LITTLE NAGGING VOICE HAS MOVED!!!

Little nagging voice can now be found at http://littlenaggingvoice.wordpress.com/

Come play.

We Can't Solve Problems at the End of a Gun

http://www.bristol247.com/2010/04/23/we-cant-solve-wars-at-end-of-gunpoint-says-labour-candidate/

Facebook Election

It comes round as often as a leap year birthday and is anticipated like your mother-in-law's annual visit. It's the free-for-all for the next General Election. In one month the British public will be drawing curtains and crosses to decide the fate of the small island for the next 4 years. It's the same old story, Labour and Conservative stand at each end of the playground slinging mud and insults blaming the other for who started it, while Lib Dem stands in the corner sucking its thumb scrabbling at the tit-bits the bigger boys just couldn't hold on to.

It's a grim prospect for anyone to pick up the gauntlet and I don't envy anyone that takes the challenge of leading Britain out of recession. The stakes are high and I think both parties realise that no matter how well things go there will always be some resentment for the things they didn't achieve. You only have to look at the state of Blair when he stepped down to know that this is a stressful occupation for one man. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. So why not lighten the load a little?

Like a blue moon, the British public are coerced out of the darkness and into the political limelight once every 4 years to have a voice, or a pencil mark. Then they retreat gracefully to their houses for the next 4 years to bitch about how they voted for the 'other' party. It seems the public are only given lip service for the way our country is run, relinquishing responsibility to near strangers. Sure Cameron's got a pretty face and he seems like he could be good laugh down the pub, but is that really enough of an excuse to feel comfortable with him running our country? I mean, would you trust him with your house keys, you're girlfriend?

The internet has brought us more than just one-click satisfaction and ether pirates; it's brought us closer together giving people the strength in numbers to build entire armies from their living rooms. Now paradoxically, being alone can be as lonely as being in a room full of people, provided you have your laptop by your side. Want to start a revolution? There's a website for that too. thepetitionsite.com is for all budding activists looking for any kind of support for change. Simply state your cause and the amount of signatures you require and wait for the revolution to begin. Simple.

It's not just pseudo-anarchists that are getting on the social-networking bandwagon, there are infinite amounts of forums and network sites geared towards any kind of information sharing and advice giving. From childcare, to restaurants in Hackney, it seems that we're giving and taking advice wherever we can. No longer are we looking to the paid 'professionals' for the gospel on what's right, we're listening to each other. Microsoft spend billions on research and development for their new editions to windows, yet Linux, which is completely open source has heralded more success and is used by companies and industries all over the world.

So what about implementing this ethos to running the country? Why is it that just one paid professional is employed to make the decisions that rightly affect a whole nation of people? Is Gordon Brown so righteous that he can't take a suggestion from Phill in Stoke about how to handle the budget crisis? Forums and social networking sites have proven themselves to be a wealth of information that are self monitored and collated by anyone that feels they have had direct experience with the subject at hand. Who better to discuss the decisions on how to best adopt policy than the people the policies are affecting directly?

Fortunately this public cry to be heard has reached the ears of more than just ether-extremists. Mysociety.org, an open-sourced democracy and transparency website advertising over 200,000 British member have amended over 19,000 laws and policies by signing their names to the website. Conservative MP George Osborne has also jumped on board offering transparency and open lines of communication to the public.

This cultural shift in placing more power and responsibility to the public will hopefully have the same effect as it has in other areas where people are to make their own decisions. It's an empowering feeling to know that you as an individual has a voice and it will be heard. Are we looking at a whole new way to manage governmental policy where everyone has an input and they don't ask you to stand down because you've said something that doesn't fall in line with the zeitgeist? Watch this space.

Would I Lie to You Baby?

Everyone lies, and if they don't, chances are they're lying too. We lie for a myriad of different reasons and to different ends. From little white lies at work, to scandal-sized cover-ups at home, we construct elaborate fictions to paint alternative versions of the truth, about situations, and of ourselves. With the amount of colour spattered over the monochromatic truth it begs the question; how much of our 'colouring' of what we portray affects our perceptive experience of reality?

