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Why Schedule Tweets?

Over the last couple weeks I’ve had the chance to have several good conversations about social scheduling. One of the areas of discussion (specifically related to Dashter) is – why schedule tweets?

It’s a good question – and requires having a little familiarity with Twitter, but here’s my short answers…

Etiquette: When someone logs on to Twitter, they’re going to see a stream of the latest tweets in their “home” display. This is true for most clients like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck as well. Generally, there’s an implicit assumption that when you log in you’ll see a stream of the latest tweets from around your social circle. But, if someone you’re following logs in and posts all their tweets all at once, that tweet stream fills up with just them. It’s not particularly courteous.

You’re Missing the Spread: One of the best advantages to spreading your tweets out throughout the day is that you can cover the whole audience. Remember – 7am on the East Coast is 4am on the West Coast – and that’s just in the US. If you’re trying to reach / appeal to a global audience, the clock never stops – and twitter adoption continues to rise globally. Remember, Twitter is attempting to position itself as the “universal” social network thanks to the low adoption threshold (140 text characters can be managed by just about any cell phone on the planet) – so global audience & reach is essential. Assume that your audience logs in to Twitter once or twice per day and scans 20-30 tweets, and that’s it. Wouldn’t you like to increase the odds that they’ll see your tweet?

Tweets Don’t Last Very Long: There’s a couple schools of thought in terms of “how long” a tweet lasts on the network. That’s because of the signal vs. noise challenge. In general, I’ve heard that Tweets have a “lifespan” of anywhere from 5-15 minutes; all the way up to 2 hours. After that, it really has run its course. By and large, people don’t interact with Tweets older than a few minutes.

Maintain Multiple Conversations: If you get involved in a couple simultaneous conversations on Twitter, suddenly you will be posting multiple replies over a span of a very short period of time. By scheduling tweets, you can spread out the likelihood of holding one conversation at a time – allowing you to carry on better one-on-one conversations than if you have to have many at the same time.

The Signal vs Noise Challenge: There is a lot of noise on Twitter. Even the best selected group of people to follow will result in a wealth of conversations and “starters” that really don’t matter to you. The same will be true of the people who follow you… Some people will be deeply engaged, but generally few will be interested in your individual messages. That’s the advantage of the short lifespan of a Tweet. But how do you overcome the noise? By seeding your tweets throughout the day via scheduling, you’ll have more chances to have your message reach its audience and provide true signal than if you posted all your messages simultaneously.

Heavy Active User Paradox: It would make sense that your messages will be more effective if the people you engage with, follow, and follow-back were all heavy active users on Twitter. They’d be ready to spread your message, right? But the paradox is that active users on Twitter tend to interact and engage with heavily active users on Twitter. So the signal processing gets overrun again…

Here’s what I mean: If you are followed by someone who follows 10 people (and each person posts 1 message per day) you have a 1/10 (10%) chance of being “read.”

But if the person who follows you follows 100 people, and each person posts 10 times per day, any single message now has a “read” chance of 1/(100*10): 0.1%.

That’s the challenge with Twitter – as people find more interesting people to follow they end up hitting a wall of signal. So how do you improve the likelihood that your message will at a minimum get viewed (and hopefully RT’d, quoted, replied-to, or curated)? You schedule your tweets to spread them across the potential audience-online timeframe.

Remember – if someone logs in to Twitter and browses through their last few messages, they’re only 1-click away from your profile to view all your latest tweets, so your tweets should always be interesting and a reflection of you. You want your messages to be quality and consequential, but you ultimately want them to be read and ideally engaged with. By using scheduling, you can reach a broader audience, have better engagement with the people who follow you, and improve your objective outcomes on Twitter.

2 thoughts on “Why Schedule Tweets?”

  1. Dave, thanks for laying out the reasons for scheduling. I use a few different tools for scheduling and have no problem with it. As long as people don’t just conduct one-way promotion all the time and are willing to engage, then they won’t come off like a robot.

    1. Hey Mitch, thanks for the comment! I agree with you wholeheartedly – self-promotion, whether scheduled throughout the day or blasted in a rush of tweets – isn’t effective at scale. The report spam button is there for a reason; and I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter gets even more agressive about rooting out spammers.

      However, on the flip-side, I think by adopting scheduling and a real rapport with an audience, dropping in the occasional “Here’s what I’m working on…” tweet becomes far less intrusive.

      What does your scheduling strategy look like? Do you focus on a certain outcome, or focus on audience perception? Do you measure the results – or are you going more towards a “golden rule” approach where you just try to tweet how you’d like to be tweeted-at?

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Monday, October 20, 2008

The "Disclosure Project" Part 2

Now we have Lt. Col. Dwynne Amesson's testimony, he has three experiences relating to ufo's. Firstly whilst working at Ramstein Air Force base in Germany in the early sixty's in charge of the Cryptograph centre he read a message that said a ufo has crashed on the Island of Spitzberg in Norway and a team of scientists were coming up to investigate the incident. Secondly whilst assigned to the 28th Air Division Great Falls Montana in charge of communications he received a message confirming Robert Salas's situation with the missile silo's. Lastly when Commander of a unit Great Falls Castle Air Force station Maine. Security police from Loren Air Force Base stated that ufo's were seen near nuclear weapons. -
2Mins The Ninth witness

Mr Hartland Bentlybetween 1957 and 1959 he was a PFC in the US Army stationed North of Washington DC close to Aldeny Maryland in May 1958 at 6:00am he heard a noise that sounded like a pulsating transformer! ( This is the same noise my own close encounter made!) He states that the craft was headed for the ground and impacted causing several bits to fall off - then the craft took off again. The next night whilst on duty, the Gettysburg missile base phoned him and stated that there were 12 to 15 ufo's hovering at 50-100 feet above him. Hartland asked "what do they sound like" the caller took off his head set and said listen to them. The sound was the same obviously more of them though so Hartland immediately switched on his radar and got the blip just outside the ground clutter. He then marked it on his radar, The ufo's took off andwhen the scope came round again they were 2/3rds the way off the screen. To acheive this the craft would have to have a constant velocity of 17000 mph! Ten years later whilst on a classified project in California at 2-3:00am he heard a Houston astronaught com link which stated that a ufo was on a collision course with the module going round the Moon! -

4Mins The Tenth witness

Next we have two statements from John Maynard - a retired sergeant 1st class who had access to VERY sensitive documents! When he first came to office he had to sign for well over 2000 documents. He states that in order to sign and inventory these documents he had to know what they were about. He checked every document to ensure it was complete so that when hehanded the office over to the next person everything would be in order. He goes on to state that there were many, many references to UFO's including MPIC PICTURES also that ufo's HAD in fact been targeted! His department worked on Salt one and Salt two areas and were taking photos all the time for verification of nuclear disarmament and there were OBJECTS in those pictures that did not belong there!
His second statement is that so called BLACK PROJECTS do in fact exist and he was invited to be a part of them - which he declined! -

3Mins The Eleventh witness

Sergeant Karl Wolf was a Precision Electronics Photographic Equipment Engineer with a top secret CRYPTO clearance based at Langley Air Force Base Virginia. Mid1965 he was loaned to the NASA Lunar Orbiter Project at Langley Field. A doctor Colly was in charge and had some faulty equipment to be repaired at the facility. Karl was stunned to see so many scientists from all over the world at the facility. Whilst repairing the equipment a fellow airman second class as he was at that time Showed Karl pictures of a BASE ON THE BACK SIDE OF THE MOON!! The photographs CLEARLY showed structures - Mushroom and spherical shaped buildings with two towers! Karl left that job expecting it to be mentioned on the news over the next few days! 30 YEARS LATER - HERE IT IS!!!!-

2Mins The Twelfth witness

Could this video be showing the structures filmed by Armstrong in 1969?
Lunar Base? 6Mins

UFO seen on Moon 2Mins

Donna Hare introduces herself as an employee of Nasa as a design illustrater/draughtsman who did the launch and landing slides/lunar maps a contractor that most of the time worked on site in building eight. Whilst doing extra work between missions walked into a photo lab oposite and was shown a photo with a ufo on it! She was informed that these pesky little creatures had to be removed from the photos before releasing to the public. A guard told her thaat when he was asked to burn some photos he was told not to look at them - of course he looked and was knocked out by the guard watching him! She states that some people new about this while others even people next to her didn't! -

4Mins The Thirteenth witness

Now we have Larry Warren who was a security officer at Bentwaters (Rendlesham to us Brits). He states that he was guarding nuclear weapons stored at the facility (without the knowledge of us brits i might add) He clarifies that an incident did occur with aliens at that site over a period of three days. Supporting Col. Charles Halt's own versionof events! -
2Mins The Fourteenth witness

George filer first encountered ufo's in 1962 when he was asked to chase one! He managed to get a firm radar contact at 40 miles and went over the planes red line chasing the thing, once he had made visual contact the ufo took off into space similar to the space shuttle when it takes off!
George then began briefing fellow officers about ufo's in Vietnam and later whilst at Maguire Air Force base in 1976 briefed a general about an incident in Iraq air space
In 1978 on January 18th When entering the base George noticed some lights in the distance at the end of a runway - This was a ufo that had landed and when the alien came out from the craft he was challenged and shot! Wounded the alien tried to get to the Air Forcebase next door but was found dead not far from where he landed! George had to de-brief the man that shot the alien and was told to talk to the base commander - Then was told not to as it was too sensitive a situation!!! -

4Mins The Fifteenth witness

Sgt. Clifford Stone US Army tells how we have recovered extra-terrestrial objects and has himself been involved in these recovery operations - In 1969 he had an event that happened to him involving the recovery of such a craft whilst stationed at fort lee Virginia he went to Indian town gap pensylvania this was his first experience at recovering an Unidentified Flying Object. He was part of a back-up team as there were supposed to be nuclear materials involved in the operation. -

2Mins The Sixteenth witness

Andy Bell

These journals continue........Oct 21


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CKY: "Halfway House" from Volume 1

CKY: Volume 1

After Rio Bravo Reprise (tacked onto the end of "To All Of You"), there's some very low feedback for about ten minutes or so, before this number starts up. Originally there was meant to be a studio argument in this silence.

