Molecules of Emotion - my letter to Candace Pert in 2001

I have just come across this letter I started writing to Candace Pert in 2000, just after reading her book. It was finished and sent in 2001. Whilst I never received a reply the issues I raise seem as relevant today.

Dear Dr Pert,

I have just finished reading your book 'Molecules of Emotion'. I felt so engaged by the issues that you raise that I have decided to respond to my own emotional inclinations and write to you. We have not quite met - you sat next to me as we interviewed Stafford Beer at the ISSS Conference in Toronto recently and I was fortunate to be in the audience at your presentation the evening before.

Your book triggered many reflections for me and as I write I am still trying to make sense of some of them.

This was as far as it went at the time. It is now the 12^th May 2001 and despite the various demands on my time the desire to pick up where I left off remains. So here goes! I had hoped that we might meet up at the Vancouver Conference of the American Society of Cybernetics (May) but as I write I am not sure if you are still involved. Also, before saying more, perhaps I should say just a little about me - for context.

I did a first degree in Agricultural Science (University of Sydney) then, a little later, a PhD in plant eco-physiology. My research concerns have gradually moved from a focus on physiology, agronomy and ecology to grasslands as human activity systems then to grasslands as socially constructed systems. This transition accounts for why I now hold a Chair in Systems.

One of the main themes I would like to pick up is the way in which you resort to the term 'information' as an explanatory concept. The point I would like to develop is that I think 'information' as an explanatory concept may constrain appreciation of the phenomena you have so elegantly revealed.

For example p.71 you say: 'I prefer a broad term coined originally by the late Francis Schmitt of MIT - informational substances - because it points to their common function, that of messenger molecules distributing information throughout the organism'. Whilst I recognise the seductiveness of the information transfer metaphor (after all it is pervasive in our society, in the University, the classroom and elsewhere) I would argue that it conceals more than it reveals. To appreciate this there is a need to unpack the metaphor and to look at its historical development. Prior to the 1950s almost no-one in physiology, anatomy or neurophysiology would have used 'information' as an explanatory principle. It was only after the communication model of Shannon and Weaver was developed and the term 'information' began to displace 'signal' that the metaphor took hold. (For a further development of these ideas please see attached chapters from a recent book).

So basically information transfer has displaced signal transfer and what is more what was basically a mathematical model of communication has become adopted as an explanatory device for human communication (and we all know that human communication and machine communication are vastly different)! At the core of the contemporary 'information transfer' metaphor is the messenger - receiver dualism which is just like the mind - body dualism you so convincingly destroy. Drawing on the work of Humberto Maturana (who was also at Toronto and will be in Vancouver) we have found it helpful to avoid this dualism. Let me quote from Russell & Ison (2000):

' The nervous system is a closed network of interacting neurons. The physiology of the nervous system, because it is a structure-determined system (systems in which all their changes are determined by their structure and in which all those changes are a result of their own dynamics or triggered by their interactions with their environment) cannot be usefully compared to a computer or 'information transfer' system. Biologically, there are no inputs to, or outputs from, the nervous system, nor does the nervous system 'process information.' There is no encoding or decoding in the nervous system nor does it 'receive' or 'process' messages or 'information' from the environment.

The implication that flows from the nervous system being a closed and structure-determined system is that there can be no instructive interactions between such systems and between any one system and its environment. What another human can do, and all that an other can do, is trigger a response without any control over what that response might be. In no way can such a triggering determine the nature of the response. It is biologically impossible to instruct or determine an outcome with 'information.'

Since it is communication (internal and external) that creates what we call reality, developing a 'shared meaning' (a notion created by the observer) is going to involve the participation in the task of all those who will be affected by any outcome. If we accept that living systems are structure-determined systems then communication is a structural coupling of two (or more) individuals in conversation. So to converse is to dance: to turn together in a way that acknowledges the presence of two parties (one of course could and does converse with oneself) and acknowledges the willingness to act together in some mutually acceptable way. The meaning that we are inferring is similar to that found in the original Latin words: con... meaning 'with', and versare... meaning 'to turn'. The actual dance, the experience of the conversation, is a unique creation and we have no certainty whatsoever as to what the outcome might be. It is neither a transfer or a sharing of information. Useful knowledge, knowledge that will lead to satisfying action, is created by the joint action of both parties and encompasses both scientific and aesthetic judgements.'

From this perspective one might choose (p.130) to talk about networks of relationships (or perhaps conversations) rather than 'far-flung network of information' (also p. 138 - theory of information exchange). [As an aside your resort to Richard Dawkin's work ducks, to my mind, some serious issues - is a duck really a vehicle for the propagation of duck genes' or is it a means to conserve the organisation 'duck' in a changing environment?].

The phenomenon you describe on pp. 142 -143 is similar to the one Humberto uses when describing his work on vision which led him to conclude that in the moment we cannot distinguish between perception and illusion. It is only on reflection that we can become sure (or surer!). From his perspective the nervous system because of its history patterns the world (our world) rather than the reverse. It is the possibility of exploring the historicity of your peptides (history of structural coupling) and their relationship forming and breaking that this explanatory path opens that has excited me. It begins to provide an elegant biological basis for 'embodiment'.

The metaphor of communication as conversation seems to me so much more powerful to explain your claims (p179) that: 'Neuropetides and their receptors thus join the brain, glands and immune system in a network of communication between brain and body, probably representing the biochemical substrate of emotion.'

However (p.184) when you describe the 'network of communication, linked by information carriers known as neuropeptides' I am led to think what might be gained by expressing this in a different way? For example Fritjof Capra (The Web of Life 1996) chooses to describe networks in the following terms: 'As we perceive reality as a network of relationships, our descriptions, too form an interconnected network of concepts and models in which there are no foundations. For most scientists such a view of knowledge as a network with no firm foundations is extremely unsettling..' Thus from my perspective based on my understanding of what you write I might say (p.185): 'So what we have been talking about all along is a network of relationships. All neuropeptides have a history (ontogeny) and at any moment in time they are a product of their history of structural coupling. As they move around the body in response to a complex array of signals they form new relationships, the quality of which is determined by their history but with the capacity to realise new, emergent properties each time they enter into new relationships. One way of describing this is as an on-going network of conversations. What arises in conversation is '

Of course I am not a neuroscientist and this may be way off the mark. And maybe others have raised this with you already. However, I would at least be interested in your reactions should time and enthusiasm allow. My courage to write was prompted by the knowledge that you were interested in exploring new metaphors - e.g. p. 255. Perhaps you have already arrived at the metaphor of conversation as you refer to it on p 256. And I am largely in agreement with the arguments posited on pages 257-8 though I would not choose to describe it as 'information theory'. Nor can I subscribe to the view that information exists independently of the observer - the word information by the way comes from the Latin in formare, or formed within. The example of the cup (p.257) to me negates the idea that all knowing arises in relationship. So knowing the cup arises in my relationship with the cup - if I am apart from the cup all I have access to is my memory of the cup - a product of my history of structural coupling.

