http://www.globaldashboard.org Notes from the future Fri, 16 May 2008 17:29:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've got a short piece about organised crime on the Guardian's blog Comment is Free. From the intro: The annual report from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, published yesterday, is a mix of self-congratulation and spectacular underachievement. While the rhetoric from politicians has been to get tough on organised crime, the ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/news/the-orphan-of-whitehall/ A post I wrote last week described a "push" approach to AIDS prevention - circumcise men, tell people to use condoms, encourage them not to sleep around too much etc. The World Bank is trying a different tack, using a "pull" method instead: pay people not to get infected and ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/news/safe-sex-for-money/ Via Kevin Drum, this vignette from Johann Hari about his experience taking Provigil, which (we're told) college students describe as "viagra for the brain": I picked up a book about quantum physics and super-string theory I have been meaning to read for ages, for a column I'm thinking of writing. It ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/technology/viagra-for-the-brain/ General Richard Dannat, the head of the British army, once remarked that the British Armed Forces are less understood and less honoured for their commitment and sacrifice by ordinary Britons than in comparable societies, like United States, and probably even less than in earlier periods. But this is not unique to ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/leadership/soldiering-and-european-society/ How much should people in Britain worry about food security?  Here's a starter for ten, taken from a recent Guardian article by Harriet Green: For three years, my husband has talked about taking to the hills. About buying a smallholding on Exmoor where, with our four-year-old daughter, we can safely survive the ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/cities/food-security-in-britain-time-to-head-for-the-hills/ Earlier today, I noted George Bush's cretinous and insulting claim that he had given up golf in solidarity with American soldiers who are dying in Iraq. The move, he said, was prompted by the death of UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello: “I don’t want some mom whose son may have ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/us-politics/de-mello-died-bush-lied/ Tomorrow the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) will publish its annual report/ threat assessment. It will make for uncomfortable reading at the Home Office and No.10. The Agency is not living up to the great expectations officials placed upon it in 2006. In the febrile political atmosphere of Westminster you ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/global-economy/a-shambolic-response-to-organised-crime/ Last night I had dinner with a group of security experts and sat next to Chatham House's Robin Niblett . We got to talking about the role of Ministers and how they seem to struggle with their role in overseeing today’s counter-insurgency missions i.e. operations like in Iraq. They shy away from ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/leadership/no-minister/ No comment needed: For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf. "I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/us-politics/bush-gives-up-golf-for-un-soldiers/ Just back from ten gorgeous days on holiday in Cornwall - hence radio silence on the blogging front, and a much-needed break from frenetic activity on the food prices research front.  (As I found, Cornwall is actually about the best place you could go to get some fresh perspective on food.  ... http://www.globaldashboard.org/scarcity/starting-to-think-through-the-long-term-food-agenda/