Five people compared to Adrian Mole

11 April 2014 Last updated at 16:49 Magazine Monitor A collection of cultural artefacts Sue Townsend, the creator of fictional diarist Adrian Mole, has died. The character who started life at 13 3/4 has permeated culture and led to unlikely comparisons to real life figures. Here are five.

The prime minister

John Major was compared so closely to Adrian Mole that a spoof column appeared in Private Eye called The Secret Diary of John Major (aged 47 3/4).

Townsend, herself, once said of Adrian in an interview: "I couldn't imagine what he looked like until I saw John Major on the television and Margaret Thatcher was introducing her Cabinet... There was this geeky looking man at the back of the group. I said to my children, 'My God that's Adrian Mole'."

After John Major's affair with Edwina Curry was made public, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop said in the Sunday Telegraph in 2002 that the details of the affair were in keeping with Mole.

"The extract in Edwina's diary that refers longingly to this man 'in his blue underpants' does not turn Major from an typically English joke figure into a suave and sophisticated French-style politician; it just makes him more ludicrous."

The aristocrat

One grew up in suburban Leicester, the other in the stately home Longleat in Wiltshire. But The Daily Mail's June Southworth found many similarities between a 19-year-old Viscount Weymouth, Ceawlin Thynn, and Adrian Mole. In 1993 she was struck by his "eyes shining with idealism behind his granny glasses".

"A skinny, pale youth, he sports jeans, T-shirt and a short-back-and-sides, and has the slightly prim and earnest air of a social worker trying to bring some order to the chaos of a problem family."

The diarist

Unrequited lust was a running theme in Adrian's life. Something David Mellor noted in 1998 in the Mail on Sunday was also present in Alan Clark's diaries.

"Alan reveals himself here to be not so much a mole at the Ministry, as Adrian Mole at the Ministry. Lots of breathless stuff about big-breasted Folkestone shop assistants and sad passages such as: 'At lunchtime I was on the news both going into and emerging from Number Ten. I do hope Jane sees it.'"

The king

He was alive more than 400 years before Adrian Mole was old enough to fret about pimples, but that didn't stop historian David Starkey comparing Edward VI to the diarist. The prince, like Mole, recorded his painful time growing up Starkey points out in his documentary Edward and Mary.

"Remarkably Edward has left us his own account of the turbulent years of his childhood, written as if he were a character in his own drama".

The generation

The New Statesman's Martin Bright noticed back in 2005 that the rising stars of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Conservatives were roughly the same age as Adrian.

Adrian Mole was born 2 April 1967, meaning both David Cameron and Nick Clegg would have been in the same school year, with Ed Miliband three school years below.

On age alone, he rightly predicted "whatever happens in the next few years. One way or another we will have Adrian Mole as Prime Minister."

He says the context they grew up in was bound to have an influence.

"The Moles, like Adrian himself, had their politics forged in the sectarian politics of the 1980s. Their university years - Oxbridge of course - were bracketed by the miners' strike and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The economic recession that followed made them cautious and socially conventional."

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A watch for blind people

9 April 2014 Last updated at 01:04 The ball bearing on the front tells the minutes The Bradley Timepiece, a watch designed for blind people and named after a Paralympian gold medallist who lost his sight in Afghanistan, is up for design of the year at London's Design Museum. But it's mostly being bought by sighted people, writes Chris Stokel-Walker.

The watch has a stark, circular titanium face. There are no hands. There are no numbers. Around a groove in the centre a ball-bearing rotates to mark the minutes. Around the edge of the watch, another ball bearing rotates to tell the hours.

The Bradley was designed for the use of blind people, the latest in a long line of efforts to help those without sight efficiently tell the time.

Designer Hyungsoo Kim was in a lecture hall at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September 2011 when a neighbouring student asked him the time. "My classmate is visually impaired, and had been for 10 years," explains Kim.

The student had a watch that could tell the time, but only by pressing a button that would make it speak out loud. Doing so in a classroom could be disruptive, so instead, says Kim, "I was his wristwatch."

The ball bearing on the side tells the hours

There are a number of timepieces for the blind, including the Meteor vibrating watch that uses a series of rumbles to denote hours and minutes. Tactile, or Braille watches, are popular in the blind and partially sighted community. They look similar to a normal watch, but the front glass can be flipped up, allowing the wearer to touch the hands and tell the time.

"If you're blind you don't know if you've got up in the middle of the night," explains Leslie Duroe of RNIB, the UK's main charity for the blind and partially sighted. "It can make people feel very insecure to not know what time it is."

