Brian Clegg's Blog, page 24

On being gagged

I've been blogging for quite a few years, and mostly I've been allowed to get on with it and say my piece. Even on Twitter, I've never managed to raise anyone's ire, other than a fellow author who decided one of my reviews was not nice. (You can see the review here if you wish.) But I did once receive a cease and desist order for a blog post which was an interesting experience I think it's worth sharing.

Back in 2009 (yes, I've really been at it this long) I received an interesting piece of traditional mail. It came in a green envelope, hand written with a second class stamp. Inside it was a cutting from a newspaper with a scribbled post-it note from a 'J' saying (s)he thought I would be interested.

I was a bit suspicious and noticed that the 'handwritten' envelope and post-it note were actually printed in a handwriting font. Yes, the whole thing was an advert - very clever, if decidedly sneaky. They had even made the edge of the 'cutting' frayed. I wrote this up on this blog, half admiring, half dubious about the approach. Soon the comments started to flow in, and this became by far the most viewed post, even beating the perennial favourite Why I hate opera .

Lots of other people received the same mailing. Many thanked me for pointing out that it was a mailshot. After a while, a commenter noted that there was an ASA ruling against this advert, which I linked to. Surely this meant that the dodgy mailings would have to stop. But no, the comments kept coming in, some furious at the deception. Those 'cuttings' were still being sent out. It seemed the ASA had no teeth to back up its stop order.

At this point, I got a Fed Ex package from San Diego in America. It was a 'cease and desist' order from a US law firm. I had a choice. I could do as requested and take down the blog post, or I could stand up to the bullying. I would have loved to have been another Simon Singh and to have done what was right as he did when chiropractors took him to court. There is no doubt that I was in the right - but any further legal process could have been very expensive, and just being in the right doesn't necessarily win in court. I didn't have Simon's financial clout, so I took down the blog post.
What's interesting now is looking back on the cease and desist letter 13 years later. Wow, did my blog post cause deep suffering for the poor person sending out those letters. Apparently I was guilty of defamation of character, fraud, malicious conduct, harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, tortuous interference with X's business practices, interference with prospective business advantage, solicitation of X's clients and prospects, and unfair competition and business practices.
Some of these claims are laughable - but who wants to be tied up with legal tangles? As well as sending my a copy of my blog post, the legal firm attached 20 pages of comments - only underlining how many people had either been deceived by this mailshot or thought that it was despicable. 
Perhaps surprisingly the person behind all this is still in business - so I can't name him, nor is it probably wise to name the law firm capable of coming up with such a bizarre set of accusations. But it just go to show that free speech is something of an illusion when someone has enough money to bring in the lawyers.

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Does ChatGPT signal the end of university essays and journalists?

There has been a lot on social media recently about the remarkable AI 'writer' ChatGPT. Many of my contacts are either academics or writers - and in both fields there has been concern about the ability of such AI software to interfere with their work. 
As far as academics are concerned, the software arguably calls into doubt the value of the essay as means of assessing student knowledge (particularly the short exam-style essay, which some universities still allow to be submitted online). And some writers have worried that their jobs are at risk if, for example, a news outlet can get ChatGPT to knock up a story for free.

My assessment is that the software is extremely impressive - but it has limitations that are likely to continue for a long time. Even with these limitations, it certainly could make inroads into student essays and poorly churned out journalism, but is unlikely to be a significant threat if some degree of insight or fact checking is required.

Let's take a look at a couple of specifics. I first asked ChatGPT:

Why can't I send a message using quantum entanglement?

Its response was as follows:

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon that occurs when two particles become linked, such that the state of one particle is dependent on the state of the other. This means that if the state of one particle is known, the state of the other particle can be determined instantly, regardless of the distance between the two particles. While this phenomenon has been demonstrated in a laboratory setting, it is not currently possible to use it for sending messages. This is because the particles that are entangled must be in close proximity in order to become linked, and the entanglement is easily disrupted by outside influences. As a result, it is not possible to use quantum entanglement to transmit information over long distances.

