers spent last year, and just over 3 times more than the average physical book shopper (£60.98). So, it can be argued that these heavy shoppers are becoming more engaged in the books category. 15 to 24 year olds are 32% less likely than the average reader to be heavy readers, according to TGI data, with only 23% of them reading 10 or more books per year.

Powell notes: “Senior Sole Decision Makers (aged 55 or over, not married or living as a couple, and living alone) are 23% more likely to be heavy readers, but Flown the Nest-ers (aged 15-34, not married or living as a couple and do not live with relations) are 28% less likely. 68% of ‘heavy readers’ say they buy their books online, whilst 56% do so in a shop and 5% via mail order, according to TGI data.

40.6% of the UK adult population have purchased a book in the past year, with 38% of UK adults purchasing a physical book, and just 8.5% purchasing an e-book, according to Kantar Worldpanel purchase data. Reading habits follow a similar trend, finds Kantar Media. “Reading via eBooks is prominent amongst the heavy readers, but still lags behind paperbacks and hardbacks,” says Powell. “Three quarters of heavy readers read paperbacks, 53% read hardbacks and 44% read eBooks.” Purchase data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that the penetration of e-books has actually diminished over the last few years (Feb 2015: 11.5%, Feb 2016: 10.4%, Feb 2017: 9.4%, Feb 2018: 9.1%, Feb 2019: 8.5%). McClelland comments: “Although the books market has been in a gradual decline over the years, with shopper losses being the key reason for decline, the category still sees some growth through a more engaged shopper base purchasing more frequently, and through a rise in average prices.”

[A year old but still interesting in many ways. I’m both impressed and rather saddened that only 51% of people read a book in the year surveyed. 49% of people read…. NOTHING (or at least nothing in book format). I simply can’t comprehend that fact. It amused me greatly that reading 10 or more books in a year counts as being a ‘heavy reader’. So what am I and people like me with 60-70 on a good year? Never mind some of my Blog Buddies who read 100-150 books in a year! Funny also that the average yearly purchase of books closely equates to the average of a single visit to my favourite book shop. Interesting that the ‘heavy’ readers tend to be older readers. I suppose that makes sense having much more ‘free’ time to read. Sad to see that only 23% of the young read more than 10 books a year. I guess that, as with many things, I’m just your above average outlier where books are concerned. Buying in quantity is a little more difficult at the moment as I don’t think bookshops are considered essential businesses – but the steady trickle from Amazon resellers will just have to do for now. Just wait until it’s over though. All of that pent up book tension is going to be something to see when I can actually splurge!]

Perk of the job....

Just Finished Reading: Virus X – Understanding the Real Threat of the New Pandemic Plagues by Frank Ryan (FP: 1996)

For a book that had been sitting, unread, for years I couldn’t help thinking that this time, of all times, was the best time to pick it up and actually read it. Living through an actual Pandemic that is affecting everything and everyone around us makes me want to understand more about what’s going on right now. Knowledge, no matter how disturbing, about a disturbing time can only I believe, calm fears and enable you to look at the present reality in the face without undue panic. In that sense knowledge is most assuredly power.

As the author rightly points out, Pandemics are a fact of human history going back to Ancient Times and beyond – from Measles, Smallpox, Plague and, more recently the 1918 flu Pandemic we all know as the ‘Spanish Flu’. Such things are neither unknown nor particularly rare – in fact they have through the millennia shaped human history itself. What is new today – or at least at the time of writing over 20 years ago – is both the frequency and the lethality of emerging diseases. The reasons for this are deceptively simple – we humans are, in our ongoing quest for more farmable land or more accessible resources, bumping up against environments were these diseases are present (often working in symbiotic equilibrium with their hosts) and are encountering them often for the first time. Without any inbuilt or developed immunity these diseases are often incredibly lethal sometimes with death rates approaching 100%. Fortunately for such lethal viruses this more often than not results in the virus quickly running out of hosts before widespread transmission can be achieved. Recent outbreaks of Ebola or other haemorrhagic fevers in Africa or South America fall like a thunderbolt on small communities working close to the rain forests and then, in a matter of weeks or months burn themselves out only to break out elsewhere. AIDS/HIV is something quite different. Although comparatively difficult to catch and, once outside the body incredibly fragile, it’s long incubation period and method of attack means that an inexorable slow spread across the world went almost unnoticed until the 1980’s long after it first appeared in Africa. Highly mutagenic and (at the time of writing) untreatable it was almost always a death sentence. It is hardly surprising that the world in general and the medical profession in particular reacted with shock and panic once the facts were known. Since that time a great deal of effort – unfortunately sometimes taking focus away from other emerging viruses – and a vast amount of money has been spent on addressing HIV/AIDS and much progress has indeed been made. But, naturally, that is not the end of things as today’s headlines testify.

It was obvious from the very start that this book is very out of date. Much has happening across the viral landscape since 1996. The focus of the book was largely on things like Ebola, AIDS, Marburg and other terrifying diseases. Interestingly the 1918 flu Pandemic only came in for a cursory mention – interesting though it was – and talk of general flu itself relegated to sprinkled facts throughout the book. In the final pages looking ahead the author mentioned coronavirus, China, and wildfowl as the next BIG thing. How right he was! He also lamented the lack of global preparedness despite everything we had experienced to that date (he would have been more shocked if he’d know about the SARS and MERS epidemics) and the defunding of labs across the world and the forward observation posts that could alert the world to problems long before they become disasters. Hopefully with Covid-19 we’ll finally learn the lesson that if you don’t prepare and aren’t willing to spend millions in prevention then you’ll need to spend trillions in catching up. An interesting (if sometimes truly frightening) read but useful only for an historical background really.     

Cartoon Time.

It's April - That means (as it's my birth Month) it's BOOK Month here @ SaLT which means there will be a 'few' more book related postings than usual. Enjoy!.