Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

This book concerns a very good-natured man called Charlie who has a very low IQ. Not only can he not understand much of what goes on, he also can't remember much. But he does have a very strong desire to learn and so he takes himself to adult education classes to improve his Literacy and there a university department finds him and tests him to assess his suitability for a new treatment. The treatment has never been tested on a human before: it has only been tested on a white mouse called Algernon, who is now a very smart mouse indeed..

The new treatment turns out to be an operation that improves his brain power amazingly. It does not happen overnight and at first Charlie is disappointed, but gradually he realises how much cleverer he is. He becomes more intelligent than his work mates, his teacher and eventually the professor. At the same time, he starts to remember. He remembers why his parents put him in a home and how cruel his mother and his sister were to him - how they lacked any empathy. He realises that his workmates were not as friendly as he thought they were. So as he gets cleverer, he also gets more bitter. Charlie goes on an emotional journey as his memories come back, and one of the amazing things about the book is this: it is all written in the first person. this is a great achievement because Charlie's voice changes a great deal throughout the book.

He wants to confront his mother with the intelligent person he has become. Ironically, he finds his mother has lost her mental ability to dementia - she sweeps up her kitchen floor for comfort just as he used to sweep the bakery. How eloquently this shows us that none of us are can afford to pride ourselves on our mental powers.

Charlie seems to be such a success for the scientists that they want to take him to conferences and show him off. Charlie hates being treated as an object of curiosity, and takes Algernon and runs away. At about this time Algernon starts to lose his intelligence...

This book has some impassioned pleading for treating people of low IQ as sentient human beings and not being ashamed of them. It has a great many lessons to teach us about kindness and tolerance. And it is an excellent, readable book with many subtle parallels and ironies in it.

I live behind a great oak tree

and once again it is barren. I have lived here for 10 years and only known it to have a "mast year" once, with acorns everywhere underfoot and acorns bouncing off the car every few minutes. This year many of the trees are covered in fruit (the limes are messy and the sycamores are going to be a real trial with their random seeding) and the oak tree is doing nothing. I wonder why? Apparently this irregular fruiting pattern is a mystery to science and nothing to do with weather patterns or environmental factors (according to an American website) but if anyone knows better I hope they will tell me.

Michael Hastings - resembles a murder by security forces that have got out of control

Michael Hastings was 33 years old and an investigative journalist. Now he is dead. I am copying an article about his death because it is highly suspicious. Note that Mercedes said their car could not accidentally blow up in the manner that caused this fatal incident. Michael Hastings was so badly burned that he could not be identified for some time.

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
July 9, 2013

Police and firefighters in Los Angeles have been ordered not to speak to the media about the deadly crash involving Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings, fueling speculation that some form of cover-up could be underway.

San Diego 6 journalist Kimberly Dvorak says she was unable to obtain the police report concerning the crash despite the fact that the LAPD already ruled out “foul play” days after the incident.

A gag order has also been placed on cops and firefighters who both responded to and investigated the crash, which occurred in the early hours of June 18 in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“When you go to the LA police department and you go to the fire department….they all said they couldn’t comment and some of them said they were told not to comment on this story,” said Dvorak.

The journalist added that she talked to “military personnel” who commented that the inferno which consumed Hastings’ Mercedes was an extremely hot fire that “is not something you normally see with a car like this,” and that Mercedes itself was waiting to hear from the LAPD but has not been contacted.

Dvorak also noted that the engine from Hastings’ vehicle was found 150 feet behind the car, contradicting testimony from two university physics professors who said that “the engine would go with the forward velocity of the (vehicle).”

Highlighting the absence of skid marks on the road, Dvorak said she was inclined to surmise that the car either malfunctioned or “there was something on the car that allowed that to trigger and blow up,” noting that Mercedes denied their vehicle could have exploded in the manner seen in the incident that killed Hastings.

