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People are closing out the year talking about how the small numbers of people under 60 and without existing health conditions who have died from Covid. In an astoundingly bad faith argument this is being used to argue against public health measures.
This fails to engage with the issue of hospital capacity that has been the central issue over the whole year.
It also treats death as inevitable which I’m not sure it’s true, there is a need to engage in the policies that have delivered better outcomes over the year rather than just embracing “inevitable costs”.
The politicised and ideological approach to public health hasn’t worked for either the economy or human life outcomes.
It’s painful to see people still reaching for talking points instead of investing effort into research or engaging with the with of others.
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It’s really interesting reading people’s diary entries from the Second World War in the UK. The reality of this touchstone event is filled with much more uncertainity, fear and anger than contemporary commentators ever acknowledge.
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Book review: Orchard
I recently finished reading Orchard a nature diary written about each month is an “old” naturally managed orchard. By this it means laid down in the thirties and not intensively farmed.
With two author alternating chapters the book read as a series of essays that often repeated points across chapters or explains things multiple times. When it works though it is a wonderfully wrought picture of the complexity of ecosystems with animals in complex webs of interdependent behaviour over the course of the year.
It also highlights some of the madness of industrial farming techniques where trees are sprayed in pesticide which kills the pollinators that the trees need to actually grow the fruit that people are trying to farm.
There’s a moment when the EU gets blamed for its farming policies but in another chapter a part of Hungary is lauded for its traditional biodiverse farming methods. I felt that maybe the problem is a bit closer to home but I guess we’re going to find out soon whether the problem is really capitalism or government policy.
The cover is a beautiful geometric block print which is extremely handsome.
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Slay the Spire on the Switch
I have been searching for a new game that fits the drop-in and drop-out nature of the Switch after hitting a tricky section of Hyperlight Drifter. I tried Curious Expedition but that is a punishing game that doesn’t really have sections beyond a whole expedition. The lack of real carryover between plays also feels a bit flat.
The thing that has ended up hitting the spot is Slay the Spire. Pausing in a fight is quite disruptive but otherwise you can have all these choices about the next room, merchant purchases, campfires that are easy to stop at and to come back and parse easily.
Your clear goal to clear each section means its easy to play a bit and then pick it up again later.
Unlocking the characters and other bits of the game gives a shape across multiple runs and helps blunt the pain when you resume the game and fluff it as you can’t remember what strategy you were using to shape your deck.
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I’m struggling with the UK Parliament’s vote to not provide school meals outside of term time. It’s a cruel decision in principle but it’s also an ugly one in practical terms with all the money that has been spent on propping up hospitality or just simply wasted on various ill-conceived schemes.
It feels like another ugly day in a painful year.
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The Audacity of Crows
Today I took a break in a London park for a quick snack, pidgeons immediately clocked me and came running up to try and snatch any crumbs they could find. Which kind of ruined the moment for me.
I had some rubbish in my pockets so before heading off I put it all in a paper bag, folded the top and put it in the bin. The state of Central London being what it is the bin was pristine and my rubbish went straight to the bottom.
I noticed a crow watching me as I did it and as soon as my back was turned it had hopped onto the bin. I happened to look back and when I did I saw that the crow was using it’s beak to lift up the plastic of the bin and then trapping the fold under it’s foot. With three pulls it had hoisted the paper bag into reach and grabbed it.
It then tore open the side of my bag with it’s beak and went through the contents.
They are pretty smart birds.
However then another crow hopped up and soon as it had the chance it snatch the bag and before long the bag had been torn apart and half eaten by all the crows and inediable rubbish was strewn across the park but jealously possessive crows who obviously would just have felt that it was more valuable if I had tried to retrieve it.
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I have sympathy for those businesses that bet on commuter trade but why should they and commercial property landlords be treated differently to coal miners, postal services or ship builders or any other area that has undergone massive structural disruption recently?
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I have sympathy for those businesses that bet on commuter trade but why should they and commercial property landlords be treated differently to coal miners, postal services or ship builders or any other area that has undergone massive structural disruption recently?
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I have sympathy for those businesses that bet on commuter trade but why should they and commercial property landlords be treated differently to coal miners, postal services or ship builders or any other area that has undergone massive structural disruption recently?
