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Catachresis' LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, November 15th, 2008 | | 5:14 pm |
| | Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | | 6:17 am |
The Obligatory Post
I am so very glad that Barack Hussein Obama II will be the new "Leader of the Free World" in a couple of months time. I am not expecting miracles, the immediate end of a global recession, an end to wars (in general, or even specifically the ones already in place) or the banishment of racism from America and the rest of the world, but his speech was very good indeed. I hope that he and his party can work together now to pull America together and put it back in a respected position in world regard. I hope he can manage health care reform in a country that can so obviously afford it and chooses not to. I hope his energy plans bring real benefit to the whole world. I hope he can help heal the racial and religious divides that still sully American ideals. Mostly, though, I'm glad Bush will be gone soon, and Palin won't be getting a look-in. Current Mood:  happy | | Friday, July 4th, 2008 | | 11:00 am |
Interests meme
Comment on this post and I will choose seven interests from your profile. You will then explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.( Seven Seas of Why ) | | Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 | | 3:22 pm |
| | Friday, January 18th, 2008 | | 9:27 am |
Interesting analysis
The BBC article on income inequality here struck me as slightly off when I read it, but I couldn't quite place why, so I had a look at the original report here. Now, none of what the BBC article says is untrue (although see below), but I find it interesting to see what they haven't said. To start, the graph at the bottom of the BBC article is inaccurate and a little misleading; they have extrapolated beyond the end of the graph on page 4 of the report. The original data does not report on the 1st percentile of incomes. (I've not followed the full link given for why exactly the reporting at this point in inaccurate, but I'm prepared to accept that it's not.) For all other given percentiles, every one shows an increase (although the second percentile is very small indeed). IF the trend of the bottom 10% were to follow through, then it would appear that the bottom percentile would indeed show a negative growth, but the BBC's estimate appears to show approximately the bottom 3% or so all showing negative growth. Interestingly, they also seem to have slightly shallowed the rise of the top 2 or 3% a little as well, although that's harder to confirm from their simple line. The other major thing that I see is that they fail to mention is that, while the report says that inequality has risen overall, this is only really due to the incomes of the top and bottom 10% - while the BBC mentions that the disparity is between the top and bottom, they completely fail to say anything about everything in between. This is where things are actually a little more interesting. If we were only to consider the middle 80%, then actually the bottom half has risen higher than the top half - and this section covers everyone earning up to £35,345. If this were the whole story, we would have seen inequality dropping. I am not an economist, and I don't dispute the BBC's article as it is reporting one of the actual results of the report, but it is very interesting to look at the graph on page 4 of the report, and see the comparison between these results and the Thatcher years - in the Thatcher era, it is as far as I can tell almost entirely true that the higher the income, the higher the rise in income. Inequality rose across the board - every percentile (except I think two of them in the middle) rose more than the percentile below. Every percentile point below the 70th rose less in the Thatcher years than the Blair years, and it seems there was definitely negative growth at the very bottom end, instead of probably negative growth. The pattern of the top 10th percentile and the bottom 10th percentile look very similar, although the bottom 10th sees much smaller growth in the Thatcher years. My personal response to the BBC's article would be that, yes, inequality as a whole may have risen, but the overall pattern is actually very positive. There should still be more focus on the bottom 10%, but trying to reduce inequality by focusing on the top 10% (and especially the top 1%) will probably fail. EDITED: Links fixed. Also, I must admit I found it slightly surprising that one third of adults do not pay income tax. Unfortunately, I didn't find it very surprising that the proportion of the high earners became more and more male the higher the percentiles considered, although the fact that over 90% of the top 0.1% were men still does seem shockingly high. EDITED 2: What's REALLY interesting is the graph on page 27 of the report - in there, it compares Labour's first term and second term. In the first term, the bottom 5% or so really suffered, while the top 5% really lucked out while everyone else was doing about equally well. In their second term, though, things really changed around, and while the bottom 5% weren't doing quite as well as those in next 10 or 15%, they were getting increases greater than the entire top 30% or so. Looking at just the second term, inequality looks to my eye to be actively decreasing. It makes you wonder how long it actually takes a government to enact changes that actually have a substantial effect, and if the inequality still being reported is in fact due to this delay, and still really down to Major's government... | | Thursday, November 29th, 2007 | | 11:26 am |
