Many thanks to Google for my personalised Google-Doodle today. I guess it’s not hard to figure out when to show that particular doodle but it made me smile.
My age today is officially the answer to the meaning of life the universe and everything.
From Where?
Here’s a picture giving you some information about Fooyah visitors. I use Google Analytics for this type of data and very nicely it works too. These data cover the calendar year 2013. I think I’ve had this site for around 3 years, I’m not sure, I’ll have to have a look at my GoDaddy account.
So, what does this tell me? It tells me that somehow people find their way onto my site from around the world. I don’t know how, there’s nothing here that is of interest, unless you know me, and I don’t know people (1 degree of separation) from these countries!
Here’s a list of countries from where people have visited my site:
The actual list goes on some more but there’s not point going down that far. Heck, I only had three visits from Slovakia.
The map does tell me that most of Africa along with the Middle East and Central Asia aren’t that interested in what I have to say. You can’t blame them really. Oh, and Greenland, which looks massive but it’s a poor map projection.
Willow Springs
This communication is about more research for my Poisson Distribution data, let’s see how long I can keep this going. For more information see this communication.
The next GT6 Seasonal Event to complete or participate in [there are some challenges where I have achieved a Silver Award but not quite the Gold, I might return to those] is to race the Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster 1960 at the Willow Springs Race Circuit in California, USA. Willow Springs is a new track to Gran Turismo and I’m not that keen on it. There are a couple of off camber and over-the-crest corners that make it pretty tricky along with most of the races on the track being rear wheel drive because it’s in the USA.
Aerial Shot:
This is a diagram of the circuit with the corners named:
Here’s a picture of the car:
Right, here’s some information about the car and laps. It turns out that I already owned this car and didn’t need to buy it, I can’t remember when I won it but at least that’s some money saved. Once into the set up section I upgraded the following parts, which improve the car’s handling but don’t affect the power or performance points:
- Uprated the suspension to “racing hard” and fitted racing brakes
- Fitted a 5-speed close ratio transmission unit
- Fitted limited slip differential and racing flywheel
- Fitted triple plate clutch, carbon fibre driveshaft
I also increased the power by adding or improving the following engine settings:
- Racing ECR
- Isometric exhaust system
- Intake tuning
- Sports catalytic converter
These items took my Performance Points over the allowable limit and so I limited the engine output to 94.4%.
The lap times required were:
- 1:42:00 Bronze
- 1:36:00 Silver
- 1:33:00 Gold
My lap progress was as follows:
Lap 1 – off at turn 5.
Lap 2 – off at turn 3.
Lap 3 – 1:37:360 Bronze level achieved.
Lap 4 – off at Castrol Corner, outside of exit, too fast on entrance and understeer pushed car out.
Lap 5 – spun, lost control of rear at Budweiser Balcony.
Lap 6 – spun off at Castrol Corner, too much power on exit [restart entire lap rather than finish this one].
Lap 7 – off at turn 9 before I had even started the lap.
Lap 8 – 1:35:311 Silver Award.
Lap 9 – 1:33:889.
Lap 10 – off at Castrol Corner.
Bought the fully customisable transmission and changed the gear ratios to meet the top speed more efficiently.
Lap 11 – off at Castrol Corner.
Lap 12 – 1:43:338.
Lap 13 – 1:32:960 Gold Award Achieved.
Job Done.
Glory Shot:
Keeping A Record
I made up an example for a lesson where we needed to approximate the Poisson distribution using the Gaussian distribution. I told the class that the average number of attempts I need to complete a Gran Turismo 6 Seasonal Event Time Trial was 20 [I needed a number greater than 10 because Poisson tables go up to a parameter of 10].
20 attempts seemed a reasonable value. I find the newer challenges on GT6 pretty hard and I’m not sure if they are meant to be or whether I am getting worse at the game. So, this is a record of my attempts to get a Gold Time on a seasonal event.
I chose to do the latest seasonal event using a Lotus Elise Race Car around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The required times were:
- Gold 1:30:00
- Silver 1:33:00
- Bronze 1:40:00
I bought the Lotus Elise Racing Version tuned by Gran Turismo.
I will state here that I don’t like racing the normal Elise. The car is light and mid-engined which means I have big problems with oversteer braking for corners and accelerating leaving corners. I find the standard Elise very “twitchy”, I can clear some of this behaviour by change the suspension settings but it is a challenging car to drive fast. I was quite careful on my first few laps as I learnt how stable this car is.
Here’s a map of the GP circuit at Brands Hatch so you can see where the corners are, note that Dingle Dell corner was straightened slightly in 1999 and so it’s not quite as severe as it looks here, more a sweeping right turn at the top of a hill.
Here’s my progress.
Lap 1 – off at Clark Curve coming to the finish line.
Lap 2 – 1:39:6 Bronze Time secured. Car doesn’t oversteer as much as the standard Elise. It’s slightly twitchy under braking but accelerates well. No changes to set up yet. Quite a lot of downforce and it squirms through the corners.
Lap 3 – 1:35:1
Lap 4 – 1:32:28 Silver Award secured. Good increase in speed, but now all the low hanging fruit has been taken. Need to find a 2.5 second decrease of time.
Lap 5 – Off at Dingle Dell Corner, outside on exit.
Lap 6 – Off at Hawthorn’s, cut too tight a lost rear on grass.
Lap 7 – 1:33:3 no increase in speed.
