FROM: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager, Odanglesex County Council
TO: Caren Thwaites, North-west and South-East Odanglesex Transitional Primary Care Trust
Will Wainwright, Community Safety Co-ordinator, Odanglesex Police
Tamara Gold, Chair, Confederation of Odanglesex Councils for Voluntary Service
Basil Fogarty, Chief Executive, Odanglesex Association of Local Councils
Mark Cullompton, Wekebridge District Council (for the district councils)
Petra Partington, Vice-chair, CTC (Odanglesex Branch)
Colleagues:
Many thanks for coming this morning. I thought the meeting was very positive indeed. Are you happy with this as a summary of what we agreed?
1: There is a need to co-ordinate action across agencies to promote cycling in Odanglesex as both healthy and environmentally friendly. No one statutory agency can deliver this alone: indeed, no one agency can.
2: Progress up to now with cyclist-friendly policies has been disappointingly slow and casualties are too high.
3: A Partnership should be formed of concerned agencies, headed by a small working group which initially could consist of the agencies represented at today's meeting.
4: The name of the Partnership will be the Odanglesex Safe Cycling Partnership.
5: The working group should report to a wider annual meeting.
6: The first task of the working group should be to draw up a plan of action, with a timetable, identifying who should be responsible for actions.
7: Responsible representatives should seek approval from their agencies for commitments in the plan of action.
8: Tamara and I will put together terms of reference.
9: We will meet again next month (e-mail with possible dates follows).
FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Hamish - thanks for updating me on the cycling partnership. I think Neil Balderson should be added to the membership of the working group.
FROM: Tamara Gold
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Hamish - I can't say I'm happy at OCC having two members on the working group to one for everybody else, but as you point out, we won't be taking votes often if ever. If this gets Kenneth on board, I suppose it's worth it. Everyone's happy with the ToR, by the way and it's very clear that it's a genuine partnership, not some kind of front. Sorry if that sounds cynical.
So that'll be all right, then, won't it?
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Friday, 16 March 2012
The Odanglesex Chronicles: Green Odanglesex (3)
FROM: Sam Speed, Emergency Social Work Co-ordinator
TO: Silesia Jones, Equality and Diversity Beacon Consultant
Hi! Have all the kettles disappeared from your kitchen too?
FROM: Silesia Jones
TO: Sam Speed
Yes. It's a bummer. Terry's trying to find out what's happened.
FROM: Sam Speed
TO: Silesia Jones
Especially as I work nights and the water heater is set to go off at 5.
FROM: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager
TO: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
Don Coggins, Hard Systems Manager (Core)
Colleagues:
People on B11 have been asking what happened overnight to the kettle in our kitchen. It was a new one twelve people clubbed together to buy three weeks ago. We thought it might have been stolen or accidentally taken out and not replaced, but then both Sam Speed in the Emergency Social Work Team and Caradoc MacNab in Finance contacted people in my team because their kettles had vanished. The only information I've been able to get so far is that Dale Brashcon said he understood it was a sub-milestone on the Green Odanglesex Strategy. Calandra - you're our green person, so are you in the know?
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
cc: Don Coggins
This is news to me. Don?
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Calandra Larkins
In pursuance of the Green Odanglesex Strategy, Safety Considerations and the Odanglesex Values Statement, all unauthorised hand-held electric water heating devices positioned in O.C.C. kitchens have been removed. A supply of hot water is accessible from the static water heaters situated in each kitchen.
The business case for this intervention is as follows:
1: The non-availability of hand-held electric water heating devices will reduce incidence of personal water heating activity and hence impact on our carbon footprint.
2: The static water heaters are more efficient.
3: A Safety Audit identified hand-held water heating devices as a health and safety risk because of the possibility of hot water product interacting with human extremities.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Don Coggins
Don: thanks.
As Green Odanglesex Champion (Core), I feel I should have been consulted, or at least warned, about action taken under the heading of the Green Odanglesex Strategy. By the way - is there a sound basis for stating that the static water heaters are more energy efficient? Also - where's our kettle gone? It's not OCC property.
