In another world

25 Thursday Apr 2024

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If you want to know where the world’s crazies go for recreation, sign on to Twitter for an hour or two. It will become abundantly clear.

As an aside, it’s still Twitter for me, and not the single letter name that its new owner Elon Musk has decided for it. More about Mr. M. later.

Yesterday I responded, almost in passing, to a man who said that Canada and the US were very nearly Communist dictatorships. I suggested that he was wrong, and that he might visit China, or North Korea, to see what a real Communist dictatorship looks like. He replied that he thought I was being myopic, presented ten reasons why he though he was right, and suggested that he could send me more information if I was interested. Well, the ten reasons revolved around suggesting policies of right-wing governments are Communist, guns make people free, and God should be part of any practical government, and by that he meant the Christian god.

Being a reasonable fellow, I took time counter each of his points, without being rude, and point out how his assumptions were somewhat off the mark. I also suggested that without a revolution, both the US and Canada were never going to be Communist, which of course they won’t be. He responded to that with six new posts, all with more detailed parts of his manifesto, and threw in some ghastly conspiracy theories about the World Health Organization (WHO), and the nefarious intent of Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden. When people start telling me that the WHO have some secret plan to take over the world then they’ve lost me, they’ve gone off into fairy land and will never be able to conduct a sensible debate. I read what he’d posted, then blocked him, which is something you have to do when confronted with such ridiculous theories.

That was just one person, and there are thousands, probably millions, more. Sheesh.

It doesn’t help that since Musk has taken over, he’s allowed the algorithms that decide what you see to lurch to his own, twisted, populist worldview. Every day I see posts from people like my friend I mentioned earlier, posts from random right-wing media outlets, ring-wing journalists and right-wing politicians, all of which are summarily blocked, but still they come. It’s curious that I never see any posts from random centrists or left of centre people. Something from Wab Kinew, or Sean Fraser, people like that, but they don’t appear. Yes. I can search those good people out, but why do I get posts dropped into my feed that are clearly counter to my personal views? I’m not the only one who has noticed this, either.

I get it, Twitter is largely free to use, I can disable the ads., and I recognise that it’s not a democratic space, so I treat it accordingly, but the feeding of nonsense to more gullible people than I is something that perhaps needs to be balanced out somehow. It’s my contention that Twitter will collapse in on itself in the end anyway, because even now it’s beginning to look like a bit of a cesspool.

Should that happen, I wonder where the crazies would go?

The Bridge

27 Wednesday Mar 2024

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I don’t often write topical stuff, but the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore has been a bit of an eye opener. Most importantly I should say that as I write this, the search is still on for at least six people who are listed as missing. Quite rightly, work in and around the bridge right now is concentrated on that. I hope that there is a positive outcome for them and their families.

At the other end of the scale has been the absolutely crazy speculation about the cause of the collapse. Some people on Twitter were categorically stating that this was a terrorist incident, and they knew because they have special sources of information, which is about as crazy as you can get. If I was a terrorist I could think of a whole lot of easier ways to cause a major event that wouldn’t involve crashing a container ship into a bridge at 1.30am. Then there were the many speculators claiming the captain and crew of the ship had all collapsed as a result of taking the COVID vaccine. Never mind that the COVID vaccine is about as safe as a vaccine can be, but the ship was under the command of a pilot at the time. I honestly don’t know if these lunatics believe this stuff or they’re just stirring things up, either way it indicates just how messed up people can be.

In reality, of course, it looks like the ship had a power failure and lost its ability to steer, or to take any other evasive action. The crew did get a Mayday message sent, so they were aware of what was likely to happen, but in the event, the ship did hit one of the two main supporting bridge piers, brought it down, and the rest of the bridge with it. It looks most likely to have been a dreadful accident, as these things usually are.

The catastrophic collapse, though, does raise some interesting questions about single points of failure and business continuity. Obviously it’s very easy to be wise after the event, but when stuff like this happens, all those weaknesses come to the fore.

That bridge and its supporting piers did look very flimsy given that one ship was able to demolish the whole structure. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of measures to protect the piers from possible collisions, which is a bit worrying. There are a lot of similar bridges in North America and I can imagine that there are many engineers currently looking at points of failure, and what they can do to mitigate the issue without rebuilding the whole structure. It’s fair to say that ships of this size were not anticipated when the Key bridge was designed and built, but not building some barrier to protect the piers seems to have been a bit shortsighted now. I’m absolutely certain that other ports with similar points of failure will rapidly be instituting a system of bringing large ships in under tow, or at least escorted by a couple of tugboats as well as the pilot. When the channel is cleared and the bridge rebuilt, as it will be, you can guarantee that the design will address this and other systemic weaknesses.

