The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Alison Scott:

OK. I understand that jetpacks and flying cars might represent a safety hazard. But decent household robots? Where's the harm in that?

I'm pretty sure that if an author's promo is sufficiently head-scratching to warrant a blog post on Making Light, that counts as TOTAL WIN in promo terms. Right? More comprehensible would have been less effective?

As the person who famously left her baby in a bar (though only for a minute, and it was a very benign bar), I think it should be clear that this sort of thing can happen to any of us; particularly in the sleep-deprived months with a newborn.

I thought the subway violinist article was -- not stupid, exactly, but a bit of a stunt. And then, last month, one of the UK's best fiddlers turned up at our tune session at the folk club. And a few of us knew, or were told, who he was, but most people didn't. And I don't think anyone was in any doubt that he wasn't just some random player; it was quite astonishing. I think that article was about context and expectations; how could you possibly not notice, unless you never notice buskers at all?

The problem is that in most cases people don't remember the worst effects of the diseases, and because as long as most people are vaccinating their children, you can benefit even if you don't (the tragedy of the commons) -- and of course, there remains a small risk of serious complications of vaccination.

In 1999 the UK introduced a new vaccination to the schedule, against meningitis C, which accounted for 1/3 of meningitis deaths. Deaths from this strain dropped 95% in 18 months. You'd think that would be enough to convince people; surely people have read enough scary stories about meningitis?

Anyway, there's beginning to be some tiny signs that the mood is turning -- such as this hysterical, clearly fictionalised, article in the Daily Mail. But in London, the damage is already done.

My brother had whooping cough as a small child; he'd been vaccinated so got a much milder form of the disease. I still wouldn't wish it on anybody.

Sympathies. Take as much portable kit as you're allowed; I had jury service at the Old Bailey last year (looked like being four months at one point! But our jury was discharged and then I was let off, for which I am very very grateful) and almost didn't get behind at all at work because all my meetings were cancelled and there was only four and a half hours of actual court time per day.

GTD absolutely changed my life; until I read it I never once had email straight, and since I've read it it's hardly ever been out of hand (never at work, and rarely at home). Which is not to say I don't drop commitments, miss deadlines, all the rest of it; but not because key emails are sitting unread in my inbox.

The single most useful part of my work email strategy is that I carry a BlackBerry which I use on the tube every morning and most evenings. Because I'm on the tube I can't read long messages or attachments; so it forces me to sort through it all quickly. I arrive at my desk knowing exactly what I need to get done that day. At least till stuff changes... which it always does.

And on a quite separate point:

"Is it a living tradition when everyone only knows four dances"?

It's Even More a living tradition when everyone only knows four dances. Back when people danced in villages, they danced the odd dance or two. This business of knowing loads of dances was always something for a few peculiar enthusiasts.

As you might imagine, there's lots of discussion of this on boards I frequent (I dance and play melodeon with the Chingford Morris). General conclusion seems to be that it's the arch-chauvinism of the Morris Ring that's in danger of dying out; Morris itself seems to be in pretty good health.

Obviously it would be a shame if men-only sides were to die out; the best male sides are splendid to watch. And it's certainly true that sides which were mostly populated in the late 60s folk revival are finding that they're suffering from injuries a lot these days.

In some ways, Chingford's approach is quite a good one; our Cotswold side is all men (though there are women in the band), but the Northwest side is mixed. Obviously it would be nice to have more dancers; I think that's true of any hobby activity.

It's so weird; all the parliamentary stuff is entirely familiar to me, and all the people, parties and so forth are completely alien.

Prorogation isn't *normally* abnormal; in fact, the UK parliament is currently prorogued because the Queen's Speech is tomorrow; the previous session ended last week.

But the notion that you could prorogue Parliament without dissolving it as a means of avoiding a vote of no confidence; that's innovative. I should think the Erskine May experts are having a field day. It seems implausible; unless you keep it prorogued forever, there's a vote of no confidence on the first day of return.

And all these people bleating about the minority government representing 'the will of the people' -- that's so not how it works.

I think anyone who suggests that racism is no longer alive and kicking because a black man has been elected president should observe the way that women are now invariably paid fairly for their work in the UK*, a generation after our first female Prime Minister.

*To save you checking: nope. It's going *backwards*.

Changes of government can cause satirists to really struggle, though. A lot of the alternative comedy industry was left rootless in 1997; they'd been taking potshots at the Tories for so long they didn't realise there was another way. It also affected political musicians. They all seem to have recovered their vitriol now though.

