I first met Mark Fishburn at the Convergence Technology Council (CTC) in Calabasas, California. Mark was a director in the organization, and had very strong ideas about networking and Ethernet. Going beyond the standard role we all play at professional networking venues, he distinguished himself from the group by presenting a passion for teaching others, and presenting his ideas in language nearly anybody could easily understand. Mark was always easy to find at CTC meetings, as he was the center of the largest groups of people who wanted to hear what he had to say.

Mark is a true innovator, and generates a lot of inspiration among CTC members with his visions and thought leadership in a variety of technology and business-related topics. I met Mark in Tarzana, California, to learn more about his vision related to Carrier Ethernet, as well as to gather some advice for entrepreneurs.

Pacific-Tier: Mark, tell us a little about yourself. How did you come to the San Fernando Valley, and what do you do?

Mark Fishburn: I worked at US companies for many years when I was in London, and one day I said I could fix a (problem) in the US headquarters, and they said “OK.” So I came across as a corporate officer in a company called Retix. I worked with them for a while, and then started my own company.

So that was my business, a software company, and then back into data communications, and worked for a company called NetCom Systems, which then became a company called Spirent.

Pacific-Tier: You’ve been involved with the Metro Ethernet Forum for quite some time. What interested you about the MEF?

Mark Fishburn: Well it actually goes back some time to my interest in Ethernet, and the world of Ethernet from the very early days. in 1982 I installed my first Ethernet system while working for Xerox, and that was in Paris. it was one of the very first Ethernet installations.

And as a result of that I gathered a great interest in Ethernet. In the old times, working for an Ethernet test-equipment company, we put out on e of the first fiber Ethernet products, and a few years later one of the first copper Gigabit Ethernet products.

And so it went on. I was intimately involved as chairman with the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, and the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance before that. It became apparent this was all triggered by the definition of fiber Ethernet. It really reached out beyond the boundaries of local area networks to the metro network.

That really paved the way for Ethernet services to be provided by service providers, and not just live inside the LAN. That was really the initial foundation of the Metro Ethernet Forum/MEF.

It was all about, really advancing the adoption of optical-based fiber Ethernet.

Pacific-Tier: I guess that brings us up to your current venture, which is CENX. Can you tell us anything about CENX?

Mark Fishburn: Sure, let me just give you a bit of background, because it is all really very connected.

In the substantiation of the MEF it became clear there were many different technologies that were or could be connected together using the Ethernet as a ghost in the machine.

And thus were born Ethernet services. And in 2004 carrier Ethernet was created and defined by the MEF by providing ubiquitous services worldwide independent of the service providers providing them, and also the equipment it is connected on.

And that really led to development of the need to have global connections between the service providers who are providing these Ethernet carrier services.

Although I say that in a sentence, it actually took about eight years to transpire and it led to a business that in 2009 has become about a $20 million global services revenue.

At this point in time, as these networks have grown, there is a requirement to connect more of them together in a way which preserves the differentiation of the service providers and creates a global (Ethernet) interconnectivity.

That really led to the formation of our company CENX (Carrier Ethernet Neutral Exchange) which was established to created, effectively a service-level interconnect between the service providers worldwide, and negate the enormous cost and pain in making those connections possible.

Pacific-Tier: Excellent. It’s kind of a sketchy economic environment, a tough time for businesses. What drove you to start a new business in this tough economy?

Mark Fishburn: Well, there are some areas that grow in spite of the economic downturn. The areas that grow are those that potentially save cost, or those that are pushing the envelope and generating more revenue.

Carrier Ethernet is such an animal. It (the industry) grew somewhere around 33% last year in America alone. So while the economy is growing people look for significantly more economic ways to effectively use the same old applications, while paving the way for new applications data driving mobile technology.

So, in this economy to do that was both a natural, and almost necessary step to advance this industry. And as such it was pretty natural for those people who realize this to be attracted to our company, to invest in it, and to meet that need.

Just like anything else, if you have a sufficiently difficult problem, and there is a need to solve it, it save money, and helps make money for people, and makes their job easier, then it’s a very compelling case.

