Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2006

  • Rita Gets Another Award…

    I missed this when it was announced, but the latest issue of the Gay Krant (the Dutch gay magazine) draws my attention to the fact that the Lovely Rita Verdonk was awarded a place of honour in the Hall of Shame by the Human Rights Watch in May.
     
    Rita can now add this citation to the Big Brother award she picked up in January.
     
    Rita Verdonk was summarised well by Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, who said of Verdonk, “The position of Minister for Integration needs to be filled by someone with a cool head and a warm heart. Unfortunately Rita Verdonk has a hot head and a cold heart and has done nothing but exacerbate the growing divide between immigrants and the rest of the Dutch society.”
     
    (hat tip to Mike Tidmus for the Cohen quote)
     

  • That’ll Do Nicely

    Mike, over at Coffee Corner, draws my attention to the fact that the makers of Monopoly are planning to replace the paper cash in the game with credit cards. He does some nice riffs on similar implications for other games.
     
    And as a result, I learn that the good old British game of Snakes and Ladders is apparently called Chutes and Ladders in America. I wonder why Milton Bradley substituted chutes for snakes?

  • Spin and Deliver

    Sometimes, there are good reasons why inventions stay on the drawing board.

  • Art Foretells Reality

    Last night, BBC Four showed a couple of programs devoted to the life and work of Terry Gilliam. First up was an interview with Gilliam by Mark Lawson, which was interesting in itself. But for me, the real revelation came with the showing of Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil that followed the interview.
     
    Of course, I’ve seen Brazil before; several times, in fact. But this was the first time that I’d seen it in many years. Post 9/11 and 7/7, the film has taken on many resonances that simply did not exist for me in the early years. I was struck by the parallels between the political landscape of the film (unseen terrorists versus the state and its propaganda machine) and today’s world. It was, I have to say, a much more uncomfortable experience for me than when I had previously seen the film.
     
    I’m not the only person to feel this way, it appears. Check out this essay from Robert Blumen. While Blumen naturally views Brazil through the lens of being American, I can report a similar frisson as a Brit, viewing the recent history of Blair’s Britain. It makes for uncomfortable thoughts of where we are and where we are going.

  • What Grandmas Are For

    I’m currently reading William H. Calvin’s A Brief History of the Mind. Calvin writes really well, and puts together an absorbing and convincing story of how the human mind has developed. While he traces the development of the human species, starting about 7 million years ago when hominids shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos, it appears that the evidence for the modern mind only appears as little as 50,000 years ago. And that’s even though Homo sapiens has been around for at least 100,000 years.
     
    So something caused (in Calvin’s phrase) "the mind’s big bang" to occur around 50,000 years ago. He posits a number of candidates for the trigger, for example, the use of the structured planning that is necessary to throw things accurately being applied in other modalities and time scales. He also argues that "if children are exposed to structured stuff can softwire their brains to better handle it, and if the younger they are exposed, the better they do as adults, then the more precocious children will soon double the amount of structured speech heard by the next generation of youngsters… So the transition might be language, acting like a contagious disease over a few generations’ time."
     
    This is EvoDevo, when evolution interacts with the development via the einviroment. Today, I ran across an interesting article in Seed magazine: Why Do Grandmas Exist? This points out that the menopause is something that is unique to the female Homo sapiens – none of the other primates have this. Other primate females are capable of becoming pregnant until they die. So the menopause might also be one of the triggers of the big bang: females who are no longer capable of child bearing have more time to babysit or to forage for food. And the babysitting might help the children be "exposed to structured stuff".
     
    Food for thought.

  • MRDA

    Fareena Alam writes a nasty and spiteful review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book The Caged Virgin in The New Statesman. Sample: "Hirsi Ali, a woman who has built her career on portraying herself as a victim". Er, no, Ms. Alam, Hirsi Ali certainly does not portray herself as a victim, quite the opposite in fact.
     
    Alam relates, with relish, the story of the Dutch TV documentary that in May this year led to "the Hirsi Ali affair", whilst neglecting to point out that the fact that Hirsi Ali had lied to get asylum was public knowledge back in 2002. She also quotes Jytte Klausen ("who knows Hirsi Ali") as saying that "She wasn’t forced into a marriage. She had an amicable relationship with her husband, as well as with the rest of her family. It was not true that she had to hide from her family for years." As far as I can see, the source of this quote is a telephone conversation that Haroon Saddiqui had with Klausen in May before penning his poisonous attack on Hirsi Ali in The Toronto Star. I don’t know how well Klausen "knows" Hirsi Ali, besides the fact that they have appeared at at least one seminar together in Sweden in 2003, but I do feel inclined to treat her statement with some scepticism.
     
    Alam also writes: "Practically all of her conclusions are based on her own ‘tortured’ experiences and observations of Islam". I can well imagine that if, as Hirsi Ali did, I worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and refuges for battered women, then I might see the world through a jaundiced eye, but that does not remove the reality of those observations and experiences. One chapter entitled Four Women’s Lives gives the stage to others to tell their story. One of the strengths of Hirsi Ali’s book is that she does provide the source references to her claims – although Alam sneers that: "she provides little evidence to back up her claims that the Muslim woman is a caged virgin – sexualised, segregated, denied human rights – and that Islamic theology is responsible for this". Really, I wonder whether we’ve actually read the same book.
     
