Hypocrisy

Iran gets new US nuclear warning, the BBC reports:

'Iran should abandon "forever" nuclear weapons ambitions, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told the United Nations General Assembly.'

Yet in his 2005 budget request to the Energy Department of the US Congress, Bush asked for

* $27.5m for research into the “bunker-buster” nuclear weapon;
* $9m to fund research into “advanced concept” low-yield tactical nuclear weapons;
* $29.8m for a site to build new nuclear triggers for thermonuclear warheads;

Thankfully Congress rejected some projects and reduced the budget allowance for others. (Information obtained from CND.)

Whilst America and Britain (together with various European countries and others) continue to hold and develop Nuclear weapons, we will never suceed in telling other countries that they are not allowed to have them. We are being hypocrits, pure and simple.

And don't give me that baloney about needing nuclear weapons as a deterrent. If a government is never prepared to use a weapon then it can never be a deterrent. And, if a government is prepared to use modern powerful nuclear weapons against another nuclear state, the result will make the recent Hurricanes look like a summer rain shower.

Venus of Trafalgar

Square's naked sculpture revealed

Not being one for sculpture, I don't know whether this is a good or bad example of the genre but it's fascinating and certainly seems to be courting controversy already.

'Robert Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, said: "I think it is horrible. Not because of the subject matter I hasten to add. [I have a] lot of time for Alison Lapper. I think she is very brave, very wonderful (my emphasis) but it is just a rather repellent artefact - very shiny, slimy surface, machine-made, much too big... "'

I don't know whether I am maligning Mr Simon but the 'very brave, very wonderful' phrase seems to me to be akin to saying, some of my best friends are disabled/black/gay.

'The Disability Rights Commission called it "powerful and arresting", ... Ms Lapper, from Shoreham, West Sussex, sat for the artist when she was eight months pregnant. She has called it a "modern tribute to femininity, disability and motherhood".'

And me?
It seems to have two distinct parts in my opinion. The face is very strong, classically heroic - like a greek or roman sculpture. And then the body is so obviously feminine. The body reminds me quite forcfully of those ancient statuettes (known as Venus figurines) with big boobs and a big belly, thought to symbolise fertility and plenty.

No doubt the debate will rage in certain quarters - shocking nudity, positive role model, objectifying disability, feminism, motherhood, political correctness, etc.

So, what do you think?

How cool is this?

How cool is the invention in this BBC story - 'Magic brush' paints visual world. The article links to th MIT Media Lab.

'The I/O Brush is the brainchild of Kimiko Ryokai, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The device allows children to pick up colours and textures from their environment and paint with them on a large digital screen. Ms Ryokai has dubbed it the I/O Brush as it has an input and an output. The children just call it the magic paint brush and use it in ways she never anticipated. ... Ms Ryokai wanted to know what would happen if you could literally suck the ink from the environment. ... She found that pictures contained many personal objects and provoked story-telling about the images, such as where the colour came from, where they got it and what it was about. "A brown wasn't just a brown, but a brown that came from their favourite teddy bear or friend's hair," she says.'

Ooh, I want one. It would be so much fun to create artwork with not only the colours but the textures around you. Imagine if the unit could be portable. On a country walk you could store the grainy texture of bark, the autumnal shades of different leaves, spongy green moss, bright shiny berries, the translucent quality of wild flowers, or even the fluffy surface of your favourite wool scarf.

The world as a palette.

Happy Journeys.

The Last Night of the Proms 2005

I've just finished watching The Last Night of the Proms - I love this fabulously British tradition. It's a glorious evening of fantastic music irreverently enjoyed with unashamed patriotism; complete with air horns during Fantasia on British Sea Songs, whistling through Thine by the Glory and, of course, singing as loudly as possible to anything with lyrics!

To hell with political correctness ...

Jerusalem by William Blake

Bring me my Bow of burning gold!
Bring me my Arrows of desire!
Bring me my Spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!


Rule Britannia by James Thomson

The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.


Land of Hope and Glory by Benson and Elgar

Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!

These wonderful lyrics can't fail to stir the heart.

