"The Andromeda Strain" is a 1971 film adaptation of Michael Crichton's 1969 "sci-fi techno thriller" novel of the same name.
The film itself tells the story of the events over four days following the outbreak of an extra terrestrial infection, centring around a team of scientists who work feverishly to find a way of combating the organism before it manages to reach the population at large.
In a similar way to the original book, sections of the film are presented as though they are a report on past events being analysed by government agencies at a board of enquiry, with some of the characters concerned with the main plot line giving evidence.
The film itself asks many questions about the nature of secret government projects, specifically efforts to use space exploration as a means to gather or develop potent weapons of mass destruction, and what the consequences of this unprepared meddling in matters that mankind knows very little about could have if these weapons were, by accident or by design, released on the general populace.
All in all, the film is an enjoyable, although in some places very dry, piece of sci fi cinema, it certainly doesn't go down the route of having massive explosions and alien invasions etc, but instead presents a storyline filled with intelligent questions and plot developments, as well as having some very interesting character interactions and developments.
The film begins with two soldiers operating out of Vandenberg air force base searching for the landing point of a secret military satellite code named "Scoop 7", which was believed to have crash landed somewhere in the vicinity of the small town of Peidmont, New Mexico.
When they find the crash zone however, it turns out that the satellite had been found by some of the locals and taken back to the town. As the soldiers reach the town itself, they quickly succumb to the same horrible infection that has killed nearly everyone there, and both die horrible deaths.
Sensing that something has gone disasterously wrong, and wanting to preserve the secret nature of scoop , the projects commanding officer, Major Manchek activates the "wildfire" protocol by using a secret telephone hidden in in a room marked "emergency only".
"Wildfire" is a two pronged approach to solving the problem, consisting of a team of scientists who specialise in disease control, and a secret underground laboratory complex, hidden in the Nevada desert beneath a fully functioning Department of agriculture research station. No one other than the wildfire team and a few members of staff at the above ground complex are actually aware of its existence, allowing the government to keep the disease outbreak under strict secrecy.
The Wildfire team itself, which is quickly rounded up (by government agents approaching them and simply stating that "there's a fire"), consists of :-
Dr. Jeremy Stone - Lead scientist on the project who was instrumental in its creation. Also acts as a scientific advisor to the President of the United States.
Dr. Charles Dutton - Pathologist and germ warfare expert.
Dr. Mark Hall - A skilled doctor and surgeon whose only real role within wildfire is to fulfill the requirement for an "Odd-man".
Dr. Ruth Leavitt - A cantankerous and dry witted microbiology expert.
Dr. Alexander Kirke - Fifth member of the wildfire team who was unable to attend as he had appendicitis.
Drs Stone and Hall are taken directly to Piedmont by helicopter, where they explore the town while wearing hazmat suits. They discover that most of the towns population simply died where they stood, with a look of agony on their faces, although they later make a series of grisly discoveries when they come across a few people who seemingly survived the initial infection and committed suicide in a variety of bizarre ways after going seemingly insane. They finally find the satellite in the local GPs office, where Stone notes that the casing has been opened. As he reseals it and prepares to take the satellite away, Hall examines the GPs body, noting the unusual feature that none of the mans blood coagulated in the lowest part of the body after death (and delivering one of the films most unintentionally funny lines in the form of "Do you see any purple marks on his butt?"). Trying to find out why the body doesn't have the usual blood coagulation, Hall cuts open one of the GPs wrists, and both he and Stone are astounded to find that all the mans blood has clotted into a fine red powder.
As Stone and Hall prepare to leave they find two survivors, a crying baby boy, and a seemingly insane old man, both of whom they take with them.
After they leave, the President orders that the decision to sterilize the area with a nuclear explosion be postponed for 48 hours until the wildfire team can determine if there is still any danger, instead opting for a strict quarantine to be enforced on the area by the national guard.
Meanwhile, doctors Leavitt and Dutton make their way by car to the wildfire complex, where Dutton explains that great lengths have been gone to to conceal the nature of the facility. The base itself looks like a large open plan farm with a single farm house.
After the team finally meets up, Stone explains that the facility is equipped with a nuclear device which will be used to sterilize the area should a containment breach occur and the risk of infection to the outside world becomes likely. Hall, as the "Odd-man" of the team has been selected to be entrusted with the only key which can disarm the bomb, as the odd man hypothesis states that as a single man, he would be in the best position to make a rational judgement as to whether the self destruct sequence should be aborted. Hall misinterprets this as meaning he has the power to choose whether to activate the bomb or not, but Stone quickly points out that the bomb was armed the minute they entered the first level and Stone inserted his key into the master terminal to activate the base, all Hall can do is decide whether the bomb is turned off once the destruct countdown begins.
As the team descends the five levels of the facility, they are subjected to numerous invasive decontamination proceedures, so as to ensure that there is no possibility that the laboratory can become contaminated by any foreign disease or bacteria they may be carrying in order to maintain a fully sterile environment.
When they finally reach the lowest level, work quickly begins on identifying what caused the sudden plague.