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: All Directors and Heads of Unit
Please cascade the following water technology information. All unauthorised personal hand-held water heating devices seized from O.C.C. kitchens and marked with personal identification may be accessed for recovery at the O.C.C. Business Technology Pool at Ogden Hall (link to map). After this Wednesday they will be transited to the Odanglesex East Central Recycling Facility at Day's Grange for landfill.
FROM: Oliver Oldknoll, Innovatory Best Practice Exemplar Workforce Manager
TO: Anne Hathaway, Internal Finance Systems Development Officer
Anne:
As I hadn't heard anything about another meeting of the Green working group on which we're both champions, I e-mailed Calandra to find out what was going on. The e-mail bounced back. Apparently she's no longer with the council. I tried Chris Van Hummel. He's vanished too. I've e-mailed their boss, Brett, asking who's taken over their roles and had no reply. At least to my knowledge he hasn't vanished, though (forget it). Have you heard anything? Who's picking this up?
FROM: Anne Hathaway
TO: Oliver Oldknoll
No-one, apparently. Rob Methuen did suggest we wait a year or so until the next green initative and then ask again. LOL.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF EDELBERTHA SPENGLER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ODANGLESEX COUNTY COUNCIL, TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXEMPLAR LEADERS
We are especially proud in Odanglesex with our transformation into a Green County. In the last eighteen months we've embedded a Green Odanglesex Strategy, appointed external and internal Green Odanglesex champions and given our internal work pathways a thorough audit and shake-up through a volunteer Green Odanglesex Working Group. Of course the award of the title of Green Place of the Year was a triumph for all the people who have worked so hard to make our Strategy a reality. More innovatory still was our employee positive message tagging initiative...
TO: Silesia Jones, Equality and Diversity Beacon Consultant
Hi! Have all the kettles disappeared from your kitchen too?
FROM: Silesia Jones
TO: Sam Speed
Yes. It's a bummer. Terry's trying to find out what's happened.
FROM: Sam Speed
TO: Silesia Jones
Especially as I work nights and the water heater is set to go off at 5.
FROM: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager
TO: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
Don Coggins, Hard Systems Manager (Core)
Colleagues:
People on B11 have been asking what happened overnight to the kettle in our kitchen. It was a new one twelve people clubbed together to buy three weeks ago. We thought it might have been stolen or accidentally taken out and not replaced, but then both Sam Speed in the Emergency Social Work Team and Caradoc MacNab in Finance contacted people in my team because their kettles had vanished. The only information I've been able to get so far is that Dale Brashcon said he understood it was a sub-milestone on the Green Odanglesex Strategy. Calandra - you're our green person, so are you in the know?
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
cc: Don Coggins
This is news to me. Don?
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Calandra Larkins
In pursuance of the Green Odanglesex Strategy, Safety Considerations and the Odanglesex Values Statement, all unauthorised hand-held electric water heating devices positioned in O.C.C. kitchens have been removed. A supply of hot water is accessible from the static water heaters situated in each kitchen.
The business case for this intervention is as follows:
1: The non-availability of hand-held electric water heating devices will reduce incidence of personal water heating activity and hence impact on our carbon footprint.
2: The static water heaters are more efficient.
3: A Safety Audit identified hand-held water heating devices as a health and safety risk because of the possibility of hot water product interacting with human extremities.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Don Coggins
Don: thanks.
As Green Odanglesex Champion (Core), I feel I should have been consulted, or at least warned, about action taken under the heading of the Green Odanglesex Strategy. By the way - is there a sound basis for stating that the static water heaters are more energy efficient? Also - where's our kettle gone? It's not OCC property.
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: All Directors and Heads of Unit
Please cascade the following water technology information. All unauthorised personal hand-held water heating devices seized from O.C.C. kitchens and marked with personal identification may be accessed for recovery at the O.C.C. Business Technology Pool at Ogden Hall (link to map). After this Wednesday they will be transited to the Odanglesex East Central Recycling Facility at Day's Grange for landfill.
