Spalpeen

My brain has made some odd connections lately, so I noted them down. Note: this may be conclusive evidence of my insanity.

Watching the extract of Archbishop Rowan Williams’ Hay Festival “all smiles” speech (”everyone is bustling around, talking cheerfully and in an upbeat sort of way. It’s like being on an ocean liner where all the staff are talking brightly and smiling at you rather too cheerfully and you think ‘what’s wrong?’“) made me think of the news. In a very literal sense, TV anchors and newreaders on certain channels (not all!) give off horribly disconcerting vibes with their constant smiles. Just switching over to BBC London News is enough to witness this.

Armando Iannucci’s rather excellent documentary on Milton’s Paradise Lost hit on the part where Eve eats the apple in Paradise Lost: “it’s the most momentous moment in history according to this poem, and yet its given and delivered in the barest of lines: ’she plucked, she ate’”. My mind managed to connect this to the MPs expenses story, where this one momentous event has revealed the attitudes of dozens of MPs towards the public, and has finally given a great mandate for reform. The actual event is meaningless: it is only the enabler. The real news is the change. Instead, “the news” has dwelled on the scandals to the point of absurdity, without deciding to move on from questions about manure and chandeliers to real questions about what reforms should be made.

Finally, another brain connection came between the end of Paradise Lost, and the final line of Eyes Wide Shut. “The epic religious verse of Heaven and Hell and War and Battle: that all disappears. What we’re left with are these bare words: ‘they hand in hand, wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way’. To me, the bare word at the end of Eyes Wide Shut directly connects with the end of this epic poem. “Fuck” was all that was needed. A very realist ending in both accounts!

Journo-activists haven’t learnt much from previous global catastrophes. Even with a report in hand saying that 300,000 people a year are dying from climate change, there will be no popular outrage. Why? Because these people don’t have a face, and most of them are from third world countries.

To get Governments to really makes changes on climate change, there needs to be a highly specific person or group of people who are directly affected by climate change in a significant way.

This exact scenario played out with nuclear testing in 1950s, with the Daigo Fukuryū Maru. This was the boat that was contaminated by radioactive fallout after the Castle Bravo nuclear test. The people on the boat were subject to large radiation doses, and fell very ill, with some of the crew dying of their exposure. It led to international outrage, which led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty, influential novels (On the Beach) being published and a general public that was aware of the dangers of continuing with these horrible tests. Before this, misinformation by the US Government was enough to downplay the need for such an agreement.

The media has shown in the last month or two that it is extremely partial to a face on a story. From Jade Goody, to the Gurkhas, to MPs expenses, to the bloody economy, there’s always a victim or a protagonist behind the story. Climate change needs its own Jade, or Lumley, or Duck House, or Goodwin.

Until the media becomes truly utilitarian in its coverage — never have so many people been affected by so big an event — we’re going to need cynical solutions to a cynical press.

O2 follows iPhone success with deal for next must-have gadget by Richard Wray in The Guardian

“Stocks of the device are limited, however, which is why gadget fans outside the US will have to wait several months before it becomes available.”

True, stocks of the device are likely to be limited, but since the Palm Pre is a CDMA device, it’ll need to be converted to GSM and go through all the different approval processes for different countries. See also: the iPhone, which took 5 months to come to the UK after its US launch.

“It also has an eye-catching way of recharging: rather than being plugged in, it has to be placed on what Palm calls its Touchstone and charges through magnetic induction.”

Touchstone is an optional and expensive extra. It doesn’t have to be charged on the pad. The base model comes with a USB charging cable.

“The new version [of the Blackberry Storm] does away with one of the original device’s most annoying features – SurePress, which required the user to press down the screen in order to type or select icons – and opts instead for a traditional touchscreen feel.“

This is a bit touch and go, but isn’t the addition of tactility to a touchscreen a good thing? I wouldn’t be surprised if the Storm’s implementation sucked though (I’ve never used one).