David's General Blog: November 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Broadview Press :: Independent academic publishers since 1985 :: Philosophy :: The Grasshopper: "9781551117720 / 155111772X

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Monday, November 29, 2010

Alastair Darling Central Banks

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The City’s masters need to stay above the fray

By Alistair Darling

Published: November 28 2010 20:34 | Last updated: November 28 2010 20:34

As the world’s centre of economic gravity shifts remorselessly to the south and to the east, we in Britain need to ask ourselves where we are best placed to compete. Financial services will clearly be part of the answer. London is one of the major financial centres and, frankly, it has to remain so. Yet its pre-eminence is not guaranteed. The need for strong, independent regulation has seldom been greater.

First, we must make it clear that we want to keep this industry. There are plenty of other countries that would like the business and foreign banks will be making decisions in the next few years that will have far-reaching consequences for London. We need to be clear that we want them to do business here and that we are determined to create the right environment to enable them to do so.

That does not mean craven submission to whatever the banks want. Regulation needs to be far tougher and more intrusive. Contingency plans need to be drawn up now in case of a bank’s failure. The real problem today remains sorting out the toxic assets still held by too many banks in Europe.

Second, we need to look at London’s reputation. Here the position of the Bank of England is becoming increasingly important, not just as a traditional central bank responsible for monetary policy, but also as a regulator.

Reputations matter. It is imperative that the independence of the Bank remain absolute. It cannot afford to enter the political fray. Of course the governor is entitled to his views on the government’s fiscal policy. I never had any problem with Mervyn King expressing a view. But when members of the monetary policy committee and, it seems, the Conservative chairman of the Treasury Select Committee believe that a political line has been crossed, then the Bank must think long and hard about what it says. To become identified with one political party would be fatal to its reputation.

At a time when the Bank is about to take on the highly sensitive business of regulating banks and other financial institutions, this might be an opportunity to look again at its governance.

I started this reform but it needs to go much further. The MPC has been a success precisely because it is a committee where each member is listened to and where he or she has a vote. The regulatory side requires a different approach. But there must be a more open and transparent means of reaching decisions.

The concept of a governor rather than a chairman is perhaps an anachronism. The Bank is operating in a very different world to that of 1946 when it was founded in its present form. There needs to be more participation in decision-making from people both inside and outside, perhaps mirroring the MPC.

Getting this right is vital for London’s future. But so too is the world’s perception of our attitude to the financial industry.

Recently I met a very senior executive of a foreign bank. He confided to me that he was at heart a conservative. No surprise there, you might think. But he went on to say that in some ways today’s Con-Lib government was, as he indelicately put it, “worse than you lot”. He felt the abolition of the Financial Services Authority was a political gesture and in that he is right. He also believed that government rhetoric – particularly the increasingly empty rhetoric of Vince Cable, the business secretary – was achieving nothing concrete and even damaging our reputation in the eyes of the outside world.

We face two years of uncertainty until the regulatory system is overhauled – this at a time when the regulators should be spending every hour of the day asking themselves whether banks across the world are secure. The woes of the Irish banks are not an isolated problem. The stress tests applied in the summer do not pay nearly enough attention to the inter-relationships in the banking system. This is no time to engage in a regulatory restructuring driven largely by politics.

Whether we like it or not, we need banks. London’s position is critical for the whole of the UK now. Getting the reforms right and positioning ourselves correctly in the future could have a profound consequence for our fortunes for generations to come.

The writer is MP for Edinburgh South West and a former chancellor of the exchequer

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Sunday, November 28, 2010

HOW TO: Protect Yourself from Firesheep with a VPN

HOW TO: Protect Yourself from Firesheep with a VPN
http://www.helium.com/items/1999384-how-to-protect-your-computer-from-firesheep-with-a-vpn
http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=9020
http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=9020 (Julia uses this?)
https://www.publicvpn.com/support/MacOSX105.php (David and Laura use this?)
http://www.sector123.com/
http://openvpn.net/

Friday, November 26, 2010

Open PPT with blank slide in PowerPoint

Open PPT with blank slide in PowerPoint: "http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ01010.htm

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Create your own default presentation

Create your own default presentation: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Monday, November 22, 2010

Gordie: Turkey

The place to stay in the Kusadasi area is the Ephesus Boutique Hotel in Kirazli. Ask for room number 10- it’s the one with the fireplace on the second floor. Try not to pay more than 130 euros a night. We’ve stayed there twice and find it to be very comfortable and conveniently situated. In the unlikely event that number 10 isn’t not available ask for the “round room”. Let me know if you’re going to go and I’ll give you some restaurant suggestions.