Lap 8 – Off at Druids, cut too tight and tyres on inside grass.
Perform some setting changes. Lower car by 50mm front and rear.
Lap 9 – Off at Hawthorn’s on exit, too wide.
Lap 10 – Off Paddock Hill Bend, outside exit, lost car and went across track to RHS.
Lap 11 – Off Paddock Hill Bend, cut corner too much, spun car.
Lap 12 – Off Druids, late braking, didn’t make corner.
Lap 13 – 1:32:199
Lap 14 – Off at Dingle Dell Corner, too wide on exit of corner and spun [lots].
Lap 15 – Off at Paddock Hill Bend, turning while braking, ended up cutting corner too much.
Lap 16 – Off at Surtees. this corner is key to a fast lap as there is a long straight after it. It is also off camber and nearly a blind entrance. I spun after the steering gripped while braking.
Lap 17 – Off at Stirling’s, too wide on exit and lost rear on grass.
Lap 18 – Off at Druids, on inside.
Perform some setting changes, stiffen the spring settings.
Lap 19 – Off at Hawthorn’s after being 0.5 seconds ahead of ghost lap. Too wide on exit, taking the corner at high revs in 4th.
Lap 20 – Off at Clark Curve, annoyed.
Lap 21 – 1:31:531
Lap 22 – Off at Stirling’s. This corner is key.
Lap 23 – Off at Paddock Hill, too wide on exit.
Lap 24 – 1:30:773
Lap 25 – 1:30:643
Lap 26 – Off at Dingle Dell Corner, lost rear on inside of corner, ended up in RHS barrier.
Lap 27 – Off at Druids.
Lap 28 – 1:30:563
Lap 29 – Off at Graham Hill corner, too wide on exit.
Looked to see if settings for power could be changed. Tuned engine to 200 b.h.p. with stage one tuning. Performance Points still below limit.
Lap 30 – Off at Hawthorn’s while ahead by 0.4 seconds.
Lap 31 – Off at Paddock Hill Bend. New power means faster and I haven’t adjusted braking point into Paddock, just going too fast.
Lap 32 – Off at Paddock (again, same problem).
Lap 33 – Off at Surtees, while ahead by 0.5 seconds.
Lap 34 – 1:29:939 GOLD time.
I have finally beaten the GOLD required time by 0.061 seconds. This is perfectly good. I’ve won.
If I left the track near the start of the lap I would restart the lap unless I had just changed some settings in which case I carried on with the lap to see how the car behaved in the corners, it would effectively be a free tuning lap. I think this challenge took around 80 minutes for me to complete, including time for writing down my progress.
Now, if I knew more about suspension and had the time to gradually play with the settings and see how to improve the handling of the car (power is limited) then I should be able to find another two seconds (I like to think). I just don’t have the time to do this.
The online time record is a good 6 seconds faster than me. I had a look at the replay video of the person in first place and they are using more of the track than me (I am too safe in corners) and they also slide the car a little more than me. I like to think that with more practice I could get there, but I have other things to do. As much as I love the game, I also enjoy spending some of my time doing other things.
Some Extra Thoughts – 6/3/2014
I described the Lotus Elise Race Car as “squirmy” in the corners. By this I mean that the tyres grip too much and I think I’m losing time in the corners through the tyres not wanting to turn the car. I *think* I could resolve this by adding some toe-in to the wheels and maybe a little extra camber. I am not going to test this remedy I am just mentioning it because that would be the next adjustment I would make to the suspension settings if I wanted to improve my time further.
This picture is me taking Paddock Hill Corner in the Lotus Elise Race Car tuned by Gran Turismo. This photo was taken using the photo feature in recorded replays. This was the start of Lap 14.
This photo is me a little later in Lap 14 where I didn’t get the exit of Dingle Dell Corner correct and lost the rear of the car on the grass. I spun wildly. I haven’t counted how many times I span but it’s around 10.
It looks as though I am still in control but I am not. There were still a few more complete turns to go after this photograph was taken.
Trap Door
Amazon have upgraded their Prime membership [and charge more at the same time]. I think this has something to do with them buying LoveFilm and then rebranding the who shebang. Fair enough.
The streaming video service is now called Prime Instant Video. If you have a Prime subscription it now includes a number of free films and videos over the internet to a device with the right software. My television has the right software and so I can now watch this streaming service using the following devices in my house [if I wanted]:
- Television
- Tablet PC
- PS3
- PS4
- iPhone
- Tablet
It seems ridiculous that so many devices can be used to bring entertainment to me. What a wonderful world.
I’m not sure I’ll spend a lot of time watching streaming video, but if I do I will let you know. My boys, however, will watch this and we found ourselves browsing the free kids’ section over the weekend. The usual kids stuff was there:
- Peppa Pig
- SpongeBob Squarepants
We also found that the programme Trap Door was available. This was good news for me. I can remember watching it when it first came out. It was, for a while, my favourite programme and I really enjoyed it.
I have just checked and this show first came out in the mid-80s and so this fits in where I thought it did in my life [I was slightly worried that it might have been an early 90s thing, which would mean that I loved the show when I was at university, quite likely but worrying].
This show is worth watching. It’s short. Funny. Well scripted. Apart from the resolution I don’t think it has aged.
Give it a go.
IMDB Ratings
I am considering re-adjusting my IMDB ratings. When I see a film I tend to give it a rating on IMDB [btw – I remember IMDB when it was a little web project at Cardiff University]. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I need to change my scoring system for these films and I am actually considering using even numbers only.
