February 28, 2005
Heroic beasts
Driving down Park Lane the other day I noticed a new monument in the middle of the road. It is the monument to the heroic animals of both world wars. It is covered with sculptures depicting horses, mules, pigeons and dogs of various kinds and on the back it has the legend:
"They had no choice."
Dear God.
Posted by Mark at 5:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Vioxx conflict of interest
The US committee that voted on the future of the controversial Cox-2 inhibitor drugs was controlled by a crucial minority (10 out of 33) with financial links to the drugs companies concerned.
Posted by Mark at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 24, 2005
The Ledge
Now Hunter Thompson has gone we should cherish the remaining nutters and misfits among us. So here is the "Ledge" aka the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, or Norman Carl Odam, who wrote Paralysed and I took a trip on a Gemini spacecraft covered by David Bowie on Heathen. Here is a nice article about the man from the San José Mercury. The Ledge works in San José as a nightwatchman. He won't say where. Buy one of his records, you never know, it might not all go to the mob.
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February 22, 2005
More Hunter
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February 21, 2005
Hunter Thompson R.I.P.
We can't let the death of the genius Hunter Thompson pass unheralded.
It is pointless to write about Hunter Thompson: his work has to be experienced.
Here is a link to his ESPN column .
One of the best openings to a book even written:
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"
Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.
So begins the peerless Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The book is an account, written in the same hilarious, poetic style of the hero's drug-fuelled visit to Las Vegas during a policemen's convention. Here they are: Hunter and Oscar Acosta, his "attorney":
Here is the photo of his first wife Sandra Dawn Conklin in a bathing suit, by the sea.
Finally is the statement, issued by their son Juan Fitzgerald, but bearing all the hallmarks of the great man's prose: "Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colo."
Hunter, we loved you. No point mentioning those bats.
Posted by Mark at 7:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 20, 2005
Illiteracy and the Tories
Eight years into Blair's project to improve low educational standards, an incredible 25% of primary school leavers can't read.
Why? Because the system that is most effective at making them read "synthetic phonics" is opposed on political grounds by teachers. It is somehow considered a "traditionalist" (ergo Tory) approach.
The reason that education and health witness obstinately low standards is that, despite the government's rhetoric, the consumer has no choice. You have take what you are given. The private sector is tiny. The trade unions squeal with indignation whenever a modest attempt is made to a) measure outcomes; b) offer choice to the consumer.
The Tory party, instead of taking this on head on, pathetically prevaricates about it. They are going to lose the next election anyway. Why not say out loud that the emperor has no clothes, that the state monoopoly on education and health is pernicious and causes actual damage to the people of this country? What's to lose?
It's better politics than all this bollocks about law and order and immigration, because the Labour party has shown it can be just as illiberal as the Tories there. Attacking on health and education would force the Labour party to defend the indefensible: cancer survival rates which are amongst the lowest in Western Europe, literacy rates that would shame many third world countries.
Posted by Mark at 11:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 19, 2005
What will happen to Vauxhall?
Reading Content by Rem Koolhaas about architecture and culture ... There are couple of really good pieces reviewing the histories of New York and Chicago. The story of Chicago is told very much from the perspective of the black population - which has often been victimised and isolated. Also an interview with Robert Venturi revisiting the ideas of Learning from Las Vegas.
It got me thinking about the future of the area where I have been living (off and on) since 1981 - Vauxhall and Kennington. It was full of housing and industry until the bombers pulverised it during World War Two. In the post war era the LCC tore down what was left of the Georgian housing and replaced it with cheaply-built concrete housing estates. Gerrymandering, partly. They figured that if they concentrated the working class vote they would ensure perpetual re-election. The council is still the biggest landowner and a quarter of a century after Thatcherism manages to blight most commercial developments with a combination of ineptitude and neglect.
The schools are symbolic of the problems with the area. In the centre of the area there is the very beautiful (and now listed) Lilian Baylis school from the 60's. It has difficulties attracting students. Here are two perspectives on it - one from the league tables showing catastrophic results and one from the people who work in the schools giving you a clue why. The teachers are more interested in the fight against corporate capitalism than in teaching.
But the area has huge potential. It is very close to the centre of London, the transport links are some of the best in the City, it has a huge front along the river with fantastic views. It has very low property prices.