Beyond the immediate disaster is, of course, the fact that the Port of Baltimore is going to be out of action for quite a while. There’s been much talk of people having to drive trucks and cars on a long detour now that the bridge is out, but what of the trade within the port, and the ships that are currently the wrong side of the collapsed bridge? Ships outside of the port can (probably) go elsewhere for now, but the money tied up in the vessels there, and the port facilities that will be largely idle, are going to cost people and businesses dearly. It sounds like the US Government is going to help them, but what had they done to protect themselves from just such a disaster? You’d like to think that they all have business continuity plans, but as they cost money to implement and affect today’s bottom line, such planning is often not undertaken and everyone trusts to crossed fingers.

There will be lessons learned here. Future builds of port infrastructure will have resilience built in, and existing builds will most likely be improved. The recent blockage of the Suez Canal after a ship was wedged across the channel showed the importance of the continued improvement of that seaway, making it “two lane” along much of its length. Forward planning seems to have been applied for the new bridge across the Detroit River, thank goodness, as its piers have been built on each bank and not in the river itself, something that I’m certain was part of the design brief to minimize the likelihood of ship collisions. What has to be done overall, though, is to recognize the value of contingency planning, even where it costs a lot to implement. One catastrophic even can cost far more than some forward planning costs.

Bridge Across the Pacific

17 Sunday Mar 2024

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We watched a movie last night called Bridge to Sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_to_the_Sun

It’s based on the book of the same title, by the film’s leading character, Gwen Terasaki. It’s the true story of an American woman who marries a Japanese diplomat, Hidenari Terasaki, in the 1930s, and how she had to navigate the casual racism of her friends and family at home, and the trouble she had to endure as the wife of a Japanese national, and an influential one at that, after Pearl Harbor.

It’s a powerful tale, that resonates today, especially with people like George Takei keeping the internment of Japanese Americans in the Second World War in people’s consciousness.

I haven’t read the book yet, but from various reviews and summations of that text, it looks like the film played a little fast and loose with the real story, not least with the timeline, but I think it did manage to convey the problems Gwen struggled with. It didn’t deal at all with Gwen’s work before and after Hidenari’s death in 1951 to set up a “peace bridge across the Pacific” to bring the two nations closer together after the war. Also, while the film and book featured the Terasaki’s daughter Mariko, it didn’t go any further to tell of her involvement in the movement to bring the two countries cultures together in the decades after the war.

However, this does raise the reason why we watched the movie at all. In my family tree research I discovered that Mariko Terasaki was married to a fourth cousin of mine, Mayne Miller. Mayne was a lawyer and was only four generations away from the first of my family Maynes to land in the USA in 1822, as am I, hence the fourth cousin designation.

Mayne was the same generation as my dad, and died in 1979. Mariko was a little younger and died in 2016. They had four sons, two of whom survive today, so there is still a living link with me and Gwen and Mariko Terasaki, of which I am very proud.

Gwen and Hidenari Terasaki

Mariko Terasaki Miller

Words are important

13 Wednesday Mar 2024

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I do like my football. That’s the game played with the feet and a ball, not hands and an egg; that’s Handegg and only played in North America,

Watching football on TV is very easy in North America, though, and it’s cheaper than if you were watching in the UK. The number of games on offer is very good, as is the quality of the video feed. Well, I say that, but here’s the rub, the commentary is awful.

Games from the English Premier League (EPL) are broadcast in Canada through a streaming service imaginatively called “FUBO TV” (named, I think, by some drunk marketing people after a good afternoon out at the pub). Fubo gets its video direct from the EPL using the “International Feed”, that is for broadcast in English speaking countries that are not the UK. The EPL use a variety of professional match commentators, who are journalists I believe, and a former professional player as a “Summarizer”. I don’t know that there are any rules on impartiality when creating this feed inasmuch as it will be going out to various non-UK countries and isn’t subject to the UK’s broadcasting standards. As a consequence, the commentary and the summarizing is simply awful.

You can bet Beglin was summarizing on this game at Anfield. Slippy Gerrard having a pop at Everton’s goal.

