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Psychopaths and Psychotics

3/25/2015

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On Monday night, I watched the first instalments of two different two-part documentaries that made me realise that I had actually watched content about two ends of the same spectrum - neither end comfortable.

  • Trevor McDonald Meets the Mafia (ITV 9:00pm)
  • Louis Theroux: By Reason of Insanity (caught up via the BBC iPlayer)

Both documentaries were thought provoking and worth watching – if you didn’t see either programme, look them up on the ITV player/BBC iPlayer respectively.

Trevor McDonald’s documentary involved him touring the States and meeting some ex-Mafia cronies, either informers in hiding, or those that had been convicted of grievous crimes (and had done their time and were back in society). The people Trevor met were hard men that would act violently without hesitation and kill without remorse – in other words, genuine psychopaths.

In theory, the documentary had an agenda of de-glamourizing the Mafia but it annoyed me because what it showed was a bunch of nasty, unrepentant people that were clearly still very wealthy as a result of their criminal activities. What was worse, these characters would occasionally complain about their lot or suggest regrets that they had shafted their colleagues.

Trevor McDonald is a television journalist that I hold in high regard but he didn’t really challenge or confront the characters he was interviewing – still he was probably scared of them and you can understand why.

So, Mafia “made” men and enforcers are at the glamorous, almost socially acceptable, end of psychopathy but at the other are the kinds of sad souls that Louis Theroux interacted with.

Louis’ documentary saw him granted access to Ohio’s secure psychiatric hospitals where he interacted with people that committed violent crime but were not held accountable by reason of insanity.

These people were confined and loaded with drugs for years on end. With conditions like paranoid schizophrenia, or extreme bipolar disorders, some of those interviewed had killed or hurt others and were decidedly odd – hearing voices, experiencing hallucinations, or believing they were Jesus. But while these people were psychotic, you had some sympathy for their plights and respect for the institutions’ best efforts to create lives for them.

Louis Theroux did a good job of observing and challenging those he interviewed in a delicate way so as to illustrate their problems but without exacerbating them. In my opinion, he added much more value to his documentary than Trevor did to his.

My reflection is that the institutionalised psychotics and the psychopathic gangsters may not actually be that different in terms of the risks they pose to society (both dangerous) but whilst one group deserves help, the other warrants no such allowances.   

The concluding parts of both documentaries will be aired in the not too distant future, I’ll be watching and my recommendation is that you think about doing the same.

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Desert Storm and some other noisy bastards

3/19/2015

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On Tuesday 17th March, I went to a gig at the Craufurd Arms in Wolverton, Milton Keynes. On the undercard were Crossburner, Desert Storm (DS) and Hang the Bastard (HtB).

The band that I actually went to see was Desert Storm, in fact I have posted about seeing this outfit before.  The other two were completely new to me.

Unlike The Library pub in Oxford, where I last saw Desert Storm, The Craufurd Arms (TCA) is a proper gig venue as opposed to a crap one (although on this particular Tuesday, there was a drains issue which, when combined with the gig hall’s standard stale ale aroma, meant that TCA smelt a bit crappy).  

In “Billy No Mates” fashion, I went to this gig on my own so watched Crossburner because there was nothing better to do and, to be blunt, this band made so little impression on me that I had to take to the web to remind myself what it was actually called.

A rotund, bearded fellow with a woolly hat, camouflage print jacket and some unusual facial expressions did a lot of unintelligible shouting and wailing and beyond that I remember little. To be frank, not many others will remember that much either – there were only about 20 people in the room.

On the subject of beards though; there were so many full size beards on show that one might have thought one had arrived at a ZZ Top convention, an Islam conversion course, or a Gimli fan club meeting (a Lord of the Rings reference). Elliot Cole, the drummer from Desert Storm has a beard that would be the envy of jihadists throughout the Middle East.

How did significant facial hair get so damn popular? 

Unlike tattoo proliferation, at least women haven’t started growing beards too!

But forgive me I digress; Desert Storm took to the stage at around 9pm and played a six song set to an increased audience of about 50 people (still, it was a school night in Wolverton; the headliners, HtB, didn’t attract a larger throng). The tracks played were:

  • Sway of the Tides
  • Queen Reefer
  • Horizon 
  • Forked Tongues
  • Collapse of the Bison Lung
  • Enslaved in the Icy Tundra

Six songs doesn’t seem like a lot but as each was more than five minutes long, you will appreciate that there was enough material to fill the time slot available.  Four of the songs can be found on the band’s recently released Omniscient album (which, by the way, is excellent).

DS played with skill and once again I was impressed by Matt Ryan’s powerful, deep throat, slightly gargled vocals - if you heard them in isolation, you wouldn’t believe that the voice would belong to this young, slim chap.