Dvorak also mentioned two separate academic studies out of the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego which both detail how modern cars can easily be hacked and remote controlled, a premise also raised by former counter-terror czar Richard Clarke, who told the Huffington Post that the fatal crash of Hastings’ Mercedes C250 Coupe was “consistent with a car cyber attack.”

As we previously reported, questions surrounding Hastings’ untimely death have emerged primarily because the journalist was working on “the biggest story yet” about the CIA before he was killed.

The writer also sent out an email 15 hours before his car crash stating he was “onto a big story” and needed “to go off the rada[r] for a bit.”

According to colleagues, Hastings was “incredibly tense and very worried, and was concerned that the government was looking in on his material,” and also a “nervous wreck” in response to the surveillance of journalists revealed by the AP phone tapping scandal and the NSA PRISM scandal.

After Wikileaks reported that Hastings had contacted them a few hours before his death complaining that he was under FBI investigation, other friends confirmed that the journalist was “very paranoid” about the feds watching him.

Another close friend of Hastings, Staff Sergeant Joseph Biggs, told Fox News that Hastings “drove like a grandma” and that it was totally out of character for him to be speeding in the early hours of the morning.

Hastings had made numerous powerful enemies as a result of his exposure of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in 2010, receiving several death threats in the process.

Aldous Huxley - the Island

I have been reading this book for about 6 weeks. This is because it isn't a novel, more like a long lecture by someone who considers himself incredibly wise, and you are not allowed to argue (of course!), instead you have a proxy whose name is Will who asks constantly for more information.

Will arrives by accident on an idyllic island where the people are  working towards enlightenment pretty much in the Buddhist tradition, but with Hinduism thrown in, and yoga. They aim to be the most developed humans they can be, fully aware of the oneness of spirituality in the world and in themselves. It's Westernised in that the people speak English and have a certain amount of industry, but no desire for any quantity of material possessions, and they have no aggression, (this is educated out of them) so they can't defend themselves. Will is taken on a tour by various wise people, male and female, who tell him all about their values and their way of life.

Unfortunately, Will has boring sexual guilt and Huxley is probably the only person who can bear him droning on about his experiences with his good wife and his "vulgar" but incredibly sexually skillful girlfriend. Huxley was one of the modernists who was unable to adjust to the rise of the masses, and he tends to contrast his imagined world with the constraints of the social world in which he grew up, which dates his attitudes. The other characters are sketches that give voice to Huxley's ideas and opinions - and their reverse, as counterpoint. So they are not characters in the true sense of the word.

Most of Huxley's ideas are terrific. On the island, there is an openness about family life that allows children to access other parents as well as their own, which lessens the possibility of damage done by family neuroses. People are encouraged to attend to the here and now, and enjoy living in the moment. Everyone has to do manual labour for two hours a day, so they don't become "sitting addicts" like Western people. Overproduction of fresh food is kept in a huge communal freezer. Electricity comes from harnessing the rivers.

But Huxley does advocate eugenics - frozen sperm of talented men (and eggs of women?) are used to create a more talented race - this is encouraged and preferred but not compulsory. Huxley is a gene snob. It does mean that many of the population are closely related, but Huxley doesn't acknowledge this problem.

A difficult personality that doesn't fit in? Huxley divides these into "Muscle Men [and women]" (example: Stalin, has a love of power and domination) and "Peter Pans" (common, but Hitler is the example). These can both be treated by special coaching and become useful and happy members of society. All well and good except where Huxley announces that they can check the diagnosis of "Peter pans" by x-raying the bones of the wrist. Uuuuuhhhh??? Huxley is absolutely sure that there are some physical types that are "potential failures and criminals, potential tyrants and sadists, potential misanthropes and revolutionaries for revolution's sake" and that they need to be pinpointed early and given appropriate treatment.

In fact, the island is a lovely idea except for the lack of individualism in the people. I do agree with him that people should not be either educated to serve the state, or educated to become greedy for gewgaws and novelties, and cogs in capitalist enterprise; and I think that his ideal aim of education, which is to develop as fully rounded and spiritually happy an individual as possible, is a model that is crying out to be tried.

