Saturday, July 04, 2009

[charlotte corday] murderess, feminist or heroine

Wiki says that under the Second Empire, Marat was seen as a revolutionary monster and Corday as a heroine of France, as represented in the wall-map. I admit to much preferring the 1860 painting by Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry.


To the upside-down and wrong-way-round question: 'Would Charlotte Corday have killed Jean-Paul Marat if the political motivation had been removed from the equation?' the answer must surely be: 'No, she would not have.'

Therefore, her action might be construed to be patriotic - in support of her country, killing a maniac who was urging everyone - and in particular, the Jacobins - on to bloodier and bloodier mayhem, from the safety of his printing press, playing on the populist reputatation he'd already built up.

Corday was obviously a thinking woman. Of the Girondin persuasion, she was pro-revolution, in the sense of the relief of the suffering of the poor and especially that of the oppression of women - and the coming Reign of Terror was to be quite misogynist in places - so much so that she'd brooded on all these things and on the rantings of this man Marat.

Thinking through her mind's eye, she'd just lived through the September Massacres, she'd have been well aware, from history, of the Massacre of the Huguenots and above all, she would have feared all out civil war. It was a quite political, dare we call it 'assassination', one which, unfortunately, added to the woes rather than nipped them in the bud.

Her claim, at her trial, was that: 'I killed one man to save 100,000," possibly a reference to Maximilien Robespierre's words before the execution of King Louis XVI. Of course, it cut no ice and she was guillotined by the Jacobin push who were turning on anyone not of their persuasion, beginning with the Girondins.

Truth is, if a man or group of men are absolutely determined to grab power for themselves - and I don't trust ANY revolutionary not to be like this - then nothing is going to stand in his/their way, nothing. It's not unlike the EU monster and its determination to ride rough-shod over the No-votes and protests and have us under its jackboot.

A sidelight to the whole matter was that the agents-provocateurs were certainly out in force and the Masonic element was well represented whenever the situation took a turn for the worse, especially at the time of the dechristianization, culminating in the placing of the prostitute on the altar of Notre-Dame.

This has always been the aim of Them, only in the revolution, it was more openly naked than usual.
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[weekend poll] mid-poll report

Confessional style


It was a risk running this poll, not on account of the ire of Muslims but on account of the reactions of readers. Quite frankly, to be suddenly confronted with ten burqa clad women [you could split hairs as to whether they are, technically, burqas in all cases] was always going to produce emotional reactions.

For a start, there was dismay from those who saw oppressed women inside that garb and to put them in a parade, accompanied by the word 'sexiest' could be construed as low-class Trump and a sick joke. I confess that that is my own reaction and I'm uneasy about this week's offerings.

The second reaction is to say it is a statement against the oppression of women in those ridiculous robes in all weathers but against that, at least some of those women have chosen to take the hijab.

The third reaction is to be offended by the burqas, that women adopting them are deliberately driving a wedge between themselves and other members of society and I'm onside with this as well. Whichever way you look at it, the burqa certainly does nothing to endear the Muslim to the non-Muslim.

The fourth reaction is to see the funny side of it.

Interesting that people have actually voted [including me]. Are we abetting oppression? The bottom line is that it produces so many reactions, the burqa and none of them could be called positive. The moment we go banning them though, what has happened to our libertarianism?

So this week's 'sexiest' format poll has left many of us non-plussed, not least about what I was thinking in running it. I just felt it should be run, that was all.

[july 4th] or was it the 2nd or maybe august 2nd


Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our Trust"

America, a double ration of rum for every soldier and an artillery salute to you on your day.

[oceanos] cowardice and courage

Click pic to enlarge



The sinking of the Oceanos, on August 4th, 1991, was a tale of cowardice and courage.

A French built, Greek owned cruise ship, she was travelling from East London to Durban, which is against the prevailing sea. That particular stretch of water is one of the most treacherous in the world, having claimed many, many craft over the centuries.

The Oceanos, by this time, was already neglected and internally derelict but that didn't worry the company, which happily packed people on board. In heavy seas, a leak in the water scoop below, which brought in cooling water and was connected to baths and toilets throughout the ship, began taking in water in increasing amounts.

The captain and crew were seen heading for a life raft, leaving the passengers and ancillary staff to fend for themselves, not even closing lower portholes, standard procedure. Passengers were unaware until they saw water around them in their bunks and wherever they were.

Later reports state that the Captain in fact stayed and was the 7th person airlifted to shore but then he came back by helicopter to 'supervise', from the safety of the helicopter, the rescue of those below. Either way, neither he nor his crew were down below organizing the rescue, which he very much should have been doing.

Two entertainers, Julian Butler and Moss Hills, not only filmed it all on a home video recorder but also coordinated the rescue effort, getting people into lifejackets, going to the bridge and issuing a mayday , then awaiting the naval helicopters, which duly arrived and airlifted the passengers in a large operation.

Captain Avranos claimed, in the aftermath, that he was only going for help and that it didn't matter at what stage he did that. Naturally, he was found guilty of neglect and as far as I can see, was reprimanded. Reprimanded? By maritime procedure, he qualified for execution!



There is not only precedent and accepted practice at sea but also now in International Maritime Law, which not only gives the Captain near absolute power but also near absolute responsibility, on pain of penalties. This, in turn, has been reinforced in healthcare, where 'Captain of Ship' is a possible defence in cases of negligence. In one particular case, this was stated:

Of course, maritime law had a totally different development than did tort law. The fact that the captain of a ship was liable for the negligence of all members of the crew had never been (and has never since been) applied to any other area of the law of negligence except medical malpractice. It is somewhat easy to see how a court was drawn into the simile of Captain of the Ship.

The problem is that it is not easy to apply as actual law and courts in various countries see it different ways. It is most certainly de rigeur for the Captain to be last off and this was another case in point:

In 1965, a cruise liner called the Yarmouth Castle caught fire in the Caribbean and began to sink. A nearby ocean liner, the Bermuda Star, sent lifeboats to help. When the sinking ship's captain was one of the first people rescued to climb aboard the Bermuda Star deck, the Bermuda Star's captain was so incensed that he forced his colleague to return to the burning wreck until all the passengers were accounted for.

