Woz Writes

'The Horses' by Edwin Muir

2012-01-21T19:04:00.001Z

I was given a heads-up to this by Sarah. Thank you.

Barely a twelvemonth after
The seven days war that put the world to sleep,
Late in the evening the strange horses came.
By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But in the first few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were afraid.
On the second day
The radios failed; we turned the knobs; no answer.
On the third day a warship passed us, heading north,
Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day
A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafter
Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners of our kitchens,
And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world. But now if they should speak,
If on a sudden they should speak again,
If on the stroke of noon a voice should speak,
We would not listen, we would not let it bring
That old bad world that swallowed its children quick
At one great gulp. We would not have it again.
Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep,
Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.
The tractors lie about our fields; at evening
They look like dank sea-monsters couched and waiting.
We leave them where they are and let them rust:
'They'll molder away and be like other loam.'
We make our oxen drag our rusty plows,
Long laid aside. We have gone back
Far past our fathers' land.
And then, that evening
Late in the summer the strange horses came.
We heard a distant tapping on the road,
A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on again
And at the corner changed to hollow thunder.
We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afraid.
We had sold our horses in our fathers' time
To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to us
As fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield.
Or illustrations in a book of knights.
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent
By an old command to find our whereabouts
And that long-lost archaic companionship.
In the first moment we had never a thought
That they were creatures to be owned and used.
Among them were some half a dozen colts
Dropped in some wilderness of the broken world,
Yet new as if they had come from their own Eden.
Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads
But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts.
Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.

'The Other #1'

2011-06-21T15:30:00.001+01:00

In his grey slacks, t-shirt and baseball cap, he presents a curious sight. On the periphery looking in, he drinks in the scene as children frolic, their parents peppered about like landmines.

Dare he?

He moves into their midst and sits, watches; attempting to interpret the preoccupations of people smaller but wiser than he. The kids sense him and do not engage; neither does he, watching, til he is escorted away by two security guards.

As he decamps, he punches himself in the mouth twice and then bites his fist; swerving away from randomly positioned pushchairs, ironically reflecting his own private minefield of delight and despair.

The children, ruthlessly innocent, play on.

Observed at the Royal Festival Hall, Sunday 12^th June 2011

Untitled reflection #1

2011-06-13T07:30:00.005+01:00

When I was a child, my brother possessed an album of commercial airline logos. Being the darling pain that baby brothers usually are, I regularly pestered him to show them to me; to share his life with me.

Like my brother before me, I didn't fly until I was nine years old. Little did I know that it would be the first of many flights, and would take me far, far away from where I wanted to be, and who I wanted to be with. Years later, I am still trying to find my way home.

We moved house in 1979, but the album of the World's airlines took a different flight path. I often think of that album as I drift away at thirty-six thousand feet.

Doncha just luv Craigslist?

2011-05-08T11:52:00.002+01:00

Please excuse the chavspeak in the title of this post, but as I am often wont to do, I perused CL this morning for the latest batch of missives from the clinically insane.

'White Lady for White Man - 35 (London)'
Educated white English lady seeking educated white Englishman.
No coloured or foreign.
Thanks.

So...where does her education fit into her life? The text sounds a bit like the signs outside B&Bs in the 1960s, rejecting Asians, Blacks and the Irish.

Another classified included the following text:

'A black woman seeking an attractive Mediterranean/White male with established career, own home in London 34-54. Race unimportant.'

Is it just me, or is there a contradiction there?

Craiglist: give us your paranoid, shallow and stupid.

I best stop being a CL voyeur. I feel cheap and dirty.

It's Over, I'm Out!

2011-04-25T20:08:00.002+01:00

The quiet death of journalism

2011-01-27T08:10:00.003Z

Why is it that no-one is linking the sudden enthusiam with which News Corp execs are looking for evidence of phone tapping at the NoW, with the imminent decision by Jeremy Hunt as to whether to refer New Corp to the Competition Commission?

Game over?

2011-01-05T08:21:00.000Z

Salman Taseer, 1944-2011.

Edward Behr

2011-01-02T19:52:00.001Z

A fantasy map of Europe - by The Economist

2010-12-26T18:16:00.002Z

Don't miss the Economist's summary of Europe through the medium of emoticons.

Nokia

2010-12-19T19:05:00.008Z

Tech hacks spill ink and spew broadband bits speculating and pontificating over Nokia. Was its decline such a surprise? What surprises me is that it was as successful as it was for such a long time. Perhaps they lacked strong competitors during this timeframe? When Samsung got its act together and Apple entered the market, Nokia's longstanding weaknesses were both exposed and exploited.

Is it the problem of being big (complacency)? Could it also be about a lack of diversity in the leadership? When you come from the same country and perhaps from the same university (or university system), you may all think in similar ways.