This is deeply wrong, after the first couple of basic background sentences. Entanglement has been used outside the lab ever since 2004 when Anton Zeilinger did his demonstrations making use of the sewers of Vienna, and has now been achieved using the Chinese Micius satellite between orbit and the ground. Close proximity is not the issue. The actual reason is that entanglement can only share totally random data - there is no way to impose a message on it. This doesn't mean it's useless - it can be used to share (desirably random) encryption keys - but it's useless for instant messaging.

I then tried a topic that would be familiar to any science journalist:

Why was the name of the James Webb telescope controversial?

This was my third attempt at phrasing the question, as the first two times I got a reply on why the telescope itself wasn't controversial, rather than any insight into the name. But once I got the question right I was rewarded with this answer:

I'm sorry, but I am not aware of any controversy surrounding the naming of the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope is named after James Webb, who served as the second administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968. Webb played a key role in the development of the agency's human spaceflight program, including the Apollo missions that landed astronauts on the moon. The telescope was named in his honor to recognize his contributions to NASA and space exploration. I apologize if my earlier response was not clear or if I misunderstood your question. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

However, in reality there is a distinct controversy about the name, both because naming a scientific instrument after an administrator seems dubious, but also because of concerns about aspects of behaviour in Webb's NASA. This was a non-answer as far as the question was concerned.

Finally, for amusement, I picked up on another of ChatGPT's accomplishments - writing poems of the 'so bad it's quite good' nature. (Certainly, no poets are worried about being put out of work.) I asked

Can you write a sonnet about quantum entanglement?

And this was ChatGPT's response:

Sure, here is a sonnet about quantum entanglement:

In the strange world of the quantum realm
Where particles dance and shimmer with glee
A curious phenomenon occurs, it seems
Two particles become as one, you see

Entangled, they are linked together
Their states intertwined, never to part
No matter the distance, they’ll stay tethered
A bond that can never be broken by heart

Their fates are intertwined, forever more
One particle knows what the other will do
No matter how far apart they may roam
Their connection remains true and true

Quantum entanglement, a marvel to behold
A mystery of the universe, to be told.

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Review: Bibliomaniac - Robin Ince ***

I enjoyed this book, but feel it has a relatively narrow audience that would have the same connection to it, hence the three star rating. Robin Ince is quite clearly addicted to buying books with an almost random enthusiasm, and this book is arguably more about that addiction than about the hundred bookstore tour he did that is the hook the book is hung on.

My personal taste in books overlaps to some degree with Ince's - we both bought copies of Alan Frank's Horror Movies early in our book buying lives (sadly I don't seem to still have my copy, though I do have some equivalent titles on science fiction films, vampire movies and more). We both are likely to find, say, the Maleus Malificorum resting alongside a book on quantum physics next to an Edwardian hardback copy of Bessie Marchant's The Girl Captives on our shelves. I very much enjoyed the selection of books Ince discovers on his travels (often in charity shops as well as proper bookshops), and added a couple to my 'look out for' list as a result. However, I was less impressed by the framing travel aspect of the book.

Rather than having the entertainment of a Bill Bryson or Stuart Maconie title, to be honest the travel side of the book was a touch tedious, lacking in interesting stories. Perhaps part of the problem was the need to hurtle round so many locations - it might have been better to have included fewer and given us more depth. I was also a bit disappointed that the two shops where I've also done talks (festivals tend to be more my thing) weren't actually the venues of his events at all - the shops themselves hardly got a mention.

Nonetheless, the book appealed to me in rather a similar way to those books like Horror Movies - it took me back to my youth when I used to really like working through titles that were probably more strictly reference books (I've even been known to read a Pevsner end to end). Like them, it was sometimes a slog getting through Bibliomaniac, but there was a satisfaction in completing it. In this, there seems to be a distinct difference with Ince himself. He loves books, but sometimes seems indifferent to reading them, preferring to dip in or even leave them on the shelf for some future, probably non-existent exploration.

It's a curiosity, then. It won't appeal to everyone, not even everyone interested in books (especially if you restrict yourself to Literature with a capital L). But it is both interesting as giving an insight into a fairly odd character in Ince himself (someone I was aware of, but hadn't really come across directly, and tend to confuse with Tim Minchin for some reason) and in the unlikely books he uncovers.

