WHU blog: 2012/13 mid-season review.

Getting promoted to the Premier League was as much of a relief as a joyous occasion for West Ham fans. Another season in the Championship would have done a lot of damage to the club, not just financially but to the squad as many of the players probably would have left. The players did a great job to beat Blackpool in the play-off final at Wembley, with Ricardo Vaz Te scoring the winning goal in the 87^th minute.

Pre-season didn’t go as well as the Irons would have hoped. Four defeats and two draws may have left fans worrying about the season ahead, but as the first few games were played it became clear that the fans should have no cause for concern unless something were to go drastically wrong. Only one loss in the first five games left West Ham 8^th in the Premier League, two places above their rivals Tottenham.

After the first 5 games, it was obvious that West Ham’s most important player was going to be Mohamed Diame. He bossed the midfield in every game, stopping the opposition’s attackers from threatening the goal as well as getting forward when needed.

Wins against QPR and Southampton pushed West Ham up to 7^th place and a home defeat to Arsenal sandwiched between those two wins did nothing to stop the players performing in the way they had been in the previous games. After the 4-1 win over Southampton, the Irons played poorly against Wigan and lost 2-1. An early goal from Ivan Ramis, (a player who may well have been at West Ham over the summer) scored after 8 minutes and West Ham never seemed to recover.

The next game was against the Premier League champions Manchester City. The expectations of West Ham fans were understandably quite low, but a good home record gave them some hope. They defended resolutely and were unlucky to see Kevin Nolan’s volley ruled offside. Manchester City were unable to break down the West Ham defence was the game ended 0-0, a very good result for West Ham indeed.

The next two games gave West Ham 4 points, an away win against Newcastle which was an unexpected result in many ways. A home draw against Stoke wasn’t the result the fans would have hoped for though. The Potters dominated the first half and scored after 13 minutes but couldn’t extend their lead. The second half belonged to West Ham and a rare goal from Joey O’Brien levelled the game, but his team were unable to go on and win the game.

Two defeats in a row against Spurs and Manchester United left West Ham in 10^th place, but they got up to 8^th win a superb win over Chelsea. Many must have thought it was going to be West Ham’s third defeat in a row when Juan Mata scored after 13 minutes, but Chelsea couldn’t extend their lead. A goal from Carlton Cole mid-way through the second half put West Ham the front foot. Mohamed Diame put West Ham 2-1 up with only 4 minutes remaining and Modibo Maiga got the winner in the 93^rd minute. It was the best game of West Ham’s season up until then and will probably end up being the best win of their season.

Since then, things haven’t gone quite as well for the Irons. They probably should have got something out of the game against Liverpool, but it was pretty much lost when Diame went off with an injury. The next match saw West Ham drawing 0-0 with West Brom, a good result for the Irons and a deserved point in the end.

West Ham suffered two defeats in a row in their next two games, a 2-1 home loss to Everton was especially worse as Carlton Cole was sent off and the circumstances surrounding it arguably led to the game ending in defeat for the home side. Losing away to Reading didn’t come as a surprise as Reading were just starting to find their feet in the Premier League and needed to win that game. In the end I think they wanted it more than West Ham.

It hasn’t been a bad season at all for the Irons - 6 wins, 5 draws and 8 defeats after playing 19 games is pretty good for a team fresh from the Championship. Games against Sunderland and Norwich stand out as games they should have got more out of, but a win against Chelsea and draw against Manchester City go some way to making up for those draws. If things go as they have been so far this season, West Ham should finish mid table. They won’t be challenging for a place in Europe but won’t be sucked into the relegation battle.

WINOL critical review – Semester 1.

WINOL has been a success overall. The website has greatly improved since the first few weeks and has a professional looking layout, this is mainly due to the change from Joomla to Wordpress. News bulletins have been good in terms of the news agenda each week and the running order for each bulletin. In the first few weeks the order was a lot of packages one after the other, but the editors decided to have a ‘coming up’ piece after a couple of packages to keep viewers watching. Another feature introduced into the bulletins that worked well at keeping viewer’s attention was an OOV belt after a few of the packages.

The production team has been particularly impressive. As I have been operating the studio cameras for the bulletins over the course of this semester and also operated the autocue for the last bulletin, this has meant that I have had an idea of how stressful it can be to work on production. Everyone on the team has done their jobs well and stayed professional throughout each bulletin.

Other parts of WINOL I have been impressed with are sport and features. Football highlights packages have been put together well and sports news stories/features have been interesting. Sportsweek has been slightly disappointing in that it is usually 4 packages played one after the other wiht links in between each one, maybe next semster a Football League Show style programme could replace this format. Features work has got better over the course of the semester, including the two confessional interviews with Hitler’s ex-neighbour and Paul Blackburn and the work done by the fashion magazine team.

The WINOL website’s Alexa rank was 10,424 in the UK on Monday 10^th December and was around 35,000 in the UK at the end of September, this is a huge improvement in just 3 months and the work from news, sport and features have made sure our ranking has steadily improved.

Although we identified a competitor for the website in ‘East London Lines’, it is a shame that we didn’t have competition from other student journalists for the news bulletin, but some packages produced were up to local news bulletin standard.

WINOL did 3 big projects this semester, BJTC awards, HPCC debate and American Election special, even though I wasn’t involved in the BJTC awards, I thought the finished VT was great.

I was involved in the WINOL’s coverage of the American election. There was a bit of confusion in terms of the organisation of the coverage at the start of the semester, but we decided to broadcast a 2 hour programme from 9am to 11am (UK time) on Wednesday 7^th November to build up to the result of the election. Due to the election results being announced earlier than we expected, scripts had to be re-worked and everyone appearing on screen had to change almost everything they were going to say. That included me as I was the ‘newsroom expert’ as part of this I provided half hourly updates on the information that was coming in. My task was made a lot more difficult because the election was pretty much over. I was quite nervous the first couple of times I was on screen, but it was the first time I had appeared on screen live and I only had cue cards to guide me to what I was going to say. I was praised by Ian Anderson (a previous editor of BBC News at 10) for the work I did as newsroom expert, something I feel proud for. My only criticism of the 2 hour programme would be that it was decided that another journalism student would take my place for my role as newsroom expert, even though I was supposed to be doing the whole 2 hours.

Even though I had no role during the HPCC debate, the whole thing felt like a professionally run event, rather than a student project.

There were a few things that probably could have been done better on WINOL. At the start of the semester I felt there was a lack of leadership from the editors, but I think that someone ‘stamping their authority’ would have been detrimental to the quality of the work done. I also think that they were ‘bedding in’ to their roles, which we all were in the first weeks.

Another criticism I have is that there were a couple of packages that should have been spiked - including mine from 28^th November. We had Geoff Hill coming in as a guest editor that week and so that the bulletin was a good as it could have been, my package probably shouldn’t have been in the bulletin.

In terms of the work I did as a news reporter, some of it was good, but there was room for improvement in most of my packages. I think the camerawork in many of my packages was good. A few examples of this come from the Totton car park package I produced on 31st October, both interviews were framed well as I had one councillor in the left third and the other in the right third. Another package where I composed interview shots well was my package from 28^th November. One package where I was disappointed with shot composition was my first package from 10^th October. One interview was framed well but the camera was on a tilt and the other interview was framed badly and the councillor filled almost all of the shot.

Although most of my filming was to a good standard, one exception being my package from 24^th October. For other packages, I sometimes didn’t get enough shots. A prime example of this was the package I produced on 14^th November, it was only 52 seconds in length when it probably should have been 1 minute 10 seconds or even 1 minute 20 seconds, this was due to me not getting enough shots in Southampton. I only filmed the cutaway of Councillor Smith typing from one height and angle as well as not filming enough cutaways around the city. I probably should have interviewed the councillors in different places than I did as the lighting wasn’t great. One thing I was disappointed about that week was that I had agreed with the news editor to do an in- studio discussion about the story, but whilst I was coming back to the newsroom, I was told that the discussion was cancelled and I would have to produce a VT.

Another thing I did well whilst on WINOL was getting balance in my packages, this is especially important as a political reporter. One package where opposing views were most present was from the Totton car park package, one councillor had the view that charging people to park in the car park was justified and the other disagreed with his viewpoint. I made sure I picked the best quotes from each interview to show this.

One VT where I had balance but only had one interview was from 17^th October. The balance came from a statement sent to me by the leader of Southampton City Council. I think that if I had got another interview, my package would have got into the bulletin. My final news package for WINOL probably had too much Tory bias, but my second interview had to be done quickly as the councillor was in a rush.