After reopening the satellites sample container and exposing several lab animals to it, it is found that the infection kills whoever is exposed to it within 10 seconds via fatal blood clotting. Further analysis reveals that the organism is larger than a virus and enters the body through the lungs, meaning it is an airborne infection.
Dr. Hall examines the two survivors with assistance from Nurse Anson. The old man gives his name as Mr. Jackson, and the babies name as Manuel. Through questioning Jackson, Hall learns that he has a stomach ulcer, and to manage the pain he regularly takes asprin and drinks raw alcohol, and Manuel suffers from colic, leading to him crying all the time. From these observations, he deduces that the disease cannot propogate in the blood if it is too acid or too alkaline.
In the meantime, Stone and Leavitt find the cause of the disease inside the satellite, a small grain of sand which contains a glowing green substance. To their astonishment, as they observe the substance through a powerful microscope, it begins growing.
Soon after this, the disease, now code named "Andromeda" begins to mutate, and as an observation plane passes over Piedmont, the new form of the disease consumes all of the plastic on the plane, causing it to crash, confirming the wildfire teams observations that the disease begins to mutate rapidly when exposed to a suitable growth medium.
Dutton and Stone manage to isolate a single cell of Andromeda, and discover that it is unlike any form of life found on earth, as it exists as a perfect crystalline life form, capable of converting all energy it is exposed to into matter in order to reproduce itself. From this, they deduce that Andromeda is an extra terrestrial life form.
They quickly contact General Sparks, who is overseeing the nuclear sterilization of Piedmont and stop him from going through with it, as to expose the Andromeda to that much radiation would cause it to mutate into an almost infinite number of forms and allow it to reproduce on a geometric scale.
Dr. Leavitt conducts a series of tests to see if they can in any way come up with an effective chemical inhibitor or agent to kill off the organism, however just as she discovers a possible cure, the red warning light on her computer terminal causes her to have an epileptic seizure, something which she had not declared during her medical tests and thus causes her to black out and forget that she has in essence, found a cure.
Later, as Dr Dutton examines some of the Andromeda samples in the pathology lab, the mutated form which eats plastic manages to break free from its sample container, and the contamination alert sounds, causing the level to enter full lock down.
Leavitt accompanies Hall to try and help Dutton by telling him of their discovery, but the red warning light once again causes Leavitt to have a seizure, which leads the assembled staff to believe that she has "got the germ" and flee in terror. As Hall manages to bring her out of it, Andromeda escapes the containment by eating though the rubber gaskets sealing their air conditioning system, and thus the base enters the self destruct phase of operation, beginning its five minute countdown immediately.
Hall has to run a gauntlet of poison gas jets and lasers (intended to prevent the escape of diseased lab animals) in order to reach the 3rd level, as the section he found himself trapped in when the final alert sounded did not have a bomb control substation, forcing him to have to enter the facilities main air shaft and climb up, getting injured as he climbs when he is hit by a laser blast.
He manages to get to a sub station on level three and deactivate the bomb, by which time the Andromeda contaminating the base has mutated itself into a harmless form which escapes wildfire and drifts into the upper atmosphere.
The board of enquiries final conclusion is that the wildfire facility experiment was a complete success, but the films closing image is of a single Andromeda cell rapidly reproducing and mutating.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Review:- "Colossus - The Forbin Project" (1970)
"Colossus:- The Forbin project" is a 1970 film based on the 1966 novel "Colossus" (the first novel in a series of three) by British author D.F Jones.
The film (and the book) deals with the aftermath of the activation of an U.S supercomputer defence system, designed and built by Dr. Charles Forbin with the intention of using it firstly to remove human emotion from decisions based around the defence of the free world, and secondly to provide mankind with an invaluable tool with which to pursue peaceful scientific development.
Once activated though, Colossus has other ideas...
The film itself is an enjoyable enough bit of a sci-fi cold war techno thriller, and although many such films have been made in recent years exploring what would happen if mankind became too reliant on technology for decision making, at the time of its release in 1970, it was a bit of an oddity.
With heavy satirical overtones and bits of humour dotted throughout, the film does well in exploring the theme of human powerlessness when faced with a superior foe.
In addition, it helps that many of the players in the film are largely unknown (or forgotten) "B-list" actors, even though the film was made on a fairly high budget, much of this appears to have been spent on some of the special effects and props used throughout.
The lead character, Dr. Charles Forbin, is played by German actor Eric Braeden , however the role was originally offered to both Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, who were both unable to take it due to their commitments to other projects, so the films producer, Stanley Chase, decided instead to go with Braeden in the lead role, as he said he preferred a relative unknown so as not to draw the focus of the film away from the main storyline, which is indeed somewhat difficult to follow in places.
Unlike in many depictions of the "computer gone mad" genre, Colossus is not depicted as a genocidal maniac, but rather as a kind of benevolent dictator, which acts on its core programming of preventing war by directly controlling mankind and steering it towards an era of enforced peace via the sacrifice of many personal freedoms.
The film contains many humourous scenes based around Colossus' complete inability to understand human behavior, for example a scene in which it does not understand what Forbin is doing as he prepares a martini for himself, and in a scene where Forbin discusses his sexual needs.
All in all, I enjoyed this film, as unlike many other similar films that came after it, it doesn't spend too much time concentrating on infodump, and when it does it does so in a way that it fits nicely in with the storyline.