See all of Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly digest for free here You can order Bibliomaniac from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Bookshop.org - or, of course, from one of the wonderful independent shops Ince talks about, including my local (not visited in Bibliomaniac) Bert's Books.
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Review: Murder on the Christmas Express ***

This time of year I tend to read a much wider range of  books, so expect some random reviews. But one thing that will always feature over Christmas is a mystery - whether it's revisiting M. R. James ghost stories for the nth time, or a Christmas-themed murder mystery. This book certainly fits the bill with its deliberate reference to Agatha Christie's title, and Christmas thrown in.

The setting is somewhat less exotic than the Orient Express - here it's the sleeper train from London to Fort William - but there's the same opportunity for a tight band of suspects and there's the convenience of a train that gets derailed in a snowstorm, isolating the suspects and the detective - in this case a newly retired Met detective inspector, heading up to Scotland because her daughter's about to give birth.

Where this differs a lot from Christie is the impact of modern technology. So the detective, Roz Parker, is agonisingly kept up with the complications of her daughter's delivery, and the (first) victim is a social media influencer, which is an important factor in the storyline. We get a nice locked room mystery and increasing rebellion from the (mostly unpleasant) set of train passengers to fill out the action.

The book isn't bad, but apart from a couple of central characters, I found it difficult to get a picture of some of the others (there are four students, practising for an unlikely sounding cross between University Challenge and Big Brother, for example, who I had real trouble making anything other than ciphers in my mind). The side story of Roz's life didn't really add to the main thread of the mystery plotting, and the prose could sometimes try a bit too hard.

For example, there are some strained similes - there's a midwife 'whose low, reassuring tones flowed like the warm water that filled a birthing pool'. Like many real passengers, Roz notices the glimpsed lives of people as the train passes their houses, but as she 'became aware of thousands of parallel lives', she feels that 'Like every small part of the train, each life was integral. Essential.' Really? This observation is then extended to wildly misunderstand Schrödinger's cat with the thought that 'Each box of a window with its blinds or curtains could contain an atrocity. Schrödinger's casement.' 

I lived with this - it was never hugely intrusive, but the thing that finalised my mixed feelings about the book was the ending. There's an interesting twist at the end - but the reaction to that twist is to totally lose any sense of justice being done. It just felt wrong.

This was an entertaining enough story, with plenty happening and a couple of effective characters, but it could have been a lot better.

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The Thirteen Problems: Agatha Christie ****

Until relatively recently, I rather looked down my nose at Agatha Christie, but having now read the likes of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Five Little Pigs , I've realised there's a lot more to her writing than comes across in TV and film adaptations, so I recently picked up a copy of The Thirteen Problems from my local(ish) independent bookshop and was not disappointed.

This is the very first book to feature Miss Marple, but rather than providing a single, book-length mystery, this 1932 title includes 13 short stories. The premise is that six people are gathered in a house and each tells a story of a mysterious happening in their past, challenging the others to solve the mystery. The guests somewhat reluctantly include the initial host's elderly aunt Miss Marple, who ends up solving every mystery. (This is then repeated at a dinner party, plus an individual consultation, to make up the total of thirteen.)

What I found fascinating as a big Sherlock Holmes fan was that, whether deliberately or not, this does feel almost like a set of Holmes stories - but with the detective as different from Holmes as it's possible to be. Like the Holmes shorts, these stories give us an engaging mystery and its solution in relatively few pages. And the primarily first person narratives, as each person tells their story, plus a certain period style, is reminiscent of Dr Watson's narration of the Holmes stories.

There's a good mix of mysteries, including one with an intriguing timeline twist. The writing isn't as engaging perhaps as can be the case with the best of Christie's writing, but it's good enough - and there's an enjoyable challenge in trying to spot what really happened (I did occasionally, but not too often).

All in all, an excellent bouquet of mystery tales.

See all of Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly digest for free here You can order The Thirteen Problems from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Bookshop.org
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The Bah Humbug popstars

Image from Unsplash I gather from the i newspaper (3 December) that music business millionaires are bemoaning their inability to have their Christmas songs thought of as classics by the public. Tom Chaplin of Keane is quoted as saying 'Getting a song in the [Christmas streaming] chart is like breaking into Fort Knox'. 

