Various, swearing, TV news

Swearing

The public acceptance of swearing has changed radically over the past sixty years. The use of four letter words has become widespread in the media. I wince a little. At least we have, I hope, progressed a bit from a few years ago when if a comedian used f--- he was greeted with cheers and applause as though it was something great.

I suppose I took my attitude from my father. He swore but never ever ( not in my hearing anyway ) used four letter words. What he did use sometimes was “bugger”. I remember being quite shocked at work when a young lady in the lab said I swore a lot partly I reckon because I used this also.

Annette’s family were even more anti swearing. I recall vividly when her elder brother said “damnit” and her mother immediately leapt in, said she wouldn’t have swearing in her house and sent him out. I thought it was rather charming that Annette was so unused to swearing that when we were courting she would beg me to explain words. I was too shy to do so. Her father was the most even tempered man I’ve ever met. Not only did he never swear it was a very rare occasion when he showed mild irritation.

At secondary school an English teacher explained the religious implication of some ( Be damned as in consigning to hell; bloody as short for by God’s blood ). He pointed out that often swearing is simply a lack of vocabulary. I tend nowadays to think it has become a habit. A lazy speaker uses four letter words routinely without bothering about their effect on speaker or audience. Through frequent use the shock effect has decreased.

I think ( well I certainly hope ) I don’t swear much. It is sometimes  almost therapeutic when very frustrated to swear a bit but I really try to limit in case repetition becomes boring.

TV news

We have been disappointed for some time with BBC news. Here I’m mainly thinking of the Six o’clock news. This fits rather well in terms of timing with our usual routine. I quite enjoy Pointless which precedes it at 5.15-6.00.  I like the presenters and I can usually answer the questions unless on pop music or football. The news editors at Six o’clock have rather succeeded in “dumbing down” to what I would characterise as tabloid newspaper standards. In addition there are clear biases. For example any news about the NHS, usually about its lack of finance, gets high billing. I have been unimpressed by the feeble acceptance of industrial thinning out with a great emphasis on job losses. I am very unimpressed by the amount of vox pop, carefully balanced interviews with the “man in the street”. I’m left with the strong impression that the famous BBC impartiality has become a reluctance to have any meaningful comment.

In fairness to the BBC it does have news programmes with far greater depth such as Newsnight but its 10.30 slot comes too late in the evening. Also the 30 minute format imposes its own limits. Certainly the BBC can point to single theme programmes such as Panorama which detail stories .However we are switching to Channel 4 news which appears to use its hour long format to get some real depth into its reporting. I feel anyone who gets their news solely from the Six o’clock bulletin will finish up sadly underinformed. The time slot is less convenient so we will see.

I have written in the past about fake news. It seems this is spreading. Some politicians like Trump seem to be using it as a policy and his success is being copied. The only real defence is to use several news sources, avoid the obviously biased and separate news from opinion. While there is some serious news reporting on the internet  in general it is a hotbed of the biased and the fake. It is very depressing to hear about software which produces ever more realistic seeming fakes.

I wrote this before I heard Boris Johnson is refusing an interview with Channel 4 news because their chief executive has said one purpose of journalism is to investigate government and expose any lies. Two things immediately occur to me. Firstly this is straight out of the Trump playbook where the only good press is a fawning press. Secondly is Johnson really so thin skinned. But thinking about he has a lot to cover up or try to deny- 350m a week to the NHS on leaving the EU for a start.

On the road

It’s second nature to me to spot cars on the road. For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in motor vehicles of all sorts. Through long usage I easily identify almost all I see. In fact if I can’t identify them I’m interested enough to try and characterise  them.. Most vehicles carry identification marks usually as obvious as the model name on a boot lid. Sometimes the characteristics are more subtle such as the steering wheel boss or the road wheel boss.

Many car makers are majoring on a makers or brand name with a characteristic grill shape and the model identified by just a number or letters. Typical would be Volvo with a diagonal stripe on the grill and a Volvo badge in the centre. The model type is then in small letters at the back while the actual subtype identification can be down to small clues such as the number of exhausts.

Some manufacturers are struggling to settle on a “house” style which shouts their name. The Volkswagen symbol is very well known as a ringed superimposed VW but they are having difficulty deciding a grill style. In other ways by establishing other marques VW have done very well from Skoda at the cheapest end through SEAT as slightly cheaper and to Audi as the premium brand. The Audi symbol of 4 linked rings is well established and does have a real history in that it originated before WW11 when 4 smaller German companies merged to form Auto-Union.