Pacific-Tier: You’ve been a director with the Convergence Technology Council of California/CTC here in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) providing thought leadership and help to a lot of people who are members. What advice do you have for people who may be having trouble with their jobs, been laid off, or are young graduates getting ready to enter the workforce – is there hope for entrepreneurs and those getting ready to jump into the technology industry?

Mark Fishburn: I would say absolutely. I think this is a great time to start a new venture. If you look at every great new venture, this has been repeated many times. In all the great companies that were founded – they weren’t founded when the economy was good, they were founded when there were significant problems that gave people an opportunity to really look at the idea that necessity is the mother of invention.

It’s like anything else, there are tremendous opportunities, still driven by technology, or different social climates driving the way people communicate now, rather than the way they did before. So within technology is really an unlimited opportunity for people to look at an issue, or to realize their dream and go for it.

Pacific-Tier: Young people today, they have technology diffused into their education, and into their childhood and youth at a rate that we never had in our middle-aged years. How do you feel about the youth today? Are they going to be able to take this thing that we’ve built and make it better?

Mark Fishburn: I kind of look at it a little differently. I think in a way they are driving it. Because if you look at somebody who is multi-tasking, if you look at the corporate world of maybe a couple years ago, well when you were at work you were at work. When you went home you played.

It’s become so blurred that the distinction between work, collecting information, entertainment, and communications, it is going to happen in a way that is connected 24 hours, and I think that young people today are living in the world of communications – in a way that they communicate with each other, in a way they focus, in a way that they are constantly multi-tasking and moving towards whatever is the next and most convenient way to gather.

So I believe that the youth of today is programmed into this multi-processing environment that they have, and that it’s way (young) people operate, doing multiple things at the same time, is the way of the future, and I believe that people who have been brought up in the world with mobile technology and communications, texting and talking, thinking and playing – all of those at the same time. I think all of those things are the wave of the future.

I think entrepreneurs who connect to that will do well.

Pacific-Tier: That’s very encouring. Thank you today for your counsel, great advice, stories, and great talk!

Mark Fishburn: Sure – can I add one more thing?

Pacific-Tier: Of course!

Mark Fishburn: I would say that one of the things that really led me to doing this was the realization that a lot of people would fear to go into something new like this, or to start a new job. But the alternative is unpalatable. Surviving until you die is no way forward. And I believe that if you are passionate about something that you really have nothing to lose by trying it out.

If you don’t do that, you might regret it forever. So I would say, just go for it.

You can contact Mark at mark@cenx.com

Check out the entire Pacific-Tier Communications Innovators and Entrepreneur Series

Free Buff headwear when you give a gift CTC membership!

Quote from the CTC weekly email newsletter:

“CTC Festive Gift Membership is the perfect present that lasts all year and it comes with a free Buff® worth £18. It is the ideal present for a cyclist as it includes all the benefits of being a CTC member. Prices for CTC membership start at just £12. To order CTC Festive Gift Membership, simply call 0844 736 8451, quote ‘Buff’, give us the details of the lucky person and we’ll do the rest! For delivery in time for Christmas please call before 15 December.”

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The Register has a 4-page exclusive detailing the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of the first Briton jailed under the draconian powers that Ministers said were “vital to battle terrorism and serious crime”. Who was this mass-murdering terrorist scumbag? Sorry to disappoint, but actually he is a 33 year old “schizophrenic science hobbyist with no previous criminal record.”

He was originally detained under the Terrorism Act on 15 September 2008 by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s SO15 counter-terrorism unit, and held at the top security Paddington Green police station. Throughout he maintained his right to silence. Sniffer dogs had first become spooked by the presence of components for an Estes rocket kit and a full forensic examination found nine nanograms (the mass of a typical human cell is 1 nanogram) of the high explosive RDX (see Update below) on his left hand. To cut a long story short, it was soon realised that this was  a very eccentric, amateur scientist, that there were no suspicious motives and that he was not a threat to national security.

What SO15 was really interested in were the encrypted contents of several hard drives and USB thumb drives belonging to the man.

Police… warned him they would seek a section 49 notice under RIPA Part III, which gives a suspect a time limit to supply encryption keys or make target data intelligible. Failure to comply is an offence under section 53 of the same Part of the Act and carries a sentence of up to two years imprisonment, and up to five years imprisonment in an investigation concerning national security.

