El

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• Commented on Books I've written
  I don't have particular questions about them I'd like to answer. But in terms of ordering, if it were me, I'd do it thematically. "Characters - how I established them, made them different, what was special" - that could be...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  Have to say I somewhat disagree on your answers to both of your own questions. Various government agencies track interesting fissile materials pretty closely. I'm sure they don't know where it all is but losing enough to make a serious...
• Commented on Obituaries
  I agree, the damage was long done. But emotional reactions aren't usually logical, they don't understand the impact of history. She had a massive direct impact on my life throughout the the 1980's. I find it harder to measure the...
• Commented on Obituaries
  In my parents' generation there was a saying "Those who aren't of the left when young have no heart, those who aren't of the right went old have no brain." While I don't actually agree (Tony Benn is staunchly of...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  The trouble with this assessment is that it's not really well based in our heritage. If you go back a few centuries, typical life expectancies fall to the point that old age hits around 40, just about everyone has their...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  Technically Neverwhere is still being broadcast... it's continuing on Radio 4 Extra every night this week, 6pm or midnight. Not sure of the relevance to the general discussion though. Sorry....
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  It's not me that writes eBooks, but a friend does, as well as standard books. eBooks are generally 'published' about a month after exchange of final agreed copy with all edits. It could be faster, but a month gives them...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  I suspect the trouble is, existing authors are often tied to their next X books. Occasionally that's the next X books in a particular style. And when each rolls off the line, the new contract respecifies with the same X....
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  I'm not sure you're right about assembling a car if you buy all the parts but, even if you are, copying an author's work is protected rather differently - the parts aren't individually protected (words are common use after all,...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  One model that might work for DRM or not, and still involve the publishers, is to offer books DRM free with an "honesty policy" of not reselling them. Possibly at a slightly higher price than the DRMed version. Consider punishing...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  At the last general election I didn't, but I had the chance to vote for a Yorkshire Separatist candidate. Being Welsh (despite living in Yorkshire at the moment), I wish the Assembly would follow the Scottish Parliament in striving for...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  I don't know, letting the facts get in the way of a good historical allusion, shame on you!...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  I think there's a complex mix of things about the "great elites" in there. Starting from, they don't agree with each other. The financial industry will howl in protest if there's any change. They're pretty conservative after all and protest...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  The RLNI it a charity, staffed largely by volunteers: it's possibly they'd just continue as is. The Coastguard in the UK is technically part of the government. However, a lot of the tasks that USians regard as belonging to the...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  I think the economy would tank from a different direction too. I'm sure there are people, as described by the shouting press and indeed our glorious leader, who come here to sponge off our welfare and health systems. I suspect...
• Commented on Dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century
  "... that is fucking evil." Like this you mean? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/14/ireland-abortion-law-woman-death...
• Commented on Dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century
  When you have no value or relevance for most of those who hold the true reins of power, you are on borrowed time. Rubbish. Sorry, but rubbish. When you have no value or relevance, those who truly hold power ignore...
• Commented on Dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century
  Looking at both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches as seen from the outside here in the UK, we have two minority belief systems with some (from my perspective) crazy concepts. How the Synod voted against women bishops even *they*...
• Commented on Project Stargate
  They may have done, but I think you need to ask that question about the producers of the 1994 movie of which the TV show was a spin-off. And given the books mentioned above were published in the 70's the...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  I suspect there's a mix of reasons. Tories tend to come from monied backgrounds - the current crop perhaps a bit less so, but go back 20 years and it was a pretty sound generalisation. They were often expected to...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  I honestly don't remember an issue campaign, at least not in our broadcast media. I suspect there isn't one in our print media. There may have been one or more on billboards and the like that I've missed but I...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  The system is, IMO and OGH's opinion, currently broken. There are fine details of differences about how I see that brokenness to those listed above but that becomes a tract or two in its own right, so I'll pass -...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  No, I'm saying I disagree with the criticism you gave of the system. It's not my choice of system. I'm still in favour of revolutionary change....
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  Oh, I'm not a proponent of the random system. I'm a proponent of revolutionary change of systems. It starts simple... shoot everyone that stands for office... and proceeds from there. To full, direct democracy ideally. Just pointing out that if...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  Um, that's only a problem with the random method if the same structures and processes of the current system continue. If you have a random selection, there won't be party lines, at least not as clearly, structures and so on....
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  I'm not sure beige governments keep the majority just happy enough, but Charlie's dealt with that. I'm also not sure a successful revolution really needs a majority to start, even if it's in a traditional sense. It probably ends up...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  I know it's not an original thought, but I can't help wondering if we need a good revolution in most of the first world countries. Any system that is about power, probably any system in fact, gets gamed. I suspect...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  The trouble with assuming people can tell the difference between fact and fiction is that when opinion and just outright lies that the viewer wants to believe are presented as fact... then it's much harder to tell. Mix in some...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  Seriously? The general answer is a negotitated series of measurable targets over a timeframe (make X widgets per shift, complete Y operations per year with a death rate of <z%, educate a% of the class to achieve such-and-such a grade...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  While I agree there's benefit to experience, I wonder if what we should do is get rid of mass elections and instead have a smaller number of weekly/monthly elections. When $_CANDIDATE turns into $_REPRESENTATIVE they get a term (with, possibly...