Straws in the wind: Damien Hirst is rumoured to be opening a gallery there. The Lilian Baylis school has been relocated and rebuilt, with an energetic new headmaster.
However, most property has still got the dead hand of public ownership on it. Here is the homepage of the Ethelred estate. This gives a notion of how crappy it is to have Lambeth as a landlord. Large sections of London still need the twenty-first century equivalent of the dissolution of the monasteries. The councils should be forced to divest.
Regeneration on this scale is beyond the budget of the public sector. What is needed is investment from the people that the teachers in the local schools seem to regard as the enemy. Businesses, employers, entrepreneurs like Hirst.
Posted by Mark at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 18, 2005
A rogues gallery of cack
Here is a list of the products that have been poisoned by a chemical called Sudan 1 according to the Food Standards Agency:
Aldi Supreme Vegetable Soup 400g can
Reduced Calorie Seafood 250mls
Cumberland Sausage retail 170g
Cumberland sausage sandwich filling 170g
12 Mini Chicken & BBQ Bites
8 BBQ Snack Rolls ( chilled product 10 day life)
Tomato and Bacon Bake 420g
3 Bean Pasta Bake 500g
Tomato & Pepperoni 500g
Sausage Casserole 580g
Bangers & Mash 400g
Shepherds Pie 4pack 4 x 170g
Corned Beef Hash 400g
Shepherd Pie 400g
Smart Price Cottage Pie 4pack 4 x 166g
GFY BBQ Chicken and Wedges 450g
GFY Cottage Pie 400g
GFY Chicken Hotpot 400g
Beef Stew and Dumplings 400g
TOMATO & BACON FAMILY BAKE 500g
Barbecue Chicken 330g
ES Aberdeen Angus Cottage Pie 600g
Value Cottage Pie 300g
Traditional Cumberland Pie 1500g
Traditional Cumberland Pie 450g
Traditional Cumberland Pie 800g
American BBQ Ribs 350g
Traditional Shepherds Pie 450g
Traditional Shepherds Pie 800g
Traditional Cottage Pie 900g
Traditional Cottage Pie 450g
Traditional Cottage Pie 1500g
Kids Shepherds Pie 300g
Mini Classics Minced Beef Casserole and Dumplings 300g
Vegetarian Cottage Pie 450g
Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese 450g
Vegetarian Lasagne 450g
Vegetarian Vegetable Casserole 450g
Traditional Steak and Kidney Casserole 450g
Traditional Minced Beef and Vegetable Hotpot 800g
Traditional Minced Beef and Vegetable Hotpot 1500
Value Corned Beef Hash 300g
GFY Cumberland Pie 400g
Chicken in Red Wine450g
Chilli Nachos 400g
Chilli & Rice Superbowl 450g
American Chilli Pasta
Chinese Wings 700g
Mini Fillets 200g
Sliced Breast 140g
Chinese Drumsticks 700g
THREE BEAN PASTA BAKE 500g
Seafood Sauce 250ml
Reduced Calorie Seafood 500mls
Onion Gravy in a pouch 300g
Seafood Sauce 500ml
R/F Caesar Dressing 240ml
Hamburger Relish 270g
GFY 1000 Island Dressing 240ml
Caesar Dressing 240ml
Asda Cantonese Sauce 125ml
Tomato & Pepperoni Pasta Sauce in a pouch 170g
HAMBURGER RELISH 295g
ASDA SAUSAGE CASSEROLE COOKING SAUCE 500g
GFY SEAFOOD SAUCE 250G
GFY SEAFOOD SAUCE 500G
ONION GRAVY 450g
STROGANOFF SAUCE 300g
Asda Extra Special - Parmesan & Pink Peppercorn 240ml
1000 Island Dressing 2.3 Litre
Caesar Dressing 2.3 Litre
Prawn Cocktail Sauce 2.3 Litre
Chef Larder Thousand island dressing 2x2 3L