For Kim, previous designs were more functional than beautiful. Sighted people choose their watches as much as a fashion statement as for merely telling the time. Many might assume that blind people care only about function. But that's wrong.

There were also practical criticisms over existing watches for some users - in the case of tactile or Braille watches, foreign objects such as food could clog or affect the progress of the hands.

The RNIB already stocks a range of timepieces for the blind, including the Meteor

Kim wanted a watch that looked good and would work for his friend.

"I put together a team of engineers and we came up with the idea of a Braille display, one that would display the time written out in Braille," says Kim. But when a prototype was created, the feedback wasn't great.

"We learned that less than 10% of visually impaired people can read Braille," Kim says. What's more, many people in the UK and US are not born blind but develop sight problems later in their lives - 82% of those living with blindness are aged 50 or older, according to the World Health Organization.

With less experience of reading Braille, their sense of touch is often less developed.

Kim and his team went back to the drawing board - the timepiece went through 25 different versions, each one tested by visually impaired people.

There was always a battle between functionality and producing a beautiful object.

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Damon Rose is blind, and produces the BBC's Ouch disability podcast and blog - he describes the pros and cons of timepieces currently on sale for blind and partially-sighted people:

"Telling the time if you're blind is a question of 'tactile v talking'. A discreet feel of your Braille watch under the desk, allows you to know if a meeting is going on too long or if it's lunchtime. Unfortunately, touching the button on a talking watch, broadcasts the time to the whole room and rudely suggests, 'I want to be somewhere else.' And in the middle of the night can wake your partner unless you stifle it with a pillow.

"Braille watches present other problems - you have to probe gently for fear of knocking the hands and altering the time. And if you want to check your watch during dinner, beware of getting food inside it.

"Manufacturers of accessible goods for blind people have discovered that producing something functional isn't enough - blind people always ask what it looks like, even though they can't see. In some ways, this suggests that it matters more if you're trying to control what people might think of you."

Eventually, a design was agreed upon - a magnet underneath the metal watch face would control two rotating ball bearings for hours and minutes. But even the ball bearings were a matter of debate.

"People wanted the ball bearings to be bigger so they could feel it better," Kim says. "But as designers, were concerned that making them bigger would make the watch clunky. We had to find the midpoint."

In September 2011, the same month Hyungsoo Kim started work on his project, life changed for bomb disposal officer Lieutenant Bradley Snyder. He stood on an explosive device in Afghanistan, suffering serious injuries and losing his sight.

By August 2012, he had won two swimming gold medals at the London Paralympic games. But the practicalities of daily life were initially an immense struggle.

"I was hurt in Afghanistan and the next thing I know I'm waking up in hospital in the United States. There was a 60 hour-long gap in my memory."

Immediately Snyder, his sight lost, found getting his bearings difficult. "You don't realise how much you use time to orient where you are. At the beginning it was very disorienting. And especially being in the military, time is all important."

Bradley Snyder won two gold medals in the London 2012 Paralympics

Eventually Snyder was approached by Kim, after a chance meeting with a mutual friend. "Hyungsoo was making a product for blind people," says Snyder. "I was his blind guy."

"I had a speaking watch for a little while," he begins. "You pressed a button and it told you the time." Uncannily mimicking a robotic voice, Snyder says "the time is 3:30pm" and laughs. "It was utilitarian. And if I'm on a train, I can't hear it.

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Fashionable brands have long dominated the sportswear market, but up to now few have specifically targeted disability sports. Nike has now become the first to produce a sole for a blade used by amputee runners. Has the era of Paralympic chic dawned?

"What's more, as soon as I hit that button it highlights me as someone with a special need. I love the idea of using the same thing that everyone does. And I want to feel as normal as possible."

With the watch now named the Bradley, there was an appeal on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website, in July last year - 3,681 people from 65 different countries backed the project, donating a total of $594,602 (£357,290). It will be available for sale from May in the US, with the UK and Europe likely to follow later.

A further 1,000 people have since pre-ordered the watch online but only a tiny fraction of those - Kim estimates between 1-2% - are visually impaired.

"It bridges the gap between the disabled and the non-disabled," says Snyder.

The watch is now among the favourites in the 76 nominations for the Designs of the Year contest at London's Design Museum. The nomination has already led to interest from European retailers. There's an obvious gimmick for selling to sighted people - you can check the time in a social or work setting without appearing rude.

It's easy to imagine seeing the watch, with its titanium face and minimal style, on a wrist and not immediately guessing its genesis as an item for blind people.

"The stereotype is that visually impaired people are not fashion-conscious," says Kim. "I had that misconception too. But it's wrong."