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Bring back modular examinations
The recent exam marking fiasco(s) has shown what the problems might be with a system that relies entirely on a one-shot exam at the end of an education process. BTECs were originally considered not in need of regrading because they were modular and therefore already had a lot of evidence of what the candidate might be expected to score in their final result (they were later revised to be inline with the revision of other examinations but still).
Modular examinations used to be the way we assessed people until it was abolished by Michael Gove in favour of final examinations. Literally this government has gone on so long that it’s reaping the consequences of its actions and it does not care to change direction.
Assessment by a single examination favours certain kinds of people, if I was being unkind I would say it favours the approach of the currently ruling clique and their aversion to consistent work in favour of a roll of the dice and a bit of elan to bluff your way through. Having to turn up and do the work repeatedly not only has the advantage of being a better indicator of educational performance over time but hey also means that you don’t have to create ficitious grading systems at the last minute with the aid of an algorithim.
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I was saddened to discover that Innes cheesemakers have failed to survive the consequences of COVID-19. I enjoyed their cheese a lot.
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Whatever the merits of the UK’s grading strategy (and there feels like there are few) I don’t think there is any point in university’s refusing to honour offers due to non-existing exam grades. They are not passing higher acheiving candidates and they have no more or less information about whether someone will be successful in their higher education studies than they do normally.
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Offerring citizenship to those fleeing oppression in Hong Kong is the right thing to do. Combining it with an intention to push boats of migrants back to France is bizarre.
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In the debates about schools reopening the language explicitly uses the language of childcare rather than education. I wish we could take this opportunity to reimagine schools as a safe, caring place for children where they can also receive an education.
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Spend much of the afternoon catching up on my numerous back issues of Monstress. The art is consistently wonderful and unique in modern comics. The complex back story is finally coalescing but I must admit it is easier to absorb in binges than issue by issue.
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The latest nominations to the Lords are genuinely dreadful. The PM has put his own brother in before we even get to the Russian oligarchs and the Brexiteers.
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I’m very concerned about the future of live music venues but also too worried to actually visit one right now.
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I started playing Behold the Kickmen (interview with the developer) today. It’s a satire on football and football manager style games built over the framework of a surprisingly satisfying version of Sensible Soccer.
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I started playing Pillars of Eternity 2 properly today. The core of the game is all very familiar from the first but it was lovely to see the stealth system overhauled to introduce sense radiuses and sight cones. I was also quite interested to see the scrolling map as well rather than the location to location point movement which was originally in Baldur’s Gate.
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For the all the mess and disaster of the Dominic Cummings affair, one of the most telling things is that a number of men would rather do anything than look after their children.
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This article about mortality rates for looked after children is depressing, as is virtually all the outcomes for children in state care. These children were meant to be a priority even in austerity but just like homelessness the numbers have all been in reverse.
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Although I am very late to the party (who knows why a shop is shuttered these days?) I am sad to discover that Lucky Fret has closed down. The shop was round the corner from my office (when we used to work in offices). They had an excellent pedal selection, I bought my OBNE Rever there.
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There is a persistant fantasy in the British mindset that the nation was united and of one mind during the Second World War. Reading the accounts and diaries of those who lived through it without the benefit of hindsight gives a sense of the mix of uncertainty and doubt that pervaded those times.
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Mini Healer
I played Mini Healer yesterday for the first time (you can play a free web-based iteration of the game which feels like a prototype but is mechanically complete). It takes a single aspect of the raid sub-game of MMORPGs and distills into a cute pixel art realtime resource manager.
You manage a party of fantasy MMO archetypes: tank, physical damage, magical damage and of course the eponymous healer. You choose which boss monster you are going to take on and then the party automatically attacks and generates damage, like an idle game, while you as the player uses the healer’s abilities to keep everyone alive and manage any persistant effects on the party or the boss.
At the start, the rewards are fast flowing in the forms of experience, new abilities, unlockable talent trees and stat-boosting items. Defeating a boss also unlocks a new one, while there are harder variations of the old bosses you can opt to take on.
A fight is quick and takes about the same time as figuring out how to apply the rewards to your party. It’s casual roots are apparent and therefore the game is a delight to dip into.
It looks like the development team are also keep an open project management Trello which is an interesting read.
I’m really glad I picked this one up and I can’t help but feel it would be awesome on the Switch as well.
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I’m not sure what is sillier, playing Pandemic: Legacy in a pandemic or the April twist. I had been enjoying the challenge of having the legs kicked from out of conventional winning strategies but the fantasy has left me a bit cold.
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