In the first few weeks of WINOL, I had couple of technical problems. The biggest of which was from my package from 24^th October, this issue was the main cause for the package not getting into the bulletin. The camera I was using shows whatever you are shooting in the entire screen if you set it to 4:3 view, which made me think that the shot would be OK for TV. The camera should have been in 16:9 view as this is the aspect ratio that was chosen to be used in the bulletin in the second week onwards. Apart from that, I got two interviews that gave the story balance and got some relevant shots.

Probably the worst day I had on WINOL was 21^st November. I had planned to up to London to cover the student protests and to send back footage to be used in the bulletin. Once we had filmed everything we had to film, we set about importing, editing and uploading the footage. Importing and editing was easy as we knew what we had filmed was good and what we wanted to upload to Youtube. We were unable to upload the footage that we wanted to upload as the internet connection at the station wasn’t good.

We made a few mistakes that led to us being unable to send back any footage. We should have got at least 10 seconds of footage to the newsroom, but we weren’t told to get back that amount of footage by anyone in charge and I felt that were encouraged to send back as much as possible. We probably should have recorded my PTC at Embankment, not Westminister as this would have saved us at least half an hour, which would have been precious time for editing and uploading some footage. The final mistake we made was that we didn’t do a proper test of the time it would take for us to upload videos to Youtube on a slow internet connection, but we wouldn’t have been able to fully replicate the connection speed we had at Waterloo station. I learned from criticisms we were given and if I get the opportunity to an OB again, I will know what to do if I can’t upload the amount of footage I want.

The final week with a proper bulletin didn’t take its usual course for me. First off, I filmed the Winchester City football match on Saturday 1^st December for a fellow student as he was unable to do it.

I had planned a news story for the bulletin, but on the Monday morning it became clear that due to not being able to get interviews, I probably couldn’t have done the package. I wasn’t left without anything to do in this week as the sport editor decided that I would be making two packages of the match I had filmed - a ‘fat minute’ for the news bulletin and an extended highlights package for the Sportsweek programme. A couple of things I learned about making football highlights packages just from this week was to watch the ‘raw footage’ before editing and to write down the clip numbers when a goal is scored or an incident occurs. I also learned a few things after talking to Angus Scott. I think my voiceover on the package was good as I didn’t describe the action or talk over the footage too much. I also made sure I put into practice the advice other sports reporters had been given in previous weeks by Angus Scott.

My performance as a news reporter could have been better and I was disappointed at how inconsistent I was in terms of the packages I made e.g my first package was good for a first effort but I was unable to keep the momentum from that going into the next package. Although I did have two good weeks in a row when I produced the Totton car park package on 31^st October and then featured on our coverage of the American Election special on 7^th November. My one week as a sports reporter went well, the footage was edited well, my voiceover was good and I got the package in on time.

 

 

'Euros for Europe' or Euros for the European 'club'?

UEFA's announcement that the European Championships will be held across the whole of the continent doesn't come as a surprise but it is certainly controversial.

There were rumours that UEFA were planning to have the Euros spread across Europe before the last championships but I for one didn't believe a word and just dismissed the rumour as that - a rumour. Although a few weeks ago, Michel Platini said that he liked the idea of having the European Championships in a number of different countries in Europe. This is when it dawned on me that UEFA were deadly serious about this and now they've made an official announcement on it, there's a huge chance that Euro 2020 will be held in several countries.

I can see the benefits of such a system though. The FA can hold part of a major football competition in this country without having to splash out on a bidding campaign when the money could be spent on grass roots football so that the national side has a good future. With money tight across Europe, the cost of the competition can be spread across the continent and countries who might not be able to afford to host the competition on its own can now have a slice of the pie.

Here is where I see problems occurring, there have been rumours circulating for years that UEFA (as well as FIFA) favour certain countries and 'don't like' others. Whether this is the case or not, UEFA will have a mammoth task on their hands when explaining to football associations that have bid to host Euro 2012 why they chose another country over them. One of these countries could well be England. I have a sneaking suspicion that if England is chosen as one of the hosts of Euro 2020, it could the last major tournament in this country for a long time.

FIFA and UEFA seem to have a policy of not choosing countries to host a tournament for a certain number of years after they've hosted or even bidded for one, this might not be an official policy but it comes across that way. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if in a few years time, football pundits in this country are discussing why England wasn't chosen to be a host of Euro 2020, although we have some of the best stadiums in the world as well as the obvious advantage of being able to host a major tournament whenever needed.

Winchester City vs Merthyr Town 1/1/12 highlights package

Highlights of Winchester City's game against Merthyr town.

It was my first sports package for WINOL. This is the updated version, go to www.winol.co.uk to watch the other version on Sportsweek. I updated it after some feedback from sports journalist Angus Scott.

HCJ3: Freud (again).

These are the notes that I made for the seminar on Thursday.

In lectures that Freud gave between 1915 and 1917 he summed up psychoanalytic theory in two fundamental theses. The first is that the greater part of our mental life (includes feeling, thought and volition) is unconscious. The second is that sexual impulses are the motor of artistic and cultural creation.

If the sexual element of works of art and culture remain unconscious, this is because socialisation demands the sacrifice of basic instincts. These can be diverted towards socially acceptable activities, but unsatisfied instincts may 'take revenge' through mental illness.

The existence if the unconscious is apparent through everyday mistakes, reports of dreams and symptoms of neurosis. The exercise of free association in analysis reveals the underlying pattern of the unconscious mind. The pattern focuses on sexual development (identified Freud) First off is the oral stage - where pleasure is focused on the mouth, secondly the anal stage, thirdly the phallic stage - where the child focuses on his penis. At this time, the boy is sexually attracted to his mother and resents his dad's possession of her, but the boy abandons his desires for his mother due to fear of retaliation from his dad, finally the child will identify himself with his dad, this is all known as the Oedipus complex which is a vital in any boy's life.

Although many philosophers and thinkers resent Freud's ideas and theories, it is undeniable the impact that the ideas they've had on society in relation to our sexual mores, understanding of mental illness and appreciation of art and books e.g. historians writing books on historical figures and analysing their actions based on the person's childhood experiences.

Freud believed that a slip of the tongue (failure to recall names) are not accidental as first thought and our 'errors' have hidden meanings. Freud uses an example from a lecture given by a Viennese professor who said "I have every intention of..." instead of "I have no intention of..." which was written on his script. A similar incident that I remember well was when the then Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear said when talking about a player Charles N'Zogbia: "insomnia" instead of N'Zogbia. According to Freud, these slips uncover opinions we don't wish to express but say unconsciously.

Freud related sex to dreams e.g. seeing an umbrella in dream represents a penis and handbags relate to female genitalia. He said that dreams are actually repressed wishes and nightmares are the opposite. He also said that someone dreams certain things differently to someone else.

WHU blog: Best match of the season?

Yesterday's victory for West Ham against Chelsea summed up everything that West Ham are about this season - power, pace and physical and mental strength.

Chelsea dominated the first half and probably should have scored 2 or 3 more than the 1 goal Juan Mata scored on 13 minutes and West Ham's only concrete chance came when Kevin Nolan put the ball into the net with an overhead kick, but it was disallowed when James Collins was penalised - harshly in my opinion. Something dramatically changed in the 2nd half for both teams, Sam Allardyce brought on Matt Taylor for Gary O'Neil and Mohamed Diame came on for James Tomkins. Two great decisions from Big Sam as both players changed the game, Diame gave the team more of an attacking threat but was able to come back and defend when needed. Although they're both 'box to box' midfielders, Matt Taylor seems to be more purposeful than Gary O'Neil. Playing O'Neil can sometimes create the danger of having no one on the right hand side as O'Neil tends to drift infield to become a central midfielder.

Diame added an extra dimension to the Hammers' play. He acted as a wingman for Kevin Nolan and both of them caused the Chelsea defence havoc, although Nolan didn't play as well as he has done before this season - possibly a cause of Andy Carroll's absence. The addition of Diame also allowed Mark Noble to stay back as a lone defensive midfielder, but knew that he had Diame to back him up when Chelsea went forward. Diame is also a goal threat, with his powerful left foot proving a menace for Petr Cech yesterday.

An unexpected hero from the match was Carlton Cole. Players tend to do well against their former clubs and Cole certainly did that against Chelsea, he scored one and provided the assist for Diame to score the team's second. He was named man of the match by Sky Sports and I can't disagree with that, it was probably one of his best games for West Ham ever. He'll have to reproduce the kind of performance he showed yesterday for the next 6 to 8 weeks as Andy Carroll is out with a knee injury, but Modibo Maiga will be itching to play as well. Competition for places is always a good thing at football team, but loaning out youngster Rob Hall to Birmingham could backfire if Cole or Maiga get injured in the next few weeks as Vaz Te is out of action as well.