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Custodial death row: Jaitley slams Omar for keeping company with dubious people

New Delhi, Oct 7 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Friday slammed Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over the custodial death of National Conference (NC) worker Syed Muhammad Yusuf Shah.

"What kind of people have you (Omar Abdullah) brought around yourself, in your party and around your father? The incident gives message to people, who occupy high offices, what kind of people they should keep distance from," Jaitley told media persons here.

Omar is facing a political storm over the death of National Conference (NC) worker Syed Mohammad Yousuf, who died allegedly in police custody after two fellow party workers had accused him of taking Rs 1.18 crore from them for getting them berths in the Legislative Council.

According to the government version, the accused was summoned to the camp office of the chief minister where he was confronted with the allegation about taking money.

Jaitley further said the passage of anti-graft Lokpal law wouldn't end corruption because many reforms were needed.

"The passage of Lokpal law is not enough to end corruption. In our country, if somebody commits corruption he should be punished within months. He should be probed fairly. Is our judicial system in a position to do so?" he said.

Jaitley mentioned that objective of the upcoming nationwide anti-corruption campaign-led by senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani was to set a political agenda and issues of political discourse of the country.

"It is obvious that our organisation would be strengthened where ever it (anti-corruption campaign) passes through. Big programmes will take place, organisational activities will increase and our organisation will benefit. But also the objective (of the campaign) is to set the political agenda of the country and the issues of political discourse," he added.

The BJP has chosen the birth anniversary of Jayprakash Narayan on October 11 and his birthplace Sitab Diara in Bihar as the venue to launch the yatra.

However, many political parties have claimed that Advani's procession was motivated by the upcoming general elections to be held in 2014. (ANI)

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Olive Oil May Prevent Strokes In Older People, French Study (via Informatics)

Older people who use olive oil for cooking, in salad dressing or with bread may be doing much to protect themselves against stroke, according to a French study of three cities where researchers found seniors whose diet included a lot of olive had a 41% lower risk of stroke compared to those who had never consumed it. While the researchers suggest their findings should prompt new dietary recommendations for the over 65s, at least one expert neurol … Read More

via Informatics

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Filed under: Health Tagged: | Depression, Health, Healthy Food, heart, Older people, Olive oil, Strokes

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Hiring for Diversity, Pt4: “Overqualified People”

So I’ve spoken about women and other kinds of traditional diversity, personality and experience, new grads, and now it’s time to discuss a difficult topic. What about “overqualified” people?

People who have tons of experience are looking for jobs. Too often, hiring managers don’t want to hire them because the manager thinks the candidate will leave as soon as the economy improves.

I have a question for you hiring managers: Can you read minds? If you do, I want to know your trick, because it’s not working for me.

I know of a very talented mid-level manager who decided she wanted to be a technical writer again, and get out of management. She did. She loves the writing.

A talented program manager decided he wanted to write code again, not manage projects. He does.

Hiring managers, think about what qualities, preferences, and skills you need. Consider the value that a candidate brings. If you can’t pay a candidate what you think the candidate wants, ask what the candidate will take. (I advocate having the salary discussion in the phone screen anyway, to make sure everyone is on the same page.)

Look to your job analysis, not mind reading to see if you are hiring under- or over-qualified people. Don’t practice age discrimination because you think a candidate needs a certain salary.

Remember that careers are non-linear. People want to achieve different things at different points in their careers. You may get more than you have to pay for.

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Interviewing for Culture, How People Treat Each Other

I bet you’ve seen teams like this: people are quiet, reserved and thoughtful. They discuss issues in moderated respectful tones and words. And, I bet you’ve seen teams whose favorite word is “brain-dead” when discussing ideas or people, who seem to need to have high volume discussions, and are loud. I bet you’ve seen teams between or outside those two possibilities, too Each team is different, and when you hire for cultural issues, you need to address how people treat each other.

I like to ask questions such as, “Give me an example of a time people were in conflict. How did the conversation go?” or “Tell me about a time the team members were happy about something. What was it and how did they express their happiness?”

I also like to ask questions such as these: “How do you discuss options for the project (or testing or development or whatever)?” Discussing options, or not discussing them may reveal a lot about how people treat each other. Some teams have hierarchical discussions–they wait for the senior person to say something and then the rest of the team members can chime in. I see this a lot in senior management teams. Some teams disparage team members when they say something unexpected; some teams like the different point of view.

Considering how people treat each other is a piece of culture, and there are many ways for people to treat each other that work. What’s key is seeing how comfortable you are with how the team members treat each other.

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