Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2005

  • Deepak – Stop Digging!

    I seem to recall that I used a similar tagline for Professor Rubenstein a couple of months back when he followed up one load of codswallop with an even bigger load.
     
    Now Deepak Chopra has done the same. Apparently stung by the derision heaped on him following his asinine crap in the Huffington Post a couple of days ago, he’s retorted with another post. I love the somewhat hurt tone he adopts:
    If you are opposing my comments with passionate vehemence, I’d suggest that you are not friendly to the open discussion of evolution, no matter which camp you belong to.
    No, Deepak, the passion comes from a sense of frustration over people like you who never seem to understand that what you are saying is false and the resulting overwhelming sense of irritation that, because you hold doolally ideas, then the rest of us with more than one brain cell to rub together have to "respectfully engage in a polite discussion". Sorry, Deepak, but crap is crap, and tying it up in the fancy ribbon of "respect" doesn’t change the sight, or the smell, of a stinking pile of ordure one jot or tittle.

  • Got It In One…

    …And over in the department of the bleeding obvious, I am wiping off the coffee from my keyboard thanks to this.
     
    (hat tip to Skeptico)

  • The Love of Books

    WhipPoorWill posts an entry that encapsulates perfectly the impact that books have on people – it brought tears to my eyes. I know how Declan feels. Books are multidimensional beings, and we destroy those that have the deeper roots into our emotions at our peril.

  • The End of an Era

    Since I retired from the IT organisation in Shell just over a year ago, a number of my colleagues have followed suit. Last night I attended the farewell celebrations (a reception and then later a dinner) of one who was arguably the most liked and respected of them all.
     
    To my mind, he epitomises the phrase: "a gentleman and a scholar".
     
    Right from the start of my time in Shell in 1980, when I was in Shell Centre, and he was across the river Thames in ShellMex House, I always viewed him as my touchstone – the excellent example of the best sort of person in Shell, and the standard by which I would wish to be judged. And I’m sure I’m not alone in relishing his dry wit and irony.
     
    The British philosopher and mathematician A. N. Whitehead is quoted as saying: "Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended".
    This man has the gifts of both intelligence and ability, and exercised them well during his Shell career.
     
    Here’s to a long and happy retirement, Stephen – you deserve it.
     
    Postscript: there were 20 of us at the dinner, and the old saw came up of "what’s the smallest number of people needed in a group before the chances of two of them having the same birthday is greater than evens?". Most people intuit that you need a very large number, because they don’t understand how probability works. The formula needed to work this out (where n is the number of people in the group) is:
    365! / ((365-n)! * 365^n)
    and n works out to be 23. As it happens, even with the 20 in our group last night, there were two sharing a birthday… More background on this exercise in probability is here and here.

  • The West Wind

    Phila, over at the Bouphonia blog, writes a brilliant post musing on the connections between bird flu and Dickens’ Bleak House. I’ve never actually read Bleak House, but this post has made me want to.

  • So, You Want a Dog?

    We’re starting to think seriously about moving East. Not all that far – still within the Netherlands – but near to the Dutch/German border in Gelderland. As part of the deal, Martin has let it be known that if we do end up in the countryside, then he wants to get a dog. Knowing my luck, he’ll get one that looks like this.

  • IDiot

    PZ Myers delivers a surgical flensing of some twaddle spouted by Deepak Chopra. When one is faced with such monumental stupidity such as this asinine crap from Chopra (e.g. the oxygen atom is intelligent) it is difficult to restrain oneself from calling for an intervention by the gene police ("Oi, you, out of the pool, now!).

  • Not All Doom and Gloom

    I commented earlier this week on the story in The Guardian about the witch hunts for gays and lesbians in the British Armed Forces. I see that my friend Ed has got a letter about it in The Guardian today. Since his letter was edited for inclusion, I’m pleased to be able to present the original as a blog exclusive:
    Lest younger readers of your paper should think that all was doom and gloom in the RAF camps of the mid-l950’s (Your article ‘How the air force kept secret watch to track down lesbians’, 22nd August), I can tell them that this was not so for at least one camp which I experienced as an adolescent airman – namely, RAF Ruislip on the outskirts of London.  To say that it was the prototype set for a film yet to be made "Carry on Camping II" would do it less than justice since, as part of the policy adopted by the higher authorities in the RAF to ‘clear out the homosexuals’ many of this robust community were stationed there.  It was argued, I believe, that rather than allowing youths suspected of being homosexual from their behaviour (i.e. being ‘camp’ for men and ‘butch’ for women) to corrupt other airmen/airwomen (there was no need), it would be wiser to have them all together where they could conduct themselves as outrageously as they pleased and with the added bonuses of being both near to central London and adjacent to an American air base.
     
    As now a 70-year old that was privileged to complete 2 years of National service in the mid-1950’s, I am able to say that if not the happiest days of my life those years were amongst the most interesting and informative I have experienced;  they also gave me friends which I am still fortunate enough to have.   Further, my experiences then allowed me to see how bright was the future if one took the initiative and, ‘Carry on’ style, grasped all the opportunities presented to one.
     
    I sign myself a satisfyingly happy homosexual who can look back with affection to those outwardly sexually repressive, but inwardly wildly gay, l950’s.
     
     

  • A New Type of Library

    The library in Almelo will be lending more than books as from next month. You’ll be able to borrow a person – such as a gay man or a Muslim woman – for an hour – to ask him or her the sort of questions that you’ve always wanted to ask. Sounds like a good idea, but do the people get stamped – and what are the fines for overdue loans?