FROM: Oliver Oldknoll, Innovatory Best Practice Exemplar Workforce Manager
TO: Anne Hathaway, Internal Finance Systems Development Officer
Anne:
As I hadn't heard anything about another meeting of the Green working group on which we're both champions, I e-mailed Calandra to find out what was going on. The e-mail bounced back. Apparently she's no longer with the council. I tried Chris Van Hummel. He's vanished too. I've e-mailed their boss, Brett, asking who's taken over their roles and had no reply. At least to my knowledge he hasn't vanished, though (forget it). Have you heard anything? Who's picking this up?
FROM: Anne Hathaway
TO: Oliver Oldknoll
No-one, apparently. Rob Methuen did suggest we wait a year or so until the next green initative and then ask again. LOL.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF EDELBERTHA SPENGLER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ODANGLESEX COUNTY COUNCIL, TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXEMPLAR LEADERS
We are especially proud in Odanglesex with our transformation into a Green County. In the last eighteen months we've embedded a Green Odanglesex Strategy, appointed external and internal Green Odanglesex champions and given our internal work pathways a thorough audit and shake-up through a volunteer Green Odanglesex Working Group. Of course the award of the title of Green Place of the Year was a triumph for all the people who have worked so hard to make our Strategy a reality. More innovatory still was our employee positive message tagging initiative...
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
A Day in the Life of Simon Ernestovich
A busy day ahead. Drive over to Reeman, Dansie auctioneers in Colchester. Sit through endless coin and toy auctioning (but not without interest - why does a George IV crown go for about three times a James II one, given that said George reigned for about four times as long as said James and about four generations later?). Packaged food at counter is surprisingly good.Three items of interest to me come up. I get one below estimate. Enough time to drive back to Dovercourt to take train to London for Meetup writers' group, parking about 1 1/2 miles from home and near the station.
Meetup group is interesting with a wide variety of writers sharing their work. No other poets, though. Return to Liverpool Street Station to find unexplained delays on Norwich main line. Train delayed by some 45 minutes. getting me to one stop from home, is said to be leaving soon, but the train I was intending to get appears to be delayed, though there's no information. I waver but get on the earlier train. Cause of delays is person killed by a train - a secret tragedy we just see the tip of, probably a suicide. Approaching Colchester, announcement says the train is terminating there and not going on to Harwich International. Everybody gets off. Two puzzled railway employees are trying to field questions and saying as far as they know, the train is proceeding. Hear one say "all screens are showing false information". Those of us they can catch are ushered back on the train and it gets to Harwich International.
Note to self: in future, travel with 24 hour taxi number. It's now about ten to midnight. No staff around. My problem is that while I could walk home from here, my car is further away, too far for me to be willing to walk, tired, around midnight. Screen on platform says train to the remaining stations on the branch line will come at 00:17. There is a phone Help Point and I use it. They aren't able to tell me if this alleged train actually will run. I wait. The predicted time of arrival goes to 00:26 and then 00:28. I wait. Finally at 00:15, the predicted arrival shifts to 00:52. I leave and walk home in about 20 minutes. Next morning I pick up the car.
Tragically, deaths on the line are not that uncommon. I can't relate to the personal tragedy because all I know is that someone was killed by a train. What I can relate to is that systems for dealing with the disruption seemed to be thrown into total chaos.
Still, it was a mild night and not raining...and I slept well...
Back to the Odanglesex Chronicles next time.
Meetup group is interesting with a wide variety of writers sharing their work. No other poets, though. Return to Liverpool Street Station to find unexplained delays on Norwich main line. Train delayed by some 45 minutes. getting me to one stop from home, is said to be leaving soon, but the train I was intending to get appears to be delayed, though there's no information. I waver but get on the earlier train. Cause of delays is person killed by a train - a secret tragedy we just see the tip of, probably a suicide. Approaching Colchester, announcement says the train is terminating there and not going on to Harwich International. Everybody gets off. Two puzzled railway employees are trying to field questions and saying as far as they know, the train is proceeding. Hear one say "all screens are showing false information". Those of us they can catch are ushered back on the train and it gets to Harwich International.
