December 2009
“After lunch, I get a little lazy between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. I don’t feel...”
– 37Signals’ Jason Fried in INC Magazine.
Restaurant menu design explained →
“A star is a popular, high-profit item—in other words, an item for which customers are willing to pay a good deal more than it costs to make,” Poundstone explains. “A puzzle is high-profit but unpopular; a plowhorse is the opposite, popular yet unprofitable. Consultants try to turn puzzles into stars, nudge customers away from plowhorses, and convince everyone that the prices on the menu are...
Collective resolution for 2010: if you think...
Collective resolution for 2010: if you think Twitter is crap, stop talking about it The utterly idiotic rash of comment pieces explaining why Twitter is stupid and worthless and little more than a gang of people endlessly talking about what they have for breakfast is getting ever more tedious.
Right thinking people realise that talk of Twitter really affecting events in Iran is hyperbolic, they...
WatchEclectic Method’s Best & Worst Of 2009 is like having a breakdown through the medium of a clip show.
Biting the bullet: baffled once again by the Daily...
Leo McKinstry’s comment piece on the execution of Akmal Shaikh actually offended me more than anything I have ever read in the Daily Mail. That truly is an accolade. It is a stream of lies, half-truths, unsupported assertions and just plain old vitriol. Let’s take it point by point to deconstruct what we might charitably call McKinstry’s thinking.
“The Chinese Government acts vigorously to defend...
Do I think we should intervene in Iran? No…
vb:
With new violence breaking out in Tehran and with the Iranian police killing 4 protesters, I’m curious if you still believe that since it’s not our country, we should not impose a government or at least perform actions to de-stabilize the current one. It’s very obvious that the people of Iran want a change and want to overthrow their oppressive government. It would seem that they simply need...
Flying with the Bubble Boy: why no airline...
At what point will flight security become so onerous that the number of people opting to fly is reduced only to people with vital journeys to make?
Since the inept Christmas Day Bomber attempted to down a Delta Airways flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, the US Transportation Security Authority has launched a new set of severe guidelines for transatlantic flights including:
no leaving your seat...
All for nought? For me the noughties was about...
Plenty of people argue that packaging decades up with meaning is a pointless exercise, that it takes a while for decades’ to accumulate a set of historical cliches. But the 2000s (a decade that struggled even to gain a sensible nickname) arguably seems to have been accumulating meaning for the past few years like a sticky sweet grabbing fluff down the back of the sofa. The early-2000s trend for...
Boxing Day present: part of the text for my...
I’m planning on self-publishing a little illustrated book later in the year. I’m still looking for the right illustrator and am hoping it’ll have Edward Gorey style visuals. Here’s part of the text:
I am afraid that I am dying. This is not because of some sudden change in my circumstances. I am always afraid that I am dying. George tells me that most people do not feel...
I'm really taken with Jim Lehrer's Rules Of...
Do nothing I cannot defend.
Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in...
There is a guide to interviewing Sesame Street...
…it’s called Interviewing Muppets and suggests appropriate and inappropriate questions.
Appropriate: How do you like living on Sesame Street? Who is your best friend?
Inappropriate: Are Bert and Ernie gay?
(discovered via Radio 4 Blog)
Cowell’s political X-Factor would be a coup d’etat...
Simon Cowell, a man who has openly admitted that he has never voted, has floated the idea of a “political X-Factor” touring the country to discuss social issues of the day and encouraging the public to call in and vote instantly on them. He envisions a red telephone at the centre of the studio to allow Number 10 to phone in and explain itself, putting the Prime Minister in the position of some...
Fantasy vs reality: Film Runaways meet the real...
Film
Reality
Result? A draw. Let’s be honest, both clips look pretty badass. Someone send me some Runaways records for Christmas. Mine went missing.
WatchMaria Bamford’s made a free 1hr long Christmas special. It’s ace.
“I do have a payment plan. I’m sending you $2 a year over a period of 7 million years”.
Hey Prince Charles, if you want to play politics,...
The other day when I wrote about Prince Charles meddling at the Copenhagen summit, I had no idea how far his attempts to influence policy have gone in the past. The Guardian has revealed that he’s written to eight separate Whitehall departments over the last three years. Prince Charles seems to have forgotten that he is ultimately just a living tourist attraction. The Royal Family are not...
“It’s no good knocking down a few old bloody Tories! The system’s a...”
– John Lennon in a newly published 1968 interview. Read the rest at the New Statesman. I’d say this quote’s still pretty relevant. Wouldn’t you?
Isn't rewriting history fun…
I just had one of my big music geek moments of annoyance. It proves two things – I have read too many Clash books and need to get out more. Reading John Doran’s otherwise pretty decent piece on the 30th anniversary of London Calling in this week’s NME, I stumbled upon this paragraph:
NME had been Clash supporters from the start, and in his review [of London Calling, Charles] Shaar...
“It went off the rails. We had planned to send it straight to video, but we...”
– Ed Catmull, Pixar co-founder. I love this attitude.