The lack of diversity reminds me of Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety. If Nokia had more diversity, variety* on its exec bench, it may have better handled changes in its external environment. This also reminds me of Drucker and his Theory of the Business. Every company has a theory about its business. Just like it expired for GM in the late 80s, so it expired for Nokia a few years ago.

Has anyone told them? Perhaps the latest slew of patent lawsuits indicates that they are aware, but clueless as to what to do, other than to come out with primitive responses that only enrich lawyers.

* On the other hand, if you are an electronics hot-shot in Finland, where else can you go within that beautiful country if you want to work for a large tech firm?

2010-12-19T18:49:00.002Z

I wonder what the lifetime of a LinkedIn group is? I doubt the company would disclose it, for it is the sort of detail that could affect its valuation. There are many groups on LinkedIn, and as a member of a few, I notice how the creator rapidly runs out of energy, or loses focus. The end result is that the group goes quiet, becoming the living dead. But what of the members of the group? Many appear to join because they wonder what they are missing out on; spongers rather than contributors, if you will. There's a low entry barrier to creating a LinkedIn group, which might be part of the problem, leading many to underestimate the effort and continuing persistence required.

There are probably many groups that are active and add real value to their membership. I just wonder what the ratio is.

Black hole

2010-11-18T16:42:00.003Z

This fleapit in a floodplain is a black hole. For hats. Specifically mine. Three times in three years, I have walked in with a hat, and left without it.

How is it possible?

Horace Silver and friends

2010-09-21T17:17:00.001+01:00

São Paulo

2010-09-16T11:04:00.002+01:00

Chapman's latest session

2010-08-27T19:59:00.002+01:00

Words

2010-08-13T07:37:00.003+01:00

It was as if...

2010-08-11T20:55:00.003+01:00

...Mother Nature was openly mocking us.

As I drove home, I saw a dark grey cloud, in the shape of a mushroom. There were shafts of sunlight in the foreground, as if Madre was pulling out all the stops to get our attention.

How many people noticed, I wonder. How many people linked it to the fact that 65 years ago this month, the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima?

Chin-Scratching Dilemmas

2010-08-11T16:07:00.002+01:00

What does it mean when my CEO insists I shave my face more often? I thought it was because it tickled when I kissed, but other factors could be in play.

Dr. Doom strikes back!

2010-08-11T16:02:00.001+01:00

Nouriel Roubini taking tea with The Economist.

Walking the Amazon

2010-08-11T10:48:00.000+01:00

Here's his blog.

Staying safe?

2010-08-11T10:37:00.003+01:00

This cracked me up (please read the comments at the bottom as well). In the old days it was far simpler:

Sit with your back to the wall so you can see who is coming towards you
Sit well away from glass
Dress down, don't look conspicuous; no strong aftershave either
Don't chase the local women
No bulging pockets
Wear a shiny but shitty watch (you won't cry if you lose it, but it may have barter value)
Recognize the local secret police (in Lebanon, it was grey slacks with a stripey white M&S shirt and shades; in China, it is a dark polo t-shirt, grey or black slacks and a blazer with shades, regardless of heat and lighting conditions; in the UK, it is someone who has seen too many episodes of 'Spooks')
Switch cabs in busy places
Don't use the hotel safe; hide valuables elsewhere (if you must bring them with you on the trip)
After checking-in, have a reccie of the exits, and which ones are usually locked, etc
Wear comfortable shoes, i.e. felony flyers. You may need to flee
etc, etc
Oh, and if you really want to stay safe? Don't go!

'Bush's Useful Idiots'

2010-08-09T17:51:00.003+01:00

A great article in the LRB by the recently departed Tony Judt. OpenDemocracy have also published an excerpt from 'Ill Fares the Land'.

Professor Tony Judt, 1948-2010

2010-08-09T15:06:00.002+01:00

Obits in The Independent, Guardian, The Telegraph and the NY Times.

Emily Dickinson

2010-08-09T15:04:00.001+01:00

An interesting piece in The Economist.

Football in Africa

2010-08-09T07:33:00.001+01:00

Photos from Jessica Hilltout.

Random photos from Kew today

2010-08-08T19:56:00.007+01:00

Link of the day

2010-08-04T17:03:00.000+01:00

From the Census of Marine Life.

Just two aspects of Brazil

2010-08-01T09:43:00.003+01:00

The fight against poverty (in OD), a perspective on Bolsa Familia and unfortunately, the boom in sex tourism.

The West - successfully exporting child abusers WW since time immemorial.

'Defending your character is not an interesting intellectual exercise'

2010-07-30T14:49:00.001+01:00

A very interesting interview with Ian Buruma in OpenDemocracy.