As an initial example, take the number of Liverpool games summarized by Jim Beglin. It seems that every time the reds run out in a televised game, good old Jim is there to provide the insight. That would be OK except that Jim Beglin played 98 professional games for Liverpool in the eighties, and he absolutely adores everything Liverpool, and Liverpool related. Cut him in half and he has the word Liverpool running through him like a stick of rock. (Google it). He has improved over the years and no longer relates everything to his Liverpool playing days, but he still roots for the reds and it’s frankly embarrassing to have to listen to him. Worse than that, the match commentators will often take the lead from the summarizer and amplify the outrageous partisanship. I can only assume that Jim lives in the North West of England somewhere, and finds it easy to get to Anfield. There can’t be another explanation as to why they let such favouritism go unchecked.

A far worse example is that of match summarizer Andy Townsend. Now Andy has played for my team Chelsea 110 times, but he clearly left under a cloud because it’s virtually impossible to get to hear him say anything positive about Chelsea, and it doesn’t matter who their opponents are. He’s being doing it for years, too, as I have bad memories of a game where Chelsea played Stoke City, in Stoke, and Townsend was all but coaching City for about two-thirds of the game. Chelsea won anyway, but I really couldn’t fathom why he was so negative. Things have continued like that for season after season, and the only time he relents is if Chelsea are winning well and there’s not much time left to play. The game with Newcastle United this past weekend was a case in point, with Andy disparaging everything Chelsea did, until they went 3-1 up and the game was sealed. We thankfully don’t get Andy summarizing as much as we used to, at least not Chelsea games.

I think the commentators and summarizers read the back pages of the tabloid newspapers before they start work. They keep regurgitating the current gossip and the speculation, 90% of which is nonsense, but I guess they do it for the same reason the tabloid hacks do it, to sell advertising space. Like the people who dreamed up “FUBO TV”, most gossip is formed in pubs by journalists with nothing better to do. I was going to mention the “Connor Gallagher to be sold” story, but it’s pure fiction so not worth mentioning.

More tabloid bollocks, this time from the New York Times’ The Athletic. Pure fiction.

Anyway, words are important and footy fans are not (all) stupid. They no more like to hear favouritism from the commentators than they enjoy seeing their own team lose. I shall be penning a furious letter to the EPL if I hear Townsend summarizing a Chelsea game again this season, but apart from me letting off a bit of steam, I really don’t think it matters to the EPL. Sad.

Degrees of Disbelief

14 Wednesday Feb 2024

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Some of the conspiracy theories doing the rounds at the moment are so outlandish that they defy logic, let alone belief (assuming you understand that you can create a plausible, logical conspiracy theory, but it’s still a conspiracy theory).

The nonsense surrounding Taylor Swift, her boyfriend, and the Kansas Chiefs is one such piece of nonsense that seems to have triggered a few of the more loonier tunes out there. Joe Biden lampooned the whole thing on his Twitter account, although I’m sure there are people out there who don’t see lampooning but do see “Deep State” and “Satanists”. The scary part there was that the whole thing was picked up and amplified by Jess Watters on Fox News, which to many lends the story credence. Of course, if you’re a halfway functioning human, you’ll know that pretty much all of Fox News’ output is deeply in the realms of fantasy.

It’s even scarier to see elected politicians, all of whom are in the thrall of one Donald Trump, expounding so many ridiculous theories. Who can forget the Jewish space lasers? Obama not born in the USA? Insurrection at the US Capitol the work of ANTIFA and FBI agents? These people are outright liars, exploiting the gullible for their own political gain, but their adoring followers see it all as the wicked truth.

There are still a lot of old favourites out there, too, like “Chem Trails” from aircraft poisoning and controlling the world’s population. That one falls into the category of totally ludicrous, but people still buy it. Then there’s the king of them all, the flat earth. That particular theory was torpedoed as soon as people were able to sail boats out of sight of land, but still they persist, with ever greater conviction these days. I wonder how many of them have ever been in an airliner and travelled even a moderate distance? Did they never wonder why they didn’t fly off the edge?

Anyway, I will cling to my rational thought and critical thinking, and laugh all the nonsense off. It’s not wise to engage with any of these theorists, of course, because the same lack of thinking they apply to believing their theories also goes into any evidence-free arguments they like to get into.

Now, where did I put that space laser?

Still in Southern Latitudes

23 Tuesday Jan 2024

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Following on from the previous post, we’ve just had a our first real blast of cold weather. That old Jetstream has dipped south and hauled in a load of cold air from the north, bringing us double-digit negative temperatures and a fair bit of snow. To counter that, I would urge you to remember that while we have a continental weather system here, we’re still on the same latitude as Rome, and unlike some places in Canada, it really doesn’t get very cold here at all.