That said, Paul Daniel made some very poignant comments about music being without borders praising all the musicians and singers from around that world that had performed during the Prom season, especially in light of the fact that the season started only one week after the London bombings.

Here's hoping that we can continue to enjoy this piece of British culture for many years to come.

Happy Journeys.

Psychosomatic

According to Wikipedia, "A psychosomatic illness is one with physical manifestations and supposed psychological cause". Not entirely accurate for IBS but certainly a good enough description to be going on with. Another way of describing it is a functional disorder/disease meaning that there is nothing physically wrong with the digestive tract of the sufferer (as far as medical science is so far capable of detecting) other than a tendancy to be more sensitive to bloating and pain in the intestines, and faster or slower or spasming muscle contractions in the intestines (peristalses) as compared with 'normal' people. Symptoms are triggered both by certain foods groups/chemicals and emotional states.

I've blogged about IBS before - wishful thinking and a bit of a moan.

On the whole my IBS is much better than it was a couple of years ago through the elimination of certain foods groups and the use of hypnotherapy techniques. But ocassionally it blind-sides me and last night was one such episode.

The mind is a powerful thing and medical science is exploring the direct link between state of mind and physical health. IBS related anxiety attacks are still a bit of a chicken and egg situation for me. I don't know whether it's the IBS that sets off the anxiety or vice versa or whether the two are just so closely linked that it doesn't really matter.

Imagine waking up feeling very anxious and panicky, you're sweaty but cold, your heart is beating fast, your mouth dry and it's uncomfortable to swallow. All this for no discernable reason.

On top of that, because I am in a heightened emotional state, I get some of my IBS syptoms which in turn increases the anxiety. It's like a feedback loop between mind and body.

I used some of my hypnotherapy and relaxation techniques but it's always harder to get them to work in the middle of an attack. This resulted in a day off work as I felt too rough to face it. Thankfully the symptoms eventually subsided and I managed to sleep for a few hours. When I got up this afternoon I decided I needed to learn more about anxiety attacks and have spent a good few hours reading. I already understood that an anxiety attack could do me no harm but it's not that great to experience. Learning more about it has been an interesting experience.

I've learnt that the odd symptoms I get during some IBS attacks (uncontrollable shivering, sweaty palms and feet) are actually symptoms of the inappropriate fight/flight adrenaline response produced during an anxiety attack.

I've found out that my body has learned to provide me with a stress response too easily, sometimes causing (as per last night) a random response when there is no obvious anxiety trigger.

So I'm going to try and change this 'programming'. I've managed to get my IBS under control in the past with hypnotherapy so I'm hoping I can apply some of those same skills to eliminating this unnecessary anxiety.

Travolta, Winfrey, Penn ... where's Bush?

Travolta jets for Katrina effort

Rightly or wrongly, the image "normal" people have of the big stars is often that they're pampered and cossetted. The BBC has this interesting story which turns that idea on it's head:

"Actor John Travolta jetted in to the devastated region of Louisiana on his private jet to deliver five tonnes of food to victims of Hurricane Katrina. ... He is among celebrities who have travelled to the area to offer help, including Oprah Winfrey and Sean Penn."

I think that's fantastic. He's not just written a cheque (which obviously would still be very helpful) but he's used his own resources and time to do something practical because he is in the priviledged position to do so.

"Winfrey ... said she had witnessed the "inhumane" and "embarrassing" conditions they [the refugees in the sports stadium] were forced to live in. She said she would be presenting her show live from the area to ensure their stories would be told."

This, on the other hand, is very worrying - Bush to lead inquiry into Katrina:
"US President George W Bush says he will lead an investigation into how the Hurricane Katrina disaster was handled. "I'm going to find out over time what went right and what went wrong," he said in reply to criticism that the authorities were too slow to respond."

Perhaps I'm just being cynical but how can a review into the US government's response (or lack therof) be truly independent and unbiased when it is being lead by the leader of that government?

Community

Gamers rally for Katrina support

"Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is rallying support for those caught up in the disaster via its massive community of players"

The gaming community tends to get a lot of negative press - addiction to gaming, gaming leading to violence, etc. But this story shows the other side of gamers - one that we're aware of but the general public are perhaps not.