Most operators of luxury liners tell ship captains "to insure the safety of everyone else before their own," said Priscilla Hoye, a spokeswoman for Cunard Line Ltd., operator of the Queen Elizabeth 2 and other vessels. But she acknowledged that in the heat of an emergency, ship commanders are allowed flexibility.

Avranos stated, in an interview with ABC News:

"When I order abandon ship, it doesn't matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people like to stay, they can stay."

To me, this is outrageous. For a start, he did not issue that order before he was seen preparing for his and his closest officers' departure. Secondly, he did not remain behind to supervise the rescue. He claimed he could 'supervise the rscue better from the shore'.

Naturally we and every passenger on that ship saw him as a coward, a rat who had abandoned his own ship and broken every law imaginable but you know how it is with the law and [some] lawyers. They say, 'Not necessarily,' and attempt to bring elements of Tort Law into Maritime Law.

On the other hand, in law, precedent is a major factor and the precedent in this case is overwhelming. Also, this is not the first cowardly captain to have abandoned his responsibilities. This Philippines example is more to the point - they wanted the Captain found, dead or alive. So it should be.

I can't get information as to what eventually happened to Avranos.



The people who really should have been hauled over the coals were those who headed the shipping company. To allow that level of neglect of the ship's infrastructure, in that part of the world, is in itself criminal negligence. That a shipping company were not aware of the aquadynamics which act in relation to a ship's hull in heavy seas is too much to believe.

Many people cannot understand how a huge liner or tanker can break up and sink when a little sailing boat, like a cork, can be blown every which way but come out of it alive. In the end, it comes down to stresses and the size of the sea. A 40 foot boat, when the wave crests are 30 feet apart, is going to find itself suspended and sagging between two crests at some stage and this puts strain on the infrastructure. An 18 foot boat in that situation will ride up and down the waves - more uncomfortable but structurally safer.

On the other hand, an 18 foot boat in high seas is in real danger. There is a rule of thumb that your vessel needs to be of a length, to be safe, that the highest seas it will encounter are no more than 55% the length overall. In practice, the highest seas encountered [with some exceptions] are around 30 feet, more usually 20 feet. Therefore, in round figures, the boat needs to be at least 35 feet long and preferably 60 feet long to go to sea.

This, in fact, is what most ocean going sailcraft are.

The boat I've designed for myself is a 63 foot outrigger, 7 feet wide, built in compartments and with two junk sails of 1400 square feet. That, to me, seems the best compromise.
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Friday, July 03, 2009

[weekend poll] sexiest muslims

1. Burqa beach babe

2. A rose by any other name

3. Hospital green

4. Siberian tigress

5. Daring revelations

6. Grey on grey

7. Total effect

8. Ninja black

9. It's all in the eyes

10. Bearded ladies

Remember, you're allowed three votes at any one time.

[statue of ishtar] open again to selected members of the public


The Statue of Liberty in New York harbour was presented in 1884 as a gift from the French Grand Orient Temple Masons to the Masons of America in celebration of the centenary of the first Masonic Republic.

It was designed by Frederic Bartholdi, a Freemason, who sculpted the statue to be his artistic interpretation of the Roman Goddess Libertas which is the early Roman version of the Babylonian chief goddess Ishtar the goddess of liberty.

Click on the plaque above to read of this Masonic gift, if you're in any doubt about its purpose.

Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. Anunit, Atarsamain and Esther are alternative names. Here are some others:

'Goddess of War', 'Mother of prostitutes ', 'Mystery Babylon', 'Mother of Harlots', 'Goddess of Freedom', 'Goddess of Liberty', 'Our Dear Lady', 'The Scarlet Woman', 'The Lady of the Lake', 'The Queen of Heaven', 'The Queen of the World', 'The Queen of the Underworld', 'The Illuminatrix', 'Goddess of Love', 'The Weeping Virgin', 'The Black Virgin', 'The Celestial Virgin' and 'The Queen of the Sea'.

Bartholdi, like many French Freemasons of his time, was deeply steeped in ‘Egyptian’ rituals, and it's often been said that he conceived the original statue as an effigy of the goddess Isis, and only later converted it to a ‘Statue of Liberty’ for New York harbour when it was rejected for the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1867.

She is holding the Masonic "Torch of Enlightenment". Also referred to back in the 1700's as the
"Flaming Torch of Reason", the Torch represents the "Sun" in the sky, as does the spiked corona. The Statue of Liberty's official title, according to Freemasonary, is "Liberty Enlightening the World".

Enlightening the world,in Masonic parlance, means subjugating it and bringing it under the control of the ‘elite’, manifesting itself in the CFR, TLC, Thirteen Families and the various Clubs, e.g. Rome, Paris. Again, if you're in doubt about the Masons, begin with the writings of their favourite sons, Albert Pike and Manley Hall, then compare those with the philanthropic overtones of the organization's homepages today.

Incredulity is the average reaction, but here is Masonry, in its own words:

"Masonry is a search after Light. That search leads us directly back, as you see, to the Kabalah. In that ancient and little understood medley of absurdity and philosophy, the Initiate will find the source of doctrines; and may in time come to understand the hermetic philosophers, the Alchemist, all the Anti-Papal Thinkers of the Middle Ages and Emanuel Swedenborg." [Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma , p. 741]

Heavy stuff, eh?

Pike was the Grand Master of a Luciferian group known as the Order of the Palladium (or Sovereign Council of Wisdom), which had been founded in Paris in 1737. Palladism had been brought to Greece from Egypt by Pythagoras in the fifth century, and it was this cult that was introduced to the inner circle of the Masonic lodges. It was aligned with the Palladium of the Templars.

In 1801, Issac Long, a Jew, brought a statue of Baphomet to Charleston, South Carolina, where he helped to establish the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Long apparently chose Charleston because it was geographically located on the 33rd parallel of latitude (incidentally, so is Baghdad), and this council is considered to be the Mother Supreme Council of all Masonic Lodges of the World.

Pike was Long's successor, and he changed the name of the Order to the New and Reformed Palladian Rite (or Reformed Palladium). The Order contained two degrees: 1. Adelph (or Brother), and 2. Companion of Ulysses (or Companion of Penelope). Pike's right-hand man was Phileas Walder, from Switzerland, who was a former Lutheran minister, a Masonic leader, occultist, and spiritualist.