Enough of my rambling. My thanks for a thought stimulating read. If there are more recent overviews of your work in print and you have copies available I would appreciate receiving them.

Yours sincerely

Ray Ison

All page numbers refer to The Touchstone Edition (1999).

Even without climate change there is a water crisis of global significance

The late 20^th and early 21^st century will undoubtedly be seen as the ‘tipping point’ in which human interference in, and demands from, the water cycle transformed it irreversibly. As a recent review of the ‘global water crisis’ points out:

‘For the first time in human history, human use and pollution of freshwater have reached a level where water scarcity will potentially limit food production, ecosystem function, and urban supply in the decades to come’.

These authors conclude that new forms of collective action are required which will probably demand a 'new global water ethic or some other system of incentives if collective action is to be effective'. The actions they point to include changes in dietary patterns, a conservation ethic and cooperative management of shared resources. Recognition of the need for cooperative management is consistent with investing in social learning as a new governance mechanism and as a set of practices that lead to concerted action in complex situations such as that of water management.

The recent example of water shipments for the city of Barcelona is further evidence of the water crisis that is now upon us. The situation is particularly severe in the Mediterranean.

In the state of Victoria, Australia it makes increasing sense to believe that climate change is already happening and that this presents particular challenges for the city of Melbourne. Some of these are described in this March 2007 article. Later in 2007 the Government, seemingly under pressure, decided to act. Their choice of mainly engineering solutions - a desalination plant and a pipeline from the inland Murray Darling Basin - to secure Melbourne's water future have subsequently come under critical scrutiny by the State Auditor General, who said:
'The government had used flawed processes and "inadequate levels of rigour" in preparing the $4.9 billion plan'.

The Victorian plans and the broader set of policies for the Murray Darling Basin have also come in for scrutiny and criticism from Ken Davidson in The Age. He describes the latter as:

'At present the policy seems to be straight out of La La Land. ........It is a policy based on the hope of a miracle disguised by a mirage in the form of the basin authority, which assumes that extra water can be be found by spending billions upgrading irrigation infrastructure to reduce leakage and evaporation.'

In an article entitled: 'The new reality is entirely unrealistic' he shows how little regard he has for the likely effectiveness of policies of water trading based on a water market. See also 'Great water gamble could sink us all' or, for a range of perspectives, this piece by Jo Chandler.

These articles and the critical scrutiny they evoke are all to the good. On a recent study tour to look at the social and institutional aspects of water management in Israel I was struck by the unintended consequences that can arise through committing to an engineered, as opposed to ecological, water future. What was soon apparent in Israel was how complex the organisational and institutional arrangements were for managing water ...even before one considered matters relating to their neighbours. To the average citizen (and probably many who work in the water sector) the situation in Australia is equally complex. That is why we need more open debate to enhance systemic understanding, and, hopefully, practices (and this requires good policies and investment decisions).

Take for example the outcomes of the recent COAG meeting which resolved that stand-off between the Australian States in what was once referred to as the 'Howard $10 billion water plan'. It is good that there has been agreement at last - and that a new spirit of Federalism exists ...for the moment!! Aided no doubt by the extra $1 billion dollars that Victoria will receive from the Commonwealth. But like all deals the devil is in the detail. The Memoranda of Understanding are being written at the moment, in readiness for the next COAG meeting (where the PM and State Premiers meet). My reading of the COAG report or more precisely the 'Murray-Darling Basin Reform Memorandum of Understanding of 26 March 2008, agreed in principle for consultation with stakeholders', raised the following issues :

1. Who will be doing the due diligence assessment on the Victorian Food Bowl Group allocation given the comments of the State Auditor? And how can the amount of money allocated be spent over the time frame indicated?
2. Eight principles for urban water reform are listed - what are they?
3. The report says that priority will always be given to critical human needs. What does the phrase 'critical human needs' mean - and how will it be deployed in practice?
4. There is nothing about organizational and institutional complexity - and the on-going role of CMAs (Catchment Management Authorities) and NHT (National Heritage Trust) money?
5. Point 33 says:
   
All Basin jurisdictions agree to examine the way in which environmental water recovery programs should be managed to ensure they are cost effective and maximise environmental outcomes.'This wording implies that there are objective criteria that can be established - and that the boundaries for cost- effectiveness can be readily established? I would contend that these are emergent properties and that they can only ever be delivered through deliberative processes. As we have articulated in our SLIM work we see sustainability as an emergent property of stakeholder processes.

The so-called Howard plan has been reworked in the recent Australian Federal Budget:

'Rather than choosing to spend money on water saving measures on farms in the first year of the $12 billion plan for rural and urban water projects, the Government will move ahead to buy back farmers' water for the environment. In total there is $3.1 billion earmarked for buying back farmers' water over 10 years.

The Government will also start spending money on fixing up some of the main irrigation routes owned by irrigation companies and state governments. And it's already announced it will spend $1 billion on the Victorian Government's planned pipeline from the Goulbourn Valley to Melbourne. In total there is $5.8 billion earmarked for infrastructure projects across Australia over 10 years.'

It would have been more convincing if the new Government had emulated recent directives in the UK, where ministers have been told to factor in a carbon cost in all decisions relating to policy or investment. It would also be more convincing if energy and water policies could be 'joined -up' - perhaps through Covenants of Mayors.

In the UK a new strategy entitled ‘Future Water’ has recently been released. At least in the UK there is a national perspective.

