...a thought about 'open access' publishing (from someone cleverer than me)

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So the great and good want academic research published 'open access' at enormous cost - probably to the taxpayers (nearly all of whom won't have any need or interest in 'accessing' said publications). It is, was and always will be something of a daft idea.

However, Cullingworth's resident publishing expert (yes we have one) suggests that a far simpler solution would be to negotiate a national public library licence with the publishers and aggregators. It would cost a lot of money but far - the expert's precise words were "far, far, far, far" - less than the cost to taxpayers of the nonsensical 'open access' proposals.

Just a thought.

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Cullingworth & a thought on multiculturalism

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Friday night, Cullingworth Conservative Club and it's quite busy. There are a few blokes who've chosen to watch the rugby here rather than at home as well as the usual Friday night collection. Some people are playing dominoes in the corner, others are playing snooker and the rest are sitting or standing to talk and drink.

All very typical of that English culture which presents such a barrier to those from different cultures we might say. But let me invite you to take a little closer look - and to discover why the separate development theory of multiculturalism was wrong.

Stood, pint in hand, with the rugby watchers is Manu - newsagent, Parish Councillor, avid Bradford City fan. Across the lounge sits another middle-aged Asian lady with her friend - her white, bottle-blonde friend. Occasional side conversations are held between her and others passing by - some older, some younger. Friendly exchanges about shared experiences in village, mutual acquaintances and other such matters of moment.

Among the domino players is Pete - Chinese takeaway owner and former ping-pong player. Pete's also on the club committee and, while his accent's a bit impenetrable after a few lager & blackcurrants, he's as much part of the Club and the village as anyone else.

I'm pretty sure that, if I put my head round the corner past the one-armed bandit, there'll be a selection of the Brown clan - mostly third or fourth generation in the village and varying in colour from dark brown to a good sun tan. And sitting with them will be friends and neighbours, girlfriends and boyfriends - also native to the village but with a paler hue.

And there will be others less noticeable among the crowd. People whose parents arrived after the war from Eastern Europe, for example. Beyond the Club, there's a Muslim lady who's our GP, there's 'Smiler' who owns the general store and many others who - like me - aren't from the village. Yet we seem to get along alright. There aren't all that many fights - and these won't usually result from racism.

Such nonsense is spoken of 'multiculturalism'. As if it is either a simple description of reality - in this case the recognition that Cullingworth is 'multicultural' - or else a statement intended to (apologies for the jargon) 'problematise' this circumstance. In truth - because we're pretty decent folk most of the time - we simply get on with life and with living alongside people of different cultural heritage. And those people do become our friends, they do get involved in the life of the community - not in some desperate attempt to integrate but because they want to and because we welcome them doing so.

Is all that so hard?

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Friday Fungus: A warning and some good advice

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This report in the Daily Mail might worry a few of you and it concludes with some truly crap advice from a coroner:

'I do not think it would be appropriate to put up signs everywhere warning about mushrooms as it is a well-known hazard and you do take a risk when you eat anything that grows in the wild.

'The answer is never to do it at all.'

Sorry no Mr Coroner - the answer is to know what you're doing. Which is why I've posted the little video above.

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Pitstop on the road trip to Copenhagen. Truth, lies and climate change.

Like 99% of bloggers I ignored the call to post about climate change on the 15th October. Mostly because the whole climate change & global warming "debate" (if it can be characterised as such) has become more akin to some millenarian cult rather than an informed response to scientific enquiry. Just search the phrase "...if we don't act now on climate change" and you'll find endless doomladen scenarios - some from organisations with a specific financial interest in the campaign and other from ordinary people frightened by the apocalyptic predictions of the pundits.

I am sceptical about all this campaigning - not because I wish to deny the self-evident fact of climate change but because of the hubris and the deliberate use of questionable facts to promote one or other favoured outcome. And those who claim there is no climate change are just as bad - as anyone who has read Christopher Booker's Sunday Telegraph column will know!

Before looking at the options facing "the planet" (like the planet gives a monkeys) we should start by disconnecting a great deal of supposed environmental outcomes from the climate change discussion - such as climate change meaning more hurricanes, for example. We should concentrate on the incontrovertible rather than the challengable.

For me there are three options:

1. Run about like chicken licken telling everyone we're all doomed, that whatever the latest boondoggle it is the "last chance" to respond to climate change and that anyone who questions the wisdom should be treated in a manner akin to 17th Century witches (albeit, and in a very modern way, stopping short of burning).

2. Deny the whole climate change argument - it's just a big scam and an excuse for more big government and the introduction of socialism on the back of "saving the planet" (or, if you're Booker, it's all part of the Great European Conspiracy to destroy democracy).

3. Do what humans have always done - respond to changes in our environment by adapting what we do, through technology and by applying our highly developed brains to the problems around us. This doesn't require "co-ordinated international action" or a new raft of regulatory constraints on behaviour. And it does not require more Government just giving ordinary people the incentive to change behaviour.

So let's not waste our time (and other people's money) gathering in Copenhagen to discuss climate change - it's not there that we will find the answers. Let's stop spending millions of "climate change strategies" resourced with expensive officers paid for with taxpayers money. And let's stop the hectoring of ordinary people over their supposed environmental misdeeds.