Last laugh
The 16 September
Feedback pokes fun at the International Organization for
Standardization. This made a welcome break from the daily grind of international
standardisation which, as the article pointed out, is a “combination of
mind-numbing technical detail and sometimes vicious diplomatic
horse-trading”.
Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to the difficulties of achieving
international consensus on standards that help to raise levels of quality,
safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability, as well as providing
such benefits at an economical cost, can blunt your sense of humour. So, for any
of the 30,000 experts expending time and energy each year in developing ISO
standards whose feathers might have been ruffled by your seeming to treat their
efforts with derision, I have identified the following five points arising from
your article:
1. You wrote about us.
2. You even mentioned the Technical Management Board鈥攏ormally so unsexy
that it rarely gets into print.
3. You got our name right, even down to the correct spelling.
4. You actually read our press release.
5. You also read it to the end. As a journalist, I know that this is almost
unheard of. So I tried rereading the release to try and figure out what we had
done right, but my eyes glazed over before I got to the end.
Just one last point: whatever our future standard on personal financial
planning is designated, it will not be “ISO 666” because that is already
attributed to the 1996 standard “Machine tools鈥擬ounting of plain grinding
wheels by means of hub flanges”. Sorry about the mind-numbing technical
detail.
Correction
The Australian Institute of Sport tests 13 to 16-year-olds for their
potential in different sports, not 3 to 6-year-olds, as stated in our news story
“Catch `em young”
(23 September, p 11).
The error was introduced during editing.
Out cold
I read with interest Eugenie Samuel’s recent news item on American research showing that
people suffering from narcolepsy do so because their brains have fewer hypocretin neurons
(9 September, p 8).
Samuel says that the neurotransmitter hypocretin, also known as orexin, normally keeps
mind and body active by suppressing activity in the part of the brain known as the medial
medulla. She would do better to refer to the locus coeruleus.
The locus coeruleus is clearly connected with loss of muscle tone during
narcoleptic fits (called cataplexies), and orexin neurons connect this region
with the hypothalamus. Although some weak orexin receptor re-activity can be
observed in the medial medulla too, the significance of this for an
understanding of sleep or narcolepsy-cataplexy has not yet been identified. So
although the significance of the medial medulla in cataplexy has been
established, its accurate place in the orexin story is not known.
There are two major possibilities. The medial medulla may be passively
hyperactivated because of the lack of activation in the locus coeruleus. Or
orexin may play a role and directly activate the medial medulla, causing
cataplexy as a result.
Tapping the Net
The complete hands-off approach to Net security that you advocate in your Editorial of 17 June
(p 3)
is not an option for this government or any other. It
cannot be right for criminals to abuse new communications technologies with
impunity because existing statutory powers are deficient. We recognise that in
updating the law in this area, we have a responsibility to weigh up issues of
individual rights, the interests of business and of those charged with keeping
society safe from crime. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill鈥攚hich
received the Royal Assent on 28 July and is now the Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000 (RIPA)鈥攊s a reflection of this.
You castigate the government for being supposedly ignorant of technological
developments. I do not accept this. We know that the spread of the Internet
means that governments and law enforcement agencies are operating in a
technological environment wholly different from what has gone on before. RIPA is
not about controlling the Internet. It is all about helping to ensure that vital
law enforcement powers are not undermined critically as a result of rising
criminal use of new technologies.
RIPA has given rise to a number of myths. You assert, as fact, that it
“forces all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to install connections to the
security services”. This is wrong鈥攖he act does no such thing. As we have
explained, a fraction of ISPs may be required to maintain an intercept
capability. But the act ensures that this can only happen after consultation
with individual ISPs on the precise terms of that requirement. We are discussing
these with the relevant players across the industry.
We have set aside 拢20 million over three years from April 2001 to ease
the introduction of the new arrangements. And RIPA provides for the
establishment of a Technical Advisory Board, comprising a balance of government
and industry members, to oversee notices served on communications service
providers requiring the maintenance of an intercept capability.
We recognise, though, that laws are not enough. Your Editorial and a later news article
(29 July, p 4)
imply that we believe they are. But you ignore the
wider picture. We are aware of the technical challenges put forward by some
commentators on RIPA, and others besides. We have never pretended that the act
represents the answer to all law enforcement’s problems.
The harsh reality, which we have accepted, is that rising criminal use of new
technologies means that law enforcement is going to take a hit. We recognise
that there are no simple answers. That is why we have proposed a package of
measures to help, including the provision of 拢25 million to establish a
dedicated technical resource and, crucially, a recognition of the need to forge
a greater cooperative relationship with industry.
RIPA is an important measure. We take seriously our responsibility of
ensuring that Britain remains a safe place for everyone to live and work in.
Exams examined
In reply to Peter Hayward’s letter on examination standards
(23 September, p 51),
I suggest the reason politicians set such store by the rising trend in exam
results is simply that pass rates are rising. Therefore, they can claim they are
a measure of government success.
Has anyone ever tried reusing an old question in an exam, including a few
past replies in the papers submitted for marking, and then comparing the
outcomes? It seems to me the obvious method of validation. Inserting a
30-year-old maths question, for example, into a current paper without prior
warning is unlikely to give an advantage to students who have seen it
before.
Food for thought
We are grateful to Tam Dalyell for his comments on the Association of Public Analysts
(9 September, p 53).
However, the 1998 Report on the Review of Public
Analyst Arrangements in England and Wales was carried out not by the APA, as
Dalyell says, but by an independent and eminent working group. That body was
chaired by Alan Turner and set up at the request of Jeff Rooker, then minister
for food safety, in responding to priorities set out in the White Paper The Food
Standards Agency鈥攁 Force for Change. The working group consulted all
stakeholders, including local authorities, the food industry, consumer groups
and the APA. The recommendations made by the working group, where they were
within the APA’s power and ability to respond, have largely been acted upon.
Philip James, an eminent nutritionist, was in many ways the architect of the
FSA. And it was on his recommendation that the government instigated the review
of the Public Analysts Service in 1988.
It is a matter of concern and regret to the APA that the issue of funding the
FSA which was flagged up for urgent attention by Philip James in 1997, was not
part of the 1998 team’s remit. If the public analyst is to continue to play an
effective role in food safety and food quality enforcement, the fraught problem
of funding this service must be addressed by the FSA and local authorities.
Where are the hydrogen mines?
People reading the editorial in your 23 September issue
(p 3)
might conclude that driving hydrogen-powered automobiles would in itself
reduce the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The popular press has left too many of my non-scientific friends with the
impression that hydrogen is a primary source of energy. There aren’t any
hydrogen mines. A car powered by fuel cells may eliminate urban air pollution
where it is used, but it is likely that the hydrogen in the cell would be
generated with electric power from burning fossil fuel
It is unfortunate, therefore, that nuclear power has become unpopular. With
it as the primary energy source, and hydrogen in fuel cells powering vehicles,
petroleum could be dedicated to its highest use鈥攁s the source of
petrochemicals.