CIWEM, the professional body of UK water managers has also recently produced a major report looking at water reuse in industry. Among their conclusions are:

'Water reuse should be an integral part of a suite of demand and supply measures that together can bring about more sustainable water management in the UK. To facilitate the uptake of industrial water reuse in the UK, the following issues will be critical:

1. The need for society to develop a greater appreciation of the anthropogenic influence on the water cycle
2. The need to develop fair pricing for all water resources reflecting their full economic and environmental costs and yet the short-term need for pump-priming financial support from government for sustainable water reuse projects
3. The need for a coherent government policy on water reuse (as CIWEM called for in it‟s 2002 Policy Position Statement) coupled with authoritative reclaimed water quality standards that are realistic and protect public health and the environment
4. The need for existing government programmes such as the Enhanced Capital Allowance Water Technology List and Envirowise business advisory service to be expanded to include water reuse technologies
5. The need for more research and development into low-carbon, economic water reuse solutions'

Water management and human intervention in the water cycle is a 'wicked problem'; it calls out for systems thinking and practice capability amongst those charged with developing policies, investments, institutions and stakeholder engagement.

Patterns that connect: new old narratives for contemporary circumstances?

Over the last two months I have had a number of experiences that taken together reveal some interesting questions - for me at least - about our taken-for-granted Western intellectual tradition. They are of interest I suggest for the very reason that our current ways of thinking and acting seem to have put us in a right mess!

My questions emerged from three particular experiences.

At dinner one evening the son of friends related how he was about to begin a politics course. They began, he said, with Plato's 'Republic'. I am not a politics scholar nor have I studied, in any systematic way, ancient history but I had been to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens a few weeks before. In what was an excellent set of displays I had become aware that the classical period of Athens, from which so much of Western Philosophy seems to derive, was only a very brief period. What impressed me more was the archaeological detail from the Cycladian civilisation that had existed in a ring of Island in the Mediterranean from about 3000 to 1100BC. Some of the artwork was deeply moving.

'Centered on the Cyclades islands, the Cycladic Civilisation is split up into three time periods. They are the Early Period (3000 – 2000 BC), the Middle Period (2000 – 1500 BC) and the Late Period (1500 – 1100 BC)'. .......'By the end of the Late Cycladic sequence (ca. 2000 BC) there was essential convergence between Cycladic and Minoan civilization.'

In comparison to the classical period these were 'sustainable civilisations' judged in terms of time. When these civilisations were destroyed, ultimately it is thought, by the massive eruption of Santorini (about 1520 BC) , the world in some ways regressed. Unlike the classical period little survives in written form. This is potent evidence of the power of the pen, so to speak - if one thinks of the power accorded in our intellectual traditions to the classical Greeks, followed by the Romans as well as Hebrew scholars.

So why does politics 101 start with Plato?

Some weeks later I found myself clambering over and amongst the remains of one of the many Nurarghi that can be found in Sardinia. These came from a civilisation, not unlike the Cycladian, which flourished from 1600 to 1000BC. I had seen these on an earlier visit but the patterns that connect were then outside my experience. The art and thus concerns of this civilisation had many features in common with the earlier Cycladians.

I must admit that some of the questions arising from my experiences were not entirely new. Some years before I had read drafts of what has just become 'Origins of Humanness in the Biology of Love' by Humberto Maturana Romesin & Gerda Verden-Zoller (ed. Pille Bunnell) so I was sensitised to these early European civilisations that seemed to flourish without the patriarchy that so typifies the much later Classical Greek and Hebrew traditions. As I understand it though, they suggest that the pre-patriarchal societies had started to wane by about 4500BC.

At this historical moment we need to re-examine and re-invent discourses more in keeping with our circumstances. Being open to different pasts can help in creating different futures. Let's find some different beginnings for politics 101.

Checkout the BBC World Service report on the Amazon Paradox

This excellent BBC report reveals many of the systemic issues that comprise the Amazon Paradox. They include human population growth, human livelihoods, climate impact, food production systems and global trade, technology and the need for new institutional arrangements that can pay for ecosystem services.

It is both difficult and dangerous to extract simple strategies for action from such a complex situation, but there is a need to act quickly. Future actions that seem warranted include:

1. Stopping the massive transfer of plant products to Europe for animal production (e.g. soya beans);
2. Reducing per capita meat consumption and reversing the social expectation that meat production rises with increases in income;
3. Develop new institutional arrangements that allow funds transfer to purchase ecosystem services in places like the Amazon and at the same time secure more sustainable livelihoods for local people;
4. Re-frame the whole conceptual edifice on which international trade talks are built.

New discipline of sustainable economics?

Check out where you stand with regard to the two contrasting paradigms depicted within this site dedicated to the new arena of 'sustainable economics'. As depicted here the current dominant paradigm is depicted with ecosystems subservient to the global economy and contrasted to that advocated by ecological and sustainable economists who see the economy as subservient (sub -systems) of ecosystems.

For some background see this article by Robert Gilman.

Can Senator Penny Wong head Australia in the right direction.....at last?

The whole world knows how irresponsible Australia was in dealing with its carbon footprint during the Howard years. This was also a period when the large coal and resources companies literally ran Australia's climate change policies - hence no ratification of Kyoto until the election of the Rudd Labor Government.

Now these same executives and their lobbyists are beating a path to the door of Penny Wong the minister responsible for developing Australia's climate change policies. She appears to be under intense pressure, but her own experience of trying to connect to Greenpower for her own home, is a telling example of why urgent action is needed to both reform the marketplace (i.e. carbon trading) and to introduce sweeping institutional reforms that favour changes in citizen behaviour and creates a wave of new investment in technologies other than coal - especially oxymoronic 'clean coal'! She needs help like that orchestrated by GetUp to resist and transform!

Some environmental NGOs seem less than helpful in this regard. Take WWF(Australia):

'Bourne [Director of WWF(Australia)] and his organisation have hitched their wagon, along with the Climate Institute, to the coal industry's strategy: that "clean coal" should be a key part of the Government's climate change policy. They are joined by the mining union.

The two environmental groups attracted intense heat from other green organisations for their policy switch earlier this year. The Greens senator Christine Milne believes "clean coal" technology will not be commercially feasible in time. She argues against using taxpayers' money to fund the technology. "It comes down to the 'polluter pays' principle," she says. "And if you believe the polluter should pay, the coal industry is the classic case because for the last 100 years it had made massive profits at the expense of the atmosphere and the climate and now is the time for them to pay for their own research."'

