A quantity with direction and magnitude. To guide directly to a desired point. A transmission agent for memes or pathogens

So I was heading into town to meet a friend for lunch. In the old days you’d arrange a time and a place and you’d be there (or not). If you didn’t make it, you’d both move on and you’d telephone later. Admittedly I’m talking 10-15 years ago here, but the constant flow of information that we’re being submerged under isn’t just 24 hour rolling news and live sport from the other side of the globe. It’s personal
information, too. SMS, email, mobiles, wireless LANs …

It’s hard to imagine that one day in the not so distant past there was a time of only wires. Of the local loop and comms via copper wiring.

Not today. A few emails (picked up on my laptop via Wireless LAN from my kitchen table, naturally) to confirm the general location and a general time. (We’re heading to the centre from opposite directions.) Then, when I’m on the train rolling into the terminus, a quick text to confirm I’m really en route. Of course, it’s not just a text. The phone is snug in my pocket, but because I’m working on some notes on the laptop, I call on a new best friend BluePhoneElite – it is simply marvellous. Text from the keyboard, the phone is barely involved.

Of course I can on one side convince myself I’m being secure – as the adverts say, don’t advertise your mobile phone. Of course I am advertising my shiny 12″ G4 PowerBook, but these things can’t be helped. Alain de Botton has written recently on Status Anxiety. Ya boo sux to that.

Meanwhile I’ve written some notes that I’ll want to read on the plane tonight. A quick addition to the AcroReader for the Palm and – boof – a quick bluetooth sync later and they are there on the Palm in my other pocket.

Look ma, no cables.

As I roll into Waterloo the dialog box pops up with the new SMS confirming the RV – a Starbucks near Liverpool Street. I’ll not bore you with the details as to which, there are enough and you need to retain some mystery.

So a coffee and a few bites in Starbucks – of course we’re discussing some bits and bobs and need some information. Wireless LAN to the rescue again. A credit card payment later and I’m hooked up again, mainlining data. It’s a more addictive drug than the caffeine in the cup.

But in 9 hours I shall be in the air on a trans-continental flight, aloft for about 10 hours. Out of contact, blissfully bereft of that feed. A time to read. To think.

No connections – wirelessly out of contact. It’s the only joy of being herded like cattle through the skies.

Last night the popular rowing gossip site, The Slug published the slightly doom laden news that the Leo Blockley story is just about the enter a new chapter.

The short version is that at a training camp in Amposta, Spain at the end of 2000, a crew from the Oxford University lightweight men’s group was swamped in a flash storm, in the ensuing panic one of the crew, Leo Blockley, attempted to swim for the shore and never made it. (The story is more complex than that and many more details are available on the memorial campaign’s website.)

Burying a child must be the saddest duty a parent can ever do and, since then, as a memorial to their lost son, Leo Blockley’s parents have, admirably, conducted a campaign over the issue of buoyancy in rowing shells. You see while all racing rowing boats – from the small singles to the large eights – have to almost by definition float, there remains a grey area around the issue of their handling in inclement and unusual conditions. In the majority of outings undertaken on inshore water in the UK and around the world, the worst that might happen are a few small waves (perhaps from passing launches) and maybe a bit of rain.

The issue raised is how much these shells need to be able to remain buoyant when they have undergone extreme shock – be it overwhelming swamping or through losing structural integrity. How much should a shell be obligated to be able to still float when totally swamped (as was the case in Amposta).

It has been proven that the marginal cost of providing sufficient buoyancy to new shells is minimal and most boat manufacturers now offer this as standard, but certainly as a free/cheap option. But how much should this be obligated – and going further, how responsible are the UK governing body, the ARA, or the international body, FISA, for not having in their rules stipulations regarding safe supported weights.

The re-opening of the inquest, which had originally returned a verdict of accidental death, leads to a distressing inevitable conclusion – that criminal investigations and possible criminal charges are in the offing. The obvious conclusion is that someone considers someone (be it an individual or the sport’s powers that be) potentially criminally liable. Such a conclusion has almost inevitable repercussions.

The demise of rowing in the UK. That would be a lasting legacy to build on the earlier tragic drowning of Leo Blockley.

Killing through kindness?

Welcome to my blog. At the moment it seems like a good idea. I’ve no doubt that it in a few months it will either not exist or have change or be similarly not what I can foresee.

So, in a smooth Alan Whicker style-e, Hello World!.