Archive
"Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) [The Ultimate Mix]" by John Lennon & Yoko Ono
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It’s going to get you. 🔗 Inspired by
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Too many people blame declining club/society membership on the ‘kids don’t want to join.’ That’s not the problem ….
Apologies for the interruption. Over the next couple of weeks there will be two new episodes. Subscribe here or follow along wherever you get your podcasts.
"Life Is a Long Song" by Jethro Tull
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I wrote something recently - a friend wrote back “your on song John” and my mind instantly jumped back in time 55 years and this has been ear worming me ever since. It’s not even about what he wrote.
🔗📼 If you youtube
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The people who shaped you probably have no idea they did - the people who shape you probably have no idea they do.
Artists sensed it decades before Einstein. Science proved it a century ago. Business is still pretending it never happened. Here’s why your ‘population’ theories collapse the moment a single person acts from conviction - and why what you are trying to do to fix it will never work.
"Prove It" by Television
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They did.
Reminded of Tom today when I read that his collection of 4.000 vinyls were being sold at auction.
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Organizations must shift their mindset from assuming predictability in their systems to embracing and designing for human unpredictability.
"America Is Waiting" by Brian Eno & David Byrne
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Two of the masters delivering a master
The video is well worth a watch aswell.
📼🔗 America Is Waiting
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🎵 Only the Good Die Young || Remembering ‘Om Malik’ - today he moved on to where or whatever the next realm is.
"Constant Craving" by k.d. lang
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I actually don't - but it is still an important song in my canon.
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Terry Godier is his name and he seems to be assuming the role of helping us all be purposeful as we seek to slow ourselves down in the the accelerating world of tech that we all live in. I am guilty of that speed. I LOVE slowing down. And it is entertaining at the same time as being informative. Thank you Terry.
"Dancing in the Street (2002 Remaster)" by David Bowie & Mick Jagger
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**So great. Such fun.**
I mean sure - you could pop over to your music player and have a listen - but there's also the video for twice the fun.
🔗📼 David and Mick
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"Vivaldi" by Curved Air
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Another one of those cross genre mind blowing tracks that just had me hooked - and never let me go. I wonder if two cellos would ever have happened without Darryl.
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"Phaedra (Steven Wilson 2018 Stereo Remix)" by Tangerine Dream
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But these were the guys that had my heart back in the day. Noting that I try to post links as close to the original as I can - this is the exception that proves the rule - a 2028 Remix by Steven Wilson.
Bonus points for the name of the river.
"Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding (2014 Remaster)" by Elton John
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IMO he never did enough instrumentals. And no - not a 'yellow' brick' 'road'.
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"God Speed The Plough" by Stackridge
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Part 2 of 2. Not The Korgis.
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"Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" by The Korgis
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Part 1 of 2 - Not Stackridge.
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"I Second That Emotion" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
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Makes me happy. How about you?
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"Manifesto" by Roxy Music
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So many - you just have to choose one. DONE.
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"Pictured Within (Live)" by Jon Lord
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Jon Lord was always one of my favourites. My interest in Deep Purple emerged not from Taliesyn, Fireball or even 'In Rock', but rather their first live album 'In Concert'. He never managed to repeat that within Purple - but as a solo artist - that was Jon. I THINK I have them all - I certainly know them.
But first ask the question - so you aren’t disappointed in the results.
Satya Nadella seems to be arguing that Human Agency is important inside the organisation and that ‘done right’ AI allows for real ‘Human Agency’. My take is that he is only talking about how humans serve the organisation. What about if you are ‘just’ a human?
"Friday I'm In Love" by The Cure
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I like to try and not pick the obvious ones on the more famous bands - but how could you not pick this one when it comes to the Cure.
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"Boots on the Ground" by Massive Attack & Tom Waits
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Hell yes. Only released a couple of months ago - played on rotation for a while there. It was posted in Crucial a couple of days ago - so electing to use my 'double down' card today.
🖇️ Posted on AlbumWhale back in April
For the life of me can't find the crucial entry again.
"Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson
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Of course we all know the original - take a listen before listening to Mysty Mayhem's cover ...
🔗🎵 Mysty Covering Robert
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"Come Together" by Spiritualized
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The entire album takes me back to the exact point in time when Mark introduced me to Spiritualized. Thank you Mark.
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"Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath
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Black Sabbath on Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath.
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… one giant step for yours truly!
The transition might have been the undoing of Silicon Valley.
"Rhythm Of Life" by Sammy Davis, Jr.
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Not a 'musical/show' kinda guy, and this came out before I was old enough to 'get it' - but for whatever reason since I first heard it - have always absolutely loved it.
The image comes from 🔗 The Rhythm of Life
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"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" by The Walker Brothers
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Hard to choose which one of theirs to include in Crucial. Might have to add others in the future. Another 'liquid' voice.
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… How can you do - if you don’t understand?
"Perfect Day" by Lou Reed
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It is actually.
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My Substack is themed on the idea of ‘People First’.
Photo by Alina Grubnyak on UnsplashI even used to call it that.
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It means;
People ahead of corporations
People ahead of technology
We don’t reject either, it’s just that people are the priority.
Sacha Baron Cohen and the rest of the cast is capable of so much more. I watched it all - sadly. Shining star? Richard E Grant.
🖇️ Review Ratings
"Everybody's Hustlin" by Heads, Hands and Feet
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The Third Lee - Albert.
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"I'd Love to Change the World (1971)" by Ten Years After
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Prompt: A song from college or early adulthood.
Today's offer happens to fit the prompt - so why not .. one of the other 'Lees'.
🔗 Another Alvin
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"Andmoreagain" by Love
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WEIRD - I wrote this most yesterday - and posted it - yet nowhere to be found. So here we go again.
Back in 'my day' there were three 'Lees' - Albert, Alvin and Arthur. This music is from Arthur, the image below is one of the others.
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Manton suggests that Apple rarely builds anything now … ‘except the most obvious products’. I disagree, because that statement depends on two things … what is meant by ‘obvious’ and what is meant by ‘product’.
"The End" by The Doors
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This just keeps playing in my ears.
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"Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith
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An integral part of Spencer Davis and Traffic before this side project with 'the world's first Supergroup' .. and Stevie was barely 21 when he wrote this 🤯
There are some great covers out there - but seriously - did you know that this even existed? And no - it is not a 'great' cover (in both senses of the word) .
"Everybody's Talkin' (1971 Mix)" by Harry Nilsson
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Interesting that his two biggest hits were other people's songs. #JustSayin
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This is a repost from August 2023. Life has moved on for the world - but for those caught up in it all it is their new reality. Just a reminder that whilst the news moves on at speed - reality takes time.
… but there for the grace of whatever power you hold true - do we all go. Sometime sooner. Sometimes very much later. But go we do. Few have the power to control ‘when’.
I’ve always taken the 5 levels to be more a series of ongoing processes .. not necessarily that you achieve them … more to reflect the focus at a moment in time .. also the triangle pinnacle is misleading in that the work going on in there is likely inversely proportional to the shape’s area … and finally you are almost constantly working on multiple levels at the same time.
The rebranding of WH Smith to TG Jones led to large and rapid declines in revenue - which means that the buyer of the brand did not actually undersatand what they were buying.
… maybe not. It’s all about the lens through which you view the story.
"Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (Live)" by Andy Williams
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Why Andy's version? Because 'mum' - who was not a particular fan of Andy - but we all liked it and it sticks in my mind - because of mum's reaction ....
Off of you? It's off you ... off you why can't they speak English.
There are a few parralels …
In a nutshell - if you havent seen it - watch it. If you have seen it - watch it again.
To save you the click through … yep … good watch.
"Five O'clock World (Remastered)" by The Vogues
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The song came into my world through a great cover, but the Vogues original is still most excellent.
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"Kayleigh" by Marillion
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Always enjoyed the song. Never a massive fan of the band - but definitely a fan - all the way back to the days when some were heralding him as the 'new' Peter Gabriel ... I got it - but really he was just plain old Derek William Dick doing his thing - and his thing was rather good.
... when you don't know
where you are going
how it will end
what it's about
how long it will be
I don't know - seems all arse about face to me.
But sure - lets see where this cart is heading.
It’s quirky and different. Wont be everyone’s cup of tea - but definitely worth a try out. I loved it.
"Parklife" by Blur
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I am pretty much 'in' on all things Blur - so hard to choose a specific. Settled on it because it is just a year earlier than yesterday's - but for me inexorably linked.
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"Common People (Full Length Version)" by Pulp
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Pulp. Jarvis. Classic. Only Shatner might have improved it.
I'll see what I can do.
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"Waterfall" by The Stone Roses
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Madchester!
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A wolf in sheep’s clothing? Or maybe the emperor has bought new clothes.
"I'd Rather Be the Devil" by John Martyn
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A vastly under appreciated catalogue. This track? 🤯
As always - despite first appearances - there is always a connection to the image.
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"Season of the Witch (2002 Remix w/o Horns)" by Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield & Stephen Stills
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A song covered by so many - over so many years - but surely this is the definitive ... Bloomfield, Kooper and Stills for 11 minutes.
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A veritable conundrum - or maybe it can be explained.
"iFiesta Fatal! (Album Edit)" by B-Tribe
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I was on a work trip in Finland. My hosts decided to expose me to some Helsinki night life. I can still picture it all - but sadly no pictures to share. At one point we were in a bar/restaurant/nightclub - which it was dependant on the time of day - and this music like no other swept through the whole place and I just disappeared into it.
"Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode
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The live one in particular I think nails why I love Depeche Mode - 'electronica sensibility rocks out'.
Also adding this live cover by Depeche Mode of Depeche Mode - Berlin.
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I don’t really understand the concept of listening within a genre or making music within a set of stylistic limitations.
"Hurry On Sundown" by Hawkwind
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Came to mind this morning after reading 🔗 this. As a lad - Hawkwind definitely hit a nerve. Still does. Lemmy's successor - not so much. This is the first track on their first album - (a couple of albums before Lemmy became a full timer) .. because there are again too many to choose - but like other occasional references to tracks in this world - the first of the first started me on this particular journey.
Between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Reformation, society underwent significant changes while quietly laying the foundations for the modern world. Or did it?
"Green Tambourine" by The Lemon Pipers
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Continuing yesterday's 'theme' .. another 'one hit wonder' - same kind of time - same kind of sound and definitely my jam - then and now. It's just that this one is from the other side of the Atlantic.
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Zingo had the idea six to ten years too early. Timing, infrastructure, incumbents and a government willing to let you operate matters more than being first. A lesson for us all.
Sartre warned us about procrastination. He was talking about the human condition - but it equally applies to how organizations move, how people engage, and why waiting for ‘perfect’ means you never move. And by then, your bite has gone.
"Kites (Stereo) [2004 Remastered Version]" by Simon Dupree & The Big Sound
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If you know Stackridge - you may know The Korgis.
I know both. Love Stackridge. Like The Korgis.
In case you don't know ...Stackridge made quirky, melodic English pop-rock that mixed progressive, folk, and vaudeville, whilst The Korgis made highly melodic British pop with thoughtful lyrics, strong vocal harmonies, and irresistibly catchy hooks.
"Flowers in the Rain (2007 Stereo Mix)" by The Move
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The last song you heard on the radio
Another prompt - but going to bend the rules on this one ...
Radio? What's that Daddy? So long ago that I can barely remember doing it - BUT - my choice would be a Crucial Track anyway - so let's call it a 'twofer'.
"Chicago" by Groove Armada
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And Another 'Prompt' Entry ...
Hit shuffle on your music library and post the first song played
I generally post an image in my 'Crucials' that is connected to the song - but in an odd way.
Bonus points today if anyone can tell me whatthat might be today.
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"The City: Grass and Concrete / Taxi To Brooklyn / Speak Easy It's a Whiskey Scene" by Mark-Almond
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One of those bands that are so far under the radar in 2026 that subterranean doesn't even start to describe it - and they have so many 'CRUCIALS' - that I ended up choosing this one because it is over 10 minutes of total bliss.
Brit here - and though Björk does not sit at the top of my favourite artists - she certainly is no where near the bottom and I do not recall that particular refrain ever being that common - which might explain her Wikipedia entry.
My Review - despite Giancarlo .. overall .. yeah - no.
"Oh Well (Live)" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
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Talking of superb covers … as I wrote 🖇️ here not even a month ago - a glorious cover of track by Fleetwood Mac. Before John and Stevie. Even before Christine.
Bonus Round ...
🔗🍎🎵 PartONE that Tom covered.
🔗🍎🎵 PartTWO that Tom did not cover - totally different and Peter Green's favourite part.
Roger Lynch reveals that Condé Nast’s survival isn’t about scale or content volume, but about brand authority and direct audience relationships, he suggests that when Google search collapses and AI platforms commodify content, only publishers with deep trust and “taste” that machines can’t replicate will make it.
"I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow
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Never a fan of Barry. Too saccharine, too schmaltzy. Not my style - but there is always an exception to the rule (still looking for Rush’s exception - but that remains another story.)
When I first heard this in 1976 - my instant reaction - was - ‘TYPICAL - BLOODY BARRY. ’I’ write the songs … seriously?
"Une Nuit a Paris, Pt. 1 / The Same Night In Paris, Pt. 2 / Later the Same Night In Paris, Pt. 3" by 10cc
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Thought I would follow a prompt for a change:
Share a song you call something other than its official title. What do you call it?
That's the way the croissant crumbles
Epic - from one of the most underplayed bands in the history of 'oldy goldys' - 10CC - and this offering will always be 'One Night in Paris' - I am English for heaven's sake.
"Perfect Day" by Lou Reed
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Whenever it doesn’t seem right … Lou sets me straight.
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Rabbiting on about ‘forgiveness’. When is it time? Should we?
Don’t click through if you are easily offended. Then again - if you are easily offended stop listening to POTUS
BUT
If you don’t know where you are going,
any road will do.Part two of a two part article. If you want to know what part one was all about, well - that’s why we have hyperlinks.
The World Is Sensing It.Over the past few days, a series of articles filtered to the top of my feeds, all talking about different aspects of this same structural gap that in turn coalesced around 4 questions.
The same can be said for Systems of Record.This is the first of a two part issue. If you already know our history and are more interested in where we are going - then the next newsletter is for you.
‘They’ have their CRM. Where’s my VRM?1Before you get too excited - sorry this is not about that - but - the question has been my North Star for a couple of decades.
"The New Math (What He Said)" by OSI
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I was sat on a plane reading an interview with Bowie who talked about this band he'd just heard. Made a note of it, and ordered it online. Their first album arrived and this was the first track and I was IN. How could you not be?
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Photo By geralt (pixabay.com)Towards the end of last year I had a few questions about my latest rant against org charts. I mean, we all hate them - but it would appear that some think I’ve ‘turned it up to 11’ (RIP Rob Reiner).
They aren’t wrong - because I think the problem requires to be turned up to eleven. It’s louder.
Why Most People Think Org Charts Are No GoodThey Don’t Match Reality
"Thank You for the Music" by ABBA
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Today’s post is a sister post to this one.
My memory … sitting alone tin a large Odeon(?) cinema - South London - Streatham. I really can’t recall the movie - except the closing credits - as Wiki says:
The song also plays over the closing titles as the camera pans out from the band performing in a hut on an island in the Stockholm archipelago to views of the archipelago itself.
Abba was never my bag, so why I went to see this in the Odeon (I think) cinema in Streatham, South London - I have no idea. It was fine - until it exploded into the closing credits. All this time later - I still remember the image and the music - a movie all by itself. Only two stars - but try to find the closing credits - sound up - on a big screen - dark room.
"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" by Roy Harper
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I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan of cricket .. but this one is nothing to do with cricket and everything to do with life. Been in the soundtrack of my life for 51 and counting years and hard to reach the end without life memories coming to the fore.
I have no idea why it took us until last night to finally get round to watching. But get round to watching we did. I now have even less understanding as to why the delay.
If you still haven’t seen it … rectify the situation ASAP.
🔄🖇️ Review Ratings
"The Ocean" by Richard Hawley
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Hawley’s voice has me … every time. You can … I do .. just fall into his songs .. not just the ocean,
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… but is it? When someone asks me ‘where I am from’ … I try to understand the question that is really being asked, because the context reveals many different answers.
"Infected" by The The
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The first track of Matt’s second album left the speakers in my living room and arrived in my ears nearly forty years ago. I never looked back .. the power of this opening track hit me like a sledgehammer and does a stunning job of introducing the ‘tour de force’ that is the album.
"Fever (Adam Freeland Extended Remix) [Adam Freeland Master]" by Adam Freeland & Sarah Vaughan
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Cover? Mix? Do not know. First heard it 21 years ago .. been on the non existent mix tape of my life ever since. Give it a whirl.
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Finalist failed to stick first time around - but this time we have more time.
"Woke Up This Morning" by A3
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I watched the occasional Sopranos back in the day. But somehow it never stuck. Unlike the theme which has been in my Just Good Songs playlist since I discovered playlists. Such a powerful song. Never tire of it. Here’s to the next 29 years.
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I have no idea how I missed this - futzing with my sound set up last night and Siri suddenly started playing ‘Trafalgar Square’ that I had to Shazam to find out what it was. Then listened to the album once and here we are. Great album. Always nice to discover a ‘new’ artist.
"Steppin' Out" by Joe Jackson
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I was listening to the new Joe Jackson album - really rather good - but for me - it still doesn’t meet the excellence of Joe’s crucial track.
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Leon reposted this 🔗 Disparaging Nouns | Forking Mad+ … with some commentary. Got a couple of comments back in turn - so I thought I would pop over to see what was being said in context - because personally I had never heard of ‘walloper’ … Brit here with a ‘lifetime’ in the USA and 6 years .. so far … across the Tasman.
But then he moved on.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult
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Prompt Share a song you love that has parentheses (in the title).
A song that would have been in my ‘Just Good Songs’ playlist the day I heard it - it’s just that 🍎 hadn’t got round to inventing it - mainly because mere mortals didn’t have the internet.
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"Rockin' In The Free World (Glastonbury 2009)" by Neil Young
Live. Glastonbury. Well over ten minutes. Neil rockin' out.
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... with a title.
➡️ Originating at SourceFeed ... part of 'canonical john' ... for now.
"Hi Ren" by Ren Gill
Stunning. A friend shared this with me last year. If you want to listen to a totally original and highly talented artist - start here.
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"Permanating" by Steven Wilson
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In the Venn Diagram of music that jax and I both like - this one sits high ... so clearly needs to be pulled out first.
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This is a living post used to ensure consistency is applied on posts, conversations and replies across the site. All common/resuable css elements should be accounted for here.
Waiheke rersidents and visitors enjoy the ability to site along Oneroa beach thanks to one person’s initiative to create casual seating for beachgoers.
When I first saw this film … film, not movie - film … I logged it as one of my top, personal favourites of all time.
My opinion hasn’t changed.
🔄🖇️ Review Ratings
Surprise? Not if you know Ren. One of the most extraordinary artists that have emerged in the past decade.
Massive Attack and Tom Waits … that’s the surprise. The result? As wonderful as you might expect.
Always liked Joe - and he has still got - 22 albums in. The tour starts soon.
Most organisations are optimised for a world that no longer exists - built for control and standardisation and competing in one that demands responsiveness and fluidity. You can’t patch engagement onto record; the invisible architecture has to shift, and that requires the same structured thinking that got you here, just pointed differently. I published 8 new pages about this over the weekend - but what follows is a more playful approach to the framework.
From an orginal idea of Andrew Mayfield . When he first mentioned it in a conversation, my mind took a turn. Finally I am at the first (of many I hope) iterations. Let me know your thoughts.
I watched it because it’s Jason .. sad that he keeps making the same movie .. even sadder is that I keep watching them.
🔄🖇️ Review Ratings
Good action movie. GREAT Soundtrack.
🔄🖇️ Review Ratings
One of these dark Nordic series. Love them. Loved it
🔗 Detective Hole
🖇️ Review Ratings
Originally Published: August 7th, 2024
Updated: April 3rd, 2026
In 2024 I originally wrote:
What’s not to love about Idris? Ok well not always, but this surprisingly worked.
Well - at least until the final episode.
Just finished the second series - and the fact it took us so many months to work through it speaks volumes. And when I say work … I mean work.
Not as good as Nobody - but then Nobody caught me out - where as Nobody 2 was - well ... Nobody 2. Colin Hanks looks so much like his Dad. Sharon Stone looked nothing like Sharon Stone - and yet was. The whole film was way better than any of Chevy's vacation movies - and the set up for the final action scene was lifted straight out of The A Team - and just as much fun.
Reflections on fractal communications - a very old idea - and its cropping up again as I am developing a very new idea - and even I hadn’t connected the dots.
This is a film - not a show and so lacked .. a lot. It also requires the watching of the magnificent series that preceded it to really get it. So yes … enjoyed, but if you haven’t seen the shows … don’t bother and if you have, you will be disappointed.
.. and very glad I missed it in the Theaters.
The star rating might seem harsh - it seemed that way - even to me - but this is a good example of how a normalised rating system can help you - dear reader - get better clarity on the 'why'.
Can’t recall why I started to watch it .. but glad I did .. very good .. and it was a while back (well last year) - despite it being from 2017 - and yet for all of that it took @mitchwagner to remind me - when he referenced it - I couldn’t even recall the name - don’t make the same mistake.
🔗 Godless on Reelgood
🖇️ Review Ratings
The post opens with a position on SaaS platforms moving towards context-as-a-service (CaaS) from Scott Brinker. I question marketing strategies for the ;age of experience’ - built on outdated systems from the ‘age of reason’. (Not to mention that Caas is to my mind up an entirely different pole.)
Significant progress made on my Structured Thought Wiki thanks to Claude - transforming it from numerous stubs into a more complete site with 193 pages, aided by Claude’s contributions in both content and design.
There’s a disclaimer you see everywhere in investment materials:
“Past performance is not an indication of future results.”
… It's a hedge (pun intended) against the assumption that ‘if it happened yesterday, it happens tomorrow’ because yesterday's consistency isn't tomorrow's guarantee.
Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash(SIDENOTE: Has NYPD always had a branch next door to The Nasdaq? Sure seems convenient - and possibly appropriate?)1
In tech we don’t have such a disclaimer.
No. Just NO.
A short (ish) reminder of the ongoing and necessary shift from old marketing principles that evolved when the vendor was in charge to new principles - which focus on engagement and experience - because the customer is now in charge.
As a regular reader of Scott’s newsletter, I opened this one in eager anticipation because he seemed to be making the same observations as I have been over the last couple of years … but I was wrong.
A security incident at Substack resulted in unauthorised access to users' email addresses and limited data, prompting an apology and assurance of improved protections. Before we get to that though - I have a couple of questions. Well one actually.
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In yesterday’s newsletter I wrote ‘coherence is the new moat’ and that you arrive at coherence through careful and repeated Structured Thought. But knowing that isn’t the same as building it. Today I want to talk about where you actually begin. Not with tools. Not with software. With thinking.
Detail from The Full Picture by Alina Grubnyak on UnsplashHere’s what nobody wants to hear: the moment you start to operationalise ‘coherence’, you discover how much of your understanding lives only in your head.
Climbing the ‘pace layers’ leads to fewer and more specialized sources of information.
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Photo by Andy Newton on UnsplashAnd then it happened Ooh, and then it happened
Ooh, and then it happened
Ooh, and then it happened
💬 Holland Dozier and Holland (‘H-D-H’ to their friends.)
If you have been following along (and if not - why not?) since the early days of People First, my work in Structured Thought and more recently, the consolidation into PHI⑊PIN then this is for you.
My thesis : In the late 80s, the slow adoption of computers and email outside of Oracle whilst annoying (at least to me) - also resulted in the fast adoption in the PC revolution - that Oracle was totally unprepared for and was left behind on.
Chris Lockhead posted 🔗 this on LinkedIN
It’s LinkedIn oatmeal.
Chris is right, so I replied:
Content is homogenous, undifferentiated and fully interchangeable with any other content - like any other ‘grain’ that sits in a silo.
Can you really tell one grain of wheat from another? Is your post/comment really interchangeable with every one else’s? If so - content it is. If not - guess what - it is not content.
Originally Published: Jun 6th, 2025
Updated: Jan 30th, 2026
Harlan can be great. This is good.
C3.AI, founded by tech industry veteran Thomas Siebel, is in talks to merge with privately held startup Automation Anywhere being reported by The Information.
Which got me to thinking - C3 is a dot ‘ai’? When did that happen?
A slow start that accelerate to 🤯 keeps up the pace and slows down at the end - and you are about to switch off and BOOM - Series 2 is in play.
Originally Published: Dec 17th, 2023
Updated: Jan 19th, 2026
We’re self-censoring into vanilla mediocrity, It’s destroying everything - and I do mean everything.
Guilty as charged. Going to try harder.
Cough - is it in fact ‘new’?
Anyway - installed and popped over to a local banking site here in New Zealand and asked Claude ‘what the strategic imperatives of the business at that page are … It built a plan and asked me to approve - I did - no modifications …
Yeah .. No. BC did a really good job - including the transformation - but so slow … And if you know me and historical dramas .. doubling down on the ‘yeah .. no’
🔄🖇️ Review Ratings
🔗 The Redacted Smith Transcript
So I 🔗 asked Claude a simple question …
Please only consider this document and no other information. Bottom line - if you were the judge - would you find the defendant guilty or innocent. If guilty - on what counts. For each of those counts - What SHOULD the punishment be, what would the punishment be and what could the punishment be. Please keep succinct.
Still To Do
On the Blog
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Categories: Remove category ‘LongForm’ from Film Review Posts
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CSS: Simple Recent Posts - finish styling
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CSS: On a phone close up ‘spaces’ on home page
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CSS: Sort all home page blog styling
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CSS: Get the bullets back
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Functionality - Add the ‘Replies’ page back ❓
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Functionality - Second Archive Page to pull entire Archive
- going to need JSON/Micro.Blog Help
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Import My Instagram. It is time.
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Import The ‘Quotespace’ Blog. (Troubleshooting)
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Search - resolve PageFind, @sod search, categories, archive et al - way too confusin
Navigating the natural conflict between disruption and patience is essential. Responding to each at the right time is one of life’s greatest challenges.
5 Found Principles by Toa Heftiba on UnsplashLenny is Great - and with well over a million subscribers it seems that I might not be the only person that has come to that conclusion. The thing about him is his guests, their openness and their different way of thinking. Take ‘Elena’ on his latest Podcast.
Listen to it. This is why …
Elena is head of growth at Loveable, a company that in just one year since launch has a $200 million ARR and employs just 100 people.
Let me count the ways - but for now a short primer ….
Wrong - In What They Are A static snapshot in a dynamic system - Org charts freeze people in place, in a world that’s fluid, adaptive, and always in motion.
An illusion of control - They suggest neat lines of authority, when actual influence flows in networks, whispers, and Slack threads.
A power fantasy - Designed more to reassure executives than to reflect how things really work on the ground.
To understand how the fractalisation of work (doesn’t) work - consider ‘the taxi’, the definition of which is in the process of being redefined as a personalised vehicle that will take you for a to b.
That continues - BUT … it also used to be a place for …
Human conversation - spontaneously - about local gossip, life advice, or even silence. And all without algorithmsmonitoring sentiment.
Just a rewatch and LettrBoxd dropped a new post to the feed. Opinion not changed. 🖇️Original Post
There's that expectations thing again. I started-with high hopes - but no - mainly driven-by the fact that I didn't care about any of them - oh and I still have a hard time taking Adam Sander seriously - and I guess I'm not a giant fan of George to begin with - so no idea where those high hopes came from.
That said - Jax gave it 41/2 stars 'm 'would have been more if it wasn’t such a poor ending'.
Having just rewatched the first - would be churlish not to revisit the second. Same conclusion.
Was a rewatch - and not bad - just prefer the Reacher on Amazon Prime.
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I’ve been doing this every year since 2019 - which means that this is my 8th rodeo. (My previous words are here.)
After eight years of ‘three words’, you’d think I’d have this all figured out by now. BUT - Intentional | Inspired | Impactful ? To be honest - not as much as it could have been.
Protecting children’s online safety should be a top priority for everyone, as they are vulnerable to harmful influences from companies prioritizing profit over safeguarding. Sharing the ‘Words of Jax’,
I watched this 20 or more years ago - and was reminded of it whilst watching The Knight Before Christmas.
Yes - it is the same story - proving that the premise is not the problem.
Not my choice. Not by choice. But watch I did. It is movies like this that will ensure that AI Slop will take over part of the entertainment industry. Dreadful.
It has McConaughey in it - so how bad could it? Yeah. Probably his worst movie ever. Not helped by my opinion of 'fiction based on fact' dramas. But even then there are good ones. This is not one of them.
Totally loved. Tears - Joy and Laughter. A keeper.
If ‘the future’ is trust.
Who/what - do you trust?
I mean really really trust?
And why?
Linear sales funnels oversimplify reality and fail to account for the complexities of customer journeys and the importance of data in optimizing business processes - and more - IMHO.
🔗 Responding to Bill Bennet’s article.
The dependencies are clear - but if the EU, with 450 million people and deep talent pools, is only now waking up to the fact they can’t compete head-on in AI and cloud infrastructure, then NZ’s current posture makes even less sense.
The EU’s defaulted to regulation because that’s what they can actually do. But even that gets framed as geopolitical interference by Washington. They’re playing defence from a position of relative strength.
I watched this when it first came out - with great anticipation - being a fan of the books and all - and ... sadly disappointed. Nice enough. If there was a follow up - would watch that - but definitely fell flat.
I am a minority .. I did not like the original Knives Out … at all. So heaven only knows why I watched the second - which I liked even less - so what possessed me to watch the third? No idea - but so glad that I did. Finally the franchise delivered.
Drafts, an app by Agile Tortoise, has been recognized as App of the Year for 2025 thirteen years after its release, showcasing its continued relevance and utility in writing. Reposting @ameripie - adding small thoughts. ( Thankyou @agiletoroise )
Osborne’s appointment to OpenAI reflects a trend of organisations hiring political figures, despite their lousy records in public office - and Clegg didn’t even play a PM on TV - much less be one in real life.
When will any country with the leverage to do so finally call America’s bluff and recognize that a hollowed-out Amercia is trading its values for transactional brutalism and deserves to be abandoned by the allies it once took for granted and today arent even acknowledged.
Yes. Yes. Provided you like stories that circle around ‘other worlds’.
I watched the first and wasn’t really expecting a second … and I am CERTAINLY not expecting a third. PLEASE.
If you have nothing better to do .. in our house it’s one of those that fits in the Venn diagram overlap of ‘what movie shall we watch’ twixt the two of us.
Remarkably average .. I had Guy worked out during his second scene. Keira needed to think more.
Apologies for the gaps twixt newsletters. Want to know why?
Photo by Dynamic Wang on UnsplashTrust me the words haven’t stopped - it’s the transport layer that keeps changing, because this newsletter is but one of a number of communication vehicles I use and as I have been organising my thoughts and perusing my collection of unpublished Substack drafts, it struck me that you might not be aware of the range of PHI⑊PIN properties that run in parallel.
Ok - ‘where’s John - online’ - a quick summary of the network of words and sounds in the PHI⑊PIN domain.
Reconnecting with my Just Good Music cofounder and introducing you to an awesome video from ‘Ren’. Truly stunning - and if there is a god - he is going to go far.
After this, I asked for “the top 5 themes of the entire blog - and how those themes might be categorised.”
⸻
1. Systems vs People
Category: Human-Centric vs Mechanistic Worlds
This is the spine. You’re constantly examining how systems — corporate, political, digital, economic — drift away from the people they’re supposed to serve. The writing teases out the gap between stated purpose and lived reality. When you pull the thread, it usually reveals misaligned incentives, bureaucratic decay, or the slow capture of human agency by structures not built for complexity.
What is this blog about? Apparently it serves as a reflective exploration of complexity in various systems, highlighting the disconnect between theoretical frameworks and real-world behavior, while aiming to promote thoughtful navigation through that complexity. Who knew? Click through to read the why, the method and the overview.
The report reveals a decline in employee trust due to disconnection from leadership and stagnation in career progression, prompting a return to office spaces despite the ongoing buzz about AI disruption.
Despite numerous ideas and strategies for improving productivity in New Zealand, the decline continues and a significant gap remains in effective execution. Is it cultural?
A persistent mouse scrolling issue was successfully resolved in 10 minutes with the help of ChatGPT after exhausting other troubleshooting methods.
… needed.
I didn’t know what to expect .. I knew of the movie, director and of course Sean, Leo and Benicio .. but hell fire … did not expect this. Absolutely marvellous. Remember when UK PM Starmer said that the Netflix show ‘Adolesence’ should be played in all schools so that every school kid gets to see it?
Yeah - every American should watch this.
Oh - and definitely Leo wearing Arthur Dent’s dressing gown throughout was a lovely homage.
Just rewatched - had forgotten all about it - so good.
Wondering if Electron is the problem I am experiencing on MacOS 26 - still not totally sure.
Marvellous … so good.
Then again - the ‘conclusions’ aren’t always a lock.
GapingVoidSo, let’s explore together. Here’s what the past 24 hours have thrown my way…
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I was introduced to a team deeply immersed in AI. I won’t go into their work here, but one line stuck with me: “I just can’t help connecting the dots - it’s what I do.
Tracing the evolution from visual thinking frameworks like Group Partners’ 4D to Structured Visual Thinking (SVT) and beyond, this newsletter reveals how visuals became powerful tools for clarifying strategy, aligning teams, and driving execution and why rigid models and rare skills limited their impact. The article highlights why ‘Structured Thought’ is the next step: taking the clarity of visuals and coupling it with principles that make strategy adaptable, scalable, and actionable for any organisation.
Visual thinking has shaped strategy work for decades, from Arnheim’s 1960s theories to the whiteboard sketchers and infographic craze. But without structure, it too often drifts into decoration instead of decision. This piece traces that history and sets up why I developed Structured Thought - a way to turn visuals from creative flourishes into business advantage.
Read The Full Article
If you want to talk more - I certainly do.
Human By Design is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Photo by Rahul Sharma on UnsplashIn a prior newsletter, I referenced an upcoming third part of the two part series - this isn't it. This is part two of the second part. Confused? You won’t will be.
Paul Simon’s ’The Sound of Silence’ is not a hymn to peace, it’s a warning.
Photo by MARIOLA GROBELSKA on UnsplashHuman By Design is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
My last two newsletters consolidated a recurring theme running through my thinking and writing over the past couple of years. In case you missed them …
The Age of ReasonIs Over The Age of Experienceis Emerging
To which a few of you have commented ( I paraphrase) “Very good John - so what?
Sometimes you can be so far ahead of the curve that when the curve does peak - the world has forgotten you. Take ‘Lyris’ and ‘vibe’ for example.
My friend reflects on the enduring impact of the song by Little Steven, expressing a longing for integrity and compassion amid current political turmoil in America.
Surveillance - in the one hand it doesn’t work - on the other hand - everybody thinks it does - and on the third hand - compnaies keep on coming up with more cool aid to demonstrate it. And yes - its AI that’s bringing that third hand in.
What was I thinking? I knew it wasn’t my kind of movie. And still I watched and … yeah. No.
What was I thinking? I knew it wasn’t my kind of movie. And still I watched and … yeah. No.
The Age of Experience is rising even as the Age of Reason declines. Not to erase it, but to end its monopoly. Power is shifting from rigid logic and control to lived insight, emotional depth, and adaptive thinking, where success depends on how well you sense, respond, and connect. How then does Business adapt to survive?
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Emerging? Not quite … an ‘age’ doesn’t just ‘show up’, rather, it emerges and grows ‘in the gaps between the boxes’. In context and in real-time. It’s not designed. It’s noticed. It’s responded to. To paraphrase Arthur Marwick;
‘The ‘60s started in 1958, and ended in 1974.
Good grief, if we can’t even agree on when a ‘decade’ starts and ends - there is surely no hope for dating an ‘era’!
It was ok. Something to watch. Didn’t like ending.
It was ok. Something to watch. Didn’t like ending.
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Tim Mossholder on UnsplashMike Maples Talking About his book Pattern Breakers …
Strictly speaking, the quote isn’t from Mike’s book, it was a comment he made about his book. I can’t quite recall where. But it resonated.
Not only that, it sparked another instalment in the ‘Structured Thought’ series. It’s arguably a bit of a detour:- less motorway, more a winding B-road through the mountains with great views over the lakes and useful terrain to explore.
Really, Really, Really Good. Totally out of left field …..
It is worth it.
The Transformation from ‘The Age of Reason’ to ‘The Age of Experience’. Letting this sit, wondering if there is more.
A short chat last week sparked a familiar question:
“Is blog even the right word anymore? Do people still use them? Isn’t the whole thing outdated?”
Yes. Yes. And no.
I started Series 1 when it first came out - and yeah no. Recently at a lose end - and it got beeter - so moved into Series 2, The star count is right.
If you are a regular reader of this blog - you will know that I am no financial expert. I never even played one on TV - BUT - fascinated by it since the people in finance are (too?) often the one that dictate the funds available to do what I think businesses need to do. Today’s topic - PE. Which is NOT the same as VC. Not at all.
A bit of a ‘catch up’ post. Across various domains I often reference Venkatesh’s work. Once more today, which prompted this post - because I realised that for whatever reason - I hadn’t ever captured the essence of his ‘mediocrity’ series - and thought I should.
Guy Ritchie .. who’s going to say no. Good cast. Fun story .. in the class of National Treasure and all the rest.
It’s Vince Vaughan so of course I checked it out. Not his best, formulaic - think I’ve seen the story a few times before - but cute nonetheless.
It’s Vince Vaughan so of course I checked it out. Not his best, formulaic - think I’ve seen the story a few times before - but cute nonetheless.
Poking Wordland …
Reminder to self. This is routing to Philpin.com which is currently flagged as an AI experiment. This is not an AI experiment.
Photo by Pars Sahin on UnsplashBack in 2000, my friend and colleague John Caswell founded Group Partners. For a while in the early oughts I worked with him and while there the 4 stage business framework dubbed ‘4D’ was refined and iterated and refined and iterated and .... 4D was the set of frameworks that allowed us (well - John 😉) to take an organisation (any organisation) through a journey of ‘discovery, development, decision and deployment’.
Home alone and had heard good things. Just lovely. Just wonderful. And yes, I cried.
Home alone and had heard good things. Just lovely. Just wonderful. And yes, I cried.
Prompted by a William Gallagher post, A short take on Asimov, memory, and how storytelling evolves. “it’s not the colour of the pill, but the effect”. … A reflection on reading, writing, and what still holds up.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash...Stop calling it ContentStart calling it your article, book, photo, image, white paper, art, story newsletter blog, thought … just not content.
Content is a horrible, generic, cheap, replaceable, switchable kind of word. Which is why it has no value - because if the content they need is not available they will use some other content, because 'anything will do'.
Share
As long as 'we the creators' fall into the trap of using low cost, homogenous, non-descript words like 'content' to describe our work, our soul, our beliefs our passion, our effort, then our work will continue to be viewed as 'free--to--cheap--to--low--cost', homogenised, non-differentiated, interchangeable fodder and we will only have ourselves to blame as the payment for our art, our thinking, our ideas continues to race to the bottom.
Found the link via Daniel Savage - thank you - it has been a while - so did not see this one coming. As I type not fully released (June) … but Pulp ✅ Jarvis ✅ Richard Hawley ❌ .. as far as I can see is not on the record - but there seems to be one of his songs on it - we don’t know which one right now.
This album is currently featured on 4 public lists on AlbumWhale - all mine!
BUT - this not exactly a reshare - but an opportunity for you to click on this link and hear the Orchestral Version of The Overview.
Always loved The Cure. First studio in 16 years. My thanks to Patrick Rhone for highlighting this. As he writes
It’s fantastic. Both classic and modern at the same time.
For me - his voice is definitely not what it was - but that would be hard - he's still got it.
ALWAYS loved The Waterboys. This made me sit up - an entire album dedicated to Dennis Hopper - where the music itself moves through the years of Hopper’s life.
Interesting quote from Ollie Henderson’s book popped up this morning - which reminded me of a Jason Fried quote and they both tie to some fascinating work I am doing right now. Bob said it 61 years ago - not prescient - simply a fact The Times They Are (ALWAYS) A-Changin' …
Om writes about the mediocrity of modern Google - for me most of what they do has always been mediocre because their UX sucks and the best (older) example would be why Google Sheets when you have Airtable? And the thing is with better UI Google was on pole positon to do Airtable before Airtable - and on acrsoo the entire product line.
.. like plain civility at international borders.
Back in the archives of People First I used to talk about ‘The People’s OS’. 🔗 Here for example. It sat together with something that I also called HumanIT. In many ways playful ideas on a tech first world that even then was apparent - much less today. (Hat tip to my friend Jeff Orgel who gave me ‘HumanIT’.) (And now you know why I started ‘People First’.)
Reading this today makes me think that this movement might just be an idea whose time has finally come … (another hat tip - this one to ‘Victor’.)
Restaurant? Or Art?
Back on Apple. Specifically the difficualty people who should know better continue to fail miserably at understanding the company - and if they don’t understand - how can they explain?
I have always been adamant. I am English. British at best. And that is why I remain on a US Green Card - which historically raised eyebrows. It hasn’t alwayss been easy - but right now feeling good about it.
This is a Markdown link
11:11 am Wordland. Once more. Exploring how it might fit my workflow.
[The Final Updated Post](https://philpin.com/2025-03-22) (in case you are reading this on my main blog.)
🔵 The Final Updated Post (in case you are reading this on my main blog.)
Long said that the whole work/life balance problem ‘solves the wrong problem really well’. For example - 🖇️ me, nearly six years ago
I conclude …
Does John Mayall feel fulfilled? Well, needless to say, I can’t speak for him - but I think he does. Is he the richest musician on the planet? Not by a long way. Is he the most well known? Not at all. But I’d wager he is one of the most fulfilled people out there. And not a work-life balance equation to be seen.
Just read this in Gaping Void
Checking out updated Wordland.
🔵 The Final Updated Post (in case you are reading this on my main blog.)
[@Dave](https://micro.blog/Dave) asked the question about Wordland as to whether I was surprised that having posted something … the screen didn’t clear. I get it and understand why the decision was made .. but it still caught me out.
[@om](https://micro.blog/om) is using Wordland to create a new kind of Daily post.
🔵 The Original Updated Post
Finally got around to it and … Marvelous .. and I’m not even a fan of ‘musicals’. So good that it needs ro be rereleased.
Finally got around to it and … Marvelous .. and I’m not even a fan of ‘musicals’. So good that it needs to be rereleased.
I started ‘a process’ this past weekend and then Mark Manson sent ‘me’ an email this morning …
TWO THINGS FOR YOU TO ASK YOURSELF
What do you want to be great at?
What can you do today so you’re a little better tomorrow?
Recommended: Use these as journaling prompts for the week.
ONE THING FOR YOU TO TRY THIS WEEK
Get a little better at that one thing you want to excel at this week.
Hello From Wordland on a MAC
… and another hello from Wordland, this time from my phone AND it updates.
Side Note - I have discovered that I have 14 sites connected to WordPress.com – some long dead.
Some cleanup is in my future.
This all on top of David Merfield announcing Blot running on iCloud. #WorkCutOut
🔵 The Final Updated Post (in case you are reading this on my main blog.
Just a great one, that I saw in the theaters when it came out and logging it now .. 5 years later. Has it stood the test of time? No idea, have a watch and you decide.
I think describing who I am, what I want and need and everything else besides based on my age is baloney and claptrap. Hell - I’d put more money on being defined by astrology. But still this bunk persists.
It’s getting weirder.
Good cast, gritty and wrestles with that eternal question that the world still faces today … even more so … how do you fix the problem of really bad guys by being good guys that don’t break the law.
Good cast, gritty and wrestles with that eternal question that the world still faces today … even more so … how do you fix the problem of really bad guys by being good guys that don’t break the law.
You don't often actually see a nuclear bomb go off in these kinds of movies - aren't they meant to be stopped with 2 seconds to go? It's a Reacher story with plenty of time during in to try to count how many different actors have played Jack over the years ... sorry not a big fan of Ben in these roles (no reason - he just always seems to fall short).
You don't often actually see a nuclear bomb go off in these kinds of movies - aren't they meant to be stopped with 2 seconds to go? It's a Reacher story with plenty of time during in to try to count how many different actors have played Jack over the years ... sorry not a big fan of Ben in these roles (no reason - he just always seems to fall short).
I know I’ve watched the first two at some point - but for the life of me - gonna have to revisit (maybe). Good story - and it’s Denzel … a solid action movie.
I know I’ve watched the first two at some point - but for the life of me - gonna have to revisit (maybe). Good story - and it’s Denzel … a solid action movie.
The reduction of the bloated explosions continues in the Marvel Universe - and from my perspective - that is good.
Plus Ryan and Hugh.
Plus ‘Wick like’ choreography and it’s not that they are breaking the 4th wall - it’s more ‘what wall’?
Oh - and it’s Deadpool.
Big Fan.
The reduction of the bloated explosions continues in the Marvel Universe - and from my perspective - that is good.
Plus Ryan and Hugh.
Plus ‘Wick like’ choreography and it’s not that they are breaking the 4th wall - it’s more ‘what wall’?
Oh - and it’s Deadpool.
Big Fan.
Manton writing today : 🔗 about something that @devilgate wrote : 🔗 Maybe You Can Post Your Way Through Fascism
💯 .. we’ve sort of been down this track before .. not so much Martin’s pov .. as the larger picture .. don’t be cowed .. about anything .. by anyone. And yes it can be scary .. but if nobody reads it .. then you got it out of your system .. if everybody reads it .. you will find that you are not alone.
… it’s what you TRY to do when you are running micro.blog and then out of the blue suddenly fire up a new WordPress instance.
What you thinking about?
When and why you use one or the other.
‘Pretending to Think’ – courtesy one of those generator thingies.
That’s Philpin, Gruber and Jonny. This really resonated - and if you read some of the stuff I read - it will ring bells, because it is like life.
Om nailed it in that second quote: “Especially for immigrants, calling home used to cost a fortune. Skype made it free.” (I was one of those immigrants.)
At one point in 🖇️ Zero Day, De Niro talks about Freedom and Liberty.
Perplexity…
The terms freedom and liberty are often used interchangeably, but they have nuanced differences:
Freedom generally refers to the ability to act without external constraints or interference. It is the absence of restrictions, allowing individuals to pursue their desires and actions without hindrance.
Liberty, on the other hand, emphasizes freedom within a framework of responsibility and law.
When I first heard about Anora I looked it up and put it in the category of ‘no’ .. not even ‘yeah .. no’ .. just definitely .. NO. Despite this, I found myself watching it last night as part of a group where we are attempting to watch all the ‘Best Picture’ nominations before our Oscar party on Sunday. Left to my own devices .. I would have switched it off, or walked out, by around the 20th minute.
When I first heard about Anora I looked it up and put it in the category of ‘no’ .. not even ‘yeah .. no’ .. just definitely .. NO. Despite this, I found myself watching it last night as part of a group where we are attempting to watch all the ‘Best Picture’ nominations before our Oscar party on Sunday. Left to my own devices .. I would have switched it off, or walked out, by around the 20th minute.
Final
Peter Thiel - remember him? The guy with the bunker in the South Island of New Zealand. Yeah, he’s outta here - and good riddance. Except there are lessons that the Kiwi Govt should learn from as they prepare to attract more billionaires, still believing that trickle down economics works.
It’s marinated since I saw it last week. I had heard that it was a ‘back to basics’ take .. ie a movie sans gratuitous explosions - planets being destroyed and using portals to jump through to parallel universes. And indeed delivered - though for my taste - that shield is just a bit too clever - but heh - I know it is me.
When Marvel (and Star Wars) did their 6 to 8 episode TV shows - I liked them - and again - it was the story - without all that ‘extra’ stuff up there.
It’s marinated since I saw it last week. I had heard that it was a ‘back to basics’ take .. ie a movie sans gratuitous explosions - planets being destroyed and using portals to jump through to parallel universes. And indeed delivered - though for my taste - that shield is just a bit too clever - but heh - I know it is me.
When Marvel (and Star Wars) did their 6 to 8 episode TV shows - I liked them - and again - it was the story - without all that ‘extra’ stuff up there.
I just spotted that Giancarlo Esposito was in this - and I decided that I should add a review - because it was ... is ... so good.
I just spotted that Giancarlo Esposito was in this - and I decided that I should add a review - because it was ... is ... so good.
It started well … it went on fine .. until the last 15 minutes. Queued up for a sequel .. but I don’t think so.
It started well … it went on fine .. until the last 15 minutes. Queued up for a sequel .. but I don’t think so.
Soho House is in crisis. I think it was predictable.
A little over a week ago - I threw out 🖇️ this little billy do onto my blog and thought nothing of it. To save you the click through I was just pointing out some internet speeds I was experiencing - and asked what my response should be. Here on MicroBlog I got 4 comments over the next 24 hours. I dunno - par for the course? Now - through the power of Micro.Blog - these posts are also syndicated to BlueSky, Mastodon and Threads.
When I read Scott Brinker (ChiefMartec) I generally feel that our thinking is aligned, but his images often seem to be designed to create fear and creating a speech bubble above my head that reads something like “my god - how the hell can I keep up”. They don’t, IMHO give clarity. Well, maybe back in 2011 .. maybe - but I recall back then it still seem overwhelming ..
It’d another test - so don’t click through
No need to click in - it’s just a pile of ‘lorem ipsum’ - with a quote … BUT - this excerpt courtesy of @danielpunkass and Mars Edit.
Collections are a new way on micro.blog to group images together. Cool add-on - but I wanted to feature collections in related posts which gave me problems. This post explains the problem and my fix. #ProudOfMyself!
Exploring Options and Testing Assumptions
A post that points out that all is not what it seems.
I went because some friends recommended it. What a pile of drivel.
I went because some friends recommended it. What a pile of drivel.
I appreciate Bob - not a fan - but I do go see these biopics as they come out, because music. Definitely one of the best of that particular genre. Of course Timothy did a great job - but so did Edward Norton - and then some. I only hope people didn't watch it as a documentary. I mean they will - and history will be rewritten accordingly. A shame really - but do try to watch it.
I appreciate Bob - not a fan - but I do go see these biopics as they come out, because music. Definitely one of the best of that particular genre. Of course Timothy did a great job - but so did Edward Norton - and then some. I only hope people didn't watch it as a documentary. I mean they will - and history will be rewritten accordingly. A shame really - but do try to watch it.
Outside of Layer Cake - one of the best Daniel Craig movies outside of his Bond work that I have seen. I hadn't registered that it was a William Burroughs story when I first saw it and so my initial - leaving the theatre thought was .. not clear. Mainly because it wasn't what I expected. Once I joined the dots. YUP - pieces fell into place. BUT - holy mackerel - Jason Schwartzman - another one of those side roles that might just slip you by.
Outside of Layer Cake - one of the best Daniel Craig movies outside of his Bond work that I have seen. I hadn't registered that it was a William Burroughs story when I first saw it and so my initial - leaving the theatre thought was .. not clear. Mainly because it wasn't what I expected. Once I joined the dots. YUP - pieces fell into place. BUT - holy mackerel - Jason Schwartzman - another one of those side roles that might just slip you by.
One of those lovely little movies that you come across and get into and when it all ends you are sad.
One of those lovely little movies that you come across and get into and when it all ends you are sad.
How could you ever NOT love Wallace and Grommit - so good.
How could you ever NOT love Wallace and Grommit - so good.
I watched the series and then I watched the first movie and then I watched this second movie .. and I dunno - I keep watching them - but they don't get better. But somehow I am drawn in. No explanation.
I watched the series and then I watched [🖇️ the first movie](https://john.philpin.com/2025/02/11/ferry.html) and then I watched this second movie .. and I dunno - I keep watching them - but they don't get better. But somehow I am drawn in. No explanation.