Desert Storm plays heavy, sludgy metal with some occasional, more blues inspired guitar and bass; it’s technical, interesting and engaging. What it isn’t, is frantic, high energy, mosh-inducing stuff; and the audience duly didn’t. 

When DS’s time allocation was up the guys stopped playing and thanked everyone for coming. Personally I would have loved to hear some more, the time had just flown by.    

Afterwards, the guys mingled with the audience and watched the next band. I spent some time chatting to Chris White, one of the guitarists, and have to say that it’s this kind of interaction that makes the smaller, local gig so much more interesting than something at a large venue where the bands are segregated from their fans/paying customers.

Hang the Bastard, took to the stage next and, without a word to the audience, ploughed on with its set. The stage, bathed in red lights and shrouded in dry ice, was as doomy-gloomy as the wall of noise that followed. The singer shrieked, the bassist growled occasionally, the two guitarists were largely hidden in the red fog and I don’t think I actually saw the drummer during the whole set.

I lost track of the number of songs, they all sounded remarkably similar, and to be honest, I lost interest pretty quickly. The set finished as suddenly as it began and the band just left. No engagement with the audience at any point.

I remarked to Chris, “that’s it then is it?”; moments later the lights in the hall were switched on and it was time for the punters to file out, not that I cared much by this point, I was glad to go home.

I won’t be seeing Hang the Bastard again (or Crossburner for that matter) but I have much more time for Desert Storm, in my view a good band, the act that should have been headlining and one that I will make time to see again as soon as I can.

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Cool 70s sounds, guilt and repentance

3/17/2015

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PictureThe Cool Sound of the 70s
A short while back, I bought a 38 track, double CD entitled “The Cool Sound of the 70s”; the album artwork is shared because it was actually the cover that prompted me to buy the CD. I know that’s slightly ridiculous but, in my defence, the Raleigh Chopper in the coloured boxes reminded me so much of the image on the homepage of my site that I just bought the album; I didn’t even bother to review the track list.

It turned out that the “easy on the ear” tunes were even acceptable to my wife and kids, and last weekend, during a car trip to see my parents, the Sex Pistols “Jubilee” album was ejected from the slot and these CDs got an airing.

And since that journey, they have now been played through a number of times and I feel the need to confess to having a guilty conscience.

Why the guilt? Well there are a number of tunes that I really like that I really shouldn’t like given my well-publicised liking for heavy metal and punk music.

The following songs make me smile, feel good and even sing along.

  • “Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round the ole oak tree” – Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
  • “I’d like to teach the world to sing” – The New Seekers
  • “Save your kisses for me” – Brotherhood of Man
  • “I’m in the mood for dancing” – The Nolans

All four tracks are on CD two, which is my favourite of the two; though one contains some good stuff too.

God only knows why these tunes lift my spirits (maybe something to do with a happy childhood and simpler times) but this seventies pop is as cool as the well-chosen title of the compilation.   

I mentioned guilt and confession earlier, God got a subsequent mention and in keeping with the almost heavenly theme; tonight I am doing penance. The gig tonight - Desert Storm supporting Hang the Bastard at the Craufurd Arms in Wolverton. Repentance shall come though indulging in some decent heavy metal.

Though I make no vow, a gig review may follow – watch this space.

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Is the Wolff at the door? The Australian grand prix disappoints

3/16/2015

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This weekend saw the new F1 season get underway; I had been really looking forward to it but came away feeling rather despondent. The Australian grand prix started with only 15 cars and ended with 11; Mercedes was totally dominant and lapped the field up to position five and the Williams team annoyed me to the point of writing this post.

It was a shame that Valtteri Bottas couldn’t compete because of damage to a disc in his lower back; that wasn’t what made me angry – what did though was Williams’ willingness to run just one car instead of put Susie Wolff in the other.  

The only female driver in F1, tests for Williams and yet wasn’t given a chance when Bottas was out of action and when the prospect of points for her were high, not to mention constructors’ championship points for Williams.

Williams in employing Wolff has just been exposed for executing what amounts to a poor taste PR manoeuvre  – if they are not going to let her race, even when the team is a driver down, then the only reason for having her on the books is to look progressive…

...and it’s all bollocks (literally when it comes to racing seats)!

So much for changing the face of F1, there is nothing game changing going on at all. If I was a Williams sponsor, I’d be extremely frustrated. The positive news coverage that would have been generated by Wolff’s participation has been lost and so has a chance to start shifting the dynamics of F1’s fan base.

The female deputy team principle Claire Williams, who should be ashamed of herself for letting her sex down, stated "Susie Wolff is our test driver not our reserve driver"; the reserve driver, if Bottas is incapacitated for longer, the BBC reports may be someone from the Mercedes team.

Bearing in mind that Susie Wolff’s husband is Toto Wolff, the team principle for Mercedes, I hope that he’d tell Claire to get lost if Williams approached him for help.