I have been worrying about what the difference between a 5 or a 6 might be. Also, Restricting the scoring to just the even numbers will mean that I have to consider the film and try to be more realistic. If I currently give something a 6 or 7 what does that difference show? What would be the difference between a 3 or a 4? I just don’t know. The scale of 0 to 10 seems too big for these things [especially as I’m not taking the mean of lots of scores].
I also think there is a human tendency to give middle of the road scores when we think something is average or even below par. If you have seen Come Dine With Me, you will be aware [or will be after this] that when the contestants don’t really know how to score a meal or want average then they tend to plump for a 6 or 7. Their words describe an evening that is probably below par but their score is one that is not meant to offend [6 or 7] but is really rather damning. I want to call this the “Come Dine With Me Fallacy”, which would mean that sub-optimal experiences receive scores that are perceived as “average”, rather than risk offend or come across as a nasty [but realistic] person.
So, at some point in the near future I am going to adjust my IMDB ratings. I will only use the even numbers [thoughts: I need to check if I can score a zero].
Have returned: I can’t score a zero on IMDB. That is not good. So, the default scoring system means that even the poorest film ever made will receive one star. This causes some problems. But I shall try to get around that. So, my new system goes:
- 10 Stars – I loved this film, I would pay to see it again in the cinema and maybe buy it to keep [Apocalypse Now, Star Wars, The Fifth Element].
- 8 Stars – A good film which I
certainlyprobably will watch again [The Rock, Independence Day]. - 6 Stars – While it was enjoyable at the time it is not a film I will spend the time to watch again [The Railway Man, Hunger Games], this might include films I think were really good critically but not ones I’d see again.
- 4 Stars – I only got to the end of the film to see what happened but I’ll admit it was poorly made and rubbish, maybe this is a good “bad film” [Titanic II]
- 2 Stars – [lowest possible score] I gave up watching this film before it had finished. I hated it [Sharknado]. I left the cinema [I would have left the cinema had someone not been in my way – Van Helsing].
I shall update this or write a new communication once I have updated my scores using this crib sheet and let you know which films I struggled to pigeon-hole.
Addendum
I have just started looking at my IMDB ratings and have decided that I will use the above scoring system BUT please understand that I am now using the “Will I watch again?” criteria and this is a personal thing, very subjective. I am able to spot a “good critically acclaimed film” but think my ratings should reflect my intentions about the film and not what I think the wider world will think (1st March 2014).
Further Addenda
I have just realised that this means that any film I enjoyed but won’t intentionally watch again ends up being scored a “6”. Oh, the irony, given I complained about the “Come Dine With Me” fallacy earlier. But, in my favour, I have declared that my scoring system will be 2,4,6,8,10. This means that a score of 6 is the mean and median of the scoring values. When reading my film scores you need to understand my system which I have at least tried to communicate here.
Even More Addenda
These are my latest (updated) scores using the system explained above. I don’t care if you think otherwise about some of the ratings.
Human Target appears twice because I rated an individual episode as well as the whole series.
Rock Identity
For practically all my life I have been a fan of heavy metal. See this communication about my descent into metal.
For me the 80s were filled with early flirtations with pop, from Madonna to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and then into Heavy Metal and Rock. I love Iron Maiden and AD/DC following on from Bon Jovi and Def Leppard in 1987. Come the very late 80s and early 90s I descend into thrash with Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. I see these bands regularly along with new British metal bands such as Wolfsbane and The Almighty.
During university I don’t really expand my musical tastes a great deal. My major discovery (via Smith) is Senser and their cross-over political rock and rap. This sustains me for a few more years along with Alice In Chains.
My music buying diminishes as I start my career and I don’t really get into new bands for a few years. I don’t have a network of friends who can inform me of new things and I don’t live in London. I spend a number of years sustaining myself on the stuff I already own. I still see bands like Iron Maiden and Slayer when they come along, but nothing small or new.
In the early 2000s someone gives me her Rammstein CDs (Sara T) and I find the sound fascinating and new. It’s exciting. Along with seeing Slipknot perform on the TFI Friday television programme I have found something new. Something a little scary and something that seems dangerous. All the music I have grown up with seems rather tame in comparison to these new sounds. I played them over and over. Until around 2009 not much happened until Smith returned from abroad and he and I started attending gigs and concerts together again.
In 2009 I saw two bands. AC/DC at Wembley Stadium and I loved it. They were brilliant and I their music has brought me so much pleasure over the years [so much so that I wore out my musical cassette version of “If You Want Blood, You’ve Got It”]. The other band I saw that year was Rammstein. Their stage show is just absolutely brilliant. If you don’t believe me then just search YouTube for “Buch Dich”, it is quite brilliant, a little bit dangerous and something to cause moral outrage amongst the leading classes. The support band for Rammstein was Combichrist and that is when the trouble started.
After hearing Combichrist and being impressed with their sound I ordered a CD.
Today We Are All Demons
This music was exciting, different, morally dubious, scary and just damn brilliant. It made me want to dance (something I just don’t do). The big problem was that there were NO GUITARS and it was all SAMPLES and DRUM MACHINES. For someone who likes his music live and reproducible without machines this caused major issues. Why did I like this? Was I going insane? How can I like music with a complete lack of heavy guitars and bursting riffs? I was at the tip of the mountain staring down a great big slippery slope to the valley of “not real” music [as far as my metal head would tell you].