How to find it: Begins at 19:37 of track #9 ("To All of You ")

Submitted by: Lumiere, cavalierlion74

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Arizona: Part 1

When we got to the airport in California they almost didn't let me on the plane without buying a ticket for Isaac. You see, they thought he was two! I assured them that he just turned one but they had to go and get a supervisor. The lady studied him and said that she would let me go this time but I need to carry proof with me from now on. Yes ma'am! We made it through check point with no problems but when we got to the gate and saw that our flight had been delayed an hour, I flipped... What was I going to do with Isaac for an hour and a half!?! He was all over the place and entertained EVERYONE that was waiting! By the end of the flight he had made MANY friends. When we landed we had to wait at the bottom of the gate for the stroller and Isaac waved to every person that walked out of the plane. I was shocked when they all waved back and said, "Bye Isaac!" THEY KNEW HIS NAME!!!
Isaac still has a runny nose so he's been on and off drama all day! It's nice to have the extra help when he's being a little mama's boy! He loves the extra attention too!!! We went to the tennis courts because Papi was giving lessons to a bunch of little kids. Isaac grabbed a racket (a full size racket because he would have nothing to do with a little one) and joined right in. It's amazing how, even at one, they think they know everything!
He is telling everyone how old he is... I should have had him do this for the airport workers!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sick Boy

My poor Isaac is sick and we're flying to Arizona tomorrow! I pray all goes well... Daddy is staying home so it's just the little guy and mommy!

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sharks and Kittens

Last month Isaac's best friend was Jaws. When he first met Mr. Shark he wasn't so sure about his teeth. BUT, within a few days, the shark was getting Isaac's open mouth kisses. He still likes Jaws but this month his best friend is Ball the kitten (everything is named ball because that's Isaac's favorite thing). When he saw this kitten at the store he just had to have her. He completely overlooked the lion, dog, elephant, and monkey and began to meow as he reached for the kitty. Isaac is definitely all boy but I'm glad to know that he has a sensitive side too!

Mr. Jaws

Reading to the kitten

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

It's no surprise that Isaac's favorite shoes are his orange crocs from Halloween! We let him wear them around the house and for quick trips to the store but when we go to church, he has to leave them at home. However, last Sunday he got to wear them to Sunday School. You see, we left his brown pair at Papa and Nana Elliott's house and none of his other shoes fit! It seems that his feet grew overnight! I was so embarrassed of his pumpkin feet!

I decided that this week we had to go shopping! Isaac has chubby feet so it wasn't easy finding shoes that were wide enough, not to mention reasonably priced! I don't get why kids shoes are so expensive!? I loved his Nikes and DVS but they were gifts and they exceeded my limit. He's growing way too fast to spend a lot of money! Anyway, we were successful and he now has some comfy, cool shoes!

Can you tell I'm all about the Velcro? Isaac won't hold still long enough to have shoes that tie!
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I'm so funny I'll knock your socks off!

"I'm not going to laugh... I'm not going to laugh. I know I'm funny and you're dying laughing at me right now, but I'm not going to laugh! I'm strictly here to entertain and get attention. No fun for me... I'm all business!!"

"I can't hold it in anymore! I'm SOOOOO funny... Daddy's socks are so funny! What would life be like without me? Laundry would be so boring. I mean, come on, I'm the life of the... LIFE! Ahhh, I do it with such class too! No one else can rock the shades and the Mickey Mouse diapers quite like me!"
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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sea World

For Christmas Shaun, Isaac, and I got Sea World passes (thanks mom and dad)! We have so many great memories of being there when we were kids so the anticipation of taking Isaac wouldn't let me sleep last night! It's so wonderful to be able to pass on to Isaac what our parents gave to us... A loving childhood with exciting adventures! We had a splashing good time and I'm pleased to say that Sea World is VERY little kid friendly. It's not very often that parks are this clean and bother to think of the toddlers! We love you Shamu!
The Great Killer Whales

The Shamu Show

The first thing we saw were the dolphins and Isaac absolutely loved them. It's not very often that he holds this still!

The Higgins Fam (do you like my new jacket? Well, I DID! Too bad I'll never wear it again. I left it at Sea World!)

The Cope Fam (can you spot baby Cassidy? Yeah, I don't believe she's due in less than a month either!)

Carson and Isaac enjoying a snack at the Clyde and Seamore's Risky Rescue Show!

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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Slap Happy

Last night Isaac was full of giggles. Non stop belly laughs that started at 6:30 and lasted 'til bed time... I was a little scared at 7:59 when he was still cracking himself but as soon as I turned the light out, he was out! 8 o'clock on the dot!

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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Baby to Big Boy!

It is really hard to type when you have a band-aid on your pointer finger. BUT, it's even harder to work the mouse on a lap top with a band-aid on your pointer finger. I have to use my middle finger. A word of advice: When cutting veggies, make sure your finger is out of the way! Ouch!

Moving on to the point of this post...

Last night we realized that our baby Isaac was no longer a baby! It seems like everyday I go back and forth between him being a baby and a big boy. When I'm holding him in my arms he's my baby but then when he learns something new he's my big boy! Well, last night was the first time we finally came to terms that he is forever going to be a big boy. Mainly because last night was the first time he looked like a big boy. I have posted before about Isaac's golden locks... He has the pretties blonde curls! However, we decided that it was time to cut them off so that people would stop saying, "oh, your little girl is so cute" (even though HE is always dressed in blue with HIS ugly orange crocs). Shaun grabbed the clippers (as I rushed for the camera) and began cutting away. Isaac did surprisingly well... Until it was time to do the other side of his head. The second half of the adventure was rough. Isaac was mad and ready to be done. Most of his hair is about an inch while some spots are still three inches. His hair is baby fine so it was hard for the clippers to catch every piece. I'm looking forward to fixing it!

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Sunday, January 4, 2009

Best Buds: Then and Now

Then..... (Isaac four mo. and Austin three mo.)

.....Now (ten months later)

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Thursday, January 1, 2009

I Bought a Maternity Sweater...

Did I get your attention? Are you totally thinking I'm prego? Weeeelllllll, sorry to disappoint you... but I'm NOT! I didn't realize it was a maternity shirt until I was trying it on in the dressing room. That's when I saw that it was a "big belly" sweater. But it was too late by then, I had to have it! It lays right against my tummy... Probably because it's an extra small. After wearing it all day it seemed to stretch a lot though. Hopefully with a good wash and a spin in the dryer it will shrink back down!

One more thing... I applaude those that can wear skinny jeans. I tried on a pair and I felt so claustrophobic!.. If that's even possible!.. You know what I mean!


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2014 Highlands Reading List
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2012 Highlands Reading List

Links, Ideas, Activities, and Events

Each year we present a list of books that we would like to call to your attention as being noteworthy. We hope that you will find a book on this list to enjoy and spend time with while on vacation or when you are on travel. This year we and our guest reviewers have a robust list of twenty-four books (including four works of fiction), covering biography, economics, history, information technology, science fiction, mathematics, gaming, comparative politics and sociology, contemporary conflict studies, and current events.

If you would like to recommend a favorite book to us, please let us know.

Annual Reading List 2012

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All-region teams: Taylor, Harris earn top honors in 4-AAAAAA

Here is the all-region team for 4-AAAAAA, as voted by the league’s coaches:

Offensive player of the year: RB Taurean Taylor, Tucker, Jr.

Defensive player of the year: LB Mike Harris, Lovejoy, Jr.

First-team offense

QB – John Seter, Lovejoy, Sr.

RB – Zion Custis, Lovejoy, Jr.

RB – Jaylen Marson-Knight, Stephenson, Sr.

OL – John Kelly, Mundy’s Mill, Sr.

OL – Tremond Shorts, Lovejoy, Sr.

OL – Solomon Lightfoot, Lovejoy, Jr.

OL – Jalil Irvin, Stephenson, Jr.

OL – Dylan Wunnom, Tucker, Jr.

TE – Cameron Richardson, Tucker, Sr.

WR – Marquese Taylor, Lovejoy, Sr.

WR – Josh Vann, Tucker, Jr.

First-team defense

DL – Antonio Showers, Tucker, Jr.

DL – Aaron Sterling, Tucker, Sr.

DL – Tyree Leonard, Mount Zion, Sr.

DL – Ivan Staples, Stephenson, Sr.

LB – Michael Makins, Stephenson, Sr.

LB – Gerry Vaughn, Tucker, Jr.

LB – Anthony Menchaca, Drew, Jr.

DB – Eugene Brown, Tucker, Sr.

DB – Carlito Gonzalez, Stephenson, Sr.

DB – Meshael Custis, Lovejoy, Sr.

DB – Hassan Littles, Stephenson, Sr.

First-team special teams

P – Seadrick Phlegh, Mount Zion, Sr.

K – Adam Lippy, Tucker, Sr.

Second-team offense

QB – Xavier Shephard, Tucker, Sr.

RB – Cedric Davenport, Drew, Jr.

RB – Emmanuel Clark, Mount Zion, Sr.

OL – Jared Preston, Mount Zion, Jr.

OL – Noah Tucker, Drew, Sr.

OL – Terrell Paxton, Tucker, Jr.

OL – Miles Best, Lovejoy, Jr.

OL – Will Rogers, Lovejoy, So.

TE – Darius Snellings, Mundy’s Mill, Sr.

WR – Jayden Thomas, Lovejoy, Sr.

WR – Khalil Newton, Stephenson, Sr.

Second-team defense

DL – Calder Marria, Jonesboro, Sr.

DL – Malik Astin, Lovejoy, Jr.

DL – Hardrick Willis, Mundy’s Mill, Sr.

DL – Brandon Blake, Lovejoy, Sr.

LB – Brian Strozier, Tucker, Sr.