Deception is rife throughout our interactions with others, we lie to friends, lovers, work colleagues and even ourselves. Most people lie at least once or twice daily, mostly fairly innocuous white lies, 'no honey, you don't look fat', which are for the benefit, or protection of the ones we care about. Men and women are said to lie in about 20% of all interactions with each other, dating couples about a third, and spouses 10%, though spouses tend to lie about more serious issues, and more altruistically.

Lies, damn lies, and language use. Just as advertisers, politicians, and scientists manipulate statistics and figures to skew the truth, people use the colour of language to tailor the semantics of their speech. Language is processed predominantly in the left hemisphere which receives information from the right (visual side), and is linked to the emotional cortex. This means while listening to a conversation your brain is firing all manner of emotions and images to deconstruct language into something the brain can process. During the 'encoding' process before speech, the same abstract images are broken down into a transferable language. The problem is so much is lost in translation. Something so seemingly universal, such as love, or joy, can conjure up so many different ideas that when we think we're talking about the same thing, we're really worlds apart.

Even the use of grammatical gender has an effect on how the object is perceived. When asked to describe a 'key', Germans (masculine gender), used adjectives such as 'hard', 'jagged' and 'heavy', whereas the Spanish group (feminine) used 'intricate', 'shiny' and 'tiny'. This effect was found even when tested in English which has no grammatical gender. This 'genderisation' is often found when people describe objects of their affection, such as cars, or places.

Even if you're depressed, smiling releases serotonin, which is responsible for mental chemical balance and general feelings of well-being. So even if you know you're feeling down and out, you can lie yourself happy by smiling. The same is true for Positive Mental Attitude. It's not just a pep-talk you have to yourself; it's been well documented to have beneficial effects on health. People with a positive attitude towards life have been known to live longer and have naturally stronger immune systems. This effect has also been found with HIV sufferers. Maintaining a positive attitude and spirituality was linked to decreased levels of cortisol in the body, known for accelerating the disease.

Modern Psychological therapies use this 'lying' to ourselves as part of treatment. Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) assumes psychological disorders are created by people learning negative habits, or 'scripts', which can be re-learned with more positive ones. This subconscious reprogramming can be as simple as repeating positive affirmations such as 'I am successful', which in itself has been known to produce positive physical responses.

Perhaps the simplest example of mind over matter is the self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby the expectation of a given outcome will predict the outcome itself. The idea being, if you expect something to happen you're more likely to adapt you're behaviour to steer it to that outcome. It’s the chicken vs. the egg; was it the situation that prompted the response, or the attitude that predicted the outcome?

Subjective vs. objective. Mind over matter, matter over mind? If reality was totally objective it wouldn't matter what our perception was, it wouldn't change the outcome. But this debate is still hot out the oven and intellectuals have been furrowing their brows for centuries with no real resolution.

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, is there even a forest? The slightly narcissistic view that something has to be observed consciously for it to exist. Does it only exist because we assume it exists in our minds? Recently scientists discovered the universe changes behaviour when it’s being watched, but how deep does the rabbit hole go?

The recent discovery of the behaviour of quantum particles has sent this argument into fifth gear as these subatomic particles display a 'particle-wave duality', which change behaviour when being observed. Scientists have suggested the mere application of conscious observation manipulates these particles, and it's these particles that make up the fabric of the universe. Each particle said to contain infinite possibilities until they collapse down into one definite reality.

"What you must learn is these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent, others broken".

Our perceptive experience of our reality is an amalgamation of input through our five senses. We developed a language to transmit these ideas and perceptions of our reality but as language moved from being functional to expressive, it brought with it a plethora of emotions and abstract ideas. Although the evidence conflicts, there is still fight in both corners of an objective, and subjective reality. In terms of the reality that we create for ourselves, lying plays an important part in fudging the objective side.

Like a magician using sleight of hand to fool spectators into believing the card really did jump the pack, lying (often) helps us bring the objective truth in line with the subjective 'version' of the truth that often expected in situations. Something so simple like, 'honey, you look beautiful in that dress' as hollow as the gesture might be, can be enough to bolster her self-perception to project beauty and confidence. This in turn would be enough to make her more attractive. Lying, it's the social glue that binds the universe together.