Pike also worked closely with Giusseppe Mazzini of Italy (1805-1872) who was a 33rd degree Mason, who became head of the Illuminati in 1834, and who founded the Mafia in 1860. Together with Mazzini, Lord Henry Palmerston of England (1784-1865, 33rd degree Mason), and Otto von Bismarck from Germany (1815-1898, 33rd degree Mason), Albert Pike intended to use the Palladian Rite to create an umbrella group that would tie all Masonic groups together.

One critique stated:

"Our records inform us, that the usages and customs of Masons have ever corresponded with those of the Egyptian philosophers, to which they bear a near affinity. Unwilling to expose their mysteries to vulgar eyes, they concealed their particular tenets, and principles of polity, under hieroglyphical figures; and expressed their notions of government by signs and symbols, which they communicated to their Magi alone, who were bound by oath not to reveal them." [Thomas Smith Webb, PGM, The Freemason's Monitor Cincinnati: The Pettibone Bros., 1797, p.39]

As for the foundation and purpose of America:

"Not only were many of the founders of the United States government Masons, but they received aid from a secret and august body existing in Europe which helped them to establish this country for a peculiar and particular purpose, known only to the initiated few." [Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, pp. XC and XCI]

At this point, it seems so much fantasy fiction that your natural scepticism leads you to reject the whole thing as preposterous - the very idea of the Statue of Liberty being a monument to Ishtar is ridiculous. Men at the head of society, the movers and shakers of the world, pragmatic businessmen, into this stuff?

When, however, you check and double check your sources on the matter, you're left with a situation where a small band of men [and to a lesser extent, women in the Eastern Star], have been at the head of society in the west at precisely the time that they've also been indulging in the type of thing presented above.

That is, quite frankly, chilling. Surely it doesn't exist today? And yet look at the promises which any Blue Degree mason still made until recently, on being initiated. The official masonic site presents a catechism:

Q. Why do your 'obligations' contain hideous penalties? For example, it is the penalty for an offence, in second degree in Masonry, to have your chest torn open and your heart taken out.

A. They no longer do contain such penalties. When the Masonic ritual was developing in the late 1600's and 1700's, it was quite common for legal and civil oaths to include physical penalties and Freemasonry simply followed the practice of the times.

The much publicised "traditional penalties" for failure to observe these promises were always symbolic, not literal and refer only to the pain any decent man should feel at the thought of violating his word. After long discussion, they were removed from the promises in 1986.

This surely begs the question. Why were those penalties in there in the first place? Who dreamed them up? Why did they remain until 1986, when scrutiny of the Masons was beginning in a big way and the advent of the internet was soon to follow in 1989? Why were they retained for so long?

Do you want to read the actual text of their initiation oaths [until 1989]?

Question: "What makes you a Freemason ? Answer: My obligation."

[question and answer from the Entered Apprentice/First Degree]

".. binding myself under no less penalty that of having throat cut from ear to ear, my tongue torn out by its roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea, a cable length from the shore where the tide.."

[ from the oath of obligation Entered Apprentice/First Degree ]

".. binding myself under no less penalty than having my left Breast torn open, my heart plucked out, and given to the beasts of the field and fowls of the air as prey."

[from the oath of obligation, Fellowcraft/Second Degree]

".. binding myself under no less penalty that of having my body severed in twain, my bowels taken out and burned to ashes, the ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven.."

[ from the oath of obligation, Master Mason / Third Degree ]

" .. in wilful violation whereof may I incur the fearful penalty of having my eyeballs pierced to thru center with a three edged blade, my feet flayed and forced to walk the hot sands upon the sterile shores of the red sea until the flaming Sun shall strike with a livid plague, and my Allah the god of Arab, Moslem and Mohammedan, the god of our fathers, support me to the entire fulfilment of the same."

Is that sane? And yet these are the men at the head of society in Britain and America, purporting to the Christian Right that they are a Christian, charitable organization. So, from the start, one of their practices is deception and coverup.

Let's go further. A simple bit of research reveals some interesting things about the Shriners, well known in America but not so much in this country. Wiki says of them:

The Shriners are committed to community service and have been instrumental in countless public projects throughout their domain.

A philanthropic organization of well-to-do men who have a bit of fun in their spare time, right? A bit of further research reveals:

[ from the oath of obligation, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine ] ("Shriners")

"You must conceal all the crimes of your brother Masons... and should you be summoned as a witness against a brother Mason be always sure to shield him... It may be perjury to do this, it is true, but you’re keeping your obligations." [Ronayne, "Handbook of Masonry" p. 183 ]

So, the men in government and in key positions in society are sworn to secrecy and coverups, whilst at the same time, swearing allegiance to some weirdo god from ancient times. Does public policy of the last few years now become a bit more understandable? Does the expression 'the ruling class' now find new meaning?

Let's pause one moment

Look once more at the date of the Statue of Ishtar and who it was dedicated by [look at the plaque again]. Not long afterwards, on July 14, 1889 - Albert Pike issued instructions to the 23 Supreme Councils of the world:

"To you, Sovereign Grand Instructors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: The Masonic religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine."

This answers the question of which deity is worshipped. The sister statue is on the River Seine and is more openly spoken of in the above context. The joke is that the American people, by and large, believe the statue represents their freedom, whereas it actually represents the diametric opposite.

And the American people would be horrified if they knew who were some of the keenest exponents of the subjugation of man. One was Thomas Jefferson:

"As Weishaupt lived under the tyranny of a despot and priests, he knew that caution was necessary even in spreading information, and the principles of pure morality. This has given an air of mystery to his views, was the foundation of his banishment....If Weishaupt had written here, where no secrecy is necessary in our endeavors to render men wise and virtuous, he would not have thought of any secret machinery for that purpose."

Jefferson supported the butchering of the 'priestly class' and the bourgeoisie, calling the carnage, on his return, in 1791, 'so beautiful a revolution' and 'their excesses, if one called them such, reflected that national will.' That's the man who purportedly supported 'freedom' and the right to free enterprise.

U.S.A. Today yesterday wrote:

On Saturday, the statue, closed above its base since the terror attacks, will reopen to visitors — a relative few, in small groups, specially ticketed, carefully screened and escorted by a park ranger. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar seemed to encourage these ideas this year when he said reopening the crown "would proclaim to the world — both figuratively and literally — that the path to the light of liberty is open to all."