    But then, MRDA – Mandy Rice-Davies Applies. When it comes to facing unpalatable truths about aspects of one’s religion, Alam’s reaction and subsequently the review should come as no surprise. To paraphrase Mandy, "She would write that, wouldn’t she?" 

  • Play Anywhere

    An interesting user interface from Microsoft Research. Although, I have to say that it’s not the first time that I’ve seen something like this. At the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, their digital archive already uses a similar system.
     
    In one gallery, the Digital Depot, a sample collection of some of the museum’s artifacts is displayed along the wall. In front of the wall are transparent touch-sensitive screens with images back-projected on to them. Visitors can look through the screen to the objects on the wall, as well as see the images on the screen. And just as in the Microsoft video, can use their hands to manipulate the images, to drag them around the screen or "open" them to retrieve further information about the objects in the gallery. 

  • History Repeats

    A thoughtful piece by Brian Keenan in The Guardian today on his reaction to the current events in Lebanon. For those who don’t know Keenan’s background, here is a reminder.

  • Kids, Don’t Try This At Home

    Ben Goldacre, over at his Bad Science blog, contrasts the scientific fakery of the Brainiac TV show (emphasis on show: it’s entertainment, not science, kids) with the genuine article in the form of Theodore Gray dropping a kilo and a half of pure sodium into his lake.

  • The Wicker Man

    The Wicker Man was a British horror film released in 1973. It’s become a cult classic. Well-deserved, in my opinion. The first time I saw it I was stunned. There’s no obvious blood and gore – all the horror comes from the underlying story. The reworking of folklore tales and music into a convincing creation of a pagan society is very well done.
     
    I was reminded of the film by two things today. First up was an article in The Guardian about the impact that the film has had on British folk music. Secondly, I’ve just been having a video call with my brother in Scotland, and he tells me that my niece and nephew are off to the Wicker Man Festival in Dundrennan tonight. I’m sure that they’ll have a great time… Hopefully, no one will get burned alive…  

  • Deathworld

    I am at a loss to comprehend the situation in Israel and Lebanon. This analysis over at the Smokewriting blog strikes a chord with me. The continuing saga reminds me of the central premise in Harry Harrison’s Deathworld: the positive feedback of hatred simply breeds more. I don’t see how it can end in a humane manner. 

  • Cultured Meat

    Cultured Meat – also known as in vitro meat – is animal flesh that has never been part of a complete living animal. Some scientists are experimenting with growing meat in this way as a food source. Apparently, now that the experiments are approaching the point where there is a real possibility that such products will reach the market, some vegetarians are reacting in horror to the very idea. I can’t quite see it myself. Meat grown in this way seems to me to be more akin to growing mushrooms than raising animals for slaughter.
     
    Anyway, Kevin T. Keith has a good summary of the pro and con arguments over at Sufficient Scruples.
     
    And I’m grateful to the Wikipedia entry for reminding me about Iain M. Banks’ joke in The State of the Art about "Stewed Idi Amin and General Pinochet Chilli con Carne"… I must find time to re-read the book some time…

  • Bill and Melinda Meet Nkosepaca

    Excellent article by Sarah Boseley in The Guardian today on Bill and Melinda Gates’ visit to a South African township. Worth reading.

  • Only In America

    And continuing to plunder the veritable bran-tub of surprises that is America’s Got Talent, here’s Leonid The Magnificent. What more can I say, but that it could only happen in America… Leonid is clearly channeling Judy… You go, girl!

  • The Airport That Sucks

    Brian Sack nails it. Charles de Gaulle Airport is dreadful. I shudder at the memory. It could have been so wonderful; so 1960s Avengers’ chic. But instead it was, and presumably still is, a nightmare.

  • Theremin Themes

    Ever since I first heard it, as a very young lad, I always wanted to get my hands on a theremin. Actually, I suppose the operative phrase is "hands off" – for the most part, the theremin is played without being touched. It’s also, I think, extraordinarily difficult to play well. I went in search of videos of theremin performances on YouTube, and the most reasonable one I could find is this rendering of Debussy’s Clair de Lune by Lydia Kavina. 
     
    Some of the other theremin videos available on YouTube are pretty excruciating – so you have been warned.
     
    However, worth watching, both for this explanation of the workings of theremin and his subsequent sly send-up song, is Bill Bailey’s demonstration. Let the shining shin of truth be our beacon of hope, indeed.
     
    Next up: the Ondes Martenot.

  • Quick Change

    By way of light relief, here’s a video of two magicians who have got the quick-change costume trick honed to absolute perfection. If you’d like to try it yourself, pick up this book and practise, practise, practise.

  • No Smoke Without Fire

    Some people have good reason to suffer from coulrophobia

  • Happy Birthday, Cecil!

    On a personal note, I’d just like to wish my uncle a very happy birthday. Today he has reached the grand age of 101…

  • Vent

    Vent is a new comedy series being broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It’s about a man called Ben. He’s in a coma – so he doesn’t get out much. Nicely black and ironic, Vent is written by Nigel Smith, who is drawing on his own experiences. Definitely worth a listen.