In addition the film eschews all of the usual extravagant and/or over the top special effects sequences usually associated with sci-fi films (although it must be said that at the time it was made this was not a cliche within sci-fi films) in favour of many practical effects and contemporary imagery and props.
The film is available on DVD but can be difficult to find, therefore a link is provided here so that you can watch the full film online.
The film (and the book) deals with the aftermath of the activation of an U.S supercomputer defence system, designed and built by Dr. Charles Forbin with the intention of using it firstly to remove human emotion from decisions based around the defence of the free world, and secondly to provide mankind with an invaluable tool with which to pursue peaceful scientific development.
Once activated though, Colossus has other ideas...
The film itself is an enjoyable enough bit of a sci-fi cold war techno thriller, and although many such films have been made in recent years exploring what would happen if mankind became too reliant on technology for decision making, at the time of its release in 1970, it was a bit of an oddity.
With heavy satirical overtones and bits of humour dotted throughout, the film does well in exploring the theme of human powerlessness when faced with a superior foe.
In addition, it helps that many of the players in the film are largely unknown (or forgotten) "B-list" actors, even though the film was made on a fairly high budget, much of this appears to have been spent on some of the special effects and props used throughout.
The lead character, Dr. Charles Forbin, is played by German actor Eric Braeden , however the role was originally offered to both Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, who were both unable to take it due to their commitments to other projects, so the films producer, Stanley Chase, decided instead to go with Braeden in the lead role, as he said he preferred a relative unknown so as not to draw the focus of the film away from the main storyline, which is indeed somewhat difficult to follow in places.
Unlike in many depictions of the "computer gone mad" genre, Colossus is not depicted as a genocidal maniac, but rather as a kind of benevolent dictator, which acts on its core programming of preventing war by directly controlling mankind and steering it towards an era of enforced peace via the sacrifice of many personal freedoms.
The film contains many humourous scenes based around Colossus' complete inability to understand human behavior, for example a scene in which it does not understand what Forbin is doing as he prepares a martini for himself, and in a scene where Forbin discusses his sexual needs.
All in all, I enjoyed this film, as unlike many other similar films that came after it, it doesn't spend too much time concentrating on infodump, and when it does it does so in a way that it fits nicely in with the storyline.
In addition the film eschews all of the usual extravagant and/or over the top special effects sequences usually associated with sci-fi films (although it must be said that at the time it was made this was not a cliche within sci-fi films) in favour of many practical effects and contemporary imagery and props.
The film is available on DVD but can be difficult to find, therefore a link is provided here so that you can watch the full film online.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
W2W & UJ - WAI U NO WERK???
Well, it is now Day 9 of the governments "new" universal jobmatch scheme existence, and over the past nine days the scheme and its website have shown that it offers very little improvement over the previous system, bar it being slightly more user friendly (provided of course that you can figure out how to get past the main page without being tricked into signing up for one of the illegal UJ snooper accounts.
For pretty much the full day last Thursday (22/11/2012) the site was either down or suffering from extreme functionality problems such as links to actual job adverts not working, long page load times, and other misc associated problems that occur with poorly constructed webshites.
On top of sites technical problems, the sites poor levels of proof reading and filtering quickly became apparent when A fake vacancy was posted asking for a 007 style Government assassin was allowed to be displayed for several days before being quickly removed by red faced DWP staff once the advert had already gone viral.
I haven't commented on these, quite frankly, ridiculously lulzy items sooner because for the past week or so I have been languishing with a dose of a winter illness of some description, and when you wake up every morning and spend 20 minutes hacking up cricket ball sized lumps of phlegm, you really don't feel up to writing anything.
So, the latest bit of news from the DWP and Con-Dems latest and most fabulous scheme for demonising the unemployed is that unfortunately The whole fucking thing doesn't work , and, adding insult to injury, it turns out that in reality, more people gained employment by not participating/being forced to participate in the scheme than what they did when they were on it.
The final figures show that out of the comically low target of 5.5% success rate (based on getting people from a state of unemployment to a state of being in work expected to last for more than six weeks), the assembled "private contractors" such as A4E, Serco, G4S and a whole host of others have only been able to secure a final success rate of 2.3%, with a per person cost of £2097...now if thats not value for money then I don't know what is!!!! *rolleyes*.
Also, I will point out now that the "target" of 5.5% was actually not an official target, but in fact the "minimum acceptable level" set by the government as a measure of success, so not only have the W2W providers failed, they've failed hard in an epic fashion.
So, did the government act swiftly to correct this problem by suspending contracts?, did they refuse to pay companies who have failed?, did they try and Do something to correct the situation with regards to people being "underemployed"?.........
No
Instead, Secretary of State for Work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, along with his bumbling sidekick, the Minister for work and pensions Mark Hoban, immediately contacted their PR people to get some positive spin/disinformation on the subject, resulting in a Laughable series of interviews and statements claiming that the figures were actually "good" and that "it was impossible to see the big picture simply from a snapshot of the program from a 12 month perspective"...*sigh*.