Note to self: in future, travel with 24 hour taxi number. It's now about ten to midnight. No staff around. My problem is that while I could walk home from here, my car is further away, too far for me to be willing to walk, tired, around midnight. Screen on platform says train to the remaining stations on the branch line will come at 00:17. There is a phone Help Point and I use it. They aren't able to tell me if this alleged train actually will run. I wait. The predicted time of arrival goes to 00:26 and then 00:28. I wait. Finally at 00:15, the predicted arrival shifts to 00:52. I leave and walk home in about 20 minutes. Next morning I pick up the car.
Tragically, deaths on the line are not that uncommon. I can't relate to the personal tragedy because all I know is that someone was killed by a train. What I can relate to is that systems for dealing with the disruption seemed to be thrown into total chaos.
Still, it was a mild night and not raining...and I slept well...
Back to the Odanglesex Chronicles next time.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
The Odanglesex Chronicles: Green Odanglesex (2)
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Colleagues:
I thought that was a fantastic meeting yesterday! I hope you felt the same. The first analyses of energy use across County Hall will be e-mailed to all employees next week, so please look out for them and in particular any hot-spots which show particular offices or work-stations have items such as printers or monitors left on overnight. The word is diplomacy, though. Fights are energy-intensive.
Sorry this e-mail comes from me apparently with my Spatial Diversification hat on. Internal Comms haven't been able yet to change my title on e-mails to include Green Odanglesex Champion (Core). They did say a new identity could be set up, but then apparently the system would insist on paying me twice.
Roll on the next meeting!
FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
TO: Dale Brashcon, Transformational Excellence Champion
Dale: Kelly's pointed out these maps of energy hot-spots to me. I understand a Green Odanglesex Champions' Working Group has been set up with all directorates represented. Who's our rep?
FROM: Dale Brashcon
TO: Kenneth Spotlessnob
Kenneth:
Apparently it's Reema Narlikar in Hamish's team.
FROM: Kelly Pattrick, PA to Kenneth Spotlessnob
TO: Reema Narlikar, Transformational Excellence Officer
Reema: Kenneth would like to see you tomorrow at 10 about Green Odanglesex.
FROM: Reema Narlikar
TO: ScottFitz29@nuncio.com.uk
Scottie:
I know you're in Moldova, but if I know u, checking your emails and losing your texts. So here goes. I'm spitting blood and want a shoulder to cry on. Yeah, OK, no-one really wants blood on their shoulder, but on your tshirts it won't show.
You remember I volunteered for TESV's Greek champion. Well, KSnob called me in and pointed out that everyone in the directorate could see on that map that he was leaving his monitor on and the printer in his office was being left on too. Of course, it was nothing to do with any embarrasment he might experience, but wasn't this kind of over-personal information likely to cause trouble? I pointed out that it was the same with all directorates and Calandra was in charge. He said he'd have a word with Brett and Simeon.
He also asked how much time I was giving to this role. I think if I'd said 0.1% of my time he'd have implied that was too much. Of course, he lost the turf battle to get Internally Greening Odanglesex into TESV.
Green, not Greek.
Beam me up, Scotty.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fellow champs:
Just to let you know that the maps of out-of-hours energy use will now not show individual workstations.
To be concluded...
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Colleagues:
I thought that was a fantastic meeting yesterday! I hope you felt the same. The first analyses of energy use across County Hall will be e-mailed to all employees next week, so please look out for them and in particular any hot-spots which show particular offices or work-stations have items such as printers or monitors left on overnight. The word is diplomacy, though. Fights are energy-intensive.
Sorry this e-mail comes from me apparently with my Spatial Diversification hat on. Internal Comms haven't been able yet to change my title on e-mails to include Green Odanglesex Champion (Core). They did say a new identity could be set up, but then apparently the system would insist on paying me twice.
Roll on the next meeting!
FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
TO: Dale Brashcon, Transformational Excellence Champion
Dale: Kelly's pointed out these maps of energy hot-spots to me. I understand a Green Odanglesex Champions' Working Group has been set up with all directorates represented. Who's our rep?
FROM: Dale Brashcon
TO: Kenneth Spotlessnob
Kenneth:
Apparently it's Reema Narlikar in Hamish's team.
FROM: Kelly Pattrick, PA to Kenneth Spotlessnob
TO: Reema Narlikar, Transformational Excellence Officer
Reema: Kenneth would like to see you tomorrow at 10 about Green Odanglesex.