As someone who served on the programme Committee of WWF(UK) for a number of years I find the stance of the Australian office on clean coal to be ill-considered. Their rationale just does not stack up, especially in a country where the resources for new investment are not so great. Resources available to Government deserve to go anywhere but 'clean coal' and associated sequestration technologies.

It is of note that at last the shareholders of Exxon, one of the main funders of climate sceptics, have at last begun to speak out about the company's policies. These include members of the Rockefeller family, descendants of the company's founder. It is to be hoped that these moves by shareholders take effect at Board level. If they do not they will be yet another example of how too many current institutional arrangements stand in the way of transformations in business practices in a climate change world.

Academics speak out at last …but will it change things?

A group of 34 British Academics under the banner of ‘The Weston Manner Group’ have produced a manifesto calling for major changes in how Universities assess their students. It will be a great triumph if their efforts re-orientate current assessment fashions characterised by an ‘obsession with marks and grades to one which puts more emphasis on developing effectiveness for learning, rather than assessment of what sometimes passes as learning. The main points from their ‘Assessment standards: a manifesto for change’ were:

• "Put more emphasis "on assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning";
• Move beyond systems focused on marks and grades towards assessment of the achievement of programme outcomes;
• Recognise that standards may be difficult to articulate explicitly;
• Develop assessment and feedback processes that engage staff and students in dialogue about standards;
• Make discussion of standards between staff and students an integral part of course design and the learning process;
• Establish forums for the development and sharing of standards within and between disciplinary and professional communities".

Sassari, hidden gems amongst an eclectic, sometimes Stalinist, architecture

I have just spent a week in Sassari, the second city of Sardinia. Compared to other Italian cities I have experienced it feels somewhat forgotten. This is typified by all the building activity at the moment in which the city authorities are making a valiant attempt to resurrect the many medieval and 19^th century gems that are scattered through the city. But compared to neighbouring Alghero, or say Montpelier, which has a similar medieval centre, they have been slow starting and there is much still to be done. The Piazza D’ Italia with its fine surround of 18 and 19^th century buildings looks excellent but does not yet seem to have been embraced in the daily living of the citizens – there are no cafes with chairs sprawling out into the piazza, for example.

The flurry of current redevelopment effort seems the first since the 1960s when there was clearly another development boom. At that time the city authorities turned their back on Sassari’s heritage and the legacy of that move is some of the ugliest 1960’s building I have seen anywhere! At times it is almost possible to believe that one is in some former Eastern Block city.

Once away from the haphazard peri-urban development around Sassari the countryside is very scenic; the island is one of the few in the Mediterranean that has more stored surface water than demand. On the other hand there are problems with aquifer depletion and contamination due to poor sewage and household water management.

Sardinia is an attractive place to visit; I was delighted to be invited to be a visiting professor at the University of Sassari.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) has reported ....and exposed significant systemic issues

I drew attention to the activities of IAASTD in a posting last year. The panel recently finalised its report in Johannesburg, but not before a walk-out by representatives of the biotechnology industries. Two pieces in New Scientist present the perspectives of the main competing interest groups .

John Vidal in the Guardian provides a good summary of the main outcomes of the assessment:

'Bio-energy. The report says biofuels compete for land and water with food crops and are inefficient. They can cause deforestation and damage soils and water.

Biotechnology. The use of GM crops, where the technology is not contained, is contentious, the UN says. Data on some crops indicate highly variable yield gains in some places and declines in others.

Climate change. While modest temperature rises may increase food yields in some areas, a general warming risks damaging all regions of the globe. There will be serious potential for conflict over habitable land.

Trade and markets. Subsidies distort the use of resources and benefit industrialised nations at the expense of developing countries.'

It is significant that the US, UK, Australia and Canada have not yet endorsed the report because it seems 'the authors said GM technology was not a quick fix to feed the world's poor and argued that growing biofuel crops for automobiles threatened to increase worldwide malnutrition'.

Inconcievably Australian authorities are reported as saying 'they have not signed off on a new global vision for agriculture because it focuses too much on economics and not enough on biotechnology'.

Great article about working across borders to manage water

In an article entitled 'Eco-warrior for peace' Jewel Topsfield has written an absorbing portrait of someone who breaks the stereotypes associated with the complexities of the Middle East. This is an inspiring case of water management and the much needed collaboration and cooperation between Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Geoffrey Vickers Archives now available on-line

A new on-line catalogue of the Geoffrey Vickers papers is now available from the OU Archive web pages.

The catalogue is also available from the Archives Hub website. The Archives Hub is a national gateway to descriptions of archives within UK universities and colleges. As part of the Hub, the Vickers catalogue is now cross-searchable with hundreds of other collections.

For further information or to arrange a visit to consult the Geoffrey Vickers collection, contact Ruth Cammies, the Open University Archivist, at library-archive@open.ac.uk or on +44 1908 653378.

To learn more about Vicker's scholarship see this special edition of Systems Research & Behavioral Science or look at the OU/BBC website 'Systems practice: managing complexity'.

Explore your political compass

This site is designed to break out of the trap in our language and thinking associated with 'the old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789'. The site's authors argue that these categories ' are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape'.

I found this exercise revealing. Do systems thinkers, I wonder, tend to occupy a particular place on the grid? I suspect not - but this exercise in itself might go along way to explain some of the divisions within the so-called systems community!

Professor of Systems Sciences, The Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences, University of Graz, Austria

Applications for this post close on 21st April 2008. It is good to see new Chairs in Systems being advertised.

Research and teaching duties include:

Coordination and direction of activities in research and teaching related to systems sciences, in particular of those activities related to the interdisciplinary study programme in environmental systems sciences. This programme is unique in Austria.

Particular focus needs to be placed on the following areas of competence:

(a) Strong ability to integrate the methods and subject areas of a very diverse range of disciplines, in particular those of the social, natural, and environmental sciences. This includes the ability to break out of and overcome individual disciplinary paradigms.

(b) Internationally recognized research and the ability to initiate applied research based on interdisciplinary systems sciences.

(c) Advanced ability to deal with and, in research and teaching, apply methods from a wide spectrum of systems science methods.

(d) Application of research guided teaching (in German and English) in a study programme which is popular among students.

Changing some boundary conditions seems to offer possibilities on an intractable issue

The means to provide effective education to Australian Aboriginal children in an environment of community safety has been a long-term intractable problem. Two innovations which broaden the boundary around community - a shared residential facility with some parental access and an education that promotes aboriginal 'ways of being' seem to offer some new hope.