Even the cows want to leave

2010-07-26T16:47:00.002+01:00

From the 'Eastern Approaches' page of The Economist website:

'The Belarus Free Theatre has both talent and courage, as its production of Numbers shows. Miming sketches and theatrical metaphors are enhanced by dry and often bizarre statistics projected on to a wall: 72% of Belarusians find it difficult to define the word "democracy"… every third Belarusian died in the second world war… over 40% of the adult population want to leave the country… on October 15th 2006, 242 Belarusian cows broke through an electric fence, swam over the Bug river and illegally crossed the border into Poland. According to the Polish border guards, this was the first case of such a mass crossing of domestic animals to the EU. Just imagine.'

Camouflage

2010-07-25T18:16:00.002+01:00

Vasily Grossman

2010-07-25T11:21:00.001+01:00

Thanks to the LRB, an interview with his daughter.

Gaza besieged

2010-06-30T21:17:00.000+01:00

Covers to smother

2010-06-25T19:03:00.002+01:00

One of my favourite funk tracks is the Tower of Power's 'There's Only so Much Oil in the Ground' from 1974 (its where Jamiroquai lifted his style from). Here is an awful cover version. There are plenty of great Japanese bands who know their funk, but this one...it arguably needs a new singer.

A poem loosely based on reality

2010-06-25T18:49:00.001+01:00

‘Namco’
23rd June 2010

Their first date.
To him, she was simply stunning.
He – the same as always.
They had great fun,
dancingbowlingshootingkarate-choppin’,
their joy heightened
when they united to target
the slow-moving fat kid
on the dodgems.

How they all smiled.

Policy Wonkitis

2010-06-21T13:56:00.001+01:00

'How China and India Really Operate in Africa', in the Globalist. Also, 'Afghanistan and the World's Resource War' in OpenDemocracy.

Listening to: Konono No. 1 'Assume Crash Position' and Mulatu Astatke's 'Mulatu Steps Ahead'

Dogs in Novels

2010-06-21T12:02:00.001+01:00

In Slate.

Ascherson on de Gaulle

2010-06-21T09:18:00.002+01:00

Nice little piece on 'the long-nosed elephant in the sitting room of the possible' by Neal Ascherson in OpenDemocracy.

The Stowa Flieger has Landed!

2010-06-15T20:52:00.008+01:00

My friend and colleague D has recently acquired a CW C6 and a Sea-Gull auto. It was time for a response...

BP check

2010-06-14T21:21:00.000+01:00

118/64

D's got a funky camera app for his iPhone

2010-06-14T17:35:00.000+01:00

Taken During Lunch at Woody's

Snowdon, 11-13th June

2010-06-13T17:39:00.017+01:00

An Ineffective Girlfriend Substitute

Our North Wales Idyll

Yes, he Looks Odd

Dr. Doolittle's Foreplay Session

They can Smell the Alcohol

'Must...Focus on the Beer'

My Forbidden Lover

Hoofin' it to the White Horse Inn

On Miners' Track

Shiny Domed on the Summit

On Pyg Track

Back at the Cottage

Up to No Good in Caernarfon

I Don't Recognize that Expression

Sleepy Bye-Byes

Detroit

2010-06-06T11:27:00.004+01:00

I leave home at 5am to start my lil jaunt to Detroit. To get myself in the mood I watched 'Blue Collar', 'Roger and Me' and 'Requiem for Detroit'.

Back on Thursday. Hopefully.

The Ridgeway

2010-06-06T11:23:00.002+01:00

Looking for a break from the Goring stage of the Ridgeway, the Cistern Kid and I decided to trek from Watlington towards Wendover. We managed about 17 miles - not a bad result in the heat and with backpacks. Places of interest? Easy - the Lions of Bledlow and Home Sweet Home in Roke. I think the next time we 'do' the Ridgeway, we'll start at Bledlow and trek past Wendover.

What's he smoking?

2010-06-02T11:20:00.003+01:00

His reality distortion field persists. You don't need to be an industrial psychologist to know that if you are cooped up within a plant (no matter the shops and other facilities on offer - designed to keep you on-site) working long shifts performing repetitive work, you will likely freak out. Retiring to your dorm (that you share with several others) will hardly give you respite.

A phrase...

2010-06-01T20:14:00.002+01:00

As Heath raised the question 'Who governs Britain?', the people's response came: 'Not you, mate!'

So went the battle between Heath and the unions in the early 1970s.

Who runs Britain now - the Government or the financial sector? It's kinda ironic that after the government bailed out the banks (putting private sector debt on the public books), the banks are now repaying the favour (along with credit rating agencies) by giving several European countries a good kicking in.

In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned about the 'military-industrial complex'.

As former Clinton advisor James Carville once remarked, 'I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.'

But nobody writes about the consultants-financiers complex. That's a shame.

Ah...

2010-05-30T12:44:00.003+01:00

David Laws. I can't help but think he used his homosexuality as a diversionary tactic. After all, he broke the rules - you are not supposed to pay your partner rent.

