flyfisher

Yep, the news is going to be full of them this year!

Maybe it's a skill thing? I've never felt I can outplay the bass I've got and I'm pretty sure it's not the bass holding me back. One P in about 30 years me, until I went berserk and bought a J last year. I reckon those two will see me out. But, as someone once said on here 'it's music, there are no rules'.

Here' sang interesting piece about the sort of mess music buyers faced in 2005 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4474143.stm Fast forward a decade (almost) and the latest issue (Apr 14) of the same magazine is reporting how piracy is in decline because DRM has been dropped and streaming service such as spotify and netflix are making it easier for people to access content for a relative pittance. A triumph for technology enabling the consumer over the monopolistic tendency of the music business?

Oh dear. Now the personal insults begin. I'm out.

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1391710272' post='2360527'] Flea and the Chilis have done enough good things for music.. maybe it was fun for them to do it that way.. I'm not knocking them As has been said they have proved they can do it live, so who really cares that much. [/quote] That's the thing - I'd be surprised if anyone cared that they mimed that slot or not, the fuss has been all about them doing it after being so critical about others miming in the past. People don't like hypocrisy. It's a good lesson in not mouthing off about something unless you're serious about sticking to your principles - especially when it's all so trivial. Besides, has there ever been a 'live' music video in the history of the genre? This show was just a glorified music video really.

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It's not an experiment is it?

Social Darwinism sounds like an oxymoron to me. The watchmaker is blind remember. Things just play out naturally. We're just watching a slow-motion car crash, we can't actually stop it. Anyway, it doesn't matter what I believe does it, it won't change anything, except in my own little bubble of course.

Of course I understand that paperwork is convenient, my point is that our slavish dependence on such things is reducing people to no more than the handful of certificates they hold. The result is that a Chartered Engineer or a PhD-qualified research scientist or a Brain Surgeon is no longer deemed to be 'competent' when it comes to checking the safety of a mains cable, but the guy from the job centre who left school at 15 and is barely literate can go on a one-day PAT testing course and officially becomes a 'competent person'. Am I the only one to see the lunacy of such a system - not to mention the potential waste of good people simply because they don't hold the right bit of paper? I'm probably more sensitive to such things because of my personal experience. I'm pretty damn sure I couldn't repeat my life today because I had the wrong pieces of paper and no one would give me the same chances today. We're only as good as our pieces of paper. I just think it's terribly sad.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1391690323' post='2360177'] I'm really not sure what you're on about anymore. What's your point? [/quote] That we're probably doomed.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1391689782' post='2360169'] I think you need a large single malt and a think, mate. You are using a certain logic and coming up with completely skewed theory about declining human IQ levels and linking it to risk management. Personally I think you are just spoiling for a good argument but not coming up with anything sensible to argue about anymore. BTW, H&S regs have not changed much over the preceding five or so years. [/quote] You're probably only looking at the details and not the big picture. Do you really think I'm suggesting the decline of human intelligence is down to H&S legislation? Think about it as a symptom rather than a cause. There are loads of other symptoms if you think about it. A topical one would be our prediliction for building on flood plains and then getting all upset when things get flooded, and that's before we even get into the whole climate change/unsustainability issues. What sort of intelligent species would behave like that?

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391671799' post='2359885'] Or maybe as the population increases and the materials (like lithium ion batteries) we use and the processes we carry out become more complex then so do the risks. Maybe the real solution is to train everybody in the world up to the highest safety standards that we can. I'm looking forward to picking up my Nuclear Power Station Handbook and also my one day course learning all about how to safely operate an oil rig. I've already ordered my book on 'fracking in your own back garden' from amazon just in case. [/quote] I hear your sarcasm but ironically you're supporting my contention about people being dumbed down. Yes, we're almost entirely dependent on technology for our very survival these days - in our current numbers anyway - and very few people actually understand how it all works. Sure, 6 year old kids can operate a smartphone but that's not the same as understand how stuff really works and we've all heard stories about how those same kids think that milk comes from a supermarket. Strip away our technological support and the vast majority of people wouldn't survive on their own for more than a few weeks.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1391677418' post='2359947'] That's your opinion and not a fact though mate. And your Huff link does not support your opinion. Times have changed and emotional intelligence is valued more highly than IQ now, or so I've read. [/quote] What opinion - that human intelligence is declining? That's what the research is suggesting. An uncomfortable truth perhaps? And why does the Huff link not support my opinion? If humans are becoming less intelligent then surely they are more likely to do dumb things instead of living by their wits. Seems to me there's plenty of dumbing-down legislation to help people not having to think about things for themselves. But hey, none of this really matters because we're not going to change things are we? Just like that frog Times have indeed changed.