It was probably West Ham's best game of the season, beating the Champions of Europe after coming back from 1-0 down was fantastic, especially as the performance was good as well. The only bad thing about the game for West Ham was that they didn't play that well in the first half. After Chelsea scored, they were allowed to dominate for most of the first half by West Ham. This sort of thing has happened before this season for West Ham. A prime example was against Stoke a few weeks ago, Stoke dominated the first half and scored, but West Ham played well in the second half and got a draw. It was a game the Hammers probably should have won given the amount of chances they had.

TB 2012.

5 News bulletin 27th November 2012 review

On Wednesday 28th November, the news editor of 5 News was the guest editor and we were told to review the 5 News bulletin from the previous day.

I thought that the opening link about the floods was good, it was before the other links and seemed to stand out in my mind afterwards. I thought it opened the bulletin rally well and drew my attention as well.

One thing I picked up on in the links was the link to the Sports Personality 2012 piece, what I found strange was the length of the zoom to Chris Hoy's face, it was too long for me.

When the presenter first appeared on screen and I saw the laptop in front of her I assumed that she would sit behind a desk and present the programme, but she stood up behind the laptop for the whole bulletin. This is something I haven't really seen before on a news bulletin so maybe this is why I thought it was strange.

First flood VT

In the link to the first story about the floods, the presenter spoke about North Wales, but the reporter Peter Lane was in Yorkshire. The package was good but I was expecting the reporter to be in Wales, not Yorkshire.

The on screen map of the UK was really good. It didn't just show where the flood warnings and alerts had been given out, but also the roads that been closed. This is helpful for 'real people' and I got an overall sense that the programme cared about 'real people'.

Second flood VT

In the second flood package, the reporter basically told the viewers what it looks like when a river bursts its banks. The interview with the man trapped in his own home was something I have never seen before, the reporter interviewed him from the side of what had become a river bank. It showed the extent of the flood and gave the story a human element.

Noro virus VT

The choice of music in this VT was quite strange, it was kind of morbid in a way and I don't think it fitted the piece that well. When I first saw the bulletin, I was taken aback by the use of the same footage at the start and end of the VT as we've been told to never use the same footage twice. Geoff Hill explained that they would never use the same footage twice but as it was a graphic of the Noro virus bug, it was OK as it 'bookended' the VT.

After the advert break, the presenter reminded us of the top story. I assume this is for people who have tuned in before the end of the adverts and who had missed one or both flood VTs.

Bill Tarmey VT

I liked the way this VT was done. Although it was about his funeral, the reporter provided the story wiht some 'light' by interviewing current Coronation St cast members and I thought that the VT did what a funeral is partly about - celebrating the life of the one who has passed away.

Sports Personality 2012 VT

The VT was good overall especially the use of vox pops, but the way these were done took me aback slightly. First off, the gun mic was in shot - a definite no no! Secondly, the reporter was always in shot alongside the person being interviewed, maybe this is just a 'done thing' on 5News.

Something I saw in the VT was that the video of Ellie Simmonds being interviewed had been flipped as the British Gas logos on her polo shirt were the wrong way round, maybe this was done so that the brand name wasn't shown or so that she was in the left field (and the interview was shot with her in the right field)


Overall, the bulletin was good. There were some things I hadn't seen in a bulletin before and maybe I'd see them if I were to watch 5News bulletins more!

One thing I learned from the bulletin and from what Geoff Hill said was that every story you do should have some form of human interest and some type of relevance to the audience.

HCJ3: Freud

Sigmund Freud lived in Vienna in the 1850s and died in London. At the time he was a celebrity, a cocaine addict and an atheist.

 

Overview

His work is important for the media, Daily Mail yesterday – all Freudian. We are defined by childhood, sexuality etc.

His work addresses a problem, the misery of the human condition. We are alienated from ourselves. Same starting point as Marx – no pleasure from work, relationships and don’t know what we need. We are miserable and then die.

Freud’s entire career was about finding the answer to the problem of misery, he found the answer –psychoanalysis. It has had a big influence, whether you agree or disagree with it’s ideas. It is inescapable.

WH Auden said Freud is an outlook, not a person.

“We all speak Freudian now” – Freudian biographer.

We live in a Freudian world, whether we like it or not.

Huge amount of artefacts in a museum in London – believed that he discovered in psychoanalysis (Freudian slips, dreams and neurotic symptoms).

Dreams are the “royal road to unconscious” – Freud.

He is seen as a sexual renegade – damaged our ideas of ourselves as noble creatures – “man is the measure of all things”. He challenged the Enlightenment. (David statue etc...)

To Freud, sex is the centre of everything we do.

He was very pessimistic. He said when you think of my ideas think of Rembrandt’s art – a little light and a lot of darkness. His theories are a dark vision of humanity. Very fearful for humanity and according to him, things were falling apart.

Attack on Plato

He followed Plato’s idea of the tripartite self – reason, spirit, desire.

The crucial difference is that Plato thought that reason could rule spirit and desire, but Freud believed reason was the weakest because people are irrational. We don’t even know that we aren’t in control.

 

Attack on Marx

Marx thinks of the self also in via the tripartite self, natural, alienated, species self. Marx believed that in a communist society the needs of the species would finally become dominate. He believed in the power of human nature, its ability to evolve.

Freud rejects this – too idealistic and our basic needs are not benign.

Our deepest needs are aggression, the wilful desire to hurt others and ultimately to seek out our own destruction in the ‘Death Wish’. HOBBES. Freud takes Hobbes’ view of Machiavelli’s view in terms of human nature. Where does he find the confidence to dismiss Plato and Marx.

THE FREUDIAN PERSONALITY

The reality of human nature is pain. We can’t find peace with ourselves as we are always at war.

Freud’s tripartite system:

Id: the Id is our core from birth. “Reservoir of the unconscious”. “A cauldron of seething excitations”. Spoilt child is the Id – want everything and want it now.

Ego: the least powerful part of the personality – the voice of reason. Moderation and common sense. It is turned towards reality. It is hopelessly embattled and besieged. Never the winner, always the loser.

Superego: not present when born (unlike other two). The superego comes from the outside e.g. police, teachers etc… It develops after birth through socialisation. Impossible standards of perfection. It punishes you with guilt of not fulfilling the superego’s wishes e.g. your parents want you to do well in a test and then you fail. Morality principle – often uses religion as an example.

Society is full of suffering because it is full of pain.

We are decaying in body and nature is too.

The external world – the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The greatest pain is the interaction with other people. “Hell is other people” – JP Satre. People are out to get us and to hurt us, but as irrational people we are inclined to hurt others.

Freud said that we don’t see family and friends as nice, but as people out to hurt us and they think we are out to hurt them as well.

He thinks the answer is psychoanalysis – not open to everyone (needed to strengthen the ego) and the masses will continue on their destructive paths. We can contain our urges by intoxication (temporary), isolation (only for a few people), religion (mass delusion), and sublimation (finding socially acceptable releases for our aggression. These include sport or work, too mild compared to the instinctive urges. Destroying an enemy, will give us real satisfaction.

Civilisation is a collective superego – imposing moral limits on the Id. “Love our neighbour as ourselves”. Man is a wolf to man. Religion puts extreme demands on us.

Psychoanalysis

Freud claimed he had found a way to deal directly with the unconscious, the Id.

Methods include hypnosis, pressure method, free association and dreams (“royal road to unconscious”).

Not many accepted his methods as a way to heal you. He was highly influential for society. Part of modernist movement, influential to James Joyce (Ulysses) – no punctuation is his work, streams of consciousness. Chapter on Cerci.

Books such as biographies and fiction obsess about childhood and sexuality. Freud said we are defined by childhood.

Attacks on Freud

Popper: He said we are unable to check anything he did (falsification principle). Has been found that research Freud did was faked.

Did he really discover unconscious? Many would say no.

Wilhelm Reich: He wanted people to get it out (screaming and physical activity). Human beings would flourish if underlying sexuality was released.

 

Sorry Fernando but Vettel's got this one in the bag.

With only 2 races to go in the 2012 F1 season, Sebastian Vettel leads the championship by 10 points with Fernando Alonso in second place. Although the gap isn't that big, I can't see how Alonso can win the title now.

The Spaniard has had mixed fortunes since winning back to back world titles in 2005 and 2006, he was involved in the 'Crashgate' scandal in 2008 when Nelson Piquet deliberately crashed into the wall in Singapore and Alonso won the race after qualifying in 15th after the crash brought out the safety car.