Now Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin is being congratulated on 'developing dormitory-style accommodation attached to some remote community schools and a residential facility at Weipa, near Cape York. It is claimed that her:

'observation that there is growing support for children to go to school outside of communities, and an understanding that there is "a world of difference" between removing children under past practices and giving them better opportunities in boarding colleges and hostels is soundly based'.

'Residential education is not the solution, and should not be used, as was pointed out at the September roundtable, to "let governments off the hook" of their responsibility to provide P-12 schooling in remote communities. For many indigenous young people, however, and in the short term, it is the only way to access quality education in a safe, supportive environment.

At the same time, boarding school education must be provided in the context of celebrating Aboriginality (encouraging pride, banishing shame) and promoting Aboriginal culture and ways of being.'

The beauty of April snow is welcome relief from mismatch between rhetoric and reality of UK government.

Having been back in the UK all of four weeks it has not taken me long to experience the mismatch between what is espoused by the UK government - especially with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation - and what it does. The budget was a case in point. The continuing commitment to airport expansion at Heathrow (despite the recent systemic failures associated with the opening of Terminal 5) is another example. Targets are still rampant - and their distorting effects. Small incidents on the motorways create gridlock - and the train system is fragile (the west coast line will close on weekends for much of the summer).

But the landscape this morning lifted my spirits.

Well worth a read - 198 reasons why we're in a mess

Simon Caulkin has published another column that is well worth a read. See it via John Naughton's blog.

The National Programme for IT: Agitation by Computing and Systems academics justified

The work of my colleagues who have been spearheading the activities of the original group of 24 (now sadly 23) academics who wrote a public letter calling for an independent inquiry into the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT; see my earlier postings on this matter) seems justified in the light of recent disclosures by the NHS Chief Executive. Without pressure in the face of the madness - sustained from a number of sources - it is perhaps unlikely that this about face would have occurred, except that time continued to reveal the flaws inherent in the original conception.

"NHS chief executive David Nicholson says the NHS IT programme had become too centralised to support the move to a health service based on plurality and far more locally-based decision making by clinicians and patients. Speaking at the World Healthcare Congress in Berlin on
Monday Nicholson explained why the introuduction of the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) Local Ownership Programme had become necessary to support the future structure and achieve a far more integrated and devolved health service, in which services are "wrapped around patients". Nicholson said: "It felt we'd reached a position where the balance was not in the right place". The challenge he said was extremely difficult, "How does a very central system
adapt to becoming a very local one." The NHS chief executive said that as a result of listening to the views of clinicians and patients the NHS IT programme was being reviewed and reshaped. "We are working through that now." . . . Despite difficulties and changes to the programme now underway, Nicholson said the health service's IT programme had achieved significant benefit, already saved 400 lives. It also highlighted efficiency savings saying a quarter of a million paper prescriptions had so far been eliminated. "We are already seeing real benefits and real problems as well."

Event's of the last weeks make a sham of the British Government's commitments to climate change mitigation.....unless

Has the British Government the courage to say no to the third runway at Heathrow? I suspect not. Explore the reasons why. Or go to George Monbiot's blog for further disturbing evidence in that he highlights (i) how much Brown is ignoring Stern's main recommendations; (ii) how conceptually flawed Stern's analysis was - in the Ackoffian sense his methodology is a further commitment to doing the wrong thing righter, rather than doing the right thing!

The case study in our course, 'Environmental Decision Making. A Systems Approach' demonstrates why airport expansion in the South East of England does not exemplify systemic environmental decision making! It also highlights how government decision making gives rise to the conditions for systemic failure.

The Australian Public Service Commission notes in a paper entitled:

Tackling Wicked Problems : A Public Policy Perspective

‘It is important, as a first step, that wicked problems be recognised as such. Successfully tackling wicked problems requires a broad recognition and understanding, including from governments and Ministers, that there are no quick fixes and simple solutions.'

Are ministers in the UK heeding this advice? It remains to be seen if the decision making can be claimed to be 'environmental decision making, yet alone systemic environmental decision making!!!

No salmon fishing in Yemen!.......

But the architecture and the souk of Sana'a are among the most fascinating I have encountered. Sana'a has to be one of the best preserved medieval cities in the world.

Parts of Yemen quite literally take your breath away! I was pleased to not have to test my stamina at over 2,500 meters a.s.l. on my visit to Thulla - I was already breathless when we arrived at the gate house only to find that the gatekeeper had gone to Sana'a for the day.

See examples of the excellent, but challenging work being done by my hosts in Yemen on the Socotra and Care Yemen web sites.

Congratulations Michael

Michael has just won the City of Vancouver book prize for "Vancouver Remembered".

See my link to Michael's OzBlog in my Blog roll.

A significant achievement against strong competition!

Social learning, systems practice and managing in situations of complexity and uncertainty

For the last 10 years or so my personal research has been concerned with developing better governance and practice arrangements for managing in complex, uncertain, contested and multiple stakeholder situations, particularly water or river catchments (called watersheds in North America). Our research has been funded by the EU and the Environment Agency of England & Wales.

The outcomes of the SLIM Project, which includes a set of easy to read Policy Briefings, and our follow-up work with the EA, is becoming more accessible and is, gratifyingly, of increasing interest to many practitioners and researchers in the area of 'water' and other fields of natural resource management.

For example, we have recently produced a special edition of the journal Environmental Science & Policy devoted to our SLIM work. There are also papers in a special issue of Ecology & Society. Mark Dent, who is based at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, writing in his Catchment Management Leadership Newsletter Number 69, recently had this to say about our SLIM research:

'I have been in many discussions in which participants have expressed some frustration at the term “sustainability”. They say it has been so abused and misunderstood that it has lost its real meaning. I sense that this view is widespread. I found the quote below, from the SLIM Report, was helpful to my understanding :-

“ …… it is very useful to view sustainability as an emergent property of stakeholder interaction, and not a technical property of the ecosystem.” Pg 6 Final Report http://slim.open.ac.uk

SLIM stands for Social Learning for the Integrated Management and Sustainable Use of Water at Catchment Scale. It is a multi-country research project funded by the European Commission (DG RESEARCH – 5^th Framework Programme for research and technological development, 1998–2002). Its main theme is the investigation of the socio-economic aspects of the sustainable use of water. Within this theme, its main focus of interest lies in understanding the application of social learning as a conceptual framework, an operational principle, a policy instrument and a process of systemic change.

