I was in London yesterday for an Extraordinary General Meeting of Wikimedia UK, the Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom, held at the British Library.
It was during my visit that I became aware of the existence of the Crown Estate Paving Commission or CEPC as I walked from Paddington to the library along Marylebone Road. The CEPC is a statutory body first set up by act of Parliament in 1813 to manage and maintain parts Crown land around Regent’s Park and Regent’s Street.
One the CEPC’s railings fronting Marylebone Road, I came across the sign below.
A greengrocer’s apostrophe that will last generations
An interesting fact emerged today in an article in Inside Time (masthead: the National Newspaper for Prisoners. Ed.) about the mess that Capita Translation & Interpreting’s making of the interpreting contract it has with the Ministry of Justice (posts passim).
The final paragraph of the Inside Time article mentions last year’s Civil Service People Survey, according to which just 28% of MoJ staff had confidence in their senior management and only 32% said the department was well managed. Moreover, a mere 18% of staff felt changes to services were for the better and only 23% said that change was well managed.
What was even more surprising to me – and I hope to any other reasonable person – was the response of the MoJ’s spokesperson to these damning verdicts of the Ministry, as follows:
These results show that staff are growing in confidence in the leadership and management of change in the department.
What are they putting in the senior management’s and ministers’ tea at 102 Petty France, London SW1? I think we should be told.
Right at the back of the Burial Ground set into the sandstone of Redcliffe Hill itself is a small cave, now barred by a wrought iron gate, as shown in the picture below.
The Hermit’s Cave in Redcliffe, Bristol
According to the plaque to right of the entry, the cave was first used as a hermit’s habitation in the 14th century when John Sparkes (or Sparke, according to some sources. Ed.) was installed in 1346 by Thomas Lord Berkeley to pray for him and his family. The plaque continues by saying that the cave continued to be occupied by successive hermits until the 17th century.
Thomas definitely needed someone to pray for him. In 1327 Thomas was made joint custodian of the deposed King Edward II of England, whom he received at Berkeley Castle where he died, believed to have been murdered by an agent of Isabella of France (also known as the ‘She-Wolf of France’. Ed.), Edward’s wife, and Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (whose daughter Margaret, was Thomas’ first wife. Ed.), on 11th October 1327.
Thomas de Berkeley was tried an accessory to the murder of the Edward II by a jury of 12 knights in the 4th year of King Edward III of England, but was honourably acquitted.
The land where the hermit’s cave now stands was acquired by the Religious Society of Friends (otherwise known as the Quakers) in 1667 and used as a burial ground until 1923. The gravestones from the former burial ground are now stacked in the hermit’s cave. The earliest recorded memorial is dated 1669 and the latest 1923, whilst the ages of the dear departed range from eight months to 99 years.
According to the plaque, some well-known Bristol Quaker names are included amongst the memorials, i.e. Alloway, Grace, Harford, Houlden, Jennings, Ring, Smyth, Wall and Whitworth.
The burial ground was handed over by the Quakers to Bristol City Council in 1959 – presumably to help allow the local environment and heritage to be destroyed by the council’s highway engineers (including the demolition of the world’s first lead shot tower. Ed.).
Today the banks in Cyprus re-opened after being shut for nearly 2 weeks and the mainstream media are reporting that severe restrictions are being placed on bank customers.
These restrictions are already being felt by ordinary Cypriots, as the picture below shows.
The rolling disaster that is the Ministry of Justice’s Framework Agreement for court interpreting is a story that just seems to keep on giving, especially in terms of bad news.
Mirela Watson, an Essex-based Romanian interpreter, said other issues nationally have included a trial collapsing because an under-qualified interpreter failed to interpret properly, and another where a crown court judge recognised an interpreter as a convicted prostitute.
The Europhobic United Kingdom Independence Party is always carping about how the European Union wastes money.
They’ve now provided unequivocal evidence of the EU’s profligacy: here we see 2 UKIP MEPs snoozing their way through a debate in the European Parliament and thus not earning their allegedly gold-plated salaries.
UKIP: snoring hard for Britain
Some may accuse UKIP of hypocrisy; I couldn’t possibly comment. 😉
As the horsemeat in British food scandal rumbles on, evidence emerges that Yahoo! has difficulties with food identification, as shown by the screenshot of its site today.