In 2009, Alonso and all of his talent couldn't save Renault from finishing 8th out of 10 teams and the Spaniard subsequently left for Ferrari.

The 2010 season saw Alonso pipped to the world title by Sebastian Vettel. Alonso really should have won the championship but was held up by Vitaly Petrov for most of the final race and the Ferrari driver was only able to finish 7th.

2011 was a season to forget, Vettel won the world championship with 4 races to go and his Schumacher style domination wasn't very enjoyable to watch.

This season has been magnificent, with 7 different winners in the first 7 races. No driver has had a huge lead in the championship and Vettel's lead over Alonso is only 10 points with 2 races to go, but Vettel has won the last 4 and doesn't look like stopping. With his championship rival Alonso starting in 9th tomorrow, unless Vettel retires from the race, I can't see how Alonso can be the championship leader come the end of the race.

If the German driver wins the race, Alonso has to finish 5th to have any chance of winning the title, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if Vettel wins his 3rd world title tomorrow.

Could we really see the Spanish driver do what Vettel did in 2010 and come from behind to win the world title? If he does, it'll probably go down as one of the great comebacks in F1 history. Even if that doesn't happen, this season has been one of the best in recent times.

TB 2012.

HCJ3: Bentham, Mill and Schopenhauer

These are the notes that I made for the seminar on Thursday.

Jeremy Bentham

He identified happiness with pleasure. Pleasure is the supreme spring of action and happiness is maximised the same way as pleasure is. Plato discussed the thesis that virtue consists in the correct choice of pain and pleasure. Aristotle distinguished between happiness and pleasure but refused to identify happiness with the pleasure of the senses. For Aristotle, happiness is the effect of all good things e.g. eating well = health.

Bentham also regarded pleasure as a sensation, pain and pleasure are what everybody feels to 'be such'. He said that the acquisition of wealth, kindness and giving to others gives us pleasure, not just just sex, drinking and eating. The relationship between an activity and its pleasure was one of cause and effect and the value of each pleasure is the same no matter how is was caused. So does Bentham mean that if I am for example walking along a riverbank and see 3 children drowning in the river, if I jump in to save the kids, I can only save 2 as by the time I take 2 of them to safety, the other one will have drowned. If I save child A and child B, I will most likely feel pleasure for saving the children, but the other child has died. Is Bentham really saying this? I'm going to feel pleasure after a child has died, am I? That sounds a bit off to me. Bentham was a strict utilitarian though.

This brings me to the difference between happiness and pleasure. Certain things give us pleasure but don't necessarily make us happy. For example giving to charity, when we give to charities we feel pleasure for helping a worthy cause but are we actually happy? Philanthropists probably don't feel happy because they are giving away large sums of money, but they must be feeling pleasure as they help out worthy causes. Some would argue that people only give to charity to boost their public profile and/or egos.

The quantification of pain and pleasure is very important for utilitarians. Bentham said that we must consider the fecundity and purity, an action is fecund if it is likely to produce a series of pleasures and pure if unlikely to produce a series of pains. 'Extension' is also an important consideration we must make, will our decision affect the wider society?

A number of criticisms have been made about utilitarianism. The first is that 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number' is ambiguous. Is 'number' males, females, plants? The second is should those following the greatest number principle limit who gains happiness? The third is how much happiness should be delivered? Finally, who is to decide how happy certain people feel when a decision is made? Other criticisms of utilitarianism include the consequences of an action can't be controlled, what will they be, will they occur when they are intended to occur and how can the causality be limited.

JS Mill

Mill said that it is foolish to deny that humans have higher faculties than animals. This means we can distinguish between different pleasures in terms of quality as well as quantity.

According to Mill, happiness doesn't just involve being content, but a sense if dignity. The 'greatest happiness' theory needs to be restated. Mill said that any action that promotes happiness is good/right. Everyone should seek happiness as an end goal to life. 'Means to an end' - the end is overall happiness, for example you work hard to get a uni degree, get a job related to the degree, the job pays well, you buy a nice house, you fill the house with nice things, those things make you happy. All the previous actions (the means) have led up to your overall happiness (the end).

Schopenhauer

He believed that the world of experience is an illusion and the true reality as as the thing in itself is the universal will. The root of the will is need and pain, we suffer until we are satisfied, but when we are satisfied we lack objects of desire and life becomes a burden. We can overcome this by intoxication, but we can't be in this state forever. To be intoxicated, we don't just drink lots of alcohol or take drugs, but immerse ourselves in art. The most pure form of art being music.

TB 2012.

Southampton City Council job cuts package 14/11/12

My 4th package for WINOL (Winchester News Online). It was in the bulletin.

HCJ3: Nietzsche

Nietzsche has been described as the philosopher of music, although it is quite bold to call someone that, it stems from Kantian theories of never knowing the noumenal significance of music. Kant explained that we find a certain piece of music good or bad, but we can never know the perfect piece of music or the perfect note. This links to Plato's theories on the forms and the cave.

Nietzche said that music is unknowable and music is unquantifiable as there is no scientific method, chemical reactions or neurology to explain the link between 'proper' music and the reactions that humans have towards certain music. For example I would consider bands such as The Who, Beatles and Oasis as 'proper' music, because that is the sort of music I've been brought up on, there is no scientific way to show why I like those bands or certain types of music - I just do.

The 1800s saw Napoleon expand into India and Egypt, the modern world and modern thinking then looks into Hindusim and Buddhism. Schopenhauer also looked at the 2 religions as well as Kant's idea of 'The Will', his 'World as Will and Representation' looks at the processes behind Hinduism and Buddhism and brings about the Kantian influenced idea of 'The Will'. This is the idea that the universe itself is one noumena. It is thought that everything links to Brahma (creator of the universe) and that everything in the world is connected.

Using Buddhist teachings, Schopenhauer explained that by overcoming desire, we can cure our apparently painful existence . You can imitate being happy by buying luxury itemsbut this is not achieving a state of happiness, only emulating one. Schopenhauer teaches that to overcome desire we must intoxicate ourselves in our addiction.

He believed a better avenue to take would be towards the arts, poems and paintings open up the mind a lot more than any intoxicant. Schopenhauer believed the best way to overcome desire is to drive oneself into a trance using music.

Nietzsche was against Schopenhauer's links to Buddhism and Hinduism. He believed that desire is what is the best thing about life because if we achieve our desires, we will be happy. Desire doesn't have to be the desire for alcohol, drugs or sex, but can be the desire to do something or to achieve something. You should never ignore a desire, but you must overcome it.

Nietzsche also believed that due to all empirical evidence of 'God' being a bit of a joke, there simply can't be a God. This is where Nietzsche is quite contradictory, he refutes the idea of there being a God, but uses Apollo and Dionysis as examples in his work 'The Birth of Tragedy'. Nietzsche says that without a God or religion, there are two moral grounds to take. These are Apollo and Dionysis, the 2 sons of the Greek God Zeus. An Apollonian is an individual who is 'in control' all the time, they don't do anything silly or 'out there' and prepare for all occasions and possibilities. A Dionysian is a free spirit, lets things 'take their course' and ignores the goings on in the world.




 

WHU blog: A possible defensive crisis

After a superb performance from West Ham against Manchester City, the Hammers could be facing a crisis in defence ahead of tomorrow's game at Newcastle United.

James Tomkins was injured in the warm up at Upton Park on Saturday and James Collins went off 6 minutes before full time. The only senior centre back West Ham definitely have available for their game against Newcastle tomorrow is Winston Reid, meaning that players will have to play our of position. Joey O'Brien or Jordan Spence will have to fill in at centre back and the other will have to play at right back. Seventeen year old Leo Chambers will most likely be on the bench again, unless Sam Allardyce takes a gamble and starts him, which seems unlikely considering Big Sam's usual policy of not starting youth players. The exception to this is 19 year old striker Rob Hall.

This brings me to the issue of why Sam Allardyce didn't bring in more defenders. There were rumours flying around after the summer transfer window had closed that West Ham were going to sign ex-Sunderland defender John Mensah on a free transfer (permissable after a transfer window). This would have provided cover for Tomkins, Collins and Reid should more than one of them get injured. I also don't understand why a left back wasn't brought in, McCartney was great last season in the Championship but he's getting on a bit and he might struggle against some of the pacier wingers.

As for the game tomorrow, I think Newcastle United will be too good for the Hammers, but only just. If both Cisse and Ba start for the Magpies, then the make shift defence could struggle, but the attacking options available to Big Sam will trouble the Newcastle defence as well. I predict 2-1 to Newcastle.

TB 2012.

HCJ3 seminar paper: Keynes General Theory of Economics and Marxist Economics.

Keynes’ theory and criticisms.