  • Reading Faces

    Fasty Twister over at the I Blame The Patriarchy blog reminds me about the psychology tests on the BBC’s Science and the Body web site, and in particular the Spot the Fake Smile. The last time I tried the test, the web site crashed, so I gave up in disgust.
     
    This time, though, I completed the test and I was pleased to see that I got 15 out of 20 correct answers. I did better than I thought I would, so I’m pleased. Fasty, being a misanthrope, undoubtedly did better.

  • BT’s Innovation Timeline

    BT (British Telecom) has published its 2005 predictions about innovations and when they are likely to happen. Check out the interactive version, or read the full list. It would have been good to have BT also publish some of the reasons as to why they assign events along the timeline where they do. For all I know they could just be waving a wet finger in the air…

  • A New Tourist Destination

    Apparently, Saudia Arabia has hit upon a whizzo scheme to boost tourism to the Kingdom. I doubt very much whether I will take them up on their kind offer. The reasons why not are pretty well laid out in this imagined interview with the Minister of Tourism over at the Religious Policeman blog.
     
    (hat tip to Salam Pax for the link)

  • The Weapon of Language

    The metadata of language fascinates me. The way in which the choice of particular words and phrases reinforces particular ideas or modes of thought. I suspect that my fascination for it was shaped by the experience of growing up gay at a time when the language used to describe people like myself was unrelentingly negative. I began to realise that there was a dissonance between the language used to describe people like myself and my own experience from the inside.
     
    I was reminded about this by an interesting article in The Guardian today about how the British Armed Forces dealt with "the problem" (see, there’s the metadata in action) of gays and lesbians in their ranks during the 1950s through to the 1990s.
     
    The language used at the time is so very revealing (I’ve highlighted the key metadata words): "a nest of homosexuals", "the homosexual cannot exist in isolation; he must have an accomplice, and usually several – in this lies his greatest threat to the service; given suitable conditions the evil multiplies alarmingly" – written in the 1950s. "[lesbianism] was not properly acknowledged as a problem until 1956", the "abnormal woman who enters the service already perverted" – written in 1971.
     
    And just in case you think that this sort of language has died out, I refer you to judge John Freeman’s ruling in the case of a gay asylum seeker. Freeman (what an ironic name) has refused the man’s appeal to stay in Britain and has ruled that he must be returned to Iran – where, of course, homosexuals are still executed for being homosexuals. In his ruling, Freeman wrote: "He [the asylum seeker] says he fled when he realised a member of his coterie  had been arrested by them, apparently leaving an incriminating video in their hands, showing unseemly activity on the part of this appellant and others." (my emphasis on the metadata). Freeman also writes of "engaging in buggery" and describes the apellant’s sexuality as "a predilection". With attitudes like these, it is small wonder that Stonewall has concerns about the case.

  • Robert Moog

    Bob Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesiser, died yesterday. He was 71.
     
    The synthesiser was an instrument that fascinated me – to the point where I built one for myself. Bob’s invention has had a massive impact on popular music. While analogue synthesisers have largely given way to their digital descendants, the initial impetus came about because of Bob’s designs. 
     

  • Help Save the Post Office

    A heartfelt cry that pulls at my heartstrings, even if Mr. Crozier’s heart is made of stone.

  • Misdirection

    A nice little example of the prestidigitator’s art of misdirection: the Mystical Ball site. Try it – and try and work out how it works.

  • CrimeThinc Poster

    Oooh, I do like this poster:
     

    CrimeThinc poster

     
    (hat tip to Lauren at Feministe)

  • What’s Your Earliest Memory?

    Mine is lying in my pram on a hot summer’s day in the garden of a house in the country. I was given a piece of bread and butter to eat – but the butter had turned rancid in the heat. I clearly remember thinking I don’t like the taste of this.
     
    All perfectly ordinary stuff. But then you come across people like Freeman Dyson who says:
    My strong suit was always mathematics. I was not driven to become a scientist by a craving to understand the mysteries of nature. I just enjoyed calculating and fell in love with numbers. I remember vividly one episode from early childhood. I do not know how old I was. I know only that I was young enough to be put down for an afternoon nap in my crib. The crib had mahogany sidepieces so that I couldn’t climb out. I didn’t feel like sleeping, so I spent the time calculating.
     
    I added one plus a half plus a quarter plus an eighth plus a sixteenth and so on, and I discovered that if you go on adding like this forever you end up with two. Then I tried adding one plus a third plus a ninth and so on, and discovered that if you go on adding like this forever you end up with one and a half. Then I tried one plus a quarter and so on, and ended up with one and a third. I had discovered infinite series. I don’t think I talked about this. It was just a game.
    That’s scary…

  • Getting Closer…

    …Bird flu, that is. Apparently it’s reached the Russian Urals, and is likely headed this way. And while it’s by no means certain that the avian flu virus H5N1 will mutate into something that causes a flu pandemic in humans, those working in the field are increasingly furrowing their collective brows.
     
    Now, two risk communicators working for the WHO have published a long article on how to sound the alarm over bird flu without necessarily scaring the shit out of us. Well, perhaps. To paraphrase TS Eliot, this may be how the world ends, not with a bang, but ah-tishoo!

  • Mo Mowlam

    Sad to hear that Dr. Mowlam has died. When she was a politician, she was one of the few of that breed whom I respected.