Nine Things I Never Travel Without

When I travel abroad, which is not as often as I would like, there are some things I always take with me:

1. Phone - I have an O2 XDA Exec (basically an HTC P3300 in a different case) with Wifi, Skype and Windows Mobile 5.0 A great bit of kit and ideal for keeping in touch. It only needs the addition of TomTom Navigator to make it a fully functional GPS device.
2. If you have to fly, Noise-cancelling headphones are vital. Not only can you watch in-flight movies at a reasonable volume, you can hide the engine noise when you want to sleep.
3. Nowadays, unless I am going somewhere really rough (which, to be honest, I try very hard to avoid), I always take a laptop with me. Any laptop does the trick, but something small and light is preferable.
4. When you want to take really good photos, you can't beat a decent digital SLR. Mine is an earlier version of this one (the EOS 300D) and, apart from its bulk, it is ideal for the more sophisticated photographer (I really have no idea why I own one - I certainly am not a sophisticated photographer, hence my next item).
5. For those times when carrying a full-size DSLR simply isn't practical, you want something like the Casio Exilim EX-Z70SR. At around £120, you really can't go wrong. Superb.
6. I don't actually own an iPod, but for backing-up your photos on a long trip they are supposed to be ideal. You need a fairly modern one (like this one) and the camera connector (from Apple) but then you're set to go with music and photo backups in one easy package. Or you could use your laptop.
7. Some sort of travel adapter is always handy if you are visiting one of those far-off places with dodgy power connectors, like Penge.
8. Whenever possible, I take a good book or several.
   
9. The wife. Never forget to take the wife, unless it is a business trip or you are visiting your mistress (in which case you should only take your wife if she is extremely open-minded).

That's it. Enjoy.

Another Quote

From Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Pretty strong stuff - you really need to read the book to put it in context. Get the book (and others), here: Books of Richard Dawkins

Book of the Month

I made it to Waterstones (Piccadilly) this evening and eventually picked up a copy of Sam Harris' new book Letter to a Christian Nation. Having read it on the train on the way home (it is a short book) I can recommend it to anyone who wants to scare themselves rigid; it is, without doubt, the most terrifying book I have read for a long time.

Edit: Why is it terrifying? Because it identifies the core beliefs of the Christian majority in the US and explains why they are both false and dangerous. For example, would you not be worried if, in the most powerful nation on earth, 53% of the population (as Harris claims) believe that the earth is less than 6,000 years old? What about this one: 44% of Americans believe that Jesus will return to judge the living in the next 50 years.

Favourite Quotes

I found this quote recently from Act 3, Sc 1 of Henry IV:

GLENDOWER

I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

HOTSPUR

Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?

Glendower is clearly a politician; he knows what he can do and is not afraid to tell everyone. Hotspur is more realistic; he cuts neatly through Glendower's spin to identify a core problem with his statement.

Proposed Road Charges

Some of the costings for the Government’s new road charges have been leaked and they seem to confirm what many have long suspected; the system is going to be hugely expensive to setup (possibly as high as £62bn) and administer (£8bn per year) and collection costs will be a high proportion of revenue raised. This is an almost perfect definition of a bad tax.

There are two main reasons for a new tax; to raise revenue or to alter behaviour. If the scheme costs anything like the suggested amounts, raising revenue is going to be difficult; the charge will have to run for years to pay back the setup costs.

With cars, the most obvious behaviour change would be based on environmental concerns, so could it be a Green Tax to reduce car usage? No, for two reasons: 1) the proposed charges do not take into account the efficiency of the vehicle and 2) busy roads, like motorways, are to be charged at a much higher rate than smaller, less-efficient country lanes.

This scheme will force cost-sensitive drivers from the motorways onto A roads and country lanes where they will have more accidents, burn more fuel and take far longer to reach their destination. It will also discourage overseas visitors, who will be unwilling to pay £600 to have the tracking device fitted to their cars.

On top of all that, it will still be necessary for fuel duty to rise to continue the trend towards smaller, more efficient cars; without this rise, drivers will revert to larger, less-efficient cars as the price of fuel drops relative to their income.

So for what else will the Government be able to use the system:

1. Detailed journey information could have huge value for planning transport infrastructure; actually knowing exactly where people want to go would make it relatively trivial (assuming you can actually extract this information from the data) to build appropriate rail, road and air links.
2. Road speed, calculated by tracking a vehicle’s position, should enable a ruthlessly complete speeding fine system that would probably generate significant revenue.
3. Assuming that the driver has to identify himself to the car, offences such as insurance avoidance, hit-and-run, driving while disqualified etc. should be easy to stamp out.
   

The other huge benefit (and potential civil-rights nightmare) is that the Government will know where everyone is at any given moment. Theoretically they could get this information from mobile phone companies, but at least this information would be protected (and, in a sense, voluntarily donated, since nobody is forced to buy a phone); would you trust the Government with detailed car location data?

Book Buying

I have just spent a fairly fruitless half-hour wandering around Covent Garden trying to buy a book (this one) but failing dismally. Part of that time was spent trying to find Waterstones' store on Garrick Street which, despite their online map showing it on the north side of the street, is actually on the south side. Most confusing.

The Covent Garden branch is not the largest bookshop in Europe (that would be Waterstones in Piccadilly) but it is fairly large and I was surprised that I could not find the book I was after, even though it is brand new, having been published only this week. I even resorted to visiting the section on Religion - a dreadful experience for anyone - but it wasn't there either. Piccadilly calls, I suspect.

The Raging Debate

I have been reading with interest an online debate between two well-known American writers; Sam Harris (atheist author of Letter to a Christian Nation) and Andrew Sullivan (Christian author of The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back. Their debate has been reproduced on the website of Richard Dawkins and you can find it here.

