Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2005

  • A Balanced Scorecard for the Climate

    Over the last few years, the concept of the "balanced scorecard" as a means of rating the performance of a business has become all the rage. Now, the World Wildlife Fund has taken that to the next logical stage by publishing the results of a balanced scorecard for the G8 countries in respect of their performance on climate change. It accompanies the figures with an easy-to-grasp graphic of a powermeter marked into red, yellow and green zones.
     
    It will come as no surprise to learn that the US has the powermeter graphic shown as firmly in the red zone for all but one of the measures in the scorecard.
     
    The document is worth reading and is available here.
     
    (hat tip to the WorldChanging blog)

  • Permafrost Melting

    A somewhat worrying story in the Guardian today about the fact that the world’s largest peat-bog (bigger than France and Germany combined) has begun to melt for the first time since it was formed 11,000 years ago.
     
    The concern is that, as it melts, it will release methane (a greenhouse gas), and so accelerate the rate of global warming. Definitely time to think about moving to higher ground, I feel.

  • It’s Kismet

    I see that Robert Wright, composer and lyricist, has died aged 90. There are obituaries in both The Guardian and the BBC web site. They both mention his partnership with George "Chet" Forrest, but what I find supremely irritating in both cases is the mealy-mouthed way that that partnership is described.
     
    The Guardian writes of Wright’s "collaboration" with Forrest in writing stage musicals. The BBC writes that Wright was the "musical partner" of Forrest, and of the pair "working together". One is left with the impression that this pair rolled into an office every day to work together on musicals and then went their separate ways back to their homes at the end of the day.
     
    I would have thought that in this day and age obituaries could be more honest. Wright and Forrest not only worked together, they lived and loved together – and they did so for over seventy years. To imply a more one-dimensional relationship than that is simply shabby. A more realistic appraisal of this couple can be found here. The opening sentence establishes the straightforward and honest tone: "For over seventy years Robert Wright and George Forrest were partners in life and art".

  • Online Petition

    Frank van Dalen, chairman of the board of the COC (the Dutch Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender organisation) has set up an online petition to protest against the hangings of the two gay Iranian teenagers. You can sign it here.

  • Protests Over Iran Hangings

    The reaction to the two Iranian teenagers hanged for being gay continues. Doug Ireland, over at the DIRELAND blog, reports on planned protests, and gives useful background information to the homophobic atmosphere that pervades Iran at the moment.

  • Mosquitoes Drawn to People With Malaria

    You may recall that, back in April, I commented on research that demonstrated how parasites can affect the personality of their hosts.
     
    Now, New Scientist reports on a new study that indicates that mosquitoes are more likely to be attracted to people already affected with malaria. And it appears that it is the parasite that is causing this, in order to secure its onward transmission to new hosts.
     
    Another example of "who’s in the driving seat? – the host or the parasite?" Oh, and I can’t resist a book plug here for Carl Zimmer’s terrific (in all senses of the word) book: Parasite Rex. It is, by turns, amazing, fascinating, chilling, scary and downright horrifying…

  • Caption Competition

    Yep, those are knitting needles. Why are men so obsessed with size?
    (hat tip to And She Knits Too)

  • Sad To Be Gay – Part 2

    Well, I watched the programme. Akinsanya was not such a basket case as I had feared, but the Love in Action crowd were every bit as deluded as I thought they would be. Akinsanya’s problem seemed to boil down to the fact that he expected to find true love in the middle of the gayscene, with its muscle marys, drugs, disco and one-night stands. Er, sorry, David, but (a) the chances are small (but not, I grant you, zero) and (b) there’s more to life than the gayscene, and you don’t have to pretend that you’re not gay in order to find it.
     
    At least by the end of the programme he seemed to have realised that he could be a father figure to his godchildren. Perhaps now if he stops looking for true love (particularly in all the wrong places), it will sneak up on him. And to give him credit, he sussed out the LiA crowd for the bunch of religious nutters that they are pretty damn quick.
     
    Mind you, Wayne Besen didn’t exactly strike me as someone I’d like to spend an evening with either – as David said, he had his own agenda.
     
    What it seemed to boil down to in the end was the willingness of people to believe in illusions. Akinsanya believing that his happiness depended on him not being gay, and the LiA crowd believing that religion was the answer to turning gay people straight. Smoke and mirrors in both cases, but oh, how some people sincerely want to be fooled.

  • And the Hugo Winner Is…

    … for best novel: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. Well, OK, I quite enjoyed it. It kept me going until the end (which is more than I can say for many novels – e.g. Cryptonomicon). But somehow, despite the number of pages and its own bookmark, it felt, well, just a little bit lightweight. Still, I don’t have Ms. Clarke’s talent, so I shouldn’t really grumble.