Companies. Several months ago, many though Toyota was doomed. While several years of lawsuits remain, Toyota will survive. Not surprising, given that car makers regularly suffer from botched recalls - aside from the Koreans and Chinese, no other car maker was crowing over Toyota's troubles. But just look at BP. What a colossal screw-up. Luton, Texas and now the Gulf of Mexico. But are enough eyeballs on the US government and Eisenhower's old warning of 'the military-industrial complex'?

Reading: Stendhal's 'Cures for Love' - excerpts from 1822's 'De L'Amour'

A thought on Korea

2010-05-27T12:44:00.002+01:00

I'd be surprised if the two Koreas went to war, but I am troubled by the quality of some of the analysis. Kim Jong-il wants his son to succeed him. There may be those in the army who are against this. Was the sinking of the corvette the Cheonan a ruse by internal actors to back the 'Great Leader' into a corner?

Does anyone really want North Korea to fall? It would be like the reunification of Germany, but much worse. It would cause chaos for the Chinese and wreck the South Korean economy.

It'll be interesting to see the steps they take in this very close and careful dance.

What's Wozzy reading?

2010-05-27T12:34:00.003+01:00

A lucid paper on the financial collapse from London Business School; a question mark over AI by an ex staffer; the LRB on 'Four Lions'; and the LRB (again) taking a swipe at BP and the US administration.

'The Birmingham Jail'

2010-05-24T16:38:00.002+01:00

I had forgotten how beautiful this song is.

The scene was ironic in that the actor Erland Van Lidth was an opera singer (and a computer science graduate from MIT), yet the song was sung by Dorian Holley.

How to write an article that gets lots of comments

2010-04-12T17:43:00.001+01:00

Either write something about China that the army of nationalist cheerleaders respond to, or write something like this.

Tariq Ali in Yemen

2010-04-06T16:35:00.001+01:00

Almost forgot to post this little piece from a recent issue of the LRB.

Also, an interesting POV from Tony Judt.

This made me sick.

Ni hao!

2010-04-05T19:12:00.002+01:00

If it's Shenzhen, then it must be dinner with the boys at PURE Shekou, which means you end up at the Nan Hai or the Cruise Inn. Playing darts. Badly:

So...Mark Collett tried to 'whack' Nick Griffin. That's ruined an idea I had for a short story. No matter. The episode has some parallels with Bruno Megret and Jean-Marie Le Pen. Galloping midget syndrome.

Women I love...

2010-03-28T08:36:00.004+01:00

It has to be Delia Derbyshire.

Charlie Gillett

2010-03-18T08:17:00.003Z

My guide to great music from around the globe, passed away yesterday.

'Uri & Me'

2010-03-11T15:57:00.002Z

Acquaintance in poetry and cross between Thelma from Scooby-Doo & Harry Potter, Nathan Penlington, has a new act - 'Uri & Me'.

The Colour of Pomegranates, Sayat Nova & Sergei Paradjanov

2010-03-08T20:52:00.002Z

One view of Copenhagen

2010-03-05T21:35:00.001Z

Galleries

2010-03-03T15:11:00.001Z

An iconography of contagion and defaced presidents.

Alan Bennett at the London Review Bookshop

2010-02-17T17:48:00.001Z

Here he is.

2010-02-16T13:32:00.002Z

All round good guy Dalty™ referred to me today as 'Mr Zig-when-others-zag!'
I like that, as I think it sums me up quite well.

Listening to: Cuban Funk Experience, on the Nascente label

The LinkedIn effect isn't like the 'Lynx effect'

2010-02-15T12:46:00.002Z

I am not going to harp on about the Dunbar number, but I have a problem with people trying to connect to me on social networks when they have little concept of trust, equity and shared values.

This morning I received an invitation to join a group on LinkedIn, called 'Very Exceptional People'. The person inviting me established the group. I have never met or entered into any kind of transaction with her. The only thing we have in common is that we are both members of Henley Business School's group on LinkedIn.

When I clicked onwards to find out something - anything - about the group, all I found was this:

'for people who feel that they are exceptional'

The name of the group says a lot about the person inviting me. I therefore replied as follows:

It's probably not for me, as only my Mother thinks I am exceptional.

Was I too harsh?

Good, I didn't think so.

I feel really spoilt!

2010-02-03T20:12:00.006Z

The new Gil Scott-Heron album is on the way, as is the final collaboration between the late, great Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate.

I was reminded last night of how good public service broadcasting could be. Using iPlayer, I caught Sir Terry Pratchett's Dimbleby Lecture, concerning assisted death (not suicide). Sir Michael Parkinson's dignity report is here.

R4 Afternoon Play

2010-01-25T20:48:00.001Z

Philip Larkin and soft porn.

Ali Hassan al-Majid

2010-01-25T15:53:00.002Z

So Chemical Ali has been hanged for the gas attack at Halabja and other crimes. While I have no sympathy for him, it is ironic that one of the powers behind this is Britain, as it was the Brits who first gassed Iraqis, in the 1920s.