Crime has certainly changed since the heyday of the fictional Sgt. DixonAs this blog has previously noted (posts passim), from the author’s lofty perch in Bristol, North Somerset is a part of the UK that seems to live in an alternative reality (could this have something to do with the consumption of cider? Ed.).
Notwithstanding that, one could legitimately ask which is the greater crime: two irate petrolheads making idiots of themselves or the waste of police time and resources involved in its investigation?
Johannes GutenbergIt was said in the past that the development of the printing press and movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450 was one of the great stimuli to the growth of human knowledge. Gutenberg’s work has been credited with laying the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.
It has been mooted for several years that the development of the internet and online technologies will have an even greater impetus than the development of the printing press and movable type.
Gutenberg’s original work has in the internet era inspired the work of Project Gutenberg. I’ve written of Project Gutenberg before (posts passim). Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books or ebooks. The late Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented ebooks in 1971. Project Gutenberg’s ebooks are public domain, i.e. the copyright on the original works has expired, at least in the U.S.A., the jurisdiction to which Project Gutenberg is subject. Project Gutenberg has various sister projects, e.g. in Germany, Canada and Australia, which also publish books in the public domain subject to the terms of copyright legislation in their respective countries.
Copyright has a history that extends almost as far back as Gutenberg’s press. As a legal concept, its origins in Britain were from a reaction to printers’ monopolies at the beginning of the 18th century. Charles II was concerned by the unregulated copying of books and passed the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 by Act of Parliament,which established a register of licensed books and required a copy to be deposited with the Stationers’ Company, essentially continuing the licensing of material that had long been in effect. The first actual implementation of copyright as it is known today was the Statute of Anne (full title: “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned.” Ed.), enacted in 1710. Under this statute copyright was limited to a term of 14 years.
Orwell – in the public domain since 2000 in Canada & AustraliaMuch has happened to copyright since the Statute of Anne. It has been introduced to jurisdictions throughout the world. It has also grown considerably in its term from the original 14 years. In the UK copyright exists on works for the author’s life plus 70 years. Canada is slightly more generous to the public domain: copyright is the author’s life plus a mere 50 years. This means that the works of (say) George Orwell, who died in January 1950, have been in the public domain in Canada since 2000, whilst in the UK they won’t enter the public domain until 7 years’ time in 2020.
The internet drives a coach and horses through differences in the length of copyright terms enshrined in national copyright legislation: if I so wanted I could freely download public domain copies of Orwell’s works from the Gutenberg sites in Australia or Canada to my hard drive in the UK; and I doubt very much whether those sites would stop me by blocking my IP address.
As the internet is such a great leveller, perhaps the best way forward is to implement changes to copyright terms so as to harmonise them at a consistent number of years. Whilst previous adjustments have been upwards (much to the benefit of major media corporations, such as those churning out Hollywood’s fantasy world/world view), a move in the opposite direction might be appropriate now. What would be so wrong with a maximum worldwide copyright term of 50 years? Wouldn’t that be long enough to make money off one’s created work? After all, other intellectual property rights have far shorter terms than copyright. For instance, the term of protection for a patent – another (and in my opinion more important) intellectual property right – is generally twenty years, whilst trade marks – so vital for commerce – are normally registered for a (renewable) term of ten years.
It’s just gone New Year and the sound of breaking resolutions can be heard all around.
However, that doesn’t stop our major supermarket chains leaping on the keep fit bandwagon following the festive blow-out and Asda is no exception. It also provides Asda with an excuse to indulge in a bit of everyday sexism.
There’s 25% off home fitness equipment on Asda Direct in our Big Sale – including treadmills, rowing machines and exercise bikes.
To help kickstart your home fitness routine we’re giving away this York Fitness cycle (down from £398.99 to £333 on Asda Direct) and stylish gymwear from George including this crop top, vest top and leggings pictured above.
For a chance to win simply enter your details below and tell us what your New Year’s resolution is. The winner will be selected at random after the prize draw closes at noon on January 9th 2013.
Below the quoted text is a form for personal details, including entrants’ clothes sizes: “What size gymwear would you prefer? (eg 12, 14, 16) *.
In Asda-land men obviously don’t exercise, get fit or wear clothes!
The rolling disaster that is the Ministry of Justice’s Framework Agreement for court interpreting is a story that just seems to keep on giving, especially in terms of bad news.