  • Dixons Ditches Film

    First it was VHS recorders, now Dixons have announced that they will cease selling film cameras. It’s the end of an era.

  • If You Have To Ask The Price…

    … you can’t afford it.
     
    The walk-in wine vault from GE. I think I’ll stick to the plastic rack in the garage, it’s gentler on the wallet and less pretentious.
     
    I also think it’s an ominous sign when the copywriters clearly don’t have a clue about their intended audience. I mean, I hardly think that a serious wine collector is someone who "waits anxiously each November for the Beaujolais Nouveau to arrive". That’s just oxymoronic.
     
    (hat tip to Gizmodo)

  • Robin Cook

    I was sad to hear of his untimely death. He was one of the few politicians that I could respect. Without his presence in the UK parliament, I wonder how effective the checks and balances will be against the current British government?

  • Sad To Be Gay…

    …that’s the title of a programme to be broadcast on BBC2 tomorrow night.
     
    The synopsis makes pretty depressing reading – but at the risk of pre-judging it, I will stick my neck out and say that (a) David sounds a pretty depressed character to start with and (b) the treatment centre in America that promises "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ" sounds like a vision of hell here on earth, particularly when we learn that ‘many of the centre’s staff and its clients are also "struggling with same sex attraction".’
     
    It sounds like a real barrel of laughs.
     
    When will these idiots get it through their heads that sexual orientation is akin to handedness. Consider:
    "Here is the profile of a trait on which clinical research has been done for decades. It is taken from the published scientific literature. The trait should be rather obvious:
    1. This human trait is referred to by biologists as a "stable bimorphism"- it shows up in all human populations as two orientations- expressed behaviorally.
    2. The data clinicians have gathered says that around 92% of the population has the majority orientation, 8% has the minority orientation.
    3. Evidence from art history suggests the incidence of the two different orientations has been constant for five millennia.
    4. The trait has no external physical, bodily signs.  That means you can’t tell a person’s orientation by looking at them. And the minority orientation appears in all races and ethnic groups.
    5. Since the trait itself is internal and invisible, the only way to identify an orientation is by observing the behavior or the reflex that expresses it. However-and this is crucial-
    6. – because the trait itself is not a "behavior" but an internal, invisible orientation, those with the minority orientation can hide, usually due to coercion or social pressure, by behaving as if they had the majority orientation. Several decades ago, those with the minority orientation were frequently forced to behave as if they had the majority orientation- but internally the orientation remained the same and as social pressures have lifted, people with the minority orientation have been able to openly express it.
    7. Clinical observation makes it clear that neither orientation of this trait is a disease or mental illness. Neither is pathological in any observable way.
    8. Neither orientation is chosen.
    9. Signs of one’s orientation are detectable very early in children, often, researchers have established, by age two or three. And one’s orientation probably has been defined at the latest by age two, and quite possibly before birth.

    These data indicated that the trait was biological, not social, in origin, so the clinicians systematically asked more questions. And these started revealing the genetic plans that lay underneath the trait:

    1. Adoption studies show that the orientation of adopted children is unrelated to the orientation of their parents, demonstrating that the trait is not created by upbringing or society.
    2. Twin studies show that pairs of identical twins, with their identical genes, have a higher-than-average chance of sharing the same orientation compared to pairs of randomly selected individuals; the average rate of this trait in any given population- it’s called the "background rate"-is just under 8%, while the twin rate is just above 12%, more than 50% higher.
    3. This trait’s incidence of the minority orientation is strikingly higher in the male population- about 27% higher-than it is in the female population. Many genetic diseases, for reasons we now understand pretty well, are higher in men than women.
    4. Like the trait called eye color, the familial studies conducted by scientists show that the minority orientation clearly "runs in families," handed down from parent to child.
    5. This pattern shows a "maternal effect," a classic telltale of a genetic trait. The minority orientation, when it is expressed in men, appears to be passed down through the mother.
    Put all this data together, and you’ve created the trait profile. The trait just described is, of course, handedness."
    The above comes from an article written by Chandler Burr and it’s worth reading.
    There was a time when the left-handedness trait was actively considered sinful, and great attempts were made to stamp it out. Nowadays, people do not apply moral judgements to it. How long will it be before the same applies to the various expressions of sexual orientation?
     
     

  • On Being a Mother Hen

    I was asked to look after a teenager last Saturday. This is not something I often get a chance to do. The background is that an acquaintance of ours has a 15 year old daughter. The daughter wanted to see the Amsterdam Canal Parade (she’s lesbian), but the parents were unable to take her, and didn’t really want to let her go by herself into the big, bad city of Amsterdam.
     
    So yours truly stepped in and offered to be the mother hen for the day.
     
