Magical beasts, Brexit vote and Guns v. Terrorism

Bowel cancer; 70% Computer illiteracy in UK; magical iron-age coins; Parliament gets to vote on final EU deal; Risk perception terrorism v gun crime.

Yesterday I received some good news in the post, the bowel cancer screen that I had been invited to do had come back clear. Bowel cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 27 deaths for every 100,000 population. That was over 8,566 men in 2014, or 10 % of deaths caused by cancer. Lung cancer kills the most people every year (35,895 deaths in 2014 or 22% of all cancer deaths). I'll be sent another test kit in two years.

This week seems to be computer problem month with four of my, shall we say, mature friends having issues. Three were attacked by a phishing scam via clicking on ads on facebook, one quite serious. Fortunately this was without financial consequences. The other is a very competent computer user for photo cataloging and editing. They had other issues, with folders and competing programs that hijacked how images were opened.

Computing is still confusing for the general user if you have to do anything outside of the things you are familiar with. This is then further compounded by the frequent changes in appearance and program behaviour due to updates and upgrades. According to the Royal Geographical Society, more than 8 million people in the UK are totally offline. Add to these the people who do have difficulties with the technology. That can be up to 70% of the UK population according to the Government Digital Inclusion Strategy in 2014.  Apps and tablets have been a great improvement for many, but there is a long way to go.

This evening I introduced Rodney Scarle to the Milton Local History Group. He gave a fascinating talk on Iron Age coins and what they told us about the tribal borderlands in Cambridgeshire. Milton and the east of Cambridge appeared to fall within the influence of the Eceni. Yes Eceni, not Iceni. . How do we know what they called themselves? It is plainly written on their coins. The other big revelation was the importance of shamanistic and other spiritual elements. The British Iron Age tribes started with the original Greek gold Stater coin design of 350 BC, showing Phillip II of Macedon. Over time, they gradually morphed the coin decorations to match their beliefs into hidden faces, the power of three and the importance of magical beasts. Horse, Wolf and Boar abound, with phallic and scatalogical references.

The Commons became quite heated today and was then surprised when the Government apparently gave what many wanted. It was the chance of a parliamentary vote after the completion of negotiations with the EU. Then it turned out that PM May and team had pulled a fast one. Yes, parliament would be able to vote but, either they could agree with the government's final position or the government would reject the plan and revert to World Trade rules.

Speaker John Bercow was the centre of raucous anger from the Conservatives today, because of his suggestion that he was uncomfortable with POTUS speaking to both Chambers of the Houses of Parliament. However, he seems to be weathering the storm, content that he will have the support of the majority of the opposition if challenged. Those complaining about the apparent breach of impartiality might find the Wikipedia entry on the role of the Speaker over the ages interesting. He used to be the mouthpiece for the king/queen and also still has remarkable seniority in the House.

President Trump awaits the deliberation of the court on his travel ban, with a result expected later in the week. In the meantime a list was released of allegedly 78 under-reported terrorist incidents. BBC and other journalists point out the fallacy of the claim, with many of the attacks actually being extensively reported at the time. Furthermore, the list is also amazing for its omissions, for example, attacks of white supremacists against different ethnic groups.

Quartz does a great article on the psychology of why Americans are more scared of terrorists that guns. Interesting comparison:

"According to the New America Foundation, jihadists killed 94 people inside the United States between 2005 and 2015. During that same time period, 301,797 people in the US were shot dead, Politifact reports." (I note that this omitted the 9/11 deaths, 2,996. Even taking this into account the risk is less than 1% of that being shot).

I was particularly struck by the fact that because Americans were put off flying after 9/11, they took to driving instead. According to Gerd Gigerenzer, a German risk specialist, this resulted in an increase of 1,595 more Americans dying in road accidents in the following 12 month period than if they'd flown.