John Keynes' General Theory of Economics has four basic ideas, the first is that economies will suffer from a lack of demand for products being made, this leads to a rise in unemployment as companies can't afford to pay their staff as people do not want to buy the products being made, therefore the company isn't making money. The second is that an economy's attempts to correct shortfalls will work slowly. The third idea is that government policies to increase demand will lead to a quick reduction in employment, but might not be sustained. The fourth is that increasing the money supply may force the government to spend more as the private sector might not always want to spend more when supply is increased.

The crucial innovation in The General Theory is the demolition of Say’s Law (basically Laissez-Faire or 'do nothing' economics, this was advocated by President Hoover is the 1950s. It also described how production of goods creates the demand for them, not just the supply).

Some have denied what Keynes realised, he said that that Say's Law is at best a useless tautology, when individuals have the option of accumulating money rather than purchasing real goods and services. The General Theory mostly offers a static model and paints a picture of an economy that is stuck in depression and not telling us how it got into the state it’s in.

Keynes made it clear that his scepticism about the effectiveness of monetary policy (the idea that the money supply should be controlled by the government) wasn't a statement of a general principle. In the past he believed that things had been otherwise. He also believed that monetary policy had worked in the past – but not now.

Keynes had mistaken an episode for a trend. He wrote his book in the 1930s, a time of great depression and economic turmoil in the UK and USA. He explained the trap that the Bank of England and Federal Reserve had got themselves into - they were unable to increase employment, even when they increased the money supply by huge amounts. He knew that things had not always been this bad. He wrongly believed that the monetary environment of the 1930s would be the norm from then on.

The turmoil of the 1930s has not made a reappearance. In the United States, very low interest rates ended in the 1950s and have never returned. It has been similar in the UK, although there is large-scale unemployment in continental Europe, that unemployment seems to have more to do with supply-side issues than with sheer lack of demand, for example factories being unable to produce goods.

Keynes didn’t foresee a future of persistent inflation. This meant that he was pessimistic about the future prospects for monetary policy, it also meant that he never addressed the policy problems posed by inflation. It is arguable that his failure to address problems nobody imagined would occur in the 1930s shouldn't be considered a flaw in Keynes’s analysis, as nothing of that sort had really happened before.

Although Keynes' idea that spending more will help the economy works in the short term, it is not a realistic long term solution. If everyone begins spending lots of money on food for example, then the food producers will be able to keep up with the huge demand for their goods for a short while, but if people keep spending for an extended period of time, it is bound to result in food producers being unable to supply the food that people want to splash out on.

Doing the opposite and spending less will result in less money in the economy. Food producers may not be able to afford to keep supplying the food to people, not necessarily because of the huge demand for it, but because the producers themselves are unable to make the food and supply it to people.

A compromise between the two must be found for an economy to survive, in this I mean being able to supply goods and services to people at a price that they want to pay, but also making sure that the companies that produce the goods are making enough money to stay afloat so they can continue producing.

As an intellectual work, it is argued by Krugman that Keynes' work is up there with only a handful of other works in economics. He said that he holds works in the highest regard if they change people's perceptions of the world. Adam Smith did that in The Wealth of Nations, people began to view the economy as not just a collection of people getting money and spending it, the system he devised was a self-regulating system in which each individual “is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.” The General Theory is in the same league, says Krugman, the idea that mass unemployment is the result of inadequate demand, became completely clear.

Krugman adds that The General Theory is unique because it combined intellectual achievement with immediate practical relevance to the global economic crisis of the 1930s. Until The General Theory, mass unemployment was regarded as a problem with complex causes and no easy solution other than the replacement of markets with government control. Keynes showed that mass unemployment had a simple cause, inadequate demand.

Marxist economics

Marx saw the economy as a machine that made products and that the factories and workers who made the products were the lifeblood of society. He believed that a new economic system was needed -socialism. Once private property is abolished, communism would take hold and no divisions would exist in society, these divisions were caused by the capitalist system according to Marx.

Karl Marx's economic theory surrounds an idea that was the foundation of Adam Smith and David Ricardo's works, the labour theory of value. This says that the value of a commodity is the labour time/effort to make the product In this model, capitalists do not pay their workers the full value of the commodities that they produce, but they compensate the worker for the necessary labour only (the worker's wage, which only cover the necessary means of living).

Marx supposed that the labour is only a fraction of a full working day - the rest is the surplus-labour and would be pocketed by the capitalist. Marx theorised that the gap between the value a worker produces and his wage is a form of unpaid labour, known as surplus value. Marx also argues that markets tend to obscure the social relationships and processes of production.

Totton car park boycotted package 31/10/12

 

My 4th package for WINOL (Winchester News Online). It was in the bulletin.

www.winol.co.uk

Hampshire councillors' high earnings package 24/10/12

My third package for WINOL, it was made into an OOV for the bulletin.
www.winol.co.uk

HCJ3: Economics

It's something that's in the news every day, something that people are employed to study and in terms of the theoretical side of it, I haven't got much clue about. I know a bit about how it works in a practical way, like how inflation effects how much money I have left in my pocket after a night out or after doing a weekly food shop.

Adam Smith

He wrote 'Wealth of Nations' which asked the question of why one country is richer than another. There is one clear reason to this, liberalism. Almost all countries across the world are free, people can do what they want and go where they want, obviously there are consequences for illegal actions, but people can do as they please. Free trade plays a big part too, for example a British company can buy goods from a company in Asia, sell the goods on and make a profit. The system of capitalism works and whether you agree with the system or not is another matter.

An example of a country where free trade is a relatively new thing is China. The Great Wall of China was built to prevent the Mongolians from attacking the country. This also prevented the economy from growing. In the early 1980s, China opened itself up to the rest of the world in terms of trade, links have been greatly improved since then and now China is financially one of the world's biggest countries.

Adam Smith believed that the 'hidden hand of the market' would make people richer. Smith assumed that individuals will always try to maximise their own good and through entrepreneurship, society as a whole is better off. He also thought that people calculate what they can get out of a particular situation, especially financially, but this can lead to unintended consequences that can damage the market.

David Ricardo

He set out of the 'Labour Theory of Value', which said that an object is more valuable because of the labour that has gone into producing that object e.g. diamonds are more valuable than matchsticks because the amount of work to excavate diamonds than it does to make matchsticks. If diamonds were as readily available as matchsticks, they wouldn't be particularly desirable.

Thomas Malthus

His view of the world was pretty bleak, he said that one day humans will starve to death. It's probably true and could well happen in my lifetime, which is pretty scary!

Karl Marx

His ideas on society are closely linked to the economy. He said that wages paid to employees of a company will go down as more people are employed, a pretty fair statement consdiering that if a company has fixed amount has to pay workers, then the amount an employee earns will obviously go down as more people are employed. He also said that people who work in a factory, for example it makes tables, each worker makes one table each day worth £10. The factory owner takes £5 profit from each table being sold, a worker now only has £5 to spend. If he or she wants to buy one of the tables they have made, they can't because they only have £5. The problem with the capitalist model of society and the economy is over production and under consumption.

Another example of this is the MG Rover car company. One of the reasons it went bust was that it was making more cars than it could sell, therefore spending a lot more money than it was making.

Factories now use machines to do the job a person previously did, the job might not get done as well, but it gets more tables (for example) off the production line and this means more money for the factory owner. Capitalism has revolutionised the global economic system, but some would argue that it has gone too far.

1844

Robert Peel nationalised the money supply by creating the Bank of England, this was the world's 1st central bank. This allowed for the expansion of paper currency.

1848 & 1849

After the French Revolution, a economic crisis in Britain was averted because markets were expanded, people emigrated and the process of electrification took place.

New supplies of gold from Australia and South Africa kept the monetary system sufficient. Gold is central to the classic economic policy of 'sound money' as it allows the price system to be purely nominal value. It has no 'money effect' on the economic system.

Basics of the Keynesian system of economics

When you hoard some cash rather than spending it, income in the rest of the economy goes down by the exact same amount, which then has a knock on effect on your income. A recession ensues, this is a period when we work and produce less than we would like, and as a result get paid less too.

My understanding of it is this: There are two people in the world, person A makes £100 a week by selling bread to person B at £1 a loaf and person B makes £100 a week by selling chocolate to person A at £1 a bar. The total income in this economy is £200, which corresponds to 100 loaves of bread and 100 bars of chocolate.
If person B decides to save £20 out of his £100 and keep it in cash. As a result, person A's income falls to £80 and the total income in the economy is now £180 - with the economy producing 20 chocolate bars fewer than before. In the following week, person A only has £80 to spend which means that person B's income also falls to £80 and they end up buying fewer of my loaves.