In officially announcing the move on May 8, Salazar called it "a new beginning, restoring confidence in the American people, in their government and in our place in the world."

In other words, they feel they’re pretty close to their goal now.


A Masonic Shriner carrying out charity work

[nice little supper] collected by bike


So, so simple to do. All it needs is the kick start.

Some of you will recall the Higham had a down time two weekends ago - cramps, flushes, faintness, throat and all those nasties. People said go to the doctor [good advice], do this, do that.

On the other hand, all it needed, as far as I could see, was to get off the chocolate and greasy fish'nchips, start pumping through the water [minus sugar], eat straight meat, grain, cabbage and fruit, get back on the bike and start exercising again.

Three days it took and things were back in order but then, mainly through laziness and difficulties with available shops, I slipped back into the old routine - 'just for today' I told myself and there was the old chest tightness, the old cramps, the old woes again.

'St--f that,' I castigated myself, 'get off your butt and do the right thing.' So, last evening it was lightly peppered sea bass fillet in the oven, with bulgar wheat and finely sliced cabbage. I could have thrown some cherry tomatoes in but that was enough.

Delish.

Not only that but grapes for dessert instead of some heavy pudding also did the trick and the result was well being. How simple it all really is - proper food, exercise and keeping the brain busy. How little it really takes to get yourself back on track.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

[dilemma for the day] new series, part two

Sorry about the quick cut and paste 'art' but you'll get the idea below


High in the Swiss Alps, clinging to the mountainside, is the little village of Leichen, spa resort for the rich and famous but for one week only, the venue for a most extraordinary Middle-East conference.

Key to this conference is Professor Samuel O. Lution, a bookworm who's come up with a simple and yet workable solution to the crisis and so far, all leaders have tentatively accepted his package but he is due to expound on it on the second last day of the conference.

The day before the plenary session, a small group is invited to visit the nearby Golden Caves, spectacular in the light effects but also a little dangerous, as events prove. At one point of the tour, the ledge on which four of the visitors are standing suddenly breaks away, slides over the edge but is halted by a ragged stalagmite in such a way that the four, in their current positions, have the fragment evenly balanced.

Did I say four people? Well, actually, one of them is Francine Dubois, a Parisienne philanthropist and peace fighter and with her, in her arms, is her baby Michelle. Also present is Che Araveug, a South American agent-provocateur, whose purpose at the conference is an unknown factor. The third is one of the most famous singers in the world, one who has brought countless people pleasure through her warbling - Anno Dam and the fourth is Professor Lution.

Search and Rescue immediately size the situation up and realize the only way of lifting anyone to safety is to fire an explosive piton into the stalagtite hanging above the ledge and they estimate that it will take a maximum 150kg without pulling free or pulling the rock away. This means that two and two only can be rescued, along with the baby.

If they lift the two on the left, those on the right will tip and die in the cavern below. If the two on the right are lifted to safety, the two on the left [with the baby] are killed. If the others attempt to move up to balance the ledge, it will crack and they'll plunge to their deaths below. If the two in the middle are saved, the two on the outer edge might still balance but it's not possible to save the outer two because of the danger to the middle two as they would go up.

Dam's people immediately offer the authorities $1.2 billion towards the peace effort as the professor was about to outline and now show half of that money upfront. The professor's ideas are fairly well surmised already. Araveug's gang immediately show the authorities guarantees that no longer will they not blow up the conference, which they'd planned to do but they will also return the kidnapped Israeli and Palestinian leader unharmed and undertake not to do anything to harm the peace process for the period of three months ... if the authorities willl rescue Araveug, that is.

No one comes forward on behalf of the mother, an ordinary citizen beyond her philanthropic work and she resigns herself to the fact that someone important will be rescued and will take her baby to safety. Naturally, people come forward to insist the professor is one of the two saved but he himself, from the rock, loudly dismisses that and says he can give the speech from the rock, which has already begun to crumble.

The trouble is, all sides in the conflict are only at peace temporarily on the strength of his presence. Who knows what will happen if he dies?

The head of S&R, the UN Secretary-General [at the conference] and you yourself are selected to make the decision on who will be saved. The rock is beginning to crumble badly now and it's estimated that they have fifteen minutes left there before they all tumble to their deaths.

The explosive piton is fired, it 'takes' in the rock, the line is lowered.

Whom will you save?

[know your stately homes] part three of new series


1. In Nottinghamshire; this is one of the first castles built by William the Conqueror just after the battle of Hastings. The Castle was destroyed during the Civil War, but rebuilt soon after that as a Palace by the Duke of Newcastle. The Ducal Palace was gutted during the Reform Riots in 1831 by a large crowd who mashed or looted everything and finally set the Palace ablaze. The Castle remained as a blackened shell for almost 50 years until it was bought by Nottingham City and restored as the first Provincial Museum of fine Art which was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1878. The Castle is today still a museum of art and history.

2. In Edinburgh, this place stands on the site of a monastery that was founded in 1128. In 1501 James IV cleared the ground close to the Abbey and built a Palace for himself and his bride, Margaret Tudor (sister of Henry VIII). Mary, Queen of Scots spent most of her turbulent life in the Palace - a dramatic and often tragic chapter in the history of the building. She married two of her husbands in the Abbey. Her private secretary David Rizzio was murdered in her personal rooms by a group led by her husband Lord Darnley, who believed she was having an affair with Rizzio. It is now the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II when she is in Scotland, and she is usually in residence for a few weeks in May and July each year. The rest of the year parts of it are usually open to visitors.

3. In Mid Wales, this one was originally built c.1200 by Welsh princes and was subsequently adapted and embellished since 1587 by generations of Herberts and Clives, who furnished the red sandstone castle with a wealth of fine paintings and furniture. It has been lived in almost continuously for over 700 years. The famous hanging terraces are the greatest surviving example of the Baroque garden in Britain, overhung with enormous clipped yews, shelters original lead statues as well as rare and tender plants. The castle and garden has been in the care of the National Trust since 1952, but the present Earl still lives in part of the building .

4. In Yorkshire stands this castle on a massive rock that rises sheer-sided, high above the North Sea. The site has been inhabited and fortified for nearly 3000 years. The Romans built a fortified signal station here, and the great castle was built here between 12th and 14th centuries. However, the castle was abandoned in the early 17th century but was reoccupied later to be a permanently garrisoned fortification. It was in 1914 shelled and badly damaged by German warships and has been gradually falling down the cliff into the sea ever since.