In parliament today , Ed Milliband and David Camoron clashed during PMQs over the issue, with Camoron retaliating by quoting figures which have been proven to be either incorrect and/or intentionally not reflective of reality, for example the figure of "over 200,000" was given as the number of people who had "found work", with no mention of the fact that the majority of this figure is comprised of people who have either been taken off unemployment benefits for some reason, or who have been forced into unpaid and/or short term "non-jobs", only to return to claiming unemployment benefits a short while later.
I attended my first appointment for the "Welfare to Work" scheme at Doncaster Jobcentre on the morning of the 22nd of November, and after being sat there for over an hour, I left still none the wiser as to what I was supposed to be doing, once again demonstrating that the Jobcentre really doesn't bother providing their staff with adaquate training about the services they are supposed to be providing.
The guy I spoke to seemed genuinely willing to help and discuss things, but it quickly became obvious that he had very little idea about what he was actually doing (he had to refer to a manager several times in order to answer some of my questions), but he was very respectful and understanding when I told him that I refused to sign any of the documents that I was presented with until after I had taken legal advice, even saying that I was under no obligation to sign anything, although I was not allowed to take the documents away for further perusal (hmmm..I wonders why?).
Oddly enough though, even though the Jobcentre walls and desks were awash with posters and leaflets extolling the virtues of making an account with Universal Jobmatch, not once was the subject brought up, which is a shame, because i was quite looking forward to having that debate with a JCP drone.
For pretty much the full day last Thursday (22/11/2012) the site was either down or suffering from extreme functionality problems such as links to actual job adverts not working, long page load times, and other misc associated problems that occur with poorly constructed webshites.
On top of sites technical problems, the sites poor levels of proof reading and filtering quickly became apparent when A fake vacancy was posted asking for a 007 style Government assassin was allowed to be displayed for several days before being quickly removed by red faced DWP staff once the advert had already gone viral.
I haven't commented on these, quite frankly, ridiculously lulzy items sooner because for the past week or so I have been languishing with a dose of a winter illness of some description, and when you wake up every morning and spend 20 minutes hacking up cricket ball sized lumps of phlegm, you really don't feel up to writing anything.
So, the latest bit of news from the DWP and Con-Dems latest and most fabulous scheme for demonising the unemployed is that unfortunately The whole fucking thing doesn't work , and, adding insult to injury, it turns out that in reality, more people gained employment by not participating/being forced to participate in the scheme than what they did when they were on it.
The final figures show that out of the comically low target of 5.5% success rate (based on getting people from a state of unemployment to a state of being in work expected to last for more than six weeks), the assembled "private contractors" such as A4E, Serco, G4S and a whole host of others have only been able to secure a final success rate of 2.3%, with a per person cost of £2097...now if thats not value for money then I don't know what is!!!! *rolleyes*.
Also, I will point out now that the "target" of 5.5% was actually not an official target, but in fact the "minimum acceptable level" set by the government as a measure of success, so not only have the W2W providers failed, they've failed hard in an epic fashion.
So, did the government act swiftly to correct this problem by suspending contracts?, did they refuse to pay companies who have failed?, did they try and Do something to correct the situation with regards to people being "underemployed"?.........
No
Instead, Secretary of State for Work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, along with his bumbling sidekick, the Minister for work and pensions Mark Hoban, immediately contacted their PR people to get some positive spin/disinformation on the subject, resulting in a Laughable series of interviews and statements claiming that the figures were actually "good" and that "it was impossible to see the big picture simply from a snapshot of the program from a 12 month perspective"...*sigh*.
In parliament today , Ed Milliband and David Camoron clashed during PMQs over the issue, with Camoron retaliating by quoting figures which have been proven to be either incorrect and/or intentionally not reflective of reality, for example the figure of "over 200,000" was given as the number of people who had "found work", with no mention of the fact that the majority of this figure is comprised of people who have either been taken off unemployment benefits for some reason, or who have been forced into unpaid and/or short term "non-jobs", only to return to claiming unemployment benefits a short while later.
I attended my first appointment for the "Welfare to Work" scheme at Doncaster Jobcentre on the morning of the 22nd of November, and after being sat there for over an hour, I left still none the wiser as to what I was supposed to be doing, once again demonstrating that the Jobcentre really doesn't bother providing their staff with adaquate training about the services they are supposed to be providing.
The guy I spoke to seemed genuinely willing to help and discuss things, but it quickly became obvious that he had very little idea about what he was actually doing (he had to refer to a manager several times in order to answer some of my questions), but he was very respectful and understanding when I told him that I refused to sign any of the documents that I was presented with until after I had taken legal advice, even saying that I was under no obligation to sign anything, although I was not allowed to take the documents away for further perusal (hmmm..I wonders why?).
Oddly enough though, even though the Jobcentre walls and desks were awash with posters and leaflets extolling the virtues of making an account with Universal Jobmatch, not once was the subject brought up, which is a shame, because i was quite looking forward to having that debate with a JCP drone.
Thursday, 22 November 2012
"The Machine Gunners" BBC 1983
The Machine Gunners was a BBC childrens drama serial which first aired in 1983, based on Robert Westalls 1975 novel of the same name.