Sony (who run Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies (that I play) and other similar games) have appealed for support via the community message boards. The SOE Director of Community Relations wrote the following:

Hurricane Katrina has left an incredible wake of destruction across the Gulf Coast States. Sony Online Entertainment would like to ask you to take a moment to make a donation to the American Red Cross in order to help alleviate some of the suffering.

Additionally, for our 13,000+ players actually in the affected areas, we will be suspending billing until such time as they are able to play again. In addition, any items or structures in any of our games, which decay over time, will be preserved until the user’s next login.

Thank you in advance for your support and generosity.
The SOE Family

The online gaming community is made up of people from all walks of life (not just spotty teenage males) and I know that many gamers will respond to this plea.

Although clearly SOE is there to make money, the gesture to suspend billing for those in the affected areas demonstrates that there is a unique relationship between supplier and consumer in the gaming industry. Obviously, their gaming account is no where on the priority list of those gamers affected but it is a small financial gesture that I'm sure will be appreciated when life returns to normal.

Even more so, the decision to ensure that property and possessions will not decay until gamers can access their account again will be most welcome. For those non-gamers, the importance of this may not be readily apparent. For many MMORPGs (massively multi-player online role play games) there is the ability to work, complete tasks or sell objects to make money. That money can then be spent on building houses and buying vehicles, clothes, weapons, artwork, etc. Like the real world, properties have to be maintained and possessions wear out.

Whilst the majorty of gamers are very capable of distinguishing between the real and the virtual, their online character becomes very important to them and many hours are spent developing their character. It seems appropriate that the affected gamers should not suffer any more losses due to the hurricane.

Well done SOE.

War ... what is it good for?

I was morally opposed to the war in Iraq, as I morally oppose all wars. On so many levels this war was wrong.

Hubby and I have an ongoing discussion about pacifism and the alternatives to violent conflict. The thing that angers me most is that wars never occur in a vacuum. It is very rare that something very suddenly goes wrong. There is always a history leading up to the point of conflict. A series of events that turns a "friend" into an "enemy".

I believe if (potentially unpopular) political decisions are taken early on in a situation, there would be the distinct possibility that war could be avoided. But politics always seems to deal with the now. It never seems to look at the long term impacts of today's policy (lets face it, that's probably why we're seeing more articles like this - Peru's glaciers in retreat, Alaskan people tell of climate change, and Siberia's rapid thaw causes alarm - but more of those later).

I feel this instinctively but I'm not well-read in that field so can never fully articulate my argument. Blackrat to the rescue! A couple of days ago he wrote a very insightful post - go, take a look.

And, to answer the question in the title ... absolutely nothing, of course!

New Orleans

I think George Bush needs to stop worrying about the behaviour and regime of other countries and concentrate on the leadership and government of the United States.

The fact that he is only just visiting the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and not even visiting New Orleans is disgraceful. He is a figure head and people expect to see a high profile response from those in power (even though it's the guys behind the scenes that actually do most of the work).

It's no where near the same scale but it's the the same concept as when Blair hopped onto that helicopter to come back to London from the G8 summit and the same way that Charles and Camilla visited hospitals a few days after the bombings - people want to see their leaders involved and taking action as quickly as possible. They want to know that their leaders are metaphorically standing side by side with them.

I know it's a mind-blogglingly huge area that has been affected but if one of the richest countries in the world can't cope with this then it's madness. I know it's not all about money but the States have the money, the government/law enforcement infrastructure and the necessary resources to hand to throw at such a crisis.

Why are there still people without food, clean water and shelter - the most basic of human requirements?

Outsourcing * Rant Warning*

I think outsourcing is a Bad Idea.
I think IT outsourcing is an especially Bad Idea.

Why is that? you ask ... well go on, ask.

Ah, I reply, a very good question.

Apart from the obvious point that there are people in the UK capable and able to do the job? Well, let me give you some background information and I'll let you make up your own mind (promise). I spend a lot of time speaking to Technical Support departments for various IT manufacturers on behalf of my clients. This experience can be pleasant (sometimes even fun) or downright stressful and irritating (except you don't tend to hear us exclaim to our colleagues, "oh what a vexing conversation, I found that call very irritating" but I'm sure you get the point!)