5. At Wick, Caithness, Scotland, the ruins of two castles stand next to each other: one the ancient seat of the Earls of Caithness, finished in 1495 on the site of an earlier Viking keep by William Sinclair, the 2nd Earl. In 1609, the 4th Earl extended the site by building a more luxurious castle adjoining. These two castles were separated by a rock cut ravine spanned by a collapsible wooden bridge. During the war between the Campbells of Glenorchy and the Sinclairs starting 1680 the castles were attacked with cannon, becoming uninhabitable as a result of the shelling. The Sinclairs moved their main seat to the Castle of Mey. In paintings from the 18th century, it is clear the main reason for the collapse of the Castles was due to a lack maintenance and the powerful winter storms.

Answers

Nottingham Castle, Holyrood, Powis Castle, Scarborough Castle, Castle Sinclair Girnigoe

[cancer] at any time, to anyone

As you do, I like to keep an eye on news from various countries I have a connection with.

In this context, I saw, yesterday, a news item that Melbourne FC President Jim Stynes was stepping down although it now appears he's 'temporarily stepping aside'.

To 99.9% of people reading this - eh? Jim who?

What has made me launch into print here is that Jim Stynes has made the discovery that he has cancer and it takes someone you've known and had affection for to really bring it home. Please indulge me here.

When I was gamesmaster/sportsmaster at a school in Australia, I phoned associations of many different sports to send someone out to demonstrate their sport in a series of visits. Jim Stynes represented the AFL and I'm proud to say that I've tackled him in a demo to the kids he was giving. He didn't know that tackling was my job in rugby and I didn't know how damned big and solid he was.

We once had a drink at the union bar at university and he came across as an extremely personable and genuine man. His performances on the playing field were always consistently good, sometimes great and he is rightly a legend downunder and back in his native Ireland, where he had been a top Gaelic footballer.

A short time back, having achieved all that, he discovered a polyp on his back. It wasn't just in one place.

Life is so cruel, so unfair. It's a bastard, in fact.

[weekend poll] tomorrow's groundbreaking edition

Love at first sight

Don't forget tomorrow's Politically Correct edition of the weekend 'sexiest' poll. Out mid-morning.
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[how well educated are you] conclusions


Yesterday, I ran a test of ten questions which “It is fair to assume that any end of Year 10 child, of average ability and average standard, could have answered ... correctly" but immediately, I could attack myself on the very question in the heading - how well educated are you?

The assumption that not to know the answers to those questions indicates lack of education or the assumption that one should know the answers is by no means established as valid. One commenter wrote:

Just so you know, there is an enthusiastic reader of your blog who scored 3.5, although I will not reveal who that is. There is the alternate theory that if a little learning is a dangerous thing, a lot of learning is extemely dangerous.

I would agree and go further.

Whether anyone got 3.5, 9 or zero, it's only partly a reflection on that person. Every teacher knows of the kid who will always score low, whether by lack of interest or by a learning impairment [sometimes both] and that's one thing.

Then there is the sheer change in society, rendering learning in a classroom setting largely superfluous and with a new type of teacher today, frightened not to appear a 'good guy' in the kids' eyes, frightened to insist firmly, a victim herself/himself of the 'let it go' society, of the 'we don't need no edukashun'syndrome, where it is a badge of honour not to wish to learn.

Then there is the person who does want to learn but one or more of the above have prevented an education in these particular subjects.

We're not all on the same playing field here.

The clerk or executive in his/her office has more than enough knowledge, tech savvy and peripheral thinking to do well in his job. He comes home and watches tele, takes the family on holiday - what's the point of knowing the irrelevant stuff in those ten questions? He could equally drop ten questions on me and I'd score zero.

So, what is the point of this test?

It presupposes, in the way that a radio talkback programme quiz does, that there is a general base of knowledge we can reasonably expect to have been imparted by the child's age 16 - not only imparted but cut, sliced, diced and reinforced in such a way that it is largely retained by the vast majority of students.

A core knowledge, if you like.

It would vary from nation to nation but it's reasonable to suppose that there is an Anglo-Saxon core knowledge - such as to know how to do long division, to know basic trigonometry, to have a rough idea of the rivers in one's own country, to know most of the key kings and queens or presidents or for 1066 or 1776 to be a year you'd normally have heard about - that sort of thing.

Let's say you're an employer, looking for an IT project manager. You're not going to be demanding a 'rounded education' in the classics. You don't give a damn about that. So this 'rounded education' then becomes a measure of personal self-worth in yourself, of being able to hold one's head up.

Is that a valid reason to have that knowledge or conversely, is one justified in feeling sheepish and inadequate if one doesn't have it?

In the context of one's day to day life - there's no justification for feeling bad because the type of knowledge one possesses does not accord with a 'central data bank' of core knowledge. On the other hand, if most ejukated peepul seem to have such knowledge and it appears to be a benchmark, then it also appears desirable to aspire for.

Those without this core knowledge are more likely to argue for having a core knowledge base and those who know they've done poorly on the test might have quite persuasive alternative theories on education

The age you are is the education you received

The over 60s had a proscriptive education up to age 16 which was fairly universal in Britannia and its colonies.

For people 50ish and over, the chances were that the K to Year 10 were pretty similar worldwide, days when in primary, one still recited tables and did a set number of spellings each day but new educational theories were making their presence felt.

Those who are currently 40 something, you're into the generation changeover - Gen X - when the baby was thrown out with the bathwater and the cognitive was subordinated to process. These were the days of Graves and open plan etc. This is where the first serious gaps occurred and you can see that in Oxford and Longman texts today like the First Certificate material - such glaring errors riddle these texts that any older person would pick up.

Thirty-somethings. They've really been deprived of a core knowledge and any ability to do the ten questions is despite the system, not as a result of it. Or maybe they had an anachronistic private education or a good grant-maintained school. Their lack of solid grounding is seen in certain bloggers, even on my rolls, who are erudite on a subject but the overall grounding really shows its absence.

Twenty somethings - G-d help them.

The law of diminishing returns

The whole woeful situation began back with what are now retired curriculum developers and higher education specialists who deliberately and fashionably abandoned the cognitive and rote, the delights in knowledge for knowledge's sake and began the craze for specialization too early.