The series (and book) tells the story of a group of children living in the fictional town of Garmouth (based on Tynemouth) in the North East of England during World War 2, or more specifically winter 1940 to summer 1941. As the north east was one of the most heavily industrialised areas of Britain at the time, it became one of the primary targets for the German bombing campaign.
I first saw this serial (and read the book) as part of my GCSE English studies. We were doing a section about how different accents and dialects affect the use of language and our teacher had chosen this book as one of the examples a different and somewhat unfamiliar dialect than the one we were used to.
Being a bit of a fan of war stories the book/series stuck in my mind and I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to youtube., as it -like so many childrens drama serials from the late 70s and early 80s- has never been released on video or DVD.
Starring a cast of people you will have never heard of before or since, the story itself is a kind of "coming of age" type affair, with the children learning over time about responsibility and such, all while dealing with such childhood experiences such as bullying, playground rivalries.
The key points of the story revolve around the character of Charlie "Chas" McGill, who one day while out looking to find stuff to expand his "war souvenir" collection (mainly consisting of pieces of shrapnel, bomb fins, spent cartridges etc, a common hobby during WW2 for many boys) at the site of a burnt out building, he is chased away by an ARP warden while trying to steal parts from the burnt out engine of a German plane.
After fleeing into the woods, he cant believe his luck as he comes across the almost intact remains of a Luftwaffe Heinkel HE-111 medium bomber which had been shot down the night before. As he pokes around the wreckage, he finds an intact, and fully operational MG-15 machine gun as well as over 2000 rounds of live ammunition,but has to return later with his friend Cyril "cemetery" Jones to retrieve it as the weapon is attached to the planes airframe, requiring the use of a hacksaw to remove it.
Chas and his friends eventually build a fortress on the nearby coastline and use the machine gun to shoot at incoming German aircraft - with dubious results - in an effort to "do their bit" for the war effort.
Things don't stay rosy for long though after they find an injured German airman and decide to hold him hostage within their fortress, and when their machine gun breaks they are forced to strike a bargain with him in order to get it fixed, all the while avoiding detection by the local police who know of the machine guns existence and are aware of the possibility that a German may be at loose in the area.
The series can be watched by clicking here.
The series (and book) tells the story of a group of children living in the fictional town of Garmouth (based on Tynemouth) in the North East of England during World War 2, or more specifically winter 1940 to summer 1941. As the north east was one of the most heavily industrialised areas of Britain at the time, it became one of the primary targets for the German bombing campaign.
I first saw this serial (and read the book) as part of my GCSE English studies. We were doing a section about how different accents and dialects affect the use of language and our teacher had chosen this book as one of the examples a different and somewhat unfamiliar dialect than the one we were used to.
Being a bit of a fan of war stories the book/series stuck in my mind and I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to youtube., as it -like so many childrens drama serials from the late 70s and early 80s- has never been released on video or DVD.
Starring a cast of people you will have never heard of before or since, the story itself is a kind of "coming of age" type affair, with the children learning over time about responsibility and such, all while dealing with such childhood experiences such as bullying, playground rivalries.
The key points of the story revolve around the character of Charlie "Chas" McGill, who one day while out looking to find stuff to expand his "war souvenir" collection (mainly consisting of pieces of shrapnel, bomb fins, spent cartridges etc, a common hobby during WW2 for many boys) at the site of a burnt out building, he is chased away by an ARP warden while trying to steal parts from the burnt out engine of a German plane.
After fleeing into the woods, he cant believe his luck as he comes across the almost intact remains of a Luftwaffe Heinkel HE-111 medium bomber which had been shot down the night before. As he pokes around the wreckage, he finds an intact, and fully operational MG-15 machine gun as well as over 2000 rounds of live ammunition,but has to return later with his friend Cyril "cemetery" Jones to retrieve it as the weapon is attached to the planes airframe, requiring the use of a hacksaw to remove it.
Chas and his friends eventually build a fortress on the nearby coastline and use the machine gun to shoot at incoming German aircraft - with dubious results - in an effort to "do their bit" for the war effort.
Things don't stay rosy for long though after they find an injured German airman and decide to hold him hostage within their fortress, and when their machine gun breaks they are forced to strike a bargain with him in order to get it fixed, all the while avoiding detection by the local police who know of the machine guns existence and are aware of the possibility that a German may be at loose in the area.
The series can be watched by clicking here.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Universal Jobmatch:- Day Two- Dem Agency Blues!
So after yesterdays non publicised launch of the UJ system, and my decidedly "middle of the road" first impression of it ,I decided to do my daily jobsearch using the sites "basic" facilities (nope, sorry DWP/Monster Worldwide, I wont be giving you my details to sell on).
As I said yesterday, the sites search engine is a lot more user friendly than the previous one used by Direct.gov, however I can see where novice computer users would get confused and/or frustrated by it, and funnily enough, you cannot give site feedback until you have set up a "full" account......oh well.
So, one of the common gripes I have from jobsearch is usually down to employment agency vacancies, or more specifically due to the following:
The JCP do not appear to vet any of the entries made on the "official" JCP jobsearch facilities, or at least they didn't prior to the launch of the UJ system, whether Monster will vet posted vacancies is yet to be seen, but judging from some of the shit that i've seen posted on monster.co.uk, its highly doubtful.
