Wednesday, October 31, 2007

[milestones] it was profile views all along

Statistiques utilisateur

Sur Blogger depuis juillet 2006
Consultations du profil 10 002


I expected it next week - it happened tonight.

Delighted and humbled but perhaps I should be a bit worried about who half of them were. Had to smile at Ellee when she said not to look at stats because my eyes for some time have not been on uniques but I admit - on profile views.

I'm popping off now for a coffee and whisky, if you don't mind and will get back to Blogfocuses tomorrow. Have a lovely evening.

[all hallow's eve] don't be caught out of doors

Well, as you know, it's All Hallow's Eve and the details are dealt with below.

What I'd like to recount here instead is the evening I had to drive to a village near Derby from the North of England.

It truly was dark and foreboding and the rain was lashing the snot-green Mini's windows as I tried to negotiate the map to get me past Alfreton, New Order were blasting out of the door speakers and I was late.

Why does it always take so long to get anywhere in Britain? On a long stretch of moorish road it struck me that it was Hallowe'en and that it may not ahve been the cleverest idea to travel alone on such a night with all the witches and warlocks out in force.

Then the car died. Just turned off - everything - lights, engine - it all stopped. Slowing to a halt on the side of the road, it struck me that this was most certainly not a good move.

Some minutes later it struck me that it might be a good move to thumb some help down but not a lot of traffic was about at just before 11 p.m. on an open stretch of road.

A lorry did stop and took me into, can't remember, Alfreton I think it was and I remember a pizza shop which is unusual because I probably needed to organize the AA at that point.

They came out surprisingly quickly but here was the thing - they couldn't get it to start. Not in the least. So it was tow-truck time and it was closing in on midnight. Just after midnight the driver thought he'd try one more time and it started.

Everything started - the lights, the music and so on. He definitely scratched his head when he packed up and left.

Anyway, here are those details for those who like quick reference:

All Saints’ Day: November 1st

"Hallows" is the Old English for "holy man"; hence a saint. The French call it Toussaint.

It’s traditionally traced to Pope Boniface IV who, between 603 and 610, changed the heathen Pantheon into the Christian church and dedicated it to the honour of the martyrs but some trace it to the time of Pope Gregory III (731-741). Originally held on May 1st, in the year 834 it was changed to November 1st.

What exciting things to do on the day? Pray for the Saints and be one. That’s it.

All Souls’ Day: November 2nd

All Souls' Day is so called because Catholics on that day seek, by prayer and almsgiving, to alleviate the sufferings of souls in purgatory. It was instituted in the monastery of Cluny in 993.

According to tradition, there was a pilgrim, returning from the Holy Land, who was compelled by a storm to land on a rocky island, where he found a hermit, who told him that among the cliffs was an opening into the infernal regions through which huge flames ascended, and where the groans of the tormented were distinctly audible.

The pilgrim told Odilo, abbot of Cluny, of this, and the abbot appointed the day following, which was the 2nd, to be set apart for the benefit of those souls in purgatory.

What to do on this day? Pray for the souls of all the departed, from your grandparents through to the children of Beslan, say. In this respect, it would mean more than All Hallows to most people and it’s the one I take the most seriously of the three.

All Hallows Eve: October 31st

In the old Celtic calendar, this was the last day of the year, its night being the time when all the witches and warlocks were abroad and held their wicked revels. This was a day NOT to be out.

On the introduction of Christianity, it was taken over as the Eve of All Hallows, or All Saints, and - especially in Scotland and the north of England - it is still devoted to all sorts of games in which the old superstitions can be traced.

Sometimes known as "Hallowmas," many old folklore customs are connected with All-Hallows' Eve, such as bobbing for apples, cracking nuts, finding by various tests whether one's lover is true and so on.

In shortened form, it’s called Hallowe’en [always with the apostrophe]. Burns' Hallowe'en gives a good picture of Scottish customs and there is a tradition in Scotland that those born on All-Hallows' Eve have the gift of double sight, and the ability to command spirits.

Source: Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

[dipnote] blog with a difference

Little message just arrived from the U.S. State Department re my post on them:
Granted, we're new at this, but just ask that you give the blog a chance. It's an open forum where you can actually discuss foreign policy issues with State Department officials and fellow bloggers. The question of the week this week is "What will life in Cuba be like after Castro?"
They’re referring, of course, to Dipnote, the new State Department blog which opened on September 25th - rivetting stuff. Perhaps they’re right and we’ve been a bit hasty. Shall we go over and join the forum?

The State Department blog is here if you're brave.


[winter approacheth] billowing clouds

We're not yet at the stage in the photo but we have definitely made a quantum shift.

The big tree downstairs outside of my window has now lost the last of its leaves and the temperature which had been a balmy 4 degrees was now a tad below zero at dawn.

Coupled with this was a sky I can only describe as "billowing" and ominous in it's dark-greyness. It threatens to snow, in other words.

I dearly hope it does because without the snow, the plummeting temperatures are bleak and suicidal and people's moods are so low - perhaps "grim" is a better word.

Come the snow and everything is fairyland and the sky even seems to brighten. Colours seem to become more vivid, the beautiful hush comes over the land, dampening car and industrial noise and it affords respite from life's problems.