They trained teachers who then trained teachers who then trained teachers and each successive intake was a further cranking down of education, a dumbing down, supplemented by leftist ‘feelgood’ core material. An example was when it became unfashionable to chant tables and learn word lists, despite their known efficacy.

The benefits of these methods for self-discipline alone argue for their retention.

Any teacher training texts supporting the rigorous methodologies were discarded and new texts like 'Let Them Run a Little [Weigall] came in to vogue, promoting learning of spelling and grammar through reading, by no means sound methodology, in isolation, within a school setting. ‘Learner centred’ education became the catchcry with a jaundiced eye cast on alternative methods.

It was neither more nor less than experimentation with kids.

The crime these ‘educators’ are charged with is that, having been given a solid grounding themselves and being well-educated, they failed to pass it on to the children in their care in the 70s through to the 90s, on the grounds of the fashionable new methods and the perceived ‘brutality’ of the old.

Now it's coming full circle and they can look back on their handiwork and blame it on the parents, themselves victims of the dumbing down of everything from knowledge to the cessation of the unfashionable imposition of our historic moral code.

I’m also dumbed down

I came in on the tail end of the teaching of Latin and did two years before it was dropped. We began to study the classics [and many of us went on, in university, to approach them anew] but in terms of the system, they were dropped in my final school years.

Why? Why were they dropped? Why didn't my parents cry out about this?

Part of the answer is that parents tended to bow to the professional knowledge of the educator who had, unbeknowns to them, now embarked on this highly unsubstantiated new educational psychology, such as Piaget's early learning theories, to the exclusion of established research.

That's just an example. By virtue of my age, I'm less of a victim than someone 30ish today but the bottom line is that we have all suffered, to a greater or lesser extent, from our system. I would have liked to have had the full version of what could reasonably be presented to a 16 year old, instead of the curtailed version my educators decided was fashionable to give.

This fear that the the child can't bear up under the strain of the rigorous pursuit of knowledge does not stand up. In Russia, I saw a degree of knowledge transfer which was mindboggling and the kids did not seem the worse for wear [although they moaned at the time]. I've already blogged on the two Russians who came over to our school in 1996 and swept the board of all the prizes. Their level of self-discipline and the sheer volume of what they could retain was testimony to a system which has now gone the way of the west in 2009.

There IS a core knowledge. It varies, of course, according to era but a great deal of what constituted the finished person in late mediaeval times would still constitute part of the core in modern times if we could return to our end of war situation and reintroduce those texts, e.g. MacIver's First Aid in English adjunct. Though he was not without controversy himself, the overall effect, nonetheless, I would argue, would be to transform the individual to a point where one of the things he would not put up with is the appalling state of our governance and the idealistic nobbling of our current society.

The previous post to this, again, is here.


By the way, in the cartoon at the top of this post, can anyone see what is very, very wrong in the classroom arrangement?

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

[how well educated are you] ten questions

The follow up post to this is here.

I've just read a caption to the above illustration on the net, urging: 'Let's change what happens in the classroom.' The article then went on to push for more multicultural awareness, less learning and less results oriented focus.

No, let's not. Let's instead rediscover a role for the teacher where he/she actually teaches and at the end of the process, the learner has actually learnt something.

There was a time, a few decades ago, when children up to Year 10 were actually well grounded across a range of subjects. After Year 10, of course, there was more or less specialization, depending on the Anglo-Saxon nation in question.

It is fair to assume that any end of Year 10 child, of average ability and average standard, could have answered these questions below correctly. How many can you answer without recourse to google?


1. Name one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, situated at Halicarnassus.

2. For what are the caves at Lascaux famous?

3. The Spanish used to carry gold in large ships from the Caribbean. What were these ships called?

4. Hallowe'en is the night before which holiday?

5. On which date is Michaelmas, also known as one of the quarter days?

6. What does this represent:


7. What is the formula for the volume of a sphere?

8. "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." - (Act IV, Scene I) – which Shakespearean play?

9. I didn't wake up on time because I didn't hear the alarm clock. Using the key word woken, unchanged, fill in the gap in this sentence in no more than 5 words: If I'd heard the alarm clock…………………………on time.

10. If the formula for salt is NaCl, what is the chemical term it refers to?


Answers

The Tomb of Mausolus, prehistoric cave paintings, galleons, All Hallows Day or All Souls, September 29th, formula for the quadratic equation, V = (4/3)πR3, Macbeth, I would have woken up, sodium chloride

The follow up post to this is here.

[nyse corruption] simple - close the shutters

It's not often that little bits of hard evidence come through that 'Them' do control the money supply, therefore the world economy, therefore life on this planet:

In a move set to infuriate and send many Zero Hedge readers over the top, the NYSE has taken action to make sure that nobody will henceforth be able to keep track of the complete dominance that Goldman Sachs exerts over the New York Stock Exchange. This basically ends our weekly Program Trading updates disclosed every Thursday indicating that Goldman has singlehandedly captured all of NYSE's program trading.

Market Ticker comments:

The problem of course is that, at least on paper, market manipulation, irrespective of what form of parlor trick you choose to use, is a serious violation of the law. Of course these violations of the law have been ignored for so long that nobody seems to care any more, but the fact remains that should the public come to believe that the NYSE has turned into nothing more than a gigantic pump-and-dump scheme operated by a handful of banks trading between themselves with publicly-guaranteed funds the consequences could be catastrophic.

So rather than stop it, the NYSE is doing what all good robber barons do - they're obscuring the data so nobody can see it any more.


The corruption and intrusion of the EU over here, meanwhile, hardly needs cataloguing in this post. One bright aspect is e-boarders, which seems to have backfired on itself.

[wordless wednesday] captions please

[gambling ban in russia] connected to the sochi olympics

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The first thing to remember about Russia is that the Russian mind is at once tortuous, simplistic and prone to sudden implementation of Russia wide legislation, a legacy of Soviet Times.

An example of the latter was when all foreign workers on extended registration were summarily booted out in 2007/8 and told they could come back later through the usual channels [that is, pay out huge money to embassy approved certifiers at three or four points in the process].

Another example was the tax stamps fiasco when someone in Moscow, seemingly after a sozzled night, slurred that Russian alcohol was better than the foreign muck, the price of a foreign bottle skyrocketed and within a week, supermarkets shelves from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok were free of foreign alcohol. This one lasted a few weeks but the pressure from the upper echelons of society, who very much like foreign liquid sustenance, saw the legislation collapse.