Watched it a while back - so logging it here. Not bad - but maybe watch the series first to garner some context.
Watched it a while back - so logging it here. Not bad - but maybe watch the series first to garner some context.
I am unsure if they are connected - so parking this here while we think.
There is also something going on with the Argentinian playbook - which I am planning to publish in a newsletter.
I am no expert - but my spidey senses are up … Bitcoin, Argentina, El Salvador .. OR, it’s all summarized thus ….
Bitcoin El Salvador introduced bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and then - as now - one Tim Draper has oft’ spoken breathlessly of how cool it is that a sovereign nation has adopted it.
A short apology to an unknown cashier in a store that I thought had taken advantage - or made a mistake. Turns out - it was all me. Turns out that thirty bucks short is because I didn’t spot that a ‘twenty’ was actually a ‘fifty’. BAD JOHN.
I don’t think the Beatles were the greatest band that ever lived. There I said it. I know there will be people that disagree with me.
That said, even with two views of ‘truth’ it is still possible to have a deep, interesting, meaningful conversation that might open my mind and who knows … ‘theirs’ as well. In other words in this case true connection is possible even if the participants have different ‘realities’.
I published 🔗 this post back in July last year … after months of delay and noodling and questioning, I finally released it - and as with so many of my posts that I often wonder why I bother .. crickets.
From that piece - if you’ll forgive me for quoting myself …
Sadly the Internet has been weaponized and far from creating a place to be educated about the differences of people and countries and life - we are being forced into submission.
Specifically, New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom and The United States
🔗 Kevin Drum linking to the cheapest and most expensive places to live.
🔗 Worlddata
In New Zealand there is a lot of handwringing that translates to countless LinkedIN posts talking about ‘jump starting’ the economy and what do they have to do to grow their GDP which inevitably leads to attracting the ‘brightest and the best’. I’ve even weighed into a few of the debates myself …
I have on occasions referenced ‘The Business Equation’ within this ‘Personal Journal’. I shared it last week in a pack of mental models I use as part of my processes that businesses find helpful when building their company. In the sharing, it occurred to me that while pictures are worth 1,000 words - sometimes you might need 10,000.
For example, The Business Equation includes my take on concepts like;
The Virtual Corporation
… because it’s getting worse.
A strategic thinker wouldn’t call it content.
Sorry - no idea who wrote that - not me - but definitely on pace with my thinking - which you will know that 🖇️🔍 I have written about this many times over the years.
To save the click through - in a nutshell …
As long as ‘we the creators’ fall into the trap of using low cost, homogenous, non-descript words like ‘content’ to describe our work, our soul, our passion, our beliefs then our work will continue to be viewed as ‘free - to - cheap - to - low - cost’, as ‘homogenized, non differentiated, interchangeable fodder’.
I like both actors - so despite the warnings of ‘the new diehard’ I ploughed ahead. it was a fine movie - but both actors have substantially better performances and films/shows on their cv.
I like both actors - so despite the warnings of ‘the new diehard’ I ploughed ahead. it was a fine movie - but both actors have substantially better performances and films/shows on their cv.
I’ve been doing this every year since 2019. My 7th will be out in a few days time.
The History 2024 - substack.philpin.com/p/here-we…
Transform | Transition | Transcend (sic)
2023 - substack.philpin.com/p/its-tha…
Focus | Flexible | Fabulous
2022 - substack.philpin.com/p/take-th…
Clear | Closer | Choice
2021 - john.philpin.com/2021/01/0…
Transform | Transition | Transcend
2020 - substack.philpin.com/p/take-th…
Believe | Move | Ascend
2019 - substack.philpin.com/p/here-we…
Uncertain | Less | Different
Caveat | The source of this post is a separate blog where I am experimenting with a new AI app we are building. In other words, for now, no guarantees of the veracity of the contents.
seeking to understand how this blog is being treated over at John.Philpin.Com
Note .. this is not the usual fayer to be expected.
My first ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ in a looong time.
Stunning
Marvelous
Bravo
Encore
My first ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ in a looong time.
Stunning
Marvelous
Bravo
Encore
It’s up there as one of his better ones - and like a lot of his better ones .. quiet, tight, personal.
It’s up there as one of his better ones - and like a lot of his better ones .. quiet, tight, personal.
Lovely
Lovely
Against my better judgement .. decided to go see it. I’m sure it’s a fine movie - just not my cup of tea - but so many people I know kept telling me how great it was. Yeah no. At least for this bear.
Don’t hate me. Don’t tell me that missed something. I didn’t.
Against my better judgement .. decided to go see it. I’m sure it’s a fine movie - just not my cup of tea - but so many people I know kept telling me how great it was. Yeah no. At least for this bear.
Don’t hate me. Don’t tell me that missed something. I didn’t.
In my health fight over the past four years, my oncologist 🔗Pepe Sasso had five rules that he laid on me at the very beginning and kept pushing me every time I saw him - including just a couple of weeks ago. One of two things that I maintain is ‘my secret’. 🔗 This is the other.
Exercise
Diet/Nutrition to Maintain a Healthy Weight
Positive Mental Attitude (the sail of opportunity is always open)
I particularly want to say ‘thank you Jax’. I know how much you did .. do .. for me. No doubt in my mind that without you, I wouldn’t be here, not just your support, but my ears, my voice, your questions, your knowledge - without you - I wouldn’t know half of this village to begin with so I couldn’t have even done what I did without you.
Two other big shout outs to Pepe Sasso, my Radiation Oncologist and Rowan Jones, his lead nurse at the hospital I was at.
An older movie that I hadn’t heard of with an awesome cast… I was nervous .. but decided if it was going to be bad, we could always switch it off. We got to the end .. Owen plays Owen, Ed plays Steve Carrell and the rest did a good job … stellar .. no .. but waaaay better than I expected which prolly explains the 4 stars.
An older movie that I hadn’t heard of with an awesome cast… I was nervous .. but decided if it was going to be bad, we could always switch it off. We got to the end .. Owen plays Owen, Ed plays Steve Carrell and the rest did a good job … stellar .. no .. but waaaay better than I expected which prolly explains the 4 stars.
Testing - Just Testing. Now Sorting - Just Sorting.
A few of today’s reads all came together this morning …
First up (which I am not even going to bother linking to) lead with something like … “how corporations can create emotional connections to their customers at ‘scale’.”
What the fucking what - do not even get me started. Do these people even think about what their words mean when they spew them out?
Anyway - onwards - and as so often happens Hugh over at Gaping Void says it the best …
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
Not sure why?
Not sure why?
‘Storm in a teacup ‘or fallout not yet settled?
At the very least the story reflects poorly on Intuit’s head of communications who clearly doesn’t understand how communication works in 2024.
And yes I have listened to the whole podcast. The guy clearly doesn’t even understand journalism!
🔗📼 What we’ve got here is failure to communicate
🔗 Intuit’s PR Team Has Seemingly Never Heard of the Streisand Effect
Good post from John @Gruber today - and not wrong.
Not mine, but it was so lovely I wanted to drop it in here, so that as ‘link rot’ continues - I will at least have it here. Who knows, you might already know it, it seems to have been circulating the socials - so of course - I did a little bit of triangulation. It looks legit.
🔗 More Here
The Story At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, was walking through a park one day in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll.
Not my words - but I do like them (one of my business connections down here in Aotearoa dropped them on LinkedIN this morning.)
The first mile is owed, the second is bestowed. The first is mandatory, the second is voluntary. The first mile belongs to others. The extra mile belongs to you and you alone. It is therefore always in the second mile where character, nobility and greatness lie.
🔗 Nice to see ‘Disrupt’ ‘growing’
… not by size - it has been a big show for a long time - but in terms of thinking.
To my mind the revolution that drives tech startups is disruption - yet too often the result is destruction. Sometimes directly, sometimes an unintended consequence. (I Need to Write That Post.)
Beyond that, the historical challenge is that disruption and destruction seem to get conflated - even at times used interchangeably.
I dunno - I thought it might be fun - it was for a short while - another failure to communicate. Sorry - and no idea how it ended.
I dunno - I thought it might be fun - it was for a short while - another failure to communicate. Sorry - and no idea how it ended.
Liam doing what Liam does. I couldn’t be bothered to get to the end, so two stars is generous.
Liam doing what Liam does. I couldn’t be bothered to get to the end, so two stars is generous.
Stumbled across this a week or so ago and it got me to thinking - remember the 🖇️ Vision Pro?
Still don’t have one - no plan to - no personal use case (desire is apparently not a use case … who knew?)
That said, there are bundles and bundles of Business Use cases.
Anyway, turns out that 🔗 Sightful are coming out with a solution to a specific use case early 2025.
Back a few years ago - I raised the idea that 🖇️ ATS systems should just be banned.. Nothing changed.
Then I found this clip from The Monkees TV show that aired in the late 60s … 🖇️ The Monkees Predicting ATS software THIRTY YEARS before it appeared. Yes - 30 years is right - that’s when these things started to appear.
Of course in the intermediate time - they have just got better worse.
Not bad to begin with.. but kind of fell off into cliches .. and isn’t Aaron a bit old to be brawling and fighting in the field?
Not bad to begin with.. but kind of fell off into cliches .. and isn’t Aaron a bit old to be brawling and fighting in the field?
I dunno .. Marky, Halle AND J.K. .. great cast .. so you expect a bit more than average? Don’t you? That said the choreography of chasing the case down the side of a building was well done. But if that’s the peak .. you wonder why I gave it 3 stars. Don’t you?
I dunno .. Marky, Halle AND J.K. .. great cast .. so you expect a bit more than average? Don’t you? That said the choreography of chasing the case down the side of a building was well done. But if that’s the peak .. you wonder why I gave it 3 stars. Don’t you?
Three and a half stars … rounding up to 4 .. just for the audacity to remake Rambo and not give Sky any credit. Seriously .. not bad at all.
Three and a half stars … rounding up to 4 .. just for the audacity to remake Rambo and not give Sky any credit. Seriously .. not bad at all.
Watched on Saturday October 5, 2024.
Watched on Saturday October 5, 2024.
Cute. A good watch on a lazy sunny afternoon.
Cute. A good watch on a lazy sunny afternoon.
A Posterity Post
I had cause to add a comment on a post that featured this image.
It is funny - but I think it is funny for all the reasons that the commenters were not seeing ….
A university is to educate .. not train. If you are wondering about the difference, ask yourself if you prefer your children to attend sex education classes or sex training classes.
Average score for an average movie. Casey? Never been overly bothered, but Matt is capable of so much more.
Average score for an average movie. Casey? Never been overly bothered, but Matt is capable of so much more.
🔄🖇️ Review Ratings
This review may contain spoilers.
Wolfs … not Wolves. Not sure why. Need to look it up. Other than that .. all good. They have a good relationship IRL … it comes through in the movie.
Wolfs … not Wolves. Not sure why. Need to look it up. Other than that .. all good. They have a good relationship IRL … it comes through in the movie.
🖇️ Talking about knowing what you’re talking about - nobody who knows what they are talking about would confuse me with a real programmer.
That said, I just read 🔗 Going the Extra Mile — Beyond CSS, most of which is well above my technical pay grade - but still I was fascinated by the attention to detail around ‘crafting Craft’.
Consider - a whole post (well 75%) devoted to the process behind getting a check box ‘just right’ and the remaining 25% explaining ‘push away’, which I knew had to be coded in some way - but who knew there is a phrase for it?
🔗 Lex raises $2.75M for its AI writing tool that helps writers get past blocks.
The AI stuff is cool, but there was one thing about this app that made me want to keep using it: It has no historical baggage. I find it odd that many modern word processors like Google Docs and Word retain a bias toward pagination — the UX is intended for printing documents onto letter-sized paper.
🔗 Raw data: Book and newspaper consumption - Kevin Drum
There is a mantra in the world that people ‘don’t read’ (anymore?).
And on top of that - if they do - (very) short form - definitely not books.
I have long thought this to be wrong.
They certainly might not read your stuff. Or my stuff, but they do read - BUT - they read what interests them , what engages them and definitely not limited to stuff that appears at the top of lists.
Prompt: Write a 5 paragraph article on the topic ‘word’
Response: The Power of the Word: A Catalyst for Change Words are more than mere strings of letters; they are the building blocks of communication, carrying the weight of meaning and emotion. From ancient oral traditions to modern digital communication, words have shaped human history and culture. They have the power to inspire, educate, and connect people across distances and generations.
This review may contain spoilers.
It is what it is. Of a kind. Set up for a sequel that prolly won’t be made. Netflix calls it something different. Don’t know why.
It is what it is. Of a kind. Set up for a sequel that prolly won’t be made. Netflix calls it something different. Don’t know why.
The only reasons it’s not 5 stars is that I find it hard to give 5 stars because 5 stars means it can’t be improved. Now .. how could this be improved .. I have no idea, just wonderful. Quite wonderful. The original book coming from one of ‘my Johns’ (LeCarre), provided a solid foundation. Cast GREAT. PSH .. magnificent. Cannot be,I eve it’s taken me 10 years to get to it.
🔗 It’s time to ask once again why it costs so much to die in Aotearoa.
I for one did not know this and come to think of it - I don’t know what the ‘cost of dying’ is in other countries either.
In New Plymouth, for example, it could cost over $7,200 for a burial … represent(ing) the burial plot itself.
Umm - burial?
Once you’ve covered the expense of the burial, there are a number of additional costs that can make the actual cost of dying far greater – the figure often cited in the media for an average funeral is $10,000.
It’s 18 months old - but 🔗 this post from TimUrban resurfaced this morning, where he talks about how long it took to write his book, reminding me of a post I have had parked for a while now. Time to unleash it.
The title of this post was originally ‘Are We Being Forced To Conform?’ I changed it because as I read it before publishing, I think I answered my own question.
I know the ‘series’ ended - but that doesn’t mean I don’t still take the pictures.
It All Started Here 15 Minutes After That and 30 Minutes After That
There are many deep questions in life that have been answered (case in point … sandwiches), but some remain.
This is my contribution to one such remnant.
This Way Or This Way Solved /end
It’s Saturday - so just sorting out things that I saved and never did anything with - but these 5 - I dunno - good reminders.
In case anyone is confused …
… or stupid.
A solid reminder that I need from time to time.
The idea behind this one often resurfaces in my mind (not the precise words mind), but I find the essence to be a good reminder of the importance of stepping away.
Nothing to do - it was Jackie - you know what to expect.
Cute - ish … without Harry, wouldn’t have bothered. Been a while since I’d seen him … anywhere. Hallmark anyone?
I thought I would ask ChatGPT 4o
A “High-performing System” refers to a well-organized and efficient framework or setup that consistently delivers optimal results. This concept can apply to various contexts, such as organizations, technology infrastructures, or even processes. Key characteristics of a high-performing system include:
Efficiency: Resources, including time, energy, and materials, are used effectively, minimizing waste and maximizing output. Integration: Components or subsystems work together seamlessly, ensuring smooth operations and coordination.
An older one. Couple o’ great action stars .. one of them a great actor .. but somehow the movie wasn’t great. Not bad, but not great.
Spoiler alert - I am talking about the book by Category Pirates, not Apple’s OSX.
I don’t recommend many business books .. in fact I don’t really recommend any, rather I recommend the authors, based on what I know, read and see them talking about. Christopher Lockhead is one such person and last week I recommended him again.
Email received this morning …
I tried buying Snow Leopard on Apple but only the audiobook is available.
Twenty Two Years Ago - give or take - my friend Bob told me to take a listen to an album he has just found called ‘In Abstentia’. Still at the top of my memory banks sees me sitting beside him at the back of some grey boring conference room in Sunnyvale listening to somebody droning on as he silently passed me his wired ear buds connected to his new iPod and watched me have my mind blown as I listened to …
If you have run out of movies from the ‘Spy Kids’ franchise, well now you have one not from the franchise .. but that is pretty much the only reason to watch it .. with your kids/grandkids .. oh … and get ready for the question … If mom was a baddy and all her old gang are not in prison .. how did she swing being in Witness Protection?
On the whole, when I eventually get to them (7 years in this case) I do enjoy Jackie Chan movies. This was no exception. If you aren’t into Jackie Chan movies, this won’t change your mind.
A friend on LinkedIN recently made a comment and referenced a video clip in support of his argument, which truth be told, I can’t recall - but it definitely wasn’t about ‘ATS’.
🔗 📼 This is the video clip .. it’s a scene from the Monkees TV show - this particular one directed by Bob Rafelson, written by David Panich - who I had never heard of - but given the subject matter of the clip, was intrigued enough to look him up .
Better than expected.
Netflix doesn’t do the best movies .. but it they do seem to have a knack of pushing out better than average. Like this one.
I read this today
in 🔗 Austin Kleon’s Newsletter.
Now let me be clear - I am not so old that I ever used one, BUT
I do know what it is and where it was used … and sadly I am old enough to have had a boss who did have such a thing on his desk.
I just looked up Austin on Wikipedia - we aren’t that many years apart … FTW.
Not too bad actually. I started with low expectations .. but not bad at all.
Over in a more ‘private’ group there was a side discussion on Music … specifically .. ‘Country’ and someone had brought up Beyonce .. and well, time to throw in a comment …
Beyoncé does ‘Country’ and not one word about ‘cultural appropriation’ 🤪 no comment from this section of the Peanut Gallery … even Tay Tay had to break out of that genre. I will look up Garth’s contribution to the Muppets Multiverse.
Not totally bad .. but confused .. and definitely below expectations. Vincent was great. The rest .. meh.
Trying to tie it all together for the occasional visitor.
It all started with Guestbooks. ( 🖇️ I have one ) and yesterday I caught up on reciprocating and getting ahead of the curve. ✅
I then created a new page that is connected to and referenced from my guest book page - so that there is a quick check for those I have visited. 🖇️ You can find that here.
Somehow missed this in 2012 .. good cast, good director, good film .. and what a YOUNG Ryan’s Reynolds … it was only 12 years ago.
Worth a watch - though a relatively predictable story arc.
I know he died ‘young’ at ’42’ (now THERE’s a reference), somehow I forget really just how young he was, given his impact on culture. That said, for me, never a great fan. Appreciate who he was, what he did .. but maybe just too young to be a real fan and maybe my musical interests are different.
This all to explain why it might have taken me this long to get round to watching the Elvis biopic (another being ’Tom’ - on this occasion playing ’Tom’ - someone else I don’t go out go my way to watch - but when I do, generally pleasantly surprised).
A Musical Box - no, not 🔗 🎵 that one - though in itself well worth a watch - Gabriel at his theatrical finest in 1974.
I happened to drift around some music videos on YouTube last night - and well - some of them just needed to be shared …
Starting with a couple from Robert Plant with the Shape Shifters 🔗 🎵 1 - Robert Plant at Austin City Limits
Not bad, not bad at all. Knew nothing about it going in, but all added up to a nice delivery beyond my expectations.
There should be a rating between Like and Dislike. In the end I went for like .. because in all honesty I couldn’t really ‘dislike’ … but no .. NOT a recommendation. I wonder if they were trying to go for that Ted Lasso feel good thing? No idea .. but whatever that Ted Lasso feel good thing is … it was not this.
LATER:
Get despite that initial review of the first couple of series … here I am again on the third.
Gawd .. slit my wrists now.
I have touched on this before but after reading a Lefsetz post over the weekend, decided to expand a little and log the thinking for posterity.
🔗 Lefsetz Letter - Company At The Sphere - that’s the link to where 🖇️ this quote came from that I published this weekend. I said I’d be back…
Around 2016 - ‘the term ‘spatial’ was being coined’. - though I personally think Apple’s ‘spatial’ is a light year or two ahead of where Mr.
My reply to @ridwan got a little long, so I thought I might not reply and start a new thread.
🔗 This is Ridwan’s original post
This is my reply to his comment under that post …
We are in for a Labour government, which is a done deal. However, Is Keir Starmer’s the PM after 14 years of Tory squander? I see him as just another politician who will say anything to get elected and turn his back on the people who voted Labour.
I love listening to knowledgeable 🎵 people steeped in ‘the lore’, ‘the history’ .. I can swim in it forever. An inevitable question appears somewhere in the conversation .. “did you know it was going to be a hit?”
no clue mate
… is the usual and correct response.
Same with newsletters. You just can’t tell. I keep reading over and over different writers that are surprised when their ‘magnum opus’ falls flat and a ‘throwaway’ goes viral.
It’s 🔗 Towel Day ( thank you @odd ) - but today also happens to be my 25th Anniversary
Yup - 25 years. Truth be told it had been going on a lot longer - but it was 25 years ago that we actually tied the knot .. and I have had my ‘personal space’ on the internet ever since May 25th, 1999 (Creation Date: 1999-05-25T20:14:36Z).
Now of course, we had known each other a lot longer than that - long before the web in fact, but you know when you first connect you don’t really note the dates do you?
If you have been keeping track - you have haven’t you? … You will know that I am around about a year into a ‘category culling’ on my site. I’m there. Except I am not.
As of 5 minutes ago - the last category died - number 5 below.
The objective was always to reduce the number to something more manageable. Believe it or not - this lot is around a 1/3 to 1/2 of what it used to be.
I am well aware that despite my years long campaign to stop people from describing their words, articles, photographs, thinking … beliefs, soul … Intellectual Property even … ‘content’ … they continue to… unabated.
🔎 🖇️ It drives me nuts.
But I am not giving up …
That said - there are people that ‘get it’. (Though I will freely admit that we are also in the minority there!)
Meanwhile the ‘bot farms that have been delivering the real content (sic) to our uncurated feeds and inboxes have been gearing up for the AI revolution - and indeed as reported in many places are already shaping our ‘thinking’.
I opened Chat4o and my first words (audio input) after ‘hello’ were something like write me a quick post about Markdown. What is it. Why should I use it.
Response back - as written. No formatting. No editing.
Introduction In the world of technology and software development, it is crucial to have proper documentation to ensure that information is organized and easily accessible. Markdown is lightweight markup language with plain-text formatting syntax, designed to be easily converted into HTML and other formats.
Cathedrals are places designed to show their creator’s opulence and power, but they’re also designed to alter our senses, to throw us into alternate worlds, so that they can open us our minds to change. If that’s the case, what will these places be in the 21st century?
Good question that was running through my mind when I stumble across this quote …
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism.
Responsive Video /* Style to set a fixed size for the video */ .video-container { width: 600px; /* Set your desired width */ max-width: 100%; /* Allow the video to shrink to fit the screen */ margin: 0 auto; /* Center the video horizontally */ } .video-container video { width: 100%; height: auto; /* Maintain the aspect ratio */ } /* Media query for smaller screens */ @media screen and (max-width: 600px) { .
German Language Podcast. In 🍎 Podcasts - you can see the German language transcription. BUT - you can’t copy the whole thing.
Looks like you can.
But you can’t.
I use software to record meetings.
Ooh I thought.
Play the podcast - and record - at end of podcast one german transcription. Run that through a translator and voila … or so I thought.
I did an experiment - thankfully.
I have deleted what should have been this post since it wasn’t doing what it should. No time to debug now .. will come back and flag when I have fixed or got a workaround.
Yes, or is it no … not sure. I wanted to love it. But I couldn’t. Except sometimes. You can see that I’m a bit undecided. That’s not going to change.
Oh - and Idris.
To catch you up, you might have missed 🔗 📼 this video .. you can see it at the bottom of the page.
When I first saw it, I liked the visual effect - but really - not the message. As I wrote over on 🔗 John’s blog
I saw that vid .. kinda like it .. BUT .. I dunno … destroy everything physical, crush it to nothing ?
Just dropping this here – the home of a new service from John …
AnalAIze | RuminAIte | SpeculAIte
Hang on to your hats.
I liked Chevy's all those years ago and Mr Hamm did a good job and to the spirit. Put it in the queue - it might appeal one day.
I love Bill Nighy - so I couldn’t give it 3 1/2 (except I could). Not a bad movie by any means - although Bill does seem to have one character that appears in many disparate movies. It’s 13 years old - no idea how I missed it when it came out - except maybe because it is missable? Only for the ardent Nighy fan.
Rafah’s fate hung in the balance on Monday after Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire-for-hostage deal but Israel responded skeptically and carried out night airstrikes on Gaza’s southernmost city.
… whatever happens now - whatever is said - why on earth would Hamas believe anything being said.
My mum used to tell me that what you say is not important - it is how you act.
Cards Played.
Not for the light hearted. Not for everyone - but loved it.
No - 🎵🔗 not this
We knew Ms. Redstone wanted out. Looks like it’s going to happen.
And Ellison’s Skydance seems to be in the frame for the preferred acquirer which I definitely do not get - but sure why not?
I look forward to opinions from people like Rob Long and Peter Kafka, if I were to predict - I am guessing that Long in particular might be thinking like me.
Consider this that was just sent to me (reproduced in full so you don’t have to sully yourself).
• An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.
• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
• A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
• An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
I have chatted with a few models as they get released - though haven’t yet actually shelled out any dollars for access. Still. I was intrigued enough when @Agiletortoise released Claude integration to Drafts - so of course I installed. This is that conversation. Not earth shattering - more focussed on ease of set up (10/10) and ease of use (10/10). Quality of conversation .. (1/10)(?). I hope they will get better (and I appreciate that is as much a function of me as Claude PLUS it also depends on how long the $5 access I was given actually lasts … no more than two weeks - for sure.
As my Category culling is drawing to a close continues with no end in sight, I just discovered a new project.
Not only do I have this space - but over on Blot I have a different - yet related space.
I used to have 🔗 https://words.philpin.com - for ‘words’ and 🔗 https://pictures.philpin.com which eventually became 🔗 https://images.philpin.com for, well … ‘images’.
And then I moved everything into 🔗 https://archive.philpin.com - it’s so easy in Blot - and everything is was great - were it not for rather a large number of links on Micro Blog that point to those three old blogs.
🔗Over on Substack this morning, somebody had taken it upon themselves to ‘correct’ a writer’s English.
Tip: realized not “realised”. I’ll surprised that you got that passed spell check! 😊
The irony of her own typos in her post correcting someone that didn’t need correcting aside …
The click through takes you to the thread where Tom replied, but to save you that - this is what he wrote …
In case you hadn’t realized - I have been doing some backlog clearing over the weekend, this is one of those catchups. Links from the wild - collected and - not quite curated.
Still there might be something here for you?
🔗 Validating Factual Personal Information | February 2024 | Communications of the ACM - it’s as if Vint isn’t plugged in to the possibilities? What am I missing?
🔗 A Fascinating dive into the history of Poland
Solid Idris - which somehow I missed at the time.
I watched it because of Matthew McConaughey - and he played his part.
/END
PS (Not a loser at all - but 3 1/2 from me for McConaughey is not a good score.
It's fashionable to knock it, but I won't. Solid. A splendid cast and really what's not to love? .. other than it is a bit n 'Lala Land' - but heh - it’s a Christmas movie.
People should know something about you before they ‘have a go’.
I have a fundamental objection to Uber. (You might have heard.)
Which is why down here in New Zealand, when one of those kind of pickups is needed I use Ola.
Make that ‘used to use’
They pulled out! Gone. No longer here. Removed themselves …
Chatting to a ‘Corporate Cabs Taxi Driver - who was doing the usual complaining about ‘Ride Share Companies’ (to be fair - I did prompt him) and I pointed out that IF there was an app I could go to and call up a real cab like I could a Lyft, Ola or MAYBE an Uber - it would make it a darn sight more convenient … and he very kindly referred me to an app called 🔗 Your Ride.
It is lost in the mists of time but I seem to recall a post by @brentsimmons from years ago - maybe even last century? The advice was to reply to emails as a post, so that when a second email comes, you can modify the material on your blog and send the link. (I more than likely have over simplified, taken it out of context, changed the essence if not meaning / idea - but that’s what we do right?
There are so many of these things popping up (AIs that is), you need an AI to track the AIs.
Pi is one that caught my eye a while back, and I have had some noodles and doodles with it - when time allows. Clearly 🔗 David had a bit more time than me - because he sat down and interviewed them (?) .. or is it still an ‘it’?
Apparently, Murdock and Musk were on pace to receive the RBG Award? Nobody thought .. hang on a minute?
It gets worse. Below the fold …
Two other ‘awardees’ were 🔗 Michael Milliken
.. and 🔗Martha Stewart
… and yes I do understand second chances and all that - but still .. am I the only one out here on the edge - again?
IMHO .. Sly was the only one who deserved to be on a short list to begin with.
🔗 Sydney to Melbourne. Really?
Nobody else will even notice - much less care - about my achievement today, but gosh darn - it needs to be recognized. So this is …
A Public Announcement Today I fixed the CSS on my MicroBlog so that the video container when looked at on a phone is now fixed and no longer runs off the screen.
AND no Google or ChatGPT in the loop …
AND I have had this in the back of my mind since March 27th, and was ignoring it in the hope it would just go away …
Watching the spin off show recently reminded me that I hadn't reviewed this - which I watched only this past Christmas. I like most of Ritchie's movies - this was no exception. I like most McConaughey work - this was no exception. And - DEFINITELY better than the spin off series.
One of those 'little' movies that just hits the spot and then there is 'Bill' - so really, what is not to love.
Turns out there is a soccer competition for Homeless people around the world - and this release sees to be synched with the first annual competiton since before COVID. (If I read right.)
I watched a lovely little movie last night - fresh out on Netflix with Bill Nighy in the lead role.
On Netflix
Great movie? Not at all. Just one of those lovely little movies that I happen to enjoy - and seemingly that Bill happens to enjoy making.
Anyway - it got me to wondering. Is there really a soccer World Cup for homeless people? Turns out yes - yes there is …
🖇️ After this .. another one from May last year. This one wasn’t as ‘finished, so tweaked a bit for clarity.
Separate question - what was going on in my life in May last year?
Just off a loooong web session with 50 or 60 very wise people talking about AI and ESG. Specifically ‘The Future of Sustainable Decisions in the Boardroom.’ Great session, and they are regular sessions, so ping me if you would like to join the next one.
Tucked away in Obsidian I came across some files that had found their way to the repository. This on in particular caught my eye. It is dated May last year. (which would put me in Palm Desert, if that provides any context?)
Posting it now - as rediscovered.
Sorry … no photo. I hope you understand and no judgement.
Male, not a big man, but neither petite … sporting blue lipstick.
I used NordVPN for around 5 years. My subscription was up for renewal. Their charges seemed to be on the high side, so I had a look around and landed at Proton at the recommendation of a microblogger (sorry - can’t recall who) - signed up and very happy.
Since Nord lost my business, they keep sending me emails and almost every time the price goes down again.
This price is less than I was paying before and definitely less than I am paying Proton - BUT - had they given me a loyal customer - this price from the beginning I would never have looked around.
A truly excellent letter - read by Stephen Fry, written by Nick Cave.
📼 🔗 Just in case you think AI is going to take / has taken over the world.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life. For a while, I was even just dropping markers - to revisit.
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🚧
’Prompt' By 'Leonardo' Gah!
That moment you realize that you should have paid more attention to that message about your phone account needing ‘topping up’.
The exact moment?
When your Internet service breaks.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life.
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’Lost Hat' By 'Me' Someone is going to be unhappy this morning. 🥺
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life. For a while, I was even just dropping markers - to revisit. I came to realise that part of the problem was the complexity of the structure for each post - so that went away.
Caveat ‘Navigation is 🚧’
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’Football’ By 'Me' I don’t know which I am more amazed by.
That I was half way up a hill looking down on this beach over the weekend and mesmerized by these 4 guys kicking a ball between themselves for close to a couple of hours in pretty intense sun. It was truly amazing - just gentle self control of moving a ball between them - you gotta know that i am no football fan - but they had me.
I think 41 marks the point where I have to accept that the 366 format is too hard and intensive to manage. So this is where we are headed … wherever ‘this’ is. As I type this into the 41st entry it is actually day 80! I have had too much going on - so have been just dropping markers. I needed to make it easier. I have made it easier.
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The Palais Garnier In The 9th Arrondissement _(By Me)_ … it’s also February 9th .
Stretching?
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life. For a while, I was even just dropping markers - to revisit. I came to realise that part of the problem was the complexity of the structure for each post - so that went away.
Life can move slowly. But then it doesn’t. Case in point …. or is it?
🔗 Me on LinkedIN 12th December 2023
Resignation 14 December 2023
🔗 Business Desk Reporting 19th December 2023
Good result?
It’s a start.
Then we learn that the new chair is Jenifer Kerr - wait, she’s the chair of NZTE.
Indeed she is.
We now have one person chairing NZTE and Callaghan - thought the profiles are slightly different.
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A Vintage Machine - Photographed By Me Back in the day a technological marvel such as this would cost you hundred and hundreds of dollars. (No joking kids). Of course the number of people you could communicate using such a device - back in the day - could be counted in the millions. So $10 does sound like a bargain, except.
Back in the Day - the cost to connection ratio was very, very small.
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’A Stack of Subs’ By 'Leonardo' .. no, not exactly. Not a submarine - a sub .. like a subway?
’A Stack of Subs’ By 'Leonardo' A Train Station?
🤦♂️
Oh no. Not a ‘Subway’ … A ‘Subway sandwich’.
In fact make it a stack.
That’s right …A ‘stack of subs’.
’A Stack of Subs’ By 'Leonardo' At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series.
’Serendipity’ By 'Leonardo' Is it catching❓Or is it just plain old serendipity❓
It was January 1st when I had the idea for the 366 series. It wasn’t fully formed, but I had to start. And, as the posts started to happen over the next few days, there were different ideas and formats running around in my head and being tried out. With the layouts, every time I locked down on a new one - I went back to the older 366 posts and adjusted.
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’36 Repeated By 'Leonardo' I mean you could see this as a filler - but it couldn’t be a filler tomorrow. Could it?
And yes .. a very early post .. time is that short today.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life.
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’Cube’ By 'Leonardo' This is published - but let me emphasize, most definitely a WIP. Hoping to get feedback from a few select people, not to say that I too am noodling more. I will return. 🚧
Out in the wild - and really - these days what else would you call ‘LinkedIN’, I 🔗 read a post by 🔗 Tim Parsons that had garnered a few comments.
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’Time is running out’ By 'Leonardo' Not much of it today. Sorry.
Except to say - that when you hear all the complaints from creatives how the AI engines are ‘stealing their soul’, if not ‘the bread from their children’s mouths’, you see this and understand it.
Today’s prompt had no tweaking.
This was the first image generated.
But “no … no .
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’And The Winner Is' By 'Leonardo' This 366 project is officially one month in, so I thought I’d take a look at how we are doing on the ‘view’ front .. I won’t use ‘read’ (no assumptions here 😀).. so, without further ado, and for your delectation, coming in at Number 5 …
5 : 🖇️ 013/366 ⌨️ Typewriters .. and more.
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’The future of watching a movie using a headset' By 'Leonardo' So it is out in wild and the reviews are in … and this is not another ‘one of those’.
‘My man’ Om 🔗 also posted about Vision Pro - he himself also highlighting that his post was not one of those. A big difference between us (as if there were just a few - there are not - there are many) is that he has actually tried one out!
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’A photographic image of 'cars moving in stereo' By 'Leonardo' A lot going on today - net net, 🎵 📼 this came to mind.
When all is said and done and after it’s all come together I’ll come back and explain in the comments.
If you can’t wait - there’s a clue in both audio and visual.
Until then. Enjoy …
LATER
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’A lot of links on a page' By 'Leonardo' Still battling with my ‘in process’ (I am being generous) archive that 🖇️ I referenced here. Tucked away I had literally hundreds of links - some of which I have no clue why I saved them to drafts - rather than 🔗 Raindrop (a far more logical place). This is a random election from said list.
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’You Can’t Handle The Truth' By .. well, who do you think it is? Don’t worry - this isn’t what you think it is.
If you are married or single, a writer or manager, paid for what you do or just for the love, delivered or received feedback, good or bad this is worth every minute of the 11 minutes and 44 seconds it will take you to listen to it.
Another old note, that deserves to see the light of day. I have 🖇️ written before on my position (a fan - not a fanboy), still …
The Masses:
“Apple hasn’t produced anything new since the iPhone.”
But surely: …
Apple TV AirPods revenue roughly equivalent to Netflix Apple Watch A whole new range of Apple Silicon Apple Services … The Masses:
“Yeah yeah yeah … but nothing like the iPhone.
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'Just A Picture' By 'Leonardo' Because somedays 🖇️ Ain’t Nobody Got Time For ‘Dis’. Sorry.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life. For a while, I was even just dropping markers - to revisit. I came to realise that part of the problem was the complexity of the structure for each post - so that went away.
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'Ain't Nobody Got Time For That' By 'Leonardo' I remember a segment in Trevor Noah’s Daily Show that was called ‘Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That’
Today I learned that there was a whole video and thing from years before. Is that where he got it from?
📼 The YouTube video
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series.
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'The Identity Entity' By 'Leonardo' BTW - If you want to cut to the chase - Identity 2.5 is a great Substack to get your teeth into. Identity continues to be core thinking in the work I do with people. In particular with a company down here in Aotearoa.
The Founder is a deep thinker - as are his communications. One of my jobs is to take those thoughts and write words that ordinary people might understand.
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'Do Not Put ‘Product’ In Charge' By 'Leonardo' Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of time and respect for 🖇️ Dana Blankenhorn - as you can see … so this one caught my attention
There’s a single rule I’ve learned studying technology this last half century. Product must be in charge.
.. and 🔗then he goes on
I totally disagree, so had to comment and did.
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'Tim’s Job Is Safe' By 'Leonardo' 🖇️ This fine piece of writing dates back to June 2016. What? 7 1/2 years ago?
It popped up yesterday when I was searching my site for something else. A few things dawned on me, not least of which … whatever happened to Scoble? Not that I care.
Don’t get me wrong. I am sure he is bouncing around somewhere - I just don’t track him.
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A different theme for today’s 366 … nine links to yesterday’s news - complete with pithy comment - courtesy of this author
1️⃣ 🖇️ Remember my post from a couple of weeks ago?
Well, it turns out that though he might have been expecting .. hoping for that … it might not be a slam dunk.
🔗 Tories hire coordinator to get expat supporters to vote in general election.
Yeah. No … unless you have nothing better to do.
Massive fan of Guy Ritchie. This is not your usual Guy Ritchie. Do not miss it. Wonderful.
I’m not a massive fan of the FandF franchise, I am definitely not a ‘hater’. This one though .. X … OH MY .. and totally made my Jason Momoa. Played the ‘baddie’ brilliantly, highly recommend just to see him do his thing. This ain’t Aquaman.
Love and Hate Mr Cage … and his movies. This one is definetlu love. Over the top as only he can do, without it being bad. I’m not a Dracula dude. This was great.
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… is a picture I took this morning while I sat with a cup of coffee.
If you have been following along with these posts recently, you will have noticed that a lot of images I use in the 366 series are generated by an AI. (More often than not Leonardo.ai) I do not spend a lot of time on creating the perfect prompt.
🔗 Fascism is everywhere on the march. And it’s Trump who sets the pace | Simon Tisdall | The Guardian
The comforting conceit that Donald Trump is an unpleasant yet passing American aberration, often heard during his 2017-21 presidency, is harder to believe than ever after his Iowa caucus landslide victory last week.
Simon .. it wasn’t a landslide. Even the article you linked to doesn’t say ‘landslide’. You of all people should know this .
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I was listening to 🎙️this podcast and of course duly reminded of Kim Cameron’s 7 Laws of Identity, so replaying here for posterity. You can 🔗 read a quick summary here.
Law 1: User control and consent Technical identity systems must only reveal information identifying a user with the user’s consent Law 2: Minimum disclosure for a constrained use The solution which discloses the least amount of identifying information and best limits its use is the most stable long-term solution Law 3: Justifiable Parties Digital identity systems must be designed so the disclosure of identifying information is limited to parties having a necessary and justifiable place in a given identity relationship Law 4: Directed Identity A universal identity system must support both “omni-directional” identifiers for use by public entities and “unidirectional” identifiers for use by private entities, thus facilitating discovery while preventing unnecessary release of correlation handles Law 5: Pluralism of Operators and Technologies A universal identity system must channel and enable the inter-working of multiple identity technologies run by multiple identity providers Law 6: Human Integration The universal identity metasystem must define the human user to be a component of the distributed system integrated through unambiguous human-machine communication mechanisms offering protection against identity attacks Law 7: Consistent Experience Across Contexts The unifying identity metasystem must guarantee its users a simple, consistent experience while enabling separation of contexts through multiple operators and technologies
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Over the holidays, down in Wellington, I somehow constantly found myself in conversations about ‘local politics’ … council, city, region … and dare I even say national? (On a global scale ’national thinking’ for a small country like New Zealand is still ‘local’.) No need to talk about the topics discussed - the usual, but my recurring observation that was never rejected is that long term planning anywhere for housing, climate change, infrastructure, EV cars, bike lanes … you name it .
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You might think today’s choice of ’image’ is a little odd. I mean, is a black rectangle even an image? And what does it mean anyway? But for me it speaks volumes.
It is a similar theme to yesterday’s post … The Future … and yet, I’m talking about a totally different future. A more personal one, not a societal one.
That all said, not yet ready to talk more publicly about what is going on.
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A short one today because the 🔗 📼 Biden video speaks for itself.
For me? One of the best, passionate most comprehensive campaign speeches I have ever heard. In fact, the qualifier ‘campaign’ is probably unnecessary.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life.
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No. Not the song.
I don’t blame you if you haven’t been keeping up with ‘SubstackGate’. I have .. so you don’t have to … you are welcome.
Bottom line .. Fascism, Nazis, Support, Deplatform … you get the picture.
🔗 Why the Kākā Is Staying on Substack 🔗Why Platformer is Leaving Substack My Thoughts?
I am on Substack and read some bit of it each and every day.
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Somebody else’s grass is greener. Always.
Just finished a conversation with a Turkish gentleman who has now lived in New Zealand for 10 years. Came here to learn English. He has. Now moving to Perth …
You can earn twice the money and buy twice the house for half the money. What can go wrong?
Indeed, what can go wrong? So much, but then doing nothing solves nothing and it still can go wrong.
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“We are all going to be saved by King Harry.”
Don’t’ you mean King Charles?
“No no no. He is the evil one. Like his son William. The dynasty is evil. Harry has seen the light. He will come back and save us - together with the son of the Shah. Palestine will once again be reunited with Persia and the descendants of the devils that destroyed us will be no more.
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An excellent show from the mighty John Oliver taking on McKinsey in this one. You know … the company that advised Purdue on how to sell more Oxy. Spin through to 15:50 … to hear this one.
Mr. Sternfels they didn’t have experience - they were the identical humans working for both at the same time.
💬 Katie Porter
🔗 📼 McKinsey
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A quite lovely story which I have chosen to share through my Readwise account, so you can speed through my highlights if you so wish.
Alternatively, 🔗 this is the original New Yorker article, written by Ann Patchett.
It’s from 2021, it’s mainly about removing clutter from your life, but sharing it here because of the ending which focuses on the typewriters in her life, and thought this was quite beautiful.
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It’s true. My ‘under the rock’ habitat continues into 2024.
I asked a six year old yesterday if he liked music … yes … so what’s your favorite song?
🔗🎵 📼 This one
I hadn’t heard of DNCE - but liked this one enough to poke around … wait … it’s Joe Jonas?
Personally, never a big fan of the Jonas brothers - but adding this to my list of (two so far) singers that switched me.
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A couple of click throughs in this morning’s review triggered this post.
It started here … 🔗 Substack Barely Does The Bare Minimum
which linked to here … 🔗 gilest.org: Make the indie web easier
which then linked to here … 🔗 gilest.org: More on the easier indie web
TL;DR A few links to interesting places that are about the indie web - but with an undercurrent of something that I have been banging on about forEVER …
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🔗 Interesting piece from Om today.
I think he’s right about that up there. What I am not so sure about is this down here.
Why?
Because it will bring all those ‘EEJITS’ out of the woodwork, who maintain that ’Steve’ did everything and Tim has done nothing, isn’t innovative, riding the coat tails etc …
(Count me in the camp of the people that believe that had Tim NOT done what Tim did when he did it, that there wouldn’t even be a significant enough Apple to do what he is doing now.
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… at least I think it will.
The furor as to the how and why ’The Facebook' are ’allowed’ to do this will continue unabated as people continue to post these questions on Facebook … and Instagram … and WhatsApp … and Threads.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day.
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Today’s Sketchplanations resonated, even though I had never heard of the ‘problem’ being ‘🔗 The XY Problem
Back at Group Partners we would help people ‘avoid solving the wrong problem really well’
Others talk about ‘peeling back the onion to get to the root cause’ (think a doctor treating your hip to solve your back pain), etc etc.
Whatever it is known as, this is what anyone should do to solve a problem.
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A couple of days ago I wrote a little (very little) about Stewart Brand’s 🖇️ Pace layer. It’s worth clicking through - not just to my short piece, but in turn the links in that post.
Still - to the point.
Andy Hamilton dropped a post on LinkedIN a couple of days ago referencing an Australian report called ‘Barriers to collaboartion and commercialization’ asking if there were lessons that can be learned fro New Zealand.
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Today marks the completion of the first set of 6 days. There will be exactly 61 such collections over the next year. I (at least) find this interesting because this year there are only roughly 52 collections of 7 days and roughly 73 collections of 5 days.
As long as I can remember, my mind has always played such number games, so I am not surprised to find myself thinking this way.
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Continuing on from yesterday’s post (4/366), Martinborough is actually a planned town, originally laid out by
Its center square and the roads running into it were laid out to represent a Union Jack.
Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life
💬 Oscar Wilde
The names of the roads through ‘old Martinborough’ are named after towns in Europe that Mr. Martin travelled to on a world tour before he laid out his new town.
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Over the break, I had the fortune (not committing to whether that’s good or bad, since that is a whole different story) to visit Martinborough in the Wairarapa - one of New Zealand’s wine regions. It’s a cute little town that includes a single ‘supermarket’.
On one visit I noticed two photographs on the wall - the building from the early part of the last century, photographed in 1906 ….
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Interesting to read 🔗 this from Om. I definitely did not feel that all of last year, but definitely in the past couple of months, something in me has been coming together. It’s as if bits of Lego have been suddenly snapping together, around writing, my work programmes and the connected thinking.
It’s not just the new year. There’s a fundamental shift I am feeling.
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In one of my work programmes there is an ongoing debate around planning and strategy .. one of the team going as far as to suggest that ‘strategic planning’ is an oxymoron (my words). This seems to nicely channel an aspect of that thinking.
This particular quote
is taken from 🔗 this article, which in turn arrived with me from discussions over at the UNdaunted.
002/366
There’s a 🔗 Stonehenge in New Zealand.
Spent a lovely afternoon there today.
If you have interest its 🔗 three words are ‘enable.improves.preperations’.
At the beginning of the year I had grand plans for this series. A daily long-form post about something that was rattling my brain that day. And then life. For a while, I was even just dropping markers - to revisit. I came to realise that part of the problem was the complexity of the structure for each post - so that went away.
Xfinity Data Security Incident
Notice of Data Security Incident
We are notifying you of a recent data security incident involving your personal information. This notice explains the incident, steps Xfinity has taken to address it, and guidance on what you can do to protect your personal information.
What Happened? On October 10, 2023, one of Xfinity’s software providers, Citrix, announced a vulnerability in one of its products used by Xfinity and thousands of other companies worldwide.
Sorry - but this is going to be a ‘MicroBlog Storm’. Is that a thing I hear you ask? Why yes - yes it is. If IKEA can have 🖇️ ‘Vintage IKEA’ - then hell has clearly frozen over - and a ‘MicroBlog Storm’ is definitely a thing.
🖇️ ONWARD
I was meant to be picking up a car from 🔗 Europcar this afternoon - for a one month reservation.
I just tried to change that reservation and pick it up early tomorrow.
Lady on the call center said no problem - and was about to hit the confirmation button … but as she was talking I hear that the new price was DOUBLE the old price.
DOUBLE!!! When I booked car, the agent said that there would be no problem and no charge to change the booking if I need to.
Generally like a nice Wahlberg movie .. no exception .. in fact one of his better ones. It’s a formula .. sure .. aren’t they all? But overall .. YES.
It was alright. I try out Gal Godot outings from me to time because I clearly am missing something. Whatever it is I continue to miss it!
Lovely. One for the ’keeper’ department.
Watched on Saturday December 9, 2023.
No. Just no. I watched it all the way through .. Just for you. NO!
Yes it’s Wes Anderson, so you kinda know what you are going to get … except you don’t. To me seemed a lot more intricate than his precious outings.
Not sure I can add anything more to reviews than you already know, other than I didn’t see it in IMAX, I wish I had.
Not as long as I thought
I had low expectations after reading reviews - so much better than I thought
Joaquin was as good as ever
I barely recognised Rupert Everett
In all honesty, I went to see it in the theatre because there is a new cinema in the area - one of those fancy 30 seats per screen afffairs - and I wanted to try out that experience. I didn’t really care about the 'is it true to history ' commentaries because I didn’t care and had no idea .
Lovely .. and one of those ‘little’ films … and Bill Nye … c’mon .. why are you still here?
I know most of the story, but like to cross check that knowledge with what the film delivers, new stuff, look into … blah blah blah ..ok I generally like these kinds of movies … royal epics aside .. it didn’t disappoint. It is what it is. The Tetris story I knew a lot less about … enjoyed it more … because I didn’t know the story(?) or just a better story and movie(?
Average … seen it before .. predictable
Another ‘little” movie .. and to prove I don’t automatically like them … this was alright, but .. yeah .. no. It was a while back when I watched it.
… and I didn’t even hear the dialogue! Watched it on a plane, the audio system was so crapped out and dodgy … thankyou Quantas … that I mainly watched stuff on the iPad. Accidentally discovered this scrolling through … subtitles .. so I just watched and read the subtitles. Glorious. Another one of those ‘little’ films. Need to find it again and listen this time.
He - ‘somebody’ loves The Smiths. I don’t … but it didn’t stop me enjoying the film, because Fassbender is that good.
Lovely. The story broke in a couple of places ... but I didn't care. Lovely. One of those ‘little movies’ that I LOVE.
There’s an old joke about ‘Henry’ getting lost in the narrow lanes of Devon, England and needing to return to London. He spotted a farmer on the side of the road and pulled over, admitting to the farmer that he was lost and was looking for directions to get him back to London.
“London!” … replied the farmer … “… well if I was going to London … I wouldn’t be startin’ here.
Back in the day, there used to be a ‘Mail on Mac’ problem where the flag count was NOT the same as the actual message count. The fix was to delete the plist - and it would magically reset.
‘Back in the day’ suggests the problem might be a thing of the past. Sorry - it isn’t.
It’s the ‘deleting the plist’ that is a thing of the past … at least for this bear - who has not been able to find it.
Just wonderful.
Great story.
Perfect Wes Anderson.
Been a busy year.
I am just this week completing the final trip to close the loop.
January : New Zealand / Honolulu stopover/ LA
February : LA
March : LA
April : LA / Palm Desert
May : LA / Palm Desert
June : Palm Desert
July : Palm Desert
August : Palm Desert
September : Palm Desert / LA / UK / Poland
October : UK / Paris / Portugal November UK / LA / Palm Desert / Sydney, Oz stopover/ New Zealand
“Truly disappointed that you have chosen to block Busy Contacts from accessing my email. It used to work and you blocked it in Sonoma.
MY EMAIL
MY CONTACTS
MY COMPUTER
but YOU chose to block it … surely the choice should be mine?
Truly galling that you continue to allow access to calendars, which has about 1% of the use.”
Whilst I don’t believe that naming a child ‘Sofía Fernanda Dolores Cayetana Teresa Ángela de la Cruz Micaela del Santísimo Sacramento del Perpetuo Socorro de la Santísima Trinidad y de Todos Los Santos’ is in any way a good idea .. I also don’t believe that any government should be allowed to force the parents into shortening it.