Chef Larder Caesar Dressing 2x2 3L
Chef Larder Prawn Cocktail sauce 2x2 3L
Happy Shopper Seafood sauce 6 x 180g
Brakes Cooked Mexican Meat 1kg
Seafood Sauce 250ml
Shepherds Pie 400g
Liver and Bacon Hot Pot 340g
Shepherds Pie 4x 227g
Shepherds Pie 2x 227g
Minced Beef and Onion 150g
Steak and Kidney 150g
Steak and Kidney 4 pack
Minced Beef and Onion 4pack
Steak and Kidney Shortcrust 520g
Steak Shortcrust 520g
Steak Shortcrust 240g
Steak and Kidney Pudding 190g
Tex Mex Dip Selection 4 x 100g
Thin and Crispy Hickory BBQ Chicken Pizza 310g
Sausage Casserole 440g
Smokey Bacon 440g
Good Choice Chicken Casserole with Parsley Mash 400g
Good Choice BBQChicken and Potato wedges 400g
Good Choice Chicken Hot Pot 450g
Good Choice Chicken Hot Pot 400g
Minced Beef Hot Pot 500g
Cumberland Pie 500g
Sausage and Mash 400g
Seafood Sauce 560g
Minced Beef Hot Pot
Cumberland Pie
Sausage and Mash
Red wine cooking Sauce 440g
KS Puff Pastry Minced Beef & Vegetable Pie - 800g
KS Shortcrust Steak & Kidney Pie - 250g
Aro Sweet Pickle 1kg
Aro Sanwich Pickle 1kg
SFC Caesar Salad Dressing
M&S Oxtail Soup 415g
M&S Chunky 3 Bean Soup 415g
M&S Tuscan Bean & Sausage 415g
Pasta with Chicken, Smoked Bacon & Sweetcorn 380g
Pasta with Chicken & Smoked Bacon 380g
Dijonnaise Chicken Steam Cuisine
Hot & Sour King Prawns and noodles
Classic Dip Selection
Thousand Island Dip
BBQ Jumbo Chicken Tenders 400g
Steak & Kidney Casserole for one
Steak & Kidney Casserole 454g
Mince Beef Hotpot for one
Mince Beef Hotpot 454g
Count On Us Minced Beef Hotpot
Low Fat Caesar Dressing
Morrisons Prawn Coleslaw 250g
Morrisons French Onion Soup 600g
Morrisons Prawn Marie Rose Sandwich
Morrisons Chicken Ceasar Wrap
Morrisons Mexican Bean Wrap
Morrisons Eat Smart Chicken Fajita wrap
Morrisons Best Chicken Ceasar Sandwich
Morrisons Liver and Bacon with Mash 400g (frozen)
Morrisons Cottage Pie 4x227g (frozen)
Morrisons Cottage Pie 460g (frozen)
Morrisons Eat Smart Cottage Pie 400g (frozen)
Morrisons Eat Smart Sausage & Mash 400g (frozen)
Morrisons Steak Teviot Pie 500g
Morrisons Minced Beef Teviot Pie 500g
Morrisons Steak Pie 600g
Morrisons Steak & Mushroom Pie 600g
Morrisons Corned Beef & Potato Traybake 500g
Morrisons Steak Pie 150g
Morrisons Steak & Kidney Pie 150g
Morrisons Minced Beef & Onion Pie 150g
Morrisons Favourite Steak Pie 500g
Morrisons Favourite Steak & Kidney Pie 500g
Morrisons Favourite Minced Beef & Onion Pie 500g
Morrisons Steak Pie 200g
Morrisons Steak & Ale Pie 200g
Morrisons Bettabuy Minced Beef & Onion Pies (4 pack)
Morrisons Bettabuy Steak & Kidney Pies (4 pack)
Morrisons Cottage Pie 300g
Morrisons Sausage & Mash 450g
Morrisons Toad in the Hole 400g
Morrisons Cottage Pie 450g
Morrisons Minced Beef Hot Pot 400g
Morrisons Eat Smart BBQ Chicken & Potato Wedges 350g
Morrisons Eat Smart Bangers & Mash 2x400g
Morrisons Eat Smart Bangers & Mash 400g
Morrisons Eat Smart Braised Lamb & Carrot Mash
Morrisons Best Bangers and Mash
Morrisons Chicken Medley Pizza Deep Pan Regular 400g
Morrisons Chicken Medley Pizza Deep Pan Large 750g
Morrisons BBQ Chicken Snack Pizza 175g
Morrisons Chinese Chicken Pieces 200g
Morrisons Chinese Chicken Wings 700g
