Attention

I read today that the British Army is to create a cyber-warfare unit. Apparently following the lead of the US and Israelis we are to engage in non-lethal cyber warfare. The Israeli defence force is apparently active on over thirty platforms in six different languages. I assume that the Soviets and Chinese are also active. I am making an assumption here that this is different from hacking systems of enemy states and disrupting them, which is something I believe that the Israelis/US did to the Iranian nuclear programme, destabilising their nuclear centrifuges. Again I am not absolutely clear, is this really just another form of propaganda?

This however was not the thing that took my attention with the announcement; it was that this group is to be designated the 77^th Brigade. Without further research this probably means nothing to my readers. Well in World War Two the 77^th Brigade were known as the Chindits who conducted long range raids behind the Japanese lines in Burma. A charismatic man named Orde Wingate led them. He was an archetypal British eccentric who on active service used to wander around naked quoting Latin texts. Now this force were extraordinarily effective striking the Japanese where they least expected, helped not least by the ability of the force to live off the land and ally themselves with native tribesmen. They were largely supplied from the air, and this is where I have a personal interest, as my father was a navigator in the planes undertaking this resupply.

Now when I heard that this new cyber regiment is to carry the badge of the Chindits, I wondered what my father would have said. Would he have thought this disrespectful? Or would he have made some pithy comment probably along the lines of “what they need is some square bashing not be liked on Facebook”. So although my initial reaction was that this was disrespectful to the memory of some very brave men, on consideration and thinking about my father I think that this is actually a way of preserving their memory for future generations.

Beer Glorious Beer

I bought my son a present for Christmas, a beer tasting evening contrasting real ales with craft beers. As he is a young impressionable lad of sometimes-questionable opinions, I felt obliged to offer him guidance and accompany him on this evening of beer tasting.

It was a really cold evening in Leeds and we were early, this was the first of our really hard decisions. I was strong armed into a local hostelry for a pint of Terrier from the York Brewery. Prior to that my son had already lost his footing on the ice, and that was before any beer had ben imbibed.

The tasting was another evening hosted by Laura of Yorkshire Wine, branching out this time into her true love – beer. There were around twenty hardy souls gathered at the Radisson Hotel, a further eight or nine had failed to make it through the icy weather. I am not being glib, but that meant more beer for the rest of us. It was a really mixed crowd, with some beer buffs (beards compulsory) to people who had come along for an interesting evening.

 The premise of the evening was that we would taste a craft beer and a traditional beer from four categories, India Pale Ale, Old Ales, Stout, and Milk Stout. First of all there was the traditional smelling of the hops, contrasting traditional hops with the new fangled hop pellets. In my view the pellets had a very unpleasant smell, and I thought that was reflected in the modern pale ale in which they were used.

The India Pale Ale was not a surprise as IPA is one of my favourite brews, particularly in summer. In truth both the traditional brew from Burton-on-Trent and the more modern brew from Manchester were really good beers. The old ales were much more clear-cut. Theakstons Old Peculiar is a very traditional ale brewed in Masham, North Yorkshire, one of my favourite drinks. Interestingly it is called Peculiar because Masham is a parish, which does not belong to a diocese, so is known as a Peculiar. It was pitched against a modern Christmas ale from Ilkely that I thought was really unpleasant. It conforms to my rule that you should not add foreign bodies to beer.

The stout tasting gave me a real discovery, we drank Imperial Russian Stout, so called because these beers were exported to Russia and were rumoured to be a favourite of Catherine the Great. I can only say that this beer was stupendous just a fantastic drink, the only problem is the strength – a small bottle would be enough for me. So if you can get yourself down the Northern Monk Brewery in Leeds to buy a bottle. Finally there were the milk stouts including a Mackeson. The least said about this classification the better.

 As you can see by the accompanying pictures the evening was thoroughly enjoyed. My readers may not believe this but it was also very educational. Hic….

Intelligence - It is really why I buy Frosties

I have been reading widely over the last couple of days that is the product of Marion having more rehearsals with her choir. I have also enjoyed a debate on the blog with my son. But first a weather update, we did not suffer snowmaggeddon last night; in fact there is no snow at all. Just proves that the forecasters this side of the Atlantic suffer the same problems as those in the US!