I bought more Combichrist stuff and started to look at their influences and associated acts. I bought more. Bands like:
- Aesthetic Perfection
- Reaper
- Suicide Commando
- Funker Vogt
- Hex-Rx
- Panzer AG
Pretty much all of this is what I would now call EBM, Aggrotech or Hellektro. These names are good because it means I am back on the edge of society and seeking to be different with my music. When Metallica took the world by storm in 1992 or so I was done with them. Their sound had changed and I didn’t like it any more. The “edge” had gone. This new music I had found has an edge. It makes me feel uncomfortable [sometimes] and it is different.
I have tried to describe it to friends and I say:
It’s heavy metal without any guitars. The lyrics are nasty and the tunes are awesome.
or
It’s kinda dance music but without the nice lyrics and happy stuff.
I have leant this stuff to friends who like the same sort of metal as me and they don’t really get on with it. They apologised and handed back the USB stick. That’s fine by me because it means I can carry on feeling “on the edge” and liking the music. This stuff ain’t ever going to be mainstream. It sometimes sounds like it should be playing in a night club on a Saturday night but then I have no idea what sort of stuff these people would play. I’d love to be in a club and hear this stuff come on and the crowd just freak out because it hurts them.
I am struggling to come to terms with my new found musical taste. It irks me that I’ve gone for samples and drum machines. I’ve been to see these people play. I’ve liked their music. I’ve had a great time. Yet still the 18 year old me is somewhat miffed at this odd turn in my ear pleasures. As an extreme I have seen a “band” with three Apple Macs on stage and a few leads and then they danced around pressing the odd key here and there. I loved it. There’s a tiny part of me that isn’t sure it’s music but I like it anyway. Over time I’m sure I’ll heal this mental riff. Much like I’ve got used to being a university snob when at the age of 17 I hated that person!
If you want to try this stuff then have a look for the following tracks:
- 190 – Reaper
- X-Junkie – Reaper
- Hit The Streets – Aesthetic Perfection
- In The Pit – Combichrist
- God Bless – Combichrist
- Tip The Dancer – Panzer AG
I am now listening to more industrial stuff. The following bands are on my current active list:
- Faderhead
- Eisbecher
- Rotersand
- Front 242
- VNV Nation
My metal taste buds are still there. I watched Mentallica last night. I went to Download last year. I’m going to see Therapy? and FFDP soon. However, this Hellektro is here to stay and just wonderfully stunning: suck on that 18 year old me!
RANT
If there isn’t an HTML instruction for
<RANT>
then there should be. It could only show the text when moved over by a mouse and then in bold and italics and flashing. Perhaps there could be a graphic of an exclamation mark over the text and so we have a choice whether to read it or not. I often rant and it’s often just to let off steam and have my thoughts validated by other people, but it’s not necessary. We should deal with things rationally and use good arguments to make a point. But, then again, we aren’t rational beings. Anyway, no offence, and just sayin’, you know?
</RANT>
w| acknowledgements to Penguin.
Football Chat
I was sitting in the staff common room the other day and chatting to a female member of staff when another male member of staff came in.
Ian, I was at the ‘Stones match last night”
This was an interesting comment. Firstly it was directed at me and not me and the female in the room. It was also about football and the local team Maidstone United.
Now, I really don’t do association football. I just don’t find it interesting. I’m happy to go to a match and I have seen a few premiership teams play [Southampton, Everton, Tottenham and whomever Spurs were playing]. Watching the match live is an experience and one I enjoy but on the whole, football [or association football as I insist on calling it] just plain bores me. I really don’t understand watching it on television. I also don’t really follow it. I pick bits and pieces up from the radio in the morning and I have a working knowledge but not enough to have a major “bloke” conversation.
I do have a team: Tottenham Hotspur. I have this team for the simple reason that my father and other family members support them. That’s it. Geographically this is a good choice as I grew up in Essex but my ancestors are from the east end of London and so any of the north east London teams would be a good choice [except Arsenal, as much as I don’t care the ‘Spurs thing runs deep]. I keep an eye on the scores and results of ‘Spurs matches, that’s about it. I find it hard to get fanatical about the England team when they enter big competitions as it all seems rather jingoistic and I have issues with the English “identity” [more on that another time].
So, back to the conversation starter:
Ian, I was at the ‘Stones match last night”
This would have been better directed at the female in the room for all I cared. But I was now stuck in a quandary. Should I say:
Sorry, I don’t really do football. Could we talk about the NFL?
What I ended up doing, and in my head I could see the IT Crowd episode when they learn how to talk “football”, was say:
Oh, how was it? I heard they were doing well in the league.
This formed the basis for a conversation that I had no interest in completing or taking part but words were exchanged and as much as I wasn’t fussed I think the other person felt we had a meaningful exchange. I felt a little more “bloke”. Funny how it’s assumed that I must know about a particular topic because of my sex. Now, if everyone had read my twitter profile, that might help!
Back To The Future
Every now and then you will see something on the internet which makes the rounds every year or so. This is just one example. Marty McFly is meant to visit us in the current (future) on a particular date. So far every one of these predictions has been wrong. The actual date is given below:
Let’s save the date and make it more special than all those dates where people Photoshop the movie clip to make it now (or then).
