Community News Feeds

Norton’s Peel operates a number of news feeds which collectively build news readers based on broad themes, rather than specific topics. Below are a list of feeds available for general reading or even contribution:

Grimsdale’s Ire

Mr Grimsdale was a genial civil servant in the excellent Norman Wisdom comedy, The Square Peg. Set during the Second World War, the first half of the film focuses on the clash between the council workmen’s drive to complete road maintenance outside the base and the army’s attempts to continue the war effort without Norman Wisdom’s mishaps and shenanigans.

Rather than focusing on their respective tasks the characters spend their time fighting each other rather than cooperating to both ‘keep the arteries of Britain open’ and fighting the enemy. Mr Grimsdale serves as a metaphor to highlight the failures that result in communications breakdown, the failure of operating within silos and not focusing on achieving common goals between stakeholders.

To visit, please click here

Heron’s Eye

According to ancient legend, a mischievous band of Roman soldiers discovered, in the final days of an otherwise pitiful siege in Britain, that their enemy lived in perpetual fear of a half-man, half-bird creature known as the Heron King. Hoisting a Roman solider onto stilts and slapping a heron mask over his face, the Romans sent a tipsy Heron King decoy careening into the middle of a British camp, watching as lines of Celtish soldiers scurried off in terror.

The Heron King serves as a metaphor to highlight the ingenuity involved to sway people, the hollowness of some symbolism and the dangers of becoming influenced by malign propaganda.

To visit, please click here

Mobius’ Loop

Mobius is the surname of a lateral thinker who was able to double the effectiveness of an existing process through thinking outside the box. In the most well known example of his methods a leather strip that was used in a mill was cut in half. One side was rotated 180° and refixed so that the leather strip was worn down on both sides rather than just one.

Mobius reminds us that sometimes doing the right thing can sometimes be more important that doing something well. He serves as a metaphor for the benefits of innovation, even for minor alterations and how the waste of resources and opportunity should be actively avoided.

To visit, please click here

Desiderius’ Enquiry

Originator of the adage, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” and credited with originating the English phrase “Pandora’s box”, Desiderius Erasmus was a 16th century scholar and philosopher.

Working throughout Europe, Erasmus’ humanist techniques for working on religious texts and careful criticism of contemporary Christian beliefs made a major impact both on Western philosophy and academic impartiality.

Focusing on the various effects of globalisation, particularly the EU project, Desiderian Enquiry hopes to match Erasmus’ example. Through providing balanced and well informed news articles, this news feed hopes to cut through the media’s noise regarding these very emotive and usually partisan issues.

To visit, please click here

Weizenbaum’s Concern

Professor emeritus of computer science and author, Joseph Weizenbaum raised important questions regarding the relationship between computers and human thought.

Weizenbaum published the program called ELIZA in 1966, which performed natural language processing and was capable of engaging humans in a conseration similar to emphatic psychologists. It is considered the forerunner of thinking machines.

The programs ability to be taken seriously by many users shocked Weizenbaum, as some would open their hearts to the code. As a result, he started to think philisophically about the implications of artificial intelligence, later becoming one its leading critics.

The influencial book Computer Power and Human Reason highlights his concerns towards computer technology, suggesting that computers should never be allowed to make important decisions as a result of their lack of compassion and wisdom.

Weizenbaum’s Concern attempts to highlight contemporary technological issues in the hope that people may become more self aware of how technology impacts on our daily lives and the increasingly symbiotic relationship between man and technology.

To visit, please click here

To contribute or for more information, click here.