FROM: Reema Narlikar
TO: ScottFitz29@nuncio.com.uk
Scottie:
I know you're in Moldova, but if I know u, checking your emails and losing your texts. So here goes. I'm spitting blood and want a shoulder to cry on. Yeah, OK, no-one really wants blood on their shoulder, but on your tshirts it won't show.
You remember I volunteered for TESV's Greek champion. Well, KSnob called me in and pointed out that everyone in the directorate could see on that map that he was leaving his monitor on and the printer in his office was being left on too. Of course, it was nothing to do with any embarrasment he might experience, but wasn't this kind of over-personal information likely to cause trouble? I pointed out that it was the same with all directorates and Calandra was in charge. He said he'd have a word with Brett and Simeon.
He also asked how much time I was giving to this role. I think if I'd said 0.1% of my time he'd have implied that was too much. Of course, he lost the turf battle to get Internally Greening Odanglesex into TESV.
Green, not Greek.
Beam me up, Scotty.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fellow champs:
Just to let you know that the maps of out-of-hours energy use will now not show individual workstations.
To be concluded...
Friday, 9 March 2012
The Odanglesex Chronicles: Green Odanglesex
FROM: Edelbertha Spengler, Chief Executive and Directional Excellence Champion
TO: Simeon Lascelles, Director of Spatial Exploration and Direction Management
Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
cc: Conor O'Connor, Director of Human Resources Development
Hi, both! I thought I should let you know that I've concluded the outward-facing and inward-facing functions of our Green Odanglesex journey should benefit from unified management. This means that both functions will be housed in the same directorate and as we previously agreed that the outward-facing officer should be in SEDM, it follows that the inward-facing function will be there too.
The consequences of this are the creation of one post of Outward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion in SEDM at NOAH(2) and the allocation of an 0.4 fte officer also at NOAH(2) from that directorate to the inward-facing role (to be achieved by internal efficiencies), this officer while acting in this role to be referenced as "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion".
Ed
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Brett West, Head of Modernisation and Business Practice
Brett: I was delighted to be given the remit for greening OCC internally and to learn that I'd be working with Chris Van Hummel so that our promotion work with partners and stakeholders will be dancing to the same tune as our internal work. If I can speak personally, it's so much more exciting than that personal waste recycling promotion work I was going to be taking on. You know how committed I am to green causes.
This is to let you know that if that's acceptable, I can start on the new reponsibilities next week - one week early.
FROM: Brett West
TO: Calandra Larkins
Thanks for this, Calandra. Just to note that on reconsideration after a chat with Goneril Hayes, Simeon and I felt that the title of "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion" gave the wrong impression, as OCC is outward-facing and customer-focused at all times. You will therefore be referred to in this role as "Green Odanglesex Champion (Core)".
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fantastic! I had almost no trouble at all getting volunteers to take on being Green Odanglesex Champions. It was a bit harder finding a suitable date, but the most popular was the morning of 3 May, so I've booked the Pond Conference Room for 10-11.30. Look forward to seeing you all! Well, nearly all.
ED'S JOB - THE BLOG OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE EDELBERTHA SPENGLER
Hi again!
Did you have a mother who kept urging you to eat your greens? I did. Now I urge her to do the same.
Eating more vegetables isn't only good for you (unless you eat huge amounts of them already, of course) but also good for the planet because growing vegetables uses up far less energy than growing meat. I thought I'd point that out because we're now making a major push to relaunch our Green Odanglesex Strategy and everyone should be thinking about how to contribute to greening the planet and in particular Odanglesex. Our aspiration is to be the greenest county in England.
If you have any bright ideas, please drop a line to Calandra Larkins, our new Geeen Odanglesex Champion (Core).
Meanwhile I'll be making sure I re-use ALL my shoes!
Bye for now!
Ed
(The Green Odanglesex Strategy should just be plain sailing now, shouldn't it? To be continued)
TO: Simeon Lascelles, Director of Spatial Exploration and Direction Management
Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
cc: Conor O'Connor, Director of Human Resources Development
Hi, both! I thought I should let you know that I've concluded the outward-facing and inward-facing functions of our Green Odanglesex journey should benefit from unified management. This means that both functions will be housed in the same directorate and as we previously agreed that the outward-facing officer should be in SEDM, it follows that the inward-facing function will be there too.