Following the warning he was bailed again, to reappear on 4 February.

[The suspect] did not attend the bail date. Instead he moved to Southampton, living in a series of temporary homes. He says he felt harassed by authority and helpless against police he believed were determined to pin a crime on him.

His disappearance led to a raid on 7 March this year. Officers bearing sub-machine guns broke down the door of [his] flat. He rang local police before realising [SO15] had come for him. At the local Fareham police station he was served with the section 49 notice. Signed by [SO15]’s Superintendent Bell, it said: “I hereby require you to disclose a key or any supporting evidence to make the information intelligible.”

The drives were examined by the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC), part of GCHQ, who were unsuccessful in their attempts to crack the encrypted files. One file encrypted using Steganos software was cracked, but investigators found only another PGP container.

[He] maintained his silence throughout the one hour time limit imposed by the notice. He was charged with ten offences under section 53 of RIPA Part III, reflecting the multiple passphrases needed to decrypt his various implementations of PGP Whole Disk Encryption and PGP containers

And yes, they really do now presume guilt unless you can prove your innocence.

In his final police interview, [SO15] officers suggested [his] refusal to decrypt the files or give them his keys would lead to suspicion he was a terrorist or paedophile.

“There could be child pornography, there could be bomb-making recipes,” said one detective.

“Unless you tell us we’re never gonna know… What is anybody gonna think?”

[The suspect] says he maintained his silence because of “the principle – as simple as that“.

He was remanded in custody for three months until his trial on 2 June 2009, where he pleaded guilty to all charges, and was sentenced to 13 months imprisonment.

Before finishing what would have been a six-and-a-half-month prison term during September, [he] was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He now does not know when he will be released from hospital.

Even before his trial, it was known that he was not a threat to national security and not involved in either the planning or execution of terrorism. The judge who heard the case admitted:

“You… wished to involve yourself in a world which was largely based upon the access to the internet and using computers and not really interacting with other people in the ordinary outside world to any great extent. It is said on your behalf that you lead an existence rather akin to that of a monk, and that there is nothing sinister in any of this but it is essentially private matters and you do not see why you should have to disclose anything to the authorities.”

Essentially this man with a mental illness “associated with paranoia and a fear of authorities” was jailed for the offence of not talking in a police interview. A grim verdict on life in 21st century Great Britain indeed.

It will also be news to at least the part of government that administers the justice system. On 3 November, Claire Ward, a junior Minister in the Ministry of Justice told Parliament: “Up to the end of 2007 (latest available) there have been no persons reported to the Ministry of Justice as being cautioned, prosecuted or convicted under section 53 of the Act in England and Wales. The government are satisfied that offences set in RIPA are appropriate and that the legislation is being used effectively”

Read the full article at The Register here. I have presented a very hacked down synopsis here for the sake of space and also because, well, it is their exclusive. Full marks to them for getting this story out into the light.

UPDATE: Could stray explosives incriminate the innocent?
The suspect was unable to account for the presence of RDX, however New Scientist carried this article by Mike Hamer on 18 January 1997:

More than twenty times the amount of RDX, a constituent of Semtex, needed to link a terrorist suspect with explosives was found in a police car at London’s Heathrow Airport in 1995. The car had apparently carried explosives used to train sniffer dogs… The police car, a Vauxhall Astra, had 111 nanograms of RDX on the inside of its rear doors and windows. Just 5 nanograms is enough to link someone with Semtex. The car [also] had 109 nanograms of PETN.

UPDATE 2: The story is now being picked up by the more popular bloggers, including Old Holborn. Doesn’t seem to be making much noise in the MSM yet though. Given their recent track record, however (Paul Clarke anybody?), I can’t say I’m particularly surprised, although this story really does have “Henry Porter” stamped all over it.

AMRUT TULYA CHAHA

Tea Town Pune Special

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Pune is a Tea Town.

Yes, when I was a small boy, Pune [or Poona as it was known then] was a “TEA TOWN”.