Anyways, returning to the main focus of today's exersise , I eventually found four jobs to apply for, the first one was direct with an employer (surprising), and the remaining three were agencies.
The branch I called was the Doncaster branch, which is listed on their website at the following address:
15 East Laith Gate,
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
DN1 1JG
01302 363811 (Google street level entry here)
The vacancy, like all the ones they list, requests that you ask for "Carol Buzzard", so when the phone was answered, that's who I asked for, however I was never put through to this person, instead, I spent the next seven minutes talking to a woman who refused to give her name, but over the course of the phone call told me no less than three times that she had worked for Travail for 15 years (whoopee doo!).
After explaining to "15 years" that I was interested in applying for the position, and that Travail already had my current CV on file, she began a rather strange line of questioning, firstly asking if I was registered with them, to which I replied in the affirmative, before she then went into a long monologue about how I would need to come in to see them so they could assess my "personal suitability" to work for the clients that they deal with. I asked what this meant, and was refused a clarification, so I ventured that it was some sort of psychological profiling, which was immediately sidestepped in favour of a line of questioning with regards to my recent work history.
I explained to her that I had not had a job for nearly two years, and that the first year was due to me being unable to work due to long term illness, to which "15 years" asked what was the exact nature of my illness.
Sorry, but that is between me and my GP, all they need to know is that I am now healthy and fit, able and more importantly, willing to work.
"15 years" then said the following, and I quote:
"Well, you're not doing yourself any favours, I mean, as you are unemployed, you have a lot of time on your hands, and you should be using that time to actively look for work"
I asked what that was supposed to mean, and the reply was that "in her opinion", I was obviously not applying for anything, so I asked her how, on the basis of our short conversation, she had arrived at this rather insulting conclusion, and "15 years" had no comeback to this, and, I got the distinct impression that she knew she had she had fucked up, being as that her speech suddenly became stuttery, and when asked for her name, she refused to give it, she then hung up.
To be honest, this sort of shit happens far too often when it comes to agencies, not only to me but to many people whom I know. Discrimination is rife within the employment agency industry, and the whole "I've got a job, why haven't you?" attitude is taken to a whole new and disgustingly too tolerated level.
Todays example, courtesy of Travail (moar liek TraFAIL), is a classic example of someone who has got their feet well and truly under the table and believes themselves to be untouchable, and also serves as a classic example of the poor standards of customer service and best practice employed by these agencies, who, and lets be honest here, are just another part of the "commission culture" that has led us to the place that we are in now.
If there is one feature I would actually support being added to the UJ system, it should be a facility to provide feedback about employers who have advertised vacancies, for example, would something like this be too much to ask for?:
Q1 - Did the employer respond to say they had received your application?
Q2 - Did the employer contact you to arrange an interview?
Q3 - Did the employer provide any feedback if your application was unsuccessful?
Q4 - Rate your experience with this employer out of 5
Q5 -Do you have any comments about your experience?
That way, if an employer/advertiser receives a poor level of feedback, their vacancies can be flagged for vetting by DWP/JCP staff, and thus not waste peoples time applying for positions from employers or agencies who have a poor record of service.
Will it happen though?, probably not, cos you know, that'd actually be useful and allow people to feel like they are being treated like human beings.
As I said yesterday, the sites search engine is a lot more user friendly than the previous one used by Direct.gov, however I can see where novice computer users would get confused and/or frustrated by it, and funnily enough, you cannot give site feedback until you have set up a "full" account......oh well.
So, one of the common gripes I have from jobsearch is usually down to employment agency vacancies, or more specifically due to the following:
- Advertised vacancies do not actually exist
- Advertised vacancies being vague and/or evasive
- Incorrect or missing contact information
- Agencies themselves not existing and the vacancy is a scam to collect personal information
The JCP do not appear to vet any of the entries made on the "official" JCP jobsearch facilities, or at least they didn't prior to the launch of the UJ system, whether Monster will vet posted vacancies is yet to be seen, but judging from some of the shit that i've seen posted on monster.co.uk, its highly doubtful.
Anyways, returning to the main focus of today's exersise , I eventually found four jobs to apply for, the first one was direct with an employer (surprising), and the remaining three were agencies.
- "Customer service advisor" through the Spring agency. Contact details given were a name, a phone number and an email address. I called up as Spring already have my CV on file, as I have applied for at least half a dozen vacancies with them this past month, and after a short conversation, it turns out that the vacancy has been filled. Oh well, never mind and all that.
- "Administrator" via Jobs4Network. Simply requested that a CV be emailed to them along with a cover letter. Done and dusted in less than 5 minute, jobs a good un! (or not, probably, being as that over the past year ive applied for at least 65 vacancies through this site and have yet to receive any kind of response from them)
- "Customer service Advisor" via Travail Employment Group , contact details gave a name, email address and telephone number. As with Spring, Travail have my CV already, so thus I decided to call them direct and enquire further about the job, and that's where things went south...