In the end, both person A's and B's incomes are lower and they both produce and consume less than their potential. The economy is in recession.

The problem with the Keynes model

Keynes' model would allow the Government to dabble in the economics of the private sector, a scary thought for some individuals in free market economies. The system would alos let politicians spend moneyon projects that would try and correct economic conditions. In my opinion, an economy needs to dip in order to get stronger. Another problem with the Keynes model is that it calls for specific govt spending, but polticians may ignore this and spent money on anything.

TB 2012.

WHU blog: Not a bad start at all...

The football season is well under way and the Premier League is proving to be as exciting as it always is, for one team in particular it's been one of their best starts to a season.

Obviously I am talking about the team that I've followed through thick and thin - West Ham United. Last season, I criticised the manager Sam Allardyce on this very blog, but to be honest what he's done this season is absolutely brilliant. From inheriting a pretty awful squad when he took over in June 2011, to "just scraping promotion" according to one TV 'pundit', to being joint 6th in the Premier League is quite a fine achievement.

Almost every West Ham fan and football pundit expected West Ham to go up automatically last season, but as usual with West Ham, things are never simple. The club went to Wembley and beat Blackpool 2-1, ensuring an instant return to the Premier League.

Big Sam was a bit ambitious in the transfer market, buying Matt Jarvis from Wolves for £10 million and loaning in Andy Carroll from Liverpool. He brought in nine other players, as well as selling nine. Most of the 11 players he brought to the club have been integral to the success the team has enjoyed so far and unlike QPR's summer signings, West Ham's new signings have gelled with the existing members of the squad very well and I believe that is why West Ham have been so good in their first 8 matches.

West Ham have stormed ahead of Reading and Southampton - the 2 other teams promoted along with West Ham last season. There is one simple reason why this has happened - West Ham are a 'Premier League team' and Reading and Southampton are quite clearly not.

Things have changed dramatically for both Reading and Southampton. Reading are currently 19th in the Premier League with 3 points, without a win and lacking any sort of threat in front of goal.

Nigel Adkins' men have the opposite problem - they let in too many goals. The defence is woeful and although the Saints have scored 4 against both Manchester teams this season, they conceded 6 against them and in total they've conceded 24, which simply isn't good enough in the Premier League.

It's totally different for West Ham, they have a strong defence, which you would expect from an Allardyce team, as well as having an attack that is capable of scoring goals. Today's game at home to Southampton proved that.

Bringing back the combination of Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan was a masterstroke from Allardyce, the two players are good friends and Carroll's decision to go to Upton Park msut have been heavily influenced by Nolan. They feed off each other really well, as we saw in the 3-0 win over Fulham in September and Andy Carroll moving to West Ham permanently isn't out of the question.

The start West Ham have had has come as a surprise to many, but what isn't suprising is that Gary Lineker and co aren't making too much of a fuss about it all.

TB 2012.

Glass recycling package 10/10/12

My first package for Winchester News Online (WINOL), the news bulletin made by journalism students at the University of Winchester.

TB 2012

HCJ3: Karl Popper

After a rather confusing 1st lecture, the stuff I'm about to blog about focuses on one man - Karl Popper, this is much easier for me to understand than all that science business that we looked at last week.


Popper's 3 most famous books are 'Logic of Scientific Discovery' which attacks Empiricism and Logical Positivists. 'Open Society' attacks Plato and Marx. 'Poverty of Historicism' this questioned the theory that social and cultural phenomena are determined by history.

Popper and Logical Positivism?

The philosophers of the Vienna Circle wanted to clean up philosophy. They tried to distinguish between statements that said something meaningful and those that didn't, these statements couldn't be verified and were called nonsense. Descartes is rejected by Logical Positivists as they were unable to prove his theories right or wrong. Ayer re-wrote Descartes' work to say 'there are ideas' instead of the Cogito - 'I think therefore I am'. Ayer did this so that Descartes work was verifiable, unless solipsism (theory that the self is all that can be known to exist) applies.

Popper didn't see himself as a Logical Positivist and thought that scientific theories couldn't be proved to be true because of induction theory. He also said that science had a mark on it as it could be disproved. Otto Neurath (a leading figure in the Vienna Circle) even gave him the nickname 'The Official Opposition'.

Popper and Einstein

Einstein's theory of relativity was severely tested, Eddington conducted the first test of this theory in 1919 and proved that Einstein's theory was correct and at one time, was hailed as conclusive prove over Newton's theory. Einstein took the best confirmed knowledge that humanity possessed and said that most of it was wrong.

Popper realised that every theory and idea that people thought were true could actually be wrong because of Einstein's work. According to Popper, we can never know what corrections are needed to a theory as all knowledge is fallible. He also said that science worked by induction, but observations are always selective e.g. when you buy a new car you tend to see that model of car a lot more than you did when you had another car.

Popper's book 'Open Society'

In this book, Popper challenged the ideas in Plato's 'Republic' and that claims to knowledge were actually justification for the authority of rulers. He also said that power and rulers should be removable, but without violence. He said that there was a 'paradox of democracy' - it can destroy itself because the ruler has to choose between the majority decision and the consequences of that decision coupled with the moral dilemma that goes with it.

States need to minimize suffering, so instead of thinking of building a utopian state, it is best to try and solve the existing problems. Attempting to create a utopia may end up causing more problems than it solves.

Popper said that people are easily won over by conspiracy theories that explain 'everything'. Once this is the case, the world is full of verifications of that theory.

TB 2012.

HCJ3: Science

My first blog post after coming back to uni is of course about HCJ, the first lecture was about how philosophy and science are related.


As we all know, science is about finding the truth, however no one can ever know the whole truth (as proved by The Sun in 1989), however journalists can give their honest opinion.

Science before Kant

Truth is correspondence to objective reality in a 'cosmo' composed of independent things. Einstein, Bacon and Newton eventually find out everything, this is a perfect truth. Scientists have abandoned this theory, however Newtonian ideas still exist and are widely accepted in the scientific community.

Kant

He divided truth into 2 types, the first is a priori, this is is something you know is true by definition e.g. all bachelors are unmarried men. The second is a posteriori, facts rely on scientific study and gathering evidence e.g. all bachelors are messy. The problem with this would come when all the bachelors you study are actually all messy, however the chance of that happening is probably pretty low.

Kant's view of the cosmos is similar to a computer game, where the objects are created in a consciousness which then fades away e.g. a video game like GTA where if you go to a place in the game and then away from it, that place isn't there any more but if you go back to that place, then it is there again. The concept is a strange idea but if you use an analogy like the video game it becomes easier to understand. Kant said that each object has its own independent noumena, so it is a thing in itself (independent of the mind), which is also known as 'the unperceived object' as opposed to phenomena which is an object as it is perceived by the senses.

Schopenhauer said that 'the will' is the only universal noumena, of the university as a thing in itself. This theory links to the Star Wars films. From Kant and Schopenhauer we inherit the idea that nothing 'causes' existence, it is a necessary precondition of perception or consciousness. This idea was quashed in the 19th century as empiricism was rife. Humanity always strives to know more, this is similar to Nietzsche's 'will to power', the important part of this for journalists is to 'play dumb', a journalist can never know the truth so its best to just give your honest opinion.

Logic (deduction vs induction)

Deduction (basically the process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows on from the stated premise e.g All men are mortal, Socrates was a man, therefore Socrates was mortal. Deduction preserves the most characteristic idea of the Greco-Roman world. Deduction depends on a series of indisputable axioms known to a select group of philosophers and later to a hierachy of religious figures, it produces singular or particular truths from general principles, another example is this: all swans are white, this is a swan, so it must be white. It is not possible to doubt these axioms as reality would collapse. This Aristotlean system was a cause of the backwardness in the Islamic civilization, some of this is still present today.

Aristotle's system was denied by the enlightment, Francis Bacon's 'new organon' criticised Aristotle's 'organon' and reviews the axioms that Aristotle had set down as irrefutable. After Bacon, there was the idea that by using evidence, the axioms could be disproved.

Newton to Einstein

This period is know as the Copernican Revolution, over this time questions such as 'does the earth really orbit the sun?' and 'what is up and what is down?' were asked. What we percieve is entirely subjective e.g the amount of light in a room and what mood we're in. Time is a mental phenomena as we are the judges of how slowly time is going for ourselves e.g. I might think that an hour seems shorter because I am doing something that I enjoy, whereas if somebody else is doing something that they don't enjoy, the same hour may seem like 2 hours. According to Einstein's experiments, time not only elapses at different rates but also at different theoretical points e.g, black holes.