Our 1998 NWA is hailed and respected internationally. I believe that such acclaim is justified. My opinion was reinforced last week when I read the SLIM final report. I commend this report to any serious student of these matters. It is a veritable basket of gems, which places much emphasis on appropriate platforms for stakeholder interaction. At these points in the report my pulse raced as I recognized the potential of our CMAs to function as ideal, stable platforms for stakeholder sector interaction. I am thinking particularly of the interaction between specialist advisors who align themselves behind sector interests in the ongoing social learning directed at integrated water management. Given its focus on healthy ongoing interaction the SLIM report spends much time analyzing the factors which either encourage or impede such healthy interaction. One of the key outcomes of healthy interaction is the enabling of early sensing, wise interpretation and timely responses, which are crucial to resilience. Factors which impede interaction reduce the resilience of communities and decrease their prospects of attaining sustainability in integrated water management.

The message for CMA leaders is clear. We must create the conditions for these interactions, communications, sensing and responding to take place between all stakeholders. This is the essence of what the CMA must be all about. The rest of the CMA structural trappings and their place in the overall arrangement of institutions are important, but they are merely the body, not the soul of the healthy CMA.

Our paper at the recent CAIWA conference, delivered by Kevin Collins, received very positive feedback and a subsequent presentation of Kevin's based on the same research has been blogged.

New 'Systems' course at the OU: 'Understanding systems: making sense of complexity' (T214)

If you are interested in developing your Systems Thinking skills then why not try this brand new course from the Open University (UK)?

As the course description says: 'You can’t always make sense of problems or issues by breaking them into parts. Systems thinkers instead pay attention to the connections and relationships between things, and to the different understandings and needs of the people involved in a situation. This course will introduce you to systems thinking and will help you to develop your understanding of some of the most important technological, environmental and social systems of our times. A systemic perspective focuses on different aspects of the situation in turn but within a framework that develops an awareness of interconnections and the effects these generate. This course will help you to make sense of complex situations, and develop your skills in understanding them as systems. When you consider the world in terms of systems, all sorts of connections and relationships are revealed, some of which go against common sense and accepted wisdom. You’ll learn simple techniques and ways of looking at things that will help you to explore your own understanding of complex issues and communicate your understanding to others.

In T214 you will develop your ability to think systemically by deepening your understanding of four different subject areas:

· communication systems and the internet

· earth systems and the environment

· social systems and organisations

· community systems and criminal justice.

These are presented in four blocks:

Block 1: Understanding the Internet: Communication Systems

This block introduces the concepts of emergence, self-organisation, complexity and networks through an examination of the internet as a system to connect physically remote intellects. You will learn to use network analysis, internet research and your own notes and reflections to make sense of this topic.

Block 2: Understanding the Environment: Earth Systems

This block focuses on systems concepts such as non-linearity and feedback. You will study the relationship between social and environmental systems, considering how different physical systems interact with human society to produce the present and future environment. The concepts of feedback, hierarchy and equifinality will be used to examine the dynamics of climactic change. The skills focus is on appreciating non-linear dynamics; producing multiple cause diagrams, sign graphs and indicators; and the basics of communication with others.

Block 3: Understanding Organisations: Social Systems

This block shifts the focus of the course from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ systems. It introduces the concepts of perspective, purpose and boundary through an appreciation of organisations as systems. You’ll be introduced to the practice of critiquing boundaries and purpose through the techniques of producing systems maps and stakeholder analysis. You’ll comment on other students’ work and report on the difference between your own perspective and that reached by others.

Block 4: Understanding Communities: Criminal Justice Systems

The final block returns to the analytical themes of the course and relates them to the central concept of the system. It focuses on a local context: crime in the community. You will undertake a group project, but a large part of the block comprises preparation for your individual end-of-course assessment (ECA). The ECA draws in the analytical and practical skills taught through the rest of the course, and gives students an opportunity to critically compare the application of different concepts and systems approaches.

Systems thinking entails a new way of looking at the world, and this shift in thinking can be challenging. Almost everyone finds it easier to learn by using the techniques, and by exchanging ideas and experiences with other students. So study time is set aside to interact with other students, and together to learn more about systems.

This is made possible through the T214 web pages, which provide conferencing facilities and interactive activities where you can post questions and tips about the course and about systems thinking in general. At the end of the first three blocks, this interaction will feed into the development of your tutor-marked assignment (TMA). During the final part of the course, you’ll use the skills that you have developed to analyse a situation of your own choice in an ECA project.'

Fiscal conservatism or perpetuating systemic failure?

Only days before new OZ PM, Kevin Rudd announced his on-going commitment to fiscal conservatism, my cousin, living in regional Queensland experienced first hand, and in traumatic ways, the systemic failure of the hospital system. Diagnosed with breast cancer she entered the local base hospital for her surgery, proceeded to go through all stages of the prep, including shower, change into gown etc, to then be told that she had to go to the private hospital in another part of town to have certain procedures done before the operation could proceed. Was she whisked off by ambulance, or even taxi? No! Her partner was forced to drive her in their own car in a city that is still unfamiliar and where they had a habit of getting lost!

Eventually they made it back to the base hospital and the operation began. By this stage she was both furious and traumatized! I am not sure what this says for hygiene management! To cap it all off, the next morning one doctor arrived and ordered the removal of lymph drainage tubes, followed half an hour later by her surgeon, who was, by accounts, furious that they had been removed! Soon after she was sent home!

My cousin lives in one of the electorates in North Queensland in which there was a strong swing to Labor. I doubt these electors will be impressed by the PM's re-commitment to fiscal conservatism if this means that there is no investment to break out of the systemic failing of regional health systems across the nation.

The systemic problems with 'biofuels' expansion begin to be headlined at last!

In a new report the UK's Royal Society suggests current EU and UK policy for biofuels may not deliver the much touted benefits and unless well understood may deliver unintended consequences. In Brussels 'Europe's environment chief has admitted that the EU did not foresee the problems raised by its policy to get 10% of Europe's road fuels from plants' and the EU is now revising its policies.