    I have to say it was an absolute delight. The daughter was really excited about seeing her first Canal Parade (and I was somewhat astonished to learn that this would be only her second time ever of being in the centre of Amsterdam. I mean, it’s not as if Gouda is a million miles away).
     
    What made it a delight was the fact that she is so open and natural about herself. When I was 15, I was terrified about anyone finding out that I was – shudder – gay, least of all my parents. And yet here she is, totally accepting about her whole self, and, what’s more, so are her parents – who were really pleased that I had agreed to chaperone her during the day.
     
    She had a great time – and so did I.

  • Twisty’s Unusual Afternoon

    Twisty Faster has a blog, I Blame the Patriarchy, that can usually be relied upon to take an ironic, if not occasionally dyspeptic, view of life.
     
    Being a self-confessed spinster aunt, she has not herself experienced the ‘joys’ of childbirth. Recently, however, she was privileged (if that is the word) to be present at the birth of her niece – an experience that clearly took her somewhat aback.
     
    There clearly is no Intelligent Designer – unless he is a mysogynistic psychopath, or she a masochist. If I were a woman, I don’t think I’d want to put myself through childbirth.
     
    As Stephen Fry is reputed to have said: When I was born, I remember looking back up at my mother and saying, "that’s the last time I’m going up in one of those." 

  • The Amsterdam Canal Parade – Part 3

    I’m putting a selection of the photos I took at the Parade into a photo set up on Flickr here. There’s over 180 photos at the moment, and I’ve got more to add…
     

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  • The Amsterdam Canal Parade – Part 2

    I’m pleased to be able to say that people from my old employer – Shell – had a boat in this year’s Canal Parade. While employees of Shell Oil (US) have participated in Houston’s Gay Pride for a number of years now, this was the first time that Shell employees in the Netherlands had a boat displaying the Shell brand in Amsterdam’s Canal Parade. They had the full support of Shell Nederland to do this, and the theme of the boat was support of diversity and inclusiveness.
     
    Folks that I know from the GLBTN (Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Network) of Shell in the Netherlands, together with people from the other employee networks, such as the Women’s Network, worked hard to organise and decorate the boat. As well as the terrific singers and drummers on the boat, my husband was also asked to choreograph a short routine for the dance troupe drawn from the participants.
     

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    You can see more photos of the Shell boat up on Flickr here.

     

  • The Amsterdam Canal Parade 2005 – Part 1

    Yesterday, 6 August, was when this year’s Canal Parade, organised by the G. B. A. (the Gay Business Amsterdam Foundation) was held. It was the tenth anniversary of this event. What started out as merely an excuse for a party has evolved over the years to have a political tinge. This year, perhaps more than ever, the message behind the horns, the whistles and the heavy disco dance music was: "We’re Here, We’re Queer – Get Used to It!"
     
    The parade was led by a boat draped in white carrying the photograph of the two teenagers hanged on the 19th July in Iran for the ‘crime’ of being gay. A sombre beginning to a parade that, despite the occasional shower, delighted the 350,000 onlookers lining the Amsterdam canals.
     

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  • Tears of the Black Tiger

    The husband has taken himself off to Amsterdam to prepare for the Amsterdam Canal Parade tomorrow (of which more tomorrow or Sunday), so I settled in to watch a film from Thailand: Fai Talai Jone (Tears of the Black Tiger).
     
    Well, it’s described as a "bonkers Thai Western", and that’s not far from the truth. It’s as camp as a row of tents, shot in sugar candy colours, with a number of the actors (particularly Supakorn Kitsuwon as Mahesuan) camping it up something rotten. Despite all that (or perhaps because of it) it is a very effective melting pot of the fifties Western, the Spaghetti western, Thai film and fifties Hollywood tearjerkers.
     
    The hero and heroine (Chartchai Ngamsan and Stella Malucci as the Black Tiger and Rampoey respectively) play it straighter, although still heavily stylised, and they made me believe in the central love story. Arawat Rangvuth as Police Captain Kumjorn comes across well as the spurned husband, so much so that by the end of the film I felt sorry for him. And I just loved Sombat Metanee as the gangleader Fai – was it deliberate that he looked so much like Charles Bronson?
     
    Despite the campery, there are times when the film is dripping with blood a la Peckinpah. But overall, I could take that when it was put alongside the scenes with striking visuals such as the summerhouse in the lake of lotus blossom.
     
    The director was Wisit Sasanatieng, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.

  • Richard Feynman

    In 1979, the late, great Richard Feynman gave a series of four lectures on physics at the University of Auckland. These were filmed and they are available online as streaming videos here.
     
    Feynman was such a brilliant communicator and it is a real pleasure to be able to watch and listen to him explain fundamental physics using nothing more than his intelligence, his wit, a piece of chalk and a blackboard.
     
    (hat tip to the Poor Man for the link)