Morrisons Sweet & Sour Stir Fry
Morrisons Chinese Chicken Mini Fillets 500g
Morrisons Worcester Sauce 150ml
Netto Farmer's Fayre Vegetable Soup 410g can
Lloyd Grossman Sweet & Sour Sauce 370g & 450g jars
Tuna Mayonnaise 1kg catering packs
JS liver and onion bake 400g
JS Minced Beef and vegetable bake 400g
JS Sausage hot pot 400g
BGTY cottage Pie 350g
BGTY sweet & sour chicken 400g
Chicken & Bacon Caesar Style Pasta
Chinese sliced chicken breast 140g
Chinese Wings 454g
Chinese Drumsticks 454g
Chinese sliced chicken breast 240g
Minced Beef & Onion Pie 150g
Steak & Kidney Pie 150g
Steak & Kidney Pie 4x150g
Basics Minced Beef & Onion Pie 3x150g
Steak & Kidney Pudding 190g
Minced Beef & Onion Roll 355g
Prawn Layered Salad 275g
BGTY Chilli Con Carne and Rice 400g
American Ribs 300g
Mini BBQ sticky ribs
6 Sticky Ribs
TTD Roasted Veg Soup 600g
Liver and Bacon with Mashed Potato 450g
Liver and Bacon 500g
Corned Beef Hash 500g
Cumberland Pie 900g
Cumberland Pie 450g
TTD Shepherds Pie 720g
Steak and Kidney Casserole 450g
BPC Cottage Pie and Vegetables 300g
Shepherds Pie 450g
Shepherds Pie 900g
Classic Caesar Dressing 250ml
Seafood Sauce 250ml
Seafood Sauce 500ml
Seafood Sauce 420g
BGTY 1000 Island Dressing 250ml
BGTY Caesar Dressing 250ml
BGTY Seafood Sauce
Sainsbury's Medium Chilli Con Carne Sauce American Style 460g (Glass Jar)
Sainsbury's Hot Chilli Con Carne Sauce American Style 460g (Glass Jar)
Sainsbury's Beef and Onion Paste 75g (Glass Jar)
SF Prawn Coleslaw - 250g
SF Salsa Chicken Wrap
SF BBQ Chicken Wrap
SF G.I. Mexican Chicken Wrap
SF So Good Chicken Caesar
SF Salsa Chicken Wrap
SF BBQ Chicken Wrap
SF G.I. Mexican Chicken Wrap
SF So Good Chicken Caesar
Sausage Casserole 440g
SF Minced Beef Roll -355g
SF Steak and Kidney Pudding -190g
SF Shortcrust Steak & Kidney Pie -520g
SF Shortcrust Steak & Kidney Pie -240g
SF Shortcrust Aberdeen Angus Minced Beef & Onion Pie - 520g
SF Shortcrust Aberdeen Angus Minced Beef & Onion Pie - 240g
SF Puff Pastry Minced Beef & Onion Pie - 150g
SF Puff Pastry Minced Beef & Onion Pie - 800g
SF Puff Pastry Steak & Kidney Pie - 150g
SF Deep-filled Steak & Kidney Pie - 550g
SF Deep-filled Steak & Kidney Pie - 210g
SF G.I. Chicken & Wedges
SF Tex Mex Combo
SF Sticky Pork & Rice Carton
SF Chicken Tikka Kebab
SF Sausage Casserole Cook-in-Sauce
Spar Spaghetti Bolognese 300g
Spar Shepherds Pie 340g
Tesco Chicken & Vegetable Casserole (Can)
Tuna Pate retail 115g
Tesco American Ribs 350g & 550g packs
Tesco Healthy Living Cottage Pie 400g
Tesco 4 Cottage Pies 908g
Tesco Liver & Bacon Hot Pot 550g
Tesco Sliced Beef in Gravy 210g
Tesco Prawn Layered Salad 420g
Tesco American BBQ Ribs 350g
Tesco American BBQ Ribs 500g
Tesco British Meatballs & Mashed Potato 450g
Tesco Deli Finest Smoked Haddock Welsh Rarebit
Tesco Steak & Kidney Pudding 190g
Tesco Steak & Kidney Pudding 435g
Tesco Steak Teviot 550g
Tesco Chicken & Vegetable Teviot 550g
Tesco Tuna Pate 115g
Tesco Finest Beef in a Maderia & Mushroom Gravy 400g
Tesco British Cottage Pie 500g
Tesco British Cottage Pie 950g
Tesco British Peppered Steak Rosti 450g
Tesco British Sausage & Mash 500g