Law & Order UK - 'Hidden'

2010-01-22T20:44:00.001Z

Da Bomb did another very fine job with this episode.

There's the military-industrial complex...

2010-01-22T14:46:00.001Z

...and then there is this and this.

Painting a landscape of language and longing...

2010-01-20T15:37:00.004Z

I only discovered this Siegfried Sassoon poem after hearing it put to music (the track being 'The Valleys') by Electrelane in their album 'The Power Out' back in 2004.

'A Letter Home'
(To Robert Graves)

I

Here I'm sitting in the gloom
Of my quiet attic room.
France goes rolling all around,
Fledged with forest May has crowned.
And I puff my pipe, calm-hearted,
Thinking how the fighting started,
Wondering when we'll ever end it,
Back to hell with Kaiser sent it,
Gag the noise, pack up and go,
Clockwork soldiers in a row.
I've got better things to do
Than to waste my time on you.

II

Robert, when I drowse to-night,
Skirting lawns of sleep to chase
Shifting dreams in mazy light,
Somewhere then I'll see your face
Turning back to bid me follow
Where I wag my arms and hollo,
Over hedges hasting after
Crooked smile and baffling laughter,
Running tireless, floating, leaping,
Down your web-hung woods and valleys,
Where the glowworm stars are peeping,
Till I find you, quiet as stone
On a hill-top all alone,
Staring outward, gravely pondering
Jumbled leagues of hillock-wandering.

III

You and I have walked together
In the starving winter weather.
We've been glad because we knew
Time's too short and friends are few.
We've been sad because we missed
One whose yellow head was kissed
By the gods, who thought about him
Till they couldn't do without him.
Now he's here again; I've been
Soldier David dressed in green,
Standing in a wood that swings
To the madrigal he sings.
He's come back, all mirth and glory,
Like the prince in a fairy tory.
Winter called him far away;
Blossoms bring him home with May.

IV

Well, I know you'll swear it's true
That you found him decked in blue
Striding up through morning-land
With a cloud on either hand.
Out in Wales, you'll say, he marches
Arm-in-arm with aoks and larches;
Hides all night in hilly nooks,
Laughs at dawn in tumbling brooks.
Yet, it's certain, here he teaches
Outpost-schemes to groups of beeches.
And I'm sure, as here I stand,
That he shines through every land,
That he sings in every place
Where we're thinking of his face.

V

Robert, there's a war in France;
Everywhere men bang and blunder,
Sweat and swear and worship Chance,
Creep and blink through cannon thunder.
Rifles crack and bullets flick,
Sing and hum like hornet-swarms.
Bones are smashed and buried quick.
Yet, through stunning battle storms,
All the while I watch the spark
Lit to guide me; for I know
Dreams will triumph, though the dark
Scowls above me where I go.
You can hear me; you can mingle
Radiant folly with my jingle.
War's a joke for me and you
While we know such dreams are true!

Sinking by inches

2010-01-18T15:12:00.003Z

Anne Enright on the recession in Ireland. Coming soon to a UK county near you.

DW tells me that he has read a book that reads as if it had been authored by me. It's 'F*ck It' by John C. Parkin.

I certainly do use the phrase a lot.

Vampiros Wonkitis

2010-01-14T17:23:00.002Z

The University of Kentucky's Patterson School runs an annual policy simulation. This year it was vampires.

Drinking buddies

2010-01-12T20:01:00.003Z

If you ask some people who they would most like to meet, they would say Gandhi, Stalin, Hitler, Alexander the Great, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

For my money, it would be Cardinal Jaime Sin and Gus Dur. Here's why:

'Archbishop Sin—by 1976, cardinal—was too irrepressible to keep quiet for long. First came a pastoral letter denouncing a raid on a seminary by Marcos's troops, looking for communists. Then came advice to Imelda to curb her lifestyle. (The cardinal openly portrayed her as “the mining industry”, pointing to anything she fancied and shouting “That's mine!”) On one stony, bumpy ride with the couple in their limousine, he told them he was “being crucified between two thieves”.'

The Economist on Cardinal Jaime Sin

'“Sukarno was mad about sex, Suharto was mad about money, Habibie was mad about technology, but me? I’m just mad!” About his removal from the presidency in 2001, when he was almost blind: “I need help to step up, let alone step down.” About losing power: “It’s nothing. I regret more that I lost 27 recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.”

Visiting Tokyo, he was delighted when the prime minister congratulated him on his “erection”. For a Muslim ulama, or priest-scholar, his appetite for smut was remarkable. He had naughty jokes on his website, and was once reported to the police by conservative clerics for emphasising the raunchier bits of the Koran.'

The Economist on Gus Dur

Eric Rohmer (1920-2010)

2010-01-11T19:11:00.001Z

Oh my God...