During those days, in Pune, everyone drank tea, except some quirky upaas type aunts who always insisted on sweet milky jaiphal spiced coffee and were “fasting” most of the time on yummy delicacies like Sabudana Khichadi and Wade, Rajgire, waryache tandul, healthy fruits, nourishing milk, calorie-rich pure ghee sweets and similar lip-smacking upasasache padartha. [By the way DALDA, quite popular in those days, made from hydrogenated oils was mysteriously “permitted” for upaas as it was considered “ghee”].

At home tea was made in typical Puneri manner as described in HOW TO MAKE A CUP OF TEA

Outside your home, there were chiefly two types of tea for the laidback discerning gourmet Punekar to relish – AMRUT TULYA CHAHA at the ubiquitous Amruttulya Tea Shops at every nook and corner of Pune, and the peerless IRANI CHAI served by the numerous Irani Restaurants all over Pune city and camp like Café Naaz, Lucky, Good Luck, Volga etc. Indeed Amrut tulya Chaha and Irani Chai are an important aspect of the culinary heritage of Pune.

Irani Chai is the most rejuvenating beverage I have ever had. They keep the steaming rich tea brew and hot milk in separate containers and mix it in just the right proportion to get the terrific inimitable gulabi Irani Chai.

Drench in a fresh soft bun-maska, place it on your tongue, and close your eyes – aren’t you in seventh heaven? Even a cup of piping hot Irani Tea by itself is sheer bliss. 

Of my favourite Irani Restaurants, Naaz, Lucky have disappeared, and only Good Luck remains.

Amrut Tulya Chaha tea shops are fast vanishing too like the one nearest to where I lived on Tilak Road in Sadashiv Peth in the 1960’s next to Ashok Bakery [also disappeared]. Further down the road past SP College towards Maharashtra Mandal there still exist the legendary Ambika and New Ambika Amruttulyas [a friend of mine used to say that the morning tea was superb in one and the evening tea in the other].

It’s really sad. The culture of Pune is fast changing. The youngsters don’t drink tea anymore – it’s infra dig, isn’t it?

The young and the restless prefer Coffee. No, not the peaberry-plantation filter coffee served by the Udipi Restaurants which we used to love, but the expensive stylish international coffees served at posh Baristas, CCDs, and high-falutin coffee shops proliferating rapidly all over Pune.

Just imagine, the other day I couldn’t get a cup of tea in a multiplex, but there were plenty of varieties of coffee all around.

Hey, it seems I am rambling away and have gone off on a tangent, so let me not digress from our main topic – The Art of making Amrut Tulya Tea.

Amrut means Nectar, and Tulya means Comparable, so “Amrut Tulya” means “Comparable to Nectar” and indeed, true to its name, Amrut-Tulya Tea is comparable to nectar –  sweet, ambrosial, like the elixir of life!

I loved watching Amrut Tulya Chaha being prepared. Amrut Tulya Tea is not brewed in the traditional Tea service style. It is “cooked” in front of you in a brass vessel which becomes “tastier” with time.

I love the “special” chaha. Milk and water are boiled together, with plenty of sugar, masala [comprising crushed cardamom, ginger], and tea leaves, stirring continuously to make sure it doesn’t overflow.

Come, my dear Tea Lover, let me tell you how to make Amrut Tulya Chaha – The Art of Tea – Pune Style. 

Assemble the following Ingredients for Two cups of Amrut Tulya Tea “Special Chaha”

Assam CTC Tea or, if you live in Pune, get the famous CTC+OP “Family Mixture” Tea Powder from your favourite “Tea Depot” in the heart of Pune City.

[By the way, the acronyms are: CTC – Crush, Tear, Curl; OP – Orange Pekoe; BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe].

Full Cream Buffalo Milk [I like Chitale or Sane dairy]

Fresh Water

Sugar

Fresh Ginger Crushed [Better still you can crush the juicy fresh ginger with the chimta directly in the water-milk concoction to let the ginger juices flow out and blend in smoothly]

Cardamom – peel, crush and powder the pods

Before you start, dear reader, here is a note of caution: Please remember that Amrut Tulya Tea is not your traditional Masala Chai so please don’t add any Tea Masalas or spices like clove, cinnamon, black peppercorns or herbs like gavati chaha (lemon grass), tulsi leaves etc. and neither is it the “khada chamach” or “cutting” Chai so please don’t boil away to glory – remember, you must achieve Amrut Tulya Chaha of just the right consistency!  