LB – EJ Burton, Mount Zion, Jr.

LB – Gethro George, Stephenson, Sr.

DB – Thomas Wallace, Lovejoy, Sr.

DB – Shan Jolly, Stephenson, Sr.

DB – Jalen Jefferson, Tucker, Jr.

DB – Lenox Copeland, Mount Zion, Sr.

Second-team special teams

P – Josh Vann, Tucker, Jr.

K – Shane Smith, Lovejoy, Sr.

Honorable mention: QB Gary Tyner, Drew, Sr.; RB Chris Broadwater, Tucker, Sr.; WR Dayton Wade, Lovejoy, So.; WR Nelson Armour, Drew, Sr.; WR DeMaje Carter, Mount Zion, Jr.; WR Jamal Patton, M.L. King,.; OL Jaden Cunningham, M.L. King, Sr.; OL Lawrence Terrel, Lovejoy, Sr.; OL Cedric Heard, Tucker, Sr.; DL Nelson Armour, Drew, Sr.; DL Ramon Hill, Mount Zion, Jr.; DL Marlon Rowden, Lovejoy, Sr.; DL Justin Fergerson, Lovejoy, Sr.; DL Jalen Pugh, Jonesboro, Sr.; LB Tre Leslie, Tucker, Jr.; LB Myrick Walker, Drew, Sr.; LB Terrance Mais, Mundy’s Mill, Sr.; LB Monte Smith, Lovejoy, Sr.; LB Roman Victor, Mount Zion, Sr.; DB Kimani Donaldson, Mundy’s Mill, Sr.; DB Michael Latimer, Drew, Jr.; DB Caleb Jones, Lovejoy, Jr.; DB Malachi Buckner, Tucker, Jr.

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Hike New Hampshire
Trips in NH

Whiteface From the base of the mountain, in the Ferncroft parking lot, the summit of Whiteface looks ominous, but beautiful. And when you can get the weather to cooperate with you, the trip is one of the most scenic in the White Mountains.

The trip to the summit is approximately 3.4 miles along the Blueberry Ledge trail, the most sensible route if you only plan to go for the day. The Blueberry Ledge Cutoff is a nice diversion along a ridge that descends to a running brook if you don't mind adding some distance to your hike.

The hike begins on a dirt road outside of the Ferncroft parking lot and follows the road for about 1/8 mile through what looks like people's front yards. However, there are signs that direct you towards the trail, so you know you're going the right way. Once you enter the woods, you walk about 200 yards before the junction of the Blueberry Ledge cutoff presents itself.

Blueberry Ledge Cutoff

If you decide to take the cutoff, you will follow a ridge on a steady uphill climb, until you reach the ledge itself, about a mile and a half. Rob and I decided to bypass the cutoff because the information center in the parking lot indicated the trail was still in rough shape from the ice storms we had this past winter. This proved to be a wise decision, as we learned from two hikers we ran into on our way down. Evidently there are some difficult areas of the trail.

Blueberry Ledge Trail

Rob and I decided that the Blueberry Ledge Trail was the way to go, so we gathered our stuff and prepared for our first trip of the year. Actually, this was to be a short trip to test our gear and be sure nothing was wrong with any of it. Rob at the trailhead This would later prove to haunt us! So we gathered our gear and began the walk past the summer camps and into the woods.

From the beginning the trail was in good shape, with little to keep us from moving at a fairly fast pace. Nothing that is, except for our legs. Although the trail follows a gradual incline at first, we were soon panting and taking breaks to allow our heart rates to drop below 300. As we continued along, periodic views of Mt. Wonalancet, which was surrounded by a slight haze, caught our eye. The bugs were tolerable (with a healthy dose of Ben's 100) and every once in a while we were greeted by tree frogs, which were about the size of a small apple.

After about an hour of hiking, we arrived at the Blueberry Ledge, an area that lives up to its namesake. Limited views from here make it a nice place to rest for a while, but anticipation of the higher elevations got us moving before too long.

Soon after the Ledge, the hiking gets tougher. Inclines increased force your heartrate into orbit, unless you've been training for the Olympics. Rob and I found the large rocks that littered the trail a little trying, but we soon forgot them as the sweat poured into our eyes. Don't you hate the first hike of the year?

For the next mile and a half, no views are available, so it's just pure hiking through the birch, pine, and maple filled woods. Not a bad thing, because your hard work is paid off from the 2.5 mile point and on with fantastic views to the north and south.

Nice View This one Too!

As we got towards the summit, it became clear why the AMC guide says that this can be a dangerous hike during inclement weather. With about 1/2 mile of the summit, the trail consists mainly of steep rocks and narrow passages. Hike gets tough At points, the trek almost seems like mountaineering, worthy of climbing ropes and hardware. However, as long as you move carefully and deliberately, you will make it up with nothing more than a scrape or two (that brown blob in the picture is Rob getting over a rough section).

As always, the summit is well worth the effort. Views of Lake Winnepasauki, Mt. Chocorua, and Passaconaway make this a treasure for outdoor photography enthusiasts.

This is a typical view from the summit. . .
One of the best things about the summit of Whiteface is that it is not The view from camp restricted, meaning you can camp at the summit. Since it is below the tree line, Whiteface has several ideal places to set up a small camp. They are not difficult to find, and they all afford a fantastic view of the surrounding landscape. The photo shown here is the view I had when I woke up. -->

One of the unique parts of Whiteface is a plaque that has been driven into the rock. This plaque seems to have been moved at least once, as there is a section of concrete in another rock, about the size of the plaque that is empty. On this rock is a marker from the US Geologic Survey that indicates the precise location of the mountain. tribute plaque

The trip back down from Whiteface proves to be almost as difficult as the way up. The tough rocks and steep trail make getting from the summit to the lower sections a slow process. But again, with careful steps and some patience, getting back to the parking area is just as scenic, but in half the time.

If you have any questions about the hike up Whiteface, feel free to e-mail me, I'd be happy to try and answer them: Webmasters@hike-nh.com

Copyright © 1999-2008
Chris Oberg & Robert Havasy


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What do you think?

  1. Love the cinema-van! Also check filmmaker Bill Daniel’s “Sailvan,” a 21c version: Sunset Scavenger is an on-going project exploring images and themes of social and environmental collapse in the last decades of the petroleum era. It’s also the name of a 1984 Ford Club Wagon, the Sailvan, and the video show that is projected on its sails, and the coast-to-coast tour that brings the show to your town. The Sailvan — a 2-masted gaff-rigger schooner– functions as tour vehicle, as well as projection screen. The video program is a 2-projector documentary-essay on low-down survival strategies in a world of ecologic and economic collapse.

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Sep 23 2013
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Olove $10K Giveaway: Enter to Win a $10,000 Shopping Spree on

Sep 23, 2013 @ 12:47 PM MDT
The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure.

Through October 8th, head on over here to enter The Olove $10K Giveaway for a chance to win a $10,000 shopping spree at (a site that will be launching this fall and will offer a selection of jewelry, watches, handbags, and accessories). You can snag additional entries by  “liking” Olove on Facebook, following Olove on Twitter, pinning the Sweepstakes on Pinterest, and more. The Grand Prize winner will be selected around October 9th.

Good Luck! 🙂

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Islamic Jim Crow

I believe we are about to witness a curious socio-ideological convergence take place here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Some of you all may be aware of stories out of Australia and other heavily Muslim populated western countries telling how Muslim cab drivers are refusing to provide rides for blind people and their seeing eye dogs. They also don't give rides to people carrying alcoholic beverages.

Most people think this is something that takes place only in foreign countries, but as this news report reveals, it most certainly is not. Apparently, this is a common attitude among many Muslim cab drivers in many of our major cities. The thing is, no one has bothered to report it. More disturbing, people are willing to accommodate their kooky convictions about dogs and booze. The taxi companies in the story from Minneapolis plan to mark some of their cabs, "anti-dog" or "no dogs allowed."

Now there are several places I could go with this story. Let me share two thoughts in no particular order:

1)Christians who are outraged by the ridiculous convictions of these serious minded Muslim taxi drivers need to reevaluate their own convictions along similar lines. For instance, a pro-life taxi cab driver taking a woman to an abortion clinic. Or what about a Christian with convictions against drinking alcohol in any form taking a person to a bar? Moreover, Christians are generally supportive toward those landlords who refuse to rent their property to openly gay couples, or unmarried couples living together. Would they be so toward Muslim landlords who refuse to rent to blind folks who are dependent upon guide dogs?

2) I am curious to see how the ACLU-civil liberties-multi-cultural crowd will respond toward Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to give rides to Jews or perhaps women who have their heads uncovered? Right now, there is this solidarity with underdog (pun somewhat intended) Islamic groups who are bearing the burden of suspicion from their fellow Americans. Everyone wants to bend over backward to accommodate their beliefs for the sake of tolerance. But when those beliefs begin to cut straight across the values of the PC minded how exactly are they going to react? They find themselves between the common sense rock and the heartfelt hardplace.

Blogger thomas4881 said...

Isn't Islam considered apostate christianity? In the Chrisitan view we might think Islam is paganism. In the Muslim view they think allah is the same as yahweh. Taking that into account Islam is apostate christianity. Since Islam started 2100+ years after christianity did with torah.

3:30 PM, October 11, 2006

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HispanicMuslims.com logo

By Asma Gull Hasan,
Pakistan Link Writer
February 2002

Latino in a Shalwar Kameez: "Whoa I'm a Muslim"
When I was in middle school, I remember reading a story book about Tariq bin Ziyad, the general of the Muslims who had conquered Spain in 711. These Muslims later became known as the "Moors" after the reconquest of Spain by Christians. The Moorish influence on Spain was tremendous - everything from language and architecture to dance and art was affected by Islam and Arab culture. When I learned Spanish in high school, I found out that the Spanish term for the word "there" is "alla" (pronounced "aya") because when the Spanish Muslims pointed to the sky they said "Allah." The locals assumed they were pointing out that something was there in the sky, hence the adaptation of the Arabic word for God to the Spanish word for "there."