Jedeye Biography

Since Jedeye first graced the synth pads and drum machines back in 1997, he’s been glitching and breaking his way into an almost implacable eclectic groove. Producing sounds from the down-right dirty to the up-right funky, his style lends itself to more influences than can be crammed into one genre. His first EP ‘Aquaboogie’ (2006) soared to the top 5 of the electronica charts (numberonemusic.com) and his use of scatty, amen breaks, melodic hard synth-styles, and soaringly sinister vocal harmonies have wandered into the crates of the likes of Annie Nightingale, Adam Freeland, and Aquasky.

Since then he’s continued to refine his style, moving into a more melodic, big beat sound, with a hefty, old school funk influence. His healthy appetite for the rave scene in the 90’s has kept his music sounding filthy enough to be played in the dirtiest warehouses, whilst still jamming enough groove into it to keep you body popping all night. His single, Snow Junkie (2007, Kube Records) was and a perfect follow-up to his instant dance floor smash ‘Aquaboogie’, featuring Ce Ce Rogers classic vocal ‘Someday’. Rogers was so impressed with the track he gave the sample for free, knowing Jedeye’s talent for reworking would give it that peak-time sound.

More recently Jedeye has been seduced by the Step, producing sultry remixes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. His most recent rework Frozen, was instantly devoured and received over 4,000 downloads in one week, and will also be released on a Dubstep Compilation CD later this year. 2010 will also see the release of Jedeye’s eagerly anticipated second EP ‘Super Frequency’, which takes his Dubstep influences and funks them up with some old school melodies and synth lines, not forgetting a little dirtying with some electro-plumping to fatten out those wide baselines.

His forthcoming single ‘Now Is Wonder’ (Mutate Records), is a perfect example of how to squash phat Dubstep rhythms, with trouser-filling bass lines, while still providing enough lift with cheeky, glitchy, melodies. This is going to be a must-have for all audiophiles and you’ll feel left behind if you don’t go get yours.

Big Brother and the Database State

Technology is advancing exponentially and with it the amount of information that is shared because of it. The internet has placed each individual with access to a world wide web of information, but with great power comes great potential for misuse, and today's modern usurpers aren't robbing banks with shotguns anymore. They're information gathering, as we all know, knowledge is power.

New advances in technology are predominantly designed to lighten the load of the user and provide opportunities that had may not previously been available. Chip & Pin was designed to make cashless shopping more accessible and widely available. Japan is now implementing a system whereby top-up cards are run in conjunction with users' mobile phones and the handset itself can be scanned to pay for smaller purchase items, such as sandwiches, and taxis. With a nation of 91 million internet users, 85% of which are mobile, and growing 8 times faster than their stoic PC users, it's a technology market that is swiftly evolving.

Mastercard have come up with a similar idea with their 'Tap and Go' card linked through your mobile, which similarly will be swiped without the need for entering a pin number. Peter Aylife, Chief Executive commented by 2012 card payments would be cheaper and more convenient than cash, with some retailers surcharging cash payments.

The push towards a cashless society has moved on from withdrawing cheques, and has removed cash from workplaces such as banks and financial institutions, to schools. 'Kiddiprints' is the new cashless incentive for catering in schools designed to save time, improve security, and even cut down on bullying. This is all implemented through CRB Solutions fingerprint database, which uses a mathematical algorithm similar to the police to store data. Vericool, a company supplying this technology is an arm of Anteon, an American company responsible for the training of interrogators in Guantanamo.

The government are still pushing for biometric I.D cards, and are still producing biometric passports and compiling the National Identity Register. This has been helped along infinitely by the recent terrorism legislation which gives the state, and police more powers like 'stop and search' under the blanket of National Security.

In a recent furore, the European court ruled it was unlawful to search people without grounds for suspicion. During the enquiry it also came to light that Greater London had been secretly designated for stop and search without suspicion since 2001. Serious concerns were raised over decisions of police officers searching people merely on a 'hunch'.

This relentless 'information gathering' and profiling (see Taking Liberties, 10/09) of individuals doesn't just extend to police powers. With the rise of social networking sites an individual's personal information is is subject to scrutiny by advertisers and marketing companies, such as Beacon, which tracks users' activity elsewhere on the net and markets products to their habits.

