Sam Iles's Blog

From Ian McKellen’s Wikipedia page:

In 2003, during an appearance on Have I Got News For You, McKellen claimed that when he visited Michael Howard, then Environment Secretary (responsible for local government), in 1988 to lobby against Section 28, Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote, “Fuck off, I’m gay.”

So much win.

Last week, Apple unveiled an application called iBooks Author which allows companies or people to make text books for use in schools and to sell those text books through Apple for direct delivery to iPads. It can also be used to create sales brochures and training manuals for companies and so on, but right now, it’s about text books.

I’ve thought a lot about this and whether or not I think it’s a good idea. And I’ve finally come to the conclusion that it’s bad. Here’s why:

Firstly, I think it’s a major threat to the free and open dissemination of information. With this plan, Apple becomes the arbiter of information, with the ability to pick and choose which text books it allows into its store. Information becomes reliant on every student in the school having an iPad. With text books, there is absolutely zero barrier to entry. If you have £15, you can get a text book. With iBooks Author, text books require a £500 investment. (I say £500, not £400, because these text books are apparently 3 or 4gb each, meaning a 16gb iPad just won’t cut it). Of course, this money needs to be supplied by the state as the majority of parents can’t afford to furnish all their kids with new iPads when they start school (let alone replacing them during their many years of education). This means schools need to buy loads of iPads and replace them when they get old (which, in a school system full of moronic teenagers, is likely to happen quickly) and by tons more books than they’d need to and these can’t be used year after year by different students as they are now. And, of course, the resale market is killed by this.

Not to mention the fact that I can’t this working. Give the people I went to school with an iPad and tell them to open a text book, and they’ll sit at the back and play Angry Birds. I know I would have. We had these little laptops in secondary school which had a penguin game on them. Half the teacher’s time was spent walking around telling us to stop playing the game when we should have been working. But I digress.

This isn’t free and open information – what should be the basis of education – but is an expensive tie-in to Apple’s iPad market. The point of open standards is that information remains free, with infinite possibilities. But, iBooks Author is propriety and owned entirely by Apple. Information, especially in education, is the crux of democracy and freedom and we’ve spent centuries railing against the idea of one company or organisation controlling all of that. iBooks Author wipes all of that work away.

Of course, Apple is a commercial company, and this move is pretty smart. If it can get even one US state or even an entire country, or just few school counties, to agree to give all their students iPads then Apple is in the money. And that’s not even including the 30% Apple gets from selling the books.

So. More expensive for schools and considerably less open. And, what exactly is the benefit to iPad text books? Oh, you can embed video in them? Well, a) the teacher can show us a video with his whiteboard, and b) education shouldn’t really be about watching videos anyway, should it?

Text books are a perfect standard. You don’t even need electricity. Anyone can make them, anyone can buy them, anything can happen with them. With iBooks Author, you’ve got an incredible important standard controlled by one company which can only be enjoyed by those who buy and continue to buy their expensive gadgets. It just doesn’t seem right to me.

This is eerie. Ron Paul makes five minutes worth of predictions back in 2002 – from the Iran war to the Arab Spring – and nails them all on the head.

The guy must have a crystal ball.

One thing which anti-cannabis types often put forth as a counter point to the tax element of legalising cannabis is “but, if it were legal nobody would buy it, they’d grow it themselves, so there’d be no tax money.” I think this is silly.

1) A lot of things are legal. Chairs, pens and Coca-Cola are all legal. Do you make your own? Alcohol is legal and highly taxed. Do you make your own? No, you buy it because it’s easier and more convenient. Growing vegetables is legal and cheaper than buying them, but few people grow everything they eat.

2) Remember, cannabis would be cheaper if legal. Most people hear the word ‘tax’ and assume it would increase the cost of what they pay now. But, they forget that huge margins are currently added onto the price of cannabis as it tends to go through many chains of selling, rather than just a few, and it’s illegal, so they can charge what they want. Make it legal and that huge profit margin goes down.

So. Yeah. Of course some people would grow it and the government wouldn’t get any tax but most people aren’t going to go to the trouble of setting up lamps and everything else when they can just buy it in their newsagent.