Wittgenstein

"The world consists of facts" - a quote from his work 'Tractatus'. There is no object truth, only language-games, Wittgenstein never makes it clear what these are. Early language-games are scrutinized for the insights they give on characteristics of language, 'regular' language-games include forming and testing a hypothesis, making up a story then play acting it, these bring out the openness of our possibilities in using language and describing it.

Ernst Mach and Vienna Circle

The Vienna Circle was a group created in honour of Ernst Mach, one of their ideas was the Verification Principle, which said that the truth of any proposition id the way you verify it. If it can't be verified then it is neither true or false. Betrand Russell comes up with any interesting theory converning the VP, he said that a china teapot is revolving around the sun, "no one would be able to disprove my assertion". Philosopher Karl Popper said that the Verification Principle itself can't be verified.


TB 2012

Premier League 2012-13 preview

With the Olympics over and the Premier League season only a few days away, the transfer merry go round is almost at top speed, but unlike previous transfer windows, huge amounts of money haven't been spent.


Arsenal

The Gunners finished 3rd last season and will be looking to go one better this term, but with doubt over Robin Van Persie's future it is unclear how good their strike force will be this season especially as new signings Lukas Podolski and Oliver Giroud having no PL experience. Santi Cazorla has signed from Malaga. The Robin Van Persie transfer dilemma could prove a problem for Wenger and Arsenal fans shouldn't take a Champions League spot for granted as questions over the strength of the back four still remain from last season.

Predicted finish: 5th.


Aston Villa

New manager Paul Lambert will need to make sure his team get off to a good start otherwise we could see a repeat of last season. On paper it looks as if he's inherited a squad capable of finishing in the top 12, with experienced strikers Darren Bent and Gabby Agbonlahor still at the club, as well as promising signings Karim El Ahmadi, Dutch international defender Ron Vlaar and Matt Lowton this could be a good season for the Villains, although Paul Lambert's inexperience could be a problem if things get difficult.

Predicted finish: 11th.


Chelsea

The FA Cup and Champions League winners have very wisely kept Roberto Di Matteo as manager and have made some impressive signings already, including Marko Marin and Edin Hazard. Infighting led to Andre Villas Boas' sacking in February last season, but Di Matteo seems to have created a much better atmosphere in the squad than his predecessor could and as the players seem to respect him, it could be another good season for the Blues. However, no replacement for Didier Drogba has been found yet and they can't rely on Fernando Torres to score 20+ goals. The old hands Frank Lampard Jnr, John Terry and Petr Cech will carry the team this season.

Predicted finish: 3rd.


Everton

The Toffees finished above Liverpool for the first time in 8 seasons last term, but will struggle to do the same this season. Losing Tim Cahill will hit the team hard and I doubt whether they can find a replacemnt for the influential Aussie who moved to New York Red Bulls. Steven Pienaar moves back to the club who sold him to Tottenham last season and ex Rangers midfielder Steven Naismith has also signed. The manager David Moyes has done some fantastic work at the Merseyside club and there's no doubt he'll do it again.

Predicted finish: 9th.


Fulham

Martin Jol's team somewhat over achieved last season, mainly due to the brilliance of Clint Dempsey and team unity. Last season's loan signing Pavel Pogrebnyak didn't sign permanently and Martin Jol has replaced him with ex Wigan striker Hugo Rodallega and experienced Croatian striker Mladen Petric. However, an over reliance on Clint Dempsey could prove costly if he moves on as the team will lose some of its attacking threat. Danny Murphy and Andy Johnson have moved on free transfers, whether they'll be missed remains to be seen.

Predicted finish: 10th.


Liverpool

The sacking of Kenny Dalglish drew mixed reactions from Reds fans, although winning the League Cup will be forgotten if Brendan Rodgers delivers the goods this season. New signings Fabio Borini and Joe Allen will have to make instant impacts and it is questionable whether getting rid of wingers Maxi Rodriguez, Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy was the best idea. Andy Carroll's future is unclear and Brendan Rodgers has already cast doubt on whether the man from Newcastle will fit in to the team's new style of play and is something that the players will have to adapt to.

Predicted finish: 4th.


Manchester City

Last season's champions have only signed Jack Rodwell so far this summer, which could prove costly with less than a week to go until the start of the season. There is obviously huge attacking threat from Aguero and co, but Roberto Mancini will have to improve the team to stand a chance of competing with Manchester United. The Blues looked like a proper team last season, instead of a group of individuals like in the past two campaigns. However, they may become over arrogant this season, something that Mancini must suppress for his team to win the Premier League once again.

Predicted finish: 2nd.


Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson's men missed out on the title on goal difference last season and will certainly be looking to put that behind them. New signings Nick Powell and Shinji Kagawa will want to impress early on and the latter will give the team some much needed pace and trickery in midfield. The Red Devils are certainly capable of winning the title this season, but improvement might be needed up front if they want to keep up with their neighbours' goal scoring.

Predicted finish: 1st.


Newcastle United

The Magpies over achieved last season and manager Alan Pardew will want to keep the momentum going this time around. Summer bargain Demba Ba was superb in the first half of the season and January signing Papiss Cisse scored in all but one of his appearances, both will have to keep that up if they want to repeat last season's fifth place. With a goal difference of just 7 last season, the Toon will have to sharpen up in defence this term.

Predicted finish: 7th.


Norwich City

New manager Chris Hughton will make the Canaries hard to beat, but is in danger of having a goal drought if Grant Holt doesn't perform this season as he did in the last. A relatively unknown and inexperienced team will have to get off to a good start to avoid being sucked into a relegation battle. New centre back Michael Turner will provide experience to the team and winger Robert Snodgrass may prove to be a hit in the Premier League.

Predicted finish: 16th


Queen Park Rangers

The west Londoners avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth last season after Mark Hughes was brought in in January. The club have signed experienced players such as Park Ji Sung, Robert Green and Andy Johnson as well as exciting young winger Junior Hoilett. The Rs attack will be a threat, but defensive frailties might become a problem if goals aren't being scored.

Predicted finish: 14th.


Reading

Last season's Championship winners have signed 'best of the Championship' players, with Chris Gunter and Garath McCleary coming in from Nottingham Forest and Adrian Mariappa from Watford. Brian McDermott has also brought in Pavel Pogrebnyak, Danny Guthrie and experienced left back Nicky Shorey. Questions remain over the squad's ability to cope in the Premier League, although they were good defensively last season, but relied heavily on Jimmy Kebe to start attacks. Inexperience will probably be their downfall, as McDermott is new to the Premier League and most of his players are too.

Predicted finish: 20th.

Southampton

The Saints followed the example of Norwich City and completed two successive promotions, Nigel Adkins has built a relatively young squad over the past few seasons and has added youngsters Nathaniel Clyne and Jay Rodriguez to his team. Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana proved to be a winning combination last season, whether they can continue that against top defenders remains to be seen. Weakness at the back could prove to be their downfall though.

Predicted finish: 17th.


Stoke City

A team that is always strong at the back and also able to create goalscoring opportunities, Peter Crouch was one of the Potters best players last season and will be looking to do the same again. They will be too good for some teams simply because of their defensive toughness, especially at home. Tony Pulis has only signed three players so far, Michael Kightly from Wolves, Jamie Ness from Rangers and Geoff Cameron from Houston Dynamo. Always a safe bet for a mid table finish.

Predicted finish: 12th.


Sunderland

Martin O'Neill's men could have quite easily had a top 10 finish last season, but were distinctly average towards the end of the season after securing safety. The Black Cats have bags of experience in Wes Brown and John O'Shea, as well some promising youngsters like James McClean and Connor Wickham. Pacy wingers Stephane Sessegnon and Seb Larsson could prove to be a winning combination, although no prominent centre forward is in the team after Nicklas Bendter's loan expired. If they play as well as they did in the second half of last season, they will certainly threaten the top 10.

Predicted finish: 8th.


Swansea City

Swans fans should be worried after Brendan Rodgers left the club for Liverpool in July. New boss Michael Laudrup has no experience of managing a Premier League club, so it may take a while for the team to find its feet. Without top midfielders like Joe Allen and Gylfi Sigurdsson this season, a lack of depth in midfield may cause problems, but with attackers like Scott Sinclair, Nathan Dyer and Danny Graham, the Swans won't find it hard to score goals, although a shaky defence could cause issues.

Predicted finish: 18th.


Tottenham Hotspur

After Harry Redknapp's sacking, many Spurs fans felt that the good times would end, but with the players that new boss Andre Villas Boas has got at his disposal, it seems unlikely that the Lilywhites will finish anywhere outside of the top 6. Influential midfielder Luka Modric's future looks unclear, but with no one that keen on paying the £30m price tag, he will probably stay. A good all round team, but without a replacement for Emmanuel Adebayor still not found, most goals may have to be scored by midfielders.