I wonder what Susie Wolff will do next? Head for the door probably and find a better employer.

Sunday’s grand prix was dull, the result a forgone conclusion from the beginning; I was pleased that Hamilton won it but the biggest highlight for me was seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger do the post-race interviews. Arnie was/is as cool as they come and Hamilton, despite his fame and fortune was as excited to see him as the rest of us mere mortals.   

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R.I.P. Sir Terry Pratchett

3/12/2015

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A short post today, and technically a last post too – I have just found out about the death of Sir Terry Pratchett and couldn’t let the event pass without comment. Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors, his work has been an inspiration to me, he has name checks all over my site and his passing is genuinely upsetting (though I like the fact that it was dealt with on Twitter with humour).

Here’s a link to the BBC News announcement.

I own and have read every Discworld novel and they are all brilliant; if you haven’t got around to reading one yourself, why not sort that out now.

This world is a lesser place for his departure.

Rest In Peace!

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I don't believe it!

3/11/2015

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PicturePage Views
I have had a few Victor Meldrew moments today.

First up in the disbelief department is the news that Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC and the last three shows of this series of Top Gear will not be shown for the time being (if ever).

Links to the news articles follow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31828184
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31824040
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31832698
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31832534

The suggestion is that Clarkson punched a producer which, if true, isn’t the kind of behaviour that would be acceptable in the corporate world or the legal one (if the aggrieved party wanted to press assault charges). Clarkson is a law unto himself and I pity the HR people that have to try and manage his prima donna ways.

I should make it clear that the suggestion that Clarkson may have thrown a punch is not something I struggle to believe (after all he punched Piers Morgan a few years ago) – what makes me come over all Meldrew/grumpy is that the BBC will still expect to charge me the full asking price for its damn license.

As an ever increasingly begrudging BBC license fee payer – the feedback I’d like to share with the corporation is that I want a partial refund of my fee to cater for the absence of one of my favourite programs. In terms of a car analogy (which seems appropriate), the BBC axing Top Gear would be like a car dealer trying to supply you with a car that was missing a seat – it wouldn’t affect the operation of the car but would make it a lot less desirable. You would at least want to haggle on the price but would probably go somewhere else and buy something different…

…though you can’t do that with the BBC without getting menaced.

Second on my disbelief radar is that Weebly's website traffic statistics report that my site generated 2,262 page views yesterday. That’s more than double the amount of page impressions from the highest grossing day during this site’s three year plus existence.  Now one might think I’d celebrate that achievement but to be honest, and to quote Victor, “I don’t believe it”.

Why?

Well it’s not as if Weebly hasn’t messed up the numbers before.

And yesterday’s statistics also record that the number of unique visitors totalled 69.

Not quite so impressive a number is it?

If accurate that means some of these visitors were very engaged with my writings. So engaged as for me to be concerned that I might be getting investigated.

Still no warnings, hate mail, job offers or blog contributions received so most probably the 2,262 is a statistical anomaly.

But just in case; if dear reader, you were one of yesterday’s visitors and you took the time to read everything I have ever published, I’d be pleased to hear from you. 

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Cold water has got one hot under the collar

3/10/2015

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On Monday morning the hot water in the Baldwin household wasn’t. I had a cold shower before work and can tell you that the experience wasn’t pleasurable – I hopped around in shock and muttered expletives as I struggled to wash the soap from my hair and body.

To compound matters, yesterday afternoon Mrs Baldwin called me at work to advise that the heating had failed too.

So not a great start to the week - but not the end of the world either. British Gas will spend some time fixing the mechanicals tomorrow afternoon.

Coincidently, today saw me supply meter readings to EDF so that the energy company can issue its next bill and probably tell me that I need to increase by direct debit yet again because energy is getting so bloody expensive these days.

I have to say that I hold EDF in very low esteem and the only reason that I haven’t switched suppliers is because last time the, supposedly easy U-Switch, process was so damn miserable that I can’t face it again. British Gas and EDF between them were f**king useless.

Do I sound bitter? That would be because I am!

Power generation is not a topic that fills me with joy. In fact my last post/rant was about the woes of nuclear power. EDF is an exponent of nuclear power and it’s another reason to dislike my energy supplier.