The Moors seemed pretty neat to me. So I was disappointed to find out that no Muslims lived in Spain anymore. Though the Moors had intermarried with the Spaniards, the practice of Islam in Spain had ended. Most of the Spanish Muslims had been thrown out under the Spanish Inquisition along with Spanish Jews. The remaining non-Christians converted to Christianity to save their lives. The Christian extremist movement ended a great period in world and Spanish history of multicultural and multi-faith cooperation and achievement.

Yet I was not the only one who had a sense of regret over the Spanish Muslims and the greatness of Islamic Spain. John Cordero was a high school student in Florida when he became intrigued by hip hop lyrics about Islam. He had moved from Caracas, Venezuela to the United States with his mom when he was 12. When he first moved, a few kids made fun of the way he talked and dressed, being different from those who were born here in America. But he learned English and was like almost any other Hispanic high school student. He listened to Brand Nubian, Poor Righteous Teachers, Erik B and Rakim and other Muslim rappers in 1992: "It sounded good, so I wanted to find out what they were talking about."

His curiosity took him a few years later to meeting some 5 percenters, whose militant doctrine did not quell his thirst. The 5 percent doctrine holds the black man as god-like and considers Islam a science. The world is divided into white and black people, with those who are clearly not white but not black either considered black. John felt alienated and confused by 5 percenter theory: "I'm not black. I'm not white. Where do I fit? It's either black or white, no in between. It didn't make sense."

John was back to where he started - a displaced Latino - and began studying all world religions. He was shocked to find that important aspects of Christianity are based on pagan Roman rituals, adopted to the practice of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine and others in the Christian hierarchy so as to make the transition for the masses from paganism easier. He was frustrated: "I had to get to the source, and it had to make 100% sense to me."

He gave Islam another look because he was curious about how Islamic beliefs originated. He was surprised to find that the Qur'an has been preserved since the Prophet Muhammad's time in its original form. He also had abstained from eating pork because he had learned that the pig was a dirty animal and possibly harmful to human health. The more he read of Islam, the more Islam made sense to John. He found that the 5 Percenters' doctrine did not represent true Islam. "Once you study the teachings of the Prophet, you'll see that he'll say that the Arab is not better than another person. Muslims come from all over the world."

The espousement of racial equality was a major draw for the little boy who had come from Venezuela not speaking English and teased on occasion for his background.

Attracted now even more to Islam than ever before, John looked up in his local Miami phone book for a mosque and found one. That day at the mosque, John felt very calm and found the mosque pleasantly quiet. After discussing what his understanding of Islam was, the Muslim man he was speaking to asked him if he was ready to become a Muslim. John knew he wanted to be Muslim and took the shahada, changing his life and taking on the Muslim name Abdur-Rashid. He left the mosque in silence, aware that he had committed to a new lifestyle. As he showered afterwards, as the Muslims at the mosque advised him to do upon conversion, he felt a high he had not experienced before, the joyful realization that he was now a Muslim: "I went to work, and I was on a high. I was like whoa, I'm a Muslim." Rashid had become one of the estimated 40,000 Latino-descent Muslims today in the United States.

Rashid, as he is now called by his Muslim and non-Muslim friends, never saw the Muslim who witnessed his conversion again, but he returns to the same mosque often, like a twenty-first century Moor re-tracing the steps of Spanish Islam. Like the Moors, Rashid, who is 24 years old and an undergraduate student in Journalism at Florida International University, practices among Muslims of other ethnic backgrounds, the majority of whom are Pakistani at his Miami mosque. Before he had taken shahada, he had never known of Pakistanis, mainly because the Pakistani community in Miami is insulated. Soon, he became accepted among the Pakistani-American mosque-goers. "My best friends are Pakistani," says Rashid, pointing out that they taught him a great deal about Islam and also that his core group of friends includes Arab-descent and African-American Muslims as well.

Some of the older Pakistanis sometimes give Rashid odd glances: "Every once in a while, they are like 'Who are you?' A lot of them are really surprised that I'm Hispanic and Muslim." The younger generation and most of the other mosque-goers have be-friended Rashid: "The ones that are my age, we can totally relate on a lot of levels." Like every person who has encountered Pakistani culture, Rashid has been the beneficiary of the "Please eat" attitude. He says, "They [Pakistanis] are generous and hospitable. They always welcome me into their home. They always want me to eat. They are very kind. I'll ask for one glass of water, and they'll give me two. I wonder if this is part of Islam or if it existed before Islam. They're always checking up on me and looking out for me."

His new Pakistani friends have given him many shalwar kameez outfits, which he finds very comfortable and wears to Jumaa prayers sometimes with a kufi prayer cap. Of Pakistani food, Rashid says, "At first, it was too spicy for me, but now I love it - roti and kabob and chai, basmati rice, chicken tikka. I love rasmallai." Rashid has even begun speaking a little Urdu, having learned from his friends including such basics as "Aap kaa haal kya hai?" which means "How are you?" Rashid speaks the Urdu he knows in an almost perfect accent, prompting his Pakistani landlord to call him "'like his own son.'"

Today in the United States, we American Muslims, Pakistani and Latino and of many other racial backgrounds, have the chance to re-create the grandeur of Islamic Spain. In our own practice of Islam in a non-Islamic country, among Muslims of diverse backgrounds and also among those of other religious faiths and backgrounds, we peek through the eyehole on the door to greatness. As Rashid reminded me, the Qur'an was given to all humankind for all time with no preference or favoritism for a particular race or class. American Muslims, in all their colors, live these principles of the Qur'an as the Moors did, celebrating the benefits of multiculturalism and multi-faith diversity.

From Pakistan Link


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Home » News » Currently Reading:

News 3/5/08

March 4, 2008 News 8 Comments

From Bill Shatner’s Ham: "Kaiser said it added 13,000 total members in 2007, which includes an unpublished addition of 20,000 new ‘Charitable Coverage’ members added during the year (the biggest annual increase in that program’s history). Had it not been for the new 20,000 unpaid members, Kaiser would have posted its first annual member loss since 2003. Giving coverage to poor, uninsured people is a noble thing. Using that coverage to hide true membership losses is a new level of dirty." Link.

From Paul Pott: "Re: Stanford. I heard they’ve delayed their Epic go-live over two months and sacked Perot Consulting despite a long-term agreement. Accenture won the job and it will be interesting to see how they handle it. Stanford continues to cut parts of the project out (surgery, barcoding, ED) to see if they can get something live." Unverified, updates welcome.

From Jerry Rivers: "Re: ROI. I’m a grad student and hadn’t heard of you prior to the Ingas thing at HIMSS. I’m hoping you can point me in the right direction. I’m interested in learning about models of ROI for adoption of EMR. Ohio State University Health System posted a paper about their own ROI, but I can’t find anything else like it. Thanks for your beautiful Ingas at the conference." Can anyone help with some citations? I haven’t seen much. Glad you liked the Fake Ingas, although you missed the best one of all (Real Inga).

Listening: The Red Thread. Sadly defunct, but "Wax Museum" makes them immortal in my book.

Vista is a failure in terms of both technology and sales, so does that mean that Windows XP was Microsoft’s last decent OS? I liked Computerworld‘s arguments until they got into that Steve Ballmer "wave your hands over the coffee table" thingie from last year’s HIMSS as the next generation. Still, Microsoft can’t lower the Vista price enough to unload copies because of driver problems, resource hogging, and lack of benefits. Looks like another Windows ME dog.

Palomar Pomerado has a video about its Second Life hospital project.

Legacy Health (OR) bails out of its five-hospital Cerner implementation and goes with Epic. I’m beginning to feel uneasy about Cerner’s prospects. The stock is doing poorly, they’ve laid off staff, projections have been reduced, and the HIMSS booth thing may have had more of a back story (I’ve heard rumblings that they had planned to pull completely out this year). Hospital finances aren’t good, the clinical systems market is surely near saturation, and Cerner’s desperate search for growth in other markets and overseas won’t feed the Wall Street wolves in the near term. Cerner is the industry’s bellwether, so if they have problems, so does everyone else (although being publicly traded makes theirs much worse).I hope they do well, but the signs aren’t good.

Speaking of that, I weigh in tomorrow in Inside Healthcare Computing: Clinical Systems are Cooling Off: What Systems Will Drive the Market Now?

My reader survey is here if you’d like to set HIStalk’s direction. Thanks. Speaking of voting, Cerner’s HIMSS pullout is running 73% "Good Idea" in the reader poll to your right.

A couple of vendors who exhibited at HIMSS say they’ll write something up to describe the experience (cost, traffic, problems, etc.) Your thoughts are welcome, especially if you run the company and can assess value received (I’ll use only de-identified info, of course).

MUSC picks Oacis for its data warehouse.

The New York Times runs a piece (This Blood Test Is Brought to You by …) on the ad-sponsored Practice Fusion EMR, with a screen shot showing an ad. The company selling ads for them says they can get ten cents per view or more, making it possible to keep giving the app away. Trivia: the product is written in Adobe Flex, which sounds interesting. It doesn’t seem to exactly be selling (or not selling) like wildfire with only a couple of hundred docs using it to some unknown degree.

Optical imaging vendor Optio Software will be acquired by financial transaction solutions vendor Bottomline Technologies. You probably saw Optio at HIMSS since they have a big healthcare customer base. Or did.

Meditech will open its Fall River building next month, spending at least $40 million the new home to 500 employees. They’ll stick with the plan of open seating, but the water view is nice.

A nurse violates hospital policy and avoids using her hospital employer’s medication barcoding system, killing a patient with another patient’s medication, this time at Marion General Hospital (IN). I think they’re a Meditech shop and a Most Wired hospital in the rural category.

The president of the Massachusetts Senate is pushing a bill that would set aside $25 million for a statewide medical records system and would make it illegal for drug reps to offer gifts or for physicians to accept them.