Predicted finish: 6th.


West Bromwich Albion

New manager Steve Clarke's vast experience as an assistant manager at Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham will stand him and his team in good stead for the new season. WBA have brought in exciting winger Yassine El Ghanassy and Chelsea reject Romelu Lukaku on loan, Clarke with have the basis of a solid team. If Peter Odemwingie has a repeat of last season, West Brom fans shouldn't worry about Premier League relegation, although if cracks start to appear in the defence, it might be a case of relying on the strikers to perform.

Predicted finish: 13th.


West Ham United

Although promotion via the play offs was acheived last season, many Hammers fans wanted automatic promotion. Sam Allardyce has made a few good signings including defensive midfielders Momo Diame and Alou Diarra, as well as Senegal striker Modibo Maiga and centre back James Collins. The right back position looks like it could be a real weakness, with Guy Demel the best option, teams will want to exploit it. Sam Allardyce is one of the most experienced managers in the PL this season and has never led a team to relegation.

Predicted finish: 15th.


Wigan Athletic

Roberto Martinez has saved the Latics from relegation the past few seasons, but the other teams in the league may prove to be too good for Wigan this season. If Victor Moses goes to Chelsea it could bring an end to Wigan's time in the Premier League as he was their only real source of chance creation. Winger Ryo Miyaichi has been brought in on loan and Ivan Ramis has joined from Mallorca to shore up the defence, this could be a key area for Wigan as goals could be at a premium, so stopping goals going in will be a necessity. The style of play that Martinez evokes could be their saving grace.

Predicted finish: 19th.





Predicted Premier League table in full:

1 Manchester United
2 Manchester City
3 Chelsea
4 Liverpool
5 Arsenal
6 Tottenham Hotspur
7 Newcastle United
8 Sunderland
9 Everton
10 Fulham
11 Aston Villa
12 Stoke City
13 West Bromwich Albion
14 Queens Park Rangers
15 West Ham United
16 Norwich City
17 Southampton
18 Swansea City
19 Wigan Athletic
20 Reading

All info correct at time of writing.

Euro 2012 Preview

The European Championships kick off today and it also marks the start of a hellish summer for sport haters, but before I start ranting, I'll start with Group A...

The group to kick off the tournament contains Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and Russia. 4 teams that will all think they have a chance of going through to the quarter finals.

Czech Republic

The Czechs are quite a young team with a few experienced cookies such as Champions League winner Petr Cech and ex Liverpool player Milan Baros, as well as Arsenal midefielder Tomas Rosicky. They finished second in their qualifying group, just ahead of Scotland and 11 points behind Spain.

Predicted finish: 3rd in group.

Greece

A team of relatively unknown players, except for ex Manchester City striker Georgios Samaras, but only 1 or 2 of the Euro 2004 squad remains. They finished top in a pretty easy qualifying group, but did finish 2 points ahead of Croatia.

Predicted finish: 4th in group.

Poland

Co-hosts who have a few well known players such as Wojciech Szczęsny, Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Błaszczykowski, but apart from them, most of the players a relatively unknown. However, being hosts always helps in major tournaments.

Predicted finish: 2nd in group, Quarter Finals.

Russia

Arguably the best team in the group, with experienced Premier League players like Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin, as well as Yuri Zhirkov and Pavel Pogrebnyak. Apart from that, almost all of the other players play in Russia, so whether they can perform against top European sides remains to be seen.

Predicted finish: 1st in group, Quarter Finals.


Next up is Group B, which is the'group of death' this time round, containing Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal.

Denmark

A team full of players that people in this country will recognise such as Daniel Agger, Nicklas Bendtner, Anders Lindegaard to name just 3. Liverpool fans will note that Christian Poulsen is in the squad and remember him for very little. It's just a shame the Danes aren't in an easier group, they're always good in tournaments because they're better than the sum of their parts.

Predicted finish: 4th in group.

Germany

One of the favourites to win Euro 2012, with a team full of youth and experience. Miroslav Klose is still going and only a few goals off Germany legend Gerd Muller's all time international tally. A team that no one wants to play because of their organisation and attacking threat (as well as typical Germany efficiency). However, because of the large amount of young players in the team, there are questions over their ability to handle high pressure situations.

Predicted finish: 1st in group, Finalists.

Netherlands

2010 World Cup finalists who need to build their reputation again after 8 yellow cards and 1 red in the final. Always good in tournaments and with a team that's got attackers like Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, (they also have Rafael van der Vaart) they'll certainly be a threat , but not strong enough in defence.

Predicted finish: 2nd in group, Semi Finals.

Portugal

Constantly written off by BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson and called 'centred around Ronaldo' by others, but it's not like they don't have any other good players! Premier League players Nani and Raul Meireles are included and players João Moutinho and Silvestre Varela both won the Portuguese League this season with Porto. However, there are questions over the team's capabilities in big tournaments and finished 2nd in their qualifying group behind Denmark.

Predicted finish: 3rd in group.


Group C is next, which features Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 winners Spain, as well as Italy, Croatia and Ireland.

Croatia

A classic exmaple of a team with 3 or 4 quality players and nothing much else, Premier League players Luka Modric and Nikica Jelavic, as well as former Arsenal striker Eduardo. They finished 2nd in their qualifying group.

Predicted finish: 4th in group.

Italy

The Italian squad for this tournament has an average age of 27, which is younger than usual for an Italian squad. However, most of their best players are over 30 and with Mario Balotelli in tow (closely followed by his child-like attitude) it could be an interesting few weeks for the Italian team, especially as Mario will be walking off the pitch every game for being racially abused (I support him 100% on that by the way).

Predicted finish: 2nd in group, Quarter Finals.

Republic of Ireland

Another great example of a team that's better than the sum of their parts. Players like Robbie Keane and Damien Duff were both great in their heydays and will be playing alongside some up and coming players like James McClean and Shane Long. The squad also features the Premier League's Jonathan  Walters, Richard Dunne and Shay Given. Once again, it's a shame they're not in an easier group.

Predicted finish: 3rd in group.
Spain

The best team in the group by far, they won the last European Championships and the 2010 World Cup. Some world class players in midfield and defence, but their strikers don't always step up to the mark. No David Villa this time so it's up to Fernando Torres to show what he's made of. Youngster Fernando Llorente will be aware that he could become their first choice centre forward if Torres doesn't play well. There's no question they have what it takes to get to the final, but Barcelona were been found out by Real Madrid and Chelsea this season, so Spain might fall at the final hurdle.

Predicted finish: 1st in group, Finalists.


The final group is Group D, with England, France, Sweden and Ukraine.

England

Where do you want me to start? So many things that I could say about the England team but I'll try and limit it! First of all, we have a good manager in Roy Hodgson, the only reason people are on his back is because everyone wanted Harry Redknapp, if he wasn't around then Roy would have been the 1st choice for the media. However,I have to question why Hodgson picked some of the players that he did. For starters, Micah Richards and Rio Ferdinand should be in the squad, no question. Stewart Downing's inclusion was a strange decision, as was the decision to replace Frank Lampard with Jordan Henderson. Roy Hodgson has made them hard to beat, but a lack of attacking threat in the first two games could hinder their chances of finishing top of the group.

Predicted finish: 2nd in group, Quarter Finals.

France

A team full of good attacking players like Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa as well as Oliver Giroud, who is being chased by Manchester United and Arsenal. However, there are questions over their defence, especially seeing as their two best defenders are both left backs. They could cause a few problems for England in their first game and will be a threat in the knockout round too.

Predicted finish: 1st in group, Semi Finals.

Sweden

An experienced team that features one of the world's top strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovich and two ex Premier League players who are 34 and 35. Younger talent includes Sunderland's Seb Larsson and Blackburn's Martin Olsson. However, they will fancy their chances of going through if they beat Ukraine in their first game and England and France draw.

Predicted finish: 3rd in group.

Ukraine

Co-hosts who many people in this country know nothing about, this is probably because only 2 of their players play outside of Ukraine; Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and Andriy Voronin. The latter missed a sitter in a Euro 2012 warm game and the former plays for Bayern Munich. Also in the squad is former Chelsea and Milan player Andriy Shevchenko.

Predicted finish: 4th in group.


The next few weeks promise to offer good football played by some of the world's best players, but high levels of racism in Polish and Ukrainian football could spoil the tournament. After reading this I suppose you want to know who I think will win the tournament out of  Spain and Germany, but to be honest I can't decide.

Have a good summer non sports fans!

TB 2012