That said …
First name … Sofía Middle Names … Fernanda Dolores Cayetana Teresa Ángela de la Cruz Micaela del Santísimo Sacramento del Perpetuo Socorro de la Santísima Trinidad y de Todos Los Santos
Spitballing here … but I think blowing up a plane with ‘lots of liquid’ … ( I assume that’s why we can’t carry bottles of water on to the plane unless the water is bought ‘plane side’ of security? ) … is old school thinking. It’s one plane and you’re done.
Thinking bigger - I would get a bomb with all that liquid onto the London - Paris Eurostar. Here. it is clear that the authorities are not worried because unlike Airports you might typically travel through .
This post was originally published on September 26th 2003. Penned by John Parker - one of the founders of the original Just Good Music Blog. The source was found thanks to The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. These days it sits in my online archives, but just last month it was 20 years old and I wanted to resurface it, because I always liked it and for me, still holds true. What do you think?
Whilst true .. it’s easy to blame 10 people holding the place hostage .. personally I blame every single ‘moderate’ ‘center’ Republican member of the house for not having the spine to cross the aisle .. and side with the democrats .. they don’t have to put Hakeem in if that’s too far .. but while they don’t act they are complicit 💯 for allowing it to happen.
I feel for Israel - I really do. And the Palestinians - truly.
BUT … since the news seems only capable of one story at a time - I guess I am thankful that it isn’t about yet another celeb breakup.
Still - it does mean that Ukraine is soon going to be forgotten … so before that happens … a reminder
I think at core this explains so much of the Israel / Palestine ‘conflict’ - don’t you just love thse weasly words?
Another post that didn’t quite make it - written on a phone as I was listening to professionals on stage talking about ‘fake news’. That wasn’t how the panel phrased it - but still, it was what they were talking about … and not very well - far too politically correct …. I made these notes and have not spent a great deal of time ‘cleaning them up’.
Some of the keynotes I jotted down on the day …
This didn’t make it to my blog until now - because only now am I moving through my ‘Drafts’ …. enjoy.
Early morning flight. Alarms set … up and awake well before the time … so grab a cab earlier than planned.
After arriving earlier at airport … we are first in line at check in desk … which hasn’t yet opened.
After check in … we are first in line at security desk … which hasn’t yet opened.
Interesting thread over on LinkedIN from my friend 🔗 Dave Wilt - who started on the track of ‘vs’.
🔗 Corporate Identity Politics. (It was kind of about Sales and Marketing alignment - a problem which was a problem long before I started out in business. You would have though by now we might have fixed it? But no.)
Anyway - about half way through I managed to pivot the thread to 🎵 Music … mainly because the core topic just gets talked about - and IT IS NEVER FIXED - so … ‘BORING’.
The bag and its contents (not always the same - but pretty darn similar) has flown ‘in cabin’ all over America, to and from Mexico, down to New Zealand, around New Zealand across to Oz and back, then returning to America through Hawaii and onwards across to London … not a single problem.
Terminal 5, Heathrow … 45 minutes stood at security analyzing and rescanning that very same bag three times.
He was (is) a lovely man. I had to lean in to hear what he was saying. So I did. Our conversation continued and he apologized for his speech. No apology necessary, but he had identified that it was hard for me to hear (loud place aside), he was also a little ‘croakey’.
He explained that he had had cancer.
Cancer of the throat.
Three times.
He was diagnosed in 2017.
Context Over on LinkedIN, a friend of mine shared a post by Phil Morle 🔗 on whether institutions / corporates can be founders. I wrote a long reply which caused LinkedIN to barf and reject my reply, which in turn caused me to publish two separate pieces; 🖇️ Don’t Trust The Silos. and 🖇️ Friends Don’t Let Friends Use Silos To Publish Their Thinking., neither of which are pertinent to understanding the flow of this ‘reply’, but I wanted to highlight why this isn’t a reply on the post.
I was very happy to be going out to eat my first Indian in over 3 years (long story). In fact I was so happy that I took pictures. I took a few actually - but sharing this one in particular because of the Tardis and Dalek.
My First Indian In Three Years - Right Beside The Tardis
It seemed odd at the time, but I didn’t investigate it until just now - turns out it is famous!
🖇️ I wrote a related piece yesterday.
This one takes the thought a step further, because it’s not just original posts … but also replies.
As so often happens to me these days .. I start to reply to a message somewhere in one of the interweb’s silos … you know where they are in control - not you … even down to how long your message should be … because … you know ‘they’ know best.
To those paying attention, this is old news … but recording it now because I think it is an excellent lesson as to why you should never … ever … trust a Silo. It’s theirs. The stuff you put there is theirs. Even our’ handle is actually ‘theirs’.
Case in point …. in 2011 Jeremy Vaughn created @music over on the ‘site formerly known as Twitter’
Fast forward to 2023 and the child king who now own said site took @music for himself … and as far as I can see kept all Jeremy’s followers.
I agree with Matt on this one - and then go on to explain why I disagree. Trust me … it will make sense.
[🔗 Birchtree](birchtree.me/blog/chat got-still-hasnt-taken-all-those-jobs/)
I continue to think that these generative tools are good for augmenting certain workflows, but replacing whole people is going to be very unusual. We’ll see, though.
💬 Matt Birchler
I would agree - but that isn’t what is going to happen.
I expected more from William Gallagher. And myself for that matter.
Please Read Comments Before Spending Time Reading This.
I could have deleted it - but leaving it as a reminder to be more careful.
It’s been in hiatus for a while now - but getting ready to start again. AND YET - despite being in hiatus - turns out it has a ‘global ranking’ in the top 3%. Really? What the hell are the other 97% doing? And who are ‘ListenNotes’?
As an example comparison - Core Intuition is in the top 1%. (Now THAT makes sense.)
All this to say that if you used to follow my podcast - know that it is now in a different place - so do please subscribe.
Blot Delivers. Again.
🖇️ Back in 2020 I wrote this. Then just a few days ago 🔗 I asked again … this time I also pinged David.
The nub?
How it would be really useful when on a public page on a blot site - e.g. this one - to be able to have a single click that takes you to the file in dropbox - which you could then edit and save, so updating the site.
I wouldn’t call Avi Ronen a ‘friend’, we met a few times on Maui, he being one of those musicians that call Maui their home. This is his post on Facebook.
—
Our house is gone All the beautiful memories All my guitars over a hundred All gone lines of truss rods standing Like sad soldiers my amps pedals
All the custom guitars I’ve build and kept All the acoustic guitars that KP made for me all gone I’m so devastated beyond words We’re safe my girls are great stronger than me I’m so sad Our town looks insane it’s so horrible Everything gone The only thing that’s left in lahaina town is my shop still standing I don’t even know what to do next I’m so devastated So many lives lost in our town The damage is absolutely insane Looks like an atomic bomb blew up in lahaina It’s so sad heartbreaking Sorry I had to share this I want to wish peace and love to everyone we are so heart broken over our sweet town My house all the memories And all my guitars so heart breaking
Idris Elba Says He Was Held at Gunpoint After Trying to Intervene on Man Threatening Woman
True story. So was I. A little over 30 years ago … South of Market in San Francisco. (Just in that one sentence you have more information about my story than the linked article tells you about the Idris story)
AND I wasn’t even intervening on an argument - I was just ‘hanging’ with my friend.
Not a big fan of Tom - but for whatever reason I do eventually watch all the Mission Impossibles - but this is the first I had seen in a theater for years ... The story is what you might expect - but not always expected. Glad I managed it on the Big Screen before it disappears into 'Streaming Land'.
and then there is this ….
… she’s talking about Sam Altman
🔗 You can read the whole piece by Molly here, which includes substantial thinking on the challenges of decentralized identity.
The cryptocurrency industry is rife with projects that embrace the idea of “progressive decentralization”: beginning out as a highly centralized project run by a small group, but promising to eventually turn over control of the project to a DAO.
It is clear that the key to enjoying a movie is to start with the lowest possible expectations, I didn’t even want to watch this … but then I did. Not a great rating from yours truly .. but 2 1/2 stars is 2 1/2 stars more than it was going to get. Special shout out to Sophia Anne Caruso who I thought was excellent.
Liam gonna do what Liam does.
I have used Transmit to connect to my servers for years. N’er a problem until a couple of weeks ago.
I didn’t think I had changed anything - but did my usual checks ….
what have I done wrong … nothing I could find. what has changed - a couple of things - uninstalled apps switched off Firewall. Still no connection.
I pinged my hosting provider - Siteground.
Stunning. 🤯 … if you’ll pardon the pun. Wanted to see it - and couldn’t fit the IMAX experience in to the schedule, so will go again next week. Not for me to review this movie - far more qualified and interesting people than me to read on that front - BUT - it is as good as you have been told.
Two thoughts beyond what yours truly has so far read.
… and actually a hell of a lot more. Now, with the calm of the morning, and many days behind me, I have had time to reflect on this 🖇️ ’Journal Storm’ and understand a little more about what was going on.
I think it could have been done in 30 minutes rather than ‘90’ … interesting, but if the findings are as revolutionary as they intimate, not sure why it isn’t more widely talked about? Or am I … once again … hanging out under a rock?
It's hard not to like a Wes Anderson - no exception, but to me, different to his usual films. No point in rehashing what you can read about elsewhere - but let me add one nugget - because I sat right through to the end - through the title and everything ... that last song mesmerizing. But why?
Well of course - the titles revealed or ... one of two songs that were a collaboration of two old friends and at times band mates - Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley.
It’s over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day here. At the moment it’s only 85 F, but then, it is 2:30am .. so of course, what else are you going to do? Start researching ice rinks.
If you know me, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve only just discovered that there’s a brand new Ice Rink just up the road, providing the new home for the Firebirds Ice Hockey team.
Noting that Apple just passed the THREE TRILLION Market Cap this past week - I remember all the hoopla when It passed the ONE TRILLION Market Cap threshold - but I hadn’t realised that it was as recent as 2018 - just slightly less than 5 years ago. Seems like just ‘yesterday’.
Tripling Market cap in three years is impressive enough. Doing that when you are the largest Market Cap in the world …
Nothing wrong with a good Marvel … and this was a good Marvel … not a great one mind, good. The continuing Marvel arc of the ‘multiverse of multiverses’ ( I wonder if they got their inspiration from the first episode of the latest Black Mirror?) sets the reset expectation and of course no sets needed … a few shots in San Francisco and the rest CGI? (Caveat .. I am no expert).
If ever you need a reminder that there is more than one way of looking at a problem. I often talk about the over surveillance of and in society. (A long time critic of London surveillance for example.)
My message … Less Cameras. Less Surveillance.
And then you read this from a group I belong to ….
In Somalia to address the violence, like there was a killing of all the medical school graduates a couple years ago (my friend) feels that if they had cameras everywhere and could identify the perpetrators we could reduce the violence.
Watched it a while back - and reminded of it last night as I surfed Netflix for a good watching experience. In the end I elected not to rewatch - but it really is so very good. Sean doing his thing, along with Javier, Idris and even Ray = what a cast!
It was alright. I am just not a fan of badly dubbed movies.
Seeing iTunes promoting it as ‘available to rent’ … reminds me that I saw it at the time and the best thing about it is that Liam is NOT using his ‘particular set of skills’ … other than that … nice enough.
Currently, the official Micro.Blog app has a permanent menu that sits at the bottom of the screen, like this.
There is a second menu that can be found by clicking on your user image, top left, that looks like this.
Suggestion … add the 4 choices in the first example to the second menu.
Why? So I have only one place to go to for all possible operations.
Bonus thought. In settings, allow me to hide that bottom menu in user settings.
🖇️ See Extraction 2!
If you enjoyed the first - you'll enjoy this one. It is what you might expect. Just wondering if Hemsworth is trying to compete with Keanu on most 'kills per minute' in a movie.
Talk about ‘phoning it in .. not my choice to watch and would not recommend, particularly if you know the Mamma Mia stories … both of which I have not seen, but I think the two sentence summary of the first would be identical to this one.
In various places I play in - including professional ‘anti-tracking and privacy’ groups - I am constantly stunned by the link sharing that goes on. Stunned because people that should do know better always seems to share links ‘complete with’ the tracking crud that can so easily be removed.
It is so bad that when someone pastes the crud URL, I will post the crud free URL.
Nobody comments. Nobody does the same.
.
That ain’t workin', that’s the way you do it Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
watch
The best things in life are free But you can keep them for the birds and bees Now give me money, (That’s what I want) That’s what I want
watch
Money Get away You get a good job with more pay and you’re okay Money It’s a gas Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
For the longest time I have had the wonderful plugin 🔗 ’Search Space’ by @sod running on my site. It is truly fantastic - use it all the time to find post I know I have written in the past - that I want to link to - like here .. imagine how long that would have taken to build without a powerful search.
I also use Hitchens by @pimoore for my site, and Pete rather conveniently included ‘Search’ as part of his template.
Just trying out a little something after reading a thread in help that @MitchW started - let’s see ….
Of course - for it to really work, I do need some extra text - so in the spirit of exploration - tip-o-the-hat to lorem ipsum …
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus.
This is a TEST - IGNORE ME
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link: john.
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link%3A https%3A//john.
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link: john.
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link: john.
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link: john.
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link: john.
This is one of 8 Tests - so you can safely ignore them - unless you are helping me understand how much of an idiot I might be …
Test Link: john.
It's got Robert DeNiro in the main role ... slam dunk - right? Sadly - no.
Three stars is generous, because I didn't get through it. Just spotted it on AppleTV as a promo - so thought I would try it out, since I never saw it the first time round. (I know I know). Maybe it just hit me wrong?
I watched it in the theater when it came out. Love Tucci and this did not disappoint. (Just thought it was time to post a positive review - because I have been sharing some clangers recently.)
I used to love the Asterix comic books. But have never really enjoyed the films. So not sure why I thought this time it would be different.
Yeah … no .. despite it including two of my favorite actors.
Not to be confused with other films called Mother’s Day … I’ve not seen all of them, but none can be as bad as this one.
It all started somewhere - and eventually @Jean did one - and then added a list of other ‘Where’s Waldo’ pages here. So I thought hell, why not … and then it got complicated, because like others, to me - passing through isn’t sufficient, so I added a few caveats. —
Passing through does NOT do it. To be on the list, I have to have spent at least two nights in that place (so removing those pesky ’en route’ stop overs’.
A few links with no ‘search or surf’ needed. All you need to do is click.
You are welcome.
🔗 Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes turns herself in for 11-year prison term. - I didn’t get the popcorn because my guess is that she will be out for ‘good behavior’ before I could finish the box.
🔗 Lawyer ‘Greatly Regrets’ Using ChatGPT in Briefing That Included Fake Citations. … and on a related note 🔗 I cannot believe the shit that morons are getting up to with ChatGPT - because in 2023 it is obligatory for all lists (even micro lists like this) to have at least one link be about ChatGPT, so I went for two - and related as well!
🔗 Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock at 40: the album that foretold today’s anything-goes pop.
For all of his total lack of skill as a musician / singer .. his ability to constantly break new ground and open listeners ears to new possibilities was quite extraordinary.
Duck Rock never made it to ‘personal favorite’ status, but still extraordinary.
My most favorite McLaren is surely ’Fans’ - 40 years old NEXT year
I have now listened to the new Yes album maybe 4 times. It is definitely not their greatest album - by any stretch - but it is also far from the worst.
Peak Yes years for me were those leading up to Topographic … and to compete with that era is hard … but this does (though it does lose 😎).
Trivia thought.
I wonder why the ‘title track’ off Mirror To The Sky is called ‘Mirror to the Sky’?
🔗 Scripting News: YouTube and inbound RSS
Interesting link from @dave
Also interesting is the YouTube outbound RSS that he wants.
Google don’t make it easy - BUT - every YouTube channel does have an RSS feed - I just added my channel to feed into MicroBlog, to make sure it still works. There are three videos in there - that have a total viewership of something less than 3 :-) So don’t get excited.
When you read that ‘blah blah’ who’s ‘made a name for themselves’ as an actor, writer, singer, chef, musician … whatever .. has now just turned to interior design (I bought my 15,000 share foot house in Malibu and just had ‘this vision’) … or fashion design … or whatever …. what are your thoughts?
I ask because I just spotted that 🔗 Dua Lipa has just designed her first collection for Versace.
Anyone else worried that this is even a question? Or that it needs to be asked?
Anyway, I don’t have an answer about lemon origins except to say that they are at least as real as babies, and if they aren’t real then what the fuck did I just eat?
💬 The Bloggess
To be clear, this is not a Bloggess origin story … but rather a debate that seems to have emerged on the inter-webs somewhere about ‘Intelligence versus Artificial Intelligence’ - with people pointing out that Lemons ‘do not occur naturally’ … so are artificial … so not ‘real’ … at least in ‘that’ sense of the word.
Like a lot of us I guess - I have been reading and listening a lot to the AI chatter. This is a list of not everything I have read and listened to - and not quite sure why these ended up on a list and others didn’t - but still you might find an interesting nougat in here?
For the longest time I have used a drafts action to post to MicroBlog. There are also two others I use, but there was one particularly I used for my Daily Stoic post.
After updating MicroBlog to version 3, the action gave an error, essentially overwriting part of the URL with ‘code characters’ so then I had to edit what was fine in drafts so it worked in MicroBlog. Annoying.
It’s JLo, so it wasn’t going to be bad … and it wasn’t … though predictable … like the bad guy who never dies. Interesting that director and writers all women.
Om writing about Substack Spam
Anyone can add my email address to their newsletter list without my permission. Whether I want it or not, I get a pitch for their newsletter, and I have to go to their website and unsubscribe to opt out of the service.
I did not know that. Is he right?
“Opt out” is a growth hacking tactic that has become commonplace online and a time stealer, penalizing all Internet users.
Maybe it should be 4 stars? Great little bit of history ... But I don’t know the real story well enough to know how much poetic license was employed. I liked the graphic reminders (and associated pixel resolutions) spread throughout the film, that were so mind blowing to everyone at the time. I also had no idea that Maxwell was so involved in the story.
Does the fact the we started watching it - had to stop half way through and still haven't yet felt inspired to go back and finish it tell you anything?
I’m not a big Hanks fan .. often skipping over his movies … ‘because’. So glad I didn’t jump this one. Just lovely. And yes I shed a tear or three. Maybe there is something about having low expectations before watching a movie?
The usual fodder … even ‘names’ can’t change some movies.
Cute. Predictable and scenes lifted directly from John Wick, The Fast and Furious franchise, Tarantino’s catalogue .. and more … all of them failing to better the originals. Then again, I didn’t pay anything to see it (except my time).
I think Ryan Reynolds has decided to make a new business out of quick cameos.
Also delighted to see 10 seconds of John Cho (Cowboy Bebop)
The particular comment I was responding to was in a private group hosted in New Zealand - hence the opening paragraph. BUT - I think it pertains to any country. In that post, this link was provided — I think New Zealand has more businesses (and hence ‘small’ businesses) per capita than pretty much any New Zealand just doesn’t have the people to support it. BUT - when you leave New Zealand … there has been something happening for a while now.
The Newsletter.
1. Stay informed: Keep up-to-date on the latest developments and trends in AI and automation, and how they are affecting your industry and job market.
2. Develop new skills: Continuously learn new skills to stay relevant in the job market, such as programming, data analysis, or other skills related to AI.
3. Pursue higher education: Consider obtaining a degree or certification in a field related to AI, such as computer science or data science, to prepare for the jobs of the future.
The Newsletter.
Invest in upskilling and reskilling: Provide opportunities for employees to learn new skills and develop expertise in areas related to AI, such as data analysis, programming, or robotics. Foster a culture of innovation: Encourage employees to experiment with new technologies and processes, and provide the resources and support necessary to implement new ideas. Promote collaboration: Encourage cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing, to bring together employees from different departments with diverse skill sets and expertise.
🔗 Just finished listening to the latest Core Intuition.
At one point in the conversation @manton and @danielpunkass were talking about community guidelines, social norms et al. Hate speech on Bluesky was specifically brought up. Apparently they have a way to add tags to posts so that posts can be marked as ‘hatespeech’, ‘not safe for work’, etc.
Sounded a pretty neat solution to me - but apparently someone over on @mastodon suggested that this meant BlueSky was allowing hate speech.
Quotes from Galloway talking about NEOM.
The gasman had an appointment this morning … he was on time and we spent some quality time together. End result? The next step would be to call a plumber (not a carpenter) … see the first verse below.
My mind went to Flanders and Swann’s rendition of their wonderful song … The Gas Man Cometh. The audio is well worth a listen if you don’t know it - and really - these days - who honestly does remember the duo.
Turns out that ChatGPT can be pretty useful. Who knew?
In case you aren’t keeping up - I have been playing around with embedding video on 🔗 john.philpin.com. I cracked it a while back - but the process of creating the clip had a lot of friction because of the app I was using.
Fixed that - thanks to learning that the podcast app I use every day (Overcast) has had audio clipping since 2019.
Which reminds me that I need to find that quote that reminds us that all life is just ‘replication at scale’
Of course the human invention of copyright law then results in things like the court case between Ed Sheeran and the estate of Marvin Gaye - which in turn conjurs up memories of Zeppelin and Spirit, Harrison and … who was it now … the list is endless.
Meanwhile - The New Yorker’s cover is … well - see for yourself …
I have had three actions in ‘Things’ now for weeks. They were there to remind me to post a snippet from three podcasts that I wanted to share. The actual snipping and posting is not that hard - so why did I need to set a reminder?
BECAUSE
I use Overcast to listen to Podcasts and I had no intention of moving my listening experience over to Snipd. Earlier in the year I had been playing with Snipd.
🎵 This Is Not America was always a 🎵musical favorite in my world - as indeed was The Falcon and The Snowman, which featured the song … and then the movie came to mind this morning as I was catching up on my ‘piece of glass’.
To some, the meaning of the lyrics …
A little piece of you,
the little piece in me,
will die
(this is not a miracle)
Long time since I watched this - but I have watched it more than once - which is rare for me ... Came to mind this morning as I was reading the news and my mind revisiting the theme song and then thinking about Schlesinger - and then Timothy Hutton and of course the amazing Sean Penn. Well worth a **focused** watch.
Ever wondered why we used call it ‘Global Warming’ - and now we call it ‘Climate Change’?
Said it before - say it again - Language is important. More than important - it shapes how society thinks.
Frank Luntz understood that …
Memo exposes Bush’s new green strategy. is a 20 year old article describing how Frank Luntz first introduced the idea of ‘changing the dialogue’.
Doesn’t ‘climate change’ sound so much nicer than ‘global warming’?
Slowly building up my glossary links ( thankyou @AndySylvester ) … 4 active so far … more in the background - and none of the embedded terms are yet implemented (except that one at the bottom of this post). None of the click throughs are final text yet - but that is kind of the beauty of the 🔗 glossary.
"Learn more about People First.
https://www.craft.do/s/raZmxmS3JlMvZm"An experiment as I think about moving peoplefirst.
Cable News (1980-2023) by Dana F. Blankenhorn has a very relevant 🎵 track that opens the post.. You can find the 🔗 lyrics here.
Who “wins,” i.e., who is the last one standing? Probably NBC. Comcast has cash flow. NBC has learned how to segment the market with MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Now, NBC News and Local Now. That’s five bites at the remaining cable apple, five channels they can sell to the “skinny bundle” boys like YouTube Plus.
Cage on 60 Minutes
As @drewcastillo and I recently riffed - he really is very good. Sure he’s got some duds - don’t we all? Off the top of my head - some of my favorites (alphabetical - to avoid ‘ranking’) …
Adaptation Conair Face/Off Leaving Las Vegas Pig Raising Arizona Wild at Heart … and a few more that I have forgotten.
(and no - Unbearable Weight is not forgotten - just haven’t seen it yet.
I spotted this car parked near a Farmers Market - I walked on, wondering about the owner and what their story was.
Returning a few hours later, I saw a couple of cars stopped at a junction. They weren’t moving and as I got closer saw an elderly man using his feet to propel him and his wheelchair backwards across this small, pot hole riven junction … up a small incline.
Criticising is the easy part is a blog post that has been sat in my drafts folder for too long ….
I wouldn’t disagree with @manuelmoreale - you only have to highlight ‘the issue d’jour’ and
the story is getting more complicated the public is defaulting to less and less attention to absorb the necessary information and less and less time to weigh in on the issues and increasingly the (popular) tools where such discourse can be had are focussed on shorter and shorter time spans.
🔗 Where does the Tennessee House Speaker actually live? - people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
🔗 I showed Bruce Springsteen my Bruce Springsteen tattoo. He said he didn’t like it. - I look forward to this new series.
I am a cult author, asked in the street maybe five times a year: “Are you Emma Forrest?” And I am Emma Forrest. But it’s a surname invented by my grandfather to combat anti-semitism, so there are other more legitimate Emma Forrests, some with their own internet fame, like the Scottish judo star or the woman, also Scottish, who consumes 3,000 calories of fizzy drinks a day.
If you read my review of Murder Mystery ... You might be surprised to learn that I also watched this. BUT as I said in the review ... the film’s saving grace (at best) was the Maharajah ... and spotting him featured heavily in the promo, I though maybe they would give him more screen time ....
Spoiler alert ... and I can't say this with absolute certainty ... But I'm going to say he had LESS screen time.
With Netflix holding back on the 6th series of Better Call Saul ... What's a boy to do? Murder Mystery 2 was floating around and I had never seen the first ... so decision made. It would be unfair to say it was a total disaster, though I am definitely NOT a Sandler fan .. I do kinda like Aniston .. So who knows I thought ... Maybe she could lift him up?
Sorry about all the posts and deletes. This one is staying!
‘From Obsidian’ is a new category on this ‘public journal’. Not sure yet how it will pan out - but my thinking is kinda as follows …
1] don’t want to pay $120 a year to synch your obsidian with a web site (quite apart from what a second web site will cost you).
2] don’t have the technical chops to deal with github (which is a recognized and free solution that solves that first problem)
This is a new identity newsletter from my Kiwi friend Alan Mayo - it’s the start of a journey he is embarking on talking about Identity 2.5. …. wait what? … 2.5?
Don’t fret - I’m not going to steal Alan’s thunder and get into what ‘2.5’ is - but Alan and I have had enough conversations for me to know that if you have an interest in identity - this short series is going to be well worth your time and his 2.
A little foraging around the hood yesterday afternoon … some observations.
Going by car makes … Teslas had the most unfriendly, aggressive drivers on the road.
To provide context, on one occasion I was mildly surprised when one car jumped the red lights .. red now, not amber … red, only to see a second one accelerate across right on the first car’s tail causing me to swear in shock. After a brief gap, I guess people ‘with the green’ figured it was ok to move … and they all did … only to slam on their breaks as a third car barreled through.
🔗New Zealand loses appeal to rich foreigners as investor visa numbers plunge..
Maybe they have been reading Rushkoff’s book - and don’t want to be put in the same bag as Peter Thiel?
It was bizarre. I do get called out a lot to do these talks for businesspeople about the digital future. So, it was one of those where they paid me a bunch of money to convince me to spend some jet fuel and leave my home and pontificate, but then instead of taking me out onto the stage, they brought these five guys into the green room and sat around this table and started asking me all these very binary questions about where they should place their bets for the digital future: Bitcoin or Ethereum; VR or AR; and finally, New Zealand or Alaska—where should they invest in land to put their bunker for “the event”?
Micro Blog categories are badly displayed - there I said it.
In MicroBlog and the New Drafts Plugin - it is unclear - but I think it is oldest to newest created? (In fairness the plugin probably pulls the raw list from the back end somewhere and uses the default.)
The same behavious in the iOS app.
BUT, in the Mac app, categories appear in three columns - and they read left to right on the first line and then the second line etc - NOT down column 1, then column2 etc … who knows which is the right way?
Back when I posted about how great Breaking Bad was … let me paraphrase @pratik … “if you though that was good - wait till you try Better Call Saul”.
Then @GramrgednAngel@zirk.us talked about The Atlantic who …
published a series examining it through a Shakespearean tragedy lens and making the argument that the ultimate main character wasn’t Walter, or Jesse, but Skyler.
I just started series 3 of ‘Saul’.
Using just one album as an example of the mess that is Apple Music Meta Data ….
“I think the relationship of a warm-blooded creature versus an object that is still and silent—which is essentially what I think sculpture is—for me is the sort of fundamentals. Sculpture is in our everyday lives the whole time. Crossing the road with a lorry coming towards you is, in my opinion, a sculptural experience, where you as a flesh-and-blood object [are] up against the thing that isn’t. And one’s emotional and psychological assessment of that all happens in a flash.
The story continues and gets weirder, but it’s Idris .. right? And it all ends with an interesting set up for the next story.
The Theme Music for the Madam Blanc mysteries has firmly embedded itself into my brain and I love it. Still do. But who is the artist?
Turns out, a ‘duo’ called ‘Hague and White’. But the White might not be who you think.
I thought ‘the white’ was one ‘Steve White’. You might know him as the drummer for The Style Council and pretty much all the subsequent solo albums of Paul Weller.
Updated - constantly strong show.
I’m not big into biopics … but for this I will make an exception and all because of Rami Malik. Quite brilliant in this role.
Loved the first one. Loved this one. Love the books. In my mind, Paddington can’t go wrong.
Maybe it should-be 5 stars ... but that would mean it couldn’t be improved ... and everything can be improved .. can’t it? How? No idea.
Watched on Friday March 3, 2023.
One of his best. Maybe even his best?
3 stars from me, 4 stars from Jax. I likeChristian Bale’s work, I thought the ‘Poe’ character was excellent … but in the end, I didn’t really care, even with ‘twist’ at the end.
I wanted to like it … nay .. love it. I really did. But it was not to be. Definitely extraordinary scenes of ‘spectacularity’ within, but they weren’t enough to create a 3 hour movie and even at under 2 hours would have still been a push. Sorry.
A solid Marvel movie. Perhaps overlong?
This is in Stoop.
I click on the ‘Read On’ link and see this.
BUT - if I save to ‘Read Later' in ‘Readwise’ and then open Readwise, I see this
🔗 The public Readwise link
🔗 The original page (sans the 5 lines of tracking crud)
Here’s what I am wondering.
When I visit the public Readwise link it includes this tracking crud;
[hs.liminal.co/e3t/Ctc/L...](https://hs.liminal.co/e3t/Ctc/LV+113/cpsS404/VWVcLl90PJXLW92sp) Lq3N1C9nW3fCDQw4XjBLvN22w1013q3nJV1-WJV7CgFfDW671KZv 7dHHlcW4tkCM06fBlBpN7zfWcFFRBhvW96Kz) QQ2Kmdr1W2Cwz8n1jKmPNW1kwWkW7yWKh4N1MVd8pVQCfNW6 N90fS6LjBwNW7NhW_q34pWDvW3QzqKL3rjJrGW23FBdk9kQ46N W2sjCd-6t00gbN8C5ycNXfs_LN9hcJ1J7k6-tW5thTQD5XGRFkW6N xxbm60PM_gW96NX_j38bGGFW9c-k6C7XK3rFW2Zl02144zDTlW8 BxVDp89SzfLW3pGtXy3Wl6LdMvwGZ wq5jczW30lgc-76MhyJW4xS3r15JmP723jMr1) which to this untrained bear, seems to be very different tracking crud to Liminals, so there is some rewriting going on?
I wrote an email this morning, responding to something that had been sent to me, announcing - and I paraphrase - that despite the longevity of the work that he had been personally driving for decades, he has decided that this was indeed - ‘the end’.
I guess it is one of those days, where every where you look, every page you turn emotion takes over and (at least for me), music takes hold.
If the UK and/or the USA could find more leaders that demonstrate the qualities of Jacinda Arden, wouldn’t both surely be better off for it?
Sadly, she’s had her run, the voters are not going her way hence her resignation. ‘Hitch’ is being allowed to reset the agenda and so far at least, seems to be turning the ‘anti-Labour’ tide. Make no mistake though, yes, she took some wrong turns but the problems being laid at her feet won’t go away with new leaders.
A claim made by Mike Pesca on his ‘occasional’ 🔗 Substack. But maybe that isn’t the point? Maybe that is also not right? He asked for comments. This post is is my response. What do you think?
I had it at 4 Stars in my head when I first watched the film. I checked it out again recently. It’s dated … and not as great as I remembered. Because I’m older? Or just more considered.
I still like the idea of never quite putting your finger on when it suddenly went the character’s tipping point occured.
… but mainly about lists - and AlbumWhale.
I popped in a couple of posts recently that are part of what I am naming the ‘New Zealand Jigsaw’. This post is one of my ‘living posts’ that will serve as the gateway to the full set, once they are all published - and assuming that I can publish faster than I can think of more topics.
Introduction
A MicroBlog Storm
Ardern Resigns - Hashtag
After Ardern - Bernard Hickey
Wherever you go in the world, New Zealand, Scotland, Austin Texas, Raleigh North Carolina, Hyderabad, Shenzhen …. pretty much anywhere, you will find there are tech centers. Tech centers that often adopt ’Silicon’ or ‘Valley’ or variations on such in their names, but there are many more. The local government will often declare they are investing and building a tech center of excellence to ‘rival’ Silicon Valley. Except they aren’t. Let me explain.
This post emerged from @oddevan who posted this;
Another post that started life as a reply - and then got longer - and then seemed to have added general applicability. So …
Shel Israel writes : 🔗 How ChatGPT Will Change the World, Lower My Fees and Raise My Revenue
I get what he is saying - except I don’t.
His argument centers on his unit price dropping - but he will write more.
Back of an envelope calculations. Let’s say he increases his output ten fold and reduces his price by EIGHTY PERCENT.
This would double his revenue. All good nay … all great!
Sometimes you need to tell a story just to get it out there. Because otherwise you really would think that you were actually living in a Kafka novel.
If you know Charley’s, this is not new news.
If you don’t know Charley’s - then why should you care?
This just in from my good friend Randall Rospond … number 25 in the image below, right beside another friend Tom Conway.
Randall’s friend and Maui artist John Woodruff is the artist, the painting features many Maui Musician Regulars on stage with many of the Charley’s staff and regular patrons.
It’s interesting how small things mess you up. I am putting some time into trying to make it easier to find stuff on my blog and recently discovered filters where you can “automatically set categories when text in new posts matches a filter”.
For new posts it seems to work flawlessly. The cool thing is that you can ‘Run Filter’ - which essentially means that it will go off and apply that rule to your archive.
That’s how bad it is getting .. and not just in New Zealand.
Bernard Hickey reporting that New Zealand has declared a 🔗 National emergency for Gabrielle. The massive storm and floods two weeks ago where 4 people died did NOT have the same focus. In fact, it’s only been enabled twice before. Though in fairness, the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in 1931 would have resulted in it being declared a National Emergency had there been such an organization and in later years, with other earthquakes, it was the Department of Civil Defence that was called into action.
🎵 Despite my initial resistance to the 500 song podcast narrated by 🔗 Andrew Hickey .. I am now moving into my third … first ‘The Monkees’, then ‘Love’, now ‘The Move’. The depth of information flying through the speakers is really quite incredible - thoroughly researched, packed with information - some of which I know - a lot I don’t.
A particular speciality of his is identifying groups that todays’ mega stars played with in the very early days.
I wonder why this link is not actually on the MS site any more?
I mean, it seems like it would be important for people to know? Part of the URL reads ' host-clayton-morris-leaves-country-amid-fraud-allegations-lawsuits ‘- so you can guess what it is about if you don’t want to click through
Yahoo and many others still have similar links reporting the story.
I came across him today when a friend mentioned the YouTube channel - and after what I was being told, I felt it all seemed … shall we say odd?
Watched on Wednesday February 8, 2023.
“Cole needed a letter of recommendation recently so he turned to an old family friend who, in turn, used ChatGPT to generate the letter, which he thought was remarkably good.”
🔗 … which in turn prompted Bob Cringely to write this article.. It has all the usual caveats we see in article after article, although this time talking about how ChatGPT was used to generate that letter of recommendation.
I was never a fan of Russell Brand, so hard to say my opinion of him has ‘fallen’.
That was from the start, but his very misplaced prank with Ross on Andrew Sachs sealed it for me.
I also don’t spend much time thinking about Jonathan Ross - but at least he has a tiny spec of talent.
Which is why I enjoyed this short video of 🔗📼 Helen Lewis talking Russell Brand decent into conspiracies and a good analysis of how he - and others of his ilk - ‘do it’.
As a kid, shall we say my musical taste did not jibe with my dad’s. Nor with my mum’s for that matter - although she did understand what I was listening to - and why. Probably because of that there are artists that she introduced me to that are still part of my listening cycle - like Dave Brubeck.
She passed a while ago, but would have loved Deep Purple’s Jon Lord covering ‘UnSquare Dance’.
Just a great, wacky, fun movie.
The Series that is. The film at the end - to bring ‘closure’? Yeah - not so much
Om asking the question as he weighs in on Ben Werdmuller’s post asking whether the ‘stream’ needs to give way to a new way of organizing?
I think no - but I understand the challenge, which is why I have been going back over my old posts and trying to get rigorous with
Categories and Search
.. so that I can find stuff (and I recognize that it is really only me that looks to navigate the 7,000 plus posts (I know - I know)).
.
Written before Hipkins won the leadership.
“My current view is this cements the likelihood of a National-ACT victory on October 14, with no fundamental change in tax, Government spending or social policies, other than the reversal of Labour’s interest deductibility and bright-line measures, along with the truncation of Three Waters, the removal of the clean car rebate scheme and no follow-through on a levy on farm emissions.”
“From a purely political and financial view, it’s more likely to lower interest rates, increase residential land prices, increase net migration, increase nominal GDP, lower the Budget deficit, lower net debt-to-GDP, further restrict productivity growth, slow real wage growth and increase the emigration of young New Zealanders who come from renting families.
The meaning and tragedy of Jacinda Ardern’s time as PM
“In the end, she deserves our utmost respect and thanks. She was instinctively extraordinary with her responses and leadership after the Christchurch attacks and the arrival of Covid.”
💬 Bernard Hickey
I can only agree.
Other parts of the New Zealand ‘MicroBlog Storm’
There are a number of threads in my head around New Zealand that I need to publish. Other than ‘New Zealand’ there isn’t anything particularly that connects them, so it isn’t a single post. Nor should it be a new category, because once they are out - that will be it. So - I will write a series of separate posts that I will link together once they are published. Think ‘MicroBlog Storm’.
.
If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.
While wealth distribution follows a power law, the distribution of human skills generally follows a normal distribution that is symmetric about an average value. For example, intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, follows this pattern. Average IQ is 100, but nobody has an IQ of 1,000 or 10,000.
Wealth distribution is a recurring topic - this is a clean summary of why it’s a problem.
That is the only thing I can think of that created the news that caused me to write this post!
This is nothing like a PiL track. It is also nothing like a John Lydon track. That said,
“Public Image Ltd. (PiL) have been selected for the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest airing on February 3. The band will represent Ireland with their new single ‘Hawaii.’.”
The NME and American Songwriter are both ‘kind of saying’ that;
Imagine if you could export all your posts on Micro Blog with associated meta data down to a csv.
Imagine that you could then
sort, filter the posts add / subtract categories edit entries normalize information merge and purge posts find THE post that has the largest number of comments in the thread find any posts with an image included, 2 images included, 3 … find the posts that contain (say) ‘🎶’ so you can replace it with ‘🎵’ - in line with all your other music posts … you know - any and all of the stuff that you might want to do with all those posts to better manage them.
I love Wes Anderson … so of course … but even if you don’t, you need to try this one out.
I watched this for the second time … inspired by how great ‘The Banshees’ was. Just as good as I remembered it. Excellent … and on Netflix at the moment.
There has been a lot of traffic on Micro Blog about ‘like’ buttons - as in should there be one? Some of those conversations have been repackaged and moved into other places - like this one from Dave Winer.
The challenge is that writers tend to see the like as a ‘nod’ of agreement with what they have written .. or at least as some kind of feedback …
“In real life there’s all kinds of non-verbal communication.
Find the RSS feed for ⭐️ posts Add that feed to Feedbin —-
Star any post .. it appears in the ⭐️ posts
The new RSS feed now displays that ⭐️ post
That ‘new’ ⭐️ post now appears in ⭐️ posts
The new RSS feed now displays that ⭐️ post
🔄🔄🔄🔄🔄🔄🔄
—-
🤦♂️ Have now deleted the RSS feed!
Seen them all and bit by bit will review and rate properly.
The Matrix Revolutions The Matrix Reloaded Inglourious Basterds Fantastic Mr. Fox The Usual Suspects Reservoir Dogs Dead Poets Society The Princess Bride One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb .
Seen them all and bit by bit will review and rate properly.
In Bruges The Matrix Revolutions The Matrix Reloaded The Royal Tenenbaums Inglourious Basterds Fantastic Mr. Fox The Usual Suspects Reservoir Dogs Dead Poets Society The Princess Bride ...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
You know what I’m talking about.
The Hundred-Foot Journey Calendar Girls The Full Monty Brassed Off Kes Yesterday The Lady in the Van
You know what I’m talking about.
The Hundred-Foot Journey Calendar Girls
It was all right.
One of those very different, really excellent movies. Don’t miss it.
Movies that seem to be popular … but something doesn’t sit right … for me at least.
Triangle of Sadness Avatar Avatar: The Way of Water Top Gun: Maverick Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy The Marksman
It’s a long way from Ace Ventura! Great movies.
Accidentally found this movie on TV … q super way to spend an hour and ten minutes … a documentary revealing humor and humanity.
Another one of those ‘little’ movies. Highly recommend.
Wes Anderson Hasn’t Changed With ‘The French Dispatch.’ And That’s Perfectly Fine.It was on my ‘to watch’ list even before I read this;
> “But the most endearing thing about Wes Anderson is that he’s a hopelessly romantic filmmaker, and these worlds he creates clearly mean a lot to him. His latest film, The French Dispatch, is a love letter certainly—to journalism, to writers, to art in general and filmmaking specifically—and rather than change or adapt in the way some want to see, he gloriously doubles down on his style, making for his most maximalist, hyper-imaginative film yet.
If you are thinking about watching the sequel - watch this one instead.
Slow and gentle and worth curling up with if you in the right frame of mind.
Lovely - just lovely - with occasional cringeworthy self help one liners.
If you saw Colin and Brendan in their last outing .. which btw was very good … then this might catch you by surprise. Personally I love ‘little movies “ like this - the Brits and the Irish do so very well … this is no exception. Great dialogue. Beautiful scenery. Stonking cast and acting. If you … like me … saw a couple of trailers, you will likely be inspired to watch.
Yes it is a yarn and the book is badly written (though I still turned the pages VERY quickly), this is the movie - and was a good one.
I posted this doozy on June 2nd - noting that I would come back to it at the year end because it smelt of horse shit. (If you don’t want to click through - in a nutshell JPMorgan predicting that 2022 was going to be just fine).
Here I am back ….
2022 was the worst year for the S&P 500 since the 2008 financial crisis. While the markets usually finish up, down years can happen.
It’s Bond. It’s Daniel Craig. The story continues.
IF you use Drafts and Pinboard and you want to get your links out of Pinboard - well - the mighty @Agiletortoise has thought of that and just published a new action …. here.
Works beautifully.
Now I have 13,259 drafts in my archive folder (don’t judge). Next step is to work out how to bulk export those drafts to a folder on the hard drive, so that I can create a new Obsidian vault.
Been on my list since it came out and was not what I expected. Took 15 to 20 minutes to recalibrate. But I did. Really good. If I closed my eyes, the audio and dialogue reminded me of a Wes Anderson project (close your eyes .. the visuals are nothing like Wes. Bale was great .. at time channeling Peter Falk’s ‘Columbo’ … or is that just me?
It just popped up as a ‘why not watch’ kind of alert … I had. Very good.
I resisted watching this for a while … asked on the trailers … It was all right … but the cheesy trailers are a clue.
It was better than the first in the series! Maybe I’m just not the target audience.
Totally unexpected delight.
Watched on Wednesday December 21, 2022.
4 stars .. and I’m not even a big fan of the man!
It’s a perennial that is regularly revisited.
Wes Anderson has such a distinctive style it’s amazing how they are so different. Love them all.
Music was my first love and it will be my last. Music of the future and music of the past. To live without my music would be impossible to do. In this world of troubles, my music pulls me through.
💬 John Miles
🎶🎵Interesting to see the albums that appear roughly daily in Matt Birchtree’s feed where he celebrates a different album each day. So far, I am personally not inspired - but that is the beauty of music.
To be fair, the ‘other viewer’ gave it 3 stars - but whichever way you look at it - dud.
Count me in the camps of
- ‘definitely not a Will Ferrell fan’
- ‘definitely a massive Ryan Reynolds fan’
I didn’t know the director, so looked up his prior work. Now I understand.
It was alright, but 3 stars is not a recommendation.
If you don’t live in New Zealand, you might not know the name Bernard Hickey. Hell - I live here - and didn’t know him until I stumbled over his writing in Substack. But when I speak to ‘locals in the know’ - he is definitely known.
We had some elections in New Zealand recently, and one winner was a gentleman called Wayne Brown - he is the new mayor of Auckland.
Probably a script that Liam rejected? It was ok - but we know how these movies pan out don't we? The clue is definitely in the title.
**GREAT** movie. French Farce on a fast moving train, channeling Quentin Tarantino (with more humor and not quite as much violence) and Guy Ritchie ... directed by David Leitch - who according to IMDB is a producer, director, actor, stunt performer AND coordinator ... with John Wick, Hobbs and Shaw and Deadpool2 (which MIGHT explain a 2 second cameo by Ryan Reynolds) in his 'canon'.
Not my choice to watch - but watch I did. Yeah ... no.
“We’re excited to announce the release of the newest addition to the GPT-3 model family: text-davinci-003. This model builds on top of our previous InstructGPT models, and improves on a number of behaviors that we’ve heard are important to you as developers.”
💬 Open AI
So of course I had to go try ….
The Prompt Please write 4 paragraphs about Stop Child Traffic Foundation which is a non for profit organization that responds to refugee crisis, and uses technology and innovation to prevent harm to vulnerable populations like refugees and women and children.
Alright. Not great.
I know that there are only 7 stories in the world. My question is why is this the one that keeps getting told - and then badly. In fairness, I got to the end, so it wasn't a total dud, but if you want to watch this story sometime, choose a different movie.
Directly. No Gatekeeper.
A lot of AIs seem to be focussed on how to create. new things, the interesting thing that Readwise is up to is that they are focussed on using AI to better understand what is already there ….. I think that is an interesting problem to solve.
Sly, Liam, Bruce, Gerard, Dwayne et al … meet Bob. Loved it.
Probably one of those times where the film could never live up to the expectations … and yes it’s taken me 15 years to watch it! It was ok .. but for me the best part was the dance on the station platform at the end!
Totally unexpected delightful movie.
Some context to this post, because it really isn’t just about memory (that’s the back story). It is really setting the scene for what I think will be a series of posts that I will link to from here that is exploring whether Geoffrey Moore’s chasm thinking can be applied to a country. Still not sure it can - but we will see as the journey unfolds.
I got a voice mail from my agent this evening. She opened with her usual apologies for being out of touch but she wanted to talk to me about four contracts that were coming to a head. Details needed to be nailed down.
Four contracts? I knew about the transformation contract, but as for the other three … I had no idea what she was talking about. What else had she found?
I like that micro blog can be used as an rss reader and a mastodon reader and a microblog time line reader and ….
BUT
I wonder what code change would be needed to allow me (the reader) to filter my timeline on (say)
mastodon only blog site rss only Microblog only etc etc Currently I am unfollowing every Mastodon account in Micro Blog that I have historically followed - and picking them up in Mastodon.
Interesting that it isn’t just Mastodon that seems to be in sudden growth mode. The Mastodon questions relating to ‘how to get started’ and ‘who to follow’ are just as applicable to Podcasts - even though they are much more established. That said, it is clear that even for the long time listener, checking in and making sure that once you have found the best stuff to listen (often by asking around) that you have the best stuff to listen to it on!
Yeah ... No.
Appalling sound quality just the start.
So so so very good.
No names - no pack drill to protect the innocent, but prompted to write this because while it is sad, I don’t like history to be rewritten.
The official statement reads that it has declared bankruptcy because of “poor economic conditions since Covid and increased costs and delays associated with expansion plans.”
Sure - and - it was clear when I talked to them that the company had a difficult route even before Covid.
It is what it is - it was what it was - a 'free' movie on Netflix
Quite simply one of my favorite movies of all time.
I'm a sucker for Batman. Not the best and so DARK ... not the storyline, the cinematography. At times just watching a black screen. Probably more a commentary on the TV than the movie, but still... I guess if they are trying to get us back to the movie houses... It makes sense?
Having watched ‘round 1’ … I knew what to expect and I wasn’t disappointed.
Fun. What you’d expect.
He was the bestselling poet in American history. What happened?
Was never a fan - and hadn’t thought of him for decades - but there is no doubt that at the time he was big.
Just one paragraph that opened my eyes …
In the mid-1960s McKuen discovered the Belgian singer Jacques Brel and his fellow chansonniers, performers in the story-song tradition who were popular in the cabarets of Europe but hadn’t yet made inroads in the U.
This post was getting too long and confusing in draft mode. So - instead I am writing a short post and will then append with comments to cover off each point I want to make. A living post if you will!
The genesis of the post is that @dave commented on one of my posts about Feedland suggesting that I publish a post about Feedland here.
First off, I am a big fan of the functionality of Feedland and in awe of how @dave - much like @manton - just keeps delivering enhancements and extensions to his world without the teams of hundreds - if not thousands - that VC backed startups seems to ‘need’.
I wrote a long email to Substack last week with a combination of personal comments together with some comments received from readers.
I opened the email with;
“No questions - but definitely a lot of input. Most of which I have written to you about in the past and generally received a ‘thanks we will let the dev team know’ kind of response … and then nothing.”
Precisely one week later a template response …
“To get deals over the line in today’s high-pressure sales environment, sellers must undertake new, challenging activities outside their comfort zones. The ongoing need for agility is taking its toll: In a recent Gartner survey of more than 900 B2B sellers, 89% report feeling burned out and 54% report actively job seeking.”
“nearly six in 10 sellers describe the leadership of their sales organization as not understanding what “really” motivates sellers.
A slightly edited version of a post originally published on February 14th 2016 @ Beyond Bridges, now archived here
A friend and reader of this blog just sent me this link, which is a third party version of the LinkedIN map below. It seems to be limited due to LinkedIN's API constraints, so it can't map more than 499 of your connections. That said, there does seem to be a lot more information and analysis that surrounds the graph.
It is what you might expect from a movie with Jason and Jet - and nothing wrong with that.
"This time he was here to help us understand some truths about how we really run the business, make decisions, and value what's worth doing. When I say value, I don't mean a list of generalized "values", or the bullshit phrase of "adding value", but how we attribute value when evaluating our options and making tradeoffs."
💬 Jason Fried
Read The Whole Post
Verifiable credentials are coming as a service; it's a proven business model | Constellation Research Inc.
The Stripe co-founders were candid about their failure to predict where the economy was heading. They also said they overspent on things like “coordination costs.” That’s not a term I’ve heard before, but I suspect it is a reflection of getting too big and too inefficient.
💬 Jessica Lessin
It's a new term to me aswell - BUT recently on LinkedIN there was a meme running around - which used this graphic.
‘The Information’ reports this morning (my bold)
Uber said its mobility division (the ride-hailing business most people know the company for) brought in $3.8 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter, growing 73%. But baked into that number is $1.1 billion flowing from a change earlier this year that prompted Uber to start recording all the fares it gets in the U.K. as revenue, instead of just the take rates remaining after the company pays its drivers.
In many ways the 1619 Project is focused on unpacking actual history from the American narrative of history.