| | Monday, November 19th, 2007 | | 7:55 pm |
Rage
Having been tagged with rage (not in the zombie way), here are a few of my least favourite things. 1) Shitty sensationalist press-rags that pretend to be newspapers. OK, I have a confession to make. I have recently taken up reading Daily Mail Watch. This mostly-daily updating meta-paper portrays the front covers of both the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. I don't think I have yet to see a headline on there that hasn't made me want to stab out someone's eyeballs. I honestly no longer know which is worse, the Express or the Mail. The headlines of both are either full of bile, outright lies or tedious, pointless shit. Seriously, the Express had at least part of the front page covering Madeleine McCann for 100 FUCKING DAYS STRAIGHT. They took a break of a day, but are still covering it nearly every day. I'm sorry, but SHE'S NOT THE ONLY MISSING CHILD. Hell, she's not even the only missing pretty, blond, nice-and-aryan, child, FFS. 2) People who fail to spell. Right, I must first point out that I know some people have dyslexia, some people were never taught how to spell, and there are numerous other reasons why not everyone might be very good at spelling. I am not, in general, raging about them (or you, if it matters). However, some people are given jobs whose sole purpose is to create text that is to be read by other people. If your job is to write things, it is a necessary part of your job TO FUCKING SPELL THINGS CORRECTLY. This is STILL TRUE on the internet. Also, grammar isn't hard; you can learn it quite easily if you have to. 3) Religion. Another disclaimer: some of my best friends are religious, to a greater or lesser degree. On the whole, I don't hold it against them (although I obviously do think that they are wrong). But, what pisses me off, is the fact that some people seem to think that being a member of a religion makes them somehow better than others and gives them a right to spew forth hatred. I started making a list of examples, but you really don't need me to, so I stopped. I just don't get it. The premise of religion makes no sense, the practise of religion makes no sense, the edifice of religion makes even less sense and, while bile, hatred and intolerance is hardly limited to religion, it certainly seems to help in spreading that in some cases. I fear for the future, as the government seems to be pushing for increasing the number of faith schools despite continuing declines in religious attendance. 4) Climate change denial Recorded sea, land and air temperatures have risen; this is an undeniable fact. The "greenhouse effect" of certain gases in the atmosphere is well known, and was well known well before the spectre of global warming or climate change came along. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen, in line with the CO2 output of industrialisation. Nearly all atmospheric scientists agree that these (along with many other factors) are linked, and yet some people continue to insist it's all bullshit. They then have the gall to claim that it's a conspiracy; as if there's somehow something to be GAINED from claiming we're fucking over the planet, and the detractors aren't taking back-handers from big companies. 5) Teaching It's a fucking disgrace the amount of work teachers are expected to do; in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) squigglyruth's first year of teaching, she was easily doing upwards of 80 hours a week during term, and still more than 40 during "holidays". She is still, several years on, doing more than the maximum number of hours permitted by the European Working Time Directive (48 hours a week, allowed to be averaged over a 13 week period if necessary). No, teachers aren't asked to sign a waiver, they're just expected to get on with it. And then you get parents who still don't have a FUCKING CLUE make snide remarks about the early leaving time. Hello, parent, hadn't you noticed, in making that remark, that the teacher hadn't actually gone home yet, and probably won't for several hours still? OK, yes, it is now ten to nine in the evening, and Ruth is STILL AT FUCKING SCHOOL. Why do you ask? 6) The car Seriously, millions of people are injured every year by cars. Why are they still legal? OK, maybe it was the zombie rage virus; I intend to infect tag snowking, dsky, applez, coalescent and tinyjo. | | Friday, October 12th, 2007 | | 8:14 pm |
I am making a mental list of those who are snickering...
...and even as I speak I'm preparing appropriate retribution. So, I had emergency dental surgery this evening; what fun. At least that should prevent the horrible pain for the time being (although right now the local anaesthetic is wearing off, and it hurts quite a lot). Now I have to find a dentist who will perform woot canaw at a not too hideous price. This being Oxford, the odds of finding an NHS dentist are effectively zero. At least I will get to say "I had woot canaw!". | | Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 | | 1:49 am |
Fruit abuse
Today, at tinyjo's barbecue, we experimented with fruit, alcohol and a hypodermic needle. The results worked very well indeed, and must now form part of every barbecue ever. | | Monday, February 26th, 2007 | | 1:49 pm |
Computer naming policy
When I started this job, the company had a naming policy based on Red Dwarf, whereby all computers were given a hostname of a Red Dwarf character, ship, etc, with a few exceptions. For the last few new machines, I was starting to dredge the bottom of the barrel (i.e. obscure characters from seasons seven and eight). This naming scheme has now been retired. I have clearly come up with the best possible naming policy in its place. Transformers. Major servers are going to be Autobot leaders. (E.g. I'm getting two duplicate file servers in soon; the alias will be Prime, which the secondary can be aliased to if the primary goes down. The two machines will actually be called, naturally, Optimus and Rodimus. GENIUS!) Desktop machines are going to be called after Autobots. (Almost all of the desktop machines are for developers, and almost all of the developers are male*. So, the first desktop machine that went to the one female developer was called Arcee. DOUBLE GENIUS!) Testing machines running on MSDN licences are going to be called after Decepticons. Desktop machines taken for home use are going to be called after Autobots that never left Cybertron. (I'm considering using either Sixshot or Sky Lynx for a testing machine that runs several virtual machines, but this isn't a particularly extendable sub-grouping.) I need a sub-grouping for laptops, and I haven't come up with a good rationale as yet. There are two sub-groupings of laptop users, Sales and Support, so I was thinking Sales could be Decepticons and Support Autobots, but which group? Possibly Headmasters/Targetmasters, due to portability, but I'm asking for suggestions. ( snowking, you KNOW I'm looking at you.) * I know the industry as a whole is fairly gender-disproportionate, but I don't know if we are actually worse than most. It certainly seems quite bad. | | Friday, February 16th, 2007 | | 9:45 am |
| | Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 | | 3:22 pm |
Petitions
You know, this e-petition thing has generated enough discussion that it's made me think that for simple either/or questions (for example, GOOD or BAD) setting up two opposing petitions might be a more inclusive way of resolving disputes than an LJ poll, which can only be used by people on LJ. Of course, it cuts out damn dirty foreigners, as only true citizens of the United Kingdom are entitled to sign, but who wants the opinions of damn dirty foreigners anyway? Those Americans, for example, they all look the same to me.... | | 1:35 pm |
There are TOO MANY cars on the road
There's been quite a noise in the press about a petition to scrap a road pricing scheme that doesn't even exist yet; (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6354735.stm for example). This is a shame, as I think that a road pricing scheme is a very sensible plan to try to snap people out of their bloody obsession with having to drive everywhere, and hopefully a good way to increase funding for public transport. I went to the e-petition site, and luckily found someone had already had the sense to start a counter petition. So, I exhort one and all to sign up: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TRACK-CARS/ . It would be very nice indeed if this were to get even more signatures than the selfish motorist petition, but I consider that somewhat unlikely... | | Monday, February 5th, 2007 | | 12:52 am |
Feeling like shit
Somewhat after I started feeling very ill indeed, and thinking that I must have drunken rather more than my share of wine than I thought I had, Ruth mentioned that the Winter Vomiting Virus has been going round her school. Yay. Current Mood: Absolutely vile | | Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 | | 6:39 am |
Heroes
Recap Voiceover Man MUST DIE | | Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 | | 5:34 pm |
24
A few weeks ago, I was introduced to 24 in 24 by a bunch of like-mided crazy lunatics. It was awesome. In lieu of a review, I kept a running total of kills by our hero, Jack Bauer. ( Bauer death count ) | | Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 | | 10:56 pm |
Five answers
Well, some of these date back to May, so it's about time I posted them. Some of the questions did make me think, and I may revisit them in a longer post in the future. EDITED: Oops, missed one question and made a factual error... ( jenniscott )( applez )( coalescent )( electricant )( snowking ) | | Friday, December 1st, 2006 | | 12:47 am |
| | Monday, September 4th, 2006 | | 9:34 pm |
| | Friday, July 28th, 2006 | | 1:30 pm |
Hey, everybody, Please all go thank your sysadmin because today is SysAdmin day!Yes, I did just get an email about this. I work for the best company! |
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