If you ever suspect anything on the internet of not being what it says it is (and that’s pretty much everything) then you should look at Snopes. It’s a brilliant website that looks at the evidence for particular news/popular internet claims.
Typing Stuff Wring
I have a tendency to type the wrong thing when I am using any form of keyboard (PC, tablet, laptop or touch phone).
Part of this is my spelling ability which, at times, should be improved and I work hard on it.
The other part of this is the arrangement of the keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard in use in English speaking countries has its letters arranged in such a way that the most common letters are in the quickest positions to type. This way the speed of typing is increased.
This arrangement means that the vowels, which are pretty common, are placed close enough to each other so if one is pressed instead of the other the resulting word is generally spelt correctly but no longer the word you wanted to type.
I don’t think there’s any particular thing that can be done about this, apart from me increasing my accuracy or decreasing the size of my fingers. Neither of these is going to happen. I guess people will have to cope with and carefully read what I really meant, rather than did write.
Problem words:
shot and shit
shut and shit
bigger and bugger
black and block
You get the idea. It’s like an “‘Allo ‘Allo” sketch all over again.
Arrrrrrrrrrrgh
I don’t understand the logic or reason behind this:
My questions are:
- What colour would 54.4% be?
- What colour would 59.15% be?
- What colour would 64.5% be?
Why are they coloured using whole numbers to differentiate the boundaries and then why tenths for the light blue-ish colour?
Ohhh, I think I get it. Because the national average is 59.2% that means it’s ok to have three colours below that and only two above it.
Does this chart say that no local authorities managed to get the average but some were below it and some were above it?
There are about 52 areas below average. There are way more (I got bored of counting) above that. Does this mean there is positive skew?
Do you know what?
I CAN’T TELL FROM THIS DIAGRAM. IT TELLS ME NOTHING OF ANY USE.
Cutting It Close
I love Gran Turismo.
It can be a frustrating game but it is beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable. I have crashed a few times because I looked at the scenery!
I like the Goodwood Festival of Speed section but I have found the course tricky. Although a basic layout the shadows and look of the course change depending on the time of day. The sun has been modelled brilliantly (pun recognised but not intended), the shadows move and change how the course looks depending on the simulation time. This makes finding the braking point quite tricky. I need to find other track markers for braking points. Also turn-in points change because of the shadows. It takes a few runs on the track to find my pointers.
Such an excellent game and I haven’t even mentioned the fireworks and star maps.
I beat this particular trial by 0.004 seconds. Well done me.
Xmas Tree Boxes
A few years ago I bought a plastic reusable Christmas tree from Homebase. It came in a box. It was nicely packaged in the box.
This late December I found myself spending more time fixing the box than I did actually taking down the decorations and tree. By mass, my box is nearly more duct-tape than cardboard. It turns out that the boxes in which Christmas trees are sold aren’t very good for the storage of Christmas trees.
I paid money for the tree and also, I assume, for the box in which it came. I would have happily spent a little more if the box was advertised as being stronger than the others and lasting more than two years in the loft.
I understand that the box is the cheap part. I also understand that my loft is at times very cold, very hot and occasionally just a little bit damp. However, should there be a manufacturer who takes notice of this communication then I will happily buy their product.
Perhaps I should start a twitter campaign for decent accommodation for reusable Christmas trees. Look out for the hash-tag: #decentboxesforxmastrees
I Don’t Get It
About five years ago there used to be three or four burnt out cars by the footpaths surrounding my village. The were rusty and were old, plants had grown in them and I couldn’t see a track or pathway to get them there. At some point there was a clean up and the footpaths and surrounds were back to a more natural look.
This morning on my run up the Downs and down them again I found a freshly burnt out car. It was still smoking. I don’t understand why someone would do this. I really don’t. It’s not that I care for cars, I just don’t get why you drive a car to a relatively quiet spot and set light to it. Seems pretty shit to me.
Here’s the route I ran:
Here’s the car I found along Common Road at the top of the Downs.
Possibly a Vauxhall Corsa. I don’t really care.
Lunch
Thanks to the 309 Twitter feed this is a picture of me from quite a while ago. I’m the twat in the hat.
A nice lunch on the cantilever many years ago! #30yearsof309pic.twitter.com/R157u01GxW
— 309 Air Cadets (@309atc) January 17, 2014
The Railway Man
I normally don’t wait too long before writing these “reviews” of movies in case my opinion is coloured by talking it over with other people. “Review” is a rather loose concept. I write exactly what I think. It doesn’t mean anything in the real world.
The Railway Man was a good film. Much like “12 Years A Slave” everyone should watch this. The brutality of the Japanese army and what they did to the slaves they used to build the railway through Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) is terrible. Everyone should understand how man can treat man if he is conditioned to do so [see Evil below].
Ultimately this film is not as much of a downer as “12 Years”. The theme running through the film is the terror of war and how people are affected by post traumatic stress disorder. BUT the ultimate theme of this film is forgiveness. This is surely man’s greatest asset. The ability to forgive, not to forget but to understand the terror of other times and then to forgive and allow peoples to work together to reconciliation. We are not different as human beings. Whichever part of the world you come from, whatever your religion (or none), whatever your abilities, whomever you support in sport and whatever the colour of your skin (and all the other different ways we segregate ourselves) we are the same. We are NOT different races. We have different cultures. We are raised differently. In the end, however, most of us would forgive and learn to live with our mistakes and work to correct future issues. Ultimately I believe that humans should and eventually will do good for each other.