In another complex situation there is continuing European opposition to GM food imports. There is strong political will in Europe to maintain this position. In the end the US and places like the state of Victoria (Australia) may have to concede this issue because at the end of the day Europe is a bigger market than the US.

It is good that there are people who take a stand on these issues and that new, systemic understandings, are emerging. That said, if the policy developers had engaged in a systemic inquiry from the start some of these unintended consequences could have been appreciated!

'Memo new president: let's end some fear'

Madeleine Albright's Opinion piece in yesterday's Age is well worth a read. Let's hope it is a harbinger of things to come regardless of who wins the next US election.

She observes that 'one manifestation of fear is an unwillingness to think seriously about alternative perspectives' and thus axiomatically the Bush and Howard eras in their respective countries have created environments inimical to systems thinking and practice which depend on acknowledging, surfacing and valuing multiple partial perspectives in complex situations.

Memories of an Australian childhood - a great 'away from it all' experience

Until this week I had never been to Gippsland, the eastern portion of Victoria that combines coast and parts of the Great Dividing Range and much of the native forest for which Victoria is famous (or infamous in some circles!). We found a great place - the Waterholes Guest House - nestled on the Nicholson River with no near neighbours and pristine river upstream (i.e. no human activity).

We saw many birds, including bower birds, king parrots, a lyre bird and many more, eastern grey kangaroos, black wallabies, a black snake, a large goanna and had the pleasure of a whole stream to ourselves at the height of the tourist season. Floating down the river was evocative of our childhoods spent in rural Australia.

Know what we are doing to our world!

Sometimes the idea of mandatory home pages for all net users begins to make sense. Such is the case for the Worldwatch Institute and its publications. As Melbourne swelters in 40 degree plus temperatures and the State Government makes unprecedented requests for citizens to curb their energy use (which is still primarily based on 'dirty' brown coal), the cumulative effects of our actions becomes apparent to all. Engaging with reports such as "Share the Worlds Resources" makes it abundantly clear that need for action is still way behind political will. It is time for citizens to demand braver, more responsible long term decisions from governments. This extract highlights some of the most disturbing trends:

"With a global population of 6.6 billion and growing, the ecosystem services upon which life depends are being stretched to the limit due to record levels of consumption:

• In 2006, the world used 3.9 billion tons of oil. Fossil fuel usage in 2005 produced 7.6 billion tons of carbon emissions, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached 380 parts per million.
• More wood was removed from forests in 2005 than ever before.
• Steel production grew 10 percent to a record 1.24 billion tons in 2006, while primary aluminum output increased to a record 33 million tons. Aluminum production accounted for roughly 3 percent of global electricity use.
• Meat production hit a record 276 million tons (43 kg per person) in 2006.
• Meat consumption is one of several factors driving soybean demand. Rapid South American expansion of soybean plantations could displace 22 million hectares of tropical forest and savanna in the next 20 years.
• The rise in global seafood consumption comes even as many fish species become scarcer: in 2004, 156 million tons of seafood was eaten, an average of three times as much seafood per person than in 1950."

However it is hard for me to see that the actions announced yesterday by the British Government to commit to nuclear power expansion are brave or responsible. On the BBC last night I was impressed with the arguments being put forward by Zac Goldsmith - his arguments on this matter struck me as systemically desirable and ethically defensible!

Anyone here in Oz who listens overnight to the BBC and Deutsche Welle radio (see links to the right) transmitted on ABC News radio, cannot help but be struck by the different worldviews and balance of content that are presented. The German perspective is far closer to my own.

The latest Worldwatch State of the World report takes a new approach which combines what is good that is happening with the traditional analysis of what is wrong. A combination of new rules (institutional arrangements) combined with conservation and market mechanisms seems to be at the core of their recommendations for innovation.

Where to for Australia? The Wellbeing Manifesto

A site worth engaging with, though the details need updating as Clive has now resigned as Director of the Australia Institute to be replaced by his deputy, Richard Denniss.

'Many Australians feel that the political system has let them down, and that governments are not responding to their real concerns. We seem to have lost sight of a vision for a better society and to have entrusted our future to wherever the market takes us.

This website presents a new manifesto, one that takes as its starting point the belief that governments in Australia should be devoted to improving our individual and social wellbeing.

We now know a great deal about the factors that enhance our wellbeing and those that diminish it. Increasingly the negatives seem to outweigh the positives, despite our affluence.'

IT project failures in the UK - the tip of an iceberg?

A Guardian investigation that does not include the NHS National Programme for IT!!

"The cost to the taxpayer of abandoned Whitehall computer projects since 2000 has reached almost £2bn - not including the bill for an online crime reporting site that was cancelled this week, a survey by the Guardian reveals. The failure of the multimillion pound police site marks the latest chapter in the government's litany of botched IT projects, with several costly schemes
biting the dust. Major blunders overseen by Downing Street have included the Child Support Agency's much-derided £486m computer upgrade - which collapsed and forced a £1bn claims
write-off - and an adult learning programme that was subjected to extensive fraud. Top of the ministries for wasting public money is the Department for Work and Pensions, which squandered more than £1.6bn by abandoning three major schemes - a new benefit card which was based on outdated technology; the upgrade to the CSA's computer which could not handle 1.2m existing claims; and £140m on a streamlined benefit payment system that never worked properly. The Guardian's survey of abandoned projects is not exhaustive and the total of £1,865bn is likely to be a considerable underestimate of the actual cost to taxpayers because neither Whitehall nor the National Audit Office, parliament's financial watchdog, keep definitive lists of which schemes go wrong. Neither does it include the major modifications required to fix new systems that have failed to perform as required. One example is the pilot work done on the new £12bn NHS computer system - where outdated technology was installed at Bexley Hospital in south London, and has had to be replaced after it was found to be "unfit for purpose". Another is the huge modification required to the new computerised single payments system for farmers run by Defra's Rural Payments Agency, where the government has had to set aside some £300m to meet possible EU fines for wrong payments to thousands of farmers. . ."

The further transformation of Higher Education?

US newspaper The New York Times has announced plans to provide distance education and higher education course content. In the case of its distance education initiative, The Times will be providing technology and marketing for a range of high quality non-credit courses taught by college and university professors. Whilst tuition rates will be set by the colleges and universities, in some cases with in-state and out-of-state rates, funds from tuition revenue will be split (with the precise formula varying) between the institutions and The Times. A number of higher education institutions, including New York, Northern Kentucky and Stanford Universities are already committed to using the new technologies, and several others are in negotiations to start doing so. Given that some of the online courses will make use of The Times’ content, the newspaper’s enterprises could help some colleges to establish or expand distance education provision whilst reducing academic reliance on printed texts. Academics at institutions that subscribe to The Times’ service will be able to use such packages alongside their own content to develop customised course Web pages.