The champion of multi branding for many years was American General Motors who used many names like Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Cadillac from companies bought often in the 19320’s.

I’ve said as long as I can remember. For identification I recall sitting on a wall with a school friend when I was perhaps 12 or 13 and having a competition on identifying passing cars. I remember being slightly surprised that I could readily identify almost all. I suppose the variety was rather less in those days with few imported cars..

Most firms have characteristic badges. Perhaps the most unfortunate was Jaguar. Originally founded as SS it dropped that name in WW11 in favour of the Jaguar name with its famous leaping cat. The sculpture featured on the bonnet until safety rules forced its removal so that it now is a leaping cat badge. Other bonnet badges have also suffered; the Rolls Royce silver lady badge on top of their well known tombstone radiator has to be specially designed to sink away in case of an accident.; the Mercedes three pointed star has a similar tale. Some badges are disappearing such as Rovers stylised Viking ship. Now part of a different company Range Rover just proudly display their name and even use Land Rover for some models.

The only new car company for very many years is Tesla with their stylised T. They also have very unique styling particularly to the interior which is unlike any other. We have had new entrants to the UK market like Dacia which is owned by Renault but operated separately. This is unlike companies like VW who have many brand names but the cars are usually closely similar under the skin.

I’m now interesting Annette who can at least read the most obvious badges. Trucks also have distinctives grills. This is very important for trucks which are otherwise closely similar in design. When our son was young we would while away long journeys by getting him to spot Foden trucks which have a prominent badge on their front grill. Sadly many of the old truck symbols are disappearing such as the Atkinson circled A as the industry has consolidated to a very few manufacturers. Trucks have never used model names using instead numbers and letters only useful to the cognoscenti

Martins recognition of Foden was to have a strange corollary. I had some Foden posters in my office at Unilever. One day a colleague from another area saw them and remarked her father was newly retired from the company and would be happy to give a tour of the plant at Sandbach in Cheshire. Martin ( who was about 6 at the time ) and I went on our tour and enjoyed it. On our way out we bought a truck although it was only a dinky sized model of one. Sad to say the company was taken over ( originally PACCAR of the US but now MAN from Germany ) and closed and even the brand name has now disappeared.

To show that names are important to customers I was a interested to see that Toyota have dropped the Auris name in favour of the more recognisable Corolla for the uprated range of cars aimed at a similar market segment..

China threat

There have been more worrying developments in Chinese attitudes and policy recently. Without wishing in any way to reduce these to a “yellow peril” scenario there are causes for concern. We have to remember that China is a dictatorship and explicitly rejects ideas of truth, law and human rights.

The recent behaviour regarding Hong Kong is regrettably only the most current of a number of abuses against civilised norms. The mainland Chinese are seeking to impose in Hong Kong the same totalitarian regime as elsewhere in China. The difference is that in taking over the territory China undertook specific commitments about the future extending for 50 years after taking control. This was the agreement often referred to as “one country, two systems”.  Ever since assuming control the Chinese government has been evading its commitments. For example they have insisted that HK can only have its Legislative Council from their choice. Elections have become a sham. They have used a variety of means to prevent or disbar ant member they dislike.

The Chinese government’s secret services have even kidnapped from HK those they choose to think are opposed to the Beijing regime.

The most recent attempt, suspended for the moment, is to exert Chinese law in HK. This was by means of a procedure to put people in HK in front of Chinese courts. While the law in HK is relatively free and roughly accords to Western standards the law in China is anything but being a tool of the state.. It seems all too clear that the Chinese government intends to gradually extend the same regime on mainland to HK. The size of protest shows just how resentful the people of HK are about this.

There has always been a tension between the Chinese regime and Western  values. It could be argued that Britain was naïve in ceding control of HK and relying on a treaty. However it was felt at the time that HK could not exist separately when its lease of some territory housing water supplies ceased. There was a general feeling in the West that as China became more prosperous then its political system would become more liberal. This has not been the case. The regime has played the nationalist card very heavily and persuaded the Chinese people that prosperity and national pride far outweigh any regard for human rights. There is evidence that the bulk of the population newly arrived at prosperity are quite happy with the situation.

The economic rise of China has been quite phenomenal. In the space of 30 years or so the economy has been transformed from relative poverty to the second largest economy in the world. This has largely been facilitated by the trade freedom of the Western system. Sadly the clumsy trade war initiated by the Trump regime is both self defeating and reinforces a perception of American unfairness.