Anyway, the river has only partly frozen over and the snow, in a few waves, has only amounted to five or six inches in total, so it hasn’t really been too bad. In past winters we’ve been seriously sub-zero for weeks by this time, but this past week has been the first properly cold period of the winter so far. Funnily enough, as a thaw sets in, today has been the first mass school bus cancellation of the winter, but then thawing roads are significantly more treacherous than fully snowed up roads, so it’s understandable.

When I first arrived here, lying snow was such a novelty for me. Fifteen years in, though, and it has just become a chore, particularly as the trend over that period has been for milder weather in general, just with a few snowy blasts to keep us all on our toes. We haven’t had a decent freeze-up for a few years now, where we’d see people tearing along the frozen river on their snowmobiles, but we do get these intermittent blasts of icy weather, which is just enough to remind people that snow is a pain in the bum, but not enough for us to get used to it.

With climate change very much in the news these days, it’s tempting to imagine that we’re set for permanently milder winters. That may be true, but climate change takes much longer to have a real effect so I guess we’re simply in a milder cycle right now, and that at any time we could have a horrible winter with months of snow and ice. I do like the snow, and the cold weather in general, but the quick alternating between really cold and really mild does get on your nerves a bit.

Anyway, we have six or seven weeks yet when the weather can get really stupid, and it isn’t until the March Break that we can count on there not being horrible winter storms. For now I will appreciate the thaw, once the ice has gone, and wait for the next wave.

Southern Latitudes

14 Sunday Jan 2024

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As we experience the first cold weather of the winter here in south west Ontario, I’m reminded of just how far south we are within the North American continent, and even with a national expectation of Canadian weather, we actually get pretty mild winters.

I’m not sure that the graphic is of much help, but here goes. We’re in Chatham, Ontario, marked with the yellow X in the bottom right-hand corner. We lie between the 42nd and 43rd Parallel, marginally further north than Chicago, but not much. The bulk of the US and Canadian border follows the 49th Parallel, which is way above Lake Superior. That means that about one third of the land mass of the United States is further north than we are.

When people hear Canada, they automatically think that the whole country is north of the US, and is therefore colder (and less hospitable) than the US, which of course simply isn’t true.

Not only are we not very far north, but we’re also at the north western end of the Mississippi River, and warm weather is often funnelled up from the Gulf of Mexico, which gives us a surprising warm climate, at least when the wind is blowing in that direction. We often get stuck south of the Jet Stream, too, which is why places like Montreal and Quebec City can be buried in snow in the winter as those cities tend to be north of the Jet Stream most of the time, and we’re languishing in the rain.

While the climate is quite different in the Mediterranean, it’s interesting to note that we are also on much the same latitude as Rome (Slightly north of Rome really). We don’t get their summers, or winters, but we do get similar amounts of daylight, meaning slightly shorter days in summer, but slightly longer in winter.

So next time you hear me say that I live in Canada, remember that we’re not all living on the Tundra.

Getting Back

10 Wednesday Jan 2024

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I treated myself to a copy of Peter Jackson’s film about The Beatles, Get Back, and I have to say that it was well worth the money.

Jackson had taken all the film footage and audio tapes from The Beatles experiment in filming the production of a new album, and rehashed it all to make a new film. It wasn’t the most successful of artistic endeavours when it was conceived in 1969, but there was an album and a film made back then, famously called Let It Be, and of course it spawned what turned out to be The Beatles last live performance together.

So what did Jackson do to make this film better than the original? Well, he used a whole lot more of the film footage, his film is very long, and he was somewhat more sympathetic in his treatment of the obvious cracks that were appearing within The Beatles group. He also used the opportunity to highlight The Beatles at their creative best, albeit that it was during quite a brief period, and their ability to churn out a seriously good live performance with seemingly little effort.

The original concept of putting the boys in an empty film studio to practice their songs for a new album was flawed from the outset, largely because I don’t think the group was consulted. The acoustics were terrible, there was no PA system for them to hear what they sounded like, and there was no means to record anything. When they abandoned the film studio for the recording studio in their Apple Corps HQ in London, where they had everything they really needed, the creativity really took off.