[At this point I should probably say that the following is based solely upon my personal experiences of contacting these and similar companies.]

Let's take HP, for example - for the majority of products and no matter who you are, you'll get routed to Ireland. I must say at this point, the guys and gals in Ireland are, on the whole, polite, efficient and very friendly. They know their stuff and their procedures are fairly streamlined. However, HP recently decided to outsource support for one particular sort of product to the Asian sub-continent. And of all the products to choose - servers! For those non-techies and other normal people with normal lives, servers are big important computers usually vital to the smooth running of a company's day to day stuff. So, if a server breaks it's usually very important and urgent for it to get unbroken PDQ.

So server calls are approached with dread - chances are the call quality will be apalling with that delightful satellite delay so you never know whether you should speak or wait for the other person to speak which adds to the confusion when trying to work through the fault, especially if you're trying to explain a complex technical issue.

But today, ahh ... it was the creme de la creme of support calls to date. I'd not dealt with this particular manufacturer before (who shall remain nameless). To obtain technical support for a new piece of network security hardware, this is what I had to go through.

Please bear in mind that all the calls mentioned below are to a US mainland number during peak hours.

Call One
Rhea: Hi, I'd ilke to log a hardware support call for my user.
Technician: From the serial number you've given me, the user hasn't registered his product. You need to go onto our website and register the product before we can support you.
R: Ok. Once I've registered the unit, can I log a support request online or do I need to ring back on this number.
T: Sorry we can't help you until the unit is registered, you have to do that online.
R: Yes, I know but can I log a support request online after I've registered.
T: Sorry you need to register the unit first before we can supoprt you.
R: Nevermind. [click]

We got the piece of kit registered and I called back. After about three attempts at holding, I managed to get through to someone. The US support guys must have been busy as I had been routed to, yup you guessed it, an outsource centre.

R: Hi, I need to open a support request for my user please. I rang earlier and the product wasnt registered but it is now. Here's the serial number.
T: Can I have your name.
R: My name is Rhea but I want to open the call in my user's name.
T: Where do you work?
R: I'm calling from the user's Reseller but I don't want to open the call in my name. You need my user's details.
T: let me put you on hold I need to check with my supervisor. ... Ok, what's the company name where the kit is?
R: X Ltd
T: And you work there?
R: (mute: argh!! ... unmute) No, it's quite simple really. I am the user's reseller. They didn't want to spend their time and money holding on an international call so I want to log it on their behalf.
T: So you don't work for X Ltd?
R: No.
T: Let me put you on hold, I need to check with my supervisor. ... So what's the users name?
R: (at last!) It's Joe Blogs.
T: One moment please ... Sorry you can't log a call for Joe Blogs. He didn't register the product.
R: But the product is registered to X Ltd?
T: Yes
R: So ... ?
T: It has to be logged in the name of the registered owner.
R: Ok, do that then.
T: I can't do that as you asked me to do it in Joe's name.
R: Ok (getting vexed) so I've been on this international call for 20 minutes already and now you're saying you can't help me?
T: No you need to speak to customer services.
R: Ok, can you put me through?
T: No, you need to re-dial this number.
R: (??) But this number puts me straight through to technical support.
T: No press option one, try it again, it will work.
R: I assure you, I have called this number five times already and at no point am I presented with any options.
T: Oh, let me check with my supervisor. ... You need to call 555 123 4567.
R: So I should call 001 555 -
T: No! That's wrong.
R: well what code should I use?
T: Just 555.
R: I'm calling from the UK, the number you have given me sounds like a US number so I'll need to put some sort of code in front.
T: Let me check with my supervisor ... Yes, you need to use 001.
R: ok, I'll do that.
T: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
R: (Resisting the temptation to say something rude) No thanks, bye. [click]

So, now tomorrow I have to call another US number, possibly get diverted to another outsourced call centre and go through all of this again. Wthout outsourcing, I would still have needed to speak to Customer Services but perhaps the phone call would have lasted about five minutes instead of twenty.

And what for? The power adaptor (similar to the cable and "brick" that laptops use) is faulty and needs replacing ...

So, outsourcing, what do you think? :o)