I accept that streaming has made it more difficult to get your Christmas song into the canon - but, honestly, my suspicion is that the majority of songs on offer simply aren't good enough to make it. Once you get compared with the best of all time, it inevitably becomes a lot harder than it is if you are only being put up against the best from this year's crop. It's a bit like a serious music composer complaining that Monteverdi, Mozart or Vaughan Williams still get a look in. But is that really a bad thing?

The fact is that songs do get added to the best of the bunch if they really stand out as far as the particularly odd calculation of what makes a good Christmas song is concerned - and, let's face it, that includes a whole lot of other things than pure musical quality. But if a song really does catch the attention of the public, it will get listened to and bump up those Christmas streaming revenues, even if it doesn't get into the top ten.

I personally enjoy a whole mix of music at Christmas. I've always sung in choirs and love a quality choir carol - but equally I'm happy to listen to a whole range of Christmas songs: both classics such as Fairytale of New York, and more recent releases like Keane's. The joy of streaming is both that you can pull in those old standards, and go for something less well known to build a playlist of your own favourites.

Incidentally, I know it's heresy, but for me, the best Christmas number by Keane isn't a Christmas number and it's in a cover version. My Christmas streaming playlist includes the Lilly Allen version of Somewhere Only We Know, which now feels Christmassy thanks to its association with the John Lewis Christmas advert: for me, this is better than the Keane original.

However, we can still do our bit to add to poor Tom's streaming revenue. I've included below his suggestion of his Christmas song that he thinks should be up there with the rest. (I checked - YouTube plays do now count in the streaming charts.) It is quite good, but Midnight Mass simply doesn't have the feel of a big Christmas hit. It's far too wistful and ballady. Be warned, incidentally: I also find the video somewhat generating of nausea. But it's not a bad song at all.

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Improving Tim's daughter's Christmas

Image from Unsplash I'm a big fan of the podcast Cautionary Tales by 'undercover economist' Tim Harford. In one episode, Tim tells us that his daughter prefers Halloween to Christmas because Halloween is more about community coming together, while Christmas is just for the family.

This made me feel rather sad, but the good news for Tim's daughter is that this doesn't have to be the case. If Tim's family would like to go to a carol service - or a carol singing event - they'll get plenty of that community feel.

Of course, Tim and family may well be amongst the majority of Brits, according to the latest census results, who aren't Christians. And that's fine. If they were on holiday in an exotic location, they wouldn't avoid the local culture because they don't share the locals' beliefs. Similarly, it's entirely possible to enjoy the atmosphere and community spirit of a carol service without having any belief. And singing those tunes that are still familiar to most is a boost to the spirit.

So, Tim (and anyone else going bah humbug about Christmas) try out your local carol singing opportunities. For carol services, the best option is probably the A Church Near You website - put in your location, choose a local church (ideally one you can walk to, both because it feels good and most church car parks get overloaded for carol services) and you'll see their Christmas events almost certainly including a  carol service. In my neighbourhood of North Swindon, it's happening at St Andrew's on 18 December with two carol services: 10am for children and 6.30pm for the more traditional version.

If you prefer to do it al fresco, many locations have outdoor carol singing events. Here we've got the Big North Swindon Carol Singalong on 21 December (raising money for the Swindon Night Shelter, so doubly community minded). It's under the tree at the Orbital Centre at 6.30pm. This kind of thing is slightly harder to pin down as there's no central website, but there could be info on your local parish council website or social media.

So if you're moaning about Christmas being too commercialised, want some community spirit or just fancy a good sing, head for the carols this Christmas.

Bring on the onshore wind

Doing something about climate change is essential. And as recent bills have shown, doing something about being self-sufficient in energy production is also essential. So who wouldn't love something that helps with both? The government's MPs, apparently. They seem to be distinctly against onshore wind turbines, a preference that also seems baked into the government's plans:

A massive 64% of Conservative MPs think that most voters in their constituency would oppose wind turbines. But here's the thing. When YouGov asked the actual people, there was a very different picture:
Over 70% of Conservative voters support wind farms in their local area. The overwhelming NIMBY attitude to wind turbines is a myth. Of course you can always find someone who will moan about having anything whatsoever built within a 10 mile radius of where they live. But they are in the minority on this one.
From the stats, there's a vast gap between what Conservative MP think people want, and what the people actually want. This means that we are missing out on expanding a useful green energy source (with attached green jobs) as a result of MPs shooting themselves in the foot due to what can only be ignorance - as surely they wouldn't do this if they knew the facts.
If you're based in the UK and have a Conservative MP, why not contact them and point this out? I'm certainly going to be dropping an email to mine. 