Meanwhile, I continue to be bowled over by the story/stories that are emerging in Rachel Maddow’s new podcast. I am so often amazed that I jump onto the internet to cross-check what I am hearing but the fact is that though the Ultra Podcast is telling a different story - it is again focused on unpacking history from the American narrative of history.
An old adage - but is ‘top of mind’ recently.
If the IRS want ‘a little chat with you’ …. would you ‘do some research’ and then take the case on, or go find a tax accountant?
If you needed medical attention would you have a friend ‘check out the symptoms and then diagnose you - or would you go to a doctor?
If you were sued for malpractice … get a lawyer - or ‘bone up’ on what youneed to know
Well. at least for real-world construction. As we build out the internet, I feel it is the other way round. Why is that? I wrote this just yesterday …
Frank Lloyd Wright, Julia Morgan, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Gaudi, Le Corbusier … are legion in the world of architecture … yet few people know the names of the people or companies that built the buildings they designed.
What absolute crap and drivel …
“ Britain’s current dumpster fire (i.e. the British Pound reached its lowest level against the US Dollar in its entire history last week) began a long time before Truss came on board. She inherited the mess; she didn’t create it.
Driving Off the Glass Cliff.
I am fully aware of the Glass Cliff problem - this is not an example.
Yes - she inherited a mess.
One of those multiverse movies that isn’t your usual. Well worth a watch. No disappointment.
Let’s watch The Gray Man I suggested. We did, both of us looking at the arch other throughout .. the story seemed familiar. And then it didn’t. And then it did. We watched to the end. It was familiar because we’d watched it already. Just didn’t remember. And now … the following morning. Here we are again. Still not knowing what it was about.
Well named.
Josh Bershin writes that we are becoming a power skills economy.
In other words, automation did not eliminate work at all – it created new jobs, better jobs, and an acceleration of our workforce into what we now call the “service economy.” We are essentially shifting to the right in this model.
💬 Josh Bershin
BTW, in case you are wondering, ‘Power Skills’ is the 'new' name for ‘Soft Skills’.
I was delighted to be joined on the People First podcast by Ramsey Avery who is the Production Designer for the Amazon series - Lord of the Rings - Rings of Power.
Wonderful conversation that I know you will enjoy.
Maybe because I have recently been watching some below average / average movies recently - that this one stands out. On another day. I might rate it at 3 1/2 stars - but leaving at 4 for now.
Here’s the question … coincidence … or action from the grave?
It’s a documentary - so move on if you don’t like them. Personally - big as the issue was - I totally missed the story when it was in the news. BUT very good. I would like to have seen more delving into the Libyan connections - rather than a ‘simple’ fraud - maybe there will be a part two?
Mindless. Watched as part of a binge-watch when I was feeling sorry for myself. Not too hard to keep up. Definitely don’t bother if you are sitting down to ‘watch a movie’.
I have watched all the Thor’s and this one is VERY different - probably because Taika Waititi isn’t just the director (Thor - Ragnarok) but also the writer. Not sure what the ‘Marvel Heads’ will say / are saying … but for me it worked.
Just like the character in the movie … I really can’t remember much. The script is out of some script hopper and this is the latest version of it,
I have a streaming cold … so in that respect perfect, too hard to switch off, and not much to track.
Watched on Friday October 14, 2022.
30 years ago. Seriously? It feels just like yesterday. Of course … it could have been. The script is timeless.
The Fog of Global War, Dana Blankenhorn
“This is also no normal midterm election. This is an existential battle between democracy and fascism. Major media try to both sides it, but that’s increasingly impossible. Every possible -ism is rising against democratic compromise and common sense – sexism, racism, fascism, Christianism. All the evils bedeviling the rest of the world have come here to roost because Vladimir Putin invited them in.
It was on Netflix … and just wanted ‘something’. Turns out it was just what I needed. The storyline is recognizable .. with wine and barbecue this time. For all of that - well done.
Trust me, I don’t need to spend time reviewing a bad film … so I don’t.
It took me forever to get around to watching this film and when I finally did … oh my. Tears (mine) at the end - which to me is always a good guide to the quality.
I’m a sucker for the Batman franchise interpretation anyway…but they don’t always work. This ‘side story’ is a stunning film.
Watched on Wednesday January 15, 2020.
This is not a list designed to be ALL great movies - just those great movies that you might have missed as you journey through life.
Pig Big Fish
Watched on Friday September 30, 2022.
This is not a list designed to be ALL great movies - just those great movies that you might have missed as you journey through life.
Pig Big Fish Glengarry Glen Ross
At the White House, Ornato, who as deputy chief of staff had oversight over Secret Service decisions, told Pence’s national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, that the vice-president was going to be moved to the Maryland military facility Joint Base Andrews. Had he been evacuated, Pence would no longer have been able to certify Biden’s electoral victory, and Trump’s goal of postponing his defeat would have been fulfilled.
When Ornato said that the Secret Service would move Pence, Kellogg was adamant, Rucker and Leonnig reported.
Books, Siddhartha Mukherjee says, just tumble out of him, like fluffy towels and clean socks cascade out of a dryer at the end of the cycle. And it’s a good thing, because it’s not as if the man has a lot of idle time to spare.
Mukherjee, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University, an oncologist and a researcher of cancer treatments, is one of those people who appears to have found a glitch to exploit in the space-time continuum.
… or not. Yeah - definitely not.
Thiel-backed conservative video platform Rumble is up 37% after going public via SPAC merger at a $2.1B valuation, raising $400M.
.. and you all thought SPACs were dead!
Definitely an interesting mix of ‘purveyors’ on the platform, noting that Russell Brand had decided that he needs to not only join the likes of QANON, Alex Jones, Greenwald, Lindell and Truth Social - but be there exclusively!
It’s funny how 'xx is the new oil' keeps cropping up … this one is kind of related - but focussed not specifically on data - but rather, The ‘Attention Economy’ ….
"For the better part of the past century, the most important commodity has been oil. Wars have been fought over it — Pearl Harbor was a preemptive strike to secure Japanese access to Indonesian oil — and it elevated desert tribes to the ranks of the wealthiest cohorts in history.
Given that I have been reading about the ‘impending’ arrest of Gaetz for human trafficking since March 2021, I don’t expect a move against the people involved in the Abbott and DeSantis shenanigans any time soon … if ever.
If the US continues to not react, isn’t it condoning trafficking and/or admitting that its laws are toothless?
Were I a trafficker in US custody, I would definitely use this inaction as part of my defense.
Earlier this week a friend introduced me to Slavoj Žižek - and specifically, he referenced The Perverts Guide To Cinema. I started watching and suddenly realized that it was over 2 1/2 hours long. I saved to ‘watch later’! Seriously - watch the first 5 to 10 minutes - you can’t just stop and never return … BUT … life does have a limited duration!
I commented on this to my friend … he responded …
I am sad for the loss of the Queen, but ….
There cannot be life without death, it is inescapable.
💬 Keisei Tagami
That said, most of what I am reading and seeing leave me cold. Nobody knows the private story of the woman. Nobody.
This is brought home when reading the 4 articles on the click throughs … four different links that tell the story in very different ways and are not the usual fodder.
Harder Than It Looks, Not As Fun as It Seems is a short neat article on this very topic.
Reminds me of what my mum used to say to me …
“If you only judge your friends by their photo album of course it will look like they have a great life.”
💬 My Mum
or as Morgan has it ….
“It’s easiest to convince people that you’re special if they don’t know you well enough to see all the ways you’re not.
“There ought to be a law. If I can subscribe without talking to someone, I should be able to cancel that way too. I was interested in subscribing to the NYT crossword, for $20 a year, but their policy for cancelling required me to converse with someone at the NYT. I know why, they want to try to convince me to stay. My time is worth something, though they don’t think so.
Long Time Castro user - but it was time to explore the alternatives again. (Same exercise as the RSS reader project a few weeks ago). So of course my first stop was back to Apple Podcasts .. because I keep thinking that of all companies Apple should be able to deliver the best experience …. right?
The app managed to annoy me in less than a couple of days. But it did trigger me to look at synching … enter Overcast - my new friend.
The title is not representative of the piece which is actually about ‘Google Maps’ and ‘personal memory’ but is pulled from the quote.
𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 - a person takes money, hands you an object; liquor store clerks, cashiers, bank tellers, etc.
𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 - taxis, aeroplanes, trucks, etc.
𝗕𝗮𝗯𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 - people that watch things. But this extends to people that tweak small things (on par with wiping a baby’s arse) like pool repair, HVAC repair, etc. They take the diaper off, they wipe it down, they put the diaper back on; janitors, gardeners, farmers, painters, security guards, testing, stockers, etc.
Ooohhh …
Now you can seamlessly sync all of your Raindrop.io highlights directly with Readwise.
Readwise makes it easy to revisit and learn from your highlights. When highlights were introduced to Raindrop.io, many users requested an official integration with Readwise.
Connect your Raindrop.io account to get started. Highlights will be synced periodically throughout the day.
“As one lawyer recounted to the Post, Trump’s legal team once urged the then president “against tweeting about the Mueller probe, only to find he’d tweeted about it before they got to the end of the West Wing driveway.” Others said he was “nearly impossible to represent and that it would be unclear if they would ever get paid.”
Bad News is Good News.
“I started talking about the Machine Internet nearly 20 years ago, before it was even called “the Internet of Things.” Sensors and motes, tied to an analysis by wireless networks. Anything whose performance can be adjusted can now be monitored and controlled by a central intelligence. You can monitor the condition of parts and schedule maintenance before things break. This matters if the part is your heart, and its breaking could kill you.
Zuckerberg’s New No. 2 Faces an Old Dilemma: Distrust of Facebook
Seriously? That’s the problem?
The new ‘number 2’ is Nick Clegg
Wikipedia During the party’s time in coalition, the Liberal Democrats saw a significant drop in support and the 2015 general election left the party with just 8 seats, which resulted in Clegg’s ousting as Deputy Prime Minister and his resignation as party leader. In 2016, following a referendum in which a majority supported leaving the European Union, Clegg returned to the Liberal Democrat frontbench, concurrently serving as Spokesperson for Exiting the European Union and for International Trade from July 2016 to June 2017.
The promo on some podcast this morning (my bold)
While Tim Cook (Mr. Excitement) has been the CEO of Apple for over 10 years, he’s now getting closer to mid-60s and is probably looking past where he’ll be running things. His legacy is pretty firmly set and there’s not much more at this point he could do, so who will be next in line to run Apple? We’ll look at some of the likely candidates in the second section.
I recently had a good email exchange with Nick Milo (LYT) after a newsletter he wrote that depended a lot on Running Up That Hill.
As a private exchange, I am not going to reveal the conversation, but rather make the observation that Kate Bush’s Running Up The Hill not only gained renewed momentum in the UK/US Music charts …. It also seems to have pushed Kate back into the limelight.
“The Content Marketing category is almost $700 billion. Almost every company is working on content and increasing their content marketing investments. And yet, when was the last time you got a piece of content marketing and you said that was legendary? Let’s dig into how the marketing world got duped into content free marketing, aka saying nothing everywhere, and why this is one of the largest opportunities hiding in plain sight.
“The 9/11 attacks could have been dealt with as a crime. This would have been sane and consistent with precedent. When lawbreaking occurs, we seek the perpetrators, rather than starting wars with unrelated parties. When the IRA set off bombs in London, nobody called for air strikes on West Belfast (or on Boston, where a great deal of IRA funding came from). When the Oklahoma City bombing was found to have been perpetrated by a white supremacist associated with ultra-right militias, there was no call to obliterate Idaho or Montana.
Questions about Apple and its TV+ marketing
“Marketing during the era of peak TV is hard, but as someone who lives dead center in Apple’s ecosystem, I hadn’t even heard about “Black Bird” until last week, when Tim Cook mentioned it on the analyst call and I saw an extended trailer for it on last week’s “Friday Night Baseball.”
💬 Jason Snell
Odd. Any time I switch to 🍎📺 - Blackbird is front and center.
Two examples - In one email.
False Online Reviews
“Bounty, a startup that pays users for posting reviews to select products on TikTok, raised $4.7 million in seed funding from consumer venture capital firm M13.”
💬 Mahira Dayal - The Information
and
In case you need another reason to get off Twitter ….
“Twitter donated $25,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which is raising funds for the anti-abortion movement, newsletters Popular Information and Platformer together reported.
No - not the 🎶 pop group - they were 'NSYNC' ... just an acknowledgement of how nice it is to find like minded travelers on the journey.
The quote below found here
“We need to resist the narratives that are frequently served to us by corporations that sell these technologies, that these models of the future are dependent upon the particular technologies that they’re selling, that it’s always some future that is just around the corner that we have to buy into, when in fact the future is already here.
But I don’t always take good advice …
Keep your feed under control. Don’t subscribe to too many feeds and periodically go through the list and remove the ones that don’t provide value to your life. Avoid feeds that are too busy. Don’t subscribe to feeds that push content out on a daily basis. Disable all notifications from your RSS reader. Unread messages counter, email notifications, push notifications—turn everything off.
There are a group of companies springing up that are doing for the written word what Dall-E, MidJourney and Craiyon are doing for images, which is to say - enter some core text and let an AI generate the output. My mind explodes when I see the 'image' results. I think ‘meh’ - so far - when I see the 'written' results. I am pretty sure that the engines are as sophisticated as each other, so I wonder if my reaction is more to do with my own abilities - as in I have NO artistic ability when it come to creating images, but I can - and do write - so my bar is higher?
Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'
💬 Bob Dylan
With the financial problems ricocheting around the world - I see occasional headlines from 50 years ago.
I am sitting in New Zealand writing this. It started as an idea in my head and was typed into a local file on my computer. I copied it to Wordpress (my blog hosting software of choice) and saved a draft to my People First server.
The words were then sitting on a server in Iowa, USA.
From this point on, as I edit the draft, I am in New Zealand, the words I am editing are in Iowa - where am I working?
Why none of my books are available on Audible is a 'spoken essay' from Cory which will eventually be the only entry he has in the Audible library. Take a listen to find out why.
The link takes you to a page on his Craphound site, or go directly to 🎙️the podcast
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program.
MacStories : 🔗 Generating Markdown Links to Mail Messages with Shortcuts and AppleScript
Dr. Drang : 🔗 Mail links and percentages
I used to use hook - but not enough to pay for it - so stopped.
Spark has an easy way to generate deep links to emails - BUT - if you move the message to a different folder - the lnk breaks for me.
So question.
Does the MacMail linking also break when you move messages, or is the ID absolute?
In 2013, Mark Cameron wrote
‘Data is not the new oil, it is the new soil.’
He concludes;
"Generating business value from consumer data isn’t about technology at all. It’s about how you use data to create a fantastic experience for your customers. If you can help your customer get value from their own information they will reward you for that effort. If you continue to use data to spam your customers or provide value to your company, you may find yourself wondering where everybody went.
Good question.
Putting aside Molly White’s tweet from a few weeks ago, though she does raise a very good point ...
I did want to share a podcast I just listened to It's Mike Brock of Block (seriously, filed in the 'can't make this up' bucket) - and no I don’t think he is Dave Brock's son talking with Tech Dirt's Michael Masnick.
"Web5 is a new evolution of the Web that enables decentralized apps and protocols.
Just thinking aloud …
—-
June 2016 … Brexit - Driven by BoJo
November 2016 … US Election - Trump wins.
July 2022 BoJo stands down as his party FINALLY rejects him
Does this suggest that
December 2022 will be when the Rethuglicans finally reject Trump?
Interestingly, that date is just after the mid-terms, which everybody is convinced will be yet another Democrat shellacking, but what if it isn’t?
Will It Happen?
One of a series of posts that came from one of my many blogs that I am slowly consolidating into this canonical reference. The old blog was with specific regard to ‘all things Uber’.
In case you aren't subscribed ...
Would You Keep Your Most Valuable Possessions In The Vault Of A Company That Might One Day Just Close Their Doors And Block You From Getting All Your Stuff Back?
A few years ago … let’s call at it the ‘advent of social’, common wisdom suggested
‘Email is dead … long live Social’. If you know me, you will not be surprised to learn that I disagreed with ‘common wisdom’.
I have been tracking Nick Milo and his wonderful work around Obsidian for a while. Recently he announced LYT Kit v5 and 🔗 this is his overview.
Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash
After my unscheduled hiatus, I have been thinking about the podcast. It is going to be different. I mean everything is going to be different. Isn’t it? Why would the podcast not be different?
I recorded the first one earlier this week (don’t worry - you didn’t miss it - I haven’t dropped it yet). If you know me, you’ll know that I definitely err on the side of ten words where one will do … I’m working on it!
You can read the article here.
It’s not really a question as to whether New Zealand is being left behind. I think there are many countries facing this challenge … but the question is what is the challenge?
I ask because I believe that there is a massive conflation of this as people make their arguments..
Does a 4 day week mean
Working 40 hours in 4 days OR are we really talking about reducing the number of hours of a standard week to 32 hours?
A New Prediction Market Lets Investors Bet Big on Almost Anything - I see it is behind a paywall - but you can read it all on Apple News
The article is about a ‘new’ prediction market : Kalshi - which initially had problems with getting approval …
“But their concerns were overruled by the agency’s politically appointed commissioners, one of whom has since joined Kalshi’s board.”
The concerns are clear - but for all of that - I can’t help wondering if this still might be a good idea.
How Remote-First Crypto Players Could End the Company HQ
We will see.
BUT
The real news buried inside the post is how many of these scams companies are based in Malta, The Caymans, The Bahamas … very … what’s the word … ‘levelling’?
As for crap like this …
““Fellow crypto exchange Kraken followed suit in doing away with its HQ in April, and while CEO Jesse Powell said the closure was specifically a response to incidents of crime impacting its employees on the way into the San Francisco office, he added Kraken has “no plans to establish a new, formal global HQ.
As long as Spotify continues to generate headlines like Joe Rogan: We Have a ‘Mental Health Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
I am good with Netflix generating headlines like Netflix CEO defends Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais
Though I take issue with Netflix falling back onto the ‘Free Speech’ defence. I would rather they used the ‘change the channel’ argument.
Don’t get too excited - it’s a McKinsey paper.
The future of personalization - and how to get ready for it.
Physical spaces will be ‘digitized’Empathy will scaleBrands will use ecosystems to personalize journeys end-to-end ... wait - what?
"Empathy will scale."
You can't make this stuff up. Talk about buzzword compliance!
Then - when I was looking for a suitable image to use for this post ... I came across this doozy from Sitecorp.
It is telling that someone like Doug Rushkoff can write these words;
Only individuals who create value for the company are awarded new stock proportionate to their contributions.
💬 Douglas Rushkoff
... without questioning the principle.
The corollary is of course that there are people that work inside a company that don't add value, which for yours truly is of course like a 'red rag to a bull' - because as the title of this post suggests, if you are employed by a company and not adding value to that company - then why are you there?
“The expansion of shelter-in-place, or as we call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes… is, in my opinion, breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong… What the fuck!… This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.”
💬 Musk in America in April 2020 re lockdowns
Meanwhile …
""
💬 Musk in China in April 2022 re lockdowns
Read The Whole Thing - spells out very clearly which side the bread is buttered on - and the struggles to ensure that the toast doesn’t land face down!
Astral Codex Ten had me curled up on the floor in stitches ….
Man, it’s been a crazy few months. You hear I quit my job at Google and founded a fintech startup?”
“No! What do you do?”
“War insurance!”
“War insurance?”
“Yeah. We pay out if there’s a war.”
“Isn’t that massively correlated risk?”
“Yeah. The idea is, we sell war insurance to companies who do badly if there’s a war - tourist attractions and the like.
Walled Gardens GDPR Compliance Relevant Advertising Zero Party Data, First-Party Data, Second-Party Data and Third-Party Data
This is a question asked by Valerie Andrews over on BizCatalyst360
My short answer is NO. No we can’t.
I’ll get into the main thrust of my positon re the article in a moment - but first lets' talk about ‘the disembodiment of knowledge’.
“Disembodiment …. manifesting as a disruption of bodily self-awareness which induces a disturbing feeling of self-detachment or “depersonalisation”.
If that is disembodiment … then I don’t even agree with the premise.
Two writers - well … write …
🔗 Ezra Klein and 🔗 Venkatesh Rao providing their take on what all this twitter stuff means. They seem to agree on the short term effect …
Venkatesh writes
“He can no more prevent Twitter from turning into a sort of personal Valhalla orbiting his person than Jupiter can stop being a massive planet. Which means there will be a massive shift from vibe-neutral public space to some sort of Free Speech Thunderdome where Elon sets the Vibe of the Month for you to either rejoice in, or resist.
Apparently - absolutely everything, (with apologies to Edwin Star). That said, a really GREAT series of articles by Venkatesh Rao on ‘Lore’ The Index To The Series
This is Part 7 of 7 : 🔗 Towards Management Metamodernism , from which I quote;
Just as Wallace noted, in 1993, that literary writing was increasingly substituting TV-watching for observation of life (which, as he pointed out, was understandable, since life itself was about sitting on a couch watching television), by 2007 or so, on the threshold of the global financial crisis, “external reality” to leaders meant the output of the literary-industrial complex.
… did you know this was going on in your own backyard?
“In the back room of an old and greying building in the northernmost region of New Zealand, one of the most advanced computers for artificial intelligence is helping to redefine the technology’s future.”
🔗 A new vision of artificial intelligence for the people
… as reported by MIT.
I never made the switch from photography to illustrations on my web properties, but I do very much remember when Unsplash seemed to suddenly be the ‘defacto choice’ for photography on many sites. More recently seeing Craft and others add the service right into their apps, I have felt for a while that I need to discover a new source of visual inspiration.
Was that due to that acquisition, or is it the uniquity of images from the Unsplash library?
Spotted here.
Funny.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me. More about People First Other People First Posts (not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)
Really happy to report that the redesign here at People First is done. More to come, but first spending a little time cleaning up some a lot of the older posts.
You know in 🔗 Coco there is this idea that you need to be remembered to continue to live in the land of the dead?
I don’t think I am dead - but can anyone out there confirm?
Asking - because on three seperate occasions this past week - someone else has sought me out for a meeting, which I have confirmed and agreed to, only to then be totally ghosted.
I wanted to share this because for me it truly resonated with the message we often hear in these modern times which is to “Follow Your Passion.”
The importance of the letter is (as is so often the case with Fenyman) - deep and clear.
Dear Kichi
I was very happy to hear from you, and that you have such a position in the Research Laboratories.
Unfortunately, your letter made me unhappy for you seem to be truly sad.
Just after stumbling 🔗 across this
I found this
🔗 Former tech billionaire’s Marin County mansion, once listed for $23 million, drops to $9 million after foreclosure
What tech billionaire was that wondered?
Eric Greenberg came the Google reply. He that founded Viant and then left and founded Scient. (I always thought that an odd move - to my mind they were identical companies - but no matter … onwards …)
🔗 12 Different Ways for Companies to Innovate
It dates back to 2006 - and no need to read it, because in the opening paragraph they highlighted three US business leaders that we needed to pay attention to.
William Ford Jr., Chairman and CEO - Ford Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO - General Electric Steve Ballmer, CEO - Microsoft I think around that time there was a phrase bandied around …
Just finished reading: 🔗 The Cellist by Daniel Silva 📚
Definitely a good read … kept me turning the pages … though I take issue with him being described as ‘the new LeCarre … or am I just being overly defensive of one of my ‘4 Johns’.
That all said, the most amazing thing about this book is that following Jan 6th 2021 he revised the book top to bottom in 6 weeks.
It truly is annoying that I only have 3 hours per day to try out CSS edit changes on my MicroBlog newsletter - and I can’t even choose when those three hours are. The draft appears - and then the clock starts ticking.
I have got errors - and each day I get the draft and then I try to fix the CSS in the time available - provided that I have nothing else going on - until I can’t any longer because my time is up.
I used the 4 natural forces model in my 📚recent book as an analogy for the 4 forces of humanity.
And then I read that 🔗 Fermilab has found a discrepancy with the mass of the W boson.
“The current 'standard model' of particle physics describes four fundamental forces. Three of those — electromagnetism, gravity and the strong nuclear force — push or pull things, broadly speaking. The fourth force — the weak nuclear force — doesn't really push or pull anything.
Guy Kawasaki was probably for first person in the business world with the title ‘Evangelist’ and coincidentally an old neighbour of mine.
Marc and I worked with each other back in my Oracle days.
This podcast has Guy interviewing Marc talking of his trajectory from 19 year old college kid to CEO of a Fortune 100 company.
While it might SEEM to be yet another Silicon Valley story - this one is presented through the lens of what makes Marc different to the average SV success story … which is his humanity and desire to give back.
I was talking to a long time friend of mine last night. She is of Ukrainian descent.
I knew about Stalin’s ‘Great Famine’, but did not know how much of this act of aggression occurred in Ukraine.
🔗 Ukraine - The famine of 1932–33 (Holodomor)
“Of the estimated five million people who died in the Soviet Union, almost four million were Ukrainians.”
Shoshana Zuboff calls this development The Coup We Are Not Talking About. The subhead of that essay makes the choice clear: We can have democracy, or we can have a surveillance society, but we cannot have both. Her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, gave us a name for what we’re up against. A bestseller, it is now published in twenty-six languages.
I often listen to a podcast or read an article and at the end of it my reaction is 'yes … and' or 'yes … but’.
IF I feel sufficiently moved - a link might get posted to my Thought Stream, together with a pithy observation - and I move on.
The Thought Stream On the stream I offer a randomized link, that takes you to one of the posts.
Let me point out - again - that the answer to the question is useless - because the question is badly framed. I have written about this before here, here and here and a whole host of other places aswell.
The Conclusion There is no future of work. There is only a future of income. Fast forward to a LinkedIn graphic that was presented to me last week.
It appeared in BrettKing's LinkedIn stream.
Artist for Andrew Yang’s crypto lobbying DAO is offered $500 after being promised ‘a percentage’ of revenue in a project that raised at least $790,000
Wasn’t he the dude espousing UBI in the Dem run ups?
I guess we are going to need it if people like him maintain this story that we need to work for free to raise our exposure … payment be damned.
The artist should pay attention to Harlan Ellison
If not - when do you stand on bullying? Just keep taking it?
If it is - then … well read on … is Chris Rock America?
Take #1: Will Smith’s assault on Chris Rock violated the law—so if Rock wants to press charges against Smith, Smith should face punishment. But Rock provoked Smith with a cruel joke about his wife, and he shouldn’t have made the joke.
Take #2: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violated international law—so Ukraine’s armed resistance to it is justifiable, as are sanctions and other forms of punishment.
“The Economist estimates zero excess deaths among the elderly in New Zealand, for instance, and gives the whole region an excess-mortality range of negative 31 to positive 37 per 100,000 residents, meaning it’s possible fewer people died there than would’ve had we never even heard of SARS-CoV-2.”
and …
“The U.S. drove an unprecedented vaccine-innovation campaign in 2020, which empowered much of the world to turn the page on the pandemic’s deadliest phases, then, in 2021, utterly failed to take advantage of its power itself.
I listen to my podcasts via Castro .. and every now and then revisit the occasional alternative in the hope of getting a missing piece of functionality.
Overcast just delivered.
Or is it that I just found the functionality in Overcast?
What I wanted?
When listening to a podcast just be able to add it to your playlist of choice … rather than leaving the podcast, going to the playlist to add a podcast, scrolling down the list to find the podcast and then adding it.
Two short posts that arrived almost back to back in the multivarious reading apps that seem to be multiplying on my iPad.
The first came from Derek Silvers about why we should write plain text files.
The ‘shouldness’of that instruction cant be more emphasised. All that he says I do know, but it’s good to be reminded. But, even then it still doesn’t stop me from writing a lot of stuff in a couple of the most proprietary formats out there .
In my book ‘For Business Leaders Slapped In The Face By A World They Thought They Knew’, I referenced an organization called 'The Prout Institute'.
It came to mind as I watched this relatively unwatched (in the big scheme of things) video.
Andrew Pancholi is definitely an interesting man.
It's a 2022 video - but predates the invasion of Ukraine, though not the build-up with the result that we have an immediate feedback loop on some aspects of how right or wrong his thinking is.
🚧 I wanted to write this post as a permanent test of applying ‘footnotes’ on my blog.
Here in the time line it is almost certainly going to look weird if there isn’t a title - but the idea is to improve the reading experience on the site - and then of course explore what it might look like in an RSS feed.
Post Posting The footnotes aren’t coming through hyperlinked.
Read the article on Wired here …. (Paywall)
It’s not yet ready for prime time .. but still ….
So, using Visual Studio Code, I wrote a plain ol’ comment describing the first step I needed done: write a function that opens a pdf document and returns the text For about four seconds, nothing happened. Then Copilot wrote this: def pdf_to_text(filename): pdf = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(open(filename, “rb”)) text = “” for i in range(pdf.
”With this method, it is possible to achieve as many as 2 to 3 tasks in a single day, so long as you live alone and nobody else tries to contact you.
If at any point during the Puttanesca Method (so-called because there are more olives in it than in the Pomodoro) someone tries to contact you – whether by text, by phone call, by email, by saying your name quietly in the next room, whatever — cease all work at once and go directly back to bed.
I just got my iPad out with its Magic Keyboard and started to work. I was reminded how I like the focus of just a single app, no multiple windows, just lock-in on what you are doing - no distractions - lovely and really makes sense - but - BUT … that screen sure does feel tiny.
And then I pulled the keyboard off and just starred at that giant piece of glass.
I recently watched the TV series of Fargo seasons and came to realise that the ‘True Story’ theme of Fargo … where none of it is true … is itself a theme throughout.
It explores what different characters believe is their truth … and who are we to judge?
Example Scenes Final Scene - Part One - of Final Episode of Series 3 of Fargo
Final Scene - Part Two - of Final Episode of Series 3 of Fargo
Web3 ... To understand what I mean - you might want to check out this earlier post. Meanwhile, on my personal thoughts microblog, I have been collecting a series of links - you can find them here.
Meanwhile, I was thinking that it probably makes more sense to include them on this blog. Thus we have a new living post, starting with that list and expanding - as I find then - below.
If I share an article to Drafts from NetNewswire, something like this appears in my draft
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/single/2022-02-25-0
If I first open the item in the browser … the full info, created in Markdown appears in my draft, like this.
Nelson Mandela’s paintings from prison to be sold as NFTs – Web3 Is Going Just Great
Anyone know if I can get the full Markdown direct from the feed rather than needing to go to the browser first?
In another life I worked for Oracle in the UK and thence onto the US. When I first met my boss to be, the UK offices were in Richmond. By the time I had joined, they had moved to Chertsey. Within a couple of years we had moved to Bracknell and around year 6 (by which time I was in San Francisco), Reading became their home.
Trying to find some picture of the buildings for a different reason and came across this.
This post originated as a comment in another thread, but it made me think more - again - about how language is constantly being twisted to operate against people.
I wrote
“Language is powerful - funny how we use the term ‘right to work’ state - rather than ‘union busting’ state ….
and
It’s like how we used to have data warehouses - but now we have data ‘lakes’ and ‘mountains’ that we keep in ‘farms’ - so that we can ‘harvest’ information … it’s all so wonderfully natural - and nothing to worry about …
🔗 Thomas Keneally’s 2020s vision: We must abandon the language of the market to reclaim our humanity
I posted this link at the time it was published (2020).
It surfaced the other day through my DayONE - and I decided to repost it in the category 🖇️ ‘Language Is Important’- ‘Tom’ and I are on the same page.
This post, by Dave Rosenthal caught my eye this morning. It's long, it’s deep and is written with authority and knowledge.
Who is David Rosenthal? In his words
I worked with James Gosling on CMU's Andrew project in the early 80s. I was a DE with him at Sun later in the 80s working on window systems including X, and file systems. I quit to be employee #4 at Nvidia where Curtis Priem and I did the basic I/O architecture, then was an early employee at Vitria, the second company of founders of Tibco.
Stone Age culture in the Orkney islands
When I was eight years old, we took a family trip to the Orkney islands off the north coast of Scotland. I don’t know why we went there particularly, but it was amazing. I almost don’t want to go back because it might break the spell the place has cast over my life.
I was 18 when I did that journey (sans family)
A Core and oft referenced tenet of People First.
In case you hadn’t noticed - I am in a bit of a catch up mode.
This for example is a set of links that clearly at one time all connected in my head, but for the life of me - I can’t see that now. That said - I am pretty sure that all of them date back to January 2021.
Work Tom Evslin - Who’s Pocketing the Profit - I think we know!
… Truly horrible.
So when I read Google Slides is actually Hilarious … sadly on Medium (oh the irony - the ignominy of publishing your Google Slides takedown on Medium!), it needed to be shared.
With Commentary I have long had no truck for the Google Office Suite … so was delighted to discover this piece and realize that I am not alone and neatly summarizes the challenges of using that excuse of a piece of software.
A hot new watch from IDZ … or is it?
They call it ‘The Identity Watch’. The web site reads more as a manifesto for privacy, data security and identity, I love it!
What Is The Watch? An Identifier - To allow you to identify with different services An Authenticator - To increase the value of your ZINDEX and the security of your ID A Health tracker - To allow you to track all your fitness data in the health via Doc Searls
It’s a new year, and a spectacular new one at that. More of that to come - but good reasons for my extended absence.
As we reopen the doors, I have decided to offer up some shorter thought posts and links beyond the longer articles that I have put here in the past. So along with a new workflow that utilizes Drafts I am hoping that you will find more to read, more regularly - but not necessarily taking more time.
By simply adding stuff / pages and plugins to my blog without thinking something eventually had to break - and it did. My thanks to @manton and @pimoore for pointing out the error. Turns out Hitchens doesn’t include a ‘Replies’ page - which caused my archive to disappear.
Flat Earth time. I mean - everything. (Barring two hidden pages being used for 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic ).
The Rebuild Install Hitchens ✅ - thankyou @pimoore (need to move my footer into Hitchens footer.
Common wisdom regularly references Pareto - even while not knowing who the hell Pareto is. A humorist might even say that 80% of people who quote the 80/20 rule have never heard of Pareto.
Turns out it might even be worse.
Sturgeon has 90% of everything is crap .. and Andreesen agrees (Apple News Link to WSJ)
Seemingly even about his own fund.
”But doesn’t Sturgeon’s law also apply to investing in startups?
Web Sites Bit by bit I have been consolidating the ‘Wor(l)ds of John’ and putting everything under a single, smaller roof. So when I say ‘single’ … less?
My Blot site is not just thoughts that somehow never made it to MicroBlog - but also includes the archives of 5 old Wordpress sites;
- Beyond Bridges - Hidden In Plain Sight - Quotespace - And Another Thing -Just Good Music (the old MicroBlog JGM - sadly my original JGM site only exists in the Wayback Machine.
David Bowie’s Glam Masterpiece ‘Hunky Dory’ Turns 50
In his book Never A Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded, British music journalist David Hepworth lays out a case for considering 1971 as the most consequential year (from beginning to end) in music.
… which reminded me of 1971 - The Year That 🎵🎼 Music Changed Everything - excellent series.
VPNs Poor Privacy and Security Practices.
(From ‘Consumer Reports’). As a ‘consumer' - not helpful.
Example …
“We found that 12 out of 16 of the VPNs we looked at either inaccurately represented their products and technology, or made hyperbolic or overly broad claims about the kinds of protection they provide their users.”
But which ones?
Wouldn’t a summary detailing some kind of ‘league table’ be useful - rather than just blasting the industry as a whole?
Idle thoughts.
Proving that ‘sound thinking’ might not be the same as ‘thinking with sound’.
Don't you get fed up with the alphabet soup of tech terms that people introduce into our daily conversation?
It gets worse …they then go on to use terms that most people can’t understand to ‘explain’ what they are talking about!
And even when we do get simple language it still doesn’t get there … because we essentially use product descriptions and features and don’t describe the benefits to ordinary people.
I created a Numbers file from the information you sent over.
I exported it to Excel and sent that file to you.
Now you have the file, you can change the Excel.
I can’t change the Excel file, because I don’t intend to pay Microsoft to use a product that is inferior to what I already have installed.
BTW - you have a Mac, and so you also have Numbers.
If you want endless repetition (in your life), see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one. What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories — and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over. You can’t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material.
🚧 Experimental Post as I play around with the CSS ... a LOT! “wise words being captured for posterity.” 💬 They Who Said It simple markdown with cite separate “wise words being captured for posterity.”
💬 They Who Said It simple markdown with cite tight “wise words being captured for posterity.” 💬 They Who Said It
We’re Living Through the Greatest Transfer of Wealth From the Middle Class to the Elites in History.
When historians look back on the decisions made beginning in March 2020 and still going strong, this period will be remembered as the “Great Consolidation”—the acceleration of a historic wealth transfer and power concentration out of the hands of the middle class and into those with political power and connections.
No doubt the Covid wealth extraction plan has gone, well - according to plan!
My thanks to @manton for resetting my blog that I had broken. I mean really broken.
How - because I was trying to be clever with the footer - and I clearly was not!
Now back up with the Tufte Theme - courtesy of @pimoore running as it should - and the footer kind of organised as I wanted.
Next step - now I understand the very clever nuances that Pete has included in the theme - is to reintroduce some of the emphasis I want.
Maps that Show the Historical Roots of Current US Political Faultlines.
Interesting piece even of itself. But even more so if you read it and draw parallels with other parts of the world.
My interpretation is that the boundaries on this map are ‘cultural boundaries’, reflecting what people feel and how they relate to each other in the U.S.A. Now imagine if instead of mapping the U.S.A., you mapped The Middle East.
We’re Living Through the Greatest Transfer of Wealth From the Middle Class to the Elites in History
I really do hate that ‘elites’ word … they aren’t … they just happen to be a large group of people with lots of money and people in (or want to be in) power who want access to that wealth.
That said - a recurring observation.
The “connected” form a powerful bloc comprised of big government, big business and big special interests.
The Seven Laws of Identity - Kim Cameron Introduced in 2004 by Kim Cameron
Read More
Not exactly an 'update' from Doc Searls, but definitely a link with reading, remembering Kim who passed at the end of last year.
“Today we’re excited to roll out the latest feature on Unsplash… you can now see your image download history making it super easy to re-visit and re-download any image.”
… wrote Unsplash.
Annoying that my download history only goes back 2 days.
that said,
MASSIVE KUDOS that my download history only goes back 2 days.
On the face of it they don’t seem to have been storing that information without telling me.
Writing? Not so difficult. Writing well? OK, more difficult.
Convincing friends to give what you’ve written a free tryout on their Kindle? Not easy as you’d think.
Finding absolute strangers who like to read books like yours and then convincing them to buy Book One in an unknown series?
Now that’s the tricky part.
Source : Dan Conover
Revisiting Odessey and Oracle today after listening to the Rockentours talking to Colin Blunstone.
Great Songs.
Watched on Monday September 27, 2021.
Watched on Friday July 22, 2005.
Watched on Tuesday September 21, 2021.
SciFi Groundhog Day.
Very unsatisying ending.
Watched on Monday September 27, 2021.
For a 99 cent rental I wasn’t expecting much - but heh - Harvey Keitel - right? Well worth it. In fact at $9.99, would have been worth it.
Not as good as the 2017 Hitman’s Bodyguard - but definitely well worth a watch.
Cage’s films are either great or awful. Put this one in the great bucket.
Watched on Sunday September 5, 2021.
Dave Winer over on Scripting …
“I am an American, nothing is going to change that, but if you asked me do I feel this is the greatest country ever, I’d say that’s an idea we have to purge from our minds, the US is the opposite, it’s a fat, lazy, spoiled, ridiculous excuse for a country. If we want to amount to anything we need to take a 180 degree turn now.
They are singularly the most inhuman invention you might imagine. But they aren’t half as bad as humans.
I went through a process about three months ago. You have resumes and cover letters stored on your hard drive. You even have a linkedIN profile that contains a wealth of information. But none of that is good enough. No. You need to fill in the forms that you are presented with and then add pdfs of the docs to the application.
Much as when a clear and obvious lie is stated - it doesn’t give you confidence that the rest is going to be any different. I refer you to ’45’ over the past 4 years.
I have not seen ‘the’ recent Oprah interview. Life is too short.
But when I hear someone claim that they “didn’t really have any idea what the royal family was, didn’t Google or do any research.
Matt Taibbi on the Topic
The media business keeps trying to ruin Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog, and they keep prospering. On the loony Substack controversy, and the paradox of moral panic in media.
Matt Taibbi
I'm a fan of Substack - but it looks like they might be hitting some issues as they rush to attract famous writers to the platform - and paying them. On the outside it looks good that famous writers use you - but if you are paying them - and not discllosing that - we have an issue.
Beyond that, to pay someone means that you are choosing not to pay someone else - at which point you are becoming a publisher - not a platform and thus arguably support/agree with those writers words and opinions.
Over on the podcast and in the newsletter - oh and in the People First network, I have been ruminating about remote work.
Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash Specifically about work visas and wondering where work is done and once you know where it is done - then - do you need a work visa?
Quick example. You LIVE in P0rtugal. You connect to servers in the US. You are paid in London.
I'm kind of over people complaining about how LinkedIN sucks because ... or Facebook users are ... or Instagram Photos are .... Social Media channels are like TV channels. If you don’t like them you can ignore them or even delete them.
Just do that. Why fill my feed with your rubbish.
In fact you can refine your feed even further ... block, remove, delete the people that offend you. It is much easiermassively more effectiveway quicker than writing a screed on why you feel so upset.
Photo by AR on Unsplash I promise, Manton, Daniel and I did not coordinate this - I think sometimes synchronicity just happens.
In last weeks newsletter I asked the question
"Why Do You Work?"
A reply post will be available this Saturday.
There have been some great answers, but that is not the reason for this post.
Manton Reece - the brain behind Micro Blog 1 and Daniel Jalkut - the brain behind Red Sweater 2 have a weekly podcast called Core Intuition.
For decades, the business world has embraced worker empowerment. But recently a countermovement—workforce optimization—has been on the rise. It treats labor as a commodity and seeks to cut it to a minimum by using automation and artificial intelligence, tightly controlling how people do their jobs, and replacing employees with contractors. This approach is especially prevalent in the tech sector and the gig economy. And it is cause for deep concern.
”I thought back to the day I decided to go to law school. It was a warm spring day. May 4, 1970. I was a freshman at Oberlin College. A few days earlier, President Richard Nixon had expanded the Vietnam War by invading Cambodia. Antiwar college protests erupted throughout the country.
About 1 p.m. in the afternoon, the news hit us in the gut as we huddled around TVs and radios on our sheltered college campus.
Or as Cal puts it …
"Slack is the Right Tool for the Wrong Way to Work."
”The future of office work won’t be found in continuing to reduce the friction involved in messaging but, instead, in figuring out how to avoid the need to send so many messages in the first place.”
Cal Newport Cal nails the problem I have with Slack that I have never managed to nail down.
People ... Process and THEN Technology ... but as usual the world at large is ignoring the advice - and jumping straight into an app without much thought ... let me explain.
If you are a celeb - you can get in.
Photo by kilarov zaneit on Unsplash
If you are one of the masses ... we have a wait line for you ... once you have downloaded our app and given us your telephone number .
A response to a recent newsletter. Specifically one where I explored Work Location. (You might want to click in and have a read to get the context.)
Sometimes people have a lot to say, but they don’t join into the dialogue - nor even make comments. I get it. I really do. Another post from an anonymous reader, this time answering something I wrote in a newsletter and again - reproduced with permission from the original writer.
As a reader of this blog and newsletter or as a listener of my podcast - you know that I am a keen supporter of the broad category of ‘creative professional’ - and specifically ‘musician’. What follows are not my words, but those of a musician that wrote to me recently. Reproduced with their permission and names and venues changed/anonymized to ‘protect the vulnerable’.
I just got my first real paying gig since March 17 for Saturday December 26th.
Why employee surveys, like political polls, are misleading.
They should have called me!
The War For Digital Nomads Heats Up As Greece Passes New Tax Law
Another Gaping Void nails it. Full piece here, though they don’t use the phrase 'business bifurcation'.
For a long time, it has been clear that business is bifurcating. The two models are either;
the 'pile-em-high-and-sell-em-cheap' model to borrow from Tesco's Jack Cohen's business strategythe 'totally-high-end-special-and-niche' model - think $20 dollar pints of beer, $300 bottles of wine, handcrafted artisan wafers ... Gaping Void's piece brings you right up to date with stories form Saville Row - a set of businesses you might expect to fail in thelight of (say) Brookes Brothers collapse.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the source of this piece on The Future of Work. I don’t disagree with the headline, but the article itself falls short of providing solace. In fact it falls short of being an article - but that's another story.
An altogether disappointing piece that ends ... “I really come away from this concerned about the direction [of work], but optimistic about our ability to change it.
Photo by Jeremy Enns on Unsplash Part 2 of my conversation with Cristina DiGiacomo, M.S. goes live at 5 am Pacific Standard Time on Monday 23rd. You are going to love it. Hell, we loved it so much that when we finished - we just kept going - you'll see what I mean.
Part One - if you want to catch up first.
And it's not as if there is a theme going here BUT - later on in the week, part 1 of my conversation with Tim Walters Ph.
Absolutely Nothing! Say it again.
Simon Sinek talking about what game theory teaches us about war.
[www.youtube.com/watch]([www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bFs6ZiynSU)&t=10s) Maybe why we no longer win wars? Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me. More about People First Other People First Posts (not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.
It's an old one that I rediscovered in the archives. Time to publish.
[www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCEDUiqfO-w) Killing Them Softly: America is not a country, it's just a Business It just seemed right, timely and very 'People Firsty'.
.
🚧 Brought to my attention by Stuart Robbins, who went on to write ....
It is known as the Knoster Model for Complex Behavioral Change (circa 2000). For those who would like to know more, search for Timothy Knoster. In sum, Knoster identifies the 5 key elements needed for any Change Management initiative to be successful, and the relative symptoms caused if/when one element is missing.
Stuart Robbins
Interesting. I went of looking further and found an even better image (see below) that adds context to the steps and happy smiling emojis that reflect the expected feelings!
[youtu.be/N7oz366X0...](https://youtu.be/N7oz366X0-8) Dave Snowden introduces The Cynefin Framework I first referenced the Cynefin Framework and published this link on my old Beyond Bridges - now decommissioned - site on June 18th - 2017. Needless to say, though the site is going away, the articles are already archived and dropped safely on my 'words site'
It seemed important, right and relevant to reference it here as I build the archives of frameworks and models relevant to People First.
Today, we have the skills and technologies to listen to the universe. But often we don't listen to the people around us.
Jim Macnamara, Organizational Listening Listen. I'm gonna tell you a story.
Max Bygraves I had the privilege to sit in and watch (and listen) to a presentation this past week. Can't say too much (Chatham House Rule (sic) and all that), but if I were to tell you that I hauled my ass out of bed at 4:30 am to listen live - even though I could have watched the recording later - maybe that will provide you with the import I laid on this talk.
Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash Of course it is. But the bigger question is what is your purpose?
Imagine my delight to stumble across this Ted Talk ... 'How to know your life's purpose in 5 minutes.' Finally!
Adam sets the scene pretty quickly. You just need to ask yourself 5 questions and 'Bob's your Uncle'.
5 Questions To Answer Your Purpose who you werewhat do you dowho do they do it forwhat those people want or needwhat they get out of it - how they changed as a result Simple.
[www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TfwRRJTF1o) As we move computing power to the edge, this talk resonates even more. Two - that's two conversations just yesterday that I had where we talked about bringing the power of computing to your pocket.
Think about it - we glibly talk about the 'supercomputer in our pocket' - and we use it to 'like' Facebook posts, send messages and whatever else it is you do - but hardly supercomputer activity.
I came across the Pet Shop Boys track 'What Are We Going To Do About The Rich? It seemed to be very People Firsty in nature.
[youtu.be/CHMk9WdoF...](https://youtu.be/CHMk9WdoFHg) Apart from the recurring refrain "What are we gonna do about the rich?" we do have other words;
They say democracy is simply very bad for business
While deploring student protests in the middle of Hong Kong
They insist that people have to work on zero contracts everywhere
Wouldn't you know that one of the first real blog posts to go live on the newly revamped People First Blog is really not my work at all - but rather that of 'People First Friend and Member' ... Jeff Mowatt.
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash So what does business that puts people first actually mean in practice?
People-Centered Economic Development derives from a paper for the steering group for the Committee to (Re)Elect the President, describing a business model which operates for social benefit rather than maximising shareholder returns.
After a few decades stumbling around the topic, two things became clear.
- You have to change the way business thinks if you want to change how it works.
- If businesses change how they work they can change how their audiences think.
John Caswell - over on linkedIN I had to reply - of course, and I did, but it felt substantial enough to include here - flip though the first sentence was.
It's arguably too true to be funny, but not why I am sharing. Rather because in the accompanying post (here), reference is made to a post by Ribbon Farm's Venkatesh Rao. (This post specifically.)
The Gervais Principle (I wonder where he got that name from) also introduces us to The MacLeod Life Cycle, which seems to be very closely modelled on Sakar's life cycle.
You see - it is all connected.
The harder I work, the sooner I get to be king! the harder he works, the longer I get to be king! Chess is a metaphor. It is a complex game of strategy and execution. The game provides a useful mental model for the complex world of organizations. Are you a Knight, Rook, or Queen? Do you need to move straight in or tack to achieve the successful delivery of your project?
A friend of mine sent this link to me. I was incensed. (I think he knew I would be). In turn, I sent this link into an Internet Identity community I belong to and asked : "How many different ways is this wrong?"
Amazon To Pay Consumers For Their Shopping Data
Photo by Free ToUse Sounds on Unsplash People First Podcast Guest Tim Walters was quick to reply (the link takes you to the podcast - the show has not yet gone live).
More of a status check than information, but it kind of makes sense to record here - and periodically update.
People First has 9 domains that get used for different initiatives. 'Broadcast' Sites Newsletter @ PeopleFirst.news Read and Subscribe ✅
Podcasts @ PeopleFirst.fm Take A Listen ✅
Blog @ PeopleFirst.vision Have A Read ✅
Subscribe To The RSS ✅
Network @ PeopleFirst.network Join the People First Network
Business @ PeopleFirst.
Community mind you ... not Network - is a yet to be developed space/application that will serve to provide a fabric that wraps so many people, organizations, books, papers, applications etc. My observation is that in any initiative you find parallel organizations that seem to relate and compete and yet essentially are discussing the same topic. Think 'not-for-profits' fighting each other for the same funding to solve the same problem.
Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash Some Useful Tips To Navigate The Articles The RSS feed is here.
Article Navigation Like any good WordPress blog, searching by category is of course possible. We have also work hard to only have a single category per article. We then refine the indexing of the article with free form tags.
We have also introduced a second layer of article - which is 'post type' .
People First has been a winding journey for the last four years. Most recently, I find it has been coming together in my mind very clearly and with that clarity I have been encouraged to talk about what is going on in a more open manner. The interesting thing is that as I have become more open about what I am doing, more questions are being asked.
Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash A year ago, asking someone to sign up for the newsletter resulted in them either signing up for the newsletter - or not.
Though it might well be political. Scene From Us+Them, A Film By Roger Waters I am writing this post, which is extracted from an email I had cause to write this week when someone questioned a stance I had taken in a newsletter that Pink Floyd was a punk band.
I know - right?
To quote the writer ...
"And Pink Floyd a punk band, WTF!!???)"
an email correspondent I often take a contrary stance on things to elicit a response.
What Drives Us?. Mazlow, Herzberg, and Levi Strauss
StoweBoyd Interesting read, questioning the relevance of Maslow in this new century. I think he is onto something.
CX in the age of privacy and trust, part 3: Can we rebuild trust?
Tim Walters Fits nicely into something I read recently from Union Square Ventures .... Trust is offence (trust gaps create opportunities for startups) as well as defence (trust is a moat).