To my mind, neither side has yet delivered a knockout blow but Sam Harris is a very long way ahead on points. By the time of Sullivan’s last entry (5^th February) he was reduced to simply stating that he believed in God and that no argument or evidence could be conceived that would change this belief. Harris responded with:

I am, of course, unconvinced by your response. But this can hardly disappoint you, as it was not intended to convince me. You simply wrote to inform me that you have never doubted God's existence, cannot account for how you came to believe in Him, and are well aware that these facts will not (and should not) persuade me of the legitimacy of your religious beliefs. I now feel like a tennis player, in mid-serve, who notices that his opponent is no longer holding a racket.

The debate is rather long (around 50,000 words, excluding the 6 pages of reader comments posted to date) but it is worth reading because it explores (and contrasts) in some detail the arguments of the traditional theists and the new-breed of assertive atheists. Have a read; you will not be disappointed.

France's Problems

The Economist has an article about the left-wing candidate for France's forthcoming presidential election. As you might imagine, they are not desperately keen on populist left-wing politicians, particularly when they advocate policies that can only exacerbate France's current difficulties. Here is a passage from the article, describing the newly announced policies of Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate:

...a rise in the minimum wage to €1,500 ($1,950) a month, penalties on companies that pay dividends rather than reinvest profits, an interest-free loan of €10,000 for every 18-year-old, unemployment benefit worth 90% of previous salary and an end to job contracts with easy firing rules .

Link to source.

This will probably sell well to a left-wing electorate wary of Anglo-Saxon economics, but it hardly takes a genius to work out that the effect of these policies will be to further hinder commercial activity in France and to lock-in high unemployment; why would anyone look for a job when the Government is happy to pay benefits at 90% of previous salary? Why would an 18-year-old need a €10,000 loan? Are they expected to start businesses?

Starting businesses is, of course, exactly what many young French entrepreneurs will do but the best of them will take advantage of the loan, and head straight to the UK where there company will not be strangled by red tape or taxed into the ground. That is great news for us, but not so good for the French.

Trains, Again

I am on a train again, this time heading north to Cambridge from Kings Cross. This morning has been a total washout, literally, as far as work goes. Large parts of the West End of London are currently without power after a water main burst last night and flooded an electricity substation. Much of The Strand, Aldwych and Kingsway are without power, our offices included (although other, more famous names are also affected; Kings College, LSE, BBC, to name but three).

I seem to spend a great deal of my time on trains. This is a First Capital train, apparently, and it is decorated in the most astonishingly awful green and purple colour scheme. The designer should be whipped soundly and banned from working again on public transport. So far, that is the only problem with this trip. I had hoped to catch a Virgin train but, assuming that this one does actually get me to Cambridge on time, I am prepared to compromise.

The weather, as I head into the flatlands of Cambridgeshire, is decidedly damp and unpleasant, much as it was in London, but at least it is not yet snowing; I am rather glad I did not have to make this trip last week.

Snow in London

It is actually snowing fairly heavily in London at the moment, although you might not think it from this picture (the perils of a camera phone). The walk across Waterloo bridge this morning was rather chilly and fairly slippery underfoot - I am hoping that the snow will have cleared before I have to walk back again this evening.

Travel Tax

You have probably already seen this, but the Government is testing an online petitions service on the Number 10 website. Of particular interest to anyone who values freedom of movement or who drives a car is this petition about the proposed car tracking system. This is the idea to put a tracker into everyone's vehicle and then charge them based on the roads they use and the time they travel. Can anyone spot an obvious problem with this idea?

Of course, the obvious way to increase the cost of road travel is to increase fuel duty. This isn't perfect, but at least it costs nothing to implement rather than the untold billions required for development of a tracking system. No civil rights issues, either.

Interesting Article

There is an interesting article on the Richard Dawkins website (reposted from the Guardian) about tolerance. Thought provoking. When you've done that, visit the Guardian website and compare the two sets of comments.

Covent Garden Market

Covent Garden Market in central London (link and link) is, without doubt, one of the great European plazas. The combination of shops, restaurants and theatres make it a must-see item on any tourist's itinerary. Give it a look; even the street entertainers are world-class.

Questions of Tolerance

A report on the BBC News website documents fears of the damage that might be done to community relations in Birmingham by a police raid on suspected terrorists. The people interviewed for the report (mostly Muslims) concentrate on the community relations aspect of this incident whilst neglecting the wider issues completely; they seem to expect the police to consult "community leaders" when they act to protect the public.

In the short-term, there are only two ways to prevent terrorist actions;

1. The Police and MI5 continue their current strategies, taking appropriate action against alleged terrorists whenever it becomes necessary,
   
2. The Muslim "community" has to put it's house in order and stamp out the beliefs that drive people into extremist behaviour.
   

It is often suggested that the solution to the wider problem of community relations should come from the Government, who could do more to integrate communities and to promote respect for religious faiths and differences. This, unfortunately, is wishful thinking, for the following reasons:

1. Community relations problems exist because one section of the community values its "uniqueness" above the values of the rest of society.
2. Should they choose to, members of a particular community can congregate together geographically, politically and socially, further insulating them from the "normalising" influences of the population at large.
3. Religious beliefs, far from being respectable, are at the heart of the problem and should be challenged wherever they arise.
4. A religious community, which trains it's young people from birth to have unquestioning faith in an unpleasant 1,000 year-old magic book, should hardly be surprised when their young adults take those teachings to heart and accept as valid even the most extreme readings of the text.

None of these are things that the Government can directly (or quickly) influence. The solution is long-term; re-work the education system, from the ground up, to create a incredulous, scientifically aware and strongly secular society that questions what it is told, understands the world around it and resists the rising tide of religious belief.