Now let us start “cooking” amrut tulya tea – we will make two cups, one for you and one for me.

In a brass vessel [or stainless steel, if you can’t get a brass vessel] mix one cup of water and one cup of milk.

Add four teaspoons of sugar.

Put on the stove on medium heat.

Squeeze in a bit of fresh crushed ginger and add a pinch of cardamom powder and the freshly crushed peel.

Lightly and lovingly stir the concoction, let it warm, and bring to a boil.

Smartly add two teaspoons of tea powder and keep stirring gently to ensure the boiling concoction does not spill over.

Keep boiling till the tea attains beautiful bright golden-orange colour – the moment you see a reddish tinge, give the heavenly brew a loving last stir, twirl the vessel, and sieve the Amrut Tulya Tea Special Chaha directly into the cups.

You can drink it from the cup, or better still the saucer sucking and pulling in the yummy liquid with your lips and let it deliciously emulsify on your tongue for that heavenly elevating feeling.

Sip the delicious tea slowly and mindfully, roll it on your tongue, let it mingle in your palate, close your eyes, absorb, discern the flavour, the rich taste, relish every sip lovingly.

Amrut Tulya Chaha is truly lip-smacking tasty and soul-refreshing – blissful ambrosia, an experience of nectar – you can take my word for it.

Now you know why they call this refreshingly delicious and nourishing tea Amrut Tulya “comparable to Nectar” Chaha.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Appetite for a Stroll

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vikramkarve@sify.com

As a keen cyclist I think Stop SMIDSY is a pretty good idea.

Stop all that ‘Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You’, because sometimes sorry just isn’t enough and, sadly, it’s becoming more and more frequent.

“Bad driving intimidates and harms innocent people. Cyclists and pedestrians are particularly endangered by negligent or aggressive driving because we’re not encased in a few tonnes of metal every time we set out on the roads.”

The site campaigns for cyclists, and pedestrians, to report accidents and near misses when experiencing bad driving. The idea is to collect and share these stories to “build the political will to change how society deals with bad driving.”

The campaign is endorsed by the CTC, so spread the word.

Typical vegan fodder

I cycle because I like cycling. Most of the people I know and cycle with do so because they like cycling. We formed a group in Jan 07, and now have up to 250 members in our small town. More and more of them are cycling not only for health and enjoyment, but also for utility trips, day to day transport and commuting. Cycling is wonderful, and I continue to encourage as many people as I can to participate.

What I don’t do is try to get more people to do it by beating them over the head with a great big stick; a stick with Carbon Footprint written on it. I spent yesterday at the CTC / Cyclenation Conference in Nottingham and came away with a bitter taste in my mouth. It would appear that we’re doing it all wrong in Stourbridge; we’re getting people cycling for all the wrong reasons. We shouldn’t be encouraging people to do it for themselves, for their own health and fitness and to save a few quid. What we should be doing is beating people into doing it to ’save the planet’ and to reduce their carbon footprint.

Lunch wasn’t quite lentils, but one obviously proud member of the organising team took great steps to ensure that we all knew that what we’d eaten was a Vegan lunch. In his short sermon he went on to proclaim, “Reduce your carbon footprint; stop eating meat and dairy products”. At this point I was very close to leaving and heading home. I was completely swiched off by it. He might have had a point, and it may well be the case that I could reduce my carbon footprint by changing my diet, but I didn’t pay £20 admittance to a cycle conference to have an LA cycle trainer from Nottingham tell me what I should eat. If I want to listen to sactimonious, self righteousness I’ll watch the Parliament channel thank you very much!

It’s about time people realised that the best way to grow cycling is to sell it for what it is. We must keep green politics out of it. What chance is there of getting the Daily Mail reader on a bike when we’re spouting this at them? Our church isn’t broad enough, and we should work at being a coming together of all political persuasions, each doing their bit for themselves and at the same time adding to a collective effort that puts more people on two wheels insead of four. “Saving the Planet” will surely then become a by-product of our success.

