mellotron_breakfast

On Wednesday evening, I caught up with Derek M (and finished their book the night before), and we ventured to see Jimmy Wales in conversation with Sally Warhaft at the Capitol Theatre. As the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy described the community (first priority), history, the challenges, and future of Wikipedia in a very charming and perhaps overly optimistic style. Afterwards, I picked up a copy of his new book, "The Seven Rules of Trust", which I will review at a later date. At this stage, I will note that he uses a model based on "Authenticity", "Logic", and "Empathy", which seems valuable, and which ultimately reflects "Reliability". I foresee a more complex relationship between the dimensions as well; for example, suggestions from a source that is high in authenticity and logic would be good for factual advice, but you wouldn't use them for relationships. Likewise, high empathy but low logic would be someone you could reveal yourself to, but you might not want to take their advice!

Last night, I was a guest at a dinner at the Pullman to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the sister-state province relationship between Sichuan and Victoria. It was one of those high-level Chinese functions that included numerous politicians, diplomats, and business representatives, along with about 400 people in attendance, and an artistic parade of opera performers, pipa players, singers, and folk dancers. Being a Sichuan event, the cuisine was of superb quality, as was the baijiu. The event contrasted with the Sister Paul gig I went to earlier, an androgynous Japanese punk duo who played harmonic surf-punk and Ramones covers at breakneck speed, but somehow I manage to live comfortably with such juxtapositions. I'll be seeing them again on Monday.

A few other events I must mention: Fiona's birthday gathering at Mr Wilkinson on Saturday was superb, with wonderful company; I spent most of my time with the host, Meredith, Luna, and Clive. It was just the sort of company I wanted to be in after attending the Isla Bell rally earlier in the day, with its deeply emotional plea for justice. The night previous I had been at the Odean in Richmond to an Spandau Ballet and Ultravox "Vienna" tribute night with the album performed with Steven Wilson's mixes and magnificent surround-sound; it was also an opportunity to catchup with old Willsmere friend, Adam D. Dating further back, which I haven't previously mentioned, Nitul and I went to see the play at St Martin's "Curse of the House of Atreus". With a minimal set, the young actors really added a flourish to this, the most tragic of all Hellenic myths.

Early last year, I became aware of the death of a young artist and environmentalist, Isla Bell. The circumstances were pretty awful, and it quickly became obvious that I had a few friends close to family who, with what I consider to be a passionate and inspiring response, had established a charity to support young women artists. I made contact with the family to seek permission to engage in a fundraising campaign through the sale of some tabletop RPGs, as I have done in the past (Medicines sans Frontiers, UNHCR, Effective Altruism) and, over a couple of months and helped by the Conquest games convention and co-contributors (especially Simon Stroud), over $15000 was raised.

However, two days ago, Isla's accused killer, Marat Ganiev, had the manslaughter (originally murder) charges dropped by the public prosecutor , as were charges against his alleged co-offender Eyal Yaffe. Using the grim calculus, I understand the OPP's reasoning; there was no reasonable chance of conviction, because it was not possible to determine the cause of death, "beyond a reasonable doubt", even though everyone is quite aware of what happened.

This Saturday, friends and family have organised an "Isla Bell Justice Rally" in front of the State Library. Isla is remembered, and one day there will be justice for her and others.