Farewell To Christopher Chataway
Sir Christopher Chataway was one of my heroes and he has been mentioned regularly in this blog.
But now he has died and I suspect the world will be a duller place.
I can still see the pictures of him in white defeating Vladimir Kuts at the White City. This is the BBC’s description of the feat.
His career in international athletics lasted only five years with the pinnacle being in 1954 when he set a new 5,000m world record of 13 minutes 51.6 seconds in a televised race at White City.
Chataway beat Russia’s Vladimir Kuts by 0.1 secs – the man who he had finished second behind in the 5,000m European Championships final two weeks earlier.
He might not have been a great athlete, but he was one of those rarer beings; a great all round talent.
The Problems Of Twitter
We have had a lot of stories in the past few years about people being abused on Twitter and similar sites, such as this report about Stan Collimore.
I have been involved in a few studies about malicious calls in the past with BT and have a small amount of knowledge. For instance, those that abuse usually target someone specific like an ex partner or employer or they might do the opposite and tend to target a range of people.
But there is always a pattern, as people are creatures of habit!
I also did some work years ago with project management software to see, if it were possible to fill in the blanks on an activity, based on other activities in a project and the words in the description. Techniques of language recognition, weren’t that good in the 1980s, but I believe that it is now possible to make a better fist of it.
Twitter messages are a string of a few words and I believe that computers can now get the flavour of what is said with a bit of help. After all Google often gives you what you want in a search, that is full of spelling and typing mistakes.
So let’s say you get an abusive Twitter message. By flagging it to Twitter, they should be able to automatically determine if the contents fits a typical abusive pattern, based on the words and the tweeting profile of the sender.
An automatic warning would then ensue if it was deemed necessary, followed by deletion of the account, if the abuser persisted.
I obviously don’t know the thoughts of Twitter, but I’m absolutely certain, that an automatic system could be developed based on technology that works well in other areas.
The trouble is, any system like this is against the American rules on Free Speech. But it probably would be acceptable to many of those who have suffered abuse.
The Unseemly Row About Lord Rennard
Whether or not Lord Rennard did anything wrong, has not been decided in a Court of Law, but it does seem to me, that the two sides in the argument are immoveable and won’t reach a solution acceptable to everyone.
It seems to me, that anybody at the centre of a row like this, should do the honourable thing and probably give up this job and do something else!
Isn’t that what John Profumo did all those years ago and he died a respected man?
Certainly, the Lib Dems are proving that many in the party, still haven’t learnt how to run a whelk stall!
Is Gay Marriage The Reason For Floods And Storms?
According to this story from the BBC, a UKIP councillor thinks it is.
A UKIP councillor has blamed the recent storms and heavy floods across Britain on the Government’s decision to legalise gay marriage.
David Silvester said the Prime Minister had acted “arrogantly against the Gospel”.
He is wrong. The best explanation was from my late son, when he was about ten. He said it was God allowing his bathwater to overflow again.
The Last Word On Hollande
I picked this paragraph up from The Times.
Christine Boutin, a Roman Catholic who served as a minister under President Sarkozy, accused Mr Hollande of “treating his concubine like a Kleenex”.
It would appear that he’s running out of powerful women to take to bed. One wag also said last week, that he looked like a middle-aged provincial dentist.
i know the French expect different things from their politicians, but there can’t be many countries where Hollande’s behaviour would be tolerated without redicule.
Robert Peston On Milliband’s Plan For The Banks
Now that Milliband has actually spoken it is interesting to see what heavyweight commentators are saying. The speech is reported here on the BBC and it also contains these comments from Robert Peston on what would happen if banks were limited as to market share.
Bankers have said to me this would lead to what they call a perverse outcome, that as they approached the maximum size they would dump customers they deemed low quality or loss-making.
It is unclear whether these customers would be able to bank elsewhere.
I wonder how many banks would want me as a customer, given that all I want is a money transfer company. And I don’t buy any other services from my bank, like insurance.
And I don’t see why I should pay for my banking!
Why Milliband’s Bank Plan Won’t Work
Ed Milliband’s plan to cut the Big Banks down to size described here, may be admirable, but it won’t work!
In fact I have a feeling that in a couple of years, it won’t be needed as the Big Banks will be a shadow of their former self.
Take myself, who is increasingly becoming a type of person common in this country.
I only use my bank account for one main purpose and that is to accept and receive money transfers and manage regular payments. They do provide me with a credit card, but it is not one I use daily.
My savings are stored in a separate account, which happens to be a peer-to-peer-lender, but could be a Savings Account anywhere. But more of us, are using innovative ways to keep our savings and this will increase.
I never write cheques and only ever go into a bank branch to use a cash machine, if I want to sit down to organise my money after withdrawing it.
I don’t know what percentage of the population are like me, who effectively use the bank as a money transfer company and possibly an overdraft source, whilst waiting for a payment to clear.
But it must be quite a high figure these days!
We don’t need banks at all and it is a market that people will target in an innovative way. Certainly, if a company, can give me a much better computer system for on-line banking, I’d join them like a shot.
But then banks and innovation are two words that rarely go together!
On the whole I suspect this group of customers, are probably pretty sanguine about banking and in most cases wouldn’t want the hassle of moving. I sometimes think about moving from Nationwide, but what I want is a better computer and support system and how do I find out if it’s what I want? With very great difficulty I suspect!
So Milliband’s banker bashing doesn’t impress, as we probably feel that any new bank would be more of the same grey product.
And anyway, I choose my bank, not politicians.
But a better innovative on-line bank, with a proper computer system, programmed in the UK, supported totally by the Internet and a UK call centre, with no branch premises will come.
Done properly, I’d transfer my business to it and I suspect many others would.
The other thing that would shoot Milliband’s fox, is if regulators made it possible to transfer our bank account overnight or at least in a couple of days, keeping the same account number.
One of the troubles about the next election, is that many of the people who vote will be up to their neck in Wonga and other loans and are the sort of people, a decent bank wouldn’t touch.
Leave It To The Marines
This is a good story from the floods in Cornwall. Especially, when the Marines’ involvement started on a suggestion of a ten year old boy.
I suspect though the locals were friendlier than some of the idiots the marines have dealt with lately.
A Development We Don’t Need
The BBC has just shown non-working images of a stun-gun amart phone case. There’s more here. This is the first bit.
Add-ons that turn smartphones into Star Trek-like tricorder medical diagnostic kits, Predator-style thermal vision cameras and even electric “stun guns” are being promoted at the Consumer Electronics Show.
They did say that these stun-gun smart phone cases would be illegal in the UK! But tell that to the gangs! It’ll become a must have accessory!
This development of the humble phone, is one of the sickest and pointless things, I’ve seen in some time. But of course, it appears to be legal in the United States.
I have found the company on the Internet. How long before you can buy a smart-phone case like this from their web site and have it shipped across the Atlantic?
The Daily Mail has te full story and gives a lot more detail than I would, in this report.
Hollande Gets On His Motorbike
Traditionally in the UK, there is a joke about infidelity and men getting on a bicycle.
But French presidents do it differently and use a motorbike driven by a chauffeur., according to this article on the BBC web site. Here’s the relevant bit.
The pictures purportedly show the pair arriving separately. Mr Hollande, wearing a helmet, is on a motorbike driven by a chauffeur.
It looks like it’s one law for the leaders and one law for the plebs.
I wonder what is the French colloquialism for “Beware the scorned woman!” or in Hollande’s case “Beware the scorned women!”
The Anonymous Widower 