The Lorpblog

Interesting that Tony Blair and Paul Wolfowitz are both to step down from their posts at the end of June. Is it possible that honorary American Blair, who has not talked of any time for relaxation after office and who’s just had his last meeting as PM with Bush, will step into Wolfowitz’s position as World Bank president? I can’t imagine the after-dinner speech circuit, from which everyone assumes Blair will soon be earning mountains of cash, being particularly thrilling for him after 10 years at the top of politics. It makes a interesting comparison with the Gordon Brown for head of IMF rumours in 2004.

A recent Tesco ad really riled me. It was full-page in several newspapers, and announced their “10-point plan” to turn themselves into a “better neighbour”. Two points were utterly bogus: one on statistical grounds, the other for omitting key aspects of what their competitors are doing and what the regulator wants them to do.

The first sneaky comment was a commitment to halve the energy consumed “per store” by 2010, compared with 2000 figures. Not mentioned was their current focus on the small convenience store. Hurrah! They can meet the target just by opening lots more Express and Metro stores!

What would be commendable would be a commitment to reduce energy used per square metre of store space.

The other point of the ten that needed careful reading was the boast that they are the only supermarket introducing a nutrition labelling system on all their own-label products. Many nutrition experts this month condemned Tesco for not adopting the easily understood “traffic light scheme” promoted by the UK Food Standards Agency. Asda, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose are to go ahead without Tesco.

Here are the figures on numbers of their stores by category, showing how opening a few dozen Express stores can affect the average store size used in their energy calculation.

Now…

Extra: 100 stores averaging 6131m²
Superstore: 446 stores averaging 2895m²
Metro: 160 stores averaging 1103m²
Express: 546 stores averaging 187m²

Total: 1252 stores averaging 1744m²

figures from Inside Tesco: Our strategy, core UK information sheet

Now let’s hypothesize that there are 500 more Express stores by 2010 (even though at the current rate, there will be more Express stores than that)…

Extra: 100 stores averaging 6131m²
Superstore: 446 stores averaging 2895m²
Metro: 160 stores averaging 1103m²
Express: 1046 stores averaging 187m²

Total: 1752 stores averaging 1299m²

So, assuming that energy used per m² is a constant, that’s already a 26% reduction in energy usage per store just by opening more stores!

(Also reported here.)

In my MyFonts job I am proud to be part of the team that put the TypeCast podcast together. We finally got all the technology set up late last night, just in time for this morning’s launch. Do check it out and let us know how you like getting fonts this new way!

Without getting too bothered about it, I’ve long thought the practice of ‘trailing’ speeches or announcments is a trifle odd. The idea is that a speech – in whole or in part – is offered to the media in the hope that it will be covered in important organs or broadcasts. The Today programme (6-9am) is a common conveyor of such ‘trails’ for speeches made later the same day. One suspects that the intention of the speechmaker is not only publicity for the speech, but also the drawing out of hecklers in advance so that they may be dealt with in the actual speech.

I was particularly amused by trails reported in the Evening Standard of January 30, 2006.

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What use will Wikipedia be like in 10 years’ time? Will it be divided into “unreliable” and “reliable” areas – or “alpha”, “beta” and “release” zones (to use geek parlance) – the high quality zones tended by expert reviewers? Perhaps the “community” can indeed introduce quality assessments by guardians in certain subject areas and work out how to reward productive contributions and discourage squabbling over capitalization and other appalling wastes of time. Whether this will result in an experience any better than taking a trip to your local library is not at all clear at this stage.
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You might have missed this from last April 1. The joke is that Amazon have created a new technology, Mechanical Turk, that reverses the normal way we use computers. Instead of people getting computers to do various annoying, repetitive tasks, computers get people to do various repetitive tasks for them. In some cases humans can perform tasks better and more cheaply than computers, so it makes economic sense to use humans rather than expensive and unreliable computers. (The name is a good joke, referring to an invention from 1769 which was a mechanical contraption for playing chess – of course it was fake, the machine’s cabinet contained a hidden chess player.)

Well anyway, the Amazon story is true.
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In the coverage

(USA Today, BBC) of the best evolution vs. creationism story since the Scopes trial, my favourite comment comes from an Amazon customer book review. The book in question, Of Pandas and People, was fiercely critized in the court case for portraying “two sides” to evolution, and for the supposedly scientific authors’ cynical lack of publishing anything in the scientific literature relating to the claims in the book. Characterized as “creationism re-labeled” by Judge John Jones at the trial, the book has an Amazon page that is a magnet for comments on intelligent design.

So, to the review:

more about pandas, less about people., December 20, 2005
Reviewer: Ole Blackeyes (kentucky) - See all my reviews

I was seriously disappointed that there weren’t more pictures of pandas in this book. Please, more panda pictures in the next volume.

I really love pandas. And it is a scientific fact that pandas are totally cool. Jesus would definitely have loved pandas. So next time, more pandas please.

By the way, a good account of the Scopes trial combined with a modern-day travelogue is Trials of the Monkey by Matthew Chapman, Darwin’s great-great-grandson.

Splendid news! A new independent local newspaper, the Clifton Chronicle was launched today in my area, Clifton in Bristol. A weekly tabloid, it is edited by Stan Szecowka, one of several senior staff at Bristol’s Evening Post booted out in July by new management. It revives a name last used in 1928, but it is genuinely brand new.

So the first issue contains plenty of bitching, a real-life soap which will surely help the fledgling publication. The Post’s solicitors say their client will apply for a court injunction to prevent of their advertisers from getting a better deal in the Chronicle. The Chronicle hits back with cheap ad rates and touching and detailed accounts of the despicable treatment of the ex-Post staff: computer blocked, “you’ve got 10 minutes to clear your desk”, “you’re too familiar with the readers” as reason for dismissal. Remaining staff spontaneously applauded him on his exit.

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I’ve been shooting mainly with a Panasonic DMC-FZ20 since October 2004. I’ve been very impressed with it, notably on a recent trip to Rome and Assisi. Here follow my impressions of the camera.

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