So I was reading a long article about the use of surveillance techniques since 9/11 specifically under the provisions of the Patriot Act. One of the conclusions was that because the volume of material gathered intelligence has become data driven, and is subject to the same sort of analytical techniques as your supermarket loyalty card. What you are getting is analysis rather than intelligence. I suppose to use an analogy it is like me buying Frosties at the supermarket, the data analysis is able to determine that I have bought Frosties, but it does not know that I have bought Frosties because my grand daughters are coming to stay, not because I a have developed a sweet tooth. Now if we extend this to links to terrorist organisations. If I am a Somali man who regularly sends money back to Somalia, that is significant but only if you know what the money is for, if I am supporting my family that is entirely legitimate, if it is sent to a known terrorist that is interesting but not conclusive. Again old fashioned on the ground intelligence can only determine the latter.

I was surprised that the Intelligence Services of various countries have known about the perpetrators of all the major acts of terrorism in the west since 9/11 in advance of the event. Where they have failed is in realising the significance of what they know. So these people were on the radar, the intelligence agencies were gathering information about them, they failed to discern the importance of what they were gathering. What this suggests is that data is not the problem, but old-fashioned intelligence knowledge is. So to go back to the Somali sending money overseas, what the intelligence agencies need is great links to the Somali community, and also the trust of that community that the authorities are acting it its best interests. It is a truism I know but there is no substitute to talking to people!

A brief return to yesterday’s blog, my son reminded me that the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities were actually performed by the majority of the populace rather than a power crazed Nazi elite. This is brilliantly written about in a book titled “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. He bases his theory on the meticulous records that the Nazi’s kept. Recommended reading if you can find it.

Oops and at 13:30 it is snowing, and I am supposed to be going to Leeds for a beer tasting evening!!!

A Sobering Day

I watched the commemoration of events at Auschwitz yesterday and in particular the shocking accounts by survivors. You could not fail to be hugely moved by the occasion. To me it is unimaginable who would perpetrate such horrific acts and particularly that it was state sponsored and organised. As I listened to the speeches there was a common theme from today’s leaders, I heard particularly Prince Charles. The sentiment was that we couldn’t allow such events to happen again.

This is like motherhood and apple pie, you cannot fail to agree with this. Of course no one wants to see a repeat of the Holocaust. Indeed even one death in the name of bigotry is one death too many. In reality though there have been frequent terrible genocides since the Second World War, and in truth we often do not have the stomach or the means to do anything about it.

First of all some of these genocides seem more acceptable than others. There is relatively little comment concerning Stalin’s purges in Russia or genocide by famine in China by Mao Tse Tung. A case could be made for widening out the commemoration of Holocaust day to remember other genocides.

Can we do anything about genocide? Frequently there are no practical solutions, let us not forget that there was nothing that could have been to prevent the Holocaust. Indeed the existence of the extermination camps was not common knowledge until the end of the war. Genocide in Central Africa and the former Yugoslavia was by contrast well known. In the latter after some time and the publication of harrowing footage NATO found the means to form a barrier between the different factions and some of the perpetrators have been brought to book. However in Central Africa there was no intervention, would indeed there have been the political will to send western troops to Central Africa? Of course there would not have been.

So it is very easy to say that the Holocaust must not be allowed to happen in the future, but our leaders should think more about what this means. I suppose that after the Second World War the United Nations was going to be the organisation that would police the world and bodies like the International Criminal Court would ensure that any perpetrators of genocide receive justice. Such bodies relied on a utopian world order and popular will that simply does not exist. Indeed the only practical way of preventing genocide has proven to be the use of overwhelming force by a super power, the US or an alliance in NATO. The perils of this are obvious from history, Saddam Hussain practiced the genocide of the Kurds, however we all know too well the impact of subsequent western intervention.

So while we agree with the sentiment, we must be very aware of the limitations of power, and practically what we have a will to undertake. This is a really difficult question that deserves careful consideration, not trite speech making.

