Normal service will be resumed...

So my laptop died on me at the end of last week. Not a huge issue as all the important data is backed up on the main office computer. I've only really lost access to my old e-mails and my electronic diary. I think I have managed to figure out all of the meetings i'm meant to be at but I may not have responded to your e-mail if it came in during the window of time between my laptop packing up and getting my e-mail set up on a different computer.

In any case ,dealing with that and a few other things (like a massive over payment of council tax to Glasgow City Council) mean that I haven't had time to update this blog for a week. As they say on the BBC, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...

The Police deal with violent and uncooperative criminals...

Interesting news today that the Police facing are facing a major knife threat. Apparently6% of police officers have been challenged with a gun - which I find surprising - and one in three with a knife - which I don't find surprising. I am pleased to hear however that this has not led to a huge demand that ordinary police officers carry guns during everyday duties. I am guessing that the gun statistic is new, i.e. if we looked at figures from 5 or 10 or 20 years ago then the number of police officers having been challenged with a gun would be lower. It would be interesting however to see whether this was the case for knife challenges, I rather suspect it is not. Does anyone have the evidence to do a comparison?

The Benefit of Clarity

“You don't need to outdo the competition. It's expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.”

Jason Fried, Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006

Just discovered this quote from Jason Fried, the founder of the Basecamp project management/collaboration tool. I like it a lot. I think I might make it the company motto. It refelect so much about working in the public sector in post devolution Scotland. So much so that I also note that the word 'initiativitis' which previously I had thought was only used in casual conversation by tired public & voluntary sector workers actually registers 236 hits on Google UK.

That's evidence not only of the etymology of a new word, and the epidemiology of it's spread, but of the legitimacy of the phenomenon itself. I'm going to give this clarity and simplicity thing some more thought. If I think about it harde enough i'm sure I can make it much more complex than it needs to be...

Call me Lightning

Glasgow had trhe worst/wildest thunder and lightning i've ever seen outside the tropics last night. It must have lasted a good three hours before I went to slee and there were still flashes acrosses the sky as i was drifting off. There was forked lightning, something i've only seen on two other occasions in Scotland, and then only for a brief period. This lasted all night. The BBC has a really good set of Pictures of the storm taken by amateurs. No doubt there will be a deluge of speculation today about whether this is due to climate change and whether climate change is a man made (or influenced) phenomenon. Can anyone really make sense of all that stuff? I know I can't.

Adult education cuts are not a healthy option

Interesting article in this morning's Guardian.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,1765213,00.html

It seems that the value of learning for older people is not a high priority for government.

While i’m normally known for speaking out on behalf of the opposite end of the age spectrum, I do think that the numbers of older people signing up for learning opportunities is a good indicator of how well available learning opportunities relate to peoples lives – not just their career prospects.

There some evidence in the article that participation in learning activities can have positive health impacts for older people – there’s no cost benefit analysis – but a clear inference can be made that public investment in learning for older people can reduce public spending on health care for older people.

Also, I notice Tom Schuller is now at the OECD. I never knew.