BIG BROTHER IN HERTFORDSHIRE?
In Watford they are trialing an electronic speed warning sign which flashes up the offending driver's car
number. The intention is said to be to get motorist’s to reduce their speed and
the data will not be collected or drivers fined or otherwise punished.
I have been pondering on
this. Surely if such signs are to be
used then you would expect them to be sited in places where speed is a real
danger, as evidenced by a history of accidents. But if that’s the case then
either there would be cameras there already or drivers should not be let off
with what amounts to just a warning? If
the signs are not situated in such dangerous places then what’s the point?
Of course, there is no
general agreement on whether such warnings are a good idea. On one side we have people saying it’s just
another example of big-brother watching you and on the other we have people who
say we need this because of the high number of deaths on the road. At this point statistics are usually added in
order to help prove the viewpoint being expressed. Someone said we need the signs because 5,500
people are killed on our roads every year.
In fact, the true number is around 1700 - every death as
a result of a motoring accident is a tragedy, but the number killed in these
circumstances in the UK has been falling since the mid-1980s and is now at its
lowest level since 1926. Just under 25%
of those deaths are as a result of exceeding the speed limit or driving too
fast for the conditions.
Some may see this speed indicator development as a rather effective
deterrent. Others may wonder about the further loss of freedoms to go about
your daily business without the ‘authorities’ keeping a watching eye on you. It all depends on your viewpoint.
How will this all develop
in the future? I imagine that in the labs they have prototypes that will show pictures of cyclists who jump red
lights and of drivers who fail to signal at roundabouts. An even more exciting
version will flash up the names and addresses of drivers who are not following
the most logical route home after work.
Just imagine how much more successful those old totalitarian states would
have been if only they had survived long enough to benefit from today's
technology.
WEATHER CHAOS
The UK has been on high alert today because of a major
storm battering the south of the country.
Of course, what constitutes a ‘major’ storm in the UK is
not necessarily what people in other parts of the world would see in the same
way. Some might even consider that we
have overreacted and been a little wimpish about the whole thing.
It must be good to be Bob Crow, General Secretary
of the RMT transport union, since he is a man who never has a moment’s doubt
about the cause of any problems. He goes
through life certain in the knowledge that it was all management’s fault.
So, Bob knows that the decision by the rail companies to cancel
morning services today was not because of the weather forecast, but because the
number of employees on the railways had been "hacked to the bone" by
management.
Network Rail, the rail infrastructure company, thought
otherwise, saying that “it was impossible to run services in hurricane-force
winds and that lives would have been put at risk if trains had
operated". At 08.40 they said that they
had discovered over 100 trees on train lines in the South East of England.
No doubt Bob would have condemned management as being
irresponsible and cavalier with people’s lives had the trains run and an
accident occurred. See, that’s the
beauty of being Bob – whatever happens you can have a go at someone else.
IT DOESN’T HELP
TO SELL IT TO THE REST OF US
Last week saw the death of Sir Anthony Caro, said by many to
be the most important British sculptor of the last century.
There was the obligatory Will Gompertz piece on the BBC news
and viewers who might previously have been unaware of Sir Anthony and his
importance were given a brief opportunity to see for themselves the kinds of
things he produced, such as this one.
Some viewers may have concurred with the view that he was a
genius, Others may have wondered why anybody would think some railway sleepers
painted yellow should be so highly regarded.
But few, if any, will have thought along the lines of the
following explanation from the NY Times of why Caro was so revered:-
“Caro
took sculpture off the pedestal, stretched it across the floor and expanded it
into airy concatenations of brightly coloured lines and planes made with
industrial metal sheets, pipes, tubes and beams. Perfectly composed yet
seemingly freshly improvised, they gave the impression of color liberated from
physical support, like paintings in space, or jazz.”
Nor will it have helped people to understand his position in
the arts to be told that his second most famous contribution to the world
was as co-designer of the Millennium Bridge in London (cost of £18.2m; closed
after three days because of excessive swaying, arising from the apparently
unforeseen fact that people would walk on it; reopened months later after spending
£5m on a redesign and rebuild). Probably want to keep quiet about that one.
MORE ALARMING
TOILET NEWS
In Moan 68 I mentioned the shock to the system from experiencing
the sudden noise and suction caused by the unintentional triggering of a sensor
activated flush whilst sitting on a toilet.
News from Norway last week made me realise how trivial this
was in comparison with other events.
On one of the islands of Hvaler, in the South East of
Norway, a 70 year-old man was quietly sitting on the toilet in his holiday
cottage, perhaps thinking about the day ahead, or maybe reading the newspaper. He would not have thought it necessary to
put on his bullet-proof vest, even if he had such a thing. But had he done so then he would have avoided
being air-lifted to hospital in Oslo, having been shot by a stray bullet from a
hunter, apparently unable to distinguish between a moose and a holiday
cottage.
Makes sitting on the auto-flushing toilet seem like a
pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