Look what the postman delivered! (Although, I was hoping an owl would deliver them…)

I’m a little late to the party. I get it. It’s ok. Everyone has read the Harry Potter books or seen the Harry Potter films. The first book came out in 1997, so I’ve had a long time to read it. I have, in fact, had the first book on my book shelf for as long as I can remember. At least ten years. But, I’ve just never been interested in Harry Potter.

I’m not entirely sure why. Mainly, it’s just because I’ve never really been one for magic and all that in books. Yes, the Lord of the Rings happened the be my favourite book ever since I read it when I was nine or ten but that’s a high fantasy book set in another world. I was always aware that Harry Potter was about a wizard who goes to wizard school in our own world. And it just never appealed to me, so I never bothered.

But, a few months ago I decided that I should finally read the books. I can’t quite remember what sparked this decision – but I am very pleased that I made it.

From the first book I was, to coin a cliche, hooked. I read the others, choosing to take them out from the library. I have read them over the last few months, with other books spliced between. And, they have been truly remarkable. I don’t need to tell you that Rowling is a skilled writer. As the oft quoted review goes: “comparisons with Dahl are, this time, justified.” It’s difficult to fault Rowling on her writing, really.

Perhaps the element of the books I found most impressive was how tightly plotted they were. It’s amazing how, through the last book, so much from every other book in the series makes sense. You spot the clues which are placed throughout the series and, I can only conclude, Rowling must have a literally incredible imagination and have spent hours plotting these books for it to come out making so much sense and being so very smart.

And, of course, the characters really are clever and vibrant and intriguing and incredibly deep. I keep thinking about Harry Potter’s characters compared to Twilight’s. When the love of Heroine’s life leaves her in the Deathly Hallows, she keeps looking for Horcruxes. When the love of Bella’s live leaves her in New Moon, she curls up into a ball for a few months and then jumps of a cliff. Hmm.

Anyhoo. After reading each book, I watched the film right after. (Naturally, books precede films…) The first few films were extremely enjoyable, of course. The cast, too, is quite remarkable. The cast list over the course of the Harry Potter series reads like a who’s who of British acting. Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall? Perfect. Alan Rickman as Severus Snape? Perfect. And so on. Last night, after finishing the final book the previous night, I watched the final two films back to back. They were, needless to say, brilliant. “I’ve always wanted to do that spell!” Love it.

Anyway. Last night, I bought this. I have a few books to get through in the next month or so, but then I plan to read all seven books back to back, uninterrupted. That’s how much I liked it.

If you didn’t know, Ron Paul came in third place in the Iowa vote on who the next Republican candidate should be. Note this isn’t the actual vote from the state – that happens later in the year. This is just an idea. If you didn’t know, I want Ron Paul to win the candidency. Here are a few of my observations:

1) 122,255 people voted and Romney beat Santorum by just eight votes. Eight out of 122,255. This is pretty staggering and, let’s be honest, eight out of 122,255 really could be just a counting error. A team of volunteers counting 122,255 are bound to make a few mistakes, so who came first or second really should be taken with a pinch of salt. Especially odd that this year, for the first time ever, the votes were counted in secret away from GOP HQ, under the guise of a fear of terrorism interfering with the result. But, that’s another story…

2) Ron Paul came third. But, he almost 24% of the vote. Considering the media has been trying to position him as a crazy old ‘kook’ who has no hope of anything, a quarter of votes seems pretty mainstream to me…

3) Santorum came in second and got 26% of the vote. For those he don’t know, he is a Christian who has firmly expressed his hatred of gay people, wants to nullify all gay marriages/civil partnerships/etc, who is against abortion, even after rape, and who is against birth control in all circumstances. And he got over a quater of votes. America worries me.

4) Nobody who’s won Iowa has won the final candidacy since the 1970s. Statistically speaking – and, when it’s looked like Paul would win, as the media have been so desperately pointing out – people who win Iowa rarely win the whole thing. So, with proof of being mainstream and stats on his side, I’d say that third place is a pretty good result for Dr Ron Paul.

Apparently, there are 4.2 million cameras in the UK – that’s one camera for every fifteen people.

And now, new software tracks you everywhere you go. You are recognised and tracked and the software keeps a record of where you’ve been, when you’ve been there and who you were with.

This really is the future and I will never get how anyone in Britain puts up with all this.

Wear a hat.