Sponsor Updates and Housekeeping

Welcome to surprise new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor QuadraMed. I say "surprise" because it came out of the blue after they did an HIStech Report about their Care-Based Revenue Cycle. I nearly turned them down because not all of the conversation about them here has been positive after their recent offshoring decision (or any other broad vendor, but they’re the first to sponsor) and I wanted to be aboveboard about that with them. I give them credit for signing the standard sponsor agreement that spells out that we’ll keep saying whatever we think and believe, sponsor or not.(Disclaimer: I’ve been an Affinity customer and have nothing bad to say about that experience, but I should disclose that bit of history). Anyway, welcome to QuadraMed. I appreciate their support. I interviewed CEO Keith Hagen two years ago. I also saw him in the breakfast line at the Peabody Orlando last week, but that’s hardly newsworthy since half the industry’s leadership seemed to be waiting for a Beeline Diner table and a $13 omelet that doesn’t come with toast.

Speaking of HIStech Reports, a couple of folks have asked if we’re still doing them post-HIMSS because those fancy reprints we did were the first collateral to run out as attendees grabbed them up. Yes, we will continue to do them. They’re a lot of work, but fun.

To your right: you can sign up for updates when I write something new here or for the weekly Brev+IT e-mail newsletter. You can also Google all five years’ worth of HIStalk for people or company names. And, send me secure rumors via the Rumor Report button.

AT&T is handling a voice and mobile broadband in-building wireless network for Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital (PA).

Those sly dogs at EnovateIT snapped a pic of our little autographed signs we made for the HIMSS booths of sponsors (earning Tammi from AT&T an Inga hug for delivering them all over the hall). Notice the crafty way they worked their own logo and cool cart in the picture. I can’t figure out how everyone and their brother was blatantly shooting video and flash pictures all week and I got busted for taking one non-flash Fake Inga picture. Seems like HIMSS should just drop that policy. It’s not like there are nuclear secrets in there.

E-mail me.

Inga’s Update

I am in my post-HIMSS frenzy (which is different from my pre-HIMSS/during-HIMSS frenzies). I am in definitely catch-up mode. The swelling in my feet has finally gone away after too much walking in beautiful shoes and too few places to sit down!

Anyway, I have noticed a few comments on some other blogs about HIMSS in general as well as HIStalk and the HISsies. Here are a few of my favorites. Amy Gleason (of Bond Medical, I guess now Medi-Bond) brought a crew to the HIStalk party (wish I had met them because they sound like a fun bunch) and shares some insights on speakers and the convention in general. The handsome Scott Shreeve provided a great summary of Jonathan Bush’s HISsie acceptance speech. He also says the best part of that evening was chatting with Mr. H and me, which is an incredibly nice thing to say given all the interesting folks there.For a very comprehensive overview, check out John Moore’s Chilmark Research site. He touches on booths and vendors and the overall buzz.

In reading the posts the last few days (here and other places) I have determined I must be the only person who kind of liked McKesson’s Vegas-light inspired booth. Yeah, the booth was huge and flashy but, I found it kind of cool. My biggest complaint about it was that it always seemed congested. Either the setup was not conducive to the number of people and demo stations, or, there were too many people like me who walked through it like a short cut to get on the other side of the hall.

The McKesson talk reminds me of a clever nametag I saw the HIStalk party. A lovely lady had on her nametag that she worked for, “Frequently bashed vendor”. She admitted to me she works for McKesson.

There have been some recent posts about one vendor possibly outselling another, with the loser being the one that actually had a better product. Dog of war said he/she thought it was sad situation and that perhaps vendors should invest more in influence peddling. I think the conversation misses the point. My opinion is that most purchases (other than simple commodity items) should include considerations that go beyond determining what product is “best”. Equally if not more important are factors such as company stability, future product plans, integration capabilities, implementation record, management, etc. If functionality were the only consideration, all we would ever need is a demo CD from each company. There are hundreds of examples of companies in this space that have had slick products but have disappeared because of problems in other areas of the company. Organizations need quality salespeople make sure prospects understand the big picture of the company’s offerings. And, that all being said, of course some salespeople are better than others.

From iphone dude: "It was a good show for us. Going through our leads this morning, we had two booths and we didn’t have a lot of repeat visitors between them. The second booth was a last minute strategy placement which worked out – so yes, the second booth definitely was beneficial. [One of our featured products] got a lot of attention. [Competitor] stopped by at least four times, [another competitor] two or three, and I caught [competitor #3] once. The third competitor rep resorted to subterfuge by switching badges, which I figured out the next day when I stopped by their booth and the same person had a different name. Kinda silly. It was really weird, so we started taking pictures of competitors in our booth." One fun aspect of HIMSS is seeing what the competition is doing and comparing their products to yours. Too bad Mr. H and I didn’t have any cool anonymous blogger cocktail parties to crash.

Two cardiologists plead guilty to embezzling about $840K total from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey. The pair admitted to taking the money and providing no meaningful services in return except for referring cardiac patients. Both face 10 years in prison and $250K in fines.

From I’m Not Inga: "I was one of the vendors in the Siemens booth STALKER section. You know, back behind the control room, at the end of the aisle, near the private meeting rooms, and in front of the restrooms. We had NUMEROUS Histalk readers that found us for the ‘I’m Not Inga’ buttons. And they really had to work to find us. So thanks for playing along and making this a fun HIMSS deal for us. This was our first time exhibiting and it seemed that when we were discouraged by lack of booth traffic, someone would come up looking for a button." Thanks to the fun Active Data Services folks for making me feel like some sort of superstar. I actually wore the button for awhile until a friend saw it and decided he had to have it.

iMedica announces a new program to equip physicians with a tablet PC loaded with iMedica’s EMR/PM software to test for one week. I think that is a great move. I am sure that other vendors offer try and buys, though perhaps begrudgingly. The fact iMedica is promoting their program is smart. Apparently the sales rep will “train” the doctor how to use the program and then the doctor is on his or her own. If a product is easy to use, then the doctor should be able to figure out how to navigate the application – that is, if the physician actually takes the time and effort to try it out and doesn’t just let it sit around on a back desk. I bet car dealers would say that people who take a car home for a weekend test drive are more likely to buy and I suspect iMedica will find similar results.

E-mail Inga.

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Currently there are "8 comments" on this Article:

  1. Re: Jerry Rivers, I found the following publication from HIMSS.org very useful in trying to undrerstand ROI Modeling and understanding various metrics to be measured.
    Beyond Return on Investment: Expanding the Value of Healthcare Information Technology
    by Pam W. Arlotto, MBA, FHIMSS, Patricia C. Birch, MBA, Susan P. Irby, MS

  2. pix at HIMSS – don’t forget that it was just this sort of thing that caused that ugly little tiff between Epic and IDX over the University of Wisconsin contract. Epic came in with pix from trade shows like HIMSS to show that none of the items that were alleged was proprietary…

  3. RE: ROI in healthcare – Lynn vogel has written several articles on ROI in healthcare – a pubmed search for Vogel LH brings several of them up, including one from JHIM Fall 2003 “finding value from IT investments- exploring the elusive ROI in healthcare.” I think there are other articles in that issue related to ROI. Grad students may want to try “return on investment AND healthcare” in pubmed too.

  4. The fake Inga photos were a clever idea, but I was frankly shocked that a vendor of McKesson’s stature (and woman-run as well) would have a model flaunting as a booth draw. Did Pam even know what Relay was doing?

  5. Jerry Rivers, go and ck the govt. grp, AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Qualtiy) as they’ll probably have some reports. They also held a conference last Sept which had a session addressing this topic. You might find copies of the presentations over on the AHRQ site. Went to that session, key takeaway: Common metrics used to measure to measure IT ROI in other industries are ill-suited to healthcare.

    And Inga, you are correct, much more goes into the sale of a product than just technology. I can think of others off the top of my head that have used in advising clients: Channel to market, Service, Pricing and Viability.

  6. Hi Inga,

    I think you were missing my sarcasm (hard to portray in type ;).

    Of course many factors contribute to a healthcare organization’s decision to choose one vendor or another.

    I’m simply suggesting that vendor salesmanship should play a much smaller role than whether the product actually does what it’s supposed to do, how easy (and costly) it will be to implement (custom interfaces, order sets), etc. Company stability should definitely play a role in purchasing decisions, but so should how a company chooses to invest its resources.

    Good evaluation teams are able to separate vendor puffery from evaluating to what extent a system meets their requirements. Good evaluation teams define “good” salespeople as those that are able to provide them with timely, accurate, and honest information . Evaluation teams that allow slick salesmanship and influence peddling to cloud their evaluation of the facts are doing their organizations a disservice.

    Salepeople tasked to sell poorly-interfaced crap don’t want the evaluation to focus on the product itself. Salesman who work for well-financed companies that sell poorly-interfaced crap have more tools and resources at their disposal to shift the focus.

    That said, problems with implementing EMRs are too often blamed on one vendor or another (see today’s story about throwing out Cerner and replacing it with EPIC). As if EPIC is that much cheaper or easier to implement than Cerner. ANY EMR implementation is going to have many of the same challenges…

    I also agree that differentiating “the best” among the leading vendor products is quite difficult – they all have some strengths and they all suck in many ways. There is no “killer app”. But as long as those who purchase systems (and their executives and boards) allow themselves to be sold with the kind of sizzle that only the largest vendors can afford, we’ll be stuck in the status quo.

  7. The Perot out of Stanford rumor, I’ve heard it too. Please consider it still unverified because I heard it from a headhunter trying to dissuade me from taking a job with Perot (so I could go to work for him…).

  8. I’ve also heard the Stanford rumors from someone very high on the Stanford Hospital org chart. Perot is on the way out and Accenture will likely be leading the Epic install. Does Accenture have enough Epic certified resources?