Such a society is not sustainable, and the ending is not a happy one, but it is a likely one.

As a novel it's a chore. I am amazed how many people give it an Amazon score of 5 stars!

The Lives of Others - Das Leben der Anderen

I keep mentioning the Stasi in my blog, which is not relevant to my life experiences at all, I don't even read thrillers about the secret service. However, last night Stan brought home the above film which is incredibly clever. You know you are watching a Stasi man, a faithful apparatchik, and you know he is interested in the people he is spying on, but you are constantly on tenterhooks because despite his sympathies, the pressure is on him to report on all their secrets. Will he or won't he? His face conveys an inner life but it's still not clear what he feels and when he will cave in and report their activities. Corruption exists in high places, and the surveillance officer is aware of this - it will surely colour his judgment - or won't it?
Brilliant acting.

The Latitude Festival

This morning I washed the dust of Suffolk out of my hair and was really pleased to see the water turn brown. Often there is not much point in washing my hair but this time it was dirty enough to be quite stiff. I actually fantasised about never washing it again, thinking that the dirt would build up the volume rather nicely.

The Festival was incredibly crowded but only the Eddie Izzard show was unpleasantly crowded. Eddie didn't swear or say anything dirty, which made him a lone voice in the comedy tent, where the level of humour revolved around sex and self-abuse, er, fucking and wanking, in the common parlance. Oh God, it was so depressing. Ah, no, I am forgetting Nina Conti, who was really naughtily funny without being dirty. She had a monkey puppet and a Polish Builder puppet, and she persuaded a member of the audience to participate in the show by dressing up in the Polish builder puppet while she operated his mouth and flirted with him. She then cast another 2 members of the audience as seekers for love, and gave them half masks so that she could operate their mouths, which was incredibly funny and quite creepy. She smiles all the while like a primary school teacher whose class is lovely but getting out of hand, and you would never guess she was saying the risque things that she was saying. Very skillful and hilarious.

The Saturday night headliners were Kraftwerk, performing their seminal album, um er. It features the lovely melody, Fun on the Autobahn. We were promised 3-D graphics and excitedly donned our polarised screens in cardboard frames - err. Why? The 3-D effects didn't work unless you were straight ahead of them and the level of interest was minimal - it was like pac-man or a child's cartoon from the mid 70's when nothing moved and they showed the same pics again and again. Yes, a VW beetle. The background seems to be retreating to show that the car is moving, very clever. There was a pretense that 4 guys were needed on stage to "play" this music, but of course this is nonsense. They could have left us alone with the computers. You could say it was all retro and just displaying to the young people what a seminal work it was - electronic music! How clever! But I'm afraid it was just incredibly boring and I spent an hour and a half longing for it to end. If you want a good version of the robot genre try Flight of the Conchords, The Humans are Dead .  At least it is witty.

My second favourite was Stuart Maconie, in a somewhat tetchy mood, but we laughed heartily at his jokes, of which there were many. He read from Cider with Roadies, which I have mentioned in an earlier post, and also talked about his latest work The People's songs, which I shall buy very soon as it puts pop songs of each year since the war into their social context, and talks about various aspects of British life through the filter of the songs.

I also enjoyed Robin Ince talking about his scientific heroes, but he did shout into the microphone which I found extremely painful and I think he should have stopped doing that by now.

Bryony Kimmings is trying to create a role model for, and invented by, her niece Taylor. The resulting alter ego is called Catherine Bennett, a pop singer and dancer who wears knee length skirts and is a paleontologist. She taught us how to do an animal dance, that was really good fun even if you're rubbish at dancing, like me. The idea was that Taylor experiences "a wholesome rave" cos you can bet that Bryony has experienced a number of unwholesome ones. Here's the song and dance.