On Palin's clothes:

One of the things that is most obvious about Palin is that she hasn't absorbed the very first rule of public service work; that you may not use your position for personal benefit. So. No perqs that would be seen as unreasonable, no string-pulling for your mates, no feathering your nest with office supplies, that sort of thing. Obviously she needed some help with clothes and hair, probably more than someone in a more prominent role would have; and equally obviously these things cost more for women. But still; it's hard to escape the conclusion that she sat down with a personal shopper with the attitude that she'd just won a trolley dash. Which, is, you know, consistent with the notion that she's a redneck hockey mom.

What do they teach them in schools these days? Not the things we think are important, for sure. Though *I* didn't know the relevance of "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" when I first heard the title (I remember thinking it a bit strange, so I found out what it meant), so clearly this has been going on for a while.

But. An example. I took Marianne to the House of Lords yesterday (I'm probably going to write about this for a fanzine), and as we got to the Houses of Parliament we passed the statue of Cromwell. "Why's there a statue of Cromwell there?" asked Marianne. "Wasn't he evil?" (this from children's books, especially "I, Coriander", which I liked but which Farah hated precisely because of its unthinking and stupid royalism). Later questions included "Does the Queen actually have to sign the Bill even if she doesn't like it?" which I think I certainly knew by the time I was 11 and which I was definitely taught in school. I also gave her, on the way in on the tube, a crash course in "How Bills go through Parliament". I *know* this isn't normally taught in schools, because not only did I not know it when I started working in policy, but we teach all our staff the same thing and none of them know it either.

Having never successfully knit anything in my life, I am knitting socks. Why socks? They're small, portable, engaging, useful. I have made myself one pair in plain stockinette, and made a sock-and-a-bit for my daughter in a much slower mock cable. I learnt a huge amount about knitting in a few days with the help of the internet; more than I could ever have learnt from my mother.

Clay Shirky has an excellent article (actually, speech turned into article) about human endeavour and the way in which we use television as a sponge to soak up all our spare supplies of endeavour. I have rather more hobbies and activities than appears to be average, and my standard explanation to 'but where do you find the time' is that I use the time I'm not spending watching television.

I believe that we are starting to move away from the age of mass production, broadcast and consumption; globalisation of markets means that it is already almost as easy to link up with a producer of the exactly perfect handmade item you want, as to go to a shop and buy a mass-produced item that's not quite right. Turns out that the price is often very similar too, once you remove all the middlemen.

I'm glad to hear of your release! Hope you can rest comfortably at home now.

James @38; yes, the Guardian's article goes much further. The proceeds of a 1-bedroom flat in Surrey could easily have covered most of the costs of the house. If the son and daughter in law sold up as well, that would be that.

Marilee @37; that's pretty much the distinction here.

Issendai @33; that's how most of these 'small residential care homes start'; adults, faced with giving up work to provide regular care for an elderly parent or a disabled (adult) child, work out that if, instead, they care for two or three, they can earn enough to keep them afloat.

Issendai at #17; my expertise here is many years out of date, but there used to be a provision for small residential care homes with three or fewer residents. The mother won't count as she's a relative, so it's mother + three, and although the articles talk about 'nursing homes', that's the common confusion between nursing care and residential care; this is surely residential care.

When I did visit care homes as part of my job, I had several of these small homes in my patch; all the ones I saw were vastly nicer than the average of the larger homes, pretty much for exactly the reasons outlined in the articles. But I believe that the proportion of these small homes that are substandard is also higher.

Actually, the BBC article is very careful not to state, or even imply, that proceeds of publishing paid for the house, neither in the article or video; it's quite clear that someone in the editorial process spotted that it was a vanity press book.

I suspect, based on what the son and daughter-in-law said, they're also planning to take advantage of the special legal position of small residential care homes.

For years I did think that this would be the thing that drove me out of my current employment/career. It feels quite a bit better now, not because my working computing environment has improved (the hardware is fine apart from being PC, but the software is still awful) but because lots of web 2 stuff I use isn't blocked, and my iPhone gets round the rest (though I'd like it to be faster).

But I still get frustrated; despite being very careful, I often find it impossible to do my work without violating some aspect of our IT policy, I can't use a single smartphone for home and work, I still spend an inordinate amount of my time doing informal IT support for my colleagues, and we still have no access to IM or most online video, despite their obvious work-related benefits.

A gill is five fluid ounces (UK fluid ounces), quarter of a pint. Substantially more than a mouthful unless you're very thirsty.

@26: Martin, I can't believe I didn't previously know about "Mommy, why is there a server in the house". It's the sort of children's book that the Plokta children would need, if having a server were unusual or if we were in the habit of installing ugly black computers in the house.

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