Tesco British Beef & Ale Casserole 450g
Tesco Healthy Living Cottage Pie 500g
Tesco Healthy Living Beef & Ale Casserole 450g
Tesco Value Cottage Pie 1500g
Tesco Value Cottage Pie 800g
Tesco Value Cottage Pie 300g
Tesco Value Shepherds Pie 300g
Tesco Value Corned Beef Hash 300g
Tesco Value Sausage & Onion Pie 300g
Tesco British Cumerland Sausage Pie 500g
Tesco Healthy Living Sausage & Mash 450g
Tesco British Liver & Bacon 400g
Tesco British Liver, Bacon & Mash 450g
Tesco British Cottage Meal for One 450g
Tesco Stonebaked BBQChicken Pizza 317g
Sticky BBQ Marinade
Tesco BBQ Marinade (Jar)
Waitrose Tuscan Bean Soup
Wiatrose tuna Mayonnaise 170g retail packs
Tuna Mayonnaise 1kg catering packs
Cottage Pie Frozen 425g
Cumberland Pie Frozen 425g
Shepherds Pie Frozen 425g
Shepherds Pie 250g
Mini Roulades (24) 560g
Pizza Selection A
Pizza Selection B
Braised Beef Casserole (Suspended) 2 kg
Lasagne - Mediterranean Vegetable 2.5kg
Spicy Meatball Pasta Bake 400g
Beef Hot Pot 400g
A/Angus Cottage Pie 400g
Liver & Onion with mashed potato 400g
Sausage & Mash 400g
Shepherds Pie 400g
Lasagne vegetable 400g
Cottage Pie 300g
Spaghetti Bolognese 300g
Chicken Caesar Sandwich
Chicken Fajita Wrap
Country Vegetable Soup 600g
Hong Kong Beef (Delisted) 350g
A/Angus Braised Beef with fresh Mash Potato 400g
A/Angus Cottage Pie 400g
A/Angus Cottage Pie 700g
A/Angus Cumberland Pie 400g
A/Angus Cumberland Pie 700g
Liver & Bacon with mashed potato 400g
Pasta Bake - A/Angus meatballs 700g
Lasagne - Mediterranean 400g
Minced Beef Hot Pot 400g
Liver & Onion with mashed potato 300g
Minced Beef Hot Pot With Carrot & Parsnip Mash 300g
Sausage & Mash 400g
Shepherds Pie 400g
Shepherds Pie 700g
Yorkshire Pudding 350g
Leak and Bacon Pasta 400g
Sandwich Filler Tuna Mayonnaise 179g
Roast Chicken Pie 210g
Roast Chicken Pie 550g
Steak Pie 550g
Deep and Crispy Pizza-Ham & Pineapple 375g
Deep and Crispy Pizza 5 Cheese & Pepperoni 595g
Thin & Crispy Pizza-Cheese & Tomato 430g
Thin & Crispy Pizza-Pepperoni 410g
Thin & Crispy Pizza-Cheese & Tomato 280g
Thin & Crispy Pizza-Ham & Pineapple 260g
Thin & Crispy Pizza-Pepperoni 260g
Caramelised Onion, Feta & Rosemary Pizza 460g
Roast Vegetable Pizza 300g
Cheese and Tomato Pizza 545g
Shepherds Pie 400g
Colmans Seafood Sauce - 250ml
Colman's Prawn Cocktail Sauce " litre (Catering size)
Coleman's Prawn Cocktail Sauce
Worcester Sauce 150ml
Crosse & Blackwell Worcester Sauce - All sizes
Seafood Sauce 180g
Weight Watchers - Shepherds Pie - 320g
Weight Watchers - Beef hot pot - 320g
Weight Watchers Chicken in BBQ Sauce 330g
Heinz Shepherds Pie 340g
Heinz Shepherds Pie 340g (2 for £1.50)
Heinz Lamb Hot Pot -340g
Heinz Lamb Hotpot - 340g (2 for £1.50)
Tomato Juice Cocktail 125ml & 200ml
Pot Noodle: King Pot Beef & Tomato
Pot Noodle: Mini Pots Beef & Tomato
Pot Noodle: 'The Sizzler' Bacon Flavour
Pot Noodle: Beef & Tomato Flavour
Pot Noodle: Hot Dog & Ketchup Flavour
But seriously: would you eat of this garbage even if it wasn't contaminated? Sausage sandwich filling? Deep and crispy pizza? (surely an oxymoron) So Good Chicken Caesar? Tomato and bacon family bake? It is rogues' gallery of processed cack.