A review of Sex Idiot, a previous show is here.

The star for me was Germaine Greer. she was very delayed and the continuity entertainer had to work very hard to keep us amused, which was very good fun, and expectations were high when she finally arrived. She spoke without notes on the subject of the Disappearing Woman and was funny and informative and clever. The only thing I wanted to argue with her about - how ironic! was when she said that somebody's 14 year old daughter shouldn't be taking advice from a 74 year old woman (herself). Ageism! What does it matter how old Prof Greer is; she is still cleverer than practically everyone else so we should all be interested in what she has to say, however old we are. She is fab anyway, more like 60 than 74. Not that it matters.

I'm sure someone said that Prof Greer was delayed by nudists on the roof of her train, but when I Googled this I couldn't find anything.

P.S. Success. Prof Greer was delayed because a man had climbed onto a platform roof at Ipswich station. He climbed around in a way that endangered himself and so the overhead cables had to be turned off. He had no shirt on, and for a while took off his shorts and wore them on his head. Ah, the English summer!

The petition was successful

I noted last month that I had signed a young girl's petition online - climate change was coming off the national curriculum, and I signed that it should still be taught. The petition was successful. I have signed a number of petitions lately, one to stop the nationalisation of Royal Mail and one about MP's paying their interns. All interns should be paid. Otherwise only young people with parents who can afford to keep them will be able to gain this valuable experience. More and more children are brought up in poverty. There's a huge segment who can't work for nothing, and MP's should lead the way in good practice.

Both the USA and Russia

seem to be collecting info from my blog, which I hope makes them both very happy.

I like Edward Snowden and his commitment to democratic engagement, and the rule of constitutional law, and last night, spent the hours during which I couldn't sleep (many hours) thinking of ridiculous plans to rescue him from Moscow airport. I think in this matter, the USA government (yes, you, Barack Obama) is spiteful and vindictive. If they hadn't done anything to be ashamed of then they wouldn't have egg on their faces now, would they? Like nearly everyone else I am thinking, have a jolly good look at all my data because I have nothing to hide, but you are wasting your computers' time and energy; and just take a good look at yourselves, you are no different from the Stasi in the bad old days.

Of course, it is politic of Snowden to appear only grateful to Russia that they have given him shelter at the airport, and he only seeks from them the right to travel further - ultimately he still wants to go to Latin America. But the US government will never rest, they will do what Joseph Stalin did to Trotsky and send someone to get him, wherever he is, because they have decided he is the enemy. Maybe they will decide to summarily execute him.

Apparently the Germans are very angry that the US is collecting data on their private citizens and Angela Merkel could do a good thing by thumbing her nose at the US - helping Snowden would be a great way to express German anger.

I don't think that Ed Snowden's Twitter feed is actually by Edward Snowden, but here are words that I think are authorised by him.

Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.

It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."

Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.

That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets.

Since that time, the government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have. I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression. The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists. It demanded Hong Kong return me outside of the framework of its laws, in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement – the Law of Nations. It has threatened with sanctions countries who would stand up for my human rights and the UN asylum system. It has even taken the unprecedented step of ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president’s plane in search for a political refugee. These dangerous escalations represent a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America, but to the basic rights shared by every person, every nation, to live free from persecution, and to seek and enjoy asylum.

Yet even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum. These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world. It is my intention to travel to each of these countries to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders.

I announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the future. With, for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela’s President Maduro, my asylee status is now formal, and no state has a basis by which to limit or interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum. As we have seen, however, some governments in Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to act outside the law, and this behavior persists today. This unlawful threat makes it impossible for me to travel to Latin America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with our shared rights.

This willingness by powerful states to act extra-legally represents a threat to all of us, and must not be allowed to succeed. Accordingly, I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage from the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede to law and my legal travel is permitted. I will be submitting my request to Russia today, and hope it will be accepted favorably.

If you have any questions, I will answer what I can.

Thank you.