2010-01-11T18:56:00.001Z

As part of my job, I scan the various news feeds coming out of the Valley. Here's one (from Good Morning Silicon Valley) that caught my eye this evening:

Among all the legacies of 9/11, the strangest may be Roxxxy, the interactive sexbot.

Engineer and inventor Douglas Hines once worked on artificial intelligence for Bell Labs, but in the early '90s decided that his true calling was designing life-size sex dolls. His company, TrueCompanion, introduced "Trudy" in 1993, and while she was functional in a utilitarian sense, customer feedback indicated that her personality, somewhere between "catatonic" and "deceased," left something to be desired. Then, in 2001, one of Hines' friends was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, leaving the inventor thinking about ways to preserve elements of a personality in an artificially intelligent, interactive robot. Hines started his work on artificial personalities thinking there might be a market in creating home health care aides for the elderly. "But there was tremendous regulatory and bureaucratic paperwork to get through. We were stuck," Hines said. "So I looked at other markets."

Thus was born Roxxxy, who made her debut this weekend in Las Vegas at the Adult Entertainment Expo, just one of several new innovations showing up at the intersection of sex and technology. Roxxxy still can't move without assistance, but she offers what Trudy lacked and customers apparently wanted — conversational skills. "Sex only goes so far — then you want to be able to talk to the person," Hines said. Equipped with sensors and an attached laptop, "she's a companion," he said. "She has a personality. She hears you. She listens to you. She speaks. She feels your touch. She goes to sleep. We are trying to replicate a personality of a person." Or several people, to be precise. Roxxxy comes equipped with five personalities that determine the tone and content of her responses, from the outgoing "Wild Wendy" to the shy "Frigid Farrah." Roxxxy's interests are customized based on the buyer's answers to something like an online dating questionnaire. "If you like Porsches, she likes Porsches. If you like soccer, she likes soccer," Hines said. What's more, users will be able to create and exchange custom personalities for their dolls. "Just think about wife or girlfriend swapping without actually giving the person to someone else," Hines said. "You can share the personality online." (I know — the "ick" factor just keeps getting higher.) Roxxxy will retail for between $7,000 and $9,000, plus a subscription fee for online updates and enhancements. Those who prefer a male companion will have to wait for work to be finished on her cyber sibling, Rocky.

There's more here.

Feck, feck, feck

2010-01-06T12:19:00.002Z

No siree Bob, no commutin' today. The electrics on my car are suspect, so I trudged 2.5 miles in the snow to collect a rental. On the way I spied two lorries stuck at the bottom of the hill, waiting for rescue. Few cars, no buses. I could see grit under bits of ice (a timing issue?) Got to the rental depot to be told that they consider me insane, so after agreeing with them, I trudged back 2.5 miles, sans car. The hill was slow going, and on reaching the top I discovered fallen telephone cables. In my road alone there seems to be 8-10 inches (as a bloke I should exaggerate and say 16 inches) in the centre of the road itself, although the edges are a little lower.

All being said, I did get a decent workout.

Links of the day

2010-01-05T11:30:00.001Z

The vintage ad browser, the cover browser and the Jazz Loft Project.

Never try this in your car

2010-01-05T11:24:00.003Z

If you are leaving work at 17:30 and plan on going on the M25 & M40 for a spell, followed by some x-country slaloming to Henley, then some more twisty-windy hustling to Reading, you should ensure that your wipers work. Mind didn't, and I knew it. OK, things went fine, but they could have gone wrong for me or someone else. What a twat.

So the car can't get seen to until next Tuesday, my meeting in Leeds tomorrow is cancelled due to bad weather (although I was itching to try my luck on the railways today, and check out the Raymond Blanc Brasserie up there) and I am sitting here working from home...wondering what hire car i'll be picking up tomorrow. I wonder if it will smell of stale cigarettes and soggy trim? Will the tracking be ok? Will it come with a full complement of pedals?

On the M4, no-one can hear you scream

2009-12-22T11:20:00.002Z

So I left the office at 16:30 last night, aiming to get ahead of the traffic. Sadly, it wasn't to be. I arrived at 01:30. Nine hours! Thanks to 'lil sis' for clearing the drive (twice) and helping me shove the car onto it.

I passed abandoned cars on the M4, A3290M and all across Reading, cast aside like in some apocalyptic aftermath, amidst sheets of ice, with police rescuing people in my neighbourhood. I have concluded that I will work from home today, perhaps forever. But at the very least, today.

I'm glad my car proved its worth trundling up/down icy hills.

Don't touch me, it hurts.

Turning point?

2009-12-20T15:34:00.004Z

So Grand Ayatollah Montazeri has passed away. Will his passing be like that of Hu Yaobang (similarly sidelined), whose death lead to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989?

Well...