Some Observations on Today

First a reference to yesterday’s blog, it appears that the forecasters got it wrong, the snowfall on the North East of the US was not as bad as was anticipated. I think that is all relative though. The amount of snow was still several inches not the snowmaggedon that was anticipated. Of course with the benefit of hindsight the politicians and administrators are all being criticised for too quickly closing roads, public transportation and schools. This gives in to human natures need to blame somebody and a failure to realise that some things are not absolutely predictable. I believe that some of the world’s most powerful computer systems are used to predict and track weather systems. This because there are so many variables all of which interact, and this is for weather forecasters who are trying to predict snowfalls in individual locations. As for the precipitate closures, this is a case where if politicians get it wrong there is chaos and worse still deaths. I would rather that there is caution here rather than a gung-ho attitude.

When there are cold weather warnings they always say to watch out for the elderly. While that is certainly true in respect of making sure that the elderly stay warm, but actually the people more at risk in cold weather are the fit and healthy, the reason is that they are more likely to go outside and have accidents, and therefore are more likely to have to attend hospital emergency centres. Well as they say you learn something every day, my daughter-in-law may tell me otherwise.

Ok enough of looking back; I must give praise to Scarborough Hospital. I was due a CT scan, yesterday the hospital rang to ask me if I would change my appointment bringing it forward a couple of days. It was not a problem though I had a little bit of a tight schedule, so it was great that I was seen promptly on time, and it took almost exactly the time that was predicted. Excellent service, all I now have to hope is that those pesky kidney stones have disappeared.

We had to go to York today, and we returned via the rural roads. For those of you who are familiar with the landscape paintings of David Hockney, this is the countryside that he paints so beautifully. The light captured the steel grey of rural North Yorkshire perfectly. It was not a classic beauty but a type of presence that imprinted the landscape on my memory. The dull green of the winter crops, the starkness of the bare trees, the great vistas. It is simply beautiful and redolent of this part of the world. A question for my readers, I observed a crop that at first sight looked like wheat, however it could not be at this time of the year. It looked like a straw type crop, slightly taller than wheat. I wondered if it was some sort of biomass crop to be burnt in power stations. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Two Countries a World of Difference

As is well known the British are obsessed with the weather. Indeed one national “newspaper “ continually has front-page leads promising weather Armageddon. It will either be too wet, too cold or too hot or even all three. I suppose that part of this is because that the weather can vary over extremely short distances. Last week for instance at home it was sunny, while five miles inland it was covered with snow and ice.

So while reading the Guardian website I was not surprised to see a long article warning of extreme weather, promising massive disruption following five to 10 centimetres of snow and extreme freezing conditions. We are already being conditioned to all public transport being cancelled, schools shut, and hospitals overwhelmed.

Then suddenly this is put in perspective by the article just underneath. This is where the Mayor of New York is making emergency preparations of for bad weather that will shortly hit the North East Seaboard. So wait for it, New York is expecting two feet of snow with 70 mph winds. This is almost between six to ten times the amounts that Scarborough is expecting with temperatures way colder.

So why this difference in the reaction to the weather? Let me tell you a story. I had a friend who lived in Memphis, Tennessee which one winter was paralysed by a very small snowfall. I asked him why, and he said that they had only a small number of snow ploughs. Again I asked why? Well it obvious really, why would the good citizens of Memphis invest in snow clearing equipment when they only experience even a small snowfall once every ten years. It would not be logical indeed, so they grin and bear it for that one-day in 3600, excuse my rough maths. I suppose that if you want to get analytical this would be called cost benefit analysis, the cost of providing the infrastructure needed to tackle the snow in Memphis would be out of all proportion the benefit.

So Scarborough may well suffer “snow chaos” later this week. In practice this will mean that side roads are impassable for a day as will be some of the high routes out of the town, it is highly unlikely the be cut off for any more than two hours. Some local schools will be closed, but this will be mainly because teachers do not tend to live locally to their schools rather than the pupils failing to get there. But if the local council were honest with the electoral as to the cost of negating even this inconvenience nobody would agree with meeting the bill. This is particularly as Scarborough has not seen significant snowfall for almost two years.

However I am attending a beer tasting evening with my son in Leeds on Thursday evening, so I am all in favour of the gritters and ploughs keeping that road to Leeds open no matter the cost. Self interested – Yes.