Bloggers4Labour iPhone app

Here.

Check it out.

From what I gather, you can mash up any combination of blogs and do something similar, so it's a short step to being useful for any combination of bloggers. Apart from Tories, obviously....

No conoces la diferencia entre el bien y el mal

There's something a bit incongruous about a Spanish subtitling of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. At least Spaniards won't spend the entire film moaning about how the Nottingham accents aren't right though....

Positive censorship?

Thinking about Isiah Berlin's notion of 'positive liberty', it occurs to me that this framework could be applied to a number of other areas of thought.

Take, for instance, the question of censorship. I think that most of us can agree that negative censorship - particularly the state or other powerful individuals stopping the rest of us from speaking our minds or bringing evidence into the public domain - should be kept to a minimum.

There is, of course the 'shouting fire in a crowded theatre' defence of censorship. Then there is the apparent rights that we all have to be free of damaging defamatory attacks that are based upon fiction. Other areas where we accept censorship - however grudgingly - are the D-Notice-type censorship in which the state protects it's ability to act against it's enemies or to defend itself and it's officials from personal attack.

I don't think that there are many of us that don't accept - in principle at least - the need for any of these forms of censorship - and I'm sure that there are others that I've missed along the way that we're all happy with.

However, all of these forms of censorship are rightly contested. They can often be abused to silence people who reveal something that we all really ought to be told. They can be used disproportionately, used in a way that has undesirable or unexpected consequences, or they can be used to mask instances of where the state - or other agencies - are doing something that they shouldn't be doing in the first place. Thus, I suspect, 99% of public debate on the matter.

But what about the question of positive censorship? I find that most of the discussions about censorship are grounded firmly in the view that we should be free from any impositions placed upon us by the general will. It's sterile ground and it often silences what are - for me - the big questions:

• Should powerful or wealthy agencies be allowed to drown out rival messages by using hefty advertising or PR budgets?
• Should we collectively be taking steps to ensure that there is a well-funded ecology of people who are researching the claims of commercial organisations and governments and providing commentary and counter-evidence?
• Should people with money or time-resources be able to use the libel laws more effectively than the rest of us?
• Should any business own media interests - particularly in proportions that suggest the word 'monopoly' - that allow them to amplify or promote their commercial interests at the expense of their rivals?
• Should any organisation, business or government body be allowed to get itself into a position where it exerts a monopoly over the way it is described? Government departments and civil servants certainly have this in a way that gadget manufacturers don't.
• Should anyone be able to monopolise the indexing of other people's content in a way that undermines their ability to produce it?

In a knowledge economy - one where we increasingly acknowledge the value of the 'hive mind', these appear to me to be key issues. It raises question that could - in theory - transform the economics of information sharing. It seems to me that the reason that content is being undervalued and unfairly appropriated in so many ways is because of Google's monopoly in indexing and carrying advertising alongside the indexes of other people's content.

If there were five equal-ish competing Googles, each of which wanted to build the best permissive index of particular pieces of content while providing us with tools that allow us to determine how our content is indexed, I doubt if broadcasters or newspapers would be laying any journalists off.

Quite the reverse.

I could go on and on thinking aloud about this one, but I'd be interested to know if this is something that anyone else has done any work on?

Spontaneous organisation

From the every-good Counago and Spaves:

"No modern factory could function for twenty-four hours without [the] spontaneous organization of work that groups of workers, independent of the official business management, carry out by filling in the gaps of official production directives, by preparing for the unforeseen and for regular breakdowns of equipment, by compensating for management's mistakes, etc."

From "The Proletarian Revolution Against the Bureaucracy," by Cornelius Castoriadis, in the December 1956 issue of Socialisme ou Barbarie.

(The whole post is worth a look)

Biter bit

According to the very lovely Ars Technica site, it seems the record companies have their own version of illegal filesharing....

The Stupid Party - a litmus test

If there is a god, surely s/he will give Dan Hannan a fair wind. They really need to fully understand the many benefits that direct democracy can bring to a political party.

I mean, just ask Tony Benn about how the CLPD made Labour stronger and more electable.

And the Ulster Unionist Party are the force that they are today because of this.

Please please please god, turn the Conservative Party bloggertarian?

(Tony Benn pic from here).

Population growth explained

Really interesting explanation of a problem:

What stops population growth? from Gapminder Foundation on Vimeo.

Good night. God bless. Safe home.

There are only a handful of recording artists that I've listened to more often than the great Liam Clancy who died yesterday:



I saw this YouTube on Dublin Opinion, but if I hadn't, it'd be the performance I'd have looked for myself.

Transparency now!

Yes!

"Extend the Freedom of Information Act to all bodies undertaking public services, including private contractors and Private Finance Initiative providers. Private companies that provide public services receive taxpayers' money and so should be subject to the same scrutiny as public sector bodies. In particular, private contractors should not be able to hide their operations behind 'corporate confidentiality' clauses."

Read the whole thing over at the Other TPA.

Hello! Hello! Good to be back! Good to be back!

Forest started the worst nosedive in their history in late 2004 (though it had been in the post for over a year before that) and I started blogging in earnest shortly after (I'd experimented with the idea a few times but never with any conviction).

It was a time when the only thing Forest knew how to do was to make pretty girls cry.

It would be fair to say that a lot of posts here were at least spiced a bit by the fact that I've had a mardy on about football during all of that time.

Blogging has been light here for the last few months though and it gives me great pleasure to show you this image - one that offers a possible explanation:

Quid pro quo: Time to remove restrictions on industrial action.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post elsewhere on, among other things, the social contract and the automatic assumption that we are all included in it - the alternative being Hobbes' notion of the state of nature. Because the alternative to living according to the rule of law is nasty and brutal, we are all deemed to have accepted it - something that should temper any resentment that we may have towards the general concept of law.