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash Soft skills ... wooly, fluffy, comfortable ... not like ' real, hard, proper skills are they?
Soft skills, bendy, malleable, unmeasurable ... nothing like ' real, hard, proper skills ...
.. and yet I often talk about vocabulary and language .... here's another one ... because if you list all the skills that people are highlighting as important in the future - it's close identical to the soft skill list.
Photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash I was really taken by these words that came in an email from one of my newsletter readers. Capturing it for posterity ... because it is important.
Character may be something you are born with and largely in place by age 5 but surely it is something that is developed and refined in many ways through a thousand experiences in both good and bad directions.
First, there are many possible futures - it is not yet clear what the future is, so we should be asking what is ...
A Future of Work? Second, what the hell is ‘work’ - why do we care about it?
If you ask most people if all their creature comforts were taken care of - would they continue to do what they are doing? More than likely they will answer ’no’ - the question then is what is .
Technology is one of the eight pillars of People First ... with a single, solitary 'stone’, a mighty 'Sarsen' reaching to the sky that is that pillar.
Technology ... OMG ... Technology
OwnedManagedGoverned ... not by you - by others.
tomcritchlow.com/2020/07/2…
Is it really a dimension if you can't travel in the opposite direction?
The Persistence of Memory - 1931
Sometimes we get so caught up in working out how to communicate across national boundaries, we forget that we can barely communicate within them. That’s why language is one of the eight tenets of People First.
Our language slowly became invested with mechanical metaphors: We needed to grease the wheels, crank up the business, dig deeper, or turn a company into a well-oiled machine. Even everyday phrases, such as “fueling up” for eating lunch or “he has a screw loose” for thinking illogically, conveyed the acceptance of humans as mechanical devices.
Douglas Rushkoff
Iguassu Falls, Brazil/Argentina
In fairness, the full title was
How The Future Works:
Why your ultimate job is to be HUMAN.
Well yes. Couldn't agree more ... but that opening line - that suggests that it is all pre destined. This ... is how .... it is ... going to work ... Surely the Future hasn't yet been decided?
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes A Great Notion
Golconde is a synonym for 'mine of wealth'.
[Under Cover of Mass Death, Andrew Cuomo Calls in the Billionaires to Build a High-Tech Dystopia](https theintercept.com 2020 05 08 andrew-cuomo-eric-schmidt-coronavirus-tech-shock-doctrine) … including Eric from Google (who has now left)
Google owns Sidewalk who were doing something similar in Toronto … but, well that was cancelled just two days ago
So, now what? Oh this;
“The tech companies to which Schmidt has deep ties, and which populate the influential advisory boards he chairs, have all repositioned themselves as benevolent protectors of public health and munificent champions of “everyday hero” essential workers (many of whom, like delivery drivers, would lose their jobs if these companies get their way).
It used to be Wall Street and Main Street.
Now it's Wall Street versus Main Street.
When you read all the analysis, what can I add, other than connecting the articles to a story that highlights the challenges society faces through this pandemic. The stories are new, the underlying themes are not. I have been talking about them for a couple of years. What is new is that they are getting broader attention. Amplification.
Now we need to do something about it. Before we fall back into the ‘normal’. Or worse - accept a ‘new’ normal, because that is ‘just the way it is’.
As always the numbers won’t be exactly right.
Total cases in CA : 53,611
Fully 46% of those are in LA County.
In fact 66% of all CA cases are in the top 4 counties in CA - SOCAL specifically and have 72% of all CA deaths.
In NORCAL; San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Cruz account for just 14% of all CA cases.
You could be forgiven for thinking that all of the world's problems that were top of our collective mind as we celebrated the closing of 2019 are now solved.
I got my skills very early in life and never looked back. A lot of people in my line of work are ex-military, but I was trained and worked as a civilian all of my life. It's funny when I was at school all the advice I got was about getting a ‘good’ job with a ‘reputable company’. What they meant was ‘large’.
"A masterful demonstration of symmetrical opposites."
These three stories provide context to the People First Newsletter that was published on Tuesday April 21st
Mining Coin Through Your Bodies Activity 🔗 Microsoft Files Patent For New Cryptocurrency and Mining System
Body activity data may be generated based on the sensed body activity of the user. A cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the device of the user may verify whether or not the body activity data satisfies one or more conditions set by the cryptocurrency system, and award cryptocurrency to the user whose body activity data is verified.
Now 'Physical Distancing', That's Different. Definitely Do That.
Trump retweeted a post calling for Dr. Fauci to be fired after the nation’s top infectious disease specialist said more could have been done to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The White House, meanwhile, denied that Trump is considering firing Dr. Fauci, calling Trump’s own retweet – that said “Time to #FireFauci” – just “ridiculous” “media chatter.”
Trump, meanwhile, spent the weekend calling people close to him and asking them, “What do you think of Fauci?
But It Is Still A Frontline.
What Is It?
Read All About It.
They Sometimes Take Time.
I asked a question about this image in this newsletter.
The Boulevard du Temple photograph of 1838 (or possibly 1839) is one of the earliest daguerreotype plates produced by Louis Daguerre. Although the image seems to be of a deserted street, it is widely considered to be the first photograph to include an image of people. (Wikipedia) More to come, but to recognize here that it was a stretch ... First Person ... People First!
People First! Why would it be any different? Why People First? It’s a question that I am often asked. Why not? If not people, then what should be first?
🔗 Read The Whole Article.
The questions being asked by mainstream media are primarily about how markets and business will recover - few ask how people will recover.
💬 John Philpin
There's A Perfect Storm On The Horizon
We need to stop it.
“We’re waiting on specs for the San Francisco installation. Can you parallel-path two versions?”
Good grief ... I think Molly Young is channelling me. ... at the very bottom, customer service. Which, by the way, has been rechristened “customer support” or “customer experience” at most companies — as though the word service might remind the college graduates recruited for these roles that they will in fact spend their days pacifying irritable consumers over phone, chat, text, and email.
This popped into a thread that I am part of ...
[www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63)&v=z-_ARP8m4Fg&feature=emb_logo Yeshimabeit Milner A thread that caused 'Friend of People First' - Adrian Gropper to write;
A talk that argues that most of the big data is being used to screw us and mentions data trusts as a possible solution. Data trusts are an immature concept but worth considering because it's one approach to decentralizing governance. Until we figure out data governance principles that are transparent and contextual to specific communities we should limit data aggregation by default and focus on personal agents and other fiduciaries.
[youtu.be/2ITif1OBV...](https://youtu.be/2ITif1OBVX8) I think that is the opportunity and in five years time we'll know whether we got the mega-corporations holding my identity or whether we managed to take it back.
Ian Grigg - October 2015. The five years are just about up and I think if the 'megacorps' have not won - they are about to. Is it too late?
Three years ago he wrote: Identity is an edge protocol, and not a nodal protocol.
Imagine, turning around to a lawyer, an accountant, a doctor and telling them that they weren't going to be paid.
Dear Lawyer
I listened to your advice - but I am not going to use it - so I don’t owe you. Wrote no one ever. So why does that happen to designers, creators, writers et al?
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain.
Data Is Energy!
Technology!
O.M.G. Technology! We live in the thrall of technology. ‘Shiny Things’, that deliver 'squirrel’ interruptions into our daily lives. Nothing wrong with that, with all the usual caveats that we read about. BUT … Read The Whole Article. “ OMG - Technology … all
Owned
Managed and
Governed
Not by you - but by the very companies that 'sold' you the ‘bill of goods’ to begin with. ”
Reflecting On/Of Pillars I have been reflecting on the pillars of People First. Each pillar has at least one reflection that throws new light on something we might have thought we understood, but on reflection we might conclude that 'common wisdom' should be questioned.
Reflections of any subject aren't exactly true to the original. Sometimes distorted. Occasionally murky. Always the opposite of what we perceive as reality. Yet they are valid representations of reality.
To know the reflection is to understand the subject.
The New York Times : Yellow or Blue? In Hong Kong, Businesses Choose Political Sides on the 19th January contains this quote ...
Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe Beijing must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying Hong Kong’s reputation as a stable financial capital.
I thought of the UK and the US .
“They come for three months - they stay for four years - and I welcome that. That’s how we learn. They see us up close and personal and we see them. A lot of countries that they come from have very different governments, with different rules. We get to learn about each without the filter of what they are told. I wouldn’t say that when they leave we fully understand each other’s cultures, but we are surely better off than we would have been if we hadn't.
Are we winning? Well a whole lot more than we might have been pre-internet. Ad blockers are used by some 25% of internet users in 2019. In real terms, this means that 25% of internet advertising that uses trackers will not reach their intended audience. (It’s quite a bit more complicated than that, but the point is that somehow the word got out that people were being tracked and it was those pesky Ads doing all the tracking - enter Adblocking and so an industry was born and an ‘arms race’ ensued.
If you are old enough, you will remember that the French Government blew up a boat belonging to Greenpeace in the Auckland harbor, New Zealand. (If you aren’t old enough - trust me - this is not a movie - this is history.) That was 35 years ago - 14 years after Greenpeace was founded to protest the detonation of a nuclear bomb. Since the early 90s Greenpeace has had a broader goal that puts Climate Change front and centre. They are but one organization fighting that particular battle.
AIDA is a marketing model that is well over 100 years old. It has gone through countless iterations, twists and turns. It has been cast out - only to reappear with different words. More stages. Less stages. The ‘Young Turks’ who run today’s corporate marketing department will be using some version of the AIDA model. It is a simple, timeless truth that goes something like this:
... Long Live Capitalism.
Here’s a snippet from a long-form interview of Yvon Chouinard in Fast Company.
Question : In the past, you consulted with folks at large companies, such as Walmart, and came away not so convinced of their actual ability to pursue sustainability. If we’re looking to create a better version of capitalism, what do you think should be done with publicly traded companies?
Over here I share a lot of Gaping Void's work. Hugh Macleod more often than not nails it. But this one needed a comment.
Boom! That’s the way it works, for anyone in the innovation or creative business. History decides what is 'art', history decides what is 'important' ...
Meanwhile, you’re just doing your job, you’re just showing up, trying to be a pro, you’re just trying to be a grownup, you’re just trying to get paid.
Hugh Mcleod - Gaping Void
Whilst I don’t disagree that 'history' decides what is important - Hugh of all people knows that 'history' is not neutral. An example would be that 'History' for the longest time did not recognize art that came from (say) Africa, because we 'superior' Westerners were writing off thousands and thousands of years of 'art' - because it didn't fit into our Western sensibilities and so classified the art into Natural History Museums.
In a recent newsletter, I referenced a book; Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the Grateful Dead which unbeknownst to me was written by a friend of a friend. Turns out the two friends used to swap Grateful Dead stories and on reading my post this story came to mind. When I read the story, it seemed a perfect addition to my Travels Without Charley series - so please read on and enjoy the first 'guest post' in the series.
One favourite was about a concerned father and his 16 year old son.
"Me? I'm from England ... you’ve heard of the 'Garden of England'?“
“I have - Kent right?”
“That’s the one - and every garden needs a compost heap - that’s the town I'm from, so my girlfriend and I sold everything we had, bought a couple of tickets and here we are.”
I discovered the three words process only last year from Chris Brogan. It worked nicely for 2019, so I repeated the exercise for 2020. Since publishing the three words in my annual new year newsletter, a number of people have asked questions;
- where did the idea come from?
- what are the rules?
- can you tell me more about the process?
- is it ok to have four words?
etc etc
So first - not my idea. I got it from Chris Brogan - but I don’t think he started it. To fill in some gaps - this is what Chris has to say.
As I was publishing this post from John Maloney, I thought I would look up the word gig ... it makes for an interesting read.
The following post comes courtesy of John T. Maloney, who sent me an email reply to one of my newsletters and it just was too good not to share. Thankyou John. Nicely delivered.
The 'gig economy' is dopey. Always had a problem w/the term.
For me, a gig is a trident tip spear used for gigging. Period.
Growing up in rural and coastal Connecticut, from April to November, gigging was a principal pastime. We'd go after anything gigable, but mostly bullfrogs and flounder. It was very effective.
Doc Searls, Godfather of The VRM/Me2B Movement observed recently that he writes on 4 (what amount to) personal blogs ... which made me feel a lot better about myself. In that same post he wrote;
Bigger than all four of those blogs is Linux Journal, where I wrote a great deal, including what amounted to blog posts on its website, for 25 years. That ended when Linux Journal ceased business in August.
Counting both noun and verb forms, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists and defines thirteen separate ‘gigs’.
‘A flighty, giddy girl’ was where it all started and then ‘spin’, ‘whirl’, ‘whirligig’, ‘fool’, giggle and ‘joke’ are all in one way or associated with the word. Even when you get up to the 18th century where it meant ‘light one-horse carriage’, its origin might be ..
perhaps based on the ‘bouncing, whirling’ sense of the earlier ‘gig’.
[ Image by John Hain from Pixabay ] Delighted to report that this one - FINALLY - hit a chord. Not just a small chord - put a very large sonorous one. Ok - some of the chords were - well - dischordant ... if you will pardon the extension of the musical metaphor. But really - isn't that what it is all about. Dialogue! It's just great to see responses. it means people are really reading and taking things to heart.
Human 2 Human - photo credit - Doc Searls Human-IT, Human 2 Human, Team Human, Stay Human ... they are all connected and all came up in the last few days
Read More
[youtu.be/OQSMr-3GG...](https://youtu.be/OQSMr-3GGvQ)
What Is Data - A People First ebook Not the ones you eat.
Not the ones you go on.
The ones you try to plan your life around,.
Read More
I wrote this over three years ago about We Work - and they have been high on my list of ‘FTW - you gotta be kidding' posts since along with my old buddies Uber, Theranos and yet to be confirmed
Of course the ‘metaphorical’ hit the ‘rotating blades’ this past week and all kinds of words from Monday morning quarter backs are popping up through the woodwork.
I posted this yesterday linking to a couple of posts from people that have also been calling BS for a while.
Exploring 'Data' in the context of 'The People First Business Equation'.
Read More
Nick Hanauer - Rebel VC? A Ted Talk from Nick Hanauer - rebel VC ... if that isn't an oxymoron!
Interesting that he concludes his talk with 5 rules of thumb behind 'the new economics' that answers the question. Interesting because all 5 are some of the building bricks (tenets) of the Pillars of the People First Business Equation.
Read More
Just a test really. So far so good.
Guernica - Picasso - 1937 Did John Lyndon Hate The Floyd?
Is Pink Floyd a punk band?
Are people really surprised when Roger Waters delivers protest?
Why is the film not Called 'Us and Them'?
All this and more in this week's newsletter.
Read More
Not much more to say ... sometime we just have to .... stop.
Read More
We have a steady stream of images that are being pushed into Instagram - like these.
One Word Art
'Real Stories | Real People' is a new occasional series that will start to appear on this blog in the not too distant future. But that's not the point of the newsletter. The point was first to share the story of Richard Montañez.
The second was to ask you to think about success. What is it. And more importantly - is it uner your control. It isn't as clear cut as you might think.
Sometimes the task in front of me seems to be so large and never
I wouldn't normally link to something like this - at least not on this blog - but this morning I also happened to catch Rob Long's Martini Shot Podcast ... a 'shot' in the arm over a few minutes. It's the one dated August 21st that I want you to listen to. Sage advice and not far off from what I was writing about in this week's newsletter and then seeing this ... well 'put up or shut up' as they say.
At Booming Toptal, No Stock for Employees or Investors
I mean none - 100% owned by Taso Du Val and I assume none by all the rest on this page.
As Toptal’s Chief Executive Officer, Taso manages Toptal’s core team of hundreds of team members distributed throughout the world, with a focus on innovation. Since Toptal was founded in 2010, Taso has led it to become the largest high-skilled, on-demand talent network in the world. Taso serves on the board of multiple organizations, advising on talent strategy and innovation for Fortune 100s and nonprofits. Taso has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, Wharton, and Oxford on talent management and entrepreneurship.
Toptal's Web Site
Anyway, what he does and how he runs his business is - well - his business. But it got me to wondering ... what he is advising those other companies to do when it comes to employee engagement? Employee motivation?
From where I sit, these words resonate;
It a little more political than the usual People First fayre - but the fact is everything ... everything ... is becoming political in these times. So, why not.
It’s easy enough to carry a Legal and General umbrella in a sea of ‘bankers black umbrellas’, it’s a very different proposition to take a more meaningful stand against the status quo. Read More
Leading US bosses drop shareholder-first principle.
As the article opens ...
"The real test will be in deeds not words."
Have to say until action - and I mean real action - this jury is out!
Read the opinion by Larry Elliott in The Guardian
Watching. I don’t think People First has won just yet!
I have a schedule of material that I am working on, but what would you like to read about next? What drives you to read this weekly missive? What topics are you most interested in reading about. Learning about?
The Full Post
Content is a horrible, generic, cheap, ‘anything will do’ kind of word. Which is why it has no value.
STOP using their words to describe OUR work. OUR soul. OUR beliefs. Our passion. OUR effort.
START using our words to describe OUR work. OUR soul. OUR beliefs. Our passion. OUR effort.
The Recap
Needless to say those three words grabbed my attention immediately. And then when he said ...
The culture of schooling is radically at odds with the culture of learning that produces innovators.
Tony Wagner I was hooked.
[youtu.be/hvDjh4l-V...](https://youtu.be/hvDjh4l-VHo) Very good Ted Talk - just one gripe ...
He just about opens the talk with I came to understand, that there's a set of core competencies every young person must be well on their way to mastery before he or she finished high school.
Though this Newsletter has been around intermittently for a few years now, I only harnessed it as a vehicle to share People First thinking in May of this year, Issue One going out on May 31st. Since the launch in May, readership has been steadily growing and judging by the emails received I have hit some nerves with some of the pieces. Definitely a good time to take stock and recap where we have got to.
Albert-László Barabási Alberto Laszlo Barabasi @ LinkedIN
Alberto is a pioneer in network science, Albert-László Barabási uncovers the hidden order behind complex systems.
My Thoughts Excellent summary of how what we just assume to be the truth is bunkum. This applied to our assumptions about age. Bottom line - you are never too old Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain.
Roy Bahat and Bryn Freedman
Let me know what you think in the comments.
As I finished this short post, I headed out to the 'google-web-net' to see if I could find a suitable and representative image. I was failing unitl I focussed on 'Redux'. The images associated with Redux are highly Redux oriented, with a high degree of focus on their logo. What you might expect, given the name - but this is not about what they do. So I kept looking and discovered this.
It's as if Karin Edgett read my mind. The image was perfect and the words so in tune with my thoughts, that I couldn't resist.
My entry 'let go of everything or anything and breathe' is part of a series of paintings and haiku exploring infinity in it's transformative sense.
Karin Edgett
Back On Topic
Interesting to read this post from Doc Searls today - which also happens to be his birthday.
I have had versions of this article on a number of different blogs and publications for years. The time has come to formalize it, since content, its ownership and how we think about it, is central to the principles of People First.
A recent question from someone in one of my many groups ...
"Why is it so difficult to find a freelance writing gig?
My reply ...
To be strictly accurate - we should be talking about Blocking Trackers
... I came across this article (note if you are using an 'ad blocker' ... then guess what - they tell you that you have an 'ad blocker' on .... actually I don't use an 'ad blocker' - I use a 'tracking blocker'.
That aside, I thought I would extract some pertinent quotes from the piece and add my comments. The piece appeared in Adage and was written by Jason Jercinovic - and so all the quotes below I attribute to him.
Havas is a pretty good agency that has produced some great campaigns for Air New Zealand, Global Mental Health and Canal+ - so I kind of feel that they (should at least) know what they are doing. I'll go further. They do - but it is clear that they remain bought into the narrative of 'poor us - we have to do this [efn_note]Use Ad Trackers[/efn_note] for it to work'. They don't.
So - let's get too it ...
and no one can blame the advertising industry for rapidly adopting them.
I can!
I’m very much a Darwinian. This means I must ask myself questions like ‘How come all surviving cultures until modern time have been based on religion?’ and I draw the conclusion that religion has somehow helped people and civilizations to survive.
In the same way I ask ‘how come all sexually reproducing forms of life age (unlike e.g. amoebas, or yeast)?’ and its the same conclusion - in different words now: ‘if there has ever been a sexually reproducing species that did not age, they have not survived to tell the story’.
Celebrating my 4 part series on data, it is designed to be;
“Non-technical, hopefully fun, definitely not definitive and absolutely a work in progress.”
John Philpin
Because if you don’t understand what it is and how it is being used against you, then you are in for a shock …
[caption id=“attachment_5443” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]
Nobody told The Vogues to retire.[/caption]
Up every morning just to keep a job,
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob,
Sounds of the city pounding in my brain,
While another day goes down the drain (Yeah, yeah, yeah).
but it’s a five o’clock world when the whistle blows,
No-one owns a piece of my time,
And there’s a five o’clock me inside my clothes,
Thinking that the world looks fine, yeah,
Sadly, this wasn’t what I thought this was going to be about.
A Study of More Than 250 Platforms Reveals Why Most Fail
"Platforms have become one of the most important business models of the 21st century. Five of the six most valuable firms in the world are built around these types of platforms. However, a study of 252 platform companies showed that 209 of them failed. The most common mistakes into four categories:
(1) mispricing on one side of the market,
(2) failure to develop trust with users and partners,
(3) prematurely dismissing the competition, and
(4) entering too late.
Researchers have extensively studied pricing decisions, yet managers still get them wrong. A platform often requires underwriting one side of the market to encourage the other side to participate. But knowing which side should get charged and which side should get subsidized may be the single most important strategic decision for any platform."
Kyle Westaway
Interesting what each of us takes away when we read articles. The quote above is from Kyle Westaway - and indeed nothing wrong with his takeaway. But there is more - and even the HBR article doesn’t really get down to it.
Trading my time for the pay I get (up!)
Living on money that I ain't made yet (up!)
Gotta keep goin' gotta make my way (up!) But I live for the end of the day (up!)
The Vogues Written in 1965 - and nothing has changed. This newsletter introduced you to the 4P model of People First ... Pay, Purpose, Play and Passion.
With a more open, enlightened recruiting process there is so much more that people could do in any company if they were given the chance.
Strategies for Resistance. A visual documentary of subvertising, an essay against the ad-man. Excuse the language - but that is the name of the book. The link takes you to their kick-starter.
Funny. Been thinking of doing a kick starter for my book, but I am too busy writing to spend another chunk of time thinking about what the campaign would look like.
Needless to say I have done my pledge - it is such a People First topic that I couldn't resist and as an extra message, the campaign deadline is my birthday.
Ashton Applewhite - Let's End Ageism - A Ted Talk
ReleasedAugust 23, 2017 [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfjzkO6_DEI) Lot's more to say on this, and will. Some of the points I touched on in Tuesday's Newsletter.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.
“Look at gender. We used to think of it as a binary, male or female, and now we understand it's a spectrum. It is high time to ditch the old-young binary, too.”
Ashton Applewhite Says it all really. Ageism is alive and well. In fact the same day, Paul Krugman wrote a piece on the job market that I totally disagreed with - so of course I had to write something.
Paul Krugman writing in the NYT today.
There was a message in the latest jobs report that is consistent with what these reports have been telling us for at least the past year or two. Namely, the workers are alright.
Paul Krugman
Well who am I to disagree with Paul Krugman?
John Philpin - that's who. And I completely disagree.
As always, its what's not being said that matters. The elephant [efn_note]elephants?[/efn_note] in the room cannot be ignored, and I am disappointed that someone like Krugman should waste his time on this kind of 'opinion'. Yes, we have 'great' employment figures. But that’s because as usual, we measure and comment on the wrong things. 'Everybody' having a job is not the point (if a large chunk of the workforce is excluded from the count of 'everybody'). It is everybody (not just 25 to 54-year-olds) having one job, that is paid fairly, so doesn’t need to work a second job to make ends meet. That is what we should be looking at.
Startups are now offering people “passive income” for their personal data. These companies claim to empower consumers to profit from personal data. But actually, they entrench an attention economy where cash-strapped consumers trade personal privacy for quick cash — much like the plasma-for-cash biz. Data exchanges broker the sale of personal data between the people who generate it and the large companies hungry for it. One, Streamr, connects real-time personal data with companies via subscription.
"No one ever conceived of a more sophisticated and dynamic philosophical history than Hegel. His system is built around three fundamental ideas."
Sam Haselby In summary ... First, the key to human agency is self-consciousness. For people to be doing anything in any real human sense is to know what we are doing as we do it.
Secondly, self-consciousness is always a matter of locating ourselves in a kind of social space of ‘I’ and ‘we’.
More of a record to self than something to overly concern you, but nonetheless potentially useful. As People First continues to further establish itself, we are 'upping the ante' on our online presence.
First, we are moving the site away from the blog centric feel it has had for a while now to more of a functional site. Most content not in place, yet, but there are plenty of pointers and 'eye candy' in the galleries.
”I am moving more of my long-form writing to Medium, and placing it behind the paywall there. I have a considerable following there, and I find Medium’s social affordances the best anywhere. I still like certain aspects of Tumblr, but my time there is coming to an end, I think, at least for long form.”
Stowe Boyd
.. who IMHO is moving from one problem to another.
Moby and The Void Pacific Choir - 'In This Cold Place - With animation by Steve Cutts.
ReleasedJune 19, 2017 [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmi-MtP969M) A second video that hits you to the bone.
Moby and The Void Pacific Choir - 'Are You Lost In The World Like Me'? With animation by Steve Cutts.
ReleasedOctober 18, 2016 [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VASywEuqFd8) Its a couple of years since this was released - but still relevant today - and definitely relevant to People First, so capturing it in the archives.
Our sixth newsletter explores the value of a person to a corporation.
In understanding how organizations search for ‘talent’ these days, candidates know that their first two or three hurdles will have nothing to do with people and everything to do with machines and as a result valuable time is spent in tuning their resume and cover letter with SEO like terms, so that they bubble to the top.
... a building block of Language, one of the Tenets of People First. We are developing and sharing a new vocabulary that continues to evolve in the course of conversation between People First, its customers, partners and members..
We use this vocabulary to shift the topics and change the conversation about how we put People First in the work we do and the way we live.
THEN AND NOW The Future of Work The Present Of Work Work Life Balance Pay Purpose Play Gig Economy Portfolio Lifestyle Customer Experience Employee Experience Talent Acquisition Working with People CRM VRM B2B Me2B Competition Cooperation Me Us Exclusive Inclusive Hierarchical Networked Tightly Managed Loosely Coupled Winner Takes All Winner Contributes Tomorrow Today Continual Change Continuous Change Corporations People
There's some fucking guy, scientist or something. Real sick bastard. Says he measured out the remains, the cremated remains of a dead man. Measured out the, uh, minerals left behind, you know? The iron phosphates, the ... whatever it is we're made up of. Says he added it all up to the cost of $4.40. $4.40. Burnt down man's worth less than a fucking Big Mac.
Michael Grey played by Liam Cunningham in The Numbers Station I caught The Numbers Station over the weekend, and that is the opening dialogue.
I just read this and decided to drop in a few People First tenets to remind us all .... the problem Kevin raises is not easily fixed - it is a systemic view of how people are seen by business.
Bunker19
No, not Cyndi ... Neil.
They say that life imitates art. In this particular case I would argue art is imitating life.
When the working day is through
And you're waiting in the rain
For another overdue
Overcrowded railway train
And the movie poster screams
"It's the best film ever seen!"
But it's all a different world
To which you have never been
And you're bored out of your mind
I have a problem with ‘Corporate Speak’. Putting aside how ‘we the people’ seem to adopt corporate speak as part of our conversation - how else does ‘content’ become part of our day to day vocabulary? (Although that is an entirely different topic.)
Here’s the thing … the same organisations that use phrases like;
‘Share of Wallet’
‘Attacking and Targeting a Market’ (that’s you and me folks) and breaking down those
"In Italy I was a photographer. In Rome."
“A pretty place to photograph.”
"Well, not so much, my job was a police photographer. When someone died, I took the photographs. I was very busy. Ten years .. every day … click click click … more death. Depressing. Soul ‘killing’’. I couldn’t make a life out of death."
So different city, different country, different job?
"Yes. But same girl!"
"She said to me one day that she is coming here.
When Henry Blodget writes an opinion piece about the inequality in modern America ... concluding with
"It's time for a more balanced approach"
Henry Blodget Then I guess it must be time!
On the click through– a good read, some informative images, and the fact that the whole things is sitting in the LinkedIN silo shouldn’t put you off. In particular he writes;
... the problem with the profit-maximization obsession is that it hurts the economy.
How about you? I asked.
"Me? More brothers and sisters than most and none of them talk to me and the missus."
That must be hard.
Not really. It runs in the family. My parents hardly ever talked.
"You can't choose your family, but you sure can choose your friends".
My Dad [efn_note]A long time ago[/efn_note]
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain.
He looked at me. Eyes piercing my skull.
“Yes - I have heard of it I replied. An African nation … right?”
African yes.
"I’m sorry, I can’t place exactly where in Africa - but, my memory tells me in the North .. near Ethiopia?”
You do indeed know my country. He gave me the biggest smile.
And then this young man from Eritrea launched into the story of his journey from Africa to San Francisco. Not harrowing … though if you know anything of that region, that is more surprising than if it was.
I won a scholarship to America. I am a musician. I came here ten years ago.
Our fourth Newsletter just dropped. The focus this week .. People!
Hamid Ulukaya - founder and CEO of 'Chobani Yoghurt' presents his plan - 'the anti-CEO playbook'. A fascinating journey through the early days of the company - and how it's success can be reduced to .... people!
Secondly, A reminder that when you build systems and make changes in your organization, it's Finally, for a while now, I have been writing about why we should stop using the word 'Content' to describe our ”book, novel, short story, article, white paper, promotional piece, advert, painting, sculpture, song, opera, photograph ….
Newsletter Three from People First just launched. The theme for this week's edition is 'Humanity’ including me spotting this in a clothing store recently. I didn’t buy it - but I sure was tempted, as I ready myself for October’s IIW. (more)
It's funny how things work out sometimes. Since the beginning, 'language' has been a core pillar of People First. I've written about it from time to time, but was not intending to get into the meat for a while. Then - after last week's newsletter, I received an email that resonated in so many ways, that this week's newsletter morphed into riff on .... Language.
And then this morning, I was just browsing through some of my draft posts deciding what to publish next - and up pops this from Hugh Macleod and Gaping Void.
I am not usually slow in attacking the nature of business, but not sure the 'Anti-CEO' playbook is exactly the right angle here. That said Hamid Ulukaya's points are excellent. How he built Chobani is a fascinating story. And at one point I was very much reminded me of a couple of People First tenets.
[youtu.be/SGTMSV8QU...](https://youtu.be/SGTMSV8QUrs)
I am often asked what People First is about and how it differs to everything else that goes on in the identity/data/self-sovereign/blockchain ... blah blah blah space? I was asked again this morning. I replied, but as so often happens, the essence of the message was not specifically 'private' - and so this post emerged.
If you check out The DigLife Collective, The Me2B Alliance, The People Centered Internet, The Internet Identity Workshop, The Indie Web Movement, Human First Tech .
We have been trained to think that;
The ‘supply chain’ is where businesses buy what they need to produce the products and services they sell to other businesses and people.The ‘market place’ is where businesses sell their wares to other businesses and people. But we've been thinking about it all wrong (more)
All that is needed ... just three minutes of your time. A little more 'political' than the usual People First posts ... George Carlin - Life Is Worth Losing.
Released January 10, 2006 Recorded November 5, 2005, Beacon Theater, New York City, New York [youtu.be/KSuEa2xPd...](https://youtu.be/KSuEa2xPdYo)
Thirteen Years Ago ... needless to say - nothing has changed, other than more people are aware ... hoping that this will make even more people aware .
[youtu.be/lKx3MUqzC...](https://youtu.be/lKx3MUqzCcQ) Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me. More about People First Other People First Posts (not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)
Cogs In The Machine In Brief People make their money through ‘business’.
People save or spend their money with a ‘business’.
People are thus central to any business.
So why does it seem that People are an afterthought?
People First is focussed on a new way for People and Business to engage.
We put people at the center of ‘The Business Equation’ because ‘The Future Of Work’ is only part of the problem, the bigger problem is ‘The Future of Business’.
I had cause to look up Taron Egerton on Wikipedia (do you need to know why) … where I read …
”Taron David Egerton (born 10 November 1989) is an English-born Welsh actor.
… which to me at least doesn’t make sense - so I checked out some more … my bold
”He was born in northern England but raised Welsh. Egerton’s parents, who are both British, moved from Cheshire, England to Wales when he was a baby.
Daniel Jalkut talking about Brian Warren’s Mac Open Web and if you want to see what he is talking about go here
I agree with Daniel - it’s a nice list. It might not have everything you think should be on the list, but that’s ok - because all you need to do is email Brian with what is missing - and if it ‘fits’ - the product gets added. And added to it has been … almost twice as many things listed now than when I first saw the list a week ago.
How It All Started A Stowe Announcement Last October (ish)
”I am working to move all the old newsletter issues posted at Substack and even earlier tools over to here, at workfutures.org on Tumblr. I am dating them as they were published, so you can access them using the Tumblr archives feature or the Tumblr tag: workfutures.org/tagged/daily.”
JohnPhilpin To Stowe:
”Tumblr … Owned by Yahoo … Owned by Verizon … Have you a back up plan if Verizon decides to close Tumblr down?
And a counter balance from our friend @Gruber quoting the BBC Julian Assange, Houseguest From Hell
Kind of like the politics we see from the current Whitehouse … don’t bother with policy, the principals, the main story … instead smear to sneer at the individual.
Why now? What is the backstory? Who’s putting in the pressure? What was Ecuador threatened with?
That all said … if all of the smears are true … I fully expect an insanity defence.
I just wanted to let readers of this blog know that if you are an Apple News user, I have set up a channel on Apple News specifically focussed on People First.
You can find it here.
Right now there are some historical posts from a while back that I am flushing out, whilst making sure I retain anything relevant and pertaining to People First.
Going forward any and all posts to this blog will be routed to here - Aswell as other relevant writings that appear on other platforms such as BizCatalyst.
Theresa May has suffered another shattering loss in parliament after lawmakers voted against her Brexit deal by 391 to 242.
Lawmakers have been promised another vote on Wednesday, in which they can decide whether the UK should crash out of the EU without a deal.
If that, too, is rejected, parliament could then vote on whether to request a Brexit extension.
The United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union in 17 days.
Stood to the side of the road, walking stick supporting him. Well kept. Elegant even. Just standing. The traffic constantly passing him by. No slowing down, but then no attempt by him to get them to either.
I slowed down to let him cross. No movement.
I opened the window.
“Would you like a lift?”
“Thankyou.” he said. “Thankyou very much.”
Slowly walking towards the car, he gets in.
“Much appreciated.” he said. “I’m going to 4th street … is that ok?”
"No problem. Which cross street?"
“It doesn’t matter. Anywhere on 4th. I’m going to the bank.”
In my world, there is even a space for both!
Pictures - they say - are worth a thousand words.
Words however are very specific and in many ways less open to interpretation (lawyers aside!!)
So, I am going for both.
Here on my muttering stream - i have oft’ referenced the closing down of my different social spaces, so might I welcome you to :
Words - now Archives - the lead content on this space are words - sometimes supported by pictures … but not always.
I attended this yesterday …. a 1 day (actually closer to two days squeezed into one day ) event feauturing Tim Berners Lee, Vince Cerf, Professor Wendy Hall and a veritable host of others.
During the day I posted a series of images and comments in separate posts, today I am consolidating them into a single post to bring more of a story together.
In chroniclogical order »
Kick Off … with Ray Wang, Mei Lin Fung
There’s that word popping up again. As WP launches G and the world at large talks about how they hate it and they want a simple editor to use for their; post, article, photography, journal, chronicle ….
No of course they don’t they say content.
good name that … who did put the con into content?
The First World War officially ended 100 years ago today … November 11, 1918. More than 16 million people were killed, 8 million of them ‘civilians’.
And then just 21 years later … WW2 broke out. But that is a different story.
100 years ago today is a fascinating site that gives you a day by day summary of The Great War.
Meanwhile, Yo Yo Ma performing at WWI Armistice Ceremonies:
Asking myself why I hadn’t upgraded to 1Password7.
Because subscription I reminded myself.
36 dollars per year IF billed annually.
I have used since v 3 … I have had v 6 since Jan 2016 ( I upgrade asap for good valuable products).
Under subscription that would have cost me $90 to date … minimum - round about double what I paid.
That is a price increase that I see as gouging.
Super Dooper new one opens, you know the kind - with the beer, wine and couches. BUT a few teething problems …
Used the phone to redeem my free drink - which they managed to take off and charge me for … I know that because they wanted more money than I had stored … took the manager to resolve that one.
As they gave me the drink, the barista sneezed all over the cup.
Jan knows the UK and lives in Texas now, but the journey from one to the other allowed her to see the rest of the world.
She lived in Mildenhall. I’d heard of it. Used to live near there myself.
She joined the USAF to get trained, qualified and see a world ‘outside of the 50’. She left after just three years because she met and fell in love with the man who became her husband (best-laid plans and all that!). Training and Qualifications put on hold, but still traveled and saw the world. After all - her husband was still in the forces.
Now she is an antique dealer and her husband works at the nearby USAF facility. Well not just the USAF, turns out it is the only joint USAF and NATO training facility in the world.
Who knew?
“I spent the day with my dog.”
"What kind of dog is it?" "A Boston Terrier." "Oh wow, do you have pictures?"
"I did, but I lost my camera and so all my pictures." "Oh no, you know these days it’s so easy to keep your photos backed up in the cloud, so you’ll never lose them."
"I know. I have Google storage and Verizon cloud, but I just never get round to doing it, because it isn't important.
Unless you track it, this kind of news can scoot past you before you even realize what is going on.
The 2018 winner was just announced.
"The Nobel Peace Prize 2018 was awarded jointly to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."
It’s extraordinary how people contribute to society for the better good, and you think - what can I do to be more like them?
Which reminded me of last year.
For the past two months, I have been running blottings.philpin.com in parallel with a free wordpress site. All has been working fine, so this morning I moved the prior three months of that site to john.philpin.com - perfect.
Doubtless some odd css cleanup as I find them - but random testing says no point in going through it all. SO .... about that Wordpress site ... well the newest relevant post in there is now 2015 - and the oldest May 2012 .
I wondered back then if some people were above the law (spoiler alert - they seem to be)
According to Wikipedia …. about three weeks later he resigned.
”Stumpf stepped down as CEO and Chairman of the board on October 12, 2016.[19] In February 2018, Janet Yellen, on her last day as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (2014-2018), approved a strongly worded critical letter to Stumpf to emphasize his failures as Chair of Wells Fargo board of directors.
That day you walk into a coffee bar with a big beautiful Espresso Machine behind the cashier.
“A latte please.
Sorry?
“A latte”
Cross talk behind the scenes asking someone else if they know what I was talking about.
A third person enters the scene ….
How can we help?
“A latte please.”
She turns to the two young kids …
Latte … It’s a coffee drink …
Oh … never heard of that … thank you.
VoiceMail: This is BofA ... please call us at your earliest convenience, we believe your card has been compromised.
I logged on to ‘free up’ the situation - usually works - but no - please call this very specific number.
I do - I am on hold for over 20 minutes - I know - I can see.
Eventually my call is picked up.
I identify myself.
Back in the day when I was using Dave Winer’s 1999 - he used to have a class of user called ‘POETS’ … in his mind they were the ‘non tech’ crowd.
I see a lot of tech and non tech peeps on micro blog … and it got me to wondering if everyone on micro blog self selected that they were ‘primarily’ either ‘POET’ or ‘TECHNOID' (we need a better word) … it might help discover like minded people - and of course un-like minded people for each of our communities.
I worked in San Diego in those days. Everybody around me was promising the world and just doing it what it took. Nobody was asking questions. It was crazy. I held to my truth. But I was the only one that did. But it still all blew up.
That was ten years ago. Now I am here, for me, nothing has changed. I work hard. I reap my rewards.
I love Commercial Banking.
“With the 2018 primaries about to end, all but two of the 37 Republicans Mr. Trump has endorsed for House, Senate and governor during their primary campaigns have won. Mr. Trump has abandoned or undercut the party’s traditional commitment to free trade, fiscal conservatism and a hawkish foreign policy. Mr. Trump’s most vocal GOP critics in elective office have been defeated in primaries, announced their retirement or gone quiet.”
A wannabe Mussolini and his party of apparatchiks ( PAUL KRUGMAN ) has the full story.
On-demand gas startup Yoshi expands to 16 cities to end your pain at the pump … so now we are so lazy we can’t even be bothered to go gas up our own cars.
But what do we need them for anyway? Our food is delivered and Amazon does everything else. Our entertainment is virtual and streamed. We work at home.
And aren’t cars meant to be electric and self driving anyway?
""Sinclair isn't likely to learn the right lessons from the collapse of this merger," Frisch concluded. "They will be back."" The Full Story
Inside the triumphant Alex Jones banned everywhere story is a worrying nuance about free speech and platform dominance
‘Cory’ himself commenting on the Alex Jones stuff … nowhere connecting the ‘amplification’ aspect that @manton raised yesterday(?) … how do we move that thought into wider mainstream thinking?
"This new pedestrian bridge at the Sun World Bà Nà Hills resort near Da Nang, Vietnam is really something else. From Colossal:" The Full Story
"Aaron Oppenheim writes, "I made a lil lazy mashup of Legs and Where The Streets Have No Name (just t" The Full Story
I have used Feedly for the longest time - always done it for me …. and then I switched on Feedbin to benefit from some specific features that I wanted to try out … which in turn took me to Reeder and Unread as rss clients.
Reeder is functionally very rich - very nice.
Unread has a beauty all of its own.
Feedly is not as feature rich as Reeder nor as beautiful as Unread.
We live in a world where knowledge, experience, thoughtfulness, kindness are really not valued. Just look around if you need proof.
There is also far too much emphasis on short term thinking, instant gratification, cheap at any cost …. both at an individual and corporate level.
So Chip Conley writing How We Combat Ageism Is By Valuing Wisdom as Much as Youth. makes me wonder … which is he?
Steadily working through the snippet collection backlog … and decide to drop these in here.
Will England ever get its own Parliament? - BBC News
… they should.
15 Signs That The Middle Class In The United States Is Being Systematically Destroyed
… only 15?
Retailers can’t out-Amazon Amazon, but they can change the rules
… but few will.
The Web We Want
… we do.
“I live about 30 minutes North of here. There really isn’t any work up there. My husband is a mechanic from Mexico. He has his own auto repair business and helps me look after the children. I drive down here to work. I like it, the hours are flexible so it makes the family side easier.”
“I have 5 children. My firstborn is 15, the youngest is 2. It’s good because my mom helps, particularly with my eldest. He likes her and she likes him. It’s a good relationship and they bonded at birth”.
She will miss him when he moves away.
“I am 76 years old and have been married for 58 of them. She had just turned 17 when we started our lives together.”
“I buy jewelry from the Zuni Indians and sell it to people that appreciate the intricacy and beauty. Their art is so fine it is almost like needlepoint.”
How do your customers find you?
I came across an old Fred Frith album in my collection today and recalled that when at school I ‘knew’ that he was the son of the headmaster of my school.
I forget how I ‘knew it’ and over time even started to question the truth of my own memory (just because they have the same last name, blah blah blah .. )
So, with the internet on hand, I just finished some ‘research’ - ok I went to Wikipedia to see if I could find out if there was any truth …
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
Marvelous - hadn't even heard of it till I watched it - highly recommended. Just do not understand why the stories have never been turned into a film series. Hopefully '2' will be forthcoming in that not too distant future.
a total car wreck - if I am being generous
very good. great special effects.
high hopes - but really - not that good
… move along now.
‘JK’ was born in Eastern Texas - ‘where there are trees and orchards’. From there she moved down to Corpus Christie … showed me photographs of the Ocean and Beaches that she could step out to from the restaurant she worked in.
Gorgeous, what took you there from East Texas?
“A man makes a $250 million fortune loading up companies with debt and then extracting million-dollar fees from those same companies, in exchange for the generous service of telling them who needs to be fired in order to finance the debt payments he saddled them with in the first place.”
Matt Taibbi
A quiet change in US policy threatens immigrants who apply for a change in status
”non-citizens who apply for a “benefit”–such as an extension or change of status, a green card, or citizenship—would be placed in deportation proceedings if that benefit is denied.”
”merely losing your petition for visa extension … or doing something DHS considers to be criminal (even if never arrested or charged) places you on the same fast-track.
If it’s a 4 star that I can’t see how to improve - then it is a 5 star - this is a superb film.
Alan from the mid west, Margaret from the East Coast, met, married and started a family in Ohio.
Alan was someone who lived by the rules, so it took ‘Madge’ to show Alan an advert for a job opportunity in California.
Brad studied and graduated in Aerodynamics and then went on to work in Florida, before moving to Virginia as an Aeronautical Engineer.
And then he ‘had the rug pulled out from under him’.
”Krauthammer was - like George Will - the sort of conservative pundit who largely does not, and perhaps cannot, emerge in today’s media landscape. That is to say, he took positions that were carefully thought out.”
”21st century conservative commentary either hew to the party line or else choose whatever positions will stoke the most outrage and thus sell the most books and/or attract the largest audience”
Ian Bogost asks Are Apple AirPods Any Good? This caught my eye:
”The earbuds won’t disappear, just like the smartphones haven’t. But they will become invisible as they become ubiquitous.
For all his skill in envisioning a future AirPod world and the social ramifications does he really think that Airpods won’t get smaller, maybe even just embedded?
"This kind of bottom-up, self-organised business network is what Trebor Scholz, a professor at the New School in New York, calls ‘platform cooperativism’. Take Uber, currently valued in the tens of billions of dollars. There’s no reason why a group of drivers couldn’t build a similar platform for themselves; the software tools to develop it are open-source and readily available, and development and design talent can be given incentives to participate.
Pete … loud … but nice. Turkish is his ’baby’ has ‘been with him for 15 years’. Turkish looked up at me from Pete’s lap. Cute.
Riley was angry. Not visibly. But it wasn’t hard to ‘see’.
He had been fighting the fires as they encroached on his house with his father. He could see the fire down the street, but right then he felt it was all manageable. He was about to cut down the fences while keeping the house wet with the water hoses.
That’s when the Fire Department arrived.
“We’ve got it”. They said.
“We quit taking credit cards because of the fees.”
“Couldn’t you have passed the fees back to customers that wanted to use credit?”
“That would have been too complicated.”
“And now you are closing down because there aren’t enough customers?”
“Yes.”
Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you. Mark Cuban
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain.
“I was born in Tijuana. I grew up In San Diego. I moved to San Jose and then San Francisco. Now I’m in Oregon. I guess I’ll get to Canada eventually.”
“Always a barman?” I asked.
“Always a barman.”
“Never thought about doing more? Management? Your own place?”
“Nah." He said. “Increase my hours, increase my responsibilities, increase my workload, reduce my interaction with my customers and slash my earnings? I might be a barman, but I’m not stupid!
Cynthia was brought up about 50 miles away, moved here in her teens, and ‘worked the tables’ for longer than she meant to. On ‘the way through’ she fell into a job that she had for 38 years and had just retired from, not because she had to but really because the market had fallen through the floor.
Cynthia traveled the world working for a single company for every one of those 38 years.
The conversation started simply enough. He lived just up the road, had a little farm … “just as a hobby you know”.
Yes, he’s been in farming the whole of his life, always in ‘these parts’.
His son runs the ‘family farms’. We’ve mainly got grain, orchards and nuts.
“Oh. All over” … the answer to where the farms are located.… “and we have patents."
Which raised my eyebrows … how many farmers do you know that have patents?
“I trained as a Psychologist.”
“I became a Winemaker.”
“I run a Bar.”
“It’s all the same really.”
“I’m descended from a Scotsman who married a Dakotan Indian. That’s how I came to be in the Crystal business.”
James never explained how that particular logic worked. I think that is part of his charm … and, of course was proud of his lineage.
“But I am Gay - who KNOWS where that came from,” he then proclaimed … in that wonderfully affirmative, standing proud way that some people have.
“My dad is half Japanese and half Latvian, my mom is French, they met, married and I was born in Alabama.”
That’s a story right there … it emerged as I complimented her on her tattoos.
"HKTaxi, a five-year-old taxi-hailing app founded by two college buddies, has managed to hold on to the Hong Kong market against the likes of Didi and Uber despite a fairly limited initial investment. Today, the app claims 60% share in a city where the overall taxi market is worth HK$13 billion, or $1.6 billion a year. It has recruited 45,000 taxi drivers, who pick up traditional fares on the street in addition to responding to ride requests via the app.
", “That’s a crock of shit. This isn’t a platform. A platform is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it. Then it’s a platform.”" The Full Story
“I was born in Palm Springs” he said.
He had my attention. I know a few people who have lived in Palm Springs. James was the first time I knew of someone born there.
“Then I moved to Wisconsin.”
Next time I am in a Church and we are all asked to kneel, I will stand, since it is now obvious that kneeling is a sign of disrespect … I mean the NFL are an authority on this … right?
I would also suggest those players that do choose to stay in the locker room … do so for the entire game and see how long the ban lasts … but they won’t ….
She was alone at the bar … a glass of water, a giant pile of French fries and a separate bowl of potato chips sat in front of her. The seats on either side of her were empty at an otherwise full bar.
“No” she said. “Nobody is sitting there”
I took a seat, introduced myself and she said her name was Sarah. I ordered a beverage.
They were from Massachusetts. This was the start of their fourth month on the road - thousands of miles away from their home.
Mary was stood watching John who was lying on his back under the car.
Gina told me that her husband was a magician. A very good magician.
Turns out that he is also a maths teacher. That’s how he makes is money. He really wants to make his living as a magician. Magic is is his passion.
Dan knew what he was doing. He offered me an Amber Ale from his selection. It was glorious. Arguably one of the best Amber’s I had ever tasted.
I met Candy while she was having dinner with her beau ... Brian. She is a truck driver who operates as far North as Seattle and as far South as San Jose.
Caroline and Marcus had arrived in the US a couple of days earlier, most of their two-week sojourn in front of them.
Stevie was unsteady on his feet. He walked slowly. He didn’t seem to have much money. He was visiting the area because he had a hospital appointment.
Jeff had worked in Somerset for 4 years. Emma's mother was born in England. Now they lived in America. Together.
People First has a big vision and is moving forward on a variety of initiatives. Life is too short to record it all in detail here ... so I am choosing to reference a few (in alphabetical order);
- (The) Business Of Identity
- CH-MRC
- Digital Puerto Rico
- IndieWeb
- Internet Identity Workshop
- Lost Identity
Some are large far-reaching initiatives some are small ideas. Some I am just interested in, others I am helping get established. I believe all are designed to help 'move the can down the road' in different ways. (The can being that which we each need to move forward to create a better world where people and their humanity are not afterthoughts but at the center of thinking, decisions and action.
And that human-centered perspective got me to thinking about people - and their stories.
So, in parallel with these initiatives, we are also pivoting the site, including moving the blog front and center and dropping the 'WhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow' pages to a supporting role on the site.
We are also announcing the introduction of a new theme of posts categorized as 'Travels Without Charley' - tipping cap, doffing hat, nodding head vigorously towards one John Steinbeck.
It’s a piece by SF mayoral candidate Jane Kim … calling the SF Chronicle out on their attempted hatchet job.
One of her questions back:
”Why didn’t you fact check the false assertions contained in these questions against publicly available information before contacting me or choosing to move forward with this story?”
Which resulted in them not runing with the story at all …. this is their response
Politico reporting how Seattle, San Francisco et al are too expensive to live in because highly paid tech people are arriving and pushing up the prices.
Those same tech people are very quick to preach that the Future of Work is virtual.
Is it that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander?