There is some truth in the past perception of the Chinese seeking to take advantage wherever possible of Western Liberalism. There is some evidence of Chinese spying for Western technology. More worrying was the quite explicit demand that anyone selling in China had to transfer all their technology. This demand has become somewhat muted of late. The regime also explicitly demands that Chinese high tech companies operating in the West must transfer to the regime information acquired. This is at the root a of the Huawei furore and part of the reason it cannot be trusted.

The Chinese regime regards Taiwan as a Chinese province to the horror of Taiwanese who value their independence. The regime has bullied almost all the world into refusing to acknowledge Taiwan as a separate country.

While paying lip service to anti -imperialist theories there is evidence that China is seeking to enslave some by offering large loans which are superficially attractive but difficult to repay. This is often accompanied by an attractive “belt and road” rhetoric which also attempts to conceal an imperialist stance.
There are unfortunately too many other concerns about Chinese regime policies such as their militaristic stance in the South China sea. It seems the best Western policy at present is to engage in trade when on equitable terms while continuing to maintain and propagate the best liberal standards of democracy, law and human rights

California

I have only been to California once . This was on a business trip with Castrol. It was memorable and enjoyable and I promised myself to return but never have.  It was at a time when Castrol was trying to build a national metal working and industrial speciality business in America by welding together a number of regional companies it had bought. Each had its own development staff who met every six months and I was to join one of these meetings.

I had travelled to the Castrol HQ in Chicago and was to travel on from there with John, a scientist with Castrol USA and Dave who was the technology manager from an acquisition. We left on an American Airlines flight in the morning aiming to arrive for a late lunch. As we flew on I gradually became away that in the next cabin the passengers were doing in seat exercises and an impromptu show was being put on by the hostesses. I particular remember one rushing through our area with an outrageous blonde wig. As the noise and laughter grew I commented to John. He said we has crossed into California airspace and as he put it everyone goes slightly wacky.

We landed at Los Angeles International and hired a car. We were due to meet John’s boss, another John at teatime so couldn’t go too far from the airport. However we headed off to Venice Beach and to a restaurant a street back from the beach sitting outside in warm climate although it was January. Afterwards along the Pacific Coast Highway then through Hollywood ( noting all the sellers of maps to stars’ houses) and on to stop at the La Brea tar pits. This is a natural tar pit which over the years had trapped many animals as far back as dinosaurs whose bones were exhibited in an adjacent museum.

Then back to the airport to meet boss John. As we met John went into a great show of meeting a long lost friend ( they had actually met the previous day ), hugging and embracing and generally creating a spectacle. I was astounded, informality I was prepared for, but not this. Dave shrugged and said John does this all the time. We then went off for dinner in a nice restaurant near La Brea. It amused John to suppose that boss John was irresistible  to women. Through the meal he would remark to his boss John “ See, she’s looking at you”. Boss John who was an unremarkable middle aged man seemed to take this in good humour but it I was fairly amazed. It seemed that colleague John had a licence to be outrageous.

We drove to our meeting hotel at Newport Beach. This was very pleasant adjacent the ocean as I found the next day. I found the meeting regime fairly rigorous starting at 8 and gong on till 6 with buffet breakfast and lunch both taken in the conference room. The meeting was a bit tense. An earlier attender from the UK had apparently caused offence by implying that there was much to teach our American colleagues. The next person to attend the meeting had been treated to a tour of Valley Forge where Washington’s army had overwintered during the revolution. A point was being made. I was told bluntly by Curtis, another of the US technology managers. that they knew what was best and that the UK had little to offer. I was gratified that at that end of the meeting he said that for an Englishman I wasn’t bad. I certainly felt pleased and thought I had gone some way to restore good relations.

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant which was not at all to my taste. I also learned that the food was called South Western American with Mexican not acknowledged as a description..

For our final day we were invited to visit the local plant, formerly Van Stratton if memory serves. At lunch I sat next to a middle aged lady who was the site engineer. Tall, lanky, tanned with sunbleached hair she seemed a typical Californian.  I struggled a bit to make conversation with her until I found she was a sports cyclist. Greg LeMond, an American, had won the Tour de France the previous year( much to chagrin of the French ) and having followed the Tour on TV I was able to talk about that. We were served with iced tea which I liked a lot and always buy when in N America.  I recall I was amused by the poster in the secretaries office of a gingerbread man. The caption read – the ideal man , he’s small, he’s sweet and if he gives any trouble you can  bite his head off. I took a copy to take back to our office but I’m not sure it was appreciated. I met up with the development staff particularly a Filipino guy. I casually broached the idea of a house exchange holiday and he insisted on taking me back to his house in the furthest reaches of Los Angeles.. We never took it further..
The next day I flew back via Colorado City and Miami,  leaving from Orange County airport which I was interested to see is also called John Wayne airport. En route we passed over the Grand Canyon so I can say I’ve seen it albeit from 35,000 feet

