Russell Davies

the long then

There have been many, many annoying things about the recent hysterical reactions to the global financial shenanigans. There's the regular abuse of information design. The pointlessly bleak pronouncements. The over-dramatic talk of hunkering down. But the one that's drawn me into actually writing a post is the regular and appalling lack of perspective. Every time some number somewhere moves it's compared, with serious sonorousness, to the last time it was that low, and it's almost always startlingly recent. The lowest GASP for five years, WOW, since the 1990s, COR! since 1981. The other night some pundit announced that Mr Mandelson was the first senior cabinet member since (and here he had the air that he was going to evoke the age of Gladstone or even Bonar Law)...wait for it..Thatcher. For heaven's sake. That's not that long ago. Some of us even remember it.

That's why, for all their occasional, West Coast looniness, I'm such a fan of the Long Now folk. Hopefully if they help us take a long view forward we'll also learn how to take a long look back.

always push the bees the way they want to go

Matt and I went and talked about the Instorematic at the Do Lectures a few weeks back. You can see our contribution here. And all the other talks here. The one that's stayed with me the most is Gerald Cooper's talk. He's a beekeeper and runs New Quay Honey Farm in West Wales. It's a lovely talk. Humane, sensible, no-nonsense. And full of interesting facts about bees and honey. (As you'd expect.) A splendid thing to watch.

And he used the saying "Always push the bees the way they want to go". That sounds like as good advice as you'll ever hear anywhere.

the sunlight on the lino

shepard, deep, brown

I think, after all these years, I've finally had a good idea for a blog. A purpose for which a blog would be perfectly suited; some sort of Analogy Library. I'm always coming across things which would be the perfect other half for an analogy; something that you're certain would come in handy as a metaphor for something but you're not sure what yet.

For instance, Ben told me at the weekend of something called the Shepard Tone. It's a combination of tones that sounds like it's continually descending without ever getting lower. The ear can't decide which tone is the fundamental and so occasionally slips to another one, thereby keeping the descent going. You can listen to an example here.

Doesn't that just strike you as something you could use metaphorically sometime? It's got to be a good analogy for something, just not sure what.

Incidentally, the Shepard Tone is not to be confused with The Deep Note, or The Brown Note. Both of which also offer metaphoric possibilities.

helsinki

montreal water

true

engaged

let the tagging begin

long