Great read - and spot on …
“And this leads to my second reaction, which is the deepest impatience and frustration with IndieWeb itself for having developed tools to very literally revolutionize the web, but then continuing to not strive for a level of public visibility beyond that of model-train enthusiasts, perhaps, or ham-radio clubs. Smart, motivated people gathering regularly in the shared pleasure of their craft, with these quiet gatherings having negligible effect on the world at large.
As I said … they will be back ….
”In recent months, executives at Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, along with the Mercer family, have moved to created a new firm, Emerdata, based in Britain, according to British records. The new company’s directors include Johnson Ko Chun Shun, a Hong Kong financier and business partner of Erik Prince. Mr. Prince founded the private security firm Blackwater, which was renamed Xe Services after Blackwater contractors were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians.
My bold ….
We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.
Again not me .. but …
I’m specifically not deleting my account because:
I intend to exercise a number of my data subject rights, and complain if Facebook does not respond appropriately.
I’m expecting the alternatives to Facebook to improve (because they’re virtually non-existent now), and will look forward to using data portability.
The following is an experiment using Siri to talk to Drafts which I will then publish to microblog. The idea works by use of special code inside of Drafts that allows you to talk to your device and it in turn happily translates that into text. The cool thing is that normally with Siri there is a time cut off. With Drafts you can keep on talking talking talking while it types and types and types.
The premise is simple: instead of owning your own bike, you can find and rent a JUMP bike directly in their app – each one has a built-in GPS. Bikes are scattered across the city, locked to racks, poles, or even trees.
An example of went wrong in China is below - and that doesn’t include bikes tied against trees, lamp posts and stop signs that will be all over San Francisco.
"A 12-day trip will cost $9.5 million per person, and reservations for the first four months have already sold out." The Full Story
"Facebook’s targeting algorithm is so powerful, they said, they don’t need to identify suckers themselves—Facebook does it automatically. And they boasted that Russia’s dezinformatsiya agents were using tactics their community had pioneered." The Full Story
The headline,
Josh Kushner’s healthcare start up
caught my eye, so I read on.
Oscar, the health insurance startup co-founded by Joshua Kushner and Mario Schlosser, has raised $165 million in new venture capital funding. A source puts the post-money valuation at $3.2 billion, which is up from $2.7 billion in early 2016.
Oh … not healthcare start up at all … health Insurance startup. I do find the conflation of these two very different businesses in the US not just confusing - but almost deliberately misleading.
Vehicle Costs May Put Some Uber and Lyft Drivers in the Red
”The ride-sharing drivers earn just $3.37 per hour on average, according to an MIT study. I have said for a long time that the same people who object to treatment of workers in remote countries making phones, garments et al ... are generally the self same people who love the convenience of ‘their’ Uber. Case In Point .
"“For two centuries the Negro was enslaved, and robbed of any wages—potential accrued wealth which would have been the legacy of his descendants.” —Martin Luther King Jr., in a 1965 Playboy interview with Alex Haley" The Full Story
"Though President Donald Trump has spent his career boasting of his wealth, he claimed in the 1990s that outfitting apartments in his residential high-rise buildings with sprinkler systems would be too expensive—and lobbied against regulations that may have been able to save the life of a man who was killed in a" The Full Story
"Consider, for example, the following quiz posted to Facebook by San Benito Tire Pros, a tire and auto repair shop in California. It asks Facebook users, “What car did you learn to drive stick shift on?” I hope this is painfully obvious, but for many people the answer will be the same as to the question, “What was the make and model of your first car?”, which is one of several “secret questions” most commonly used by banks and other companies to let customers reset their passwords or gain access to the account without knowing the password.
"How did we get into this preposterous mess? Answering this question requires an understanding of (among other things) the peculiar nature of digital technology, the ideology of Silicon Valley, the astonishing political naivety of Zuckerberg, the ethical tunnel vision of software engineers and – most important – the business model that has come to be known as “surveillance capitalism”." The Full Story
"Harlan Ellison is probably one of the best writers of the last century, but he may be more famous (or infamous) for his irascibility, his lawsuits, and his reputed bad behavior." The Full Story
"I called Mark Zuckerberg a modern-day colonizer, and it made some international news. After a couple of weeks of these headlines and the two sides going back and forth, he dropped the lawsuit. We did win that battle. It’s still ongoing. There are no lawsuits anymore but they still haven’t gotten the land back, and Zuckerberg still has a wall built around his property. These Hawaiians are just looking to fish, or get to the beach.
"There’s a new playbook for oppression today. Instead of outright totalitarian rule, you construct the appearance of democracy, while controlling it by subtly — in some cases perhaps not even consciously — restricting the options available to individual voters; by controlling a tiered system of “representative” electors behind the scenes; or by simply outright stuffing the ballot box. (There can be much sound and fury about the distinctions between the available candidates, but if you’ve done your job correctly, and made democracy as awful as possible, in general only establishment candidates or easily manipulated narcissists will ever be nominated.
"We are idealists and we are realists. We are dreamers and we are builders. We are experiencers and we are experimenters. We long for certainties, yet we ourselves are full of the ambiguities of the Mona Lisa and the I Ching. We ourselves are a part of the yin-yang of the world. | Alan Lightman, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine" The Full Story
This is a great read … essentially talking about the many different initiatives around the globe working on creating meat to eat, independent of animal.
Then there is this where The US Cattlemen’s Association are essentially proposing that
FSIS exclude from the statutory definitions of “meat” and “beef” those products that are not “derived from animals born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner.”
Personally, I am with the Cattlemen - we should be clear about where our food comes from … count me in on the side of ‘clear GMO labelling’ for example.
The news is full of the bad boys of the internet. Their lack of interest in ‘we the people’. Their apparent disregard for humanity. The need and importance for tech tech tech - no humanity needed.
But sometimes - just sometimes - the good news, the positive news, the uplifting news does get through.
Keith Block, vice chairman, president and COO of Salesforce, and his wife, Suzanne Kelley, VP of operations & PMO, global business units at Oracle Corporation, made the lead $15 million gift to establish the Block Center for Technology and Society at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.
Sunny, restful, quiet - the opposite of the actual day!
“A 'cognitive elite' will rise to power and influence, as a class of sovereign individuals 'commanding vastly greater resources' who will no longer be subject to the power of nation-states and will redesign governments to suit their ends.” Read More In The Guardian Here
Cognitive Elites … not the same as ‘Elites’ - and - be it a ‘discredited’ term or not - I have no doubt that those that seek to use technology to protect their interests - and not subjugate themselves to the Corporates will win out.
“Moral leadership means truly putting people first and making whatever sacrifices that entails,” said Seidman. “That means not always competing on shallow things and quantity — on how much time people spend on your platform — but on quality and depth. It means seeing and treating people not just as ‘users’ or ‘clicks,’ but as ‘citizens,’ who are worthy of being accurately informed to make their best choices. It means not just trying to shift people from one click to another, from one video to another, but instead trying to elevate them in ways that deepen our connections and enrich our conversations.
"“The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”" The Full Story
Turner Sports Service to Let Fans Buy Portions of NBA Games - Bloomberg
.. which got me to wondering how fans might game the system ~~ eg I will only watch the last quarter to save money … but what if the price to watch was actually a kind of surge pricing model combined with INCREASING the price per minute as the game progressed and actually increased faster the closer the game and the more people there are tuning in.
"While success is not pre-ordained, any company without a positive attitude to change is on its own death march." The Full Story
"“People have the mistaken impression that mathematics is just equations,” he once explained. “In fact, equations are just the boring part of mathematics.”" The Full Story
"Take a screenshot or picture of your AirPods serial number. You can’t replace any parts without it. Do this when you first get them!!
You can take a picture of the box or a screenshot from Settings > General > About > AirPods so that Apple can pull up the serial number.
If you lose the case and don’t have the serial number anywhere, you can’t even replace the case without it.
I concluded this post with the comment that ‘there is nothing new’ - but of course there is … a new twist.
Rowntree and others like him were of course trying to build environments for people in their employ that only had slums to live in as an alternative. The tech giants seem to be more focused on ensuring that their staff don’t ‘wander off' … think of it as an extension to the ‘free lunch’ that morphed into ‘on campus gourmet restaurants’ .
Just 5 hours and 5 miles separates these two images.
The Facebook scandal is interesting in a number of ways, not the least of which is that we’re sharing our communal outrage on the very platforms that we accuse of breaching our our trust.
The expression of our anger at being turned into a set of psychographic profiles is, ultimately, adding to our psychographic profiles.
Dave Pell - Next Draft
The GDPR provides the following rights for individuals:
The right to be informed The right of access The right to rectification The right to erasure The right to restrict processing The right to data portability The right to object Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
""Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration," wrote Peters, a Fox News "strategic analyst." "Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed," he wrote." The Full Story
(ORDER LIST: 583 U.S.) MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018 ORDER IN PENDING CASE 17A909 TURZAI, MICHAEL C., ET AL. V. LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS, ET AL. The application for stay presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.
The original is just as short
Cheesecake - is it a pie?
Hot Dog - is it a sandwich?
… and what exactly defines a bridge?
And all if that was just yesterday. Today there is a new one that has hit the national news.
Is meat defined by it coming from animals OR by what it is made of?
Those seem to be the two opposing arguments that are emerging today - and possibly coming to a Supreme Court near you soon.
Building on a recent debate as to whether a ‘hot dog’ is actually a ‘sandwich’, which at one point had me listening to a podcast asking that if a ‘cheese cake’ is not a ‘cake’ - is it a ‘pie’ ?
I believe that this too fits into a similar debate category.
This image of a bridge (?) was shared by my good friend and And Another Thing co-conspirator, good egg and ‘chap’ Dr.
In a parallel space, on a different topic, someone directed me to 16 of Stephen Hawking’s Most Mind-Expanding Quotes.
Number 10 resonated for the micro.blog community, ending thus;
With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
"We could even say that the copy is more original than the original, or the copy is closer to the original than the original, for the older the building becomes, the further it is from its original state. A reproduction would restore it, as it were, to its ‘original state’, especially since it is not linked to a particular artist." "The Far Eastern notion of identity is also very confusing to the Western observer.
"Einstein was not only a great scientist, he was a great man. He stood for peace in a world drifting towards war. He remained sane in a mad world, and liberal in a world of fanatics." "‘The most incomprehensible thing about the Universe is that it is comprehensible.’" The Full Story
"It may surprise you to know that I once almost killed Dick Feynman, too, but that’s a different story for another time." The Full Story
"Civil rights advocates are calling out Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for her "mean-spirited, reckless, and unnecessary" decision to delay a rule that aims to standardize to how schools identify students with disabilities in hopes of addressing issues of discrimination." The Full Story
""a woman who is subject to an adverse employment action because she is attracted to women would have been treated differently if she had been a man who was attracted to women. We can therefore conclude that sexual orientation is a function of sex and, by extension, sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination."" The Full Story
"Chinese President Xi Jinping solidified his grasp on power yesterday, with the country's Communist Party abandoning term limits to allow Xi to serve long past his 2023 expiration date." The Full Story
"“The symbolism was unmistakable: the three top ranking officials in the Justice Department appearing together in a show of solidarity on the same day Trump is publicly and privately raging about Sessions.”" The Full Story
"Coupled with the reproduction of musical notation (thank you Gutenberg), the notion of distribution was introduced into the arts. Suddenly it became possible for one person to write a piece of music, which someone else could then print, and a third could perform without the whole thing needing to be written out by hand." The Full Story
"SpaceX’s plan calls for 4,425 satellites but it has also applied for another 7,518. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has given his backing to the proposal, making it likely to win the agency’s clearance to provide broadband via low-earth orbit." The Full Story
"The digital revolution is changing how and where work happens. Employment is becoming more flexible and fluid, with digital technology enabling more people to work remotely and to collaborate in the cloud. This will impact city-centre offices, with landlords having to adjust to weaker demand and shorter leases. And as artificial intelligence bites – machines don’t care where they work – we’ll see the growth of cheaper regional back-offices, which is bad news for expensive cities.
It’s Time to Leave San Francisco over on Medium, penned by Sunil Rajaraman
Two observations
1} He only considers moving to somewhere else in America
… the usual narrow mindedness that The Valley is famous for.
2} He concludes that he can’t do the move while his equity continues to vest.
.. because after-all - it is all about the money (my take, would welcome other conclusions).
But there is more … The tech world preaches that a lot of the #FOW is all about virtualization, working remotely, flexibly, not being geographically constrained, blah blah, blah ….
This from Fast Company.
It makes for an interesting read that I haven’t picked up anywhere else. A search of the article reveals 106 mentions of ‘Casper’ (the mattress company).
About 90% of what I know about Casper comes from the podcasting adverts I hear as a result of listening to @gruber @jdalrymple and others podcasters. This piece reveals an interesting, dark and seedy underbelly to the mattress industry.
A ‘couple’ of eye catching quotes;
As I watch the emerging news surrounding MoviePass and how they are (note - not have …. despite the changes to their app) tracking their customers, I keep hearing ‘Data Is The New Oil'. It is not a new phrase and in fact as far as I can tell was coined by Clive Humby back in 2006 … but it struck me that if true (it isn’t and I really need to publish that post) then corporations obviously view people as vessels, silos, containers … whatever, but certainly not as people.
This just in
… as an Englishman I obviously need to pay more attention. I did not know that I had a minister concerned about my loneliness. I will give her a call, it would be nice to talk to someone - and she does seem to be welcoming it …
… though I don’t quite qualify for her two categories ‘elderly’ and ‘younger’ …. yet again falling between the cracks!
As an Englishman, I definitely know this company, but never knew the backstory of the co-founder who now lives in The Bay Area. In a rented apartment. With no car, and a plastic watch.
The Irish Times has the whole story - it might not be what you are thinking!
The ‘full’ version of the ‘single second’ … for @seansharp .. more about Wilson can be read here
Great to see my friend Mitchell Levy on The TedX Stage.
Just read Stowe Boyd on ‘Decisions’ (scroll down to the second article). An interesting read, to which I would add that one problem with assessing good-v-bad decisions, is that we justify retrospectively based on outcome.
We would never say that driving home drunk is a good decision, but the outcome of getting home with no incident reinforces the thought that one should do it again because there was no bad outcome.
A short lived experiment. But interesting to look back on years later.
"With reservoirs already extremely low after a punishing drought, Cape Town is now projected to run out of water as early as July. The city of 4 million has implemented drastic conservation measures, restricting residents to 50 liters (13 gallons) of water per day, around 15% as much as the average person in the U.S." The Full Story | Published: February 26, 2018 at 12:46PM
"I got through about three minutes of Phantom Thread. I put in a good solid three," Lawrence said after Maron asked if she had seen the film. "I couldn't. I'm sorry to anybody who loved that movie." … yeah I think that is what I managed in total across all The Hunger Games movies … I know what you mean J!
The Full Story On Mashable
Titans of Social Media explain why they might have made a mistake.
There has been a lot of recent commentary on social media addiction, but this video summary was interesting, concise and in 15 minutes says it all.
To me what is interesting is that they all say that they could see it coming … and then did it anyway. What does that say about them. It certainly doesn’t say that they ‘put people first’.
"The EU push comes as a landmark legal battle in the United States nears its climax. The U.S. Supreme Court will this week hear oral arguments in a case pitting Microsoft against U.S. prosecutors, who are trying to force the company to turn over emails stored on its servers in Ireland in connection with a drug-trafficking investigation." The Source on February 26, 2018 at 09:36AM
"I first noticed the phenomenon in Seville cathedral. A tour group trailing behind an umbrella-wielding guide were put on the spot. Quite literally. The guide pointed to a particular flagstone and said: “This is where you take your picture.” And they all did. And the next group, too." The Source on February 26, 2018 at 09:37AM
"Caregivers have been stocking up on bulletproof backpacks, tracking devices and doorstops ... to give children a fighting chance at surviving a gunman’s attack at school." The Source on February 26, 2018 at 09:37AM
"“The outcome of today’s endorsement vote is an astounding rejection of politics as usual, and it boosts our campaign’s momentum as we all stand shoulder to shoulder against a complacent status quo,” de León said Sunday. “California Democrats are hungry for new leadership that will fight for California values from the front lines, not equivocate on the sidelines.” “The days of Democrats biding our time, biting our tongue, and triangulating at the margins are over,” he said.
I only know Julian Summer Hayes through his writing here. This particular post came through the ether this morning … some quotes (my bold):
But **I can feel it: the slow creep of old age:** my neck hurts; my knees ache after a long walk; and my sleep is easily interrupted by at least one trip to the bathroom. and **I thought I’d be depressed with the onset of old age.
"Russian military spies hacked hundreds of computers at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, the Washington Post reports. U.S. intelligence sources said the attacks were designed to make it look as though North Korea was behind the hack." Dated: February 26, 2018 at 07:45AM The Original Article
"We have venerated the gun and valorized its usage. America is violent and the gun is a preferred instrument of that violence. America, in many ways, is the gun." Source
… though with a different angle after an hiatus of over two years!
They’re all sewing away …. and I see Somner run through the scene and say, “Alright, you gotta get this dress ready! Here we go! Everybody ready and ACTION!”
And they all kept sewing at exactly the same pace they had been sewing and I couldn’t stop laughing.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Full Article
Just Rediscovered:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you listen to the news, it’s as if;
Longnow hadn’t existed for the past twenty years.
Jeff Bezos woke up yesterday and thought what we need is a 10,000 year clock.
The Bezos investment happened this week.
In fairness, Bezos credits people like Danny Hillis and Zander Rose … I just wish the media would - and get the story right.
No relation to Edgar Rice … it isn’t even spelt the same!
Olive Oil directly from the fields.
For years I have listened to people as they gather around the ‘internet campfire’ discussing what/who makes the best hardware, software, service.
But is it really about the best hardware or software or infrastructure or stack or whatever else we want to call it? Surely, there can never be an absolute comparison, without understanding the rules of judgement? And those rules aren’t someone else’s. They are yours. You need to define what your needs are and the parameters against which you will judge before you can get to an answer of what is right for you.
Here
The right to be informed The right of access The right to rectification The right to erasure The right to restrict processing The right to data portability The right to object At least according to GDPR
Read all about him on Wikipedia or - pop over to his web site
I had two of his books a long time ago. Long gone / misplaced / lost. But, if you are interested in the music of the 60s and 70s, the books and trees inside contain a veritable cornucopia of visual information relating to the music of the day.
I have often thought that it would be interesting to see something similar done for the software industry - again starting in those heady days and how companies were gobbled up, grew, where the founders went to etc … I think the results would be fascinating.
OK …
commit to pinboard … check import old deli.co.us tags for posterity … check all 12,396 apparently … good grief! import Pocket history … check tie into Instapaper and Pocket … check publish the stream to a microblog page … check a tool bar short cut so I can push other stuff into the stream … check Just so we can all see it
John Lennon’s words came to my mind this morning driving on the 101 to a meeting.
Apparently Starbucks thought it was my birthday today ( it isn’t .. but that’s a different story). To celebrate the occasion I was offered a free ‘whatever I want’ to celebrate. So, totally out of the norm of my morning pattern, as I drove down the hill - I swung into the local Starbucks and ordered myself a check complementary Latte.
Not my words … in fact, not sure whose they are … if I find out, I will come back and correctly attribute … until then …
Big data and machine learning (is) all oriented to one type of intelligence or a western view of intelligence. Mimic the brain, no heart. Instinct defined via algorithm. Maybe we struggle against this because deep inside we know its profoundly dysfunctional.
By the numbers there’s my driver’s license,
car registration, license plate, zip code,
various accounts, street address, birthdate
home, work, and cell phones, passport, credit cards
debit cards, PINs, social security
frequent fliers, internet passwords, stocks
checking, HMO, IRA, museums
library card, land and enneagram.
I know its a lot to remember, but
thank god i finally know who I am.
Jim Woessner - Box Poems
My own work right now is with Customer Commons, on terms each of us can assert, and that sites and services of the world can agree to: the exact reverse of what we’ve had since forever on the web. We’re getting help from law students at Harvard and elsewhere, but we need geek help too.
I believe making every user a Neo is not only do-able, but the most world-changing revolution since the industrial one, which was when subordinating personal power to the requirements of big business began.
Being of a certain generation … the existence of The Berlin Wall is very much part of the DNA of my memory. (Berlin itself - not so much … though I had reason to be in Berlin shortly after the fall of the wall.)
The Berlin Wall has been gone for longer than it existed, Deutsche Welle reported on Monday.
The wall was constructed in 1961 and kept Germans in the eastern side of the city from fleeing to the west after 3.
Two John Philpin’s? It might get confusing.
Yes we have talked on the phone
Yes we are related (we think)
🔗 This is his philpin site
🖇️ This is one of my philpin sites
This was originally posted to my 1999 stream, which after importing from 1999. seemed to get ‘upset’. So I have moved it here and deleted it there to fix the problem.
Originally posted on ‘river.
Reminded of this today …
A live BBC recording from his Solid Air album.
John was never classified in the prog genre - quite rightly … but I definitely think there are some influences.
Does anyone have any knowledge / experience / thoughts about Vellum?
##Later
Now - that is really interesting …
Vellum is a free download. You can use Vellum to import your manuscript, explore Book Styles, and see how your book will appear on a variety of devices. A purchase is only necessary when you’re ready to generate books.
There must be something about me at this time of the year .. apparently I first signed up with IFTTT six years ago! They even sent me a ‘happy birthday’ message this morning …
It’s been six years since you joined IFTTT on February 6, 2012.
… and then tried to give me some guidance on using the service more with some recommendations.
I have to say the 4 applets that they picked for me were neither relevant, interesting, clever or even unknown … you would have thought that with all the triggers and tracking that they have behind the scenes that they could have done a lot better with their personal recommendations.
I have linked my 1999 site into Micro.Blog - so that if I publish something on River.BeyondBridges.net … the post finds it’s way into my Micro.Blog timeline.
So far so good.
Now what I want to do is pull all of the historical posts that are there into here (the public facing side of my Micro.Blog)
In other words …
A one off import of all the content at My River to John DOT Philpin
Just watch
It will take five minutes and 24 seconds of your day.
**File Under ** Just Great 🎵
sometimes - you just have to wonder ….
Hundreds of top-secret and highly classified cabinet documents have been obtained by the ABC following an extraordinary breach of national security. Click through if you want to see the story of how this came to be.
Consolation prize I guess we should be happy that government ineptitude is not limited to the USA and the UK!
Well … I got up. I looked. I watched. I waited.
Pretty amazing … although you wouldn’t think so based on the photos!
This is a specific post - with a specific reason.
The specifics relate to using this plug in on one of my wordpress blogs - thankyou for the link @manton
The idea is that this post gets fed through to And Another Thing. When it arrives it will be classed as ‘Pending’ - so as not to inundate the readers at And Another Thing.
I will then visit the site later today and publish the post and .
I captured the following information on this 📚 somewhere ( maybe even here ). I haven’t read it - but it is on my list. I like the look of it. It seems to have a Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance feel to it and right in line with the work I am doing here. Has anyone read it? Recommend it?
A book that I loved reading that provides insights here is “Shop Class as Soulcraft.
File Under : 🎵
Over the past ten days I have dropped a daily entry of an image, with a comment into the music feed. This is the eleventh in the series of ten (doffing cap to Spike Milligan) that provides some context - and links back - to those entries. Suffice to say - I class Steven Wilson as one of the most prolific musicians and sound engineers that we have ever seen.
A question raised recently, that ‘everyone’ should be able to answer …
How do you make a judgement about what is safe to do online?
Good question. But I specifically put ‘everyone’ in quote marks because I worry about ‘everyone’. I worry that given that people generally do nothing to protect their passwords … think yellow stickies on monitors, using thr same password across all services, sharing your password(s) with friends … however you look at it - whatever you do ….
Discover Suggestion for @macgenie …. how about an index somewhere (another icon?) of all blogs that have achieved Micro Monday Status … they will be blogs that someone in the community at some point thought worthy of promotion and therefore contain good things that others might enjoy … and will always be discoverable - long after they have passed through the recommended stream of Micro Monday - and so possibly lost?
Apple Homepod Review By An Audio Engineer
##The Songs He Used
“Hotel California” by The Eagles. “Way Down We Go” by Kaleo. “Lie To Me” by Depeche Mode. “Fitzpleasure” by Alt-J “Black Mambo” by Glass Animals “Delilah” by Florence and the Machine “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley 🎵
Read All About It
“A federal copyright board has raised the music streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers by more than 40% to narrow the financial divide separating them from recording labels.
Up to this point, music streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora, and others, have had to pay out 10.5 percent of their revenue to music publishers and songwriters. Now, though, after the court ruling, those platforms will need to fork over 15.
2017-12-28
I’m A Fan
2017-12-29
Maybe A Sign Of The Times
Got to tell you … @Manton at 🔗 Micro Blog rocks.
For a variety of reasons I have posted trouble tickets to 4 different companies today (Is it me? Really? Say It Ain’t So!)
Pretty sure that Manton is the smallest of the four operations … but that didn’t stop him from being not just the first to respond, but the only one thus far that has even offered me a solution to fix the problems described.
I am running the beta of Sunlit (thankyou @manton).
I have done two posts so far ….
This one
… Which is pretty simple really - adding a picture, dropping in some text - it’s like a post - which I can already do in the core app.
BUT
I think what Sunlit is really about is ‘telling visual stories’ - in fact in the interface, it actually uses that term, so I took three pictures out of my library and wrote a story … (don’t worry - I am not expecting an award!
Riding The Road. Living The Dream.
No … that isn’t me - I’m the dude on the other side of the camera!
Just passing through Oatman on Route 66
… and found a gunfight in process.
It was unclear if the burro was relaxing or part of the performance
… that said I was assured that no animals were hurt in the making of this particular epic.
So playing around with both Editorial and IA Writer - both have their ‘bennies’ and I can see a role for both in my world as a staging post for thoughts before they end up here.
That means I would mainly be using them on phone / pad - since on the Mac I have Mars Edit. IAWriter has a Mac Client - which I like - so I can do some ‘tuning’ before publishing.
…. because, when you put it like that, it seems so easy … How to Write a Blog Post
I particularly liked the idea of ‘bumping’
Wait for time to pass and see if the bumping sound returns.
via Rands in Repose
🎵 What’s in YOUR HomePod makes for a quick interesting summary of some of the tech that makes it what it is. Seemed right to share it here after yesterday’s to and fro, back and forth, this and that, well … you get the point.
via Loopinsight
This is a bit of an experiment. I am writing using Editorial
#Inspiration
Thanks to @frankm who was considering drafts to publish to micro.blog
#Idea
Use editorial … since I don’t use drafts and see what happens.
#Delivered
Well …. let’s see
… because this is really just an experiment
A friend of mine sent me this, written by Paul Lockhart. I don’t have time to read it in its entirety at the moment - but I have read sufficient of it to know that I do want to read it.
Posting here and a couple of other places to keep it top of mind.
The first thing to understand is that mathematics is an art. The difference between math and the other arts, such as music and painting, is that our culture does not recognize it as such.
It’s time for journalism to build its own platforms
The ‘Monday Note’ take
I think we can all agree on that one … I know @Dave in particular has been saying that for a while.
Here’s the thing … if ‘we all’ can see the benefits of ‘roll your own’ why can’t the media ..
That’s rhetorical.
Capturing this link now and will come back to it later.
Micro.blog Help - Replies and @-mentions
Bottom line I will be tying three external Wordpress blogs into my Micro Blog instance … and am excited to see how it can / might / will develop into a single place for aggregation and distribution.
Time will tell … but that’s the goal.
People First is delighted to share work that is relevant to our initiatives. Geoffrey Moore is an author, speaker and management strategy advisor. His work has influenced the careers of many of us at People First and we are excited he granted us permission to share this particular article.
There is a cottage industry in conducting executive tours of Silicon Valley, and now increasingly San Francisco SOMA, to expose teams from other parts of the planet to what is admittedly a uniquely successful culture of innovation and wealth creation.
Vendors spend billions of dollars every year on software to manage their ‘customer relationships’.
But we (the people) don’t even have software to manage those vendors.
Odd ... Isn't It?
When you were aged twenty to thirty years old, you were told that you did not have sufficient experience to do the job.
Now you are forty to fifty years old, you are told that you are over qualified.
Now he's too old to rock 'n' roll
But he's too young to die
Yes, he's too old to rock 'n' roll
But he's too young to die
Best wishes to each and everyone of you. We hope you make 2018 what you want it to be.
Our apologies for the apparent silence over the past three months. To the casual observer, this might seem like a quiet place but it belies the frantic activity running under the surface. We plan to make out work public in the next few months, so watch this space.
Until then, take the sentiments of Cyril to heart.
People First is delighted to share work that is relevant to our initiatives. Geoffrey Moore is an author, speaker and management strategy advisor. His work has influenced the careers of many of us at People First and we are excited he granted us permission to share this particular article.
In this second article that Geoff has agreed to share through People First, it was "The 'T' for Talent" model caught our eye. While we in People First are not fans of the word "talent", we recognize that corporations need to find the best and brightest people to spur them onto success. Geoff highlights the need as succinctly as ever.
This article on leadership and management was published on LinkedIn, August 10, 2017.
As technological innovation continues to disrupt industry after industry in waves of what Joseph Schumpeter taught us to call “creative destruction,” executive decision-making is being driven down in the organizational hierarchy, closer to the customer, nearer to the action. This in turn is putting pressure on the HR function to deliver programs to develop executive talent faster and better than ever before. They are going to need help.
All development programs are intended to change state, so as good program designers, it behooves us to answer two questions at the outset:
- What is the current state a candidate needs to have achieved to qualify for entrance into the program?
- What is the future state a candidate needs to achieve in order to graduate?
Here is a template for getting started:
People First is delighted to share work that is relevant to our initiatives. Geoffrey Moore is an author, speaker and management strategy advisor. His work has influenced the careers of many of us at People First and we are excited he granted us permission to share this particular article.
In the article, Geoff explores the transition that organizations must act on as we move deeper into the 21st century. Products have driven the enterprise—selling more to whoever will buy—when it is the customer experience where all eyes should be turned. Geoff believes this experience is not something you can expect a chatbot to deliver, and we agree.
This article on customer technology was published on LinkedIn, September 25, 2017.
In the Age of the Product, customer service ensured that the product lived up to its specifications. Everything after that was the customer’s responsibility, not the vendor’s. In the Age of the Customer, the bar has been raised. Now it is the outcome that must live up to the customer’s expectations, else it is the vendor who is left holding the bag. That requires a whole new function, what the SaaS sector has taught us to call customer success. Let’s take a closer look at what has to change.
First of all, we still need customer service. Products still break, implementations still go awry, and parts still wear out, and they all need to be attended to. The traditional CRM customer service model is admirably suited to the task. It is organized around a trouble ticket generating a case which is managed through to a resolution with the data captured in a knowledge base to better inform the next case. This is by design a product-centric model, putting a premium on accuracy of information and reduction of errors, with productivity being measured first and foremost by the number of cases closed and the time taken to close each one.
What this system does not measure well is the customer side of the equation.
People First is delighted to share work that is relevant to our initiatives. Mei-Lin Fung is a member of the People Centered Internet and an active, founding member of People First.
Read this article at The World Economic Forum as published on September 19, 2017.
Hurricane Harvey dropped 52 inches of rain and 27 trillion gallons of water on Texas and Louisiana. And a new kind of “All-hands-on-deck” response emerged.
Glenn Reynolds, author of An Army of Davids, writes: “But the real difference isn’t citizens getting involved, it’s the willingness of responsible officials to see that involvement as a plus rather than a potential problem … the excellent record of civilian volunteer responders in the post-9/11 record is behind that willingness.”
The Cajun Navy flotilla of private boat owners demonstrated the value of government, the private sector and regular people working together. The value of such cooperation in earlier disasters like Katrina and Sandy increased the ability to coordinate when Harvey struck.
Traditional global governance is failing. Yet the need for effective collaboration, delivering good performance in the face of new challenges has never been greater.
Do you remember The Prisoner?
If you are old enough and you were living in the UK in the 60s, I am sure the answer is a resounding, "Yes!"
I am well aware the TV series was also shown in Canada and the US, but I think it's one of those peculiarly English productions that didn't translate too well. For those of you not old enough (most of you I am guessing), this is a key line from the show that always struck me: "I am not a number—I am a free man!"
Prescient, when you realize, to quote Wikipedia that ...
a major theme of the series is individualism, as represented by Number Six, versus collectivism, as represented by Number Two.... McGoohan [the co-creator of the show], stated that the series aimed to demonstrate a balance between the two points.
Now if that is not a "discussion for our times," I'm not sure what is! And as you can see, this debate has been occupying me for some time. Then, along comes Gaping Void to point out something similar.
On September 07, 2017, Equifax—one of the “big three” credit reporting agencies—shared a quiet investor relations document with information about a security breach that began in May, 2017 and was not discovered until late July:
[Criminals accessed] names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. [They] also accessed credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers.It took Equifax another 40 days to let people know outside the company.
The response from Equifax has been “corporately cautious” with little consideration for the effect on people.
I just read a blog post, The Future of Work – Redux by John Philpin. It provides a nice, short look at what might happen as computers, robots and artificial intelligence become increasingly present in the workplace—what will people do when “all the work is done by robots?” As a result, I will be using computer, robots and AI interchangeably for the rest of this post.
John expresses a view that the future includes people working with robots, not simply people being replaced by robots. I happen to agree with that. I’ve written several blog posts on artificial intelligence (AI) and my skepticism about the capabilities and pace of the introduction of AI systems. AI has enormous potential, but I don’t see AI making humans obsolete any time soon (actually, I don’t see AI making humans obsolete—period).
Computers, and by extension, robots and AI, possess one important capability: they can add and subtract really friggin’ fast. George Boole developed what we now call Boolean Logic and it created an approach that allows us, following in the footsteps of Charles Babbage, Augusta Ada King-Noel Countess Lovelace (nee Byron), Grace Hopper and Claude Shannon, to stick those additions and subtractions together in such a way as to resolve any computable task (à la Alan Turing).
If we don't care—why should the government or corporations?
Working through the news this morning, my eyes caught three different articles that I felt were pertinent to People First.
David Byrne
A fascinating article—if a tad 'self'-repetitive from the thoughtful David Byrne. The final line from his piece that examines the role of technology is contributing to and detracting from human interaction and engagement. No specific solutions, which is good, since the answers lie with 'we the people'.
“We” do not exist as isolated individuals. We, as individuals, are inhabitants of networks; we are relationships. That is how we prosper and thrive.
Source: David Byrne for Technology Review
(August 15th, 2017)
Federal Unions Disbanded?
Forty years ago, I belonged to an organization called RILKO. As you can see, they still exist. A friend of mine, Randall Rospond, Posted this to his site today. And it occurred to me that this too is a 'little bit' of lost knowledge that we could so easily regain... with thought.
What do you think?
You probably know that we publish articles to the People First Publication on Medium. We just published an article on politics and venture capital funding.
People First is not a politically driven group, but in modern America, it is increasingly hard to keep politics out of business as the two seem to get rammed against each other over and over again.
This article falls into three parts, the first referencing a politically oriented post, the second from a venture capitalist and the third my thoughts about the connection between the two.
Dan Lyons shared a video about working in the new tech start-up bubble on his blog.
This made me smile...
And So ... The end of the River Experiment.
Continue Reading Here.
This last post highlighted a recent article about the likely failing of Uber .... it was one of a series. The full set can be found here:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
... and lots more on the topic of Uber
Essential reading for all.
... even better - Part Ten - Can Uber Ever Deliver - The Uber Death Watch Begins
This article neatly and concisely summarises everything that I dislike about Uber.
If you follow me, you will know that despite my interest in platforms and their obvious role as a significant future of Marketplaces, Uber stands uniquely in the #FAIL bucket - and would have been in the dead bucket years ago - if anything in the world was at all fair and reasonable.
This is the latest in a highly detailed series that dives into the underpinnings of Uber .
Interesting - it's kind of like expecting good food from a business who's job is to fly you across the Atlantic - so too good internet connectivity from a business who's job is to serve you coffee.
... Recognise anyone?
Google Tests Waters of Voice Ads on SpeakerAn unprompted promotion highlights balancing act the tech giant faces between monetizing new search formats and users’ ad tolerance[Paywall]
I love that expression ' user's ad tolerance ' ... do they not read the news? We have already that we have zero tolerance - hence the rise of ad blockers.
File under another reason not to buy Amazon and Google tech ... and stick with Apple .
No we haven't met
Yes we have talked on the phone
Yes we are related (we think)
johnphilpin.com is one of his philpin sites
john.philpin.com is one of my philpin sites
Listen - I’m Going To Tell You A Story It was a few years ago now, you can tell, because I had to get up from my chair, walk to the kitchen and pick up the phone.
... it certainly explains why I am not Republican.
A couple of choice extracts:Nearly six in 10 Republicans (57 percent) think that “a culture grounded in Christian religious beliefs†is important to our American identity. and
Forty-six percent of Republicans say that “a culture established by the country’s early European immigrants†is an important part of what makes us Americans.Read All About It.
... that's sarcasm folks ....
I have to say it took Battersea many many false starts before it got to here, but - it did get there. So maybe Philadelphia could adopt some of the ideas.
Oh that's right - America leads the world in thinking - and doesn't need to look outside of its borders for ideas.
That's how they always win the 'world' series and put themselves up on the pedestal of the global powerhouse.
First they licensed Uber, and I did not speak out - Because I was working.
Then the Trade Unionists and Taxi orgs called a mass demo, and I did not go -Because it was busy and I had to work.
Then, after realising our largest org was doing nothing, two drivers stood up shouting and rebellious...but they were expelled - I did and said nothing, just carried on working.
Good Grief
To lose 1 senior VP in a week is never good. To lose two is very careless.
Add to the growing woes captured on this thread just this week.
But there's more ... check out this:
How Uber Used Secret Greyball Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide
Uber has for years engaged in a worldwide program to deceive the authorities in markets where its low-cost ride-hailing service was being resisted by law enforcement or, in some instances, had been outright banned.
Interesting to see that when I wrote ...
this
and this
and this
oh - and this
as I tried to summarise everything that is going on at Uber that is wrong ... someone else had the same idea.
A great summary - though not a fan of the color scheme!
Remember when Uber said ... not us ...
... looks like it is!
As Gruber writes:
The message to other women at Uber is clear: stay silent or we will come after you... which is what Sarah Lacey said over two years ago ...
Absolutely Brilliant !!!!
Read All About It.
Seriously?
You just can’t make this stuff up. If this and this wasn’t enough - now you have this …
I won't be getting this one - but I did have the first - what was it thirty years ago?
I wrote and published this post about the trials and tribulations (ok - not trials - YET) of Uber yesterday. It was a rapid summary of the fronts that they are fighting that came through my feeds just last week.
(It is worth a click through just to get a quick summary of the breadth of problems hitting the company.)
These posts came out yesterday - Monday 27th February.
Private Eye Reports ...
According to her attack-dog attorney, Charles Harder, the Mail’s allegations harmed her “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity†to cash in on the Trump presidency by selling Melania-branded “apparel, accessories, shoes, jewellery, cosmetics, hair care, skin care, and fragranceâ€. As they Eye says ....
No need for the Mail to trash her reputation: her lawyer seems quite capable of doing it all by himself.[For my American readers - for Private Eye - think 'Spy Magazine' - except edgier, unafraid, wittier and first published in 1961 - a full 27 years before Spy Magazine got going and hasn't stopped since - which Spy did in 1998.
Virginia man gets 11 years in prison for trying to join Islamic State
... not actually joining, and had he joined, not actually done anything ...
Meanwhile in 1931:
Gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000, signaling the downfall of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s.Meanwhile - a quick Google search reveals that 11 years is what you get for
As we move steadily into 2017, I know that I am not the first to recognize that we are now 50 years away for the 1967 Summer of Love. Talk to a teen/twenty something ( don’t you just hate those ‘ennial tags?) … and I wonder if they would / could even comprehend what was going on back then.
Sure they listen to the music form that era … but to have a real understanding of Vietnam, The Kennedy and MLK assassinations, Civil Rights Movements et al … might be stretching it.
Absolutely brilliant. Back in England - in the middle ages - people would occasionally get ‘hoist by their own petard’ …. I believe Chick-Fil-A have just experienced that delight.
Yes, she is aware that Chick-Fil-A is a famously conservative, Christian-run company that has advocated against same-sex marriage and donated to anti-LGBTQ-rights causes through their charitable wing, The WinShape Foundation. Slick revealed that she explicitly decided to accept the company's offer to use the song so she could donate the proceeds to a charity that works against Chick-Fil-A's convictions: Lambda Legal, a non-profit legal organization working on behalf of LGBTQ community and HIV patients.
Oh c'mon!
And for heavens sake grow up.
Conway says she gets 'different set of questions' on TV
Oh and honey, when you say ...
"It's a 'build you up to tear you down' kind of town."Nobody - repeat NOBODY - 'built you up' - you did that all by your little old self.
And ...
"I'm focused on why we're here."Can you tell us. Please. WHY are you here? Because I certainly don't see any added value.
British MPs lined up on Monday to pour scorn on a “racist and sexist†Donald Trump, who they said should not be allowed to come to Britain for a state visit because of the risk it would embarrass the Queen.... aah yes - your democracy at work ... 1.8 million people in the UK sign a petition that wants the state visit invite to the UK to be revoked - and
After I wrote this at the beginning of the year, where ..
The Chicago Review of Books (had) made the decision to not review any books produced by Simon & Schuster during 2017.The article asked the question 'Where is the line to be drawn?'
Now we know.
The Guardian today ...
Milo Yiannopoulos book deal cancelled after outrage over child abuse comments.
So actually as usual .. he self-destructed. But I am not sure that we can rely on this - eventually, even a douche like Milo will learn.
First - there was this.
Then on reading about who actually built Mar-a-Lago, it is revealed to be Marjorie Merriweather Post - who had some interesting ties back to Russia.
During the 1930s, the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin began selling art treasures and other valuables seized from the Romanov family and former Russian aristocrats after the Russian revolution to earn hard currency for its industrialization and military armament programs. Critics have claimed that these items were expropriated; however, Post and Davies's transactions were from the recognized governmental authority.
Now that is an interesting piece of history - given where we are today ..
Mar-a-Lago is an estate and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, built from 1924 to 1927 by heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. Post envisioned the house as a future winter retreat for American presidents and foreign dignitaries, and following her death in 1973 it was bequeathed to the nation. However, successive presidents declined to use the mansion, which was returned to Post's estate in 1980 and in 1985 was purchased by Donald Trump, later 45th President of the United States.
.. and not a way to make a quick buck - I offer this as an example.
The U.S. Marshals Service says it is providing security for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after a handful of protesters prevented her from entering a D.C. middle school. Quite apart from the fact that the country is paying for security for someone in the Education Secretary role - surely that has to be a first - and reveals how reviled/divisive she must be ….
Denver-based AIMCO, one of the biggest landlords in the US, owns and manages over 50,000 apartments across the country. Real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors told the WSJ that this is the first time Airbnb has been sued by a major landlord. Other apartment owners might now feel emboldened to follow suit if the service refuses to cooperate with them.The plaintiff says short-term rentals are against their leases, and Airbnb is helping its tenants break that rule.
Snap is going to market, trying to pitch itself as a unique blend of Silicon Valley and Hollywood. And no wonder: It has the losses of a tech startup combined with the anemic growth of a media company.OUCH!
That quote comes from 'The Information'
Read all about it.
When I wrote this, I hadn't seen this ... so I am going with Blackwater.Jeremy Scahill, editor of the online news publication The Intercept and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army profiles Erik Prince as a “Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,†Scared yet?
How about this ...Erik Prince is allegedly the new ex-officio foreign policy adviser to Trump today!
Old pieces now - but let’s not forget the connections that don’t seem to be too much reported by the ‘dishonest media’ on Betsy.
Betsy DeVos's brother, Erik Prince, the founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater, has been quietly advising Trump's transition team, including helping vet Cabinet picks. from Here and
She is the daughter of Edgar Prince, who founded the Michigan-based Prince Corporation, an auto parts business that sold for $1.
Great post from the people at Taxi Leaks on Uber's business model ...
Dragon: So you are going to be a taxi company.
Me: No I am going to create a technology company
Dragon: Sorry... I do not understand? You are going to be offering a taxi service to the public?
Me: No.. I am not offering a taxi service to anyone. I want to 'reach out' by offering the technology to connect the public to taxis around the world.
We love what you’ve done so far with Season 1. We think this is shaping up to be a truly unique season of television. Mr. Trump, as always, is an enigmatic yet captivating character. A couple thoughts so far.We feel like things are progressing a little too fast. Can we find a few more steps? It seems like we’re just burning through plot, and there are far too many storylines to keep track of.
Pretty Sure this is as finely tuned as the Whitehouse right now.
... 'BT Wi-Fi with Fon' told to f**k off and die.I have just returned from the UK - I thought it was just me.
OK, this 'billy-do' is from The Daily Mash - but - just like The Onion, some of their stuff is based on real world issues. Like this one.
THE stupidly-named BT wi-fi thing that overrides your internet connection should burn in hell, it has been confirmed.
Read All About It
Delivered To Your Inbox
At the centre of The Book of Dust is the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organisation, which wants to stifle speculation and inquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free.Philip Pullman unveils epic fantasy trilogy The Book of Dust
... and sets me a reading agenda that I think I want to explore. I have never read Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' ... shame on me - but it is now HIGH on the list.
Today, during my morning routine of opening my laptop, clicking on literally anything, and just screaming and screaming, I made the astonishing discovery that Donald Trump has only been president of the United States for about three weeks. Which is weird, because I could have sworn we had fallen through a tesseract into the airless crush of a two-dimensional void at least seven eternities ago, or what would have constituted seven eternities if such a place had a linear concept of time.
You got to be quick if you gonna delete tweets.
... PAH
Self-Flying Drones .... THAT's where the future is at.
While we here in the West are arguing about whether Self-Driving Cars should be allowed on the roads ... what it means to civilization, humanity and jobs ... Dubai lifts it up a notch.
After buckling into its race-car-style seat, the craft's sole passenger selects a destination on a touch-screen pad in front of the seat and the drone flies there automatically.Read All About It.
In the tech industry AND the AR/VR industry
Don't forget this that I wrote in Mid January - and adding another one to the list.
Augmented reality helmet maker Daqri is cutting about 25% of its nearly 330-person-strong workforce worldwide, multiple people have told Business Insider, or about 80 people.
The workforce at its headquarters in Los Angeles and its Sunnyvale, California, offices were told of layoffs on Thursday and experienced the brunt of the layoffs, about 60 people, we understand.
I enjoy your beer. Very much. I detest your online policies ....
24 Hours? 28 Days!!!In my world - with the (essentially free) software I use - when someone unsubscribes - it happens within seconds. Call me if you need help. It looks like you do.
Who Are Fullers?
Meanwhile - file under core versus context ... Virgin, BA et al might not be the best food you can get on the planet, but I know of no restaurant that can fly you around the world.
My superpower is that I can sleep when people are wrong on the Internet. But I do sometimes blog about it the next morning.... Don Marti introducing us to his latest blog post where he writes about the latest abomination that adtech is about to drop onto humanity.
Read All About it.
I have written many times before that Tesla is not a car company. For example - 18 months ago. So, I for one was not surprised to read that;
Tesla drops 'Motors' from name as CEO Musk looks beyond cars
Quoting Reuters:Chief Executive Elon Musk looks to transform the Silicon Valley firm from an electric car maker to a diversified energy products company.Ummm - not news .... I wrote this last summer, and
I love Flowing Data.
Which is one reason why I am highlighting this post.
Lessons for all ... not just data presenters ... but data readers. When you see a graphic - know where it is coming from. Know the context. Explore and understand the data that surround what you are looking at.
Yes. It's hard work - but how else can you unpick the truth.
And that my friends is absolutely necessary in the times we find ourselves living in.
Remember when I wrote this?
And this?
And how if you are paying attention, you will get the idea that I think we have a bit of a problem in tech .... Check out what just happened at Zenefits.
50% of Zenefits workforce gone.
What's left?
That’s about a third of the size it was a year ago, when it ousted its founding CEO, Parker Conrad, over revelations that it flouted state regulations for selling health insurance.
Way back in 2012 I wrote this.
... as long as I have been in business I keep hearing (and repeating) the phrase – how do you ‘monetize the network’ ?
And remember that old line from Stanford University Network (sic) – ‘The Network is the Computer.’ ? How about “.. it’s not what you know – it’s who you knowâ€. Let’s not forget that the second oldest profession in the world is ‘The Middleman’ – who live and die (see Layer Cake) by their connections.
The entire contraption of “Unbridled Energy†is supported only by a rote optimism: “The United States has 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves — enough to last 100 years even at double the current rate of consumption.†We humans have inhabited the earth for many thousands of years, and now we can look forward to surviving for another hundred by doubling our consumption of coal? This is national security?Source : Harpers - Faustian Economics by Wendell Berry
I love the work of both Hugh and Shephard - my apologies if I take their name in vain.
This Team Runs Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Page
Gruber's original post ... ending with
Key point here is that Mark Zuckerberg is much too smart to actually spend time on Facebook.Yup.
To match the number of novels, letters, essays, and other scribblings Asimov produced in his lifetime, you would have to write a full-length novel every two weeks for 25 years.Holy crap! How did he do it? Have a read. There were 6 tenets to his approach, but to understand them properly - you really should read the article.
Never stop learningDon’t fight getting stuckBeware the resistanceLower your standardsMake MORE stuffThe secret sauce
Will Donald Trump be assassinated, ousted in a coup or just impeached?
Read All About It.
The UK's Spectator ruminates ... as do I. In the 'pre-truth world' Impeachment was seen to be the ultimate extreme for how a Presidency might end. Now it is the least of three options - and none of them good. Meanwhile ....
Trump was sworn in on MondayLied throughout the weekendHis first law-suit arrived this morning - and yes - I am SPECIFICALLY linking to Buzzfeed.
In the movie Now You See Me ( 1 and 2), there are some nice quotes about the essence of magic. Was reminded of them today when I read this.
Put your most junior people in the White House briefing room. Recognise that the real story is elsewhere, and most likely hidden.Read All About It.
Relevant ?
What is magic? Focused deception. But deception meant to entertain.and
The closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see.
Facebook:We will work with third-party organizations on how to better understand and to promote news literacy both on and off our platform to help people in our community have the information they need to make decisions about which sources to trust.Frederic Filloux:No kidding. If you can wrap your mind around this 42-word sentence, it'll amount to saying McDonald’s goes low-fat, low-carb, or Monsanto acquires Whole Foods. Lofty words, unconnected to reality.
Whichever way you look at it - same face.
Status Quo is Your Biggest Competitor
... so being an old fart - I clicked through. No. Not THAT Status Quo.
People ... I'm talking to YOU Barbara - should be more careful with their headlines.
I thought for a minute that the boys had moved into business consulting.
Phew.
The one thing I do know? Honest mistake. I know Barbara. It wasn't meant to be 'click bait'.
Great Article.
The paper tried to rise above all this, but it made a new rule: If you sack a compositor, get him off the premises immediately.Which Paper? The London Times
When? 1882
Why? Well, it turns out for very good reasons ...
When I was a lad, there was a Genesis song ...
"Get 'em out by Friday!
You don't get paid till the last one's well on his way.
Get 'em out by Friday!
The saddest part of this :
Third of Republicans Think Trump Won Popular Vote
... is that I am not surprised.
I wrote this yesterday ... and then it got me to thinking ...
Theranos - this just the latest legal action
Lily
Magic Leap
The General Malaise
Hampton Creek
Zenefits
... and now Facebook's Oculus
But no worries - all is good and upright in the world of Tech.
