2018

A lot of people seem to think the Windrush scandal is an argument for national ID cards, and as a result, the Financial Times ran this collection of four short articles on four different experiences. This includes two European ones that are kind of OK, the disastrous Indian Aadhaar project, and one that hasn’t happened…

Read More What’s worse than ID cards? The ID card register without the cards

Here’s something nice, from architect Peter Barber: Council housing which we just finished for London Borough of Enfield… YIPEEE pic.twitter.com/jIWHO5yQn9 — Peter barber (@PpeterPeter) April 19, 2018 Barber’s practice designed the Ordnance Road project for Enfield. Like all architectural practices its website is completely incomprehensible, but I found information at the builders’. Neilcott Group say…

Read More Simple planning

This is the third post in a series. The others are here and here. A really important lesson to take away from the book is about Crow’s relationship with the media. There are several points to remember here. The first one is the importance of realistic expectations. Crow never imagined that the commentariat or the…

Read More Looking back on Bob Crow, 3: Media, and a final thought

So, some stuff I’ve been reading lately. A Mind at Play, Jimmy Sori and Rob Goodman. This is a sound biography of Claude Shannon. It’s heavily researched and does a decent job of explaining the science, which is after all the point, although on that score it’s oddly better on Hawtrey and Nyquist than on…

Read More Boooks

Er…whoops? Tfw a $3m surface-to-air missile malfunctions and falls in your back yard 😬 #Saudi pic.twitter.com/TZQKLFG8qE — Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) March 25, 2018 Intercepting ballistic missiles is hard! Especially if for some reason, like your first shot missing or not detecting the target until late in the day or the fire-control centre not being able…

Read More finally, a post with rockets