So being on a bit of a downer, I was pleased to read an article on the BBC News website this lunchtime about energy generation that filled me with enthusiasm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31506073

The piece is about the heat pumps in Drammen, Norway that generate enough hot water from the extremely cold water of the local fjord to cater for 85% of the city’s requirements. According to the BBC, the heat pumps, installed and operated by a British firm called Star Renewable Energy (SRE) work like this:

  • Water from the fjord at 8C is used to heat liquid ammonia at four times atmospheric pressure (4 bar), until it boils at 2C and evaporates
  • By increasing the pressure to 50 bar, the evaporated gas is heated to 120C
  • The gas is then used to heat the water in the heating system from 60C to 90C (the water goes out of the plant at 90C and comes back in at 60C)
  • Once the heat has transferred to the water, the ammonia gas changes back into a liquid state
  • The process begins again

The results are seriously impressive and I can’t help but think that EDF and others should abandon nuclear and embrace this kind of technology instead – it’s safer, cleaner, cheaper and the cold water isn’t about to run out (unlike the hot in the Baldwin household). A no brainer surely?

The article states there are some barriers to widespread adoption in the UK but they can’t be impossible for our politicians to resolve. And if they could be resolved, the potential for the Glasgow based SRE to lead the way instead of the Chinese (EDF’s financial backers for Hinckley Point & Sizewell) could warm the whole nation as well as its water.

Maybe our energy bills would even start going down for a change.

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Optimism bias, Sellafield, nuclear power and voting

3/5/2015

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Regular visitors will know that one of my soapbox whinging topics is nuclear power – there are a number of articles published on this site on the subject (see list at the end of this post).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31725365

Today's news on the BBC website that the clean-up costs at Sellafield have risen still further and that the project is still well adrift of its timing plan bothers me a lot, though I am not surprised. I last wrote about Sellafield’s project woes in 2013. Two years later, this news piece bears some striking similarities (aside from the numbers) to the earlier BBC coverage.

Rather than me repeat the content of previous posts, please have a read of them. There is even dialogue with my local MP, Chris Heaton-Harris and Baroness Verma the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

From a budgeting perspective, the clean-up project at Sellafield is simply out of control and no one appears to have the skill set to contain the costs. To be frank, I don’t really understand the figures – in 2013 the BBC coverage detailed £67.5 billion, now today's suggests £53 billion; an overspend of £5 Billion; a total predicted clean up cost of £70 billion. Clearly the BBC didn't review its previous article before publishing the latest one.

To clear matters up, I reviewed The Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA) accounts from 2013-14 – you can download them from www.nda.gov.uk as I did.

The accounts contain the following extract - NDA has reviewed the methodologies used in the calculation of the ranges of the nuclear provision and has recognised that removal of optimism bias, application of the HMT Green Book estimating uncertainty principles and early sight of the Sellafield future costs means that it is appropriate to significantly increase the potential undiscounted range. The NDA has reviewed a number of scenarios with a range of possible outcomes, the estimated cost could have a potential range from £88 billion to £218 billion.  

I am not an accountant and the term optimism bias was new to me – I looked it up – here’s what I found: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/191507/Optimism_bias.pdf

The document starts with the following text:"There is a demonstrated, systematic, tendency for project appraisers to be overly optimistic. To redress this tendency appraisers should make explicit, empirically based adjustments to the estimates of a project’s costs, benefits, and duration."

Clearly the 2011-12 NDA accounts were created without accounting for optimism bias because the scenarios for the Sellafield clean up were £48.9 billion to £59.6 billion.

The way I see it, when it comes to Sellafield – there is no reason to feel optimistic at all. £88 - £218 billion is shocking and that’s just for Sellafield – in the UK there are eight shut down sites and nine in operation.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that all those in charge are going to get hauled across the coals in March by a parliamentary committee.

In the midst of this expected cost, the Government still plans to invest in the Trident nuclear weapon programme – CND reports that investment value equates to about £100 billion - http://www.cnduk.org/campaigns/no-to-trident.

I am a UK tax payer and I am horrified at the scale of public money allocated to these projects. I really struggle to see the ongoing viability of nuclear power and I am not alone.

Another recent piece on the BBC News website presented a debate about the future of nuclear power.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30919045

In Western Europe, the US and Japan there is no public confidence in nuclear power and it’s a hot voting topic.  The only places where nuclear power is still supported is in places with authoritarian regimes or Eastern Europe (where of course the Russians are agitating).

Some Middle-Eastern countries are planning reactors and that is deeply concerning – with IS operating in the region, the implications of terrorists getting hold of nuclear matter should terrify anyone.

In the UK, with the May elections approaching, any political party that was prepared to scrap/curtail Trident and park all plans for new reactors at Sizewell and Hinckley Point would get my vote. Will any of our political parties meet my requirements? I am not optimistic.  

1 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/nuclear-power-questions-answered-well-sort-of
2 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/nuclear-power-qa-and-decc-update
3 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/nuclear-profligacy
4 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/1/post/2012/11/a-cumbrian-earthquake-why-a-21-score-should-still-bother-you.html
5 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/1/post/2012/11/post-purchase-satisfaction-and-sellafield-dissatisfaction.html
6 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/1/post/2012/10/more-nuclear-nonsense.html
7 - http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/joining-cnd.html

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