A few of the arguments that came out in the threads were that the notion that an action of a state is 'not in my name' is not a sustainable one.

This is the reason why we are right to take an instinctive liberal suspicion with us whenever we encounter the state. If we don't engage fully in elections, our right to moan about governments diminishes - as Steve Earle put it, 'if you don't vote, don't bitch.'

This stood out from yesterday's letters page in The Guardian:

"It is now impossible to live without a bank account, so we have no choice but to put our money in their hands. The fact that they can decide for themselves how much to charge and then to help themselves to it is a scandal. The law must be changed to stop this: not allowing them to take money from our accounts and forcing them to send us a bill first are just two of the changes necessary."

How have we allowed commercial organisations to have the same purchase over us as the organisations that we elect? 'Too big to fail / our grandchildren will be paying for their thieving' isn't the only charge to hold against the banks.

Larry Elliott was right:

“But there is a motley band of discontents for whom business as usual, in whatever form, means that another crisis will erupt before too long. They argue that the exiguous nature of current reform proposals is explained by the institutional capture of governments by the investment banks, the world’s most powerful lobbying groups.”

More than ever, the cornerstone of any liberal concerns we may have must be a determination to neutralise the lobbying power any organisation that is capable of raising a louder voice than any individual. Until that happens, there is no reason that I think of that the right to collectively withdraw labour should be restricted in any way.

I understand the argument that industrial action can often be self interested blackmail. So let's abolish self-interested blackmail across the board? We can start with the most active culprits. By the time we work down to the minor transgressors in the unions, I doubt if organised labour will have any objections?

Updated 17:23, 28/11/09 - redrafted for clarity (!)

Watch and learn

Pretty impressive, eh?



I'm not really sure of the provenance of this music - I heard an Oud player in Tunisia once using a few similar moves and techniques, and of course, there's the fabulous Anouar Brahem with a less flamboyant percussive technique, but I don't know as much about arabic music as I'd like and I'm not sure if this even draws anything directly from it. Here's Anouar though - for reference.



I did have a post up here pointing to another bit of percussive guitar playing a while ago and I've just enjoyed the videos again, so if you have a bit of time to kill, do have a look?

Compass Xmas Party

Time to consider Xmas parties again. Being a freelancer, a lot of the invites I used to get working for a company have dried up, and besides an impromptu drinkup that I'll organise using Facebook, the pick of the crop would appear to be something that combines odd music, poetry and a bit of multimedia.

So a German Oompah band explaining the crisis of capitalism, or the words 'Lo-fi ukelele jazz' don't send shivers down your spine, then the Compass Xmas Party on the 18th December could be for you, as it probably will be for me. (You might have seen Tricity Vogue in 'Blow Up - The Credit Crunch Musical at the Edinburgh Festival over the summer?)

It's in Old St, London and the whole shebang is being put together by Philosophy Football (tel: 020 8802 3499) and details are behind that link. Get your finger out, by the way - my snouts tell me it will sell out shortly.

See you there?

Happy birthday

The Other Tax-Payer's Alliance is one year old today. No expense has been spared in the celebrations (see pic).

There's a handy comparison sheet for you to follow if you want to work out whether the TPA or the OTPA is your preferred source.

If I had more time, I'd love to curate a project whereby every month an award is given to the journalist who uncritically uses one of the TPA's routinely dishonest press releases.

James, Janes, Jones and Muphry's Law

So The Sun have had to apologise to Mrs Janes about mis-spelling her family name - after putting the PM through the wringer for exactly the same discourtesy.

They have, it seems, violated Muphry's Law.

(It seems that when you write a post about it you put the wrong links in as well! Apologies for that.)

Two posts by people called Davies

1. Will Davies: Digital exuberance in space. The revealed dissatisfaction of people futzing with their iPhone.

2. Tim Davies: The myth of easy engagement - decisions are made by people who turn up.

Both very very good.

Favourite Football Fact

Here is the badge worn by players of Barrow AFC - currently mid-table in the Blue Square Premier.

Note the Bee with an arrow through it. Bee-arrow .... geddit?

Sadly, their near-neighbours, Cockermouth FC haven't followed Barrow's inspiration.

Captain Robert Nairac

Kevin Crilly has been charged with the abduction and murder of Captain Robert Nairac. Nairac's Wikipedia entry is here.

It was a particularly Gothic episode from the troubles in Ireland in the mid-70s that was the subject of Eoin MacNamee's novel The Ultras.

If you like David Peace's Red Riding novels, you'll like this one. 'Like' may not be the right word though....

Stopped clock. Twice a day.

I've not said it before and I'll probably never say it again, but George Monbiot is absolutely right here.

It's true that the vacuity and cowardice of the local papers has been exacerbated by consolidation, profit-seeking, the collapse of advertising revenues and a decline in readership. But even if they weren't subject to these pressures, they would still do more harm than good.

Local papers defend the powerful because the powerful own and fund them. I can think of only two local newspapers that consistently hold power to account: the West Highland Free Press and the Salford Star. Are any others worth saving? If so, please let me know. Yes, we need a press that speaks truth to power, that gives voice to the powerless and fights for local democracy. But this ain't it.

White male grievances

He's not saying much hat you won't have read elsewhere (including on this blog) but the freethinking economist does it with a bit of kerpow in this post: Clarkson, Dalrymple and the patriotic urge to leave the country.

He links to this one by Chris about subjective well-being that I missed because it's been frantic here lately.