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Sunday, July 10, 2016

Police Racism

Tony Zhou posted incredibly relevant parts of A 1974 Interview about Police Racism with Renault Robinson, a Black Police Officer. Here's just one:

Why Traffic Stops Are More Common for Black People

“About sixty percent of police-citizen conflict starts in a traffic situation. It’s easier to stop a person on the pretext of a traffic violation than to stop him on the street. It’s a lot easier to say, “Your tail light’s out.” “Your plate is dented.” “You didn’t make that turn right.” You can then search his automobile, hoping you can find some contraband or a weapon. If he becomes irritated, with very little pushing on your part, you can make an arrest for disorderly conduct. These are all statistics which help your records.

Certain units in the task force have developed a science around stopping your automobile. These men know it’s impossible to drive three blocks without committing a traffic violation. We’ve got so many rules on the books. These police officers use these things to get points and also hustle for money. The traffic law is a fat book. He knows if you don’t have two lights on your license plate, that’s a violation. If you have a crack in your windshield, that’s a violation. If your muffler’s dragging, that’s a violation. He knows all these little things….

So if they stop the average black driver, in their mind the likelihood of finding five or six violations out of a hundred cars is highly possible…. After you’ve stopped a thousand, you’ve got 950 people who are very pissed off, 950 who might have been just average citizens, not doing anything wrong — teachers, doctors, lawyers, working people. The police don’t care. Black folks don’t have a voice to complain. Consequently, they continue to be victims of shadowy, improper, overburdened police service. Traffic is the big entree.”

Two months ago, NBC in NYC proved this is still relevant. I-Team: More NYPD Officers Say There's Proof of Quota-Driven Arrests.

Officer Derick Waller told the I-Team, "At the end of the month, these officers who don’t have that arrest or those few summonses, they’re pressured to find something. You might not see anything but you go hunting, like bounty hunting for an arrest, locking up some old guy, some homeless guy, finding someone who’s spitting on the sidewalk, and you bring them in."

Officer Adhyl Polanco added, "The problem is, when you go hunting, when you put any type of numbers on a police officer to perform, we are going to go for the most vulnerable. Of course, we’re going to go for the LGBT community, we’re going to the black community, we’re going to those that have no vote, that have no power.”

Maybe it's sinking in where it needs to, Conservative writers explain why they’re now more skeptical of police.

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Thursday, January 12, 2017

Last Night's Political Comedies

I watched a fair amount of the Jeff Sessions hearings yesterday. Samantha Bee is the only one I’ve seen report on the scariest thing I heard him say. When Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked if secular federal attorney’s had anything to worry about he flustered.

Whitehouse: And secular person has just as good a claim to understanding the truth as a person who is religious Sessions: Well I’m not so sure.

That’s really not out of context.

Trevor Noah had Johnathan Chait on to talk about his new book, which sounds very good.

And Jimmy Fallon had a cute segment with Michelle Obama

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31 August 2008

Biting off more than you can chew

One of the principal reasons why Scottish Ministers have tended to keep their mouths shut about matters beyond their competence is that they have no-one to advise them. But, according to Scotland on Sunday, this does not seem to bother the SNP administration:
ALEX Salmond and his ministers are to draw up official Scottish Government foreign policy independently from the rest of Britain, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
The First Minister has decreed that he and other SNP ministers are to declare Scottish Government positions on everything from the future of Nato to the conflict in Iraq, if asked by members of the public.
The major shift in policy is disclosed in an internal memo, leaked to Scotland on Sunday, which changes the way ministers deal with public correspondence. Anyone writing to the Edinburgh administration asking for ministers' views on such "reserved" matters as foreign affairs will now get an official reply, representing the views of the Scottish Government.

All very well, but some foreign affairs are quite complicated. For example, to take a view on how Europe (for want of a better phrase) should react to events in the Caucasus demands careful consideration (although I readily admit that Miliband's blundering about on this matter gives little indication of any thought processes). Similarly, getting 'our boys' out of Iraq without allowing the country to disintegrate may involve some delicate judgements.

And who will advise Scottish Ministers on these matters? Scottish Executive civil servants have no more knowledge of most foreign affairs than any other citizen. I rather doubt that the Foreign Office will be prepared to advise Scottish Ministers.

Furthermore, if Scottish Ministers take an official view on Iran or the Ukraine, they may be asked to justify that view, either in parliament or out of it. They have neither the knowledge or the advice to enable them to do so.

What does this remind you of? Scotland on Sunday reports:
GORDON Brown is preparing to lead his party into the crucial Glenrothes by-election, but only from his neighbouring seat in Kirkcaldy, Scotland on Sunday has learned.
The Prime Minister has vowed to maintain the convention which states that the occupant of No 10 does not actively campaign in by-elections.But the Brown camp is now eyeing up numerous dates in the Prime Minister's calendar over the next two months in his own Kirkcaldy seat, which they may turn into de facto campaigning visits.

Perhaps, it might be the signing of the Lisbon Treaty but turning up late. Alternatively, it might be welcoming the Olympic torch but refusing to touch it.

When will he learn that seeking to triangulate your way out of difficulties merely risks getting the worst of both worlds? If you're going to do it, do it whole-heartedly.

30 August 2008

Music of the week

For insomniacs everywhere.

The video may not be very good; the clothes may be somewhat doubtful. But that was what 1980 was like.

Charlie Dore:

29 August 2008

Where to go on holiday?

Well obviously not the States (even if you could find a reliable airline):

(£ against the dollar; source - BBC)

And Europe is not looking too good, either:

(£ against the euro; source - BBC)

Portobello, once again, I suppose ...

No we can't?

It was an occasion, certainly. (Can you imagine Mr Cameron or Mr Brown attracting 80,000 people to Wembley or Hampden? Even if Sheryl Crow was doing the warm-up?)

A bit too glitzy for my taste, but Americans seem to like that stuff. And our politicians can only dream of being allowed to produce a stream of uncosted pledges which would simultaneously deliver tax cuts and increased public spending. Nevertheless, I cannot deny that it was thoughtfully put together and beautifully delivered.

You may read the text of his speech here.

28 August 2008

What's in a name?

I confess to a pang of regret that Celtic were not drawn in the same group as BATE Borisov of Belarus. Apart from the pleasing alliteration, the football club has the delightful name of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electrical Equipment. Or so I am reliably informed.

Anyhow, these tractor boys have to face Real Madrid, Juventus and Zenit St Petersburg. Not a snowball's chance.

Yes you can

Will you wait up (or get up) for Obama's speech? According to the schedules, it will be shown on BBC Parliament at 4 am tomorrow (Friday) morning. You might also catch it on Up All Night on Radio 5.

Me, I kinda sleep irregular hours anyway. So, sure, I intend to witness what might be extraordinary.

27 August 2008

No excuses

Motes and planks and glass houses. The Guardian reports:

Overweight people were told today there are "no excuses" for being obese as the Conservative party launches a new "responsibility" deal on public health. The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, used a speech to the thinktank Reform, entitled No Excuses, No Nannying, to set out proposals on how the government and business can work together to address problems caused by poor diet, alcohol abuse and lack of exercise.
"Tell people that biology and the environment cause obesity and they are offered the one thing we have to avoid: an excuse," he said.
"As it is, people who see more fat people around them may themselves be more likely to gain weight."

Bigger and bigger

Not sure that I understand demographics. The Times reports:
Forecasts published by the European Commission suggest that Britain will overtake Germany within 50 years as the population rises from 60.9 million today to 77 million.
The projected 25 per cent increase triggered renewed calls for the Government to stem the flow of immigration, which has surged since Labour came to power 11 years ago. Increasing population, together with a rise in the number of elderly people, will heap further pressure on public services, particular the NHS.
Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the report showed a coherent strategy was needed to deal with population growth. “This not only requires an annual limit on immigration, which takes into account its impact on the public service infrastructure and cohesion,” he said, “it also requires us to tackle other issues like family breakdown which have a direct effect on resource use in our country, as well as to improve our skills base.”

If we are all getting older and not breeding sufficiently to maintain the size of the workforce, we will run into trouble like this, reported in The Herald:
The cost of providing the Scottish Government's popular free personal care policy has risen by 15% in a year.
Official figures published yesterday show the cost of delivering the policy rose from £280m to £321m in 2006-07.

Instead of limiting immigration, surely we need to encourage it, so that the workforce will be big enough to pay for the costs of the elderly.

26 August 2008

Senator Obama is a lucky man. Mrs Obama is quite something. The speech may have been corny in places and overly concerned with pressing the appropriate buttons. But the delivery was splendid - Gordon Brown could learn a lot. I don't know about her husband but I'd vote for Michelle as president.

Footie politics

All this talk of a GB football team for the London Olympics seems a bit pointless. It is not as though Jim Baxter, Denis Law and Kenny Dalgleish were still in their pomp. I struggle to think of any current Scottish players who would merit inclusion in a GB squad. Barry Ferguson against Gerrard, Lampard, Cole, Hargreaves et al? McManus against Ferdinand, Terry and co? I suppose Craig Gordon might be in with a shout.

The present English team might not be world-beaters, but it is difficult to see that a leavening of Scottish (or Welsh or Northern Irish) players would effect any improvement. Which is not the point of course. But why play an essentially English team under a GB flag?

On a point of historical interest, there was indeed a GB football team which used to play in the Olympics in, I think, the 1950s. It was composed entirely of amateurs, as in those days professionals (in all sports) were excluded from the Olympics. (How quaint, I hear you respond.) But I think I am correct in asserting that the GB team included Davie Holt, the Hearts full back of that era, who remained an amateur during his time at Tynecastle.

25 August 2008

Great quotes of the Olympics

1. Chris Hoy

Next day, Hoy meets some Scottish journalists. One puts it to him that: 'In the last 24 hours everyone has been offering an opinion on Chris Hoy. But what does Chris Hoy think of Chris Hoy?'
Hoy doesn't miss a beat: 'Chris Hoy thinks that the day Chris Hoy refers to Chris Hoy in the third person is the day that Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse.'

