a.harrowell

a.harrowell

  • Commented on The Ferguson Question
    I have been a Met critic for years, but Ferguson is pretty close to being a pre-Met local watch committee and you see the failure modes....
  • Commented on The Ferguson Question
    It's worth remembering that Ireland had two police forces representing different models of policing, although Robert Peel invented both of them. The Royal Irish Constabulary: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Irish_Constabulary The Dublin Met Police: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Metropolitan_Police option 1 was more paramilitary, more centralised, more rural,...
  • Commented on Competition Redux!
    The bees one is unimprovable....
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Considering what the Laundry could have put on the fourth plinth, your submission was actually relatively reasonable. The fifth plinth, however, was frankly going too far....
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    I've just realised how Google gets away with accounting for all its London-based EMEA ad sales as if they were in the Republic of Ireland in the Laundryverse. It's actually true that the building in Shoreditch is bigger inside that...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Your observation that the HTML5 WebGL bindings make it possible to implement even quite significant glamours in JavaScript is evidence of a commendable effort to maintain proficiency in the latest technologies and of substantial creativity and ingenuity. Similarly, your work...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Crown servants and civil servants are both categorically forbidden to take part in party politics, with the exception of Central Office of Information staff specifically directed by their line manager to take directions from ministerial Special Advisers. Accessing the WhoWorksForThem...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    It was completely outrageous behaviour. Well done!...
  • Commented on Crass commercial interlude
    Protect and Survive is remembered as either a nearly-fascist document or else a piece of awesome cold war atompunk kitsch, but back in 2010 Melissa Smith at Manchester University got a much respected prize in history for this journal article...
  • Commented on Crass commercial interlude
    As far as posters go, the great work of designers Eileen Evans and Reginald Mount must be the inspiration. Look, Lock, Then Test - Keep Our Secrets Secret. (My dad's office had one of those.) Or Don't Brag About Your...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    I don't want the little country I live in to be dragged down the rabbit hole by the same dark forces of reaction that are cropping up across Europe, from Hungary to Greece. The failure modes of democracy, it...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    174: apparently this result is driven by about one council ward in Glasgow, which used to have an asbestos factory. A question, meanwhile. Supposedly "England" has become more parochial, europhobic, and anti-immigrant "over the last 30 years". What is your...
  • Commented on The myth of heroism
    No surprise that candidates for POTUS have to look heroic, inasmuch as this is possible when there's a threshold age for entry of around 40 years and the uniform is a lounge suit Barack Obama wears the hell out of...
  • Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
    Deltics? the Keighley & Worth Valley had a diesel day in the late 80s where they managed to get two preserved Deltics to visit. a quirk of those things is that partially burnt fuel tends to accumulate in the exhaust,...
  • Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
    There is a well-tried mechanism to impose a diffuse tax on concentrated wealth and redistribute it, with minimal administration. It even has the nice feature that the wealthy can hedge it by putting their money into growthier, riskier investments, which...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    I'm not sure what a "credit balance with a bank," is, since typically it's a debt owed by a person to a corporation. No, you're not at all sure, are you? If you have a credit balance in a bank...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    You have to have an entire WORKING city to have a port. If you're talking a 3 meter sea rise, in many cases existing cities will have to be abandoned and/or moved many miles In a sense, the whole of...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    I'd love to see a UK government deflate the housing market by around 80% this does mean confiscating the entire net worth of the two-thirds of the adult population who are homeowners, in much the same way as that other...
  • Commented on "Write me something fresh and new, but make it just like the last one"
    Laundry Files novels are now pretty comfortable—I have a Method The last one I read was a lot like that....
  • Commented on Yet another bad idea
    You should probably read this: http://barthsnotes.com/2014/04/06/cliff-kincaid-sees-aleister-crowley-link-in-russian-politics/ Putin or at least some of his mates certainly like the idea of portraying themselves as a global reactionary power, like 19th century Russia, and this seems to speak to some conservatives like Peter...
  • Commented on Because people keep asking me ...
    I see Bob Howard has a Palm Treo again. 1) Really? 2) Where did he get it? 3) Blackphone surely?...
  • Commented on A hypothesis
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-malaysia-airlines-radar-exclusive-idUSBREA2D0DG20140314?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637 It made several changes of course, at standard waypoints, routing northwestwards towards the Nicobars. Someone was in charge....
  • Commented on A hypothesis
    Further news: the supposed debris location was visited and nothing found. At this point, the only person who I'd believe a denial about the engine management data from would be the CEO of Rolls-Royce walking out of the front door...
  • Commented on A hypothesis
    Quite a few long haul aircraft have a crude public satellite phone service built into the IFE. It's send only and very, very pricey, but if you're desperate... On September 11th 2001, a flight attendant on one of the planes...
  • Commented on A hypothesis
    If I had to guess at a scenario I would go for the total electrical failure. As someone said on PPRuNe, turning west by magnetic compass and staying high until you reach the west coast, then following the coast south...
  • Commented on A hypothesis
    If you broadcast a Mayday, you'd do it on good old VHF 121.5MHz, which wouldn't involve satcom and would be a matter of switching to the VHF you keep tuned to guard and hitting the PTT button....
  • Commented on The latest Hugo awards storm
    Worldcon should be safe space for fans, and inviting a high profile media personality who has been targeted by the tabloids is going to cause collateral damage, even if nothing happens, simply by making many fans feel less safe Paul...
  • Commented on Dear Google, am I pregnant?
    I have to say I'm a bit pissed off at the implication that they put it on Google as in the public search engine or Blogger or something, which pretty much everyone who has commented on this has adopted. It...
  • Commented on "The next big thing"
    production is slower than changes in demand. Interesting market That's the typical condition for "cobweb" behaviour - you get a regular oscillating cycle of overinvestment and bust. And that's kind of what we see. Misery memoirs. Sparkly vampires. Etc....
  • Commented on Sitrep
    Apparently so. God knows how they'll manage - Hamburg is expensive by London standards, on a different planet to Berlin....
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