Tuesday, 13 August 2013
London Underground links
A couple of Buzzfeed series with a story to tell.
1. Victorians building the tube in the first place.
2. Maps, of varying degrees of seriousness. No doubt Marc Gawley has views on which are most useful.
The story, of course, is that the Victorians were very good at the physical infrastructure but now we're better at ordering and presenting information.
People sometimes say that the Victorians would be disappointed that, for all our carbon fibre and nuclear power and so on, the trains don't go any faster now than they used to. But perhaps we should be prepared for disappointment too. Moore's Law can't go on forever (can it?). Perhaps the next 100 years will have information technology hardly more advanced than we have now, but lots of very fast trains. You could say that the Romans were pretty good at physical infrastructure too, but those later chaps with the Gutenberg press had the advantage in ordering and presenting information.
1. Victorians building the tube in the first place.
2. Maps, of varying degrees of seriousness. No doubt Marc Gawley has views on which are most useful.
The story, of course, is that the Victorians were very good at the physical infrastructure but now we're better at ordering and presenting information.
People sometimes say that the Victorians would be disappointed that, for all our carbon fibre and nuclear power and so on, the trains don't go any faster now than they used to. But perhaps we should be prepared for disappointment too. Moore's Law can't go on forever (can it?). Perhaps the next 100 years will have information technology hardly more advanced than we have now, but lots of very fast trains. You could say that the Romans were pretty good at physical infrastructure too, but those later chaps with the Gutenberg press had the advantage in ordering and presenting information.
Monday, 12 August 2013
Some unconnected links
1. Facts about Filipino seafarers' penises that I would never have guessed.
2. A disappointing crop of New York Times' properties for $1.3m. The first one looks quite nice, but as for the rest ...
3. More Zadie Smith. I suppose you could call this science fiction. I think it confirms my earlier diagnosis of her lack of material for inspiration, but judge for yourself.
2. A disappointing crop of New York Times' properties for $1.3m. The first one looks quite nice, but as for the rest ...
3. More Zadie Smith. I suppose you could call this science fiction. I think it confirms my earlier diagnosis of her lack of material for inspiration, but judge for yourself.
Thursday, 8 August 2013
"Was police killing of 95-year-old necessary?"
Asks the Chicago Tribune. As well as "questions in headlines to which the answer is no", this could go under the heading of "wholly unnecessary US law enforcement measures".
This is what happened to a 95 year old man with a zimmer frame:
"The old man, described by a family member as "wobbly" on his feet, had refused medical attention. The paramedics were called. They brought in the Park Forest police.
First they tased him, but that didn't work. So they fired a shotgun, hitting him in the stomach with a bean-bag round. Wrana was struck with such force that he bled to death internally, according to the Cook County medical examiner."
This is what happened to a 95 year old man with a zimmer frame:
"The old man, described by a family member as "wobbly" on his feet, had refused medical attention. The paramedics were called. They brought in the Park Forest police.
First they tased him, but that didn't work. So they fired a shotgun, hitting him in the stomach with a bean-bag round. Wrana was struck with such force that he bled to death internally, according to the Cook County medical examiner."
Another PPI scandal
Mr and Mrs Harrison had a PPI claim against Black Horse Limited. It was relatively big, as PPI claims go (the cost of the PPI to them was £10,529.70) but not what you might call a big money claim. They lost the claim in the County Court and the High Court (see judgment here) and again in the Court of Appeal (judgment here). For whatever reason, the Bank folded before the claim reached the Supreme Court, and paid Mr and Mrs Harrison the £10,000-odd pounds they wanted (and no doubt some interest as well).
Mr and Mrs Harrison's lawyers are now claiming over £1,500,000 in costs for handling this £10,000 claim. This does not seem to have surprised the Cost Judge hearing the claim.
It seems to me that there is no rational, sensible or efficient system of civil justice which could permit over £1.5m to be spent on just one of the two sides to a dispute over £10,000. When you read about the sums put aside by banks to deal with PPI mis-selling, pause to consider how much of that will go to the lawyers and how much to the borrowers - and consider also whether this massive redistribution of wealth from publicly-owned banks to claimant law firms has encouraged socially useful entrepreneurial activity in the parts of the north-west where these law firms operate. People respond to incentives: these incentives are all wrong.
Mr and Mrs Harrison's lawyers are now claiming over £1,500,000 in costs for handling this £10,000 claim. This does not seem to have surprised the Cost Judge hearing the claim.
It seems to me that there is no rational, sensible or efficient system of civil justice which could permit over £1.5m to be spent on just one of the two sides to a dispute over £10,000. When you read about the sums put aside by banks to deal with PPI mis-selling, pause to consider how much of that will go to the lawyers and how much to the borrowers - and consider also whether this massive redistribution of wealth from publicly-owned banks to claimant law firms has encouraged socially useful entrepreneurial activity in the parts of the north-west where these law firms operate. People respond to incentives: these incentives are all wrong.
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Urinating in Sweden - you can do it standing up
One of things that Sweden is well-known for, at least in the world of internet news, is attempts to ban men from urinating standing up. (Try a Google search.) There are claims that Swedish feminism has gone too far or that "Young Swedish women demand that their men use the lavatory in a strictly sedentary posture". Even Tyler Cowen thinks it worth spreading news on this important topic (see link 4).
I have recently returned from Sweden. I'm sure I will give more considered comments on other issues in due course but I think it is worth delivering the news that male urination in the conventional manner is alive and well in Sweden. Indeed, you could say that it is pretty widespread in everyday life, judging by these examples:
- in one place we went, there was a urinal in the communal (i.e. hand-washing) part of what was billed as a unisex facility. I can't have been the only person to use it;
- in one restaurant, there were only urinals in the gents (so far as I could see);
- in another place, my son had to wait while a man used the only child's urinal (despite the fact that adult urinals were free at the time). (Actually, I'm not sure what that example shows, other than a lack of sensitivity. Perhaps just that the existence of urinals for boys shows that the habit is not about to die out.)
But don't just take my word for it. The opening of a new football stadium in Stockholm was celebrated in the local newspaper with the photospread below, flaunting photographic evidence that Swedish men are still pretty traditional in that department. (I've been to that herrarnas and can confirm that it is very rött.)
I have recently returned from Sweden. I'm sure I will give more considered comments on other issues in due course but I think it is worth delivering the news that male urination in the conventional manner is alive and well in Sweden. Indeed, you could say that it is pretty widespread in everyday life, judging by these examples:
- in one place we went, there was a urinal in the communal (i.e. hand-washing) part of what was billed as a unisex facility. I can't have been the only person to use it;
- in one restaurant, there were only urinals in the gents (so far as I could see);
- in another place, my son had to wait while a man used the only child's urinal (despite the fact that adult urinals were free at the time). (Actually, I'm not sure what that example shows, other than a lack of sensitivity. Perhaps just that the existence of urinals for boys shows that the habit is not about to die out.)
But don't just take my word for it. The opening of a new football stadium in Stockholm was celebrated in the local newspaper with the photospread below, flaunting photographic evidence that Swedish men are still pretty traditional in that department. (I've been to that herrarnas and can confirm that it is very rött.)
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