Research Student

When I look back and think about periods of prolonged happiness my time as a research student was one. Not the peak which came after the birth of our first born but still rather satisfactory. I was better off financially than I had ever been, happily married and very much my own boss. I can’t say the work was strenuous, rather the opposite, and I dictated my own pace

I had joined Unilever Research rather through the back door into the Information Section. After a couple of years I was invited to work “on the bench” as the jargon had it ie. to work as a practical hands on scientist, on secondment for six months. Initially I struggled as my mediocre practical skills were several years behind me. But after a while I found I was fairly good and I stretched the secondment to a year and then two years until it was realised I was never going back.

There was one major problem. I was relatively highly ranked in the company but I lacked the higher degrees of my peers. I persuaded my boss I should remedy this and I approached Liverpool Polytechnic ( now John Moores University ) where we had good contacts. The Reader in Physical Chemistry who was close to Unilever said yes but then said he couldn’t take on more students but he knew a man who could. So I was wished upon Duncan as my academic supervisor. Duncan had minimal interest in research students( I was to be his only one ever ) as he saw himself making his name with academic textbooks. He had earlier published “An introduction to Surface and Colloid Chemistry” which enjoyed modest success.

So I joined a heterogeneous group in Room 211. There were two gas kinetics students, Howard and Sid, and Malcolm studying electro kinetics. Our group of 4 was joined by Graham who worked in his own room but joined us for all social purposes. Duncan had a cubby hole in one corner. We each had an area of individual bench where semi permanent equipment was set up plus a communal bench for all other purposes( tea making figured heavily ) We were often joined by Phil, a very junior lecturer, who not long before had been a research student himself. He was valued for his banter plus having the inside track on department matters.

I had solemnly prepared and agreed a project but this depended upon linked work at Unilever. It wasn’t long before their plans changed and forced me to change mine. I hit upon a plan which with hindsight was hopelessly optimistic. I was trying to characterise adsorbed thin films by their wetting characteristics  using two model surfaces, aluminium and glass.. each in two forms as sheet and powder.

I came from a fairly lavishly equipped laboratory and the poverty at the Polytechnic was a shock. I made frequent return visits to Unilever to scrounge equipment and chemicals both for myself and my colleagues. There was a great tradition of DIY and “make do and mend” at the college and I joined in making my own contact angle goniometer from a scrounged old projection microscope. The college had a strange system whereby we could readily spend £5 from petty cash but couldn’t easily get normal lab supplies. I soon learned that visiting traders wearing an old lab coat and murmuring “ for the corpy” got trade prices.

Generally I didn’t join in undergraduate activities but rather socialised with my fellow research students. They were a very agreeable bunch and we enjoyed various trips. As I recall many were to pubs but also included a trip around the old south docks and even an outing to Swansea to collect furniture for Howard.

The college was situated on the fringe of Liverpool Centre  but adjacent to a poor and tough area. The nearby shop known as Jim’s was a horror of  grills. Nothing was on display everything was behind a grill and goods had to requested at a counter secured like an old fashioned bank.

I took advantage of the relaxed atmosphere to sometimes leave early, browse in city centre shops and then make my way home. The journey from my home of about ten miles was part of the whole experience. I had to cross the Mersey either by rail or ferry. I became adept with both, with all the little details that regular commuters learn. On a fine day the ferry crossing was a joy followed by a brisk walk through the financial sector to the college missing the main shopping centre. I was always amused by the morning constitutional whereby bowler hatted city gents would walk around and around the ferry deck in a continuous line.

In the nature of things as studentships were for a limited time, my colleagues left and my secondment ended. For a time I went in on a Saturday but particularly after Martin was born  I stopped. I did do a brief intensive period of a few weeks when particular equipment was free which had been in use for teaching in term time. I didn’t so much finish as taper off. I didn’t get the results I wanted and I became a bit disheartened as well as distracted. To obtain a degree it is necessary to write what you have done as a thesis.  I was kicked into action after a few years when Alec the ex Reader at college joined Unilever in a senior position. Meeting me in the corridor one day he told me in no uncertain terms to get on with writing. I spent months writing up as I could only force myself to do a bit every evening.

Eventually all was done and I gained the degree of Master of Philosophy