It seems careless talk costs lives, or at least liberties. In a seemingly innocuous comment on twitter, Paul Chambers posted "Robin Hood Airport is closed... You've got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high". He was subsequently arrested under the Terrorism Act 200, and was released hours later under police bail. He has also been suspended from work, and had his laptop and iphone confiscated.

The National DNA Database holds approximately 4 million people on file (1.1m children) and the numbers are constantly growing. Despite being in recession, Gordon Brown is opting to install broadband into all homes that can't afford it by 2012, an incentive costing approximately 300m. This scheme is said to provide parents with a more integrated involvement in their children's progress in school.

Last week saw the latest internet fiasco come to light. What started as a dispute between Google and China's censorship rights has exploded into a conspiratorial nightmare. It came to light, that since 2007, head of MI5, Johnathan Evans, had warned over 300 British firms (including Rolls Royce) that Chinese hackers were trying to remotely access their records stealing 'source code' for software and technology, and these hackers even had the sanction of Beijing.

A paper was released in October by the US-China Economic and Security Commission summarising the last 10 years of China's internet intrusion and revealed the Chinese government have been gathering intelligence in order to establish an upper hand during conflict. Though China denies it, the report suggests this targeting of defence engineering data is beyond the capabilities of independent cyber-hackers, it suggests state sponsorship.

We are living in a world where the pen, or keystroke, is mightier than the sword, and information dominance is a free-for-all for anything that lies in the ether. In a system where even our most sensitive data is 'up for grabs' how can the Government justify profiling the nation, storing it on massive databases for the potential for gross misuse to anyone wily enough to steal it? Already we are the most surveyed nation, being harassed for kicks, and arrested when we speak out of turn. Liberty is fading, blink and you might miss it.

Cock-a-Cola Christmas

Christmas is coming, and with it all the little comforts that make Christmas what it is. Like Christmas turkey, classic films on the telly, and the same red, Coca-Cola trucks proudly 'coming over the hill', as if we've forgotten they're the proud sponsor of our favourite Christian holiday.

But this year something else is 'coming'. In a new campaign for the festive season Coca-Cola have redesigned the advertising on their cans to really express how much they love and respect their adoring consumers. Santa can now be seen leaning back tugging on his massive Christmas-cracker, spraying all the good little boys and girls with his foam of white stars. For extra insult the mouthpiece is placed directly in the firing line of Santa's magic spray. Enjoy.

Now, the use of sexual images to sell consumer products is nothing new. Since the rise in subliminal advertising in 1957, marketing campaigners have used a myriad of different techniques and imagery to try and 'dupe' people into buying things they previously hadn't even wanted. Sexual images, said to appeal to the 'id' (primal) part of the brain are supposed to be the most effective in manipulating consumer desire.

Coca-cola has previously been caught out for using subliminal imagery. In Australia in the mid 1980's, a billboard poster was designed and the artist, for a joke put this crafty little tease in the bottom right corner.

Since Coca-cola was banned from supplementing their drinks with healthy amounts of cocaine they've looked for ways to make their products more appealing. In 1891 their slogan was 'The Ideal Brain Tonic' and was sold as medicine as carbonated water was thought to be good for your health. It isn't.

Since then the public have been treated to many more tricks of the mind. Slogans such as 'Coke Adds Life', 'Life Tastes Good', and 'Open happiness' have harrowed above us on billboards and bus stops, topped off with lasciviously smiling models 'enjoying coke'. Earlier this year a Coke Zero advert was banned as it linked Coke to promoting polyamory. Called 'Break Up As It Should Be' it features a man breaking up with a girl then being surrounded by strippers and Coke Zero. He then looks at his now ex and mutters 'call me when you want to have fun'.

With advertising rife throughout our daily lives and product branding painting images everyday of fantasy lifestyles, what kind of message is Coca-Cola trying to send out this Christmas; 'thanks for buying Coke, now bend over for Santa'? With a company so popular their Facebook page topped 33 million fans (second only to Barrac Obama's), can they be forgiven for this kind of blatant arrogance? Think about that when you're sucking on the nation's favourite soft drink, and have a Merry Christmas.