Now we see the banning of gambling across Russia, the closure of casinos and dens of vice, which, of course, will drive it underground because if there's a market for this type of thing, there's a market for this type of thing. The thinking though is a bit more tortuous than that.




The starting point is the Sochi Olympic Games of 2014. The Krasnodar region, a thousand kilometres south of Moscow, has long been the getaway retreat, the haven of the rich and powerful, the movers and shakers of Russian society and by association, it has drawn millions of other Russians as well over the years. Here is a brief profile of the mountainous terrain which looks out over the Black Sea, a sort of mecca for beach worshippers in summer.

Back to the gambling:

Under a 2007 law designed to curb gambling in major cities and boost economic growth in poorer regions, casinos and other gaming establishments are to be relocated from Moscow and other cities to four remote Russian centers - in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Siberia, the Pacific coast and southern Russia - by July 1 this year.

"Our company is reluctant to move business to special areas in regions. Nobody feels like moving there, besides there is no infrastructure in those special zones, and nothing has been built there yet," Lavrenty Gubin from Storm International told RIA Novosti, adding that all the big industry players felt the same.


Cosmo girls, summer in Sochi


Gubin may feel that way but it does not accord with what is going on in the region. Huge tracts of land, huge areas are having infrastructure laid in these years now, for example, mobile phone services such as MTS:

The Krasnodar region is one of the most prominent federal districts in Russia in terms of economic development and growth. MTS is the leading mobile operator in the region with around four and a half million subscribers as of the second quarter of 2008. MTS is one of the biggest investors in the region, with plans to invest over seven billion roubles in the development of telecommunications infrastructure, including 3G networks, during 2008-2010.

As part of its investment program, MTS is planning to lay around 300km of fiber optic cable on the bed of the Black Sea to connect key cities on its shores. In addition, the Company will develop a Transcaucasian fiber optic network that will connect Krasnodar region with all the federal subjects of the Russian Federation in North Caucasus.




A few years back, I took my lady of the time to Sochi for my birthday and even without the infrastructure planned for today, it was still mightily impressive. The scenery is second to none, we stayed at the Radisson Lazurnaya, with swimming pool, I remember, looking out over the Black Sea, very good cuisine and excellent excursion deals which saw us hire a Volvo, with driver, for the day for some ridiculously low price and we went up into the mountains to Krasnaya Polyana and skied the day, with good equipment hire services, throwing in a couple of lessons for her, dining out then returning for a spot of shopping in Sochi.

On the way to the resort, we'd stopped at vendors of honey by the roadside and bought local produce, so the rural and rustic still existed in the middle of the flashier lifestyle. We couldn't help thinking that a few billion sunk into this area might see it rival any of the great resort areas of the world, e.g. Kitzbuhel.

When we returned and I waxed lyrical to a few Russians about it, they smiled and said yes, there will be great money found and put in - in the wrong places, in the wrong order and with no part coordinating with the other. That was the Russian way.

I'd like to think they'd learn from the way the west does its development and it seems the Russian government plans to learn from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

They will learn, no doubt but will they learn everything they need to remember? And so Sochi is also mentioned in the same breath as the ban on gambling or rather, the redirection of gambling to the four regions. The Russians are leaving no stone unturned to get Sochi up and running and it does take something like this to get projects moving over there.

On the other hand, the deep cynicism of the average Russian sees a legacy of sustained, prohibitive price hikes after the event, precluding the average holiday to the area and anyway, we're in recession 2008-12, aren't we? Who will turn out to be correct?


James Higham spent twelve years, from 1996 to 2008, in the centre of Russia, where he was a Professor of English at a pedagogical university.

[two graphs] with no commentary


Tuesday, June 30, 2009

[dilemma for the day] new series, part one


After the coup, the loyalists crammed on board four mini-subs and fled for the uninhabited island they'd predetermined to secretly live on ever after. The island was so configured that cover was excellent, in the form of caves in the hill, there was wildlife and they'd brought seeds and the necessities of life. The subs were well armed but those remaining twelve missiles had to be used sparingly and only on genuine 1st world targets, when absolutely necessary.

They surfaced in a little bay and a reconnaissance crew went ashore to ensure the island was as deserted as they'd calculated. To their dismay, they found four war canoes and soon found the warriors. In their parley, by sign language, a surly type indicated that they were an advance party from their own island a thousand kilometres away and this island had been chosen as the place the tribe would settle.

The fugitives had a problem.

The surly type picked up on this, began making demands, then got nasty. Spears were raised and were about to be be thrown when the Lieutenant whipped out a handgun and shot the surly one in the leg. The warriors appeared stunned, then all fled further inland. The crew returned to the sub and communicated on secure channel with the other three subs.

Immediately, they looked outside and the warriors were swarming all over the subs, hacking at the surface with their spears. Enraged, they jumped into their long war canoes and started paddling at great speed for the open water.

'Sir,' said Captain Laurence Sanders to his superior officer, 'if even one of those canoes makes it back, our cover is blown and either we'll have a whole island full of warriors to contend with but even more likely, GPS will pick up their return, at speed. That will interest our former nation's new rulers greatly.'

'What do you suggest, Laurence?'

'You know as well as I do, Sir,' he answered. 'We have to take out every last one of them before they get too far out to sea. If we take them out right now, they'll drift back to shore. Past the point, they could drift anywhere.'

'NO!' screamed the senior officer's wife. 'No, that's pure genocide.'

'Emma,' said her husband. 'What would you suggest?'

'Talk to them, let them see how much damage we can inflict if we wish to, destroy their canoes but don't kill them!'

'If our missile hits their boat, the boat and crew disintegrate.'

'Sir,' advised Lieutenant Adam Brothers. 'At a minimum, it would take four of our twelve missiles - total wastage. And what if we really need them for the usurper's fleet later?'

'We'll put it to the vote immediately. There are six men, six women and I retain the casting vote. We either fire in the next two minutes, before the lead boat reaches the point or we don't fire and we'll have to try to ram their boats and save some of the crew.'

'Which would leave us in permanent danger on the island from their attack, especially at night and if any escaped, we'd be right back where we were,' muttered Laurence.