I think that pretty much covers it, except a couple of points: [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391637555' post='2359718'] The point I'm making is that we don't live in 1940 where only one or two people in each street own a car. There's millions of cars on the road. [/quote] Indeed. How on earth do we all manage to cope? Well, actually pretty well as it happens, but that's not stopping people calling for regular testing of drivers to ensure they can still be trusted. Let's not take into account their years of actual incident-free driving experience over a 100,000 miles, no, best make them take another test every few years. It can't be long now! [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391637555' post='2359718'] It's already been pointed out that you don't put out a chemical fire with water. How do you know this? Someone has told you or you've read it. How do I know you know this?[b] I ask you at your induction, are you trained to use a fire extinguisher[/b]. If you haven't been then I'll ask you to avoid using them because we have people who are, and there is a likelihood that even with the best intentions you'll make things worse. [/quote] There's that 'training' thing again. Another piece of paper or you don't know sh*t. So much for self-learning then. Good job my employers were enlightened enough to let me develop my career in embedded systems engineering despite not having a relevant engineering degree. Not bad for a biology graduate eh? Try doing that these days. One of them even let me run their European subsidiary for 8 years, despite not having an MBA. Shocking or what? At least the Engineering Council was enlightened enough to let me call myself a Chartered Engineer on the basis of my proven experience, even in the absence of all those bits of paper, so that was handy when people who didn't have a clue wanted to understand what I could do. Of course, I'm still not deemed to be competent enough to check a mains lead, so I'd have to pay someone who has likely never even heard of Ohms law but has done a one day course and can flourish their 'certificate of competence' with pride. I was never really sure whether to laugh or cry, so I just bailed out of all the madness as soon as I could.

And there's my point. There will always be total dicks and the only way to totally protect everyone is to gradually introduce more and more regulations and restrictions, which is what is happening and as each new raft of regulations is introduced it clears the way to look for more risks, which of course abound, and so it goes on. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html or the more amusing version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmRCixQrx8

Now there's a [u]really[/u] 'competent person' right there - certificate or no certificate!

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391635448' post='2359674'] And how would you prove that? [/quote] My absence of insurance claims would be a good start I would think. But what is all this big brother stuff anyway? Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

I'm suggesting that we fool ourselves into thinking we can't do anything ourselves unless we have a certificate of competence and that we need a 'competent person' to do it all for us - except, as KevB pointed out, that can only work if everything we touch is tested (by a 'competent' person) before we use it. Clearly, that is totally impractical so we have to rely on people to be aware of their own safety and be able to do all the simple stuff themselves - except we keep ramming home the 'competent person' thing all the time so people become brainwashed into not thinking about such things because they think someone else is responsible. In my own lifetime, people have become deemed to be 'incompetent' at wiring a mains plug, driving a motorcycle without a CBT course, towing a trailer after passing their driving test, re-wiring their house, installing a wood burning stove, erect scaffolding, use a chainsaw and nowadays test their appliances . . . and I'm sure there are loads of other examples. It seems that the more technically advanced and better educated we become, the less we are trusted to be able to do things for ourselves. We're being told we're a nation of idiots who can't be trusted and, even worse, we're starting to believe it. People are responsible for their own safety and it's about time we reinforced that rather than keep telling them otherwise, especially about trivial things.

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1391607551' post='2359101'] Apple sure jinxed themselves with that 'it just works' slogan, didn't they. [/quote] It's a standing joke in our house whenever the iPad is playing up . . . . 'of course it hasn't crashed, it can't have because it just works'

or use one of those 'battery eliminator' PSU thingies . . . . er, hang on . . .

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391630170' post='2359523'] And how would you demonstrate that competency to a policeman, insurance company or prospective employer? [/quote] Well, I'd point to my 35 years of accident-free driving for a start . . .

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391629416' post='2359504'] Absolutely. Just get in a car and drive no need for a test. That's what we used to do in the old days before all this competency nonesense. [/quote] Well, funny you should say that but my grandfather never took a driving test but was issued a licence and drove all his life without any problems to my knowledge. And I was able to correctly assess my own driving competence by deciding I only needed two lessons before passing my driving test first time. Of course, I was also deemed to be competent enough to tow a trailer back then, which I have regularly done ever since, but for some reason kids today are not as competent as I was so they now have to take a separate test for towing. Slippery slope . . . . .

Easy. Don't have a principle about not killing anyone who threatens to kill you or your family. I certainly don't, though I'd prefer not to have to. But this is getting silly now, just as it was silly for Flea to make his pronouncements against miming. It was a time bomb just waiting to go off.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1391627687' post='2359457'] Unfortunately until someone can demonstrate they're competent you have to assume they're not. That's always been the case since time began. [/quote] Arrgghh! Yes, but you should be able to assess your own competence! or do you need a certificate for that?

Nope. When he said it's best not to have any rules. Leaves your options open and means no one can have a go at you for being a hypocrite if, off the top of my head, you claim to hate miming but will do it anyway. No rules means you just never get drawn into such a stupid argument in the first place. C'mon Milty, you didn't think we were going to agree did you?