To be good to each other we have to overcome inbuilt prejudices. We are tribal creatures and fiercely territorial. We want to be in gangs and to feel surrounded by people who think the same as us. We are animals who yearn for togetherness and knowingness of familiarity. To trust and like others we have to leave behind eons of evolution and hard-wiring in our brains. We have to constantly battle our thoughts and work to make sure that we can be the best we can and do good to others.
We would not fight and kill and maim each other if we could all sit around a camp fire and chat and make food for each other, become a single society. Religions, governments, sports teams, schools, villages, music, politics, practically all aspects of human behaviour involves us being in “like” groups” and forces us to “be on one side or the other”.
I repeat: We are all the same. We are not races.
Human beings need to get together and sit. Face to face. Talk. Consciously overcome the inbuilt prejudice and work together. Work together for the common good. To make the world a better place for the entire human race.
Look around the corporations and governments and see if you see that happening anywhere. I would be most surprised.
If we can learn to forgive and learn to listen to each other and help each other then we might have a chance on this little rock orbiting the Sun.
Hmm. That went a little left-field. Oh well.
After watching this film I read a comment on IMDB. The person said in the “trivia” section that the film uses the compressed time technique as in reality it took a couple of years between meeting and marrying. Apart from a few special films I think all films use compressed time. Does this commenter write this is all film trivia sections?
The film uses compressed time to speed up the story. Eric Lomax and Patti Wallace did meet in 1980, but in reality they didn’t marry until 1983. Eric didn’t learn that Takashi Nagase was still alive until 1993, and they finally met in 1995.
Evil
This should really be a longer communication by itself and maybe I will write one someday. For now I would like to say that I don’t like the media describing someone as “evil”. Considering the world is over seven billion humans there is plenty of scope for all manner of people. Most will fit into the constraints of society and some will not. Some people do terrible things because they don’t know any better, these people should be helped. Everybody else probably does terrible things because of greed or jealousy and many other reasons. These people are probably quite rational and know that what they are doing is wrong and so they should be punished within the bounds of what that society thinks is suitable. By society here I mean the laws of the land [as agreed by elected representatives] and not just what the victims think should happen, perhaps that is another communication to write: The problem of laws and society.
I am not claiming that this is a complete dichotomy. I am oversimplifying the issues to make a point. My basic view is that people either do bad things and know they shouldn’t or a smaller proportion of people do bad things and don’t know any better.
When people who commit terrible crimes are labelled as EVIL by the media it infers that these people are not rational. That these people have been inhabited by EVIL and it has been there since birth. EVIL is a religious term. EVIL means it’s ok to seek revenge in a terrible manner as there is nothing that can be done for that person. EVIL means we don’t have to examine the REASONS behind what that person did. We don’t have to look for excuses, we don’t have to seek rational arguments why they behaved that way, we can just accept that they are EVIL and should be treated as such. Labelling people as EVIL removes the responsibility to ask why and allows us to ignore reasons why.
This whole communication came from the Japanese doing terrible things to other people during the second world war. Should the wrong doing be punished? YES. Did some of the soldiers enjoy what they did? YES. Were many soldiers acting on orders and their society telling them to be brutal? YES.
Should we forgive and understand? Most Definitely.
Out of all this we must LEARN and REMEMBER what happened. We should aim to become better people. We should aim to do good for all.
Once again. We are ONE human race. We are the same.
Osteopathy
Introduction
Osteopathy is a treatment that is prevalent in the area I live. There are 60 results of osteopaths within 10 miles of Maidstone for comparison there are 46 osteopaths (from Yell.com) within 10 miles of Bristol. Close to Maidstone is the European School of Osteopathy. There are many osteopaths working in Kent and many people I know see osteopaths and probably pay reasonable sums of money for the sessions.
What I aim to do here is look into the history of osteopathy, what osteopathy is and the medical efficacy of osteopathy to treat various conditions. Although I will admit up front to being very sceptical of osteopathy as a treatment and I would describe myself as a free thinking, religious free, sceptic however, I will try to give a balanced view. If you think I have made errors of fact then please let me know. If I have written opinions with which you disagree then keep it to yourself.
The History
Osteopathy started in 1874 in the USA. A school was started in 1892 and the term osteopathy was coined. Andrew Still, the founder, was dissatisfied with the limitations of conventional medicine and chose to award DO or Doctor of Osteopathy degrees. Osteopathy as a practice spread and is commonly practised around the world. [1]
What Is Osteopathy?
Osteopathy is a form of healthcare that emphasises the interrelationship between structure and function of the body. Osteopaths claim to facilitate the healing process by the practice of manual and manipulative therapy. [2]
Classical Osteopathy
This is a traditional form of osteopathy where practitioners claim to be able to heal infections and diseases with manipulations which unblock the body’s mechanisms for transferring fluids. [3]
The John Wernham College of Classical Osteopathy is an example of classical osteopathy practised in Maidstone. They have made claims in the past of being able to treat diseases with osteopathy. They were told to change their claims by the ASA who found there was no good evidence to support their claims. I know about this because I challenged their claims through the ASA. [4]
Modern Osteopathy
Is a mixture of treatments applied by people trained in the physiology of humans. This is what the European School of Osteopathy says:
The ESO has always had a broad approach to osteopathic education, covering a wide range of osteopathic modalities and concepts at undergraduate level. This includes a full range of structural osteopathic techniques, General Osteopathic Treatment (GOT), studies in the cranial field (Involuntary Mechanism studies), Balanced Ligamentous Tension techniques, Muscle Energy Technique (MET) and Visceral osteopathy. Students receive a good grounding in obstetric and paediatric osteopathic care and are able to see a wide range of patients within the teaching clinic, including some time spent in the specialist Maternity and Children’s clinics. [5]
Efficacy
It is vitally important to know whether a treatment works or not before it is endorsed. I will briefly cover medical trials and how we know what works and what doesn’t.