'Right, no time to lose,' snapped the superior officer. 'If you vote to shoot, the ultimate responsibility is mine because that is what I'm voting to do. So, all of you. To shoot or not to shoot? Come on people, no longer than a minute to decide. Any hesitation I'm going to count as a yes.'

What is your decision, reader?

[alcohol] which nations drink the most


Now here's a big shock - the most alcohol soaked nations on earth are below. Are those vodka soaked Russkies and Finns near the top? Are the German and Australian lager lovers? Take a stab at the top ten in your head first, then check below and here.

# 1 Luxembourg: 15.5 litres per capita
# 2 France: 14.8 litres per capita
# 3 Ireland: 13.5 litres per capita
# 4 Hungary: 13.4 litres per capita
# 5 Czech Republic: 12.1 litres per capita
# 6 Spain: 11.7 litres per capita
# 7 Denmark: 11.5 litres per capita
# 8 Portugal: 11.4 litres per capita
# 9 United Kingdom: 11.2 litres per capita
# 10 Austria: 11.1 litres per capita

[small business] poisonous atmosphere inimical to it

You've all seen it:

Charles Clarke and Jacqui Smith, two former home secretaries, had said they expected to reach a “tipping point” of 80 per cent of British people using ID cards by 2018, at which point their use would have been made compulsory by law. However, when asked yesterday whether that was still the case, Mr Johnson stated a categoric “no”.

Yeah, yeah, more of the same. Yada, yada. We've all commented on this government, on its wastage, on its ludicrous pies in the sky, while we lose our jobs or can't find one we would have walked into a couple of years back - the sheer ignominy of going for positions one used to offer oneself a few years back.

What Smirky Brown and Peacock Cameron, [strutting about making very witty comments about Brown], have no concept of, in their very clubby atmosphere, is that the chances of anyone setting up a small business in the UK are zilch. Nada.

This is exacerbated by the crippling tax code, the prohibitive council rentals, the total power they have to determine what your business must be and how it must be run and the total lack of room to move. - the contentment to grind a business down until it's bust and then wait hopefully for the next one to do the same to.

'Oh dear,' the sharks shake their heads at each other. 'No one's tried to start a business in the last few months.'

'Wonder why that is?' says Shark 2.

'Must be the worldwide economic climate,' nods Shark 3.

There is no 'we'll get behind you and cushion your first year', no concessions, no incentives, no schemes in place which are not undercut by taking from you in another area, no effing leadership from the top! Just the dead hand of socialism.

You see a boarded up shop front and think, 'I could make a go of selling XXXX here.' Then you learn they want £5000 up front, plus this, plus that, before you've even started. I know. I've checked it out in the area.

From the banks to the councils, when you walk through those doors, it's all about how much money they can make out of you, to infinitesimally offset their own losses due to their profligate and criminal incompetence. Anyone at all stupid enough to try to float a company - the sharks see him coming. All the forms come out to be signed - a percentage for this, a percentage for that ......

The small business climate is poisonous, lethal, prohibitive. A company I know the head of went to the wall on Friday and it really came home to me. This is a company where money was coming in and quite reasonable money. The money going out was crippling. A change of EU regulations meant that new systems he'd installed were now 'illegal' and had to be replaced at an all up cost of £13000, including having to divert staff to this completely meaningless drivel.

They made one too many demands on him and he folded. Unbe-effing-lievable!

Doesn't this country want any small business at all?

Sorry.

[airbus] yet another down

Another Airbus down. Add that to the list. Anyone planning a holiday via Airbus?

[wrong women] peter principle illustrated

Veronique Morali


The parallels between Sotomayor and her era of new appointees is striking. I had a post ready to go on Sotomayor earlier and didn't run it because it was boring. However:
The Supreme Court's reversal yesterday of a decision endorsed by Sonia Sotomayor as a federal appeals judge provided fresh ammunition for her conservative critics two weeks before her Senate confirmation hearing, but also allowed defenders to cast her as a judge who respects precedent.

She'll be nominated of course because this is the Era of Wrong Appointments - witness Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Precisely the wrong 'new women', talentless in leadership but with a lot of lip, are also getting appointed under 'positive discrimination' - people like Flint in the UK, Lynch in Canada and Sotomayor in the States.

It's Fiorina and Dunn all over again - a lot of mouth, really good at sacking people and appearing efficient to adoring hangers-on but appointed above their station.

Monica Conyers was in a different role but the story is the same. No matter what anyone says, gender is a factor here. There is a particular type of woman whose efforts to Force those around her to bend to her will and the way she flies off the handle when she doesn't get her own way, like a spoilt child, is going to make powerful enemies, particularly among male colleagues. This is not the way to go in an environment which doesn't fully accept you in the first place anyway and is looking for you to fall.

This was how Sarkozy cut the Segie magnetism in that debate - by provoking her to anger. Veronique Morali, of Force Femmes, is another who should not be let near a boardroom for her obvious bias. If there was her and another woman beside her of equal accomplishments but without the chip on the shoulder about her gender, then you'd appoint the other, on the grounds that she could give 100% to the company.

I'm not going to balance this to avoid being called sexist, by listing a lot of unsuitable men. There are so many. Take your pick of males who should never have been appointed, from Goodwin to Brown himself. They infest the public world, these non-comps but there IS a type of woman too, such as I've described and she should never be let near the reins of power. Merkel is one such person. Remember, a high flyer is just that - a high flyer and into high flying. A high flying woman complicates the issue by bringing gender into it.

The right person to put in is someone with a deep understanding of structure and process, with no real chip on the shoulder and not having to prove him or herself. I can think of two women straight away who are of a type and of a temperament which lends itself to running organizations. One runs a department at a university in Russia and another runs a blog group here. I tell you, honestly, that I would follow where these women led although they're cunning enough to make me think I'm doing the leading. [I also know of another woman running a different association who shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the reins but that's another matter.]

They are into consensus, politeness and warmth but insist on reasonable targets being met and have the ruthlessness to cut the dead wood away, albeit with tact.

I know men like that too but one thing for sure - these Sotomayors, Conyers and Lynches are most certainly NOT the ones who should be there. What should be done with them? Well, HP did it wrongly, in that you do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If they refuse to stay on in an advisory capacity, then access their expertise professionally and pay for it that way. They do have great skills. Running organizations is not one of them, that's all.