Posted by Mark at 7:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Royal Mail
A couple of weeks ago we (the Kennington Association) went to see the Royal Mail to complain about the piss-poor service we get in this part of London. Mainly they deliver to the wrong houses, but they are also known to cut open credit card deliveries, and dump the post in the street. A few months ago I got some mail addressed to the same number house in Kennington Road. I ran out and handed it back to the postman:
"You mean: this isn't Kennington Road?" he said - looking back in the direction he had come.
A trip to the local delivery depot at Crampton Street off the Walworth Road explains it all. It is like visiting British industry circa 1974. The picture above is the (out of order) fruit machine, it was surrounded by cruddy old chairs spilling their foam, with the seats bashed in. Everything was covered in fag ash and dust. I wonder why the management have chosen to meet us (a small delegation of locals from the Kennington Association together with Valerie Shawcross our tireless GLA member) in such a cruddy room. Perhaps they want to show the conditions they operate in. The room is an eloquent testimony to the lack of respect with which they treat their workforce. They talk head-shakingly about the difficulties of "staff retention". No shit.
I ask them why they don't answer their customer service phone. They are too busy, they say. Have they heard of answerphones, I enquire. Do they not have a fax? It's broken, they say. I ask them if they have any figures for misdelivered mail. No they don't. Do they keep any statistics on how they are doing? Apparently not. The word "management" clearly describes what they do very loosely indeed. They rely on the regulator Postcomm measure how well (or badly) they are doing.
This morning it was announced that the Post Office are going to lose their monopoly on letter delivery 15 months early. It is very sad. The Post Office was fantastic, but it was badly served by not being privatised 10 years ago. It's had many years of shitty management, thanks to the malign neglect of the arts graduates in Whitehall. It's been starved of investment and forced to keep its prices unfeasibly low. (Compare delivery charges with France or Germany). I suggest to the management that they lobby for higher prices. Val Shawcross looks at me as if I have just arrived from Mars and starts talking about pensioners. Pensioners need an efficient postal service too. It doesn't matter how cheap it is if it's crap.
Working for the Post Office now has all the allure of working as a hospital porter ... Theft, which was almost unknown ten years ago, is now common.
It reminds me of a trip I took to Italy in 1999 working for Amazon.co.uk who were opening up in Europe. They wanted to decide which European countries were worth building online bookselling businesses in. I went to see a mom-and-pop internet bookstore in Milan run by an affable Italian. What were the problems, I asked him. There were three, he said. There were many, many publishers in Italy, he complained, and they were too small and many did not possess faxes let alone emails. How to know what was available? Even the big publishers like Mondadori did not know for sure what was in their warehouses, because they didn't use electronic data interchange (EDI) to track their stock. All they could say for sure was that a book might be in stock. But even that wasn't the main reason for the business's unsuccess. Online selling is essentially a mail order business and there is no mail order sector in Italy ...
"Why?" I asked.
"The postmen steal the post," he said.
Poor Italians, I thought then. But what happened to them is happening to us.
Posted by Mark at 5:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2005
Ajax of Israel
The hardcore fans of the great soccer club Ajax of Amsterdam play under the Star of David and shout "Joden, joden" (Jews, Jews). According to Le Monde the opposition supporters then go "sssssss" in imitation of the sound of gas escaping - a reference to the gas chambers. The habit of using the Jewish flag dates is said to date from a visit by a London club with a traditionally Jewish following - Tottenham Hotspur (known to their opponents - and sometimes themselves - as "Yiddos") in a European match in the early 1980s.