The best form of medical evidence is a double-blind randomised controlled study. The worst form of medical evidence is a collection of anecdotes. Reading and interpreting medical trials is pretty much an academic discipline in itself. I shall do my best here to explain. [6]
Medical trials need to be randomised and controlled. There should be a control group that receives either no treatment, the next best treatment or sham treatment. The participants should be divided between groups randomly. The participants should not know which group they are in. The people administering the treatment should not know which group they are in. All scientific evidence shows that knowledge of what you receive increases your chance of it “working”.
The placebo effect is mentioned a lot in medical trials. The placebo effect is a misnomer. The placebo is no effect at all. In trials where subjective reporting is used people will report feeling better even if they have had no effective treatment. In trails where objective outcomes are measured there is no effect when there is no effective treatment. For example, in an asthma trial, people who were in the placebo wing reported that they felt more able to breathe but when this ability was measured it was no different. The placebo is just the fact that humans will feel better but that they are not actually any better. This is why anecdote is useless. [7]
Acupuncture often shows to be as effective as sham acupuncture in studies. In essence “real” acupuncture is as effective as “sham” acupuncture. This is the placebo effect. Objective measurements show no difference between the two groups.
For evidence of efficacy each condition being treated must have its own trial. It is not acceptable for a therapy to claim that just because it works for lower back pain it is also effective at treating upper back pain. We would not accept a drug that is good for healing tonsillitis to also be able to heal athletes’ foot. It would need to be tested in both circumstances.
Good scientific evidence for a medical treatment can be considered to be double-blind placebo controlled randomised trials with a good structure and well defined aims. From this “gold standard” the quality of the evidence deteriorates as more freedom is introduced into the trial. Scientists always qualify what they say with the terms good/excellent/limited/variable evidence for something. That is because scientists do not work in absolutes. Even with something as obvious as evolution or gravity scientists will talk about the overwhelming evidence and not that it “is”.
So I shall look for good scientific evidence that osteopathy works in a variety of medical problems. My sources for this will be The Cochrane Collaboration, the NHS and NICE (The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). PubMed has a wealth of papers published about osteopathy but there is too much for me to read through, especially when looking at each initial problem that is being treated. If you look through these yourself please make sure that you understand statistics, causation and the flaws in designing medical trials.
The National Health Service and NICE
The NHS Choices website explains that there is good evidence that osteopathy is an effective treatment for lower back pain and there is limited evidence that it may be effective for other neck, shoulder or lower limb pain [my emphasis]. There is no good evidence that it is effective for any other form of condition. [8]
The NHS Choices website then explains that osteopathy is considered an “alternative” or “complimentary” therapy, i.e. not medicine and therefore doesn’t work.
Osteopaths may use some conventional medical techniques, but the use of osteopathy is not always based on science.
This means that the good bits are what we would call medicine and the rest is not.
Cochrane Collaboration
This is an organisation that reviews all the medical trials available to come to valid conclusions for the treatments being suggested.
Osteopathy and pain control during childbirth:
We found six studies, with data available from five trials on 326 women, looking at the use of massage in labour for managing pain. There were no studies on any of the other manual healing methods. The six studies were of reasonable quality but more participants are needed to provide robust information. We found that women who used massage felt less pain during labour when compared with women given usual care during first stage. However, more research is needed. [9]
Let me interpret this for you. Women who had massage and other nice things done to them during childbirth “felt” less pain. This is a subjective measurement and means nothing in terms of actual reductions. The last sentence asking for more research essentially says that although this is interesting there aren’t enough data for the results to be conclusive.
Osteopathy, manipulations and period pains:
The review of trials found no evidence that spinal manipulation relieves dysmenorrhoea. [10]
‘nuff said.
Osteopathy and infant colic:
Although five of the six trials suggested crying is reduced by treatment with manipulative therapies, there was no evidence of manipulative therapies improving infant colic when we only included studies where the parents did not know if their child had received the treatment or not. [11]
So, when the patients were blinded there was no improvement. Often with “alternative” therapies the better designed the trial the effectiveness disappears.
These trials were looking at things that are more likely to be practised by a traditional osteopath. Curing infant problems and pain not related to the back. In essence, from the information so far osteopathy is only effective for lower back pain and that may be because they use more medical techniques than osteopathic treatments.
In America
In the USA Doctors of Osteopathy are recognised. But as explained by Marc Crislip most leave behind their osteopathic training when they graduate, turning into proper doctors. [12]
It Costs Money
In the UK people generally have to pay to visit an osteopath. It is well understood that paying more for a product invests that person into believing it works. Just look at audio cables. You can pay a fortune for audio cables and when blinded random trials are conducted people are unable to tell the difference between expensive cables and cheap cables. If osteopathy costs a lot of money then you are invested to believe it works and so will feel better. This does not mean that you are any better.
My Conclusion
Osteopathy can be effective for lower back pain.