I wonder what the quality of the learning environment will be?

Can the new Rudd government genuinely learn from the Blair years - or will it duplicate the same mistakes?

It is surprising how easily governments and their agencies destroy relational capital. In our research we have come to understand relational capital as the glue the holds all the other forms of capital together. So, for example, as Simon Caulkin points out, the UK Treasury has 'singled out five 'levers' of productivity - competition, innovation, enterprise, investment and skills - and subjected each to major programmes of reform'. No doubt their prime focus is on economic and just perhaps, social capital. Despite the Stern report, natural capital still takes a back seat! For the treasury 'best practice' is the glue but it does not work!

The concepts of 'productivity, and 'best practice' are both problematic. As Caulkin outlines, 'productivity...is not primarily about inputs but the messy, complex, human process of turning them into usable outputs - i.e, management [I would say managing...as an active process], not economics'. Hence the need for capability in systemic praxis - practice which builds, sustains and facilitates relational capital through social learning.

Caulkin bases his article on Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) 'which suggests that [UK] ministers' views of management are naive. Broadly, the government thinks that improving company performance is about supply-side economics and best practice'. Best practice is a misnomer because practice that is best can only ever be contextual - so it has to be reinvented all of the time as contexts change. Which is not to say that we cannot learn from what others do - but then it becomes best praxis - taking the thinking and applying it to your own context!

Simon Caulkin's diagnosis: the real British disease - call it management dyslexia

On Sunday November 25 2007, Simon Caulkin in the Observer wrote:

'The real British disease is the unerring talent for putting together entities that are less than the sum of their parts. The comical inability to think in systems terms - call it management dyslexia - was on dazzling display last week, all over the front and back pages.' Read on!

Public - private partnerships. Are they systemically desirable?

My experience of PPP's in the Blair years in Britain make me highly suspicious of PPPs. George Monbiot captures many of my concerns. What I am keen to understand is whether they are systemically desirable, or not, and what purpose could legitimately be assigned to them from the perspective of good governance? It is not easy to discern the answers to these questions. My understanding from the British situation was that they were a convenient means to do business with the private sector as well as being a device to keep debt out of the calculations that determine credit ratings for a country or state (i.e., Moodys!).

I am thus interested to see that there is significant dissent with the Victorian Labor Party following a push by the new premier to use PPPs to build new schools as well as the new desalination plant and associated pipeline. It is easy to see this policy shift as 'copy cat' tactics but are those responsible for pushing them the same people as pushed them when Blair was in power? What learning has occurred with whom about their effectiveness in Britain? I hope the growing dissent in Victoria will allow these questions to be explored and thus bring greater transparency to the role of PPPs.

Victoria's green report card in the red

In Victoria it is obvious to even the casual observer that the 'environment' has taken backstage to economic development in the recent switch of Premiers and the subsequent Ministerial and Ministry reshuffle. This is apparent in the new ministerial arrangements for water. Tim Holding, one of the new Brumby 'kitchen cabinet', is now responsible rather than the Environment Minister as was the case before. Insiders point to how decisions are now made - as with the scrapping of environmental flows on the Yarra, which some sources suggest was a decision handed to Gavin Jennings.

An Envirowatch report released yesterday outlines where the government is keeping its environmental promises (10%), on target to keeping them (40%), at risk (46%) and broken (4%). What is missing from the report is the recent decision taken by Premier Brumby to reverse ALP policy and release GMO canola. I anticipate on-going agitation to change this decision.

'Like Latin, Ricardian economics is dead'

All explanations arise in social relations - as Sir Geoffrey Vickers argued they give rise to our standards of fact and value and our ‘relationship maintaining or breaking’. Moreover all explanations arise this way but some are conserved over longer time frames than others. Explanations also ‘enter our bloodstream’ as we live our lives – throughout our biological and social development. Maynard Keynes’ oft quoted remark that in his experience those who claimed to be practical men (sic) were usually victims of some theory 30 years out of date is a variation on this point.

Klaus Krippendorff also points out how oppressive certain theories, or more precisely 'theorizing', can be. In this light Martin Fell has written an insightful article pointing out how the conservation of certain economic theories, in this case the theory of comparative advantage explicated by David Ricardo in 1817, is part of 'the terminal disease suffered by economists'! See this image.

Systemic Environmental Decision Making - the need for praxis

The current meeting in Bali to plan beyond the Kyoto agreement, the new directions for Australian policy following election of the Rudd Labor Government and the needs in the UK to ensure that Government commitments to 'sustainability' are honoured, all draw attention to the need for new forms of praxis for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Praxis is theory informed action and is as relevant, or more relevant, than many of the claims for evidence-based practice. At the Open University our course on 'Environmental Decision making: a systems approach' has a focus on praxis which is proving popular. This is one of the core courses in the Masters in Environmental Decision Making.

Policy needs praxis, or perhaps more importantly a praxiology - an understanding of effective action. Effecting action on the back of good policy is where systems-based practice approaches can help. In a climate-change world systemic environmental decision making praxis is needed to engage with and 'improve' complex situations characterised by uncertainty, connectedness and, often, conflict and multiple perspectives. In the world as we now understand it any approach to dealing with wicked problems, or managing 'messes' or effecting 'joined up' or 'whole of government' actions necessarily has to take the environment into account.

As the images show the course has four set books (one for each block of the course) supported by a Techniques book as well as Readings for each block. The course is presented over 23 weeks twice a year. In the coming presentation 123 students are registered. Some of the course materials, which also includes a DVD can be purchased directly from the Open University.

Conversations of the journey

are rewarding when the travelling is in convivial circumstances - in this case a very uncrowded suburban train in Auckland and the venue created by the Australia - New Zealand Systems Society (ANZSYS) conference. It is even more convivial when one is among those who appreciate, and contribute to common concerns and who share similar intellectual lineages. The special case is when the conversation triggers mutual enthusiasm as it did with my (now) colleagues here!! (My thanks to Jack M for the photo).