The consequences of this are the creation of one post of Outward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion in SEDM at NOAH(2) and the allocation of an 0.4 fte officer also at NOAH(2) from that directorate to the inward-facing role (to be achieved by internal efficiencies), this officer while acting in this role to be referenced as "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion".
Ed
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Brett West, Head of Modernisation and Business Practice
Brett: I was delighted to be given the remit for greening OCC internally and to learn that I'd be working with Chris Van Hummel so that our promotion work with partners and stakeholders will be dancing to the same tune as our internal work. If I can speak personally, it's so much more exciting than that personal waste recycling promotion work I was going to be taking on. You know how committed I am to green causes.
This is to let you know that if that's acceptable, I can start on the new reponsibilities next week - one week early.
FROM: Brett West
TO: Calandra Larkins
Thanks for this, Calandra. Just to note that on reconsideration after a chat with Goneril Hayes, Simeon and I felt that the title of "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion" gave the wrong impression, as OCC is outward-facing and customer-focused at all times. You will therefore be referred to in this role as "Green Odanglesex Champion (Core)".
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fantastic! I had almost no trouble at all getting volunteers to take on being Green Odanglesex Champions. It was a bit harder finding a suitable date, but the most popular was the morning of 3 May, so I've booked the Pond Conference Room for 10-11.30. Look forward to seeing you all! Well, nearly all.
ED'S JOB - THE BLOG OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE EDELBERTHA SPENGLER
Hi again!
Did you have a mother who kept urging you to eat your greens? I did. Now I urge her to do the same.
Eating more vegetables isn't only good for you (unless you eat huge amounts of them already, of course) but also good for the planet because growing vegetables uses up far less energy than growing meat. I thought I'd point that out because we're now making a major push to relaunch our Green Odanglesex Strategy and everyone should be thinking about how to contribute to greening the planet and in particular Odanglesex. Our aspiration is to be the greenest county in England.
If you have any bright ideas, please drop a line to Calandra Larkins, our new Geeen Odanglesex Champion (Core).
Meanwhile I'll be making sure I re-use ALL my shoes!
Bye for now!
Ed
(The Green Odanglesex Strategy should just be plain sailing now, shouldn't it? To be continued)
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Diplomacy
There is a story about a man receiving a visit from the Special Branch (for non-Brits - this is the nearest thing we have to secret police - a police section dealing with spying, subversion and extremism) after a communication to him from abroad was intercepted. It said, "The Russian bear is preparing to infiltrate Liverpool". Presumably the man showed the officers his Diplomacy board, pointed out the supply centre of Liverpool and demonstrated how a Russian fleet might reach it.
Maybe that story is apocryphal, but I've been chatting on a train and noticed people beginning to listen in as I said something like, "If France and Germany make common cause, England can be smashed. The Russians have enough on their plate already because of the situations around Romania and Warsaw, so the only possible fly in the ointment is Italy."
Welcome to Diplomacy, a game based on Europe at the start of the 20th century and the rivalry of seven great powers. It's a board-based war-game. Immediate qualifications: you can play it on-line, though I'm not aware of genuinely interactive versions; and it's a war-game much in the way chess is. In fact you could describe it as seven-sided chess, with two important characteristics - the moves by all the players are made simultaneously (so you have to try to predict what others will do) and diplomacy between players is allowed, indeed encouraged. So you talk to neighbouring powers, try to get a sense of what they're planning, make offers for mutual support against third parties and, occasionally, make threats. In some versions of the game this is done face-to-face and with limited secrecy, while diplomacy conducted at a distance by phone is genuinely secret. However, no promise made is binding. You can promise one thing and do the opposite. If you do this too often, though, no-one will believe you and you will find yourself without allies. As there are seven powers in the game at the start, anyone who tries to go it alone in the early stages usually gets eliminated.
