Interesting post from Irish Economy about the distribution of AIB and Band of Ireland’s shareholders.

They might be an interesting share to buy at the moment if it wasn’t for the threat of outright nationalisation hanging over them.

I came across this description of the characteristics of groupthink (“a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas”). It has been recognised as a dangerous weakness in decision making organisations.

“Groupthink members see themselves as part of an in group working against an outgroup opposed to their goals. You can tell if a group suffers from groupthink if:

• overestimates its invulnerability or high moral stance
• collectively rationalises the decisions it makes
• demonises or stereotypes outgroups and their leaders
• has a culture of uniformity where individuals censor themselves and others so that the facade of group unanimity is maintained, and
• contains members who take it upon themselves to protect the group leader by keeping information, theirs or other group members, from the leader

From a University of Oregon site dealing with communication.

Now does that seem like a fair description of the behaviours of our political parties, and our government in particular?

From the under-appreciated Manuel Stimulation:

“In the Book of Revelation, St. John the Bizarre is predicted to have said that before a black man ever become the president of America, pigs would fly. And what do you know: Swine flu!!”

Coming back into the building after lunch I think I caught two young employees up to something in the lift. The doors had closed but I stabbed the button before the lift departed. As the doors opened again the girl jumped back from the guy and let out a little gasp. Busted!

I would never be foolish enough to get caught doing that in the workplace. My wife works in this building, and she would kill me if she heard I was at that sort of thing

Note: The post title comes from how an embarrassed manager once described the practice of going out with a fellow employee to me. He was under orders to talk to all his staff after there was some problems with a manager snogging one of her employees. The man was seriously uncomfortable with having the chat.

Up until yesterday I was supposed to be going to Mexico to visit a client in 2 weeks. I have had to cancel because I spent all day yesterday getting annoyed by people who:
a) Assumed I never look at the news myself and was unaware that there is a flu scare there.
b) Are taking this event to herald a pandemic, the collapse of civilization, and the end of life as we know it.

I have however chosen to heed the panic and fear mongers and (as well as cancelling the trip to Mexico) I am proceeding on the assumption that the apocalypse of mankind is imminent.

I have stockpiled guns and ammunition to fight of the barbaric hordes, I am in the process of clearing out all tinned goods from the local supermarket, and I will be heading for my secret hideaway in the country to smugly watch the downfall of humanity. Afterwards I shall rise up and lead a band of ragged survivors to conquer a ravaged Europe, and I will shine the light of civilization forth from my totalitarian Emperors throne.

Oh yeah. I have a plan to handle the flu.

The Daily Show visited Sweden to see what is in store for them all when the US goes Socialist.

Part1:

Part 2:

Yeah, it is like that there all the time. And rememver the invasion is on its way here too. Though to be frank, better that than Baconnaise.

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was given the job in the underworld of pushing a boulder up a hill, but for it to roll back down each time before he made it to the top. This endless chore was a punishment for being a smart git and pissing off the gods. It is where the phrase “Sisyphean task“, something that requires a lot of effort, but is ultimately fruitless.

Not that too many people would know this today. Even if they knew the term, you would have to get a scholar of the classics to explain its origins. It is one of those things that needs to be grounded a little more in modern imagery. If I wanted to give a good example today I would say it is like trying to take on the Internet. Take this family. They are engaged in a struggle to stop people showing pictures of their daughter’s body, which were taken after a nasty car crash. They might as well try and drain the sea with a spoon.

The more publicity they generate the more the images get copied elsewhere. And even if they through some magical twist of fate managed to get US laws changed to protect their dead daughter’s privacy, the Internet is a global beast and the things will just keep spreading out across the rest of the web. Deciding to bare all for Newsweek was probably the worst thing they could do. Because now more people will look, link and copy. And as for taking out a second mortgage to fund this endless chase…

It often amazes me how so many people just don’t get the Internet when it comes to control of information. Teachers unhappy about feedback on sites like ratemyteacher, kiddy fiddlers leaving digital fingerprints of their visits to image download sites, people trying to apply local laws (libel, blasphemy, Leese-majesty, whatever) to the Internet, blocking distribution of copyrighted material, these are all examples of people fruitlessly trying to impose their will on a global information transfer monster.

Occasionally some of these groups have some local success. The Thais stopped their people from looking at videos disrespectful to their king, you can sue for libel anywhere in the world through a UK court. But in each case the victories are temporary, often require draconian measures that are even more disruptive, and ultimately are temporary when users figure out ways around them.

I was wondering should I rephrase Lincon’s statement to

“You can block some of the information all of the time, or all of the information some of the time, but you cannot block all of the information all of the time”

But even that is not true. It is impossible to block any of the information for any length of time. Even the attempt of trying to block makes it easier to find. The cost of reproduction is so low on the Internet, and the difficulty of censoring so high that efforts to block something ultimately cause it to get more visibility. As you soon as you move to restrict, others will take a look to see what is up, copy it and tell the rest of the world, “come and see the repression inherent in the system“. Effectively all you do is cast a spotlight on the thing you are trying to hide. “Information wants to be free“, whether you are a totalitarian government, a business trying to protect a monopoly, or a grieving family.

Here is a slightly useful site – A Roaming Price calculator.

It is EU only, but you put in your home country, operator, and whether you are pre-paid or post-paid and it will tell you the approximate call of calls in the country you are visiting and back home.

It seems to be pretty accurate, but I know that when we looked at stuff like this in the past we found that there is a lot of difficulty keeping the tarriff information up to date.

Moira (the trainer from Ireland): From a pedagogical point of view it has been proven that men and women are different when it comes to how they learn.

Mattias (from Sweden): In Sweden there is no difference between the sexes.

Sliabh: That must make things very interesting on your wedding night.

I am in the middle of a Financial Training course at the moment. Because of one of those small world things the trainer is someone I know from mountaineering circles in Ireland. Over dinner last night she recommended subscribing to the IrishEconomy.ie blog for some good articles on understanding what is happening at home.

I did, and already my blood pressure has risen several points. Just take a look at this article they linked to on the cost of our education system (the week after the Teacher unions insisted that it is the better off that should be paying increased taxes).

You just have to look at this scary graph on cost per day’s teaching delivered to see the unions might be shooting themselves in the foot.

But then again, when did our current government ever have the cojones to take on unions and/or cut spending. Far easier to continue raising taxes.