What Grande does need is a reality check. Sorry, honey but you can’t base a career on selling sex and then get angry when your horny fans treat you like a sex object.I agree mainly with a lot of this, but not;
The truth is that Ms.Grande is actually astonishingly talented as a singer and an actress.
There are nay-sayers out there letting us know that there is nothing to worry about. Then again - they are the same nay savers that have said before there was nothing to worry about - you know like the housing market isn't inflated or those 'non-profitable, low-revenue companies searching for a business model being valued at hundred of millions of dollars' do not point to an inflated market.
Anyway, from time to time I highlight some of those companies that are considered outliers by those same people, but I keep wondering if it is more the norm.
I love how Podcasts are really emerging as a story-telling vehicle. Of course Serial is the famous one ... but don’t for one minute think it is the only one.
Take this wonderful series from Hawaii's Civil Beat. When you visit the islands, you might not realise the under-currents. When you move to the islands, you still might not realise the under-currents. To do that, you need to explore, ask questions, understand and at all times keep an open mind.
So my tributary feeds my river.
And my river feeds my estuary.
But not always.
I wonder .... as @davewiner says 'still diggin'
1. to arouse the curiosity or interest of by unusual, new, or otherwise fascinating or compelling qualities; appeal strongly to; captivate:
"The plan intrigues me, but I wonder if it will work."
2. to achieve or earn by appealing to another's curiosity, fancy, or interest:
"to intrigue one's way into another's notice."
3. to draw or capture:
"Her interest was intrigued by the strange symbol."... and also used by a friend when she saw the newly emerging web publication .
It just appealed to me.
And I know it's naughty - but as I have demonstrated a few times before ... they aren't my favourite utility company ... which reminds me - I should update that post - it did get fixed.
But there's more.
Time Warner Cable on MAUI - one of the most expensive places on the planet - delivers what I get from Xfinity with FASTER cable AND HBO - for HALF the price.
Seriously? I Thought Peter Thiel was meant to be a visionary. These are all his comments ...
'age of Apple' at its endthe evolution of the smartphone has reached a zenith.We know what a smartphone looks like and does. It's not the fault of Tim Cook, but it's not an area where there will be any more innovation."... and it was published by the NYT!
taken to the logical conclusion, this seems to be his belief .
This right here. This link. This is the single most important link you ever need to have.
The Beer Judge Certification Program lists 100 styles with defined ranges of alcohol by volume (ABV), bitterness (measured in IBUs, or International Bittering Units), and color (measured using SRM, or Standard Reference Method).... and that link up there will take you to a mapping of every beer you could be consuming.
... oh - and talking of the other Beer Maps - I bet if you did this walk, the chances are that many of these delights could be sampled on route.
If you see this ... you can ignore it.
If the election of an American president abetted by Russian interference seems stranger than fiction, you're almost right. Exactly 30 years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, ABC aired a seven-night, 14-and-a-half-hour miniseries depicting life 10 years after the Soviet Union manipulates the presidential election as meek and deflated Americans shrug. “Amerika,†was heavily criticized at the time for peddling the histrionic premise of a bloodless coup. And while much of the production remains implausible, its core message is more relevant today than ever: They did it because we let them.
I still don't get why Billy Bush was so bad that he was essentially thrown off TV - but Trump is now going to be President. But that aside ... though #Trumpet thinks he is safe - I am guessing he isn't and that someone is eventually going to break ranks - for the good of the country.
Read All About It.
PostScript - there is an expression in England that talks about welshing on somebody.
I have not owned a printer for the better part of 4 years. In that time I have had to actually print something once - for the Blue Cross/BlueShield. (I know - right !). Everything else that people think I print and sign, is actually done through my iPad using EMail, DropBox and Sign My Pad.
Still - if you do still enjoy paper - here's a deal.
REDUCED to $49 - from $149.
I was fixing a bug in OmniOutliner where it wouldn't open a file with an uppercase .OPML suffix. I did some digging, and the fix was to register the app as handling the com.apple.news.opml file type.... Brent Simmons writing on his blog about OPML.
In the short piece, he references Dave Winer, the inventor of OPML. Why is this interesting?
Well I use Omni Outliner and I use some of Dave Winer's software - including this blog that you are now reading.
Fascinating read from NPR. Bottom line - you do not have to be rich to sponsor the arts. Beth Morrison is one of Opera's biggest patrons and does it all out of a two bedroom flat in Brooklyn.
Read All About It.
The drama has some investors predicting more disasters. “What if Theranos is the canary in the coal mine?†says Roger McNamee, a 40-year VC veteran and managing director at Elevation Partners. “Everyone is looking at Theranos as an outlier. We may discover it’s not an outlier at all.†That would be bad news, because without trust, the tech industry’s intertwined ecosystem of money, products, and people can’t function. Investors may find the full version of the old proverb is more accurate: “One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.
There is a lot of noise about the inadequacy of Twitter, that it is stagnant, lacks innovation and does nothing that actually improves life. In fact, there seem to be an increasing number of people leaving for just that reason. Here's another one. Lindy West has left because it is "unusable for anyone but trolls, robots and dictators".
Trump uses his Twitter account to set hate mobs on private citizens, attempt to silence journalists who write unfavourably about him, lie to the American people and bulldoze complex diplomatic relationships with other world powers.
You might guess that I am a big fan of this idea - it's a kick starter project for micro-blogging and I am watching with interest.
Sometime this year - something has to happen with Twitter. If it goes away - then something needs to replace it. If it doesn't go away - it is still going to change.
Me - I have my Wordpress Blogs, Medium, Several Twitter Accounts and, and, and .
Another place to track some outpourings of yours truly and my friend Graham.
We are intending to develop a kind of 'Siskel and Ebert' approach to stuff we find and have an opinion on. And with that said, I am guessing that there will be many many many posts !!
And Another Thing is it's name - and in so many ways - this says it all ....
We are also on Facebook and Twitter
2017 is upon us and while this piece of writing is not about new years resolution, it is an excellent reminder to clean up our lives at least a little, if not a lot.
Not only that, but remember what is important - and forget that which isn't. Thank you Dave.
I think I figured it out. He knew there would be a 45 minute wait, and decided to let me do the waiting.
In remarks to reporters upon entering a New Year’s Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday night, Trump warned against being quick to pin the blame on Russia for the hacking of US emails.“I just want them to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge,†he said. “And if you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong.â€I remain completely stumped why the media continues to quote these absurd words without reminding the reader that The WMD fiasco was all about politics and not about intelligence.
My thanks to my buddy Louis for this link .... a long story, full of detail and exposure of the coverups around The Trump Foundation .... love this line ...
Together, we had discovered Trump doing exactly what the law said he couldn’t do: using his charity’s money to decorate his resort.
A Trump spokesman later offered the explanation that the resort was actually doing the foundation a favor, by storing its art free of charge.
.. and that's just your house!
No crime had been committed in the Sourovelises’ house, but the title of the case against them was Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. 12011 Ferndale St. Somehow, a crime had been committed by the house. In civil forfeiture, it suffices that property is suspected of having been involved in a crime. Once seized, the property’s owners bear the burden of proving their property’s innocence. “Sentence first — verdict afterwards,†says the queen in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Where else are you going to hear Donald Trump described as a
clingfilmed parcel of hamburger meat that’s been kicked through a yellow cobweb
(?)
Now that is a very good question. And is all you need to know before you 🔗 click through to read all about it.
And. When you do. Make sure you watch the 1 hour of perfect Charlie Brooker reportage.
Many thanks to my good friend Dr.
To succeed, House of Cards has to be wayyy over-the-top compared to the reality of Washington. ... David Frier
... and of course - that is why they are considering cancelling House of Cards. The excellent script writers just can't beat the wackiness of The Trump Reality show that we will call the US Presidency
for the next 4 yearsuntil he is indictedunless something else happensOf course, it might be just a rumour .
... that you
1] Can never sell or retire.
2] Can have no more than 10 clients at any time.
3] Will never write unpaid written proposals longer than one page.
4] Cannot sell or track time.
5] Must always say what you are thinking to clients and prospects.What a great list - provided by my erstwhile colleague and friend David Airey.
Read All About it.
Well - you were probably wondering anyway - right? Now it is official.
In the just released EIP report, North Carolina’s overall electoral integrity score of 58/100 for the 2016 election places us alongside authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies like Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. If it were a nation state, North Carolina would rank right in the middle of the global league table – a deeply flawed, partly-free, democracy that is only slightly ahead of the failed democracies that constitute much of the developing world.
More than seven-in-ten (73%) say that Jesus was born to a virgin and 81% believe he was laid in a manger. And similar shares say that wise men, guided by a star, brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (75%) and that an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus (74%). Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) believe that all four of these things actually happened, while 14% say none of them happened.
I agree ... if only Republican party members in Congress and Senate would realize that it is ok.
You know how America keeps coming up with ideas and calling them their own? Archie Bunker and 'All In The Family' (1971) for example - an excellent show - but close to zero credit for the UK's 'Till Death Us Do Part' (1966) ... even though Norman Lear actually had to buy the rights of 'Till Do Us Part' to make it. Well, there's a new one that has been living in my head recently .
HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT— ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management.Jaron Lanier explains the difference between the World Wide Web and Nelson's vision, and the implications:A core technical difference between a Nelsonian network and what we have become familiar with online is that [Nelson's] network links were two-way instead of one-way. In a network with two-way links, each node knows what other nodes are linked to it.
And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)
And featured at the top of this post from Mr. Louis Rawlins. It's a wonderful, personal, honest post, but those opening words from Roger Waters ( because we know it's Roger that pens those kinda lyrics don't we .
Excellent Post and Video From Jason Snell.
As Steve Jobs said:
When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, cause that’s what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, and America started to move into those urban and then suburban centers, cars got more popular and innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars.
... or even asking questions?
When it happened, I commented that in the USA, it would probably take twice as long to get a first meeting to fill discuss the filling in of said hole - but over in Japan - I week ... 'job done'.
That said, I wonder how much of that week was spent by the engineers looking at the foundations of the building ... anyone worried?
It is a loooong story - which I will recount on my main site when I have a moment - but back we are.
Hilary Lost. We delivered on the request made in the video. Everyone got it wrong. I am not going to bother to comment on broad issues here – enough places are doing that already. Not my job. I want to write this sort posterity as an observation. I truly hope that I am wrong about what I write below. But everything and anything we have all seen to date is that it won’t be.
Donald Trump is like Brexit in three key wayswrites Lord Ashcroft. In his piece he highlights ....
First, the Trump and Brexit movements have both harnessed a desire for change that goes beyond dry questions of policy. Second, voters are having to decide how much risk they are prepared to take in return for the change they hope for, but whose consequences are unknowable. Third, many in the British political and media establishment completely failed to understand that reasonable people might vote for Brexit.
This just in from Patently Apple. It is about how the new touch bar borrows from Microsoft and it reminded me of this ...
Apple isn't the first to do anything. Mouse. iPad. iPod. to name but three. That isn't the point.
Filed under 'People unclear on the concept.'
This kind of stupidity has been going on for years. I can't believe that it is still happening.
Considering that over 88 percent of respondents named email one of their top-three most important marketing channels, a serious disconnect appears to arise when moving from challenges to tactics, analytics, and investment.Despite the more than one-third of respondents who report sending at least one-million emails each month, only 22 percent say they invest at least $5000 per month on email marketing.
"You can trust Jason Calacanis he’s an expert in incompetence."... first comment under the video.
This week he appeared with Leo Laporte on 'This Week In Technology' (another show that passes me by without me noticing, since I wrote them off long ago.) So I guess this show was a marriage made in heaven.
I have commented on my disagreement with Jason before. So, here is another one. He might be
What is the fuss all about ?
Read All About it.
I think The ' Prof ' at MarketingProfs must be on sabbatical.
The Headline reads :
Four Ways to Market To Millennials (Without Underestimating or Patronizing Them)
Seriously. How about starting with a different headline?
'Hear', 'Engage', 'Inspire', 'Respect' .... seems to be what you need to do.
You mean that isn't what you should be doing for The Silent Generation, The Boomers, GenX or Centennials .... my god no wonder the country is in trouble!
We read a lot about Trump and Gold. Turns out he even models himself on The Golden Ratio. Ok, not really, it is actually the Fibonacci Spiral - but close enough for some - particularly Trump who is even looser with facts.
Read All About It.
To date, Magic Leap has raised nearly $1.4 billion in venture capital, including $794 million this past February, reportedly the largest C round in history. $1.4 Billion investment.
You probably have heard of Unicorns - that is when the valuation hits $1Bn. It looks like Magic Leap decided to up the ante !
A 'Leap of Faith' for 'Magic Leap' - or does someone know something?
Read All About It. Or just watch .
Via Loopinsight
Two Tribes
One comment I did not reflect in my conversation with a couple of Republicans the other night was my final pitch before I left. It went something like this .....
"With the leadership position that the US holds in the world, the most worrying thing that I can think of if Trump wins this coming Tuesday is what the rest of the world thinks. The US has already suffered a massive down turn in the respect that the international community holds.
Today New Zealand's Telecommunications Industry officially announced today that "For safety reasons the New Zealand Telecommunications industry, in coordination with Samsung, is blacklisting any Samsung Note 7 mobile phones still held by customers, from 18 November.
This means that Samsung Note 7's will not be able to be used across any of New Zealand's mobile networks, after 18 November.Read All About It.
I went to see Steven Wilson play last night. Post to come - but during the evening found myself in two very different conversations. Both with 'two old white guys'.
One just before the concert.
The other in the break. This was the happier conversation.
One guy was saying he was heading down to LA to see Steven Wilson the following day. And that will be the 25th time he had seen him.
I wish there were more reviews and such positivity in the world ... what a great review. Who's he talking about? well here are some links to his blog featuring Mad King Ludwig from the event he attended.
Watch This.
and now
This.
Full disclosure, Mad King Ludwig is the son of a friend of mine. My only advice get some better sound production into the public domain.
.. it was a movie. It was true. Keep it in mind when you think. When you vote. When you live.
So this post is much more of a test than ever before - having just read this post and watched the embedded video.
In it Dave talks about two different ways of adding images to posts on 1999.io It is the Metadata one that caught my eye - so I am going to try it out. And let's just see.
That said - he didn't mention what I consider to be the third way of adding an image - which is 'embed HTML - which allows me to have an image in the actual body copy of the post.
Tickled my funny bone:
Bill Gates: “So, how’s heaven, Steve?â€
Steve Jobs: “Great ! It doesn’t have any walls or fences.â€
Bill Gates: “So…?â€
Steve Jobs: “So, we don’t need any Windows and Gates.
Bill Gates: “Heh Steve, I heard a rumor.â€
Steve Jobs: “What rumor?â€
Bill Gates: “That nobody is allowed to touch Apples there - and there are no Jobs in heaven.â€
Steve Jobs : “Oh no, there definitely are .
Sarah Cooper - two back-to-back pieces well worth a read. If it wasn't so true - it would be really funny.
9 Non-Threatening Leadership Strategies for Women
Honest Diversity in Tech Report
Nice guide to understanding the UK - in case you get confused by this one.
Two HighlightsEnglish – 1] The language spoken by the British (but as in Scotland and Wales, not the only language). 2] The people who live in England. Someone from Scotland is not English. Someone from Wales is not English. Only someone from England is English.Blighty – An older term for ‘Britain’ that evokes misty-eyed golden images of Britain.
Surprisingly, nearly two-thirds of subscribers believe the autonomous car revolution will take place outside the U.S., according to the latest subscriber survey. I am more surprised that one third of subscribers believe that the autonomous car revolution will take place inside the USA. Let's file this away in the 'American Exceptionalism' folder and the unfailing ability of so many people to believe we are number one despite al facts the contrary.
"Do you pick someone who's under federal investigation for using a private email server?"OR
†Do you pick someone who called Mexicans rapists, claimed the president was born in Kenya, proposed banning an entire religion from entering the US, mocked a disabled reporter, said John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was captured, attacked the parents of a fallen soldier, bragged about committing sexual assault, was accused by 12 women of committing sexual assault, said some of those women weren’t attractive for him to sexually assault, said more countries should get nukes, said that he would force the military to commit war crimes, said a judge was biased because his parents were Mexicans, said women should be punished for having abortions, incited violence at his rallies, called global warming a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, called for his opponent to be jailed, declared bankruptcy six times, bragged about not paying income taxes, stiffed his contractors and employees, lost a billion dollars in one year, scammed customers at his fake university, bought a six-foot-tall painting of himself with money from his fake foundation, has a trial for fraud coming up in November, insulted an opponent's looks, insulted an opponent’s wife’s looks, and bragged about grabbing women by the pussy?
Remembering a lot today ...
For today's Musical delectation ...
REPOST
First thing to point out ... I definitely am not a techy - but love what Dave Winer keeps on pushing with his work around the open web. That is why I signed on here and am loving what I am seeing.
I installed 1999 yesterday without a hitch. I have hit a couple of issues of Java exceptions that I have not reported - since I can't really get a repeatable case.
REPOST
I Liked Dave Winer's post 'this' morning (actually April 22nd).
... as I wrote yesterday, auspicious that the day his project 1999 widens out for testing with a larger group was on the very day that Prince passed.
More to come on this topic.
Originally posted on April 22nd, 2016.
REPOST
Originally posted on April 22nd, 2016.
This blog / river / though stream is written using a system developed by Dave Winer called 1999. It references back to the halcyon days of 1999 - when life was easier.
When Dave opened up his product to a more public collective, I joined and haven't looked back - learning more about coding than I ever thought I would. But it has been fun.
My day of joining the fold was auspicious - as it turned out, the same day that Prince (of 1999 fame) passed into history at 57.
Superb Article from Gustavo Tanaka, a Brazilian author and entrepreneur.
The article was published nearly a year ago, so you may have already seen it. But always good to be reminded. Right?
If any one of these headlines makes you pause for a couple of seconds then click through and read the article.
1- No one can stand the employment model any longer
2- The entrepreneurship model is also changing
3- The rise of collaboration
FutureWorld is a boutique consulting group that help companies visualize and try to understand where the world is heading. They also have a weekly newsletter that takes a piece of news from the previous week and extrapolate into the future.
You might have caught the Otto story recently. An autonomous truck delivering beer.
Great Future Read ... and is this a possible future?
This is how it works. Sensing an unavoidable collision (moose on the highway), the autonomous beer truck polls other affected parties (approaching Uber, pedestrian on sidewalk, overtaking vehicle).
Great Article from Anil Dash that popped into my feeds today (even though it seems to have been published back in August). It hits on a number of themes that have been running through my head for a while.
I am not as erudite as Anil - but I have long felt that companies need to forget the role of CIO/CTO et al - since their business is by definition - tech.
... just a name I am thinking about. There is a lot going on up there.
Important this post was written in and an on a for 1999 .... now the post is here - it is probably irrelevant. Making some notes to myself about 1999 experiences.
CSSI am slowly restyling the site - but stuck on why I can't seem to alter the size of the body copy on a story page like this - without also affecting the size of the body copy on the river.
I don't get it - I sent in my $39 - and I still can't speak German. The iMore headline specifically reads :
Digital Offers: Learn a new language for just $39! Turns out that the devil is in the detail. I also have to spend time!
We all live in the attention economy. And part of that is that as the price of 'stuff' continues to tumble, mainly because the supply/demand curves continue to give us more and more for less and less, it turns out that the time we have to devote to stuff is just the same.
Excellent read if you at all care about the F**D up world of Marketing....
Gartner’s recent Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising (2016) saw attribution sliding down the Peak of Inflated Expectations deeper into the Trough of Disillusionment. According to Gartner, reasons for the descent range from unrealistic expectations to vendor hype. In contrast, old-fashioned, aggregate data-based marketing mix modeling was considered to remain in the Plateau of Productivity.Read All About It and get a better look at the cartoon that explains why this failed thinking continues despite all logic.
Apple didn’t launch a crappy product, they launched devices which still are the best option on the market. Which still have top notch industrial design. Which still have the best operating system. Which still have the best third party apps on any desktop platform. Which are still the best option for most people in the world. And frankly, if you can’t see that, then you need to go buy a non-Mac laptop and see for yourself how bad it truly is.
Ian Duncam Smith's single point - The British Government needs to level the playing field when it comes to Uber and The Black Cabs.
In my view about this is that it is an unfair market. I've talked to a lot of black cab drivers. They are under huge restrictions, they have to have as special kind of car, they have to have a special space, they have to have disability ramps, they have to be above board, they have to pay all their tax.
Great Article From Brian Solis.
Turns out that the problem companies have with 'Customer Experience' is silos ... again !
Each group inadvertently contributes to a disconnected approach to CX because they’re attempting to solve one part of the customer’s journey and experience from their silo. Yet, customers don’t see departments, they see one brand.and guess what ... it is
the customer who owns the customer experience.and on this ...
If the soundtrack is not Tangerine Dream - whoever it was must have been inspired by them.
via Kottke
I've commented on Mr. Scoble before. And I am going to do it again. This just in.
In it Robert talks about 'Mixed Reality'. Say what?
Ok - I am guilty of trying to mess around with the terms we use ... like here for example. BUT ... it was a suggestion.
Mixed realty is a thing, the question is whether the 'person in the street' is going to get it? I am not so sure.
You might not know this ... but
The islands of Hawaii are the world’s epicenter for GMO testing. According to the Center for Food Safety, “In 2014 alone, 178 different GE field tests were conducted on over 1,381 sites in Hawai’i (vs. only 175 sites in California). Herbicide-resistance was the most frequently tested trait in GE crop field tests.†This means that this ancient farmland is regularly sprayed by massive quantities of dozens of types of pesticides (sometimes in combinations never before tried) on experimental GMO seeds to see what surviveWith the closing of the Maui sugar mill this year, I am personally worried about now that new found land is going to be utilized.
Building on the happiness monk - watch the video here,
I just discovered this link ...
Happiness is when your life fulfills your needs But it was this that caught my eye.
Lovely analogy I like to think of each of us like one of those big recording studio mixer boards, the ones with all the sliding controls and knobs, some of which interact with each other, some working separately, all working together to produce the final product.
If you know me, you know I ramble on about Platforms. They are very specific things. I love the writing and work of Sangeet Paul Choudary.
He Highlights ..scalable gatekeeping spare capacity aggregating highly fragmented markets transparency to help buyers and sellers understand each other better creating intelligence for increased efficiency... as the 5 key aspects that are unique to platforms - and IMHO - why they will win.
I attended VRM day yesterday down at The Computer History Museum. More of that to come. But one of my new friends mentioned an ‘alternative’ guide to Silicon Valley.
It really is rather good and I particularly liked the line;
Silicon Valley is more of a state of mind than a physical location.
Of course, I knew of Mr. Blank - and so, spent a little time wandering around his site and re-discovered;
I have never understood why Apple hasn't really used the RoI story to sell its Macs. I have long held that although the initial Apple purchase is high - when you examine what comes with it - and how little support you need - and if it does - Apple will just help you .... it is an absolute no brainer.
IBM found that not only do PCs drive twice the amount of support calls, they’re also three times more expensive.
If you track my stuff you will know that there are a couple of consistent threads that run through my writing.
1] VRM - an initiative that emerged throughs the work of Doc Searls. VRM is an acronym for 'Vendor Relationship Management' - basically the flip side of CRM. It wonders how do 'we the people' manage our relationships with vendors? It all ties into my own thoughts of being 'My own System of Record' - that you might have heard me expound on.
30 Days. 30 Songs.
“A playlist of songs that Donald Trump will hate.†'The Washington Post'
This one is number 13 - it is called 'little failure' - which is interesting - because 'Trumpette' probably would see that as a bigger insult than 'big failure'.
One per day coming out up until the election. If you like Moby, REM, Aimee Mann, Death Cab for Cutie - I think you might enjoy.
Music to blow your mind too.
One guy. One guitar and a little bit of looping.
I often find myself reading that Apple has lost its ability to innovate. Most recently demonstrated by the fact that because the iPhone 7 looks like the iPhone 6 and 6S - then no innovation has occurred under the hood. This I lay firmly at the feet of analysts, writers and pundits who clearly have little understanding of what innovationtechnology ordesignactually is.
John Gruber has long commented on Porsche’s 70 year old iconic design as basically the same as it always has been, yet nobody would ever accuse Porsche of lacking innovation.
.. the original post was called 6 Steps to Marketing Automation Success. I don’t agree. They are 6 steps to business success.
1) Nurturing customer relationships - important to any business
2) Automation becoming a necessity - if you want a large numbers of customers
3) Not such an expensive solution - of course it isn’t - shop around
4) Targeted messages and personalisation - duh
5) Increased open rates and click-through rates - be careful what you measure
Further to this post, while my mind is in that frame I came across a post from the inimitable Nathan Yau - over at Flowing Data. He does great work.
Beyond the point I made in the prior post, there is something else. Data - despite what you might think when you look at the paucity of data that is getting shared in the current US Presidential race. Data is everywhere.
I am in the process of writing an article about Visual Thinking, which is in turn a set up for a wider conversation about how we typically 'think' about presenting information for others to absorb.
For example, have you ever noticed that when you get an excel spreadsheet - the cells are 'bottom of cell' aligned. Drives me nuts.
The sad thing is how little importance is given to how presentations can be better understood by more people through the visual language that gets used, rather than 'this is the way I do it' mentality.
I knew there had be one.
Well I would say to any one of my kids and any children in this country that Donald Trump and I are committed to a safer and more prosperous future for their family. The weak and feckless foreign policy that Hillary Clinton promises to continue has literally caused wider areas of the world to spin apart.and then ...
The rise of terrorist threats that have inspired violence here at home, and we’ve seen an erosion of law and order in our streets.
Would love to read/see/hear how anyone can argue against this.
Thankyou Daniel.
Back in the day, because I knew a little bit more about technology than other family members, I was the defacto 'go to' dude for technical support. You all know what I mean. Interestingly, more often than not, a fix could be achieved by the simple 'switch it all off - switch it all on again' 'command'.
At a similar time, I remember a friend getting out of her corporate marketing role, to follow her dream of becoming an artist.
Just some of the one liners from him today ....
Right from the outset, there was bad news for Trump: His mic worked. Looking for a glimmer of hope? TV ratings for this debate were down 20%. (Apparently a lot of people weren't able to replace the TVs they shot during the first debate.) The long-predicted Trump pivot finally arrived. He went nuclear. Read All About It.
Blaming ad blocking and tracking protection on the companies providing them is like blaming pharmaceuticals for treating diseases. People use ad blockers and tracking protection for the same reason they use umbrellas and sunblock: to protect themselves from something they don't want.via Doc Searls
Great article from Doc - and I agree with him - BUT - I still think we need to be careful about our terms. 'Ad blocker' has become a universal term that IMHO favors the Ad Tech industry.
Via Paris Lemon
Funny. Here is a short extract. Clinton: I want to do all kinds of things. I want to do good things. There’s nothing we can't do together, you and me Patrice. I want to work with people of all ethnicities. I want to heal the country. Make it a better place. For you and for me and the entire human race. And our children. And grandchildren. and then Trump: This country’s going to shit.
… no not that one. This one.I first heard it nearly twenty years ago, bought the album and it has remained one of my ‘go to’ pieces in the music library ever since. Powerful. Forceful. Driving.
Delighted therefore to read the following in Spin... to celebrate (the 20th anniversary), the English space-rock greats announced that they will play the album in its entirety at a show on November 7.
... including Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards. Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey and of course Canadian Neil Young.
America's only defense was Bob Dylan.
I think Ronnie Wood at 69 is the only one under 70.
Welcome to the Palm Springs retirement home for genteel musicians... Mick Jagger
Read All About It. (There are some great photos)
BTW - a couple of days after I published this post - Dylan got the Nobel.
Written about this before - writing about it again.
The most common strategy among Trump-supporting Republicans, at least so far, is to denounce Trump’s comments without rescinding support. That list includes … Ted Cruz of Texas Roy Blunt of Missouri Richard Burr of North Carolina Ron Johnson of Wisconsin John McCain of Arizona David Perdue of Georgia Rob Portman of Ohio Marco Rubio of Florida Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin Kevin McCarthy of California Steve Scalise of Louisiana Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington Oh - and of course ‘Turtle’ McConnell
A while back, I posted this.
More recently, the Guardian had this ....
Actor and director Robert de Niro gives his take on the US presidential election, and on Republican nominee Donald Trump in particular, as part of a campaign urging people to vote in the 8 November poll. De Niro is one of a number of celebrities who took part in the #VoteYourFuture initiative but his scathing contribution was considered to be too partisan to be included in the final campaign, and was instead released separately by the producers on Friday
These people are so far on the wrong side of history …
Ryan, the top-ranking Republican in Washington, said he was “sickened†by the recording and that Trump would no longer appear at what would have been their first campaign event together in Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin on Saturday. Trump confirmed that his running mate, the Indiana governor, Mike Pence, would take his place at the Republican county festival.
It's a beautiful morning. Just thought I would share.
Every year, UEA - my alma mater - has a global reunion. I attended my first one last week. I cannot believe that there were so many people that attended my University in the sleepy town of Norwich, East Anglia (that's in England folks) .... that now live in the Bay Area !
If you have an aversion to hearing Cruz's voice - and I do understand - then scroll through to the start of minute 2.
Trevor Noah absolutely nails it.
Watch It All Here.
Just 7 LINKS to share today.
Apple Insider
Patently Apple
Engadget
Mac Rumors
BGR
The Verge
BGR
To save you the click through - they are all about a Samsung 7 bursting into flames. Old news you might think. Actually - no. These links all point to today's story of how this one is one of the replacement phones that were exchanged for a faulty one!
You cannot make this stuff up - and I will say it again - IF THIS WAS APPLE - the mainstream media wouldn't have time to cover the election, because there would be so much coverage about Apple's problems.
A National Security Agency (NSA) contractor has been arrested and charged with stealing highly classified information, U.S. authorities said Wednesday, a data breach that could result in a damaging new leak about the U.S. government’s surveillance efforts.
The contractor worked for Booz Allen Hamilton... and no - it wasn't Edward Snowden. It’s another one that Juan Cole explores in this excellent read.
All I am wondering is how long it will be before BAH is sued, charged, anything over placing spies into the Government.
Today's musical offering.
From Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley
It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism.
Time is now to spread your voice,
Time's to come there'll be no choice,
Why do you feel small,
It happens to us all.... as 'writ' by The Moody Blues
... and in case you are wondering just how small, this should put it all into perspective.
This is too good to not add to the flow, even though I had already posted about this earlier today.
You can buy it here.
Lots of news. Lots of commentary. Lots of noise about Virtual Reality. Augmented Reality. And it got me to thinking.
It takes about two seconds to find an article on the internet asking whether we are real. Even postulating that the universe itself might in fact just be a simulation. Like this one for example.
'Virtual Reality', by definition describes a reality that is (nearly) like ours (that is after all the original meaning of the word 'virtual').
This morning's musical offering for your delectation.
Gentle. Liquid.
Listen.
I need to investigate the connection further ... but just read these words from Shunryu Suzuki
"To stop the mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind pervades your whole body. With your full mind you for the mudra in your hands."
" We say our practice should be without gaining ideas, without any expectations, even of enlightenment. This does not mean, however, just to sit without purpose.
It was George Orwell who wrote
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.â€So consider this - that I TRUST will be extensively reported - we will see.
The GOP website pushed up blog posts declaring its VP candidate, Mike Pence, the "clear winner" of a debate against Democratic candidate Tim Kaine, before the debate actually began.
Work Life Balance as a concept has always annoyed me - and continues to do so. Balance is not only hard - but it is wrong. Because one small step either way and there is discord.
Brad Feld wrote about Work Life Harmony yesterday. It resonated more for me as it did him.
It occurred to me that life is not (or at least should not) be a see saw or set of scales that somehow measure us - and in turn judge.
Stunning Album. Absolutely Stunning.
He was in the middle of a record that was already eerily connected to the themes of death and falling – when you’re Nick Cave, that’s probably more likely than when you’re Taylor Swift – and he simply carried on. He kept writing. He wrote his way straight through the aftermath, and not only did he continue making his record, he decided to invite a huge film crew in to capture the entire recording process, a mere six months after his son died.
Marvelous stuff ... and important.
This is a great idea - but I would have been more impressed if it was one of Brad's team writing this piece - and not him.
Three years ago my partners and I at Foundry Group decided to experiment with a month off the grid. Each of us goes away for a month and the other three (now four) cover for him. It’s been remarkably successful for us, both individually and as a partnership.
Not enough to title the piece "How to Own the Consideration Phase" - this little gem is popped in half way down ... (my bold).
You're doing enough to fill the top of the funnel: It's time to focus on the consideration stage (20:48): "A lot of companies are spending too much money and focusing too much effort at the top of the customer journey for awareness and too much effort and money at the bottom trying to get people to buy again.
Where it all starts .... is of course the tributary ... but before you even get there, if you don’t know what you are doing .... you need help. This is a BIG doff of hat to (in 'first name' alphabetical order) ..
Andy Sylvester for getting me going and talking me off the cliff - a few times actually.
Dave Winer for providing the software that makes all this happen.
Current rivers powering my estuary include
Podcasts that have piqued my interest that I am currently tracking.
Music - as I find good new feeds an what is going on in that world 0 I will add it into this tributary
Reading - which are the top feeds that I read each morning to keep up with the world.
I will update them all from time to time as I discover new sources.
I am back. There has been a little bit of a break as I have been moving both DNS and service providers around - and during the course of it all - breaking things - a lot !
Today is Monday October 3rd - and though my styling isn't right ... yet - I can once more write and publish on my own server at my own address.
I have launched three sites.
“You should resign”, Senator Elizabeth Warren told Stumpf, who had injured his right hand while playing with his grandchildren. “You should give back the money you took while this scam was going on and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
But of course he won’t. He just ‘didn’t know’. (He being the CEO of Wells Fargo, who have just admitted fraud against millions of customers.
I don't intend this site to become home to movie commentaries - so this will likely be the last on this topic. But, I wanted to publish something about Oliver Stone's new 'biopic' as a 'compare and contrast' to Eastwood's Sully. Unlike Sully - I have seen 'Snowden'. Excellent.
Here's a review of the movie from the Intercept - Glen Greenwald's site. I haven't done a fact check on the movie, but I suspect that if it deviated too much from the truth (rubik cube and other film points aside), I think Glen and his team would be all over it.
This will become a major article on the Beyond Bridges site. Shameful.
Bottom line - donate your lifetime work to the Smithsonian - for people to use with no charge.
How did Carol found out? When Getty sent her a bill for using her own picture.
Read All About It.
I haven't seen Sully. I don’t' intend to. I like Eastwood Movies ... generally .. but I tend not to like Hanks movies. Normally Eastwood would win me over but when I saw the clips, it looked boring. And there was something else. The film was emphasizing things that happened post crash. Things where the authorities were questioning decisions that Sully took.
As the article says:
With Sully, the film-makers were faced with a problem: how to make a feature-length movie about a six-minute flight?
This is so sad ....
When the African-American history museum opens on September 24th, there will be no major artifacts from the civil rights icon on display.
A sad dysfunctional family.
Well that is something I never knew ..... and it has been doing it for 60 years.
Read All About It At Futility Closet.
BTW - before you click through - any idea what I'm talking about? The clue is in the title. It really is the crazy little stuff that you never knew - but then again - why would you?
I miss Keith Olbermann. I guess I need to spend more time seeking him out. Still - this video received via David Freer is just great. Olbermann is great with this kind of schtick.
Watch It Here.
.
Ordered ...
Blackfield V sees the duo of Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen return to full collaborative mode. Written and recorded over a period of 18 months, the album contains 13 linked songs that form a flowing 45 minute ocean themed song cycle. The duo handle vocals, guitars, and keyboards, alongside guests Tomer Z, Eran Mitelman, and string performances by the London Session Orchestra. Producer / engineer Alan Parsons works on three of the album's key tracks.
When you look at it this way -- should we be worried?HELL YES!
Read All About It.
And here is another way of looking at it .....
... during an inspection by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month, regulators concluded that Theranos had collected some data supporting the accuracy of the Zika test without implementing a patient-safety protocol approved by an institutional review board, according to the people familiar with the matter. Really, I know nothing about this world - but I do keep up with the news. A company that is run by a CEO who has been banned for two years from operating labs just weeks later is found out again.
Read All About It.
Via Kottke
and I agree - great chase.
But Steve's was nearly 50 years ago.
If you live in the UK you might recall the News International hacking scandal that ultimately brought down The News of the World. Though the editor - Rebecca Wade (now Brooks) - was protected by Murdock and has now reappeared as his CEO of News UK.
... what is News UK? The publisher of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and - if it hadn't been forced to close due to that hacking scandal - The News of the World.
I am in the process of writing an article on engagement. You know - that thing we are all meant to do in this wonderful social web of ours. I post an article - you comment on it - we end up in a dialogue etc .... Except it doesn't seem to work like that ... which is why I am writing the article.
Meanwhile, this post from Dave Winer appeared in my feed.
This is part of the magic of Apple. They tell us the future without telling us their future.A truly wireless future .... Read All About It
The former Genesis man wrote the song specifically for the upcoming Oliver Stone-directed film Snowden based on the experiences of Edward Snowden, the computer professional who leaked classified information from the US’s National Security Agency in 2013.“Snowden’s revelations shocked the world and made it very clear why we need to have some way to look over those who look over us. With increasing terrorist attacks, security is critical, but not without any accountability or oversight.
Steven Wilson has confirmed that the fifth Blackfield album will arrive on November 18 via Kscope.
CANNOT .. repeat CANNOT ... wait.
Read All About It.
Seriously .... while Apple stands up to the EU and the Feds - someone at the EFF thinks they will roll over to the music industry, which is already dead?
We hope that Apple isn’t unwittingly opening the door to new pressures to take advantage of that power.Interesting that they have already had to update the inaccuracy of the post's facts - so what chance we have on understanding supposition I have no idea.
If that >>>> was an iPhone ... the media would be alight with outrage and 'doomed' Apple and 'explodeGate' and all the rest of the crap ... but it's Samsung ... barely a word - really - and we have the FAA warning about using them - airlines banning them on planes and - well you know the story ...
They talk about 'Grading Trump On A Curve' - which they do.
Fascinating Thought ...
“A person’s identity,†Amin Maalouf wrote as he contemplated what he so poetically called the genes of the soul, “is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound.†And yet, inseparable as the parts may be from the whole, we each contain multitudes — not only psychologically, but even biologically — nowhere more so than when it comes to the bifurcation between our inner and outer selves.
Once again I am with Gruber … this time on that word ‘courage’. How much more powerful would it have been if Phil Schiller said ….
We're trying to make great products for people, and we have at least the courage of our convictions to say we don't think this is part of what makes a great product, we're going to leave it out. Some people are going to not like that, they're going to call us names but we're going to take the heat [and] instead focus our energy on these technologies which we think are in their ascendancy and we think are going to be the right technologies for customers.
Again - spot on ...
There is a large contingent of pundits who apparently would be more excited about a new iPhone that looked entirely different but had the exact same components as the iPhone 6S than they are by the actual iPhones 7, which are shaped like the 6S but have amazing new components. I don’t get that mindset at all. It’s like being a car pundit and judging the new Porsche 911 with a “meh†because it looks like the previous 911, and never even considering what it’s like to actually drive the new car.
Couldn't have put it better myself ..
Jeff Williams claimed that in 2015 Apple was the number two watch maker by revenue in the world, second only to Rolex. And Apple Watch was only on sale for eight months in 2015. If you think Apple Watch is a flop you are a moron.... which is good - because Gruber makes his living out of this - I don't.
I have tweeted about this already - but I still find it fascinating. Capturing the information so that I can come back later and write something more considered. My thanks for making me think this way Graham.
...adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac.
Read All About It
Beyond that, anti-Trump Republicans treat his voters like immoral enablers of a malignant boob. Should Mr. Trump lose decisively in November they’ll lord it over everyone, say “I told you so,†and accept what they imagine will be forelock-tugging apologies. Then they will get to work burying not only Mr. Trump but his issues.
That’s where the future of the GOP will be fought, and found: on whether Trumpism can be defeated along with Mr.
... is I believe the word.
I got this running - all by myself
I wonder if it will stay up when I close down terminal ?
LATER ::: Yes it will - managed to get the former command working .... now need to work out why my 'Music Feed' is not rendering correctly.
All caught up .... and I think I am there . You might notice that I have NOT been publishing as much here recently ... because I am publishing here. Over the past couple of weeks been transitioning my 1999 presence from Dave Winer's test space to here. Big thanks to Andy Sylvester for his help.
We had a few issues, but I think I am there. The posts from today and yesterday, are posts I had been making since August 11th that somehow got mangled.
Trying to decide whether this is a good thing ... or a bad thing?
Overall - I think good - but there is an increasing number of these kind of things going on. That said, there probably always were - its just that now we know about it.
... Dave Winer writing on the passing of Gawker.
Now that the line has been crossed, it's fair to assume it will become standard practice for billionaires like Thiel to finance lawsuits until the publication loses and has to sell itself to pay the judgment.
Hmm - not so sure I agree. Gawker was the worst and lowest scum - with Nick Denton taking his cue from the British Gutter Press, despite his education and early days as an FT reporter.
Apple: If we're forced to build a tool to hack iPhones, someone will steal it.
FBI: Nonsense.
Russia: We just published NSA's hacking tools... Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) August 17, 2016
Read All About It.
... for very good reasons. That said, it accounts for seven of the top selling beer brands in the USA. I don't drink any of the other three either, but that is by-the-by. Most important fact to note?
Lite Beer is all Marketing, proving that in America, you really can rely on the gullibility of the public.
But there's more
Consider this
Calories in a Bud Light - 145Calories in a Guiness - 126Read All About It
The conclusion of this piece ....
For only a movement that swells into every street and across borders and does not give up can stop the warmongers. Next year, it will be a century since Wilfred Owen wrote the following. Every journalist should read it and remember it...
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
This is a great post from my buddy David Airey.
SHAMEFUL actions by Zara. A boycott by all of their customers should be the minimum. And they should pay at least double to every single artist for stealing their work and set up a foundation to support other artists.
.. but not what you expect in many ways. For a start - as a 'cover' artist - he was truly original. I also never knew that he illustrated this book - a staple of my library for many years ...
Read All About It
Love Maps
In his testimony, Plant says he doesn't remember ever hearing the track Taurus. He says: "I didn't remember it then, and I don't remember it now."
Plant says he heard earlier Spirit track Fresh Garbage on a compilation album that he bought in 1968.Read All About It.
"After throwing the Bowmar under the bus I will not buy any Under Armour product again and will strongly encourage others not to purchase your products, unless you reinstate Sarah Bowmar as a sponsor," Phil Meyer wrote on the company's Facebook page. "For a company to stab hunters in the back after so many of us have used and endorsed your products is intolerable!"and
"It will be interesting watching your whole hunting line of business go down the toilet,"
In the end, even if you think Gawker deserved punishment, media organizations should not face the financial death penalty for a mistake, even a deplorable and egregious one.Read All About It - The Grauniad weighs in on Gawker.
I mainly agree - but it wasn't a mistake - otherwise Denton could have done something about it way back. Instead he stuck two fingers up and said 'F**K you' - I am the press.
... some times sooner than you think
Running through my music feeds this morning. Not one, not two - but three headlines .... jeez.
Former Nine Inch Nails Keyboardist James Woolley Dead at 50
3 Doors Down ex Matt Roberts dead at 38
Architects guitarist Tom Searle dies of cancer aged 28
RIP - all of you.
Post Script ... interesting how many names we do not relly know that provide so many emotional touchpoints in our lives.
Buddy Guy was on the same bill as Beck - and guess who did a surprise appearance?
one more
and another
I wish I had been there ..... but thankfully my friend Bill was - who had a friend Keith who took the pictures. In case you are wondering ... Row 7, Masonic Hall, San Francisco.
Click through if you want to extend your Cards Against Humanity set ... this is why you should ...
Today, we're letting America choose between two new expansion packs about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.... so far so good.
At the end of this promotion, Cards Against Humanity will tally up the sales of both packs, and depending on which pack gets more support ...... yes
we will donate all the money in support of Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Uber removing the Yellow Cab option for their app ?
Of course they are.
This makes for a fascinating listen .... Malcolm Gladwell in his Revisionist History Podcast talking about the 'sudden acceleration' problems that Toyota faced in 2009. His conclusion - operator error.
Seriously - and you have to listen to the podcast to get it - after all - you wouldn't expect me to summarize the closing arguments of Perry Mason in a couple of paragraphs - would you ?
Beyond this though, it made me stop and think about driverless cars.
The home and personal editions are clearly being primed to become advertising platforms. Ad blockers will not help because it will be OS itself serving ads, not the browser you chose (or the one MS chose for for you, see above on defaults).
And it's not just the home editions. I ran the SpyBot Anti-Beacon on a Windows 10 Enterprise build, and was shocked to see about 80% of the Telemetry* settings still sending data back to the mother-ship.
We live in 2016. Jobs declared Flash dead a little over 6 years ago. Google plans to start blocking Flash in Chrome this year. So why in the name of satan does Prezi - the hipsters answer to presentations - tell me that I need it to run their app.
#FirstSevenJobs ... it's a meme and made me think about mine ...
- Baby Sitter
- Newspaper Delivery
- Building Site Laborer
- Bin Man - or 'Garbage collector' as we know them in the US.
- House Cleaner (not what you think - this was working for an English Council - spending days in a single flat attempting to get it to a level that your usual house cleaner would even consider.
Click through for the collection.
Well ... would you?
The click through is an interesting article from Fred Wilson who did a 'deep survey' with his own kids. It's a good read.
Me - I think pure news is never again going to be paid for. Think about it - it is a commodity.
BUT ... in RED NEON CAPS - 72 PT - BUT .... the analysis, opinion and insights around it - definitely. And that is why esteemed organs like the FT, Guardian, NYT, Post et al - will survive in some form - provided they work out their new business models.
"Power for the few will be assumed through the inaction of the many. "
Apparently these regulations are too onerous for the multi-billion corporation that we know as Uber to operate in London.
Uber is challenging four of the new rules;
- requiring written English tests for drivers,
- having to locate its customer service call centre in London,
- requiring insurance that covers drivers when they are not working
Have you ever read the book 'The Kite Runner' ? If not you should.
If so, you can imagine why that particular wonderful piece of literature popped into my head on reading this news ...
2 Children, 1 Man Die After Kite String Slits Their Throats in India
... in case anyone ever thought that Kite Flying was a sedentary sport!
I was in Maui on the Southside nearly ten years ago watching a subset of the Molinas family entertaining the 'grocks'. Out of the blue this young kid emerged and delivered a Ukulele solo like I had never heard.
I didn't know they were the Molinas family at the time, and so had no idea who Andrew was. BUT.
But, I wanted to find out. For some reason I didn't enquire on the day who these guys were, so it was later when I started to just ask around.
Engineers left in a vacuum might say "well, that's maybe not so important; we can get a better signal by doing it the other way so let's do it that way." So, left to their own devices, that would be the way the product would end up. So you have to have a really strong voice supporting the user. I think the idea of focusing on that is uniquely Apple. In an optimistic sense you have to say that still exists at Apple.
Click through of the whole article - and even more stunning imagery.
Opening copy reads :
One of Apple's largest component suppliers, Samsung Electronics ...... not could have (should have ?)
One of Apple's largest competitors, Samsung Electronics... because the article is ALL about safety in Samsung's semi con factories and clearly reads ...
That year, and every year since, tech media outlets have regularly suggested that there was no real difference between Apple's iPhone and the manufacturing of much lower margin Android products, which cut corners and take expedient shortcuts to deliver cheap products.
Heh - GREAT News - Adidas is bringing jobs back to America. See - it can be done.
Read All About It.
'Caveat Emptor' ... 160 jobs actually - and unclear what those jobs will be - because the manufacturing is being done by robots.
I keep telling you .... those jobs are not coming back.
It’s that time of year I guess. Another birthday. The Newton launched 23 years ago - two years after the World Wide Web.
One an unprecedented success that nobody saw coming ... the other demonstrating exactly the same thing - but with lousy timing.
“Really,” Steve said, and waited.
“ ‘Does she want a job at Apple?’ ” I said, quoting his e-mail.
“A joke,” Steve said.
“I know.”
“Like this meeting,” he said.
Get the context
.. it’s a great read. And that last line in the quote above - like a rapier!
#VRM #PeoplePower
Maybe the best thing to do is to start unilaterally giving the users more power over their own online presence. Stop trying to own everything. Because there's no way to win that game. Even if you win you lose.Read All About It via @DaveWiner
How safe do YOU feel flying in these planes, given that they can barely keep the electric on?
Cringely nails it.
Doesn’t a $7.75 Million fine seem like a drop in the bucket? I bet it is less than the money they made.
particularly since ….
Last year, Sprint and Verizon paid out a combined $158 million to settle similar billing practices.
Read All About It
Revolver - 50
The Web - 25
and now Netscape … went public 21 years ago today.
I wonder what those tech brains are up to these days?
The news today is just formal confirmation that the TV guys really don’t want to give away their best stuff for free.
Or, more precisely, they’d prefer that you pay twice when you watch their stuff: Once with your credit card, via some kind of pay TV subscription, and again with your attention, when you watch the ads they sell.
“And last week’s news that Time Warner was buying a chunk of Hulu was another indicator that Hulu’s old model was toast, since Time Warner hated Hulu’s old model.
Privacy by design: Only Apple could make 'differential privacy' sound cool. TechCrunch Talks … and
what Apple recognizes more broadly is that consumer trust (fueled by privacy) is the killer app. #VRM
Love it … via Gizmodo
Hadn’t realized that there was such visceral dislike of Keurig - but there you go - the power of the Internet!
Dumbing down. You read about it a lot. Just the other day, someone told me that a recruiter had mentioned to them that they should 'dumb down' their resume.
"You use words that are too long and nobody understands what you are talking about."How sad - particularly since it seems that there might be a reason.
Of course, if language, vocabulary and and use thereof was one measure of how dumb you might be take note that Wikipedia reports that .
If you think it's all free - then you don't know value.
There's this one, and this one and this one and this one and that is just me randomly searching on the good that London Taxis do - and have always done - for all kinds of people. If you track this stuff you know it.
Distressing then to see this headline :
Uber driver will see his son compete in Rio thanks to passenger
from CNN.
I mean it is a great story - but seriously Taxi DRIVERS are now the charity case - that is what Uber is doing to society.
And this is the REAL first web site .... Tim's (the other one) one :-)
The Tory-graph
Engadget
Patently Apple
Interesting that Revolver is as fresh as ever 50 years later - and yet 25 years later, Tim's site is a novelty!
Some interesting background to Revolver - now clocking in at 50 years old.
And as a bonus, Klaus Voorman on his cover - all for fifty quid!
Gorgeous … and unusual to see Wilson do a Tree track solo ….
It's extraordinary to think that Mercedes can get away with charging $249 to update the maps in their sat nav systems.
It's even more extraordinary to think that there are people out there that will spend that money - to do that thing.
My phone has better maps. Your phone has better maps. And they are free.
Read My Review Here
I know right? I am just as confused.
I just read this .... the headlines reads ....
Simply not credible: The extraordinary verdict against the body that hopes to run the internet
Independent review tears into ICANN board and staffHmm - I know nought about ICANN really. Of them - sure.
I do know that they are the dudes I have to prove my existence to every now and then for the domains I own.
.. available for the rest of us in September.
Upon its original vinyl release Transience reached #3 in the UK vinyl charts and made history by being the first release to chart solely on vinyl sales this century.
The Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader of the Senate, senators like Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio, governors like Chris Christie and the now-trapped Mike Pence, figures from the past like Rudy Giuliani — every one of these people knows what is wrong with Donald Trump, and every one of them will be telling us as of November 9 that they were never really with him, they always saw what was wrong, how did this ever happen?
People update the Operating System (OS) in their smartphone more often than they update their own brain.
