Month: March 2005

The traditional 7 spot ladybird is under threat from a foreign invader.

The Harlequin Ladybird

A new ladybird has arrived in Britain. But not just any ladybird: this is the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, the most invasive ladybird on Earth.

The harlequin ladybird was introduced to North America in 1988, where it is now the most widespread ladybird species on the continent. It has already invaded much of of northwestern Europe, and arrived in Britain in summer 2004.

The distribution map on the left shows that it has spread rapidly throughout the southeast of England since its first sighting.

There are 46 species of ladybird (Coccinellidae) resident in Britain and the recent arrival of the harlequin ladybird has the potential to jeopardise many of these. The Harlequin Ladybird Survey will monitor its spread across Britain and assess its impact on native ladybirds.

Tags: nature

Thanks to Jason Kottke I happened across the exquisite Japanese woodblock prints produced by David Bull.

Unusually he doesn’t sell individual prints instead he insists that you subscribe to a series of prints which he will the despatch to you on a regular basis throughout the year. He explains why here.

This year’s subscription is
The ‘Hanga Treasure Chest’, a series of 24 smaller prints at what I think is a very reasonable price.

For many years now I have made my new year card prints in the Japanese postcard size. Many of my collectors and fans have urged me to make ‘more’ of this type of print, and I think it’s time to oblige!

The ‘Hanga Treasure Chest’ is a set of 24 woodblock prints of that size and general type which will be issued throughout 2005 at the rate of a new one every two weeks. Subscribers to the set will receive (together with the first print, and at no extra charge) an attractive storage box. The prints are mounted on cards, and enclosed by a paper wrapper that also contains a short descriptive explanatory piece … ready to slip into the box for safe-keeping.

David Bull is not without his detractors though including those who accuse him of grave-robbing for producing prints of classical Japanese artworks.

If you don’t have anything to say to the world as an artist on your own merit then maybe you should wait until you do instead of pawning off beautiful, old prints as your own just because the original artists can’t defend their right to it.

Would the writer of this email accuse the director of a production of Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet of the same crime?
Should Shakespeare’s plays be put aside and left to their own time?

New artistic works are invariably built upon the artistic works of the past in some form or another even if the links are too insubstantial to recognize. In addition if classic works are not republished or reintepreted then they get lost to history and our culture is worse off.

Without David Bull to reproduce these great Japanese works of the past then many would never get to see them.

Tags: art

So the Prevention of Terrorism Bill was finally passed and Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta is looking ever more prescient. The controversy of the Bill is mainly concerned with the Control Orders which would allow suspected terrorists, whether a UK national or a non-UK national to have severe restrictions placed upon under the orders of the Home Secretary without trial.

Thanks to the truly excellent website They Work For You the entire epic commons debate is available in an easily read format with much background information. It is split up into a m umber of segments due to the bill being passed back and forth between the Houses of Commons and Lords as amendments to the Bill were suggested and considered.

9th March debates
Prevention of Terrorism Bill (Programme) (No. 3)
Orders of the Day — Prevention of Terrorism Bill
Clause 1 — Power to Make Control Orders

10th March debates
Prevention of Terrorism Bill Debate
Prevention of Terrorism Bill Debate
Prevention of Terrorism Bill Debate

Finally the Bill was agreed upon and given
Royal Assent.

However both the Government and the Opposition are claiming victory due to the Bill being now greatly diminished from what the government wanted and yet it has now passed into law. Whoever claims rightful victory it would seem to me that it is the British public that have lost.

I have not yet been convinced of the necessity of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2005, the government is primarily argued for it’s introduction to counter the threat of the 200 or so terrorists that are loose within our borders.

They fail to mention that of those 200 people most are only suspected of loose affiliation with terrorists i.e. funding or providing safe houses. Intelligence officials have estimated that perhaps only 30-40 individuals would be prepared to kill themselves or others.

In addition it must be said that the police and security services are doing their job in containing these ‘terrorists’. They are clearly known individuals if we have accurate numbers and they are under surveillance. The fact that they have been in the country for years without having been arrested would be an indication that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. They may well have been trained at camps with Al-Qaeda but if they then do nothing at all with that training then they cannot really be considered as terrorists.

The BBC reports that the remaining foreign detainees at Belmarsh were released and that the Home Secretary was issuing control orders under his new powers for each of the former detainees.

The former detainees face bail conditions which include:

* Electronic tagging
* A night-time curfew from 1900 to 0700
* A ban on using mobile phones and the internet
* Obtaining permission from the Home Office if they wish to meet anyone outside their home
* Living at an address notified to the Home Office and police, who can search the property without warning
* No visitors unless the Home Office has been notified in advance, except for under-16s
* Notifying the Home Office of any intended departure from the UK, and the port of embarkation
* Bank account restrictions and sending monthly statements to the Home Office.

And finally at least we are aware that our civil liberties are being eroded unlike the Russian populace, if the newly retired chess genius Garry Kasparov’s assessment is correct.

Tags: security, surveillance, terrorism

The map of the London Underground we know and love was designed by Harry Beck in 1933, an electrical engineer he based the map upon the schematic of a circuit diagram.

But was Design’s gain Geography’s loss?

Is our image of London distorted by the Underground map?

Tags: map, tube

Last night I watched Torture: Guantanamo Guidebook on Channel 4 and was shocked and appalled by it, more than I thought I would have been. I think having an introduction to each of the seven detainees rather than them being simply anonymous people I had more empathy for them than I had for the real detainees at Camp Delta in Cuba.

I’m really quite disturbed that people are suffering worse abuse than was depicted in the programme and have been for years with no end in sight no wonder the incidence of suicide is high or should I say incidence of ‘Manipulative self-injurious behaviour’ as the US Government has now termed it.

Even if I believed that the ‘ends justified the means’ this is wrong because I’m sure that the quality of information gained from the torture is far outweighed by the level of abuse required to extract it. Only a minority of detainees possibly had important information and after two years surely even those people no longer have information of any worth.

Interestingly whilst searching the internet for further information regarding this programme I discovered that one of the detainees is a professional kickboxer named Gary Turner who has written about his experiences here. He says that he found the experience uncomfortable but easy to get through.

I do really think that my sports training saw me through. Mental and physical strength. Discipline and fitness. Made it much easier to get through.

But thanks to my fight training, it was a surprisingly easy, although uncomfortable, thing to go through.

He goes on to say.

I too have no sympathy for the terrorists, only the innocents, who I feel real sorry for. I think I would have gone mad within a month. They’ve been there for years. Talking with the interrogators over dinner afterwards we were told of the real problem of Guantanamo Bay. That is resources – all the interrogators can earn so much more in the corporate world, like them, therefore leave the army! They say that without doubt there are innocents at Guantanamo Bay, but they just aren’t being processed due to lack of resources…they’re the ones I feel so sorry for.

Tags: torture