3 Ezekiel Browne By Steve Pagan, Deputy Head and members of the Ezekiel Browne Committee The Ezekiel Browne Society takes its name from one of the Founding Fathers of Cheadle Hulme School; Ezekiel Browne, the son of a silk merchant from Liverpool, who worked as a cashier in the textile trade in mid-Victorian Manchester. He was instrumental in the foundation of the Manchester Warehousemen & Clerks Orphan School in 1854, serving as the first Chairman of the Executive Committee. As a result of the subscription scheme he established, his own daughter Elizabeth attended the school as a Foundation student following his death in 1862. The Society, run by a committee of Sixth Form students, puts on talks on a wide range of topics and is essentially designed to broaden the intellectual horizons of students beyond the narrow confines of their GCSE and 6th Form studies. The following extracts provide a partial review of another busy year for the Society.
Talk by Xcalibur: Tackling the Manchester Gangs Before the meeting I thought the Xcalibur team would be a Mancunian version of a mean, lean S.W.A.T team. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The officers explained how dealing with gangs wasn’t simply investigating and prosecuting for their various crimes, it was about trying to guide members and potential members away from the dead-end life of gangster-ism. They spoke about the vicious social cycle of being born into a gang family, growing up with the violence that surrounds these people and the struggle to find a better life. Although there were gruesome stories of drug dealing, domestic violence and murder, there were also moments of dark humour, such as the story of one gangster hiding a gun under his shed and then trying to blame his dog. There was one about a teenage gang member who bought a plastic gun believing it was real. This was a really memorable meeting that left the audience captivated.
Talk by Matt Dickinson: Adventures in the Deep South Explorers are usually described as intrepid but in the case of Matt Dickinson this is a fair description. Matt is a film maker who produces documentaries about subjects like climbing the highest mountains and visiting the last great wildernesses. He focused this talk on his journey to the Antarctic. This included the story of the challenges of finding a boat to get across from South America and the arduous sea passage, no easy feats in themselves. He then spoke about the incredible challenges he faced out there, such as climbing an unconquered peak and visiting a weather station in which his father had stayed 40 years beforehand. Matt showed us footage of his film and talked us through his adventures. We were left in no doubt about the perils visitors face in the Antarctic, for example the lack of support in the event of a medical emergency. It was a truly inspiring and memorable talk.
Talk by Prof Raymond Tallis: Are we Just Animals? The Ezekiel Browne Society is marketed as one which allows you to hear talks across a variety of subject areas. It delivers. The Society allows for fantastic opportunities to interact with very interesting people but the special ones that really make you listen are those about which you already assume to know something. For me this was encapsulated by Raymond Tallis’ talk. Having studied Philosophy this was naturally a topic I would enjoy but, if anything, it was his approach to questions at the end of the session that made it all the more fascinating and entertaining. Like any true philosopher he answered questions with questions. At the end a friend and I dreamt up a question about a thought experiment in which one is tele-transported to Mars but with the body remaining behind. There are two of you, but which one is you? Is it a continuous body or a continuous mind that matters? This led to plenty of discussion. Of course, the answer was a long way of saying ‘no one really knows’ - but the talk was interesting and that is all that matters.
Talk by Ian Brown: Dead Man Walking – Life on Death Row in the US In a joint venture between the Ezekiel Browne Society and Think Tank, Old Wac Ian Brown presented a cold, hard look at the US Prison System and the management of those locked up in “special management units” awaiting execution. Harrowing is putting it mildly. Ian opened our eyes to the borderline inhumane treatment of those convicted, focusing in particular on Arizona State Correction Centre. This includes solitary confinement, washing and exercising “privileges” only three times per week, and food rations costing less than what the prison governor spends on the police department dogs. Ian also highlighted the problems with methods such as the lethal injection, used or allowed in 38 of America’s fifty States. This procedure is invariably administered by ill-qualified prison guards as doctors and nurses are legally prohibited from partaking in executions. No one is denying that the crimes the inmates have committed are heinous and cruel, but it seems a little hypocritical to condemn them for their actions in a way which is equally cruel. There is also a grim irony that if a prisoner falls ill whilst incarcerated on Death Row, they will be given the best possible care in the prison hospital, only to be released back into a prison regime where they will be intentionally and lawfully killed. It is hard to get one’s head around the workings of a system so different from that of the UK. Irrespective of personal opinion, Ian left us all in deep thought about the supposed “land of the free”.
Talk by Dr Andrew Garner: Bank Robbery Using the Power of Parallel Universes I really enjoyed the talk by Old Wac Andrew Garner, which explored the history of cryptography as well as potential uses of quantum cryptography in the modern world. It was fascinating to hear about the on-going battle between cyber security providers and computer hackers as well as learning how the applications of well-established principles of Mathematics were being challenged by the Physics behind quantum computers. The speaker explained the benefits of quantum computing, the main one being that the future potential of using these machines could save extraordinary amounts of time, and also the drawbacks - current computer security would be ineffectual. He spoke at a level which was accessible to everyone, using analogies to explain complex systems. However, he then went into greater detail on the mathematical and physical principles used in quantum computing to widen the knowledge of the students of Mathematics and Physics and to increase their understanding and application of the topics they were studying. As well as being one of the most intellectually stretching and mind-boggling hours of my life, I honestly walked away feeling slightly more aware of the world around me and all of its overwhelming possibilities. Even though my particular interests lie away from the world of Physics and numbers, it was a talk I could understand and enjoy, regardless.