the corner office

I don't know whether Michael Gove is doing a good job or not, but I do know that if teachers' or headteachers' unions are all in a huff about him, then he's probably doing something right.

And if the BBC is dutifully reporting just how horrible these people think he is, then he's almost definitely doing something right.

I've made peace with the fact that a circa-2013 introduction to classics like the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings will be through means unlike my own, the unsullied magic of the books replaced by movies which took liberties, and Lego computer games which take even more. But when my son refers to Sauron as 'that big robot guy who first had the ring', then I'm afraid I have to put my foot down.

I'm just not sure where to put it.

It's a grim job but someone has to do it and it's better that it be done with enthusiasm than with any sense of proportion.

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My kind of conference:

And the Darmstadt meeting was presented with an array of concepts that included the use of nets, harpoons, tentacles, ion thrusters and lasers.

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(also on the wife's FB, this is the extended version)

"Why is our house 3D?"

(when the wife and I have stopped laughing...)

"What do you mean, 3D?"

"3D. Our house. Why is it 3D?"

"We don't know what you mean son. Everything's 3D"

"No it isn't. Paper's 2D"

The other day I saw a pedestrian signal with a countdown timer (and raced across the road because there were only a few seconds left). But overall they're a good idea, right?

We find that although countdown signals reduce the number of pedestrians struck by automobiles, they increase the number of collisions between automobiles. We also find that countdown signals caused more collisions overall.

More here (via).

I'm usually a 'transparency is good' kind of person, but this is an interesting conclusion:

The findings imply welfare gains can be attained by revealing the information to pedestrians and hiding it from drivers. We conclude that policies which increase asymmetries in information can improve welfare.

I shall hereafter refer to that as the 'keep the missus guessing' principle.

Child descends the stairs while Mother relaxes in the lounge, the day's duties done.

"What are you watching?"

"$MOVIE"

"Is it a grown-ups' movie?"

"Yes"

"Then why am I watching it?"

Long-time readers know I enjoy having a bit of a moan about the annual celebration of the Middle Ages known as Earth Hour.

This year an article in Slate makes the case against it pretty well, including this:

Moreover, during Earth Hour, any significant drop in electricity demand will entail a reduction in CO2 emissions during the hour, but it will be offset by the surge from firing up coal or gas stations to restore electricity supplies afterward.

Cyprus has run out of money and the solution ain't pretty. Thoughts:

• you can moan about austerity all you like, but sooner or later, you have to pay the piper.

• of course, if you can print your own money the piper is easier to pay (in nominal terms), but someone's still paying. A once-off levy leaves you poorer, but inflation also leaves you poorer, yet there aren't bank runs because of that. Which isn't to say that Cypriots shouldn't be unhappy, just that when Mervyn King says he's happy to have 3% inflation with near-0% interest rates for the sake of 'economic growth', as far as the purchasing power of your bank account goes, he's doing the same thing, just a little more obtusely and slowly.

• so I think the reaction is psychological as much as anything else. But that's enough.

• what will the repurcussions be? How will markets react? The unnerving thing is that while things could just splutter along like they have over the past few years, there is also the possibility (unnerving to be reading pointers to historical precedent) that it might take just one misstep for a chain of unintended consequences to cause things to go bang in a very bad way. Is this that misstep? The crux of the issue is this: if you live in an indebted EU member country, how safe does your nest egg look now?

• the Russian money angle is interesting. Geopolitics is never far away.

• the irony is that the harder the politicians try to preserve the euro, and the EU, the more they fuel euroscepticism.

• interesting reads by economists: Tyler Cowen, Scott Sumner.

Is my memory playing tricks on me? I seem to remember how, during the State of Emergency which spanned most of the 1980s in South Africa, newspapers would be published with entire articles blocked out by the state censors.

Regardless, I don't understand how people in a supposedly free country could so easily approve of (and vote for) a bunch of politicians who'd in turn so easily use the power of the state to restrict free speech.

Clamping down on newspapers is symbolic (you could hardly mistake David Cameron for a man of principle, but I imagine even he wasn't so keen on going down in the history books as the prime minister who said goodbye to three centuries of press freedom), but the printed press is a dying industry. What grates me more is that it doesn't stop there: even the Tories' proposed charter specifically includes websites and blogs.

On a personal level it means that even a nobody like me with a handful of readers is theoretically exposed to whatever 'carrots and sticks' the likes of Harriet Harman envisages.

And for what it's worth, I'll never watch another Hugh Grant movie again.