There are several fascinating sites in the area. At the more distant end (maybe 250-300 kms round trip) is ancient Hieropolis, now known as Pamukkale. On the way to Pamukkale are the ruins of a Roman town called Aphrodisias. It’s coming to be considered the second greatest archeological site in Turkey after Ephesos. I’d agree with that. It’s very big day to try to do both from Kirazli. I know, because I’ve done it and have the speeding ticket as proof.

Hierapolis has a good archeological museum; so does Aphrodisias. As between the two, Aphrodisias is by far the more interesting site. If you want to do both you might consider leaving Kirazli at a good time in the morning and going first to Aphrodisias. Explore it to your heart’s content and then go to Pamukkale. Spend the night there, get an early start in the ruins the next morning and drive back to Kirazli when you’re finished. There seem to be lots of hotels in Pamukkale.

When we went to Hieropolis last year I found it significantly less enchanting than I’d remembered, and Aphrodisias significantly more so. In fact there has been much work done in Aphrodisias over the past 30 years. I don’t intend to go back to Pamukkale, but I do intend to return to Aphrodisias- hopefully more than once.

In the more immediate vicinity of Kusadasi you must see Priene, Miletus and Didima. You can do all 3 comfortably in a single day, but get started at a good hour to avoid being rushed at the end. Each one of them is wonderful in its own peculiar way; three very different sites and experiences. You’ll visit them in that order. Priene, at the foot of the landward side of Mount Mykale which stands opposite Samos, is the most extensive and takes the most time. Miletus consists of a marvelous, well-preserved theatre, and some other interesting bits that require a little walking. Didima is principally the temple of Apollo- relatively condensed but, to my eye, rich and magnificent.

Then, of course there’s Ephesos to which I try to give 2 days whenever I can. Don’t miss the Terrace Villas at Ephesos at the bottom of Kuretes Street. The Selchuk Museum is small but wonderful; the various iterations of the famous Ephesian Artemis are just the tip of the berg. Then there are the pathetic remains of the Artemesion, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (I wonder what happened to it!!), the Church of St John, the home of the Virgin Mary, the Cave of the Seven Sleepers et cetera. All within a 10 km radius of Selchuk.

I strongly recommend The Western Shores of Turkey by John Freely. In fact I recommend anything that he’s written on Turkey- I’ve read pretty much all of it. He’s far and away the greatest modern authority on Istanbul, and he’s no slouch on the rest of the country. He is to Istanbul what Augustus Hare was to Rome in the 19nth.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

NPR radio shows to podcast

NPR Podcasts

This American Life
On the Media
Radiolab
Studio 360
Hearing Voices
Radio Open Source
Too Much Information
Planet Money
Sound Opinions
But the result is all too often flaccid radio, and listeners who have no idea what else is out there that they might enjoy. There are public radio stations so hidebound that they run the not-that-hilarious Car Talk twice each week. It’s a waste of the precious hours in the broadcast day to repeat the program, and it’s not a good sign for the future that program directors aren’t taking more chances. If they’re not careful, NPR could wind up without a farm team of experienced new program makers, and with the same demographic problem now crippling public television (to see what I mean, check out your public TV pledge drive and try to imagine what age group they’re appealing to with overweight doo-wop groups squeezing into sequined suits). Sound Opinions is as good a barometer as any; if your local public radio station isn’t airing it, they’re not trying very hard.

http://woxy.com/
http://kexp.org/
http://kalx.berkeley.edu/
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/