However, osteopathy cannot be taken seriously. There is scant evidence that it can treat or is effective at treating many of the conditions that it claims. It started as quackery in a time when our medical knowledge was poor. As our medical knowledge has increased it has tried to change to meet new standards and treatments. However, it fails to provide GOOD SCIENTIFIC evidence that it works. Practitioners of osteopathy are mostly either doing regular physiotherapy and modern medicine and so shouldn’t be called osteopaths or they are practitioners of something that just plain doesn’t work.
You can tell it doesn’t work by the company it keeps in shops and practices. As explained in this communication if somewhere offers homoeopathy and something else consider it a red flag to be wary of what they do.
As Tim Minchin says:
“By definition”, I begin “Alternative Medicine”, I continue “Has either not been proved to work, Or been proved not to work. Do you know what they call “alternative medicine” That’s been proved to work?
Medicine.”
As an aside I personally find it appalling that you can gain a SCIENCE degree from studying this stuff at the European School of Osteopathy. There isn’t really any science content in the “science” course. It’s a shame that the University of Greenwich validates this. [13]
References
1. Wikipedia page on osteopathy. Link
2. Glossary of Osteopathic Terms. Link
3. Wikipedia page, section “Scope of manual therapies”. Link
4. Advertising Standards Authority ruling on Wernham clinic. Link
5. European School of Osteopathy pages. Link
6. Wikipedia page on clinical trials. Link
7. A description of the placebo effect. Link
8. NHS Choices. Link
9. Cochrane Collaboration. Pain control in childbirth. Link
10. Cochrane Collaboration. Controlling painful periods. Link
11. Cochrane Collaboration. Manipulative therapies for infantile colic. Link
12. Science Based Medicine – Marc Crislip. Link
13. ESO Courses validated by the University of Greenwich. Link
This is my first proper article on this website and it’s taken six hundred communications before I got there. I’ve tried to include some links to specific claims and I will add some when I find the sources. Most of my knowledge on this matter comes from years of reading Scientific American and listening to some excellent podcasts on the matter “Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe” and “Skeptics With A K”. I do not claim to be an expert. I do not claim to understand everything but my understanding is that most of what an osteopath practises is not science and has little evidence to support it. I have written this in good faith.
If you have something factual you would like to correct then email me (ianparish@gmail.com) and I will do my best to correct what is factually incorrect. If you really want to impress me then send me the links or papers of good medical trials for osteopathy and other conditions to show it is effective. I will gladly change my mind if the evidence shows I am wrong. That’s what being a rational thinker is about. Accepting good evidence and changing my views if needed.
How You Know
The picture shows the window from a local “osteopathy” practice. One day I will go into the shop to ask them about their various practices. However, for now, I shall rely upon the scientific evidence for the following treatments.
This shop purveys:
- Osteopathy
- Homoeopathy
- Allergy Testing
- Chiropody
- Beauty Therapy
- Massage
- Sports Injury
- Ultra Sound Therapy
So, beauty therapy is fine. I don’t care what you slap on your face I’m pretty sure that, as long as they make no health claims, I couldn’t care what they do. Beauty advertising is beset with rubbish [the “n” signs of aging etc where “n” is a value between 3 and 11 and preferably an odd number] so any claims should be substantiated but these are unlikely to be detrimental to the health of anyone, just their wallets.
Chiropody is a proper thing and I will not take issue with this.
Massage is ok as long as they make no claims to any health effects of massage apart from it making you feel nice. The potential benefits arise from being relaxed and calm, not from any particular aspect of the massage itself.
And now we head into more dangerous territory.
From looking around the web and critically assessing the evidence for therapeutic ultra sound I have to say I am extremely sceptical that it does anything. It is widely accepted as a form of therapy but there is remarkably little evidence that it works or does anything good. I think this is the first form of “woo” from this little shop. I doubt there are any good, documented benefits from this therapy.
Homoeopathy is rubbish. There is no good scientific evidence that it does anything or even contains anything. It is essentially water. I can’t reinforce just how much this stuff doesn’t work. If you have an establishment that is happy to dose people up with homoeopathy then you should be very wary of everything else that they do. It is utter and complete rubbish.
Finally, osteopathy. This mode of dealing with health problems is the most contentious here. The area I live in is blighted by the existence of the European School of Osteopathy nearby. My local doctors surgery even allows osteopathy to take place in its confines. I find this distressing. Osteopathy is an “alternative” medical treatment. This means it is not a treatment nor is it medical. It is based on a completely wrong understanding of how our bodies work. Scientifically osteopathy has been shown to be good for lower back pain and NOTHING else. The very best osteopaths practise what is more commonly known as physio-therapy. Much like chiropractic osteopathy has its roots in bullshit and has tried to change with a greater scientific understanding of medicine but can’t shoe horn itself in to the establishment. If you are suffering then you are best advised to see a physio-therapist, they at least have been taught the proper causes and effects of their work.
The problem with this shop frontage is that it has some [almost] legitimate services to offer and then it also offers utter bullshit.
You can tell osteopathy is rubbish by the company it keeps in these premises.
Easter Already
The new year has just started which means that the next commercial event to darken these shores is Easter. Christmas is past. Our mid-winter festival and feast to celebrate the dark nights and cheer ourselves up is now history. The burgeoning pressure of consumerism has passed for another nine months.
Time then to get the eggs, bunnies, chickens and chocolate on display.
Wankers.