“All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo”

“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs

(Someone once commented of my flat: “all you have is music and books.”)

From Diana Walker’s The Bigger Picture. (Hat tip: ana.)

Shocks to change behaviour

Something I didn’t know: there’s a school in the States—only one thankfully—that uses electric shocks “to change destructive behavior”. The Judge Rotenberg Education Center in Massachusetts hit the news as apparently a prank caller tricked staff into giving two teenagers dozens of shocks. The caller had posed as a supervisor. One of the teenagers was taken to hospital with first-degree burns.

The role of intelligence in the UK’s arms trade

Interesting article by Robert Dover (2007) on how SIS and co help out the British arms trade. There are some nice little insights from (anonymous) interviews, for instance:

The success of an Ambassador’s period of tenure is partly judged upon whether they have assisted in securing a significant quantity of export trade, including arms sales, for UK companies (interview 24IS).

The author’s conclusions:

This research has shown intelligence to be used in support of British-based private commercial businesses, and occasionally in providing intelligence on the negotiating positions of rival manufacturers. This in itself raises some important questions about the role of the state in the private sphere, and particularly with reference to using sensitive assets that imply that this industry has a core governmental function. The elite interviews conducted with government officials revealed an interesting trend of eliding the interests of the state with the commercial success of a set of industrial manufacturers. That the elision of interests has been allowed to develop is no surprise; what is more surprising is that there is little critical engagement among officials, politicians and the intelligence agencies on the issue of their very commercial role, or of how this work fits into ‘New’ Labour’s foreign policy with its ‘ethical dimension’

Dover, R. (2007). For queen and company: The role of intelligence in the UK’s arms trade. Political Studies, 55(4):683-708.

Petition against Scientology

Just found this petition:

Without compromise to freedom of thought or expression, the teachings and beliefs of Scientology, Dianetics and science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard must never be legally be accepted as a religion – regardless of any recent EU decision to the contrary.

We consider the ‘Church’ of Scientology is an exclusive business venture that by prohibiting access to scientifically-proven psychiatric therapy and medicine is effectively enslaving its believers.

You know what you have to do.