Following a close call I had last week, I’ve just had a letter from the bus company:

Dear Ms. Barnes

Thank you for taking the time to report this matter. Firstly may I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Your complaint was investigated and CCTV footage of the incident was captured. Our CCTV analyst reported to me that our driver “appear to pass by the cyclist a little too closely on the nearside”.  As you stated, when overtaking a cyclist the bus should leave at least as much room as a car, which didn’t happen. I am concerned with our driver’s attitude as I am expecting from all members of our staff a professional attitude, therefore this driver will be interviewed, following company disciplinary procedures.

For confidentiality reasons I cannot release details of an interview and any subsequent action taken.

If you come across of any other situation that you believe being unacceptable, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to my attention.

Regards,

Staff Manager

Although I doubt that what the driver said at the time was recorded, I’m going to call that a Good Result.  It strikes me that the more often cyclists go to the trouble of reporting bad driving, the less likely it is to happen in future.  I’m usually not much of a fan of CCTV but in this case, it should make a lot of trouble for this driver and rightly so.

Everone come out to the show tonight, it’s going to be a great time. The cover is 5 dollars and we are playing with El Cantador. The show starts at 10 at Two Stick and it’s going to rock’n'roll.

The last couple of days, I’ve been listening to Chumbawamba’s English Rebel Songs (1381-1914) during my commute.  The album consists of traditional and modern English protest songs, beautifully and movingly performed in a close-harmony acappella style.  If you’ve not heard it, I strongly recommend that you get hold of a copy.

For me, the songs represent an amazingly powerful link between the people who wrote them and we who listen to them today.  It’s as if the raw emotion has been bottled up and sent through a time machine to be uncorked and consumed in 2009.  One of my favourites is the Diggers’ Song:

With spades and hoes and plowes, stand up now, stand up now
With spades and hoes and plowes stand up now,
Your freedom to uphold, seeing Cavaliers are bold
To kill you if they could, and rights from you to hold.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

So as I was contentedly cycling along yesterday, turning the pedals as I do every morning, I got to thinking.  The inequalities and the oppression that caused people to write songs of protest and rebellion are still present in British society today.  Sure, nobody gets run through with a pikestaff for asserting their rights to farm the land any more.  Medieval serfdom has long been only something we read about in history books.  But there are still more reasons than ever to sing these songs, to keep them alive and to write more.  Ordinary people are still being made homeless and are still going to war for causes that they don’t understand.  The rich are still getting richer and the poor are still getting poorer.

The songs all speak of the terrible way in which powerful groups of people choose to unfairly oppress less powerful groups of people.  It’s happened throughout every age of human history of course.  You can see it wherever you look and you don’t have to look very hard.  Whether it’s the Stanford Prison Experiment or MPs abusing their expenses, you can be sure that if a group of people are in a position of power, a good number of them will use the opportunity to oppress their fellow man. It’s the way of things.

Whilst it’s far from the most pressing example of this sort of behaviour, you only have to look at the car-driver/cyclist dynamic to understand how the relationship works.  One group of people ride around in an obvious symbol of their wealth and status, driven at great speeds by a powerful engine and surrounded by an almost impregnable metal armour.  The other group choose to remain in the open air, displaying minimal status symbols and taking pride in their ability to provide their own motive force through the power of their own labour.

Within each group there’s much variation of course.  There are highly trained and extremely courteous drivers as much as there are reckless and dangerous cyclists.  But on the whole, behaviours tend towards a certain mean.  Cyclists rarely intimidate or injure car drivers.

So what happens?  If you’re a cyclist and an occasional driver, you may well have experienced a peculiar phenomena when you step from your bike into the driving seat of a car.  Despite the fact that I rarely drive a motor vehicle these days, I’ve been quite shocked to find myself transformed into an impatient, rude and uncaring road user after just a couple of hours behind the wheel.  Fair enough, I’ve never found myself bullying a cyclist, but I bet if I were told I couldn’t ever ride a bike again and I had to drive a Land Rover to work every day, my behaviour might change.  Most people are law abiding and most people are good drivers.  But for the small percentage who are not, their position of power gives them an opportunity to exert a terrifying influence over more vulnerable road users.

