Month: August 2005

A recurring interest of mine, this is a blog of that name, linked by Ray Girvan. This particular story about natural antibiotics that can beat MRSA super-bugs, debunked with some simple genetic evolution facts.

Will add Bad Science to the side-bar blogroll.

And Information is no different. Not even worth blogging says Gimbo. Computing Review quotes from 1987 and 1990 about the ubiquity of information and the independance of its issues from the technology.

In fact the march of technology is simply making tensions in how information is understood by society all the greater, not easier.

Seems the Loggins paper at the MoQ Conference (and Loggins himself) was a hoax, a parody perpetrated by Glenn Bradford and Struan Hellier.

Damned by faint praise in my own report (fortunately), in fact the parody, in the paper itself and in Glenn’s description of the hoax, can only be seen as a valuable addition to MoQ debate, whatever Glenn and Struan’s motives. (The parody itself is based on the famous Sokal post modern quantum mechanics hoax.)

In fact the day of the “First MoQ Conference” was more a celebration and a social event than a conference at which the subject matter was debated – the papers were all “personal views”. The “positive vibes” all those got out of the day, need to be put to better organisation of what the MoQ does actually say, and the issues people have with it.

Oh well; Many a true word; Nothing new under the sun.

[Post Note – Jan 2006 – In the conference report linked above, I mentioned that the hoax and responses to it had created ill-feeling between those directly affected. Some relevant web-pages and forum correspondence have been removed from public view, some remain live. Any of my links to such live pages remain active. Beware therefore that the public record of the public and private responses to the hoax is incomplete and potentially misleading. If in my view the remaining links do mislead or are misused, I reserve the right to delete any and all such links from my pages..]

Strange set of connections materialised whilst I was reading Barbara Tuchman’s “The March of Folly”, hope you’re following this …

I’m reading Tuchman’s March of Folly, because I recalled (incorrectly) Charles Handy recommending it as the best management text book ever written, making all the others redundant. (In fact it was Warren Bennis’ recommendation, Handy’s was Mary Parker Follett’s “Prophet of Management”. Folly / Follett see.)

Anyway Handy was (is) one of my favourite management gurus, folksy style, contemporary of Roald Dahl in Shell in the Dutch East Indies I guess, but I digress; most people will know Handy through his BBC Radio 4 “Thought for the Day” slot. (Odd that I identify with Handy, a lay preacher, when one of the MoQ’ers I seem to have most in common with is Rev Sam Norton.) Handy, together with Tom Peters, I also associate with the management gurus of the 80’s pushing excellence through corporate cultures, and making quality management links to Pirsig’s ZMM, the origin of the MoQ.

Anyway another MoQ’er I have a lot of time for is Dave Buchannan, whose MoQ Conference paper “Fun With Blaspheny” drew on the work of Joe Campbell, in particular “The Masks of God”, in outlining an Orphic myhological screenplay for ZMM and the MoQ. (Incidentally I’ve just received the Jean Cocteau Orphic Trilogy DVD set, and watched the first two “Blood of a Poet” and “Orpheus” so far. At least the second one has a recognisable Orphic plot. Anyway the third one “Testament to Orpheus” was recommended by Pirsig after being moved by David’s paper, but I digress again.)

Joe Campbell’s “Masks of God” was referenced by Pirsig in Lila, his sequal to ZMM, in which he develops his MoQ.

The spooky connection ? Tuchman’s “March of Folly” opens, preceeding it’s introduction, with a quote taken from Joe Campbell’s 1969 foreward to “Masks of God” –

“And I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still …
… put to use by reasonable men to reasonable ends,
… or by madmen to nonsense and disaster.”

So add Joe Campbell and Mary Parker-Follett to my reading list.

Barbara Tuchman’s “March of Folly” is a good read so far; her style made me laugh out loud several times, particularly reading the “Renaissance Popes 1470 to 1530” section, the general depravity leading to the sack of Rome and confirming the Lutheran protestant secession, by way of the Medicis and Borgias, not forgetting Savonarola’s bonfires of the vanities again. Being a major patron of the arts is one thing, but your motives for being so matter. The gist of the book is that govermental (managerial) incompetence knows no bounds, and is a case of folly (cock-up rather than conspiracy) despite ample evidence and means of higher quality actions in the long term self-interest of the institutions governed. Hence the fit with my thesis / manifesto.

Oh well, time to pack-up ready for the trip home. Only a brief stop at Changi this time, so probably no further posts until back in Reading during Monday. Bye folks.

Younger son did 5 (five) a-level (UK high school) exams and got his results yesterday. Got 4 grade A’s and a B, and was only 4 marks in a few hundred away from an A in the B subject as well. Absolutely fantastic, the undoubted effort paid off.

However, the B was in the subject in which his conditional offer from his first choice university required the only A, and so he can’t have his place, no exceptions. Rather than accept his second choice yet, he’s requesting a re-mark in the B paper(s). Go for it. Fingers crossed for a couple more weeks.

As I was with Tebbit in the preceeding post, sadly I see Mo Mowlem has passed away.

I’m reminded from the links in the story she, like I, supported Claire Short after her resignation over the Iraq invasion, which strangely due to its timing created exactly the opposite reaction to Robin Cook’s. Cook put his principles first, Short put loyalty and duties first initially before succumbing to her principles and was accused of political expediency for her troubles. As the Mo Mowlem piece says, quoting Tony Blair, “[Mo] was a natural politician, could read a situation and analyse and assess it as fast as anyone.” Your words Tony; think on.

All casualties of war in their own ways.

Old Norman tells it like it is again. Ordinarily this would so politically incorrect and divisive had not Salman Rushdie already paved the way.

In preparation for writing some synthesis of Davids Deutsch and Chalmers’ work, I was updating my earliest links to quantum information (Deutsch and Josephson), and see that Deutsch’s QuBit Centre for Quantum Computation home page is now a Blog.

Intriguing, after my summary of Deutsch’s four main threads in the Fabric of Reality as
* Popper (Epistemology),
* Dawkins (Evolution),
* Everett / Wheeler (Quantum Universe), and
* Turing (Universal Computing)
I remarked that in that book, there was little if any reference to Deutsch’s Quantum Information work, and even less in Chalmers’ book.

I see in the side-bar on his site, the four threads are re-characterised (more correctly IMHO) as
* Popper,
* Dawkins,
* Quantum Computation (Information) and
* Virtual Reality.

I see also that Peter Marcer’s BCS “New Era” @ CASYS 2005 happened last week in Liege, and that invited speakers included Brian Josephson. Excellent, must get papers / proceedings.

Gary Neville says
“Any repeat of England’s 4-1 defeat in Denmark would see them fail to qualify for the World Cup.”
Doh!