2009-12-19T11:57:00.006Z

My brace of Lamy's returned from Heidelberg. Never again will I dismantle a pen in a meeting with my CEO due to boredom, or bend the nib due to frustration and disbelief when Lord Alan Sugar is in the midst of a cakehole emission.

But while choo-choo trundling to Paddington last night, I started to write some flash fiction. It turns out that Harry T has also written some (although he calls it flash friction). Who will get published first?

This will only be available until 9pm tonight, but well worth listening to. R4 Archive Hour - the My Lai tapes. I only wish I posted this link after listening to it last weekend.

Saab RIP

2009-12-19T11:14:00.004Z

Winding down such a distinctive, loved brand, is a really dumb thing to do. Perhaps GM doesn't want the IP to enable a competitor to Opel in Europe?

Prostituting myself

2009-12-18T10:42:00.003Z

I never thought it would work, but I couldn't resist it. I just had to submit another ad.

'Summarily ejected from the NLP course entitled ‘How to Build a Better
Girlfriend’, thanks to turning up with the Ikea catalogue, allen keys,
amyl nitrate, a blowtorch, a blow-up doll, a picture of the Queen Mummy
and a gallon of vodka, I find myself standing here with singed eyebrows
and my face covered with bits of latex, the fact I am unable to sit
perhaps connected with the disappearance of those damn allen keys. Or
maybe the blowtorch. Will you be my girlfriend? Drunk, drugged and
deluded M, 38, covered in fragments of burnt latex with allen keys stuck
up his arse. Or perhaps its a blowtorch.'

The funny thing is, there is an NLP course with that title. Thanks to Mister PC for passing me the DVD - one to sob to over Xmas.

Links

2009-12-14T18:01:00.001Z

The NY Times Magazine's 9th annual year in ideas. Also...starlings on acid.

Room 709 (or is it 706?)*

2009-11-28T18:56:00.003Z

Back from a long overdue trip to China and HK, landing at 4.40am today. My body should be shutting down in the next hour or so. Why, why do I persist in the stupidy of taking a flight each day? Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, HK, all blurring into one.

Blood test bingo was not good. Most test results were fine, but two of them demanded immediate change. Goodbye vice, hello virtue xx.

The deadline for the New Writer competition is Monday, and I suspect that a certain writer won't have submited their short story. Shame.

* It's official. I hate the Crowne Plaza Shenzhen on Shennan Lu.

A Poem by Mahmoud Darwish

2009-11-21T17:50:00.001Z

'Rita and the Rifle'

Between Rita and my eyes
There is a rifle
And whoever knows Rita
Kneels and plays
To the divinity in those honey-colored eyes
And I kissed Rita
When she was young
And I remember how she approached
And how my arm covered the loveliest of braids
And I remember Rita
The way a sparrow remembers its stream
Ah, Rita
Between us there are a million sparrows and images
And many a rendezvous
Fired at by a rifle

Rita's name was a feast in my mouth
Rita's body was a wedding in my blood
And I was lost in Rita for two years
And for two years she slept on my arm
And we made promises
Over the most beautiful of cups
And we burned in the wine of our lips
And we were born again

Ah, Rita!
What before this rifle could have turned my eyes from yours
Except a nap or two or honey-colored clouds?
Once upon a time
Oh, the silence of dusk
In the morning my moon migrated to a far place
Towards those honey-colored eyes
And the city swept away all the singers
And Rita

Between Rita and my eyes—
A rifle

King on Carver

2009-11-21T10:08:00.002Z

From the New York Times, Stephen King on Raymond Carver.

I have been debating whether or not to buy a copy of Carver's 'Collected Stories' and 'Beginners'. Reading King's review, I think I should take a punt.

Positive Psychology & the Global Environment

2009-11-20T17:26:00.004Z

Professor Seligman on R4 with Claudia Hammond.

Also, a stunning presentation on the Third World by the amazing Hans Rosling on TED (spotted at Dalty's blog). His most recent talk takes a swipe at mindsets.

Bhutanese odysseys

2009-11-18T19:15:00.002Z

Whenever I think of the Kingdom, I think of the phallus, the concept of Gross National Happiness, but not this.

A quote that confirms my feeling about many writers...

2009-11-17T20:46:00.002Z

'Real artists are not nice people. All their best feelings go into their work and life has the residue'
- WH Auden

Gil Scott-Heron

2009-11-17T11:31:00.001Z

A massive influence on me in several ways, on Newsnight last night.

Playing catch-up

2009-11-14T12:37:00.002Z

I'm way behind on things - work, study, reading, writing, cinema, music - and especially with the LRB. A train ride into London last night gave me the chance to read the LRB from October 22nd, specifically David Runciman on evidence-based politics and David Bromwich on Obama.

I could say something about these articles, but with the links, you're better off reading them and forming your own opinion.

Listening to: ''The Astounding Eyes of Rita' by Anouar Brahem and 'A Scholar and a Gentleman' by Davy Graham.