I think it’s indicative of the human condition that when we find ourselves in a position of power, we have to work very hard to check our own inclinations to use that power to our personal advantage – even if that’s at the expense of our fellow man.  There’s a biological imperative to compete rather than to cooperate and unfortunately, this extends to the way we use the road.

The reason that peasant farmers don’t have their homes burned and their livestock killed any more is the same as the reason that people aren’t starved half to death because of the price of bread or sentenced to hang for poaching.  It doesn’t take a degree in history to know that it’s not because we separated out one group of people from another.

We used weight of numbers and the law of the land to redress the power inequalities that existed.  We became better educated and we joined together to obtain legal redress for people who were traditionally oppressed, against those who would try to oppress them.

Nov.10 – In this new business, the company has delivered "HP Internet Appliance" client so that their customers will be able to use “Google Apps Premier Edition” easily and in security. CTC has a lot of results in infrastructure developments, and opened a multi vendor testing center last Oct.1.

Of course, Google’s Chrome has been already tested in their facility.

J <http://www.bcm.co.jp/site/2009/11/tamatebako/ctc/0911-ctc.html>

This is my band Cory Taylor Cox and the Time Machine. We’re playing Thursday at Two Stick. Come out an have a good time.

Typical. The morning after ladyjulian puts up such an excellent post about CTC’s new Stop SMIDSY campaign, I have cause to use it. Here’s my report.

Although I’m absolutely fine, an email’s just gone into TFL and NSL Services Group, the operator of the bus whose driver needs nailing to something.

The thing that annoys me the most is that the guy clearly didn’t think he was doing anything wrong and was genuinely pissed off that I’d clouted his bus.

The government’s got a new initiative, called the Cycle to Work Guarantee.

Of course, the CTC has been campaigning about this for ages.  The Workplace Challenge has been really successful and Bike To Work has been going for ages.

But no, rather than come on board with the CTC, the gubbinsment wanted their own scheme.  From what I understand the transition from idea to launch happened very quickly, so I hope it doesn’t die a similarly expeditious death like so many other recent headline-grabbing initiatives.

The Guardian pointed out that we’ve yet to see any actually government money behind the scheme, so I’m afraid I’m not hopeful.

Coincidently, I’m having another go at launching a BUG at my office and I’ve just sent out an email round all my cycling colleagues to see if we can get something up and running.

If you’ve not got your colleagues organised yet, drop me a message and I’ll happily send you a copy of the email I put together with all the good reasons for banding together.

I had a day off work today to go down to CTC National Office in Guildford for my “other job”.  I’m a co-opted councillor, which means that I wasn’t voted into the post by members, I was recruited by other councilors specifically for experience and skills that they felt was needed on council.  We’re essentially directors of the CTC and our job is to provide governance, guidance and oversight to the paid staff who actually run the day to day operations of the club, the trust and all the other myriad activities of the organisation.

CTC are expanding massively at the moment and yesterday was the last of the recent assessment days.  I’ve not done a lot of interviewing in the past; which was handy as most of the process involves anything other than interviews.  It’s a lot of group and team exercises, as well as sessions on presentation skills, research and proposals.  It was a hard day for both applicants and the staff, but there were some absolutely stand-out candidates.  The next stage is a more intensive second interview and there’s more consideration to be done, but it’s really exciting to see so many fabulously qualified, motivated and experienced people wanting to join us.

A National Institutes of Health sponsored study find that communities, which use science-based approaches, can significantly reduce adolescents’ problem behaviors, including tobacco and alcohol use and delinquent acts, up to 33%.

For the study, 24 small and medium-sized towns in seven states were randomly divided into 12 towns that implemented the “Communities That Care” activity (https://preventionplatform.samhsa.gov/) and 12 similar towns that did not. The CTC work started by targeting children in the fifth grade. By the eighth grade, CTC community children were 32% less likely to have begun using alcohol, 33% less likely to have started smoking or begun using smokeless tobacco, and 25% less likely to have started delinquent behavior, according to their self-reports on surveys.

Click here for more information on the study conducted.