Data for graphics from YouGov; graphics from Steve Akehurst

This has been a Green Heretic production.

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Engage, engage, engage!

At the weekend I had the pleasure of appearing on literary agent Peter Cox's internet TV show Litopia Pop Up Submissions . In this, five brave souls provide a title, a blurb and the first 700 words of a book for comments from three industry experts and the extremely helpful online comments of viewers.

This particular edition happened to have a focus on historical fiction, but I've done a few of these before and whatever the topic, one thing repeatedly comes across in that opening sample from the books - the author hasn't thought enough about how to engage their readers early on. 

If you start a book with a set of facts (one example here was described as like reading a Wikipedia entry), you will rapidly lose your readers. Similarly, if the opening is totally introspective with nothing actually happening, an opening that is all tell and no show, it's hard for the reader to engage fully.

The 'show don't tell' thing is a hoary old piece of writing advice - but that doesn't mean that authors remember it. If you spend too much time telling us a character's thoughts or feelings, it's not a natural way to engage with them. If, instead, you show those inner aspects through the character's outer appearance and behaviour, it's effective because it's how we encounter others. Let your readers absorb the internals as much as is possible from the character's actions and words, rather than hit them over the head with an thought information dump. (Like all writing techniques, there are times when telling works superbly, but it's still a useful general guide.)

This excess telling came across very strongly with one of the submissions, where we spent the entire opening in the character's thoughts, but no one really did or said anything, even though he was a soldier, returning from war and a prison camp, surrounded by comrades.

Although this show was about historical fiction (though one submission seemed more an attempt at humorous historical fact), this advice applies to both fiction and non-fiction. Each involves storytelling. In the popular science world, for example, it's just as important to be conscious of your narrative. A collection of facts is not a book. In popular science we often bring in people and what they've done, rather than present the dry scientific content on its own. Alternatively, the author can frame the information they are presenting in a way that adds interest. If we are to escape producing a long-form Wikipedia entry we need always to be thinking about how to engage the reader - especially with those crucial opening words.

Here's the whole thing to see how it all turned out (note, by the way, there were some technical glitches, not usually present in these shows):

The great Twitter panic of 2022

A fair number of people on Twitter have informed their followers that they have also set up on Mastodon just in case the world ends or some such. I don't doubt that Elon Musk could mess the whole thing up - but chances are things will stay fine in the Twitter world.

Okay, I may lose my blue tick, which would be sad. I was told I ought to get one by an Olympic martial arts competitor, the way you do. We were at some sort of careers fair in Devizes (don't ask me why - I can't remember) and no one seemed to want to talk to either of us, so we chatted for a while and she was adamant that having a blue tick would make all the difference to my social media presence. But looking over the people I follow on Twitter, a mix do and don't have one and it's never made any difference to me - I certainly won't be paying getting on for £100 a year to keep it.

That apart, the outrage seems to be because Twitter may allow various dubious characters individuals back on. But for me, this is pretty much irrelevant. I mostly follow scientists and writers - all lovely people. I've never seen or had any abuse on this social media site that some consider a cesspit. (Perhaps because I don't generally follow politicians or activists.) It's a great way to keep up with the people I follow and, I hope, for people interested in my writing to keep up with me - and I can't see why that should change. Moving off Twitter seems to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

As for the obscure social media site Mastodon - why? I'd never heard of it before this all happened - and most people still haven't. The way it's set up with its separate, individually owned servers seems in some ways rather dodgy - and it certainly seems ti have very limited ability to prevent exactly the type of content that those abandoning Twitter seem to be worried about. For that matter, apparently, any server could be switched off at any time, losing all your content. 

it's much more sensible, I would suggest, to stick with Twitter, keep up the networks you've built and ensure the content continues to be as excellent as it has been to date... certainly within my bubble.