The branch I called was the Doncaster branch, which is listed on their website at the following address:
15 East Laith Gate,
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
DN1 1JG
The vacancy, like all the ones they list, requests that you ask for "Carol Buzzard", so when the phone was answered, that's who I asked for, however I was never put through to this person, instead, I spent the next seven minutes talking to a woman who refused to give her name, but over the course of the phone call told me no less than three times that she had worked for Travail for 15 years (whoopee doo!).
After explaining to "15 years" that I was interested in applying for the position, and that Travail already had my current CV on file, she began a rather strange line of questioning, firstly asking if I was registered with them, to which I replied in the affirmative, before she then went into a long monologue about how I would need to come in to see them so they could assess my "personal suitability" to work for the clients that they deal with. I asked what this meant, and was refused a clarification, so I ventured that it was some sort of psychological profiling, which was immediately sidestepped in favour of a line of questioning with regards to my recent work history.
I explained to her that I had not had a job for nearly two years, and that the first year was due to me being unable to work due to long term illness, to which "15 years" asked what was the exact nature of my illness.
Sorry, but that is between me and my GP, all they need to know is that I am now healthy and fit, able and more importantly, willing to work.
"15 years" then said the following, and I quote:
"Well, you're not doing yourself any favours, I mean, as you are unemployed, you have a lot of time on your hands, and you should be using that time to actively look for work"
I asked what that was supposed to mean, and the reply was that "in her opinion", I was obviously not applying for anything, so I asked her how, on the basis of our short conversation, she had arrived at this rather insulting conclusion, and "15 years" had no comeback to this, and, I got the distinct impression that she knew she had she had fucked up, being as that her speech suddenly became stuttery, and when asked for her name, she refused to give it, she then hung up.
To be honest, this sort of shit happens far too often when it comes to agencies, not only to me but to many people whom I know. Discrimination is rife within the employment agency industry, and the whole "I've got a job, why haven't you?" attitude is taken to a whole new and disgustingly too tolerated level.
Todays example, courtesy of Travail (moar liek TraFAIL), is a classic example of someone who has got their feet well and truly under the table and believes themselves to be untouchable, and also serves as a classic example of the poor standards of customer service and best practice employed by these agencies, who, and lets be honest here, are just another part of the "commission culture" that has led us to the place that we are in now.
If there is one feature I would actually support being added to the UJ system, it should be a facility to provide feedback about employers who have advertised vacancies, for example, would something like this be too much to ask for?:
Q1 - Did the employer respond to say they had received your application?
Q2 - Did the employer contact you to arrange an interview?
Q3 - Did the employer provide any feedback if your application was unsuccessful?
Q4 - Rate your experience with this employer out of 5
Q5 -Do you have any comments about your experience?
That way, if an employer/advertiser receives a poor level of feedback, their vacancies can be flagged for vetting by DWP/JCP staff, and thus not waste peoples time applying for positions from employers or agencies who have a poor record of service.
Will it happen though?, probably not, cos you know, that'd actually be useful and allow people to feel like they are being treated like human beings.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Universal Jobmatch:- Day One
As I said in a previous blog entry, the whole scheme has been kept very much under wraps, so much so that many jobseekers were, and probably still are, completely unaware of its existence.
Thus far today, I have received THREE text messages from the Jobcentre regarding this scheme, even though I have not given them permission to contact me by text I may add, although they do have my mobile number.
The first text came at 10:35am and simply put was nothing more than a bog standard marketing text containing a very basic description of the service. One worrying thing about it though was the end of the text which said "Please register ASAP at www.gov.co.uk/jobsearch - this will be reviewed at your next attendance" and then followed by a geographical number to contact the jobcentre on.
The second text arrived at 10:45, containing the exact same text, but with the geographical number being replaced by an 0845 number, because hey, we all know the JCP don't want us contacting them directly, much less by a phone number which doesn't generate much of an income for them.
The third text of the day arrived at 4:05pm, and this time round instead of being a pseudo friendly marketing text, it contained the following text:-
"Today the new government website Universal Jobmatch has launched. To register you must have a valid e-mail address, our records show that you do not have one. It is important that you create an email account as a matter of priority in order to register and start using Universal Jobmatch. If you require assistance creating an email address please contact Doncaster JCP on 08456043719 or ask your personal advisor"
Ok, the above is a verbatim reproduction of the text I received, but unfortunately for JCP, the soft handed passive-aggressive bully tactics contained in this text will not work on me, so to wit, the following corrections are a more accurate picture of how the situation with UJ actually is:-
#1 - Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 I, or indeed any UK citizen, am under no obligation whatsoever, legal or otherwise, to enter into any kind of agreement whereby I will face the possibility of my personal information being stolen or misused in any way contrary to my wishes. The Sites own privacy policy itself clearly states, and I quote:
“We try to limit access to our searchable CV database only to those employers who have been given permission, but cannot guarantee that people or organisations without permission will not gain access to this database.”.
In addition to this piss poor promise of low security, buried within the UJ sites Terms and Conditions of use they say (in addition to this being the ONLY section of the website which states that the sites database will NOT be overseen by the DWP, but instead will be overseen by Monster Worldwide ltd, who already have a poor record when it comes to safeguarding personal data ) that, and I quote:
“We cannot protect you from unwanted emails that you may receive that may advertise products or services for sale, although We can choose to restrict the number of emails which an employer may send to you.”