2. Rebecca Adlington

"Someone asked me whether they should make a statue of me somewhere. How daft is that? Who'd want a statue of me with my big shoulders?"

3. Bryony Shaw

Expressing her delight at clinching a bronze in the dramatic windsurfing competition in Qingdao, Shaw told the BBC "I am so fucking happy."

Book morals

It seems to me a little ungenerous, perhaps even distasteful, for someone to describe her mother's dementia in a book which is to be serialised in the sunday papers. But then I suppose Carol Thatcher needed the money.

23 August 2008

Music of the week

Here is - as one of my interlocutors describes it - some more old fogey music. This time Janis Ian:

She wanted to be a mechanic

Internet telly is a wonderful thing. You can watch programmes when you want (within certain limits) - and, if necessary, you can pause them when the telephone rings or when you need to visit the loo.

But they are far from perfect. Habitually, I watch Newsnight Scotland (sad, I know) the following day on the BBC's i-player. (And Mr Brewer's smirk when, at the end of the programme, he mentions that it is available on the i-player really pisses me off.) But this week - for reasons unexplained - Newsnicht for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is simply not available. But, hey, I'm cool; I can live without it.

But ITV's 'Catch-up' equivalent takes the biscuit. This week, ITV3 has been re-showing various episodes of Rebus, for which much credit. But do not, for heaven's sake, try to watch last night's episode on Catch-up (here). Leave aside the obvious difficulties with the sound level. Focus on the fact that in an episode that lasts 90 minutes there are four ad breaks. The show is preceded by two showings of an MOD ad for the Royal Navy; the same ad is repeated three times during the first ad break, three times during the second ad break, four times during the third ad break and four times during the fourth ad break. Just in case you missed it, the same ad is then repeated twice at the end of the show.

I just hope that the MOD is not paying per showing ...

Quote of the day

The best job at the Olympics (here):
Some of the Chinese "volunteers" have a great job as well. You need to pick carefully, though, if you're thinking of doing it in London at 2012. You could end up being the guy who wipes the sweat off the weightlifting podium in between jerks – he didn't look that thrilled. Over by the discus cage, however, the volunteers with the best job in the Games have arrived. They are the two nerdy looking guys who control the jazzy little red cars that take the discuses and the javelins back to the throwing zone after the distance has been measured. These two volunteers just sit on little chairs with their remote controls in hand and guide the cars back and forth. How did they blag that one? I presume that their parents are probably party apparatchiks – book yourself in for that job now is my advice.

21 August 2008

Fans with typewriters?

Were they at the same match? The Herald reports:
Strap yourselves in: Scotland are intent on taking the swashbuckling route to South Africa. George Burley removed any lingering doubt over his intentions for the imminent World Cup qualification process with a cavalier approach to neutralising Northern Ireland at Hampden Park.
As a result, last night's final warm-up was thrilling, adventurous and, in a remarkable change of tack, occasionally over-indulgent. Alas, for all their territorial, technical and tactical superiority, Scotland were tangibly unrewarded.
Nevertheless, this was an experiment rich in promise and possibility.

The Scotsman takes a different line:
Wish fulfilment remained well beyond George Burley's reach last night, when the Scotland manager's hoped-for victory over Northern Ireland failed to materialise. Most worryingly for Burley and the home fans, such a frustration seemed inevitable virtually throughout a largely undistinguished 90 minutes.
The second-half penalty kick substitute Allan McGregor saved from David Healy and the ordering off just minutes before of the Irish left-back, the 18-year-old debutant, Ryan McGivern, were isolated moments of excitement in a match that could not reasonably be used as a measure of the Scots' prospects in their opening World Cup qualifier in Macedonia next month.The Scots for a long time appeared generally ill at ease, deriving in no small part from the way in which they were deployed.

"Thrilling" and "adventurous" or "largely undistinguished"? I suppose it depends upon whether your glass is half-full or half-empty. The fact remains that it was a nil-nil draw.

19 August 2008

It's not rocket science

This may seem like a fairy story, but once upon a time there was a Labour Party which operated a system of succession planning. When an MP was reaching retirement age - admittedly a somewhat flexible concept - a replacement would be (informally of course) identified and he or she would 'nurse' the constituency. When the time came, the replacement would be effortlessly eased into the position of candidate. This may appear to be a species of cronyism and, in one sense, I suppose it was.

But was that system any worse than the chaos that surrounded the prospective Labour candidate for Glasgow East and that now envelops Glenrothes? The SNP appears to have got its act together - why cannot Labour? The late Mr MacDougall was seriously ill for two years but when the worst happens the Labour Party representatives run around like headless chickens - McLeish, May, Rowley? Did nobody think to look ahead?

Is there anyone in charge of the party organisation?

It's all become a bit silly

I blame that Tony Blair. It was he who decreed that Kelly Holmes should be made a dame, just because she won two gold medals. And a precedent was set. Populist, yes, but hardly respectful of honours. I don't remember David Hemery being knighted; and Sir Steve Redgrave had to win oodles of medals before he secured his title.

So now, we face the prospect of Sir Chris, Dame Rebecca and Sir Bradley. How can the government avoid it? Not easily, I suspect.

The only good thing is that it will bring the whole silly honours shooting match into disrepute.

Remember the also-rans

Nice piece from Charlotte Leslie in The Guardian:
I celebrate the magnitude of Olympic glory not as one of the winners, but it means so much to me because I am one of the losers. I used to swim. I never got to Olympic standard, but between the tender ages of 11 and 14, I was a national finalist (backstroke) and Olympic glory didn't seem utterly impossible.
Then my feet didn't grow. I didn't grow. And I subsequently watched several of my 15-year-old rivals zoom ahead, eventually to swim in the Olympics, while for me, four hours of training a day with City of Bristol swimming squad, at 7,000m per session, resulted not in better times, but the slow realisation I just wasn't quite good enough.

Join the rest of us, Charlotte. And just because I never got my marathon time below 3:38 doesn't mean I can't appreciate the effort and talent of the Hoys and Adlingtons.

17 August 2008

No, I don't know what it is. I can't even pronounce it with any certainty.

But they won a gold medal. Must be worth something.

What are the comrades saying?

Dear oh dear. The Sunday Times hits the nail on a sore spot:
A friend of Brown, who is MP for neighbouring Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, said McLeish suffered from “intellectual arrogance”.
He added: “I can’t stand the little bastard. I couldn’t wish it on a nicer man. If he wins it he can go into well-deserved obscurity in the House of Commons. If he loses, fine.”
Another Labour MP said: “It can’t possibly be Henry. If we had to put Henry up it would be a wider sign that the Labour party was in deep, deep trouble. If we can’t find a youngish candidate it just shows that the cupboard is bare and we can’t afford that.”
Another said: “It would look as if we had completely run out of talent if we had to go back to someone who resigned in disgrace seven years ago.”

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

15 August 2008

Sticks and stones and all that

Obviously, you have to have a stupid name to get on in the armed forces. This morning, Major General Barney White-Spunner is all over the papers. This will no doubt bring joy to his ultimate boss, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup GCB AFC ADC DSc FRAeS FCMI RAF. And then there is Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy KCB CBE DSO ADC BSc(Eng) FRAeS FCGI RAF.

12 August 2008

Music of the week

I was going to let you have something gentle but, what the hell, what we need is good old-fashioned rock'n'roll:

If you are desperate for the Sabre Dance, it's here.

It's a hard life for some ...

It's a crying shame. All the other Ministers received their bottles of whisky, their coffee table books, their ties and scarves. So show a little sympathy for those who were given nothing - Malcolm Chisholm, Rhona Brankin, Sarah Boyack, Johann Lamont, Des McNulty and Cathy Jamieson.

It's just not fair.

You can view the list of gifts given to Scottish Ministers during 2006-07 here.

Chucking our money away

Look, don't be like that - it was only £227,000,000.

The Times reports on the Ministry of Defence's latest snafu:
As a spy drone, it had its disadvantages. To land, it had to flip on its back. It could not operate in extreme heat or in thin air and became known as the “bugger off” because it frequently did, never to return.
The Phoenix unmanned air vehicle, which cost an estimated £300,000 each and was brought into service with the British Army in 1998 after a protracted development programme, is now officially dead.
MPs on the Commons Defence Committee revealed in a report published last week that the Phoenix, which provided target information for the Army's artillery regiments from an operating height of about 9,000ft, was unable to cope with the heat in Iraq when it was deployed in 2003. It had to be used only in the cooler months. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed that it was never sent to Afghanistan because the air was too thin there.
The Phoenix has now been taken out of service and replaced by a more sophisticated aerial spy platform called Hermes 450.
Are heads likely to roll? What do you think ...

11 August 2008

Tra la la

You might have thought that by now they would know what they wanted to do about local government finance. It is not so long ago that the Burt Report's recommendations were jettisoned by Scottish Labour in favour of (very) modest changes to the council tax (which they never got round to implementing). Then the Scottish Government (as we must learn to call it) produced its proposals for a local income tax. If the Labour Party did not approve of LIT (which they did not - for very good reasons), you might have thought they would have settled on a robust alternative. Alas, what they settled on was far from robust.

So we now have a situation where all three of the leadership candidates have pronounced themselves dissatisfied with the existing council tax, but none of them appears to have a clear idea what to do about it (other than more reviews, of course, and more consultation, equally of course).

If I were a member of the party, I would be in despair.

10 August 2008

It's a joke, isn't it?

No, don't laugh. Somebody called Ms Hjul of The Sunday Times thinks Tavish Scott could be part of a dream ticket:
Tavish Scott, the LibDem finance spokesman, is leadership material, a fact which has been recognised by most of the important people in the party, in Scotland and London.
He is head and shoulders, literally, above the competition, Ross Finnie and Mike Rumbles. He has, astonishingly for a LibDem MSP, a recognisable public profile, and, as he says himself, he could “give people a really positive reason to vote Liberal Democrat”.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former party leader, said Scott had commitment, vigour, youth, and experience, and there even has been talk of dream tickets, with Scott in Scotland and the equally youthful and vigorous Nick Clegg in London.