Circular thoughts, memories

2009-11-11T19:58:00.002Z

Just a quick note of some context-specific things that may turn into a short piece:

- Lack of land reform begets poverty, lack of education, crime, corruption, a collapse of institutions, which in turn beget religious extremism

- 'China is modernising, not Westernising.' That was the phrase I used to open a briefing to a bunch of execs several years ago. I wonder, that in the battle of ideas that is required when bullets are pointless, whether the vocabulary needs to be adjusted

Much of what is above won't make sense to you, sorry. They're just notes for me.

A new body part term?

2009-11-11T15:57:00.002Z

Thanks to an errant finger I today created the term 'Slitoris'. To be fair, it sounds like a more appropriate name, doesn't it?

From Mecca bingo to Wigan Casino

2009-11-10T19:46:00.003Z

I'm off the body shop later this week for some tests (no, not general knowledge). For some reason, I can't get this out of my head. I first caught a clip of this (dubbed in Vietnamese) within Barry Levinson's 'Good Morning Vietnam'.

Now I feel compelled to pen a poem entitled 'Blood Test Bingo'.

It isn't right. Perhaps its because I am fighting my natural inclination to rewrite the film's theme song, in a X-rated style.

Listening to: Northern Soul.

Vroom!

2009-11-05T19:44:00.002Z

So GM don't want to sell Opel. Naturally, the German government and the unions are upset (the latter think they're better off with the Magna deal). The Spanish and English workers must be relieved. It's not surprising that GM wanted to keep hold of it. Opel contains lots of valuable intellectual property that GM has invested in over the years. A sale would have seen that IP go elsewhere, enabling future competitors to GM in growth markets such as Russia and China. There is also another factor, which is partly economic and partly cultural - scale. Car makers are obsessed with it. But it's a self-perpetuating cycle. A car model costs a fortune to develop, then you refresh it every 2-3 years, before launching a new replacement model after 5 or so years. That requires economies of scale. Nobody wants to be first to change that destructive model. But the World makes too many cars. There needs to be unit volume reduction and vendor consolidation, and it ain't likely to happen even in such straight-jacketed times.

Things to say in meetings that can be interpeted in a number of ways:

- 'This is a test tube to revenue process'
- 'We don't want to be raped by silverback gorillas'

Link of the day

2009-11-05T12:37:00.002Z

Life on White. Also in The Torygraph.

So if you weren't studying, then what did you do?

2009-11-01T19:09:00.003Z

After meaning to do so for over ten years (and replacing the copy I gave to Emma), I finally managed to read 'Heart of Darkness' by Conrad. An amazing book, even though on one read, I have barely scratched the surface of it. Something to reread after a period of reflection.

Perhaps I should now reread 'Exterminate All the Brutes' by Sven Lindqvist, an account of European imperialism and brutality.

BBC R4's Analysis
The most recent installment asked whether secrecy was a good thing or not. I was disappointed to find that it limited itself to civil service whistleblowers and the like, rather than asking itself whether British society would really want to know about how things actually get done; realpolitik, if you will. Then again, I guess that's more in the realm of 'ignorance' than 'secrecy'.

St. Cyprians

2009-10-30T20:24:00.002Z

I have just finished a small collection of Orwell's essays, 'Books v. Cigarettes', which includes the essay regarding his school days, 'Such, Such Were the Joys' (also available here). Looking up his old school, I found a website dedicated to it - and a rebuttal to his essay.

I could write something about truth, memory, history, childhood, adults and education, but i'll save my fingertips.

Mum's gone to Iceland? Heck no, she legged it with bap n burger bloke

2009-10-30T13:58:00.006Z

How much of an insult it must be. Your economy has tanked, the Euro-denominated (foreign currency) loans pushed onto your citizens come home to roost, and everyone is returning their 'game overs' (Range Rovers).

Just when you need friends, that capitalist running dog and enemy of anti-globalisation protesters everywhere, BadlyMadeUpTrannieWithClownShoesBurgerAndBapMan, skips town and deserts you.

That's gotta hurt.

But it is the whales I really feel sorry for.

'If Mind Were All There Was'

2009-10-30T10:33:00.002Z

On the 16th, apart form going to the Design Museum, I went to the Hayward Gallery and checked out Victor Man's 'If Mind Were All There Was'.

I wasn't so keen on the found objects, although the paintings were interesting. What piqued my interest was the 'true confession' of Giuseppe Sacchi. It reminded me of one of my early pieces of creating writing - which was dreadful - which I should return to when I resume my editing/total rewrite journey.

Scenes from Henley Last Weekend

2009-10-29T19:58:00.009Z

This was Saturday morning at HBS, just after breakfast...

All shots were taken inexpertly with my Samsung i8510 phone, i.e. not with a real camera that I know how to use. The last few taken while Su gave a spider concussion.