If this is true, then the whole site has been set up in direct contravention of the DPA 1998 and thus is not fit for purpose.
#2 - The second correction is a very simple one. In the "thinly veiled threat" text received by me at 4:05pm today they state that:
".. It is important that you create an email account as a matter of priority in order to register and start using Universal Jobmatch.."
Oops!, sorry DWP, but that one wont work either, as firstly this document (along with source) shows, there is NO OBLIGATION whatsoever for anyone ti register any of their personal information with the UJ scheme, neither is there any recourse against them if they don't, but secondly, a quick visit and poke around on the UJ site, located HERE , shows anyone with an ounce of common sense that there is no need whatsoever to provide any information to the site in order to perform jobsearch activities.
So, all that aside, I decided to check out the site (but not submit any personal information), to see if there had been any improvements to the job search facilities, because god knows the old direct.gov jobsearch site was in dire need of an overhaul.
The first thing you are greeted with is this:
Scrolling down the page reveals this:
Clicking on the "Other ways to apply" tab gets you this:
Clicking on the "Start now" button forwards you to this:
You will also note how under the heading "Welcome to Universal Jobmatch", it quite clearly says "you don't need an account to start searching for a job" and that making an account merely makes a profile for your CV to be attached to and sets up email notification.
Of course, no mention is made here that your account will be made accessible to any JCP or DWP employee who has access to the system, much less that any info contained in it will be more than likely sold or passed on to any of Monster Worldwides sub companies or affiliates for marketing purposes.
So, going back to the main jobsearch page and typing in "Doncaster" gets me this:
Both Lincoln and Leeds are NOT within a 20 mile radius of Doncaster (and don't get me started on using public transport to reach either of these destinations), given that the scale on this map is 1 inch = 10 miles.
Anyways, i decided to check through some of the results, firstly this one
Also shown is the drop down box containing the reasons as to why you will not be applying for this position, Id wager if you were using the "full" UJ account, you'd be sanctioned for clicking "I am not interested in this job" or "job doesn't match my career level".
Anyways, i tried a couple of other jobs on the list, to see if any of them held any contact details, and the next interesting thing came up here
So, all in all, the UJs "new" site offers some, albeit minimal, improvements over the old direct.gov.uk jobsearch facility, namely with regards to more user friendly search refinements, but at the same time its big brother-esque (and legally unsound) background goings off are still a cause for concern, and as such, I will not be giving any of my details to this site, unless given a written order to by a DWP advisor.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
The Children of Green Knowe (BBC 1986)
"The Children of Green Knowe" was a 4 part BBC Childrens drama serial based on the first book of the "Green Knowe" series by English author Lucy M Boston.
The books centre around the ancestral home of the Oldknowe family, and its seemingly magical ability to make the past come alive and recount the stories of the many generations of the Oldknow family who have lived there.
I remember seeing this series when it originally aired back in 1986, and I know it was repeated once or twice in the late 80s but it has never been released on video or DVD (like many CBBC productions, sadly), but its charming made enough of an impression on my young mind that I remembered the basic storyline.
The story centres around a young boy named Toseland (or "Tolly" as he prefers), who is sent to stay with his great-grandmother (whom he calls "granny") at the ancestral family home of Green Know. Green Know is an isolated manor house which ends up becoming cut off from the rest of the world during the winter period by flooding, but has stood there for nearly a thousand years.
As Tolly's father is serving in Burma (the series is set during the early years of World War 2), he is eager to see some of his family.
As he explores the house and its grounds, and learns more about his family history from stories told by Granny and the gamekeeper, Mr. Boggins, he begins to encounter the spirits of his ancestors from the period encompassing the reign of King Charles II (who once even visited the village near Green Knowe).
Over the course of his time there, he learns a lot about his family and the history surrounding the house, as well as life lessons from their example.
I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to Youtube, and so here it is, should you wish to watch it...
Episode 1 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 2 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 4 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
The books centre around the ancestral home of the Oldknowe family, and its seemingly magical ability to make the past come alive and recount the stories of the many generations of the Oldknow family who have lived there.
I remember seeing this series when it originally aired back in 1986, and I know it was repeated once or twice in the late 80s but it has never been released on video or DVD (like many CBBC productions, sadly), but its charming made enough of an impression on my young mind that I remembered the basic storyline.
The story centres around a young boy named Toseland (or "Tolly" as he prefers), who is sent to stay with his great-grandmother (whom he calls "granny") at the ancestral family home of Green Know. Green Know is an isolated manor house which ends up becoming cut off from the rest of the world during the winter period by flooding, but has stood there for nearly a thousand years.
As Tolly's father is serving in Burma (the series is set during the early years of World War 2), he is eager to see some of his family.
As he explores the house and its grounds, and learns more about his family history from stories told by Granny and the gamekeeper, Mr. Boggins, he begins to encounter the spirits of his ancestors from the period encompassing the reign of King Charles II (who once even visited the village near Green Knowe).
Over the course of his time there, he learns a lot about his family and the history surrounding the house, as well as life lessons from their example.
I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to Youtube, and so here it is, should you wish to watch it...
Episode 1 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 2 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 4 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
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