Jackson also ably described the reasons George Harrison walked out, and what the others did to get him back again. For lots of reasons, the balance of the group had been changing, and McCartney was assuming a dominant role. When he and Lennon were forced to look at why Harrison had left, they realised that the group had lost its equilibrium and they needed to restore it, if only to get the project finished. In coaxing Harrison back, and promising to address the issues of equal input, the group found its best again and produced some absolutely amazing work, and in a very short time. To watch the process when it was functioning well was really quite astounding, and there was a real glimpse into why The Beatles were so successful.

The culmination of the project, and not what was originally planned, was that famous last performance on the roof of their building in London’s Saville Row. It was a good performance by anyone’s standards, but to see how they arrived at it, with two of them not committing to do it until the morning of the performance, was awe inspiring. As The Beatles they did all get to the roof, and they did some great numbers in the cold of a January afternoon, proving just why they had been so great. The people in the street who heard the music thought it was great, or most of them did, and the Police looked embarrassed at having to call a halt to the performance after some complaints about the noise. All in all, though, it was a great way for The Beatles to sign off.

The film also pointed to the direction that the four individual Beatles were heading when The Beatles were no more. I for one came away thinking that the group’s breakup was almost inevitable, and that it wasn’t a bad thing. Of course we have lost two of the group now, and the other two really should think of retiring. Whatever may have happened, though, if you’re a fan of The Beatles, or even just a lover of pop music, I’d highly recommend this film, but make sure you’re sitting comfortably first.

New Year Blahs

28 Thursday Dec 2023

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I have never been one to celebrate the New Year. I certainly give the due amount of thought to the past year, and for the year to come, but having a party hasn’t really been my thing. I mean, one minute it’s 1159, the next it’s 0000, and it’s no big deal.

I have been to New Years’ parties, but then the feeling of anti-climax has been doubly strong when people whoop and holler at the appointed hour, and then it’s all over. As I said, it’s not for me.

Moving across the Atlantic, I’ve found that the sense of anti-climax is actually worse here. Quite often bars and pubs don’t open at all on New Year’s Eve, preferring to let their staff have the time with their families. I do get that, but I’m used to pubs staying open for the whole evening, and into the wee small hours. Indeed, so popular are pubs on New Years Eve in the UK that they often have to issue tickets so that the regulars get a look in.

Times Square 2010 – an advertiser’s dream

Then there’s the awful “celebration” in New York’s Times Square that has long been lost to the people who want to make money from the occasion. I understand the ball drop, but the lead up to it with pop singers of the day miming to their latest release an a cold outdoor stage, interspersed with inane chatter from a couple of TV “Hosts” and a plethora of “stars”, it’s all just so painful. Perhaps the most awful aspect is that once that ball has dropped, everyone goes home! Twenty past the hour and Times Square is deserted. Contrast that with Trafalgar Square in London, where the party really only gets started at midnight, and goes on for hours, with Transport for London providing free buses and Underground services for when you do decide to head home.

Trafalgar Square – a distinct lack of advertising

It’s all academic of course, at least for me. It is the start of a new year and with that comes a degree of optimism (like it couldn’t be any worse than last year?), and the days are getting longer, but I can think of better things to celebrate. Or not, because I’m a miserable bugger.

Midwinter

26 Tuesday Dec 2023

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Living in the Northern Hemisphere, as I have done all my life, I’ve become used to celebrating the midwinter in December. Of course, those annoying Christians hijacked my lovely Pagan rituals and made it all about them, but I fought back a little this year.

With a three-year-old in the house, we’re never going to escape Christmas completely, but we have been working on moving the emphasis away from a rotund fellow in a red suit who is linked to the virgin birth, and looked at the Solstice, the real midwinter. Just writing that down, I realise that there will be lots of people telling me that winter starts on December 21st, but that’s a modern construct and I think more tied into how shops stock themselves with seasonal items rather than anything to do with the rotation of the Earth and the Sun. The Solstice is when things begin and end, and I’m happy to celebrate it.

In less enlightened times, people went to bed when it got dark, and rose again with the sun. The Solstice for them was a key point in the year. They celebrated by trying to light things up, to chase away the darkness, and that’s what we did. White lights on a green tree, natural decorations made of pine cones and evergreen tree cuttings. We made lanterns and walked the dark streets, banishing the darkness and looking forward to longer and more productive days. It felt good, too.

Of course Christmas, with its ideal of family and gift giving, is not to be forgotten. Christians venerate the day, and non-Christians hang onto the good bits of the story, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it was good to go back to earlier times, to more natural thoughts, at this time of year.

The one thing we lacked in the celebration of this Northern Hemisphere midwinter was some cold weather. It’s been very, very mild. Maybe next year.