Category: Uncategorized

Euvolemic: Having a normal amount of body fluids.

As everything is known only by its opposite, the idea of needing to be patient springs from a feeling of impatience. That is bred from desire. And desire means being in the world and wanting to affect a certain outcome. There are times for that, such as when one desires a certain outcome for a loved one, but for many other things – they really are not worth one’s time. The way out of that two-step dance, as with any twosome, is to step out the back door, so to speak and watch it unfolding.

Everything is susceptible to something that revolutionises peoples’ need and wants. The hope for Apple, Microsoft, Google is that they can get in early on whatever that is. The problem for Facebook is that nobody needs it. If it was genuinely a place to hang out with friends it would be a nice place to visit – but it is raddled with the platform itself pushing users towards a desired destination, whether to sell stuff to them or to inflate its own attraction to users. And that is always susceptible to simply falling out of favour. Desires are fickle. And then advertisers will desert it and it will be a big, empty ship. Maybe.

The question at the moment is whether Google can defeat the legislation that is being proposed that would make its platform responsible for the content it links out to. Google has been emailing its users (I have had two emails from them) saying how dangerous this is for access to information, because – says Google – if it has to be responsible for that content it will destroy its business.

Apple is on the right side of this in that it is pushing a privacy-first model.

Then there is the risk that legislators will insist companies simply split up because they dominate the market.

I think the special case of Facebook is that a significant narrative is that people – users included – do not like the platform. They use it, but they don’t like it.

Horatio:
She has a face that would brook no argument of mine
Plum:
Indeed, she has no face for you at all.
Horatio:
No sir, she has a face that is like an open book
That shuts itself when e’er you look
I do say that is a Facebook.

Examination of the manuscript, from which the above is taken, suggests it is indeed Shakespeare’s unfinished Thirteenth Night.

A corsair is a Government sanctioned pirate. I guess Sir Francis Drake, he of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, would qualify. And others sanctioned by Elizabeth I, of whom I do not know the names.

Barbary corsairs were pirates from North Africa attacking ships flying the flags of countries of Northern Europe. French corsairs were pirates acting on behalf of the French crown. The word comes from the Latin currere meaning to run.

A privateer is a private ship, a private man of war, an armed vessel owned and officered by private persons, but usually acting under commission from the state.

And an xebec (pronounced zee-beck) is a small, three-masted vessel found in the Mediterranean, often used by corsairs, and now used in commerce. Wikipedia mentions that in the 1800s, xebecs overtook galleys as the preferred ships of Barbary pirates because they used wind power, which reduced need for slaves to row. And because they could carry more guns – presumably because the ship wasn’t cluttered up with slaves and oars – and had better manoeuvrability.

A couple of days ago, William Wragg MP, the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (which oversees the work of the cabinet office, including the Prime Minister’s office), issued this statement on Parliament.tv

In recent days, a number of members of parliament have faced pressures and intimidation from members of the government because of their declared or assumed desire for a vote of confidence in the party leadership of the Prime Minister.
It is of course the duty of the government, whip’s office to secure the government’s business in the House of Commons.
However, it is not their function to breach the ministerial code in threatening to withdraw investments from Members of Parliament’s constituencies which are funded from the public purse.
Additionally, reports to me and others of members of staff at Number 10 Downing Street, special advisers, government ministers and others, encouraging the publication of stories in the press, seeking to embarrass those who they suspect of lacking confidence in the Prime Minister is similarly unacceptable.
The intimidation of a Member of Parliament is a serious matter. Moreover, the reports of which I’m aware, would seem to constitute blackmail. As such, it would be my general advice to colleagues to report these matters to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and they’re also welcome to contact me at any time.