A quick glance now and the temperature has rocketed up to 2 degrees. Who knows, it might make the balmy 4 yet.

And as for that looming milestone, I'm now a tantalizing 34 away from it. So near and yet so far.

[treaty] dishonesty in high places

Mr Giscard d'Estaing says the "proposed institutional reforms" of the rejected constitution can still be found in the new treaty.

The authors of the new treaty, he says, have taken the original draft constitution and "blown it apart into separate elements". They have then "re-attached them, one by one, to existing treaties".

Changes to the original constitution - such as jettisoning references to a European flag and anthem - were made to "head off any threat of referenda", Mr Giscard d'Estaing says. The EU Reform Treaty was agreed earlier this month at a summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
Four things:
1. Why did it take until now for the BBC to carry this self-evident truth?

2. Does this not now show that the EU has been acting dishonestly and contrary to the wishes of the people in two of the strongest members – France and Britain?


3. Do you realize that because of the Lisbon accords, what was Britain will be EU post-2009?


4. What can be done about it?

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

[political bloggers] failing to connect the dots

Political bloggers may be driving themselves to exhaustion but are they too narrowly channeled?

Just been round to various blogs and one thing is painfully obvious – political blogs are islands and political bloggers run in well worn grooves.

It’s exasperating to see bloggers persisting in pushing the same narrow focus, no matter how correct it is and flatly refusing to either research outside the style of journals they use as their primary sources or failing to take the macro-view into account.

For example, one blogger keeps asking: “Why do we need a stepping stone to an English Parliament?”

Well clearly because there isn’t going to be an English Parliament whilst Brown is there and Brown needs breathing space. How would I know this? Look at Part 3 of the micro-control article and the links and a possible answer is there. At least it's worth considering, which I don't see major bloggers doing.

And why don't we see this sort of thing - three questions for CP? Why are the big boys not covering it?

The regions are being beefed up - this is not even in dispute and CP is moving into positions of influence within local areas. The focus is on RDAs - they flew the regional assembly kite and now it’s occurring by the back door, just as the Treaty is.

Now why would the DTI have altered its website and included regionalization? Why would CP be training people hell for leather in local areas such as the South West to assume command “beyond authority” as they put it? They are doing that – follow the relevant links.

Look – here is a video of Diversity Training at Ian Parker’s site plus his comment:
Diversity training has had to be forced on companies because there are no actual benefits to be derived from it. Were this not the case organisations would already have recognised the competitive benefits and implemented their own diversity programs, without the need for government legislation.
Why are the major bloggers not picking up on these things? Where are they? Tied up in Polly Toynbee and David Milliband. Even Mr. Eugenides touches on the “what” all right and well done but does not get into the “why” or “what is going to happen as a consequence?”
"Looking at the content, the result is that the institutional proposals of the constitutional treaty … are found complete in the Lisbon Treaty, only in a different order and inserted in former treaties," Mr Giscard d'Estaing said.

The former chairman of the European Convention - the body of over a hundred politicians that drafted the 2004 EU constitution – suggests the new more complicated layout was only to avoid putting the treaty to a referendum.
Ignoring the body of evidence out there from the more unorthodox sources, Iain Dale refers to training for something not going to happen:
This sort of training course teaches them debating skills, media skills and how to campaign. It may sound dull to those not involved in the political process, but this sort of thing is vital for young people from all parties if they are to acquire the skillset to become our politicians of the future.
There are going to be no “conservative leaders” because it goes straight from Britain to the EU Treaty regions. We must begin to look more broadly at the whole frame, such as Dizzy did:
What's important to point out here is this is not about saying you think Gordon Brown and the Labour Government are secretly trying to enslave us all in an Orwellian nightmare with the ultimate aim of destroying democracy. No, this is about asking whether the proposal passes the Stalin Test. Would someone like Stalin have found a system like this useful?
So, given that Dizzy is not talking through his hat, then what are the possible consequences of this tightening of restrictions even on people’s movement? A possible answer is via Sackerson, where Tony Allison says, about the peak oil consequences:
For example, we could see a re-birth in local farming and manufacturing, as food and industrial products become exceedingly expensive to transport.
Of course we’re going to – the population is being increasingly made to remain local. Still with Sackerson, Robert McHugh says of the squeeze on the bourgeoisie:
The Middle Class is getting annihilated from this silent event. Incomes are not keeping up. This was done because this administration “equates stock market success with economic success and has directed their efforts to drive up equities at literally any cost,” to quote one of our subscribers.
Can anyone see where this thing is going? Yep, the middle class is about to go bust and those holding gold are sitting pretty:
Charles Merrill, a relation of the Merrill Lynch founder, has become a gold squirrel.
And other big boys who are in the know?
… up to 25% of M&A deals had some dodgy looking share deals associated with them in the past few years ...
Joining the dots – that’s what is necessary here. Think tanks with data from a variety of sources coming in and bloggers combining to sift through it all and get the whole picture.

By the way, was informed today that one of my irregular sources was visited by CP today for 3 hours 59 mins 46 secs and he asked:
Now, do these people waste tax-payers money? :)