It just goes to show that even hard-bitten journos (if Ms Hjul qualifies as such) can be fooled by a pretty face.

Connecting the dots

This seems an intriguing idea. I haven't seen it mentioned in the Scottish press but The Observer has the story:

Scotland is drawing up plans to build the world's longest electricity connector - to Norway - to help meet its renewable targets and end its dependence on nuclear power. The whole project could cost more than £2bn.
Jim Mather, the Scottish Executive's energy minister, will meet his Norwegian counterpart in October to discuss the proposal.
Norway gets almost all its electricity from hydro-power, which works by releasing water from a higher reservoir into a lower reservoir via a turbine which generates electricity. The water is then pumped back up to the higher reservoir for use later. If the 1,000km (620-mile) connector between the countries is built, when Scotland is windy and has surplus electricity, it would be exported to Norway to provide power to pump the water back up into its higher reservoirs.
When the wind does not blow in Scotland and there is a shortage of power, Norway would activate its hydro-plants to make up the shortfall. This would solve the issue of wind power's intermittency, frequently cited by critics.
Scotland wants to use the connector to provide power to North Sea oil operators. Drilling rigs and platforms use about four gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to the demand from about four cities the size of Birmingham. Currently, operators use expensive and dirty diesel generators or gas to power their facilities.

I don't know how much a nuclear power station costs but I doubt if it is much less than £2 billion in construction costs alone. If the estimated price-tag of the connector is realistic and provided it has sufficient capacity, it offers a cleaner, greener option, as well as significant cost advantages.

08 August 2008

Quote of the day

From The Times (here):
So just what do you have to do to get fired around here? At Royal Bank of Scotland, gross moral turpitude and some energetic expense fiddling might just do it. Apparently, the worst loss in British banking history may not.
Sir Tom McKillop will stand up as chairman of RBS today to announce a loss of as much as £1.7 billion. He will, we can assume, attempt to justify last summer's €10 billion purchase of ABN Amro. Bad timing, couldn't see it coming, huge opportunities still, you can probably write the script.
RBS is a curious beast. Until the purchase of NatWest in 2000, its word went unchallenged in the incestuous Scottish establishment. You can bet that if anyone on an Edinburgh newspaper wrote in the above terms, the matter would be raised on the golf course with the writer's editor and his or her career would take an abrupt

As I don't have an editor, nor even a job, I can say that it is passing strange that nobody seems to be blamed for this disaster. And, as I have already pointed out, some of the scions of the Scottish establishment do not think it is a disaster.

07 August 2008

Interpreting the Labour leadership runes

Mr Gray has garnered 13 leadership nominations, compared with Ms Jamieson's 12 and Mr Kerr's 10. (There are 46 Labour MSPs, so at least 11 of them have kept their powder dry.)

Mr Kerr has blotted his copybook with Scottish Westminster MPs by implying (in the nicest possible way of course) that the leader should have more responsibility for the party in Scotland than simply running the Holyrood group. Accordingly, the MPs (allegedly guided by the perception of Gordon Brown's preference) are lining up to support Mr Gray, to the extent that the latter would appear to have that third of the electoral college in the bag. Mr Gray's first problem - not insuperable, I admit - is that he is not a West of Scotland MSP. His second problem is that he is allegedly the favoured candidate of Gordon Brown.

Mr Kerr also has form, perhaps unfairly, in terms of his ministerial record at the health department. Nevertheless, even although he is unlikely to gain the majority of votes in one third of the electoral college, it would be foolish to rule out his chances overall.

Nobody knows how party members will vote. The unions are thought to favour Ms Jamieson on the basis that she is perceived to be the most left-wing candidate (not that you would know it from her ministerial record at Justice).

Nevertheless, it seems to me to be entirely possible, perhaps even probable, that the new leader of the Labour group at Holyrood will be someone who does not command the whole-hearted support of the majority of that group. But that goes with the territory.

We're all doomed

Global warming. The Guardian reports:
The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to one of the government's chief scientific advisers. In policy areas such as flood protection, agriculture and coastal erosion Professor Bob Watson said the country should plan for the effects of a 4C global average rise on pre-industrial levels. The EU is committed to limiting emissions globally so that temperatures do not rise more than 2C.

I don't disagree with the need to make preparations. But if the temperature rises by 4C, we're in deep doo-doo. The positive feedback loops will kick in, with methane released from the tundra, serious polar melting, etc, thus accelerating the rise in temperatures even further. Nothing would be able to stop it.

Thus a DEFRA civil servant forecasts the end of the world.

06 August 2008

05 August 2008

The mysteries of high finance

I was going to write a piece about the banks but I am far from sure that I sufficiently understand the fancy footwork which is going on. Here, for example, is the BBC's Mr Peston on Northern Rock:
The government is to inject up to £3bn of new equity capital into Northern Rock.
Or to put it another way, the nationalised bank is having a mega rights issue that taps its one shareholder.
The way to see it is as a tweaking by the government of its promise that all those taxpayer loans would be repaid.
It's now saying, in essence, that the final £3bn - plus £400m of preference shares that will also be converted into ordinary capital - will only be repaid if the bank is eventually sold and denationalised at a profit.

Clear? Now let's move on to Mr Linklater of The Times on RBS (here):
On the surface, the figures look terrible - a £5billion profit last year has become a loss of more than £1billion, if the figures analysts are quoted turn out to be correct. The anger felt by shareholders at the bank's £5.9million writedown earlier this year has developed into a wider concern by the public, which will see the loss as symptomatic of a decline in confidence in a hitherto impregnable financial institution.
Figures that look stark in a headline, however, are not necessarily the best indicators of a bank's underlying position. What is striking about the reaction within Scotland to the predicted results is how relatively sanguine it is. Most analysts make the point that the bank is still profitable, that the £1billion-plus figure analysts predict does not represent an actual loss, more a potential one, and that, against the background of the global credit crunch, it might in fact turn out to be a pretty good result.

A loss of £1 billion could be 'a pretty good result'? What would be a bad result?

My head hurts ...

04 August 2008

It's the taking part that counts

Oh yes, the Olympics. Questions, questions.

Are our druggies faster/stronger than their druggies? Do world records mean anything these days? What new 'sports' do we have to tolerate this time?

And will the BBC overdose itself on coverage? (Looks like it, from the tv schedules.) And why do they employ all these inarticulate ex-athletes? And will Sharron dress provocatively to cover the swimming? Do bears defecate in the forests?

How long will Sue's facelift endure? (At Wimbers, it sort of disintegrated during the second week - something to do with the botox, I think.) But Hazel will be unbearably perky every breakfast-time.

Will girning Andy win a medal for Scotland?

It all starts on Friday. Happily the forecast is for rain.

03 August 2008

Music of the week

Something of a wee treat this week:

Quote of the day

Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times (here):
It is said that on the eve of the 1997 general election, Satan appeared before Tony Blair and offered him a bargain. “What is it?” Blair asked the Antichrist.
The Devil replied: “I will give you not just this general election, Mr Blair, but three general elections with crushing majorities. In return, however, I will claim the souls of you and your wife, your children and any subsequent children you have.” Blair listened to this, narrowed his eyes and said: “Um . . . okay . . . what’s the catch?”

01 August 2008

First you set out to woo her. Then you declare your interest in marriage, preferably on one knee. And you negotiate the terms, the dreaded pre-nup. The prospective mother in law (in this case the British Government) declares herself satisfied, even approving. Then at the last moment you get cold feet. The Independent reports:
The nuclear power generator British Energy today said discussions over a possible takeover of the company have failed to reach an agreement.
The firm, which owns eight nuclear power plants and generates around one-sixth of the UK's electricity, is the subject of takeover interest from EDF, the French state-controlled electricity company.
EDF had been expected to announce a £12 billion deal this morning, but it said last night that "conditions for a major development in Great Britain" had not been met. It did not provide further details.

British Energy has its headquarters in East Kilbride. Is the failure of the takeover a Good Thing for Scotland? Don't know. Does it matter? Yes, enormously. You'll see ...

Not so hot pants

It has nothing to do with the fact that I get excited by Kate Moss. But you have to keep up with fashion, and my current style guru is the wonderful Hadley of The Guardian, a lady whose syntax is as contorted as her views on shorts:
The rise and rise of shorts, in numbers and hem heights, confirms my long-nurtured opinion that, with the exception of poor government funding, nothing has wreaked as much damage on the British fashion world as Kate Moss. Never mind the drug rumours, the sharpness of her hipbones and her impressively consistent taste in moody-looking dark-haired men with an aversion to shaving: no, I'm talking about the clothes she cruelly convinces other people to wear.
Every wrong trend from pirate boots to pixie haircuts has emanated from this young lady, and she continues to prove she is worth more than the millions she gets paid in her ability to convince the British public to wear the daftest things.
Never known to be averse to getting it out, Kate and hotpants were as inevitable a couple as Ronnie Wood and a 20-year-old Russian cocktail waitress, and the fact that she has included them in every single one of her collections for Topshop served to sway the swayable that this is a look they should not only admire in the pages of Grazia, but copy.

Me? No, don't be silly. I'm still wearing shorts I bought ten years ago: M & S, knee-length, respectable, navy blue - you get the picture. But I like to know what I should be wearing if I cared about it.


text:
Oktoberfest Part Eins

You come to mein Oktoberfest party, Ja? You sit down at die bar and drink das lager, Ja? You eat die bratwurst with das sauerkraut, Ja? What do you mean, Nein? You don't like das sauerkraut? Was zum Teufel ist los mit dir?! Get off mein barstool.

Ends on September 30 at 9AM CT

About Homemade Sauerkraut

Our vendor probably doesn't want you to know this, but it's super easy to make your own sauerkraut at home. All you need is a giant bucket, some finely chopped cabbage and salt! Then you just let it sit and fester in its own juices for a few weeks and VOILA! It smells like something died, but it's soooo good on a Reuben.