Holland is changing, as the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh have proved. It is no longer a haven of easy tolerance, where anti-semitism is a jokey pantomime. Ajax's positioning as "Jewish club" is coming in for stick. John Jakke the club President has pointed out in a letter to supporters that actual Jews don't like coming to the club's matches to listen to the barrage of anti-semitic insults that Ajax are treated to by the opposition fans: "Hamas, Hamas, the Jews should be gassed."
An old official of the club - himself Jewish - found himself surrounded by Feyenoord fans giving Nazi salutes during an away match recently and having previously been tolerant of the affectation, decided it had gone too far.
Some years ago my own club signed Samassie Abou - an African player from the French club Cannes. For many years black players in Britain had been booed by racists in the crowd. West Ham (along with Everton) was one of the more racist clubs - at least by reputation. Whenever Abou played the hardcore supporters at West Ham would shout "Abooooooooooou ...!" It was both a way of supporting the club and a reference to the old habit of booing blacks. But is was also: a boo. It was unnerving.
Posted by Mark at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I.E. 7 "only for Windows XP with SP2"
The latest rumour says the new MS browser will be limited to Windows XP Service Pack 2 users and later. It won't work with Windows 2000, ME, or 98.
I.E. 6 is a very slow, very under-featured product these days. It doesn't block pop-ups, it doesn't read RSS, its Active X controls are an invitation to scammers, it takes twice as long as Firefox to deal with most pages ...
But would MS really have the nerve to limit an upgrade to XP SP2 users ...? It would be ceding a lot of the market to the competition.
Posted by Mark at 12:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2005
Smells like trouble
Posted by Mark at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 4, 2005
Iran - no invasion "yet"
Condoleeza Rice said that a US attack on Iran was not on the agenda. She then explicitly threatened that this situation might change if Iran did not recognise Israel and stop aiding its enemies.
She also commented that the US would not get involved in the Abbas-Sharon summit. The local players, she said, had to take "responsibility".
At a Christmas party I mentioned to two Persian friends that I felt US action against Iran was inevitable. They looked at me with horror. They don't want to see it coming. But come it will. The neo-cons are people who have published their manifesto . They believe in reshaping the world through US military power. They will do as they have promised, irrespective of the tut-tutting of the socialists and centrists of Europe. The Bush administration is going to behave in the Middle East as 70's and 80's administrations behaved in Central America. They will knock over hostile régimes, even at the cost of a regional insurgency. This is how Bush will spend his political capital: securing 60 years of oil flow and protection for Israel. Syria and Iran are both militarily weak, politically weak. No interventions by the UN, or by Europe, will save them.
Posted by Mark at 6:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rational architecture
A sure sign of a dysfunctional building is one where the staff have attached labels - like this. Seen at the Barbican in the City of London.
(Who built it, incidentally? No one seems to want to take the credit ...)
Posted by Mark at 3:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 2, 2005
UK schools "getting worse"
The UK schools inspector has attacked schools' performance.
Although examination standards - affected by political pressure for improvement - are getting higher and higher, David Bell has found that "the proportion of schools where teaching was "only satisfactory" or unsatisfactory was slightly higher than last year, at just over a quarter." He has found the worst 10% of schools are showing no sign of improvement.
This is clearly a management issue. Government and local authority control of education should be abolished. An independent authority - like the Bank of England - should be established to set standards.
The political micro-management of education by both left and right has been a disaster. Let parents choose the schools that correspond to their needs. The inspectorate should remain. Let the voluntary sector look after schools in areas where parental choice doesn't have enough impact.
Posted by Mark at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Five million Germans on the dole
The incredible statistic is that there are now five million unemployed Germans . This is a consequence of tragic mis-government, choking off job-creation with huge taxes.
The consequences of this were very obvious in Berlin last November. The new buildings in Berlin had been created by departments of state, Laender or multinational corporations like Sony or Universal. There was next to no evidence of private enterprise - small shops, stalls, bars, businesses. The result was a city that felt faintly dead ...
My German friend Tom says that people in Germany still expect to get a job with a big company and keep it for life. But clearly, fewer and fewer do.
Posted by Mark at 2:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack