Obama's Speech - Cairo - Awesome

Hard to believe floating duck islands have overshadowed this speech from Obama this week. I think I will get a picture of Obama for my wall and perhaps a print of this speech to go with it.

G20 Policing - undercover police placed to incite the crowd

I read about this over the weekend and was really shocked. I hope we get to the bottom of whether the Met placed undercover Police within the crowd to incite them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/10/g20-policing-agent-provacateur

"An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds."

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament's joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.

"When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, 'There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'" Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification."

I look forward to waiting to that one to unfold.

Vote Lib Dem!

This is a new thing for me but perhaps it is time for me to join with a lot of the rest of Cambridge and vote Lib Dem.

I really like my local MP. He bothered to meet me to discuss our Allotment Petition and offered us lots of ideas. He encouraged us to have a council hearing following a sufficiently large petition (a scheme he pioneered). After reading it he even signed it. David Howarth is a good bloke.

He is also an MP living outside London who does not claim a second home but prefers to commute by train.

A good bloke, an active politician who is not a crook. He's got my vote.

David MacKay on R4

Simon told me he'd heard David MacKay on R4 (about 1m30 in)

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jvdhb/b00jvctc/More_or_Less_24_04_2009/

David is very clear as usual. The fluffy individual from the sustainable energy commission on the other hand, does rather seem to have her head shoved firmly up her arse (but judge for yourself!).

Mr Monbiot on the Police...'Printing Police Lies'

Printing Police Lies

A good read.

BBC on Police Kettling Tactic

Writer and director Zia Trench thought she might visit the G20 demonstration in the City of London earlier this month.
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to protest, but I thought I'd check out the demonstration, and show my face for half an hour," she said.
"As I walked out of Cannon Street Tube I literally found myself facing a line of police. When I asked if I could get through, the police refused. They then moved me down the street towards the Bank of England."
There, Ms Trench joined a growing group of protesters corralled within a circle of police in the square in front of the Bank.
Held by the police within the circle for up to seven hours, the protesters found themselves trapped.

BBC on Police Kettling Tactic - is this how we want our Police to behave?

More on the G20 protest from the BBC

This speaks for itself.



Interesting article about the IPCC too...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8006622.stm

More on the G20 protest and police action

On thing to keep in mind when you watch these videos is that the Police have 'kettled in' or ring-fenced the protesters (and some people from the general public) such that they could not leave. It is hardly surprising that people being held in this way without water for 8 hours might get a bit frustrated.

I find this Police action outrageous.

G20 Protest

With all eyes on the G20 protesters the media made a lot of very little trouble from the protesters. The idiots who look for trouble when they are protesting really annoy me but for the most part I respect people who show up and defend our right to protest. I'm sorry I wasn't at this protest.

I was disappointed by the near universal condemnation of the protesters and sympathy for the Police from the Radio 4 Any Questions program the following weekend. It seems that everyone believes it is all about the protesters being dangerous or potentially dangerous.

Only now is it beginning to emerge quite how outrageous the Police tactics were that day - see Metropolitan police chief launches inquiry into G20 protest tactics | Politics | The Guardian and the videos linked from there.

I really fail to see how people holding up their hands and chanting, "this is not a riot" are lining themselves up for a beating by Police.

It seems a new law has been passed to make it illegal for us to photograph the Police. Luckily a few have violated this law or we would not know how outrageous their tactics were. Some were even photographed hiding their badges. Is this the sort of Police we want?

A million people protesting in London against the Iraq war were not heard. This has put a lot of people off exercising their right to protest. I'm sure Kettling tactics and Police violence will have put off even more people.

Shall we just hand it over to Gordon and let him do what he likes?

We can sit at home and watch the telly.

Heros: Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs bloke)

I can't help being impressed with Kevin McCloud and his enthusiasm for the Grand Designs whilst maintaining the ability to speak frankly, "that looks crap"!

What a decent bloke who I'm sure is really in to his subject.

Knock once for yes, twice for no...

Baby kicking has reached new heights. I spoke to the belly and asked it to knock once for yes and twice for no and got three kicks in return! Ear to belly I could hear a very strong heartbeat and putting my fingers on top you could see them move with the baby heartbeat - I guess she had her back to us.

In the morning the kicking spree was stronger than usual with something pokey near the surface too - a hand or an elbow I expect.

Quite fun!

The routine of singing Spanish songs to the belly at night continues... (poor thing).

The Pope is Ever More Outrageous

The Pope on HIV/Aids, ""a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem". He said, "the traditional teaching of the Church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids".

What utter rubbish. Event the Lancet has attacked his twisting of the data saying he has, "publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue".

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7967173.stm

Any Old Iron Man Website

I've built a new website - wanna look?

http://www.anyoldironman.co.uk

- it is to advertise an Iron Man style triathlon we are organising in May for Parkinson's

Excellent Talk: ‘Statistics are either dull or wrong:discuss - Statistics: can we sex them up without dumbing down?’

Went to a great talk this evening.

Billed as, "Join the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, Professor David Spiegelhalter as he discusses ‘Statistics: can we sex them up without dumbing down’. Bad Science’s Dr Ben Goldacre will then explore ‘Intellectual stunt doubles: learning from other people’s mistakes in statistics’.

David made some excellent presentations on understanding statistics and has some great online resources here...
http://understandinguncertainty.org/node/213

Ben's talk was based on some of his material here...
http://www.badscience.net/

Both talks highlighted some of the absolute rubbish written in the national press about statistical results. There has been a bit of a debate about bacon sandwiches causing bowel cancer. David has a really nice way of showing many different ways to look at these risks. Some ways make good newspaper headlines but are really just bull when it comes down to it.
http://understandinguncertainty.org/node/233

Having recently read 'Reckoning with Risk' I was familiar with natural frequencies but was very impressed that David went a lot further in thinking about how to convey statistics. I chatted to him at the end of the talk about climate change (of course) but he had nothing to offer since the climate models are a bit inconvenient.

Street Chess

I've been looking for a street chess set for ages so was pleased to find one when Dave and Heather were in town. It's in Twickernam near the river and York House. Good fun!



The score now stands at 5 games to 5 !

Dave and Heather visit the UK (from the USA)

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Cambridge Boundary Run - Marathon

Well the boundary run was no picnic. After about 8 miles I was pretty sore from chaffing in the shorts. At about 11 miles my thighs were quite heavy. By 20 miles I didn't think I would make the last 6. A few wise marathoners told me helpful things like, 'a marathon is a race of 2 halves, the first 20 miles and the last 6' - they were right! Having previously run 50k in the Mojave desert I was surprised by the both chaffing and the overall difficulty of the run.

I ran the whole way with my friend from work, Peter. We ran a bit slower than I would normally run and I wonder if that made the run a bit harder on my legs. I like running with other people though and was very happy to have Peter's company. He claims that this was his second to last ever marathon, since he is in training for the Paris marathon (I don't believe him though).



At the end of the race my legs were pretty sore, particularly the thighs (Adductors and Hip-flexors especially). Although, in the photo you can see blood from the chaffing at the top of my thighs, it was muscular pain in my thighs which was the worst.

It was after this event that I have decided to end my empirical research on the Linebreak compression tights. In the days following the event my legs suffered no problems whatsoever. The night of the event I had a shower and donned the Linebreak compression tights. I cycled about 6 miles that night and then slept in the tights. I awoke without painful legs.

The next night I cycled about 35 miles on a business trip and then wore the tights in bed. The second day after the event is usually the worst but I had no stiffness in my legs and I managed to cycle another 25 miles on my folding bike without major problems (though the head wind was a bit of an arse).

I am forced to conclude that the Linebreak tights work. I don't need further experiments to prove this to myself!