There are aspects of the game that have made me pause at times. You are expected to lie: but the game is based on a community of people agreeing to lie, just as a football or cricket or chess game requires players at time to deceive, albeit without words; and like other competitive games, a well-fought contest generates deep respect for the opponent.
I won't go into the technicalities here, but the technical side of the game is fairly simple and the skill lies largely in reading other people's intentions, in building up relationships and in timing decisive moves right. One player wins when he or she controls a majority of the "supply centres" on the board, but agreed draws are possible, mostly when a stalemate line has been reached.
I was introduced to a diplomacy circle many years ago by Martin Proctor and am still in it. Currently, as the President of France, I have indeed infiltrated Liverpool and, with the Germans, eliminated England, but a little difficulty has just developed with Italy, who may quite possibly read this post, so of course, it's all a storm in the Western Mediterranean and we're good friends really...
Maybe that story is apocryphal, but I've been chatting on a train and noticed people beginning to listen in as I said something like, "If France and Germany make common cause, England can be smashed. The Russians have enough on their plate already because of the situations around Romania and Warsaw, so the only possible fly in the ointment is Italy."
Welcome to Diplomacy, a game based on Europe at the start of the 20th century and the rivalry of seven great powers. It's a board-based war-game. Immediate qualifications: you can play it on-line, though I'm not aware of genuinely interactive versions; and it's a war-game much in the way chess is. In fact you could describe it as seven-sided chess, with two important characteristics - the moves by all the players are made simultaneously (so you have to try to predict what others will do) and diplomacy between players is allowed, indeed encouraged. So you talk to neighbouring powers, try to get a sense of what they're planning, make offers for mutual support against third parties and, occasionally, make threats. In some versions of the game this is done face-to-face and with limited secrecy, while diplomacy conducted at a distance by phone is genuinely secret. However, no promise made is binding. You can promise one thing and do the opposite. If you do this too often, though, no-one will believe you and you will find yourself without allies. As there are seven powers in the game at the start, anyone who tries to go it alone in the early stages usually gets eliminated.
There are aspects of the game that have made me pause at times. You are expected to lie: but the game is based on a community of people agreeing to lie, just as a football or cricket or chess game requires players at time to deceive, albeit without words; and like other competitive games, a well-fought contest generates deep respect for the opponent.
I won't go into the technicalities here, but the technical side of the game is fairly simple and the skill lies largely in reading other people's intentions, in building up relationships and in timing decisive moves right. One player wins when he or she controls a majority of the "supply centres" on the board, but agreed draws are possible, mostly when a stalemate line has been reached.
I was introduced to a diplomacy circle many years ago by Martin Proctor and am still in it. Currently, as the President of France, I have indeed infiltrated Liverpool and, with the Germans, eliminated England, but a little difficulty has just developed with Italy, who may quite possibly read this post, so of course, it's all a storm in the Western Mediterranean and we're good friends really...
Friday, 2 March 2012
Who are we?
There was a discussion recently on a LinkedIn group on "What makes us human?". This focused on human behaviour traits, good and bad.
I'm not usually very literal-minded, but I had trouble with this one. I observe and display all sorts of human behaviour traits and I'm quite comfortable discussing human nature, but "What makes us human?" is either a question about mechanics to which the answer is "the instructions in our DNA, or rather a very tiny fraction of those instructions, as most of them could also make us chicken" - or it's inviting a comparison with something.
So what are we comparing ourselves with? Sometimes, as in "we're only human", we seem to be comparing ourselves with God, but as knowledge of God is highly disputable, that doesn't take us far except to emphasise our fallibility.
We know that we evolved bit by bit from a common ancestor with Chimpanzees, so our humanness, however defined, developed gradually and some of our quite marked traits are still basically common ape traits. In particular, studies of Chimpanzees show that some behaviours and perceptions we think of as very human are shared with them - for example, taking care of the dead and appearing to grieve over them, or something remarkably like ambitious people's office politics.
It appears that whales and porpoises are highly intelligent and dolphins probably even more so, but we are so different that we've understood little of the nature of their intelligence (we've also found it convenient not to probe into this while we kill them). The bodies of marine mammals are so different from ours that communication becomes fundamentally different and the marine environment, as opposed to land, almost certainly will lead to thinking differently. Besides, our concept of intelligence is so culturally determined that measures like I.Q. and learned discussions fail to recognise certain types of intelligence even among humans, so maybe if we knew far more about dolphins we wouldn't recognise - or wouldn't value - some of their intelligence.
If we had met even one extraterrestrial intelligent life-form (and survived) we could begin to answer the question "What makes us human?" because then we'd have a real comparator, a very different way of thinking, socialising and so on. We would find some things were common, so not distinctive of us, and others distinguished us from the other life-form (I'll leave machine civilisations out of it for the moment). Of course, just one comparator would not be ideal (imagine deciding what made us human by comparison with just one other earthly species, hippopotamus, say, or sea kale) and numerous comparators would be preferable provided none of them wiped us out.
Lastly, the mention of machine civilisations (much discussed in science fiction and somewhat in speculative non-fiction science) reminds me that when we ask what makes us human, we may be comparing ourselves with computers or robots. Now since some scientists see us as machines anyway, that's a difficult one, the more so because we sometimes build machines deliberately to mimic human thought processes and behaviour. Maybe I'll return to that - comments welcome.
Some answers would involve the soul, but while I'm comfortable with this idea insofar as I understand it, I'm not wedded to the Christian orthodoxy that humans only have something special.
I can't resist widening the extraterrestrial theme to say that our entire understanding of life and of how it arose on earth is constrained by a complete lack of comparators. If only we find something on Mars or on those moons of Saturn...in my lifetime, please...
I'm not usually very literal-minded, but I had trouble with this one. I observe and display all sorts of human behaviour traits and I'm quite comfortable discussing human nature, but "What makes us human?" is either a question about mechanics to which the answer is "the instructions in our DNA, or rather a very tiny fraction of those instructions, as most of them could also make us chicken" - or it's inviting a comparison with something.
So what are we comparing ourselves with? Sometimes, as in "we're only human", we seem to be comparing ourselves with God, but as knowledge of God is highly disputable, that doesn't take us far except to emphasise our fallibility.
We know that we evolved bit by bit from a common ancestor with Chimpanzees, so our humanness, however defined, developed gradually and some of our quite marked traits are still basically common ape traits. In particular, studies of Chimpanzees show that some behaviours and perceptions we think of as very human are shared with them - for example, taking care of the dead and appearing to grieve over them, or something remarkably like ambitious people's office politics.
It appears that whales and porpoises are highly intelligent and dolphins probably even more so, but we are so different that we've understood little of the nature of their intelligence (we've also found it convenient not to probe into this while we kill them). The bodies of marine mammals are so different from ours that communication becomes fundamentally different and the marine environment, as opposed to land, almost certainly will lead to thinking differently. Besides, our concept of intelligence is so culturally determined that measures like I.Q. and learned discussions fail to recognise certain types of intelligence even among humans, so maybe if we knew far more about dolphins we wouldn't recognise - or wouldn't value - some of their intelligence.
If we had met even one extraterrestrial intelligent life-form (and survived) we could begin to answer the question "What makes us human?" because then we'd have a real comparator, a very different way of thinking, socialising and so on. We would find some things were common, so not distinctive of us, and others distinguished us from the other life-form (I'll leave machine civilisations out of it for the moment). Of course, just one comparator would not be ideal (imagine deciding what made us human by comparison with just one other earthly species, hippopotamus, say, or sea kale) and numerous comparators would be preferable provided none of them wiped us out.
Lastly, the mention of machine civilisations (much discussed in science fiction and somewhat in speculative non-fiction science) reminds me that when we ask what makes us human, we may be comparing ourselves with computers or robots. Now since some scientists see us as machines anyway, that's a difficult one, the more so because we sometimes build machines deliberately to mimic human thought processes and behaviour. Maybe I'll return to that - comments welcome.
Some answers would involve the soul, but while I'm comfortable with this idea insofar as I understand it, I'm not wedded to the Christian orthodoxy that humans only have something special.
I can't resist widening the extraterrestrial theme to say that our entire understanding of life and of how it arose on earth is constrained by a complete lack of comparators. If only we find something on Mars or on those moons of Saturn...in my lifetime, please...
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