Gerhard Gschwandtner (at last week's Sales2.0 Conference)
via Kurt Shaver
...He HAS to be referring to iPhone users - because over on android ....
90 percent of Android devices are running an outdated OS
... on second thoughts - maybe that is about right ...
I don't fit this particular edge case in any of the scenarios described - BUT - in case you are wondering why some of your stuff ain't synching - this might give a clue
Poised - but not the same as is actually ...
Uber Now Poised to Grab More of Southeast Asia
Just read What Is The Data-Driven Organization? - a great collection of interesting acronyms for how organization think about how they COLLECT MY DATA.
Personally, I would much rather organizations think more about data CONNECTION, rather than COLLECTION. That is so much more in keeping with the future – it is after all my data – not the corporations.
I would also be more than happy for on organization to connect to my data – if we can first agree mutually beneficial terms that I am privy to in advance.
Move along now. Nothing to see here. (For you anyway.)
One of the challenges (for me) with 1999 is the inability for me to easily search for content txt I posted (say) two months ago. TO be fair - this is one of my does on Facebook - and contributed to my leaving. (But not the prime reason.)
Enter IFTTT and DayONE.
I use DayONE as my daily journal. It runs happily across pad, phone and mac. It is pretty powerful and allows me to search and tag and add pictures and links and .
I have been clearing out my cupboards and found a great post from Om Malik, who in turn was clearing out his cupboards ….
I have been frustrated by the vanishing quality of blog posts, which either are nothing more than marketing drivel, self promotion passing as intelligence. I can understand that, but I can't seem to comprehend the laziness of news posts which seems to have the nutritional value of a TacoBell meal.
If you like music, this is a fascinating flip on how we usually think about bands.
Click through and for any year it will tell you who the most famous band that was formed in that year. Interesting because why?
Well - though I am not a fan of (say) OASIS - I had kind of expected them to be on the list. But they're not, because the same year that they were founded a little band from the South also got going .
I wrote this piece on Criminal Justice Reform a couple of weeks ago.
Delighted to see this from The Marshall Project just published today … The Overlooked Promise in Hillary Clinton’s Speech - A call for criminal justice reform.
In a single brief sentence, Clinton broke one of America's oldest political taboos, pledging to "reform our criminal justice system from end-to-end, and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Read All About It.
A post, including a video, from John Gushe 4 years ago - and every bit as relevant today ... filed in the "if you operated in the real world like you do in the online world" bucket.
Read All About It.
So Good.
The art that is possible with something as seemingly simple as Paper53 is really extraordinary.
It opens with
I’m Hillary goddamn Clinton. I’m a political prodigy, have been since I was 16. I have an insane network of powerful friends. I’m willing to spend the next eight years catching shit on all sides, all so I can fix this fucking country for you. And all you little bitches need to do is get off your asses one goddamn day in November.... and then it gets better.
Read All About It.
You just cannot argue with the logic.
Cheap settlement to sort it out this week - wonder what the demand will be next week
The records Uber and Lyft are touting have been hard-won, expensive and occasionally bumpy. To reach the truce, Uber paid $350,000 into a trust to settle charges by the Philadelphia Parking Authority that the company had been operating in the city without regulation. To meet demand this week, both companies offered some drivers guaranteed minimum pay at peak times — $21 to $27 an hour for Uber after drivers in Cleveland complained of low earnings,4 $20 for Lyft — and neither company would say if they’re turning a profit.
It never ceases to amaze me that people are so stupid that they have to be protected my this kind of warning. NEVER!
Bulgarian state railway company BDZ is urging players of Pokemon GO to keep off the railway tracks.
Posting from my iPad - and simultaneously using IFTTT to drop my posts into DayOne - which (BTW) is rather a neat app for journaling.
Just realized that having some 't' in the middle of a 'mediation' will result in 'meditation'.
Oracle just bought a company Larry Ellison mostly owns, entitling him to $3.5 billion in cash - #STUNNED
well - actually not. Is anyone?
This is big news …. be interesting to see what he does next.
A lot of unemployment evolves from information asymmetry, meaning I have a taxonomy of skills and abilities that are hard to articulate, and resumes don’t do a good job of capturing them. Employers have a set of jobs, but are terrible at both articulating what they need, and actually filtering candidates.
If you can somehow bridge that information gap, and better match people with jobs, in the short term you can get a lot of people jobs that don’t have them.
This is so right on, I thought I would link to it here for posterity.
Read All About It.
It is extraordinary to listen to this. But then when you watch it and realize for half the song he is changing a string on his guitar - no beat missed ... well, I sit in awe.
I like this analogy.
Read All About It
Comparing the growth and infrastructure of New York to The Internet.
Apple took about 2,450 days to sell the first 500 million iPhones and only 836 days to sell the second 500 million iPhones. That’s some growth curve.Read All About It
Of course - Apple is doomed to fail. This was a poignant reminder ...
A billion iPhones in 9 years, built on a foundation of constant doubt. That’s one hell of a thing.
Apple's secondary manufacturer, Pegatron, is following in the footsteps of Foxconn and beginning to automate its factories — and cutting back on new hires as a result, according to the company's chairman.Read All About It
Remember how Trump talks about 'bringing back the jobs' .... even the jobs we can't do in this country wont be coming back - the jobs we could do were automated a loooong time ago,
Since the hackers didn't have a photo of the last key, they bought as many Safe Skies locks as possible, took them apart and examined their innards. Anyone with access to a 3D printer can now reproduce all eight keys.Read All About It
seriously - imagine if their 'partners in crime' had the back door 'keys' to all of our online security.
#IncompetenceWritLarge.
Spin through to around 3 minutes if you just want the poem.
... between words ... provides phrases.
I never really thought that the Cosby saga would have gone this far. Now I see that Ailes is in the spotlight, I have high hopes that finally someone will put him into his box. And I can't wait until they subpoena Mr. Trump.
Read All About It.
Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) led the push for Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Following a disappointing election in November 1998, he announced he was stepping down as Speaker and resigning from Congress.
Gingrich later admitted that, while he was pushing for Clinton’s impeachment, he was engaged in an affair with a Congressional aide. “There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them”, Gingrich said in 2007.
From The UKFollowing Opeth at their best would be a tall order for any accomplished musician and whilst Steven Wilson doesn’t quite manage to match them, the former Porcupine Tree frontman makes a damn good fist of it. With the majority of the set made up of songs from his fantastic fourth solo album, Hand. Cannot. Erase. he was never going to pale into insignificance and the material from that record sounds particularly transcendent, with Routine and Home Invasion both being solid highlights.
... from cinema for laughing
Read all about it ....
Meanwhile I have yet to sit through a movie in a theatre and not have some ignorant twit right behind me either
- slurping their 5 gallons of coke,
- loudly masticating their butter popcorn or
- simply just chatting to their mate two rows away (at least judging by the volume of their voice)
... if not all three !
Came through my feeds today. Nice
.
An email signature I have used from time to time for nearly 7 years reads “John Philpin – I Am My Own System Of Recordâ€.Seven years ago people would ask me what I meant. Today? Not so much. It stems from a belief that the idea that an organization – any organization – thinking that its ‘system of record’ is anything but a tiny lens onto who I am … is deeply flawed.
Ummagumma makes top 10 new species list ... I didn't know that there was bug named after Floyd's album.
Dear Friend,
I am Patrick Kumuila Mbaye, former Head of Accounts Department at the Diamond Mining Company of Sierra Leone. I and my partners (two others) are in urgent need of a foreign associate to work with us to facilitate the transfer of a large sum of money which we intend to invest into profitable areas of business in your country.
The money involved is eighteen million five hundred thousand US Dollars.
Geldof, Brown, Thompson, Blair, Sugar… you just took one hell of a beating – The Sun ... it's not whether you agree with the Sun - it is knowing that their circulation is the largest of any newspaper in the UK #influence
Wondering how to set up 1999 on AWS - wonder no more. Mr Andy Sylvester has published a 'hot to' guide on Kindle.
.. has now been added to the 1999 family. Very cool .... and now the style of the comments should have changed. But it hasn't.
Now it has !
Just posted this to my blog
For nearly 2 months, specifically since April 21st, I have been playing around with a product called 1999 from Dave Winer. It is pretty cool. Since launching in fact, I have planted some 144 posts. My first on April 21st. The last on June 10th. All hosted on my river, that Dave has kindly been hosting. In parallel, I have signed up for an AWS account and with the help (strictly speaking me clicking and cutting and pasting words that my new friend Andy told me to) into my river that he is hosting.
"Does it matter that we might be living in a simulation?" That question has been raised more often since Elon Musk suggested the possibility in a recent interview. He's not the only one who thinks it's a possibility (or even a likelihood). If we're part of a computer simulation, then this election year seems like a good time for a system software update. The New Yorker's Joshua Rothman helps explain why the posthuman future has never been easier to imagine -- especially for those who work at the forefront of technology.
Reminded of this here
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Seems like we don't need to make robots - we just need to turn people into automons ...
Today, it's a technology company. Every step Bill takes, every mile he drives, is tracked. His truck is a rolling computer. From the time he punches in in the morning until he gets back to base at night, the company is watching. The company is also constantly thinking, and strategizing about even the most minute decisions and choices.
In other words, you can almost see the Warriors as a metaphor for the way the tech industry improves, but also unexpectedly risks ruining, pretty much everything it touches.Read All About It.
Read All About It
Oh My !
Marvellous Stuff
.
Blair, frustrated by the repeated delays in the production of the report, has been meeting his allies to discuss his response, but is not planning to make any speech or intervention before publication on 6 July.
... how about the truth Tony ?
Read All About It.
Too many people are data-driven - if it is all about the data - you will be replaced.
Data-first vs data-second.Another way to frame this is 'data-driven' vs 'data-informed'. Data-driven investors ask questions about data first, while data-informed or data-second investors look at the data, but it is second to their intuition and common sense. Wikipedia has definitions for data-based (or data-driven) vs data-informed decision making as it applies to education.
Santana IV and Bruce Soord's new solo - tucking in now. And most excellent, particularly Bruce's.
"He had gained notoriety among the city’s hippie community when he and a biker buddy, Hairy Henry Kot, came across a candlelight march on Haight Street, turned their bikes around, and led the parade. The police stopped the procession, and Kot was arrested for letting a woman from the group stand up on his 'buddy seat." Read All About It
Awesome .....
'Finding Superheroes' .. the latest in my weekly series at Biz Catalyst is trending. That's two weeks in a row .... FYI - this was last weeks.
Musical Exploration - the link is at the bottom of JP's post.
Can’t wait to read mainstream media’s take on the Verizon Strike … here is one non mainstream media’s view …
‘The company could have done this two months ago,’ said network tech Pat Fahy of IBEW Local 827 in New Jersey. ‘They could have done it [when the contract expired] in August and we would have taken it.'
Instead, he said, ‘they forced us to work without a contract for eight months and to be on strike for almost two months.
I know - right ?
I talked about my passion for maps in a recent 'Pour Vous' post on my web site. Remember when you were in meetings - and the 'winner' was the one who had the marker ? Turns out there is another race - who owns 'the map'.
Fascinating comparison of Google Maps versus Apple Maps.
Seperately of course - there is the whole other issue around how global maps need to reflect the truth [PDF] - not the perspective of the cartographer.
Another post from my partners in crime over at This Is Enchant.
If you don’t like Mark snooping around in your stuff they point out ...
Too personal? Switch off!
Finally, coming back around the microphone and Facebook’s listening capabilities, if you are not happy about Facebook’s tactics and want to stop Facebook accessing to your microphone, you can switch it off. See the following steps:Good advice - but have you ever noticed that depite switching it off, the settings 'don't stick'?
“WeWork, the fast-growing shared workspace startup, is cutting about 7 percent of its staff and plans to temporarily pause hiring, according to a Bloomberg article citing internal emails. The cutbacks come three months after New York-based WeWork raised a $430 million funding round amid plans for aggressive expansion, including new workspaces in Asia and the U.S. launch of a private bedroom rental business called WeLive.
... Bloomberg via Crunchbase
This is EXACTLY why I think that the UK/London authorities are being paid off ....
Machine Head ? Wish Your Were Here?
I thought I was in a time machine for a minute!
Wait - I think we are!
You can either read through Mary Meeker's 213 page Powerpoint ( where every known rule of Powerpoint is broken. )
Or you can watch her present it here ( where every known rule of 'Good Presentation' is broken. )
... seriously - why do we hang on this ? Oh wait - yes - because of the possibility of this ..
According to this ... could be !
.
The whole article is worth a read …
Democracy is not about I or us vs. them. Democracy, as Obama often says, is about the word we. It is big, messy, and noisy. It is inclusive, welcoming, and tolerant. It's about a willingness to compromise and assume good faith in others. It's about a belief that America is not the project of any one person, party, race, or religion and that we all have a responsibility to find a way forward, together, even if we don't get everything we want, even if we don't always win the argument, even if sometimes we take two steps back.
The 4Cs are growing
He's old - but that is no reason why he shouldn't get it.
"I would have to pay to make a record. There's no royalties so I can't see that ever happening. There's no record business. How do you get the money to make the records? I don't know.
Roger Daltrey, never the sharpest knife in the block, on how the death of the music industry is the death of music.
Startups can't explain what they do because they're addicted to meaningless jargon, which I would argue is because most people really don't understand the art of communication. Bottom line it is a TWO-way process - and in that process you need to understand who is listening - and ensure that what you are saying is being heard, understood and reacted to.
Anything else - you are in Broadcast mode.
Just last week I posted this - scroll down to 'Fraud' - where I pointed out that Philip Green has realy just taken us all for a bunch of idiots.
This just in today. 11,000 jobs gone, 20,000 affected my the pension scam - and one man to blame. You know who I am talking about 'Sir' Philip.
I was just in a conversation with Melinda Fouts on this very topic. Well not quite, we were more talking about what qualifies somebody to be a life coach, whereas this article is about the broader issues of what I call self invention - I have written before about how that is rampant in the world of social media ... it seems it is everywhere.
The Complex eventually becomes a full fledged self-sufficient ecosystem when people in group 4 are reviewing books by people in group 3 who are only tweeting people in group 2 who are appearing on the podcasts started by people in group 3.
Fascinating thoughts from our man Elon ....
If many sufficiently advanced civilizations exist, and if they're likely to create simulations of the universe (or a slice of it), then we are almost certainly living in a simulation. and to put it into perspective, Elon points out ....
"Forty years ago, you had Pong, like, two rectangles and a dot. That was what games were. Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it's getting better every year (.
... not as bad as you might think.
The marriage of reason was not, in hindsight, reasonable at all; it was often expedient, narrow-minded, snobbish and exploitative. That is why what has replaced it — the marriage of feeling — has largely been spared the need to account for itself.Alain de Botton (@alaindebotton) is the author of the novel “The Course of Love.â€
Just added a new comic to my list of things to buy.
The Source
Great review of a new book by The father and son team 'The Tapscotts' ... definitely on my reading list - particularly liked this ...
Yet time and again, after each wave of technological revolution, a few Silicon Valley billionaires cackle off into the sunset, and the rest of us are left standing with our pants around our ankles. Musicians have to deal with the derisory royalties they receive from Spotify.
A piece by Robert Scoble on 🔗 ‘Why Tim Cook better worry’. Scoble opens with his take on ‘the fourth visible user interface of the personal computer era.’
The first was character mode. MS-DOS.
The second was the GUI, graphical user interface. Macintosh and Windows.
The third was touch. iPhone and Android. The fourth is spatial computing.
…. and then goes on to suggest that Cook ‘doesn’t get it’ and Apple should be worried.
#TRUTH
Struck me that this is Apple's modus operandi. Projects - not processes.
The sign of an organization becoming more creative is the move from processes to projects—projects are inherently creative acts.Stowe Boyd
Thinking aloud ....
If artists consistently opted out of performing in shows that feature Trump - would that stop Talk Shows inviting Trump - or would lesser artists step up and fill the void for their 15 minutes of fame?
Weeknd and Belly Pull Out of Jimmy Kimmel's show
I don't think so.
Inc - why a startup should think about having a board of directors.
Board of Directors or Board of Advisers ? There is a difference. I don't think as a start up I would be jumping into the former - but absolutely essential to have the latter.
Sadly - the answers are painfully obvious - just sad to see the facts .. although the fact that no dropouts have gone on to get funding in biotech or pharma is a good thing - I mean in that word - you do need to know your stuff ... but also indicates that VCs don't typically understand those disciplines well enough to know what is possible - which explains why all Biotech and Pharma investments account for around 15% of investments in 'internet/software'.
Wise words from Jill Konrath
Top of the list - Alex Jones who makes Coulter and Savage appear reasonable ... maybe that's the plan !
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/05/26/trump-s-kitchen-cabinet-what-media-needs-know-about-nominee-s-top-advisers-and-supporters/210538
Angels invested more money in fewer companies last year.
Angel investment rose slightly in 2015, as investors backed fewer companies but put larger sums to work in the deals they did. Overall, angel investment last year totaled $24.6 billion, up 1.9% year-over-year, according to a report from the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research (pdf).
A total of 71,110 entrepreneurial ventures raised angel funding last year, down 3.1% from 2014.
Wonderful afternoon with Joe Salish of UC Davis. If you want to learn more - click here ... more info to come, for now I just couldn't resist sharing.
.
Tittle tattle over the ‘tatty over titty’ debate is just ignorant ‘PC’.
I really hope titty family wins the tit-for-tat debate.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/24/swallows-and-amazons-titty-renamed-tatty-in-bbc-film
Need To Buy This ... http://www.hackettsongs.com/news/newsAlbum6.html -
.
.. and they wonder why we hate them. Microsofts latest little trick is to turn the 'close window' icon into the 'install me now' icon. Read All About It.
VRM has been in my mind a lot today - and then this popped into my inbox. Buy it here.
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2016/05/24/skyward-4/
Time Out ? - more like 'Far Out' at the time
.
I think this site is my inspiration for my next Future Of Work piece.
An interesting list of Twitter accounts - being all the people that presented at last weeks @BlackboxVC progam ... https://twitter.com/jgphilpin/lists/blackboxvc/members - come follow along.
Remember this ? This is it playing >>>>
The Growth Of $1 Million Dollar Properties In San Francisco in the past 4 years. (Red is where the properties are)
Source : Citylab
1) The Importance Of People
2) Social Sales Is Not New, It's Thousands of Years Old
3) Publishing Is Dead? Long Live Publishing!
4) Publishing Lives - Under The Witness Protection Program
5) Our Personal Clouds
People - It’s An Internet of People ... and ‘things’ - things that are in the service of people.
This weeks article for Biz Catalyst - 'trending' as I type
The Atlantic writes about 'Why So Many Smart People Aren’t Happy' ... touching on a lot of points that I have held true for a while now. Good to see that the topic is getting focus.
Question : Is it OK if I work at home on Friday ?
Answer : No - you need to open and close the office.
Question : But nobody is in the office. Everyone is out in meetings except for two people taking the day off.
Answer : You will be.
------------------------------------------------
#TrueStory
... Not mine - a meme starting to circulate ... I think it might catch on.
.
SharesPost said it called off the proposed Uber deal.
A broker of private technology stocks recently called off a proposed deal to purchase shares of Uber and package them in an investment fund. The broker, Sharespost, cited a “lack of investor interest†in the shares, which a Bloomberg article attributed partly to terms requiring shareholders to keep their stake until Uber was acquired or went public, with no visibility into the company’s operations or finances.
... as applied to music.
Good Question !
.
An Hour Of Your Time
A Lego Guitar
Gender pay gaps for major U.S. occupations
.
Found Here ...
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Would you promote it ? And just ignore the #Irony ?
.
[www.theguardian.com/commentis...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/18/beyonce-ivy-park-harsh-lives-garment-makers-fashion-branding-consumers?)
Or is it because the Eurovision team are running out of countries ?
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/australia-would-have-won-eurovision-last-year/
Seriously ? The ONLY copy ? Destroyed ?
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/05/16/210230/cia-watchdog-mistakenly-destroyed-its-only-copy-of-a-senate-torture-report
Good Question >>>>
http://www.vice.com/read/exclusive-the-british-armys-secret-plan-to-prop-up-south-africas-ruling-party
2010 video that is still relevant, equally true, very visual and well worth a watch.
Car Parks Galore - in fact so many of them that there is nowhere to go - via David Frier
Delighted that Twitter is moving the limit .... here’s my take ..
Twitter - link sharing and fast back chat ...
1999 - quick thoughts but more importantly short posts - a river if you will
Beyond Bridges - where it is at !
Brad Feld's blog makes for a fascinating read ....one of his latest posts lives here.
I know not Brad. Love his writing and thinking ... but him ? I know not. Amazing how you assume you know people by reading them.
Nothing in this post I would disagree with, object too, or did not know.
The surprising thing to me is that I would have assumed that Brad was clued in.
Really cool ideas ... I wonder how many
+ will appear
+ will appear this year
I have long held that the 'sharing economy' is closer to the 'exploitation economy' and actually little to do with 'sharing'.
Seems like other people are coming to the same way of thinking.
Really Useful Resource that I will write more about on my blog when I have time - the link via The Loop
Maybe we should let Harlan know ....
The UK have just announced that it will be possible for us all to add our Drivers License into our iPhone wallet.
Read All About It.
Sounds great - right ?
Potential scenario ... you are speeding down the Motorway. One of our finest pulls you over. "License please." You hand over your iPhone ... and he walks back to the car to check it against his database - you have just given your unlocked iPhone to a policeman - no need to bypass the iPhone security - voila .
"It's all about nuance"
.
I wonder if Amy protected her tweet account after the 'other Amy' got more famous ?
It's Friday - who can resist Drew Carey. But if you are still at work - maybe put headphones on first ...
Finally, someone is listening to the plight of poor people. - via NextDraft
Good Read
... you just don’t !
... distressing !
The fine people over at Quandl made me aware of their new campaign focussed on data presentation. As a fan of the 'information scientist' Edward Tufte and someone who has devoted a few years of his life to Structured Visual Thinking with John Caswell, I am always on the look out for software that can help us mortals better present our data in consistent, reliable and understandable ways. Guys like Nathan Yau of Flowing Data just boggle my mind.
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.â€
I think I disagree with him on some points ...
Last Friday I visited the Internet Archive. This organization was started by Brewster Kahle, who started Alexa and sold that to Amazon. He took his money and started buying servers to back up the Internet. Its headquarters is in a former church off of 19th Ave. in San Francisco. Walking in, there are pews and a stack of servers in the corners.
J P Rangaswami writes ...
There’s a lot of anger in the world right now. Maybe it’s always been there, but right now it feels to me as if I’ve never seen this level of anger before.
If that anger was deeply rooted in seriously depressed economies, large swathes of people completely unable to make ends meet, increasing ill health, severe repression, considerable growth in crime, a general and growing concern about personal safety, and a bleak outlook for the future overall, then it’s the kind of anger that makes for revolutions.
... but I think it is appropriate. My comment on Tumblr regarding a post from GapingVoid, where I rather unusually disagreed with his position.
My goodness Apple News is pernickety. Just spent two hours tracking down why three of my posts hadn't made it into the Apple News stream. All came down to tiny tiny errors in the HTML that Wordpress accepted and rendered quite happily - but Apple News - nope . #FAIL.
In the end I have a single post left that hasn't published to News - interestingly titled : Top 5 Pranks Apple Have Played On Us - I originally thought it was a conspiracy - I think I now know that in that post - it is long is a link error.
Just finished listening to the @davewiner rough podcast, where he talks about technology and politics coming together as one. I was reminded of Jeremy Heimans who talks of Old/New Power - Old/New Values. [ If you want to actually listen to the podcast - click on the headphones at the top of the post ].
How will this affect the 2016 presidential election? Heimans and Timms believe that like Barack Obama in 2008, the candidate who prevails will need to channel emerging new power forces and unleash the self-organizing potential of his or her supporters.
When I first saw this reported on - Fusion.net - I assumed it was a piece of 'Onion' - but no - here is the Philadelphia News reporting how a Maths equation is 'frightening' - and 'terrorist-like' ..
the woman "thought I was a terrorist because I was writing strange things on a pad of paper. I laugh. I bring them back to the plane. I showed them my math."
... not so much a bug report as a list of enhahncements ...
I have to post first - and then go back to add title, attachments etc - would be good to be able to do this all at once.
A simple way to allow links to pop up in new window - rather than in the space you are already working in
Tagging for rapid finding
A quick visual reference to quickly tell if your post is published or not.
Now that outspoken critic of Uber - Sadiq Kahn is mayor of London - I wonder if he will do anything about them ... certainly Rachel Whetstone isn't as connected to him as the Cameroon (sic) / Boris cabal.
and the new Radiohead is released ... listening already. #InstantGratification
"Labour’s Ken Macintosh, who has held the Eastwood seat since 1999, in fact ended the night in third place, behind the Conservatives and the SNP."
My new About Me page is live.
You never change things by fighting existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
Posted this today across a couple of spaces : http://beyondbridges.net/2016/05/silicon-valley-laggard-best-workplace-practice/ - and depending on feedback - it might getter a wider publication next week.
Sometimes the simplest image conveys what we all feel - but we can’t QUITE encapsulate. Follow your passion is the ‘new meme’ .. and then there is this ...
http://thisisindexed.com/2016/04/okay-ill-try/
http://kottke.org/16/04/a-cult-meeting-in-adoration-of-the-leader
FUNNY
http://www.openculture.com/2016/04/princes-extraordinarily-poignant-cover-of-radioheads-creep.html
NICE
Realignment of Beyond Bridges Site ? Check !
There are some really clever ideas emerging from The UC Davis Innovation Week.
If you are interested in following the tweets of us 1999ers- pop over here
Prince. Pantone. Blockchain. Brexit. 1999. All covered in my latest post on Beyond Bridges.
I am waiting for the next big debate to be truly talked about .. open and honestly.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/22/police-raid-pushed-academic-to-end-her-life-euthanasia-advocate-philip-nitschke
I am not sure if Dave's system is / can run some kind of aggregator or list of all of us who are running 1999 sites, but it did strike me that the nature of the people involved with this might be interesting to each other.
So, I took the liberty of adding those people who had already posted their 'first post here' on Google Docs - to a folder in my Feedly - which you can access here.
First thing to point out ... I definitely am not a techy - but love what Dave Winer keeps on pushing with his work around the open web. That is why I signed on here and am loving what I am seeing.
I installed 1999 yesterday without a hitch. I have hit a couple of issues of Java exceptions that I have not reported - since I can't really get a repeatable case.
Noted :
http://scripting.com/2014/03/19/howToAskForHelpWithSoftware.html
Great #Prince story : http://www.storiesofapple.net/the-mac-in-graffiti-bridge.html
http://my.1999.io/users/davewiner/
http://thisisindexed.com/2016/04/important-people-life/
Love Indexed - trying to come up with the right phrasing for the bottom two quadrants.
http://scripting.com/2016/04/22/1207.html
... as I wrote yesterday, auspicious that the day his project 1999 widens out for testing with a larger group on the very day that Prince passed.
Delighted to report that my 1999 RSS feed is now displayed on my blog at www.beyondbridges.net
Big day today as I revamped 'Beyond Bridges', dabbled in 'The Grid' - and now launched into '1999'
Bracelite For Apple Watch Seeks Kickstarter Funding
bit.ly/1TwZ7J5
Now from the phone - but would be doubly winning if I could have a title seperate to the body - what am I missing ?
Parody? Well with Archie Bunker it was - but maybe reality today ?
Title
iPhone problem, help??
bit.ly/1OLmlvL
via ift.tt/1OLmkrL
Calgary Hitmen sniper Jordy Stallard makes teddy bears rain down at Saddledome
bit.ly/1XWumOW
via ift.tt/1OLmcbD
Let’s see what happens - and if we can add a link
via ift.tt/21JZSEN
Great Post From Doc Searls
Read All About It
Why usage-based billing is a threat to the open internet, and what can be done to stop it.
Medium Article on Reading Suggestions
.
http://ift.tt/1G8xzHL
By: philipstoreymusic
Source: http://ift.tt/1G8xzY6
Released on December 3rd through all digital channels. Vocals, guitars and bass by Philip Storey Cello by Elizabeth Townsend (The Floe) Drums by Dylan Howe (Dylan Howe, Blockheads, Wilko Johnson) Mastered by Nicolas T. Petersen at Track & Field (Bon Iver)
More at ift.tt/1G8xzYe
You can retire to Phoenix , Arizona where... You are willing to park 3 blocks away from your house because you found shade. You’ve experienced condensation on your hiney from the hot water in the toilet bowl. You can drive for 4 hours in one direction and never leave town. You have over 100 recipes for Mexican food. You know that “dry heat” is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl.”
The priest asks, “Is that you, little Joey Pagano?”
“Yes, Father, it is.”
“And who was the girl you were with?”
“I can’t tell you, Father. I don’t want to ruin her reputation.”
“Well, Joey, I’m sure to find out her name sooner or later so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
By: Kscope
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnHJR9auE3o
Watch more Blackfield videos: [bit.ly/11bmAYl](http://bit.ly/11bmAYl) For more info on Blackfield, go to: [bit.ly/18AUyui](http://bit.ly/18AUyui) Pre-order the 2 Disc (CD & DVD-AV) Mediabook Edition [bit.ly/19mMuKA](http://bit.ly/19mMuKA) Pre-order the Vinyl Edition [bit.ly/11QIj3x](http://bit.ly/11QIj3x) Promo for Jupiter by Sand Artist Ilana Yahav, www.sandfantasy.com / www.facebook.com/ilana.yah…
Israel’s leading counter-culture rock musician Aviv Geffen returns with Blackfield IV, featuring Steven Wilson and other special guests.
Blackfield was started by Aviv and Steven in 2001 and have previously released the critically acclaimed albums Blackfield (2004), Blackfield II (2007) and 2011’s Welcome To My DNA.
By: Don Lane
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEh5_O5K6MA
South Shore Maui girl, JAMIE GALLO~ is an electrifying new breed of live performer whose stirring vocal style creates a mood that listeners can identify with. The soulful singer-songwriter captivates her audience producing poignant hard-hitting original songs born of her convictions relentless search for truth. Jamie's "style" is a unique blend of energetic rock, groove and poetry. “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling.
John Philpin and Beyond Bridges
oh my - how VERY complementary many thanks
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Men Are Just Happier People
What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack.. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
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By: doomer324
Source:
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I don't do food photography usually - but seriously - what is not to love ? July 27, 2012 at 02:13PM
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HOW TO START A FIGHT
One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as
a Christmas gift...
The next year, I didn't buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied,
"Well, you still haven't used the gift I bought you last year!"
And that's how the fight started.....
________________________________
My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school
reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his
When chemists die, they barium.
Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.
How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.
I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.
This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
I'm reading a book about anti-gravity.
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By: blackstorm88
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGeFf_rIAVQ
Los Bravos - Black Is Black - 1967 Canal Nostalgia Video I DO NOT OWN THIS VIDEO
Lyrics:
Black is black I want my baby back It’s gray, it’s gray Since she went away, Ooh-Ooh What can I do ‘Cause I-I-I-I-I’m feelin’ blue
If I had my way She’d be back today But she don’t intend To see me again, Ooh-Ooh What can I do ‘Cause I-I-I-I-I’m feelin’ blue
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It’s in German, but totally understandable in any language.
A Daughter is visiting her father and is helping in the kitchen.
She asks: Tell me dad, how are you managing with the new I-Pad we gave you for your birthday?
This is in German but that’s all you really need to know.
You’ll get the rest:
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity.
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By: edwardtarte
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx1qlRKgFtk
My Human Faith Chain video: [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceHljphtV5s)
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I would like to share an experience with you, about drinking and driving.
As you well know, some of us have been known to have had brushes with the authorities on our way home from the odd social session over the years.A couple of nights ago, I was out for a few drinks with some friends at the Marriott Hotel and had a few too many beers and some rather nice red wine.
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By: TalkingEdgeStudios
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aWsUhc88rY
Jon Glesinger, Founder of Expert Alumni, introduces the organisation and the opportunities it provides. www.expertalumni.com
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Helga is the proprietor of a bar. She realises that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronise her bar. To solve this problem she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Helga’s “drink now, pay later” marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga’s bar.
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By: RonMz
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w225LWpdLB4
Great Song !!.... LyriX Maximize here,,, in a violent place we can call our country is a mixed up man and i guess thats me. the sun’s in the sky but the storm never seems to end.
its a place of sorrow but we call it a home. and the darkest thoughts yeah, i guess they’re my own there’s wealth in the bank but there’s nothing to show inside.
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At Penn State University , there were four sophomores taking chemistry and all of them had an “A” so far. These four friends were so confident that the weekend before finals, they decided to visit some friends and have a big party.
They had a great time but, after all the hearty partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn’t make it back to Penn State until early Monday morning.
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Are you ready for the good times?.
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By: FaceCulture
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN6CHR9fBVI
Steven Wilson about Record collections, vinyl, Out Of The Blue by ELO More video’s: www.FaceCulture.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/_FaceCult… Facebook: www.facebook.com/FaceCultu…
Video interview with british guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Storm Corrosion. FaceCulture spoke to him about his new collaborative project with Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt called Storm Corrosion, their record collections, vinyl, Out Of The Blue by ELO, Comus, murder ballads, dark music, happiness, maturing artists, artistic decline, becoming predictable, fear of repetition, spontaneous music, collaborations, organic sounds, emotional connection to a song, organic production, not having a family, album title, copying things, inspiration, not understanding everything, sick music, work and passion.
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www.empireavenue.com/IYELBEY
via 11/5 Nice EA starters to be bought prior before next Roll-Over!.
Building the ESSENTIAL eco system to move out of gadget land
Empire Avenue | VARATIKI - well worth it - you won't be disappointed
Sage advice from one of the very consistent and seasoned players on The Avenue
nice
Bob walked into a sports bar around 9:58 PM. He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV.
The 10 PM news was coming on. The news crew was covering the story of a man on the ledge of a large building preparing to jump.
The blonde looked at Bob and said, "Do you think he'll jump?"
Bob said, "You know, I bet he'll jump.
1. ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR.
2. ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.
3. IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?
4. THE MAIN REASON THAT SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.
5. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, "WHERE'S THE SELF- HELP SECTION?" SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.
… from the British perspective :-)
The Difference Between The British and The French: Why do you British officers all wear red coats?
During the recent royal wedding, the millions around the world saw that Prince William chose to wear a uniform that included the famous British “red coat.”
Many people have asked, “Why did the British wear red coats in battle?”
A long time ago, Britain and France were at war.
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance.
Particularly are the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.
A married couple had been out shopping at the mall for most of the afternoon.
Suddenly, the wife realized that her husband had "disappeared".
The somewhat irate spouse called her mate’s cell phone and demanded, "Where the hell are you?"
Husband, "Darling, do you remember that Jewelery shop where you saw the Diamond Necklace and totally fell in love with it? I didn't have money that time and I said "
Enjoy - and I look forward to posting the male equivalent :-)
PREGNANCY Q & A
Q: Should I have a baby after 35? A: No, 35 children is enough.
Q : I’m two months pregnant now. When will my baby move? A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.
Q : What is the most reliable method to determine a baby’s sex? A: Childbirth.
Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she’s borderline irrational.
A man and a woman who had never met before and who were both married to other people found themselves assigned to the same sleeping cabin on a trans-continental train.
Though initially embarrassed and uneasy over sharing a room, they were both very tired and fell asleep quickly, he in the upper berth and she in the lower.
At 1:00 AM the man leaned down and gently woke the woman saying, "
The next time you takean oceanography course, you will be totally prepared …
This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. ( Kelly , age 6) Oysters' balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6) If you are surrounded by ocean, you are an island. If you don’t have ocean all round you, you are incontinent. (Mike, age 7) Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Act naturally Found missing Resident alien Advanced BASIC Genuine imitation Airline Food Good grief Same difference Almost exactly Government organization Sanitary landfill Alone together Legally drunk Silent scream Living dead Small crowd Business ethics Soft rock Butt head Military intelligence Software documentation New classic Sweet sorrow Child Proof “Now, then …” Synthetic natural gas Passive aggression Taped live Clearly misunderstood Peace force Extinct life Temporary tax increase Computer jock Plastic glasses Terribly pleased Computer security Political science Tight slacks Definite maybe Pretty ugly Twelve-ounce pound cake Diet ice cream Working vacation Exact estimate Microsoft Works ITS.
ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.
BEAUTY PARLOR: A place where women curl up and dye.
CHICKENS: The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.
COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out.
EGOTIST:
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.
HANDKERCHIEF: Cold Storage.
Some crackers within here : Light Bulb Jokes.
Including :
Q: How many marxists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: None. The seeds of the revolution are in the light bulb itself.
Q: How many Australians does it take to change a light bulb? A: Twenty-one. One to hold the bulb and twenty to drink beer until the room starts spinning.
Q: How many college students does it take to screw a lightbulb?
A ventriloquist is on stage telling dumb blonde jokes.
A blonde shouts, “I’ve heard enough of your stupid jokes! What does the color of a person’s hair have to do anything? Guys like you keep women like me from achieving because you discriminate against blondes!”
The embarrassed ventriloquist begins to apologize.
The blonde yells, “You stay out of this, Mister! I’m talking to that little f___ker on your knee!”
Thankyou Charles
... as the description says :
When a smoking hot babe is asked on an expensive dinner date, she bites off more than she can chew.
Watch the movie about 'timing' here
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
MY thanks to 'Bruce' for this one .....
The recession has hit everybody really hard... My neighbor got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can't afford batteries. CEO's are now playing miniature golf. Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen. A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced. I saw a Mormon with only one wife.
My thanks to one Bob Bolton - where I have sourced these lyrics on a post going back to 21st April 1998 (Mudcat)
Bob wrote : 'G'day again,I have sat down at typed the whole lot out - as performed by Jeremy Taylor on his 1979 Australian tour.'
Now, I was just an ordinary English man,
Till I got me uniform, and hat,
And ever since that hour, I exercise me power,
Full Article :: Here
Passed on - with thanks to :: Them
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was the one in charge.
"I should be in charge," said the brain, "Because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen." "I should be in charge," aid the blood, "Because I circulateoxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away." "I should be in charge," said the stomach,"
Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching.
Nothing could dampen her excitement - not even her parent's nasty divorce.
Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear, and would be the best-dressed mother-of-the-bride ever!
A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new, young wife had bought the exact same dress as her mother!
Jennifer asked her father's new young wife to exchange it, but she refused. ''Absolutely not!
A mate of mine recently admitted to being addicted to brake fluid. When I quizzed him on it he reckoned he could stop any time.... I went to the cemetery yesterday to lay some flowers on a grave. As I was standing there I noticed 4 grave diggers walking about with a coffin, 3 hours later and they're still walking about with it. I thought to myself, they've lost the plot!
Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties and local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink by any woman. Many females use a date-drug on the market called 'Beer ' .
The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large kegs.
Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them.
Do you have feelings of inadequacy? Do you suffer from shyness? Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive? Do you suffer exhaustion from the day to day grind? If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Margaritas.
Margaritas are the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions. Margaritas can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you're ready and willing to do just about anything.
Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are
bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.
Here is the glorious winner:
1. When his 38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during
a hold-up in Long Beach, California would-be robber James Elliot did
something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried
the trigger again. This time it worked.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
The train was quite crowded, so a U. S. Marine walked the entire length looking for a seat, but the only seat left was taken by a well dressed, middle-aged, French woman’s poodle…
The war-weary Marine asked, ‘Ma’am, may I have that seat?’
The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular ‘Americans are so rude. Cannot he see that my little Fifi is using that seat.’
It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
Always a sucker for some quick fire gags - my favorite from this particular collection
A London banker dies in poverty and so his local pub decides to raise funds for his funeral. One day a man walks into the pub and is asked to donate 20p for the fund. "What's it for?" he asks, and the landlord tells him. So he reaches into his pocket, hands him a £5 note and says, "
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
As a result of an overwhelming lack of requests, and with research help from that renown scientific journal SPY magazine (January,1990) - I am pleased to present the annual scientific inquiry into Santa Claus.
1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule outflying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
The British Medical Association has weighed in on the new Prime Minister David Cameron's health care proposals....
The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves. The Gastroenterologists had a sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve. The Obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception. Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted. Pathologists yelled, "
Merry Christmas from Don Imus and friends ...
Don Imus - 77 WABC
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Harry and Ronnie doing their stuff- very funny,
Passed on - with thanks to : BBC - BBC One Programmes - The One Ronnie, Blackberry Sketch
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Once again my thanks to Mike K for these.....
A Jewish woman goes to see her Rabbi and asks,
“Yankele and Yosele are both in love with me, who will be the lucky one?'' The wise old Rabbi answers: " Yankele will marry you. Yosele will be the lucky one.
If a married Jewish man is walking alone in a park and expresses an opinion without anybody hearing him, is he still wrong?
Thanks to Mike K for the list ::::
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside.. I just finished cleaning."
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!
A young Jewish man excitedly tells his mother he’s fallen in love and that he is going to get married. He says, “Just for fun, Ma, I’m going to bring over 3 women and you try and guess which one I’m going to marry.”
The mother agrees. The next day, he brings three beautiful women into the house and sits them down on the couch and they chat for a while.
Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1 stick butter 1 cup of water 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup of sugar 1 tsp salt 1 cup of brown sugar Lemon juice 4 large eggs Nuts 2 bottles of wine 2 cups of dried fruit Method Sample the wine to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.
Two Israelis are sitting on the beach in Tel Aviv, reading. One has got a quality newspaper, the other an antisemitic rag. "Why on earth are you reading that?" one asks. "I used to read a quality paper like you," the other sighs, "but I couldn't handle it any more – the rockets from Gaza and Hezbollah getting stronger every day and the Iranian nuclear programme and the suffering economy and growing antisemitism across Europe…"
A Norwegian, a Faroese and an Icelander are about to be executed. Each one gets a final wish. The Faroese asks for a final feast of sour shark and dried whalemeat for everyone. The Icelander asks to be allowed to compose an epic poem in the old style about how cruelly he is being treated and about how great Iceland is. The Norwegian thinks for a while, and then says: "
I took my dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes (he is 66).
We decided to grab a bite at the food court.
I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him.
The teenager had spiked hair in all different colours - green, red, orange, and blue.
My dad kept staring at her.
The teenager kept looking and would find my dad staring every time.
God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.
He inquired, "Where have you been?"
God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test Balance.
Another list courtesy of M Klein
Don't buy a putter until you've had a chance to throw it. Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing. When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either use one more club or two more balls. If you're afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.
My thanks to Mike K for this batch....
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
Classic
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Apparently the news report was all about some FIFA controversy down in South Africa - seems like their should be another one at the TV station around geography ….
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
My thanks to John Caswell for bringing this to my attention. Marge Simpson does Europe.
View The "European" Marge Simpson in a larger map ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Very funny - and a little bit too close to the truth :)
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
"Golf's a hard game to figure. One day you'll go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and for no reason at all you really stink." ... and other pearls
This came winging its's way through the ether today .... courtesy of 'Mr K' ...
Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything.. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little Old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had Cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but One day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said She would not recover.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
…. you probably missed them - because you don’t read them any more - look what you are missing !
“Commenting on a complaint from a Mr. Arthur Purdey about a large gas bill, a spokesman for North West Gas said, “We agree it was rather high for the time of year. It’s possible Mr. Purdey has been charged for the gas used up during the explosion that destroyed his house.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I do apologize for the delay to your service. I know you’re all dying to get home, unless, of course, you happen to be married to my ex-wife, in which case you’ll want to cross over to the Westbound and go in the opposite direction.”
“Your delay this evening is caused by the line controller suffering from E & B syndrome: not knowing his elbow from his backside.
Years since I have seen ‘Andy Capp’ - and still hits the bone. My thanks to MK for the forward.
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PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES: When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS
DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
SLOT MACHINES:
… well don’t actually - these are just some fun things I turned up recently …. In the 1400’s a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have “the rule of thumb”. Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled “Gentlemen Only…Ladies Forbidden”…and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.
Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.
When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed to find a wife with whom to share his fortune.
One evening, at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.
Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
Husband Store
A store that sells new husbands has opened in New York City , where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:
You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!
The Pope and Gordon Brown are on the same stage in front of a huge crowd.
The Pope leans towards Gordon and said, “Do you know that with one little wave of my hand I can make every person in this crowd go wild with joy? This joy will not be a momentary display, like that of your followers, but go …deep into their hearts and they’ll forever speak of this day and rejoice!
One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The florist was pleased and left the shop.
When the barber goes to open his shop the next morning there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.
An American tourist in London decides to skip his tour group and explore the city on his own. He wanders around, seeing the sights, occasionally stopping at a quaint pub to soak up the local culture, chat with the locals, and have a pint of bitter.
After a while, he finds himself in a very nice neighborhood with big, stately residences...no pubs, no stores, no restaurants, and worst of all NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS.
Another tip of the hat to M Klein …. the younger generations take on marriage …
HOW TO DECIDE WHO YOU SHOULD MARRY
“You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.”
Alan, age 10 “No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry.
This is an entirely untrue story - read here to see why, however - it is a cracker ;)
For those that don’t know him, Major General Peter Cosgrove is an Australian. General Cosgrove was interviewed on the radio recently. In a portion of an ABC radio interview between a female broadcaster and General Cosgrove who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military Headquarters.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER: So, General Cosgrove, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base?
My thanks to Mike Klein for the following :
You might not have known this, but a lot of non-living objects are actually either male or female. Here are some examples:
FREEZER BAGS: They are male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
PHOTOCOPIERS: These are female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. They are an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can also wreak havoc if you push the wrong Buttons.
I just LOVE these guys - a link to their You Tube Offerings for your delectation …
YouTube - "bird and fortune"
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So many of these hit true - just had to record for posterity …
A day without sunshine is like night.
On the other hand, you have different fingers.
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
Remember, half the people you know are below average…
An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years.
He had a large pond in the back.
It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees.
One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn’t been there for a while, and look it over.
He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.
Click on the link if you want to get to the original ….
What People say in Court
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Buddy and his wife Edna went to the state fair every year, And every year Buddy would say, ‘Edna,I’d like to ride in that helicopter’
Edna always replied,
‘I know Buddy, but that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, And fifty bucks is fifty bucks’
One year Buddy and Edna went to the fair, and Buddy said,
‘Edna, I’m 85 years old. If I don’t ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance’
The list continues to grow ….
Click Here For The List Microsoft Works ... still my favorite
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The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
It’s an older one - but well worth a revisit.
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Three mischievous old Grandmas were sitting on a bench outside a nursing home when an old Grandpa walked by.
And one of the old Grandmas yelled out saying,
‘We bet we can tell exactly how old you are.’
The old man said, ‘There is no way you can guess it, you old fools.’
One of the old Grandmas said, ‘Sure we can! Just drop your pants and under shorts and we can tell your exact age.
Couldn’t resist - number 1 - at the bottom is the personal favorite ….
Originally posted here : Oxymorons 45 of the best 45. Act naturally
44. Found missing
43. Resident alien
42. Advanced BASIC
41. Genuine imitation
40. Airline Food
39. Good grief38. Same difference
37. Almost exactly
36. Government organization
35. Sanitary landfill
34. Alone together
33. Legally drunk
32. Silent scream
31. Living dead
30. Small crowd
These just caught my tickle bone - enjoy.
33 Creative and Humorous Guinness Print Advertisements Passed on - with thanks to : Speckyboy Design Magazine
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An interesting humorous site I just found through the ‘twitterverse’ …
Thirsty Angel Fish
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Try this experiment.
Put your dog and your wife in the boot of the car for an hour.
When you open the boot, which one is really happy to see you?
Thanks to Mike K
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Originally Posted Here, recounted here for posterity …
NICKNAMES: If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah. If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.
EATING OUT: When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in £20, even though it’s only for £32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit to wanting any change back.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, forI may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.
Sex is like air. It’s not that important unless you aren’t getting any.
No one is listening until you fart.
Always remember you’re unique.
In a Bangkok temple:
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN, EVEN A FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN.
Cocktail lounge, Norway:
LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.
Doctor’s office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.
Dry cleaners, Bangkok:
DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.
In a Nairobi restaurant:
CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.
… they’re all ‘B’s’ …. Real B’s
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DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM
PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters: MOON STARER
DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters: A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES: When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE
GAUTENG: When you rearrange the letters: GET A GUN
THE MORSE CODE: When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS
On the first day, God created the dog and said:
‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’
The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’
So God agreed.
On the second day, God created the monkey and said:
Please can anyone help.
18 months ago I upgraded to Girlfriend 1.0 from DrinkingMates 4.2, which I had used for years without any trouble.
However, there are apparently conflicts between these two products and the only solution was to try and run Girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off.
To make matters worse, Girlfriend 1.0 is incompatible with several other applications, such as LadsNightOut 3.1, Football 4.5, and Playboy 6.9. Successive versions of GirlFriend proved no better.
Ralph and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool. Ralph suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there.
Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled him out. When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna’s heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable.
I’m on a whiskey diet. I’ve lost three days already!
I was reading this book today, The History Of Glue, and I couldn’t put it down.
I phoned the local ramblers club today, and this bloke just went on and on.
So Batman came up to me & he hit me over the head with a vase & he went T’PAU! I said “Don’t you mean KAPOW??” He said “No, I’ve got china in my hand.
It’s an old one - but still fun
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.
When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.
A study conducted by UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle….
For example, if she is ovulating at the time, she is more attracted to a man with rugged and masculine features.
However, if she is menstruating or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire.
A guy is driving around the back woods of Tennessee and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: ‘Talking Dog For Sale.’ He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.
‘You talk?’ he asks. ‘Yep,’ the Lab replies.
After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says ‘So, what’s your story?
The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.
A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
… even if you aren’t so keen on him - I know there may be one or two of you …. this will take just less than 4 minutes of your life. Go on - try it.
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Just click on here ….
… and with thanks to : ‘who was it now that sent me these …?
I will get back to you.
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When I first saw this, I was taken in by that last line and nearly posted it to ‘That Would Be An F’ - but something made me check - to find that it was not true, or at least been around for so long - and still nobody had validated it … still funny though !
A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire.
Just caught this through a Guy Kawasaki Twitter … very funny - very good …
Every Simpson Couch
… with thanks to : Guy Kawasaki, for the link.
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Meanwhile, the video below is not rendering, most likely because the owner is preventing it from being embedded. You can still watch the link by clicking on the link at the top of there post.
A mother and her young son were flying Air New Zealand from Auckland to Sydney .
The little boy who had been quietly looking out the window, turned to his mother and said, ‘If big dogs have baby dogs, and big cats have baby cats, why don’t big airplanes have baby
airplanes?'
The mother, who couldn’t think of an answer, told her son to ask the flight attendant.So the boy walked down the aisle and asked the flight attendant, who was busy serving drinks.
… and a Happy New Year to You … just click on the link to access the new year microsite.
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Hit The Link - Knock Yourself Out - Knock Him Out ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
My thanks - as so often is the case - to ‘Mike’
1. Two antennae met on a roof, fell in love and got married.
The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.
2. A set of jump leads walk into a bar. The bartender says,
‘I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything.'
3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.
4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
A salient lesson for all men this season
… with thanks to : Advertising Ageand J C Penney and Saatchi and Saatchi
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Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.
He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Dear Santa I wud like a kool toy space ranjur fer Xmas. Iv ben a gud boy all yeer yer Frend, BiLLy
Dear Billy, Nice spelling. You’re on your way to a career in lawn care. How about I send you a friggin’ book so you can learn to read and write? I’m giving your older brother the space ranger. At least HE can spell! Santa
Dear Santa, I have been a good girl all year, and the only thing I ask for is peace and joy in Dear Sarah, Your parents smoked pot when they had you, didn’t they?
The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, ‘If you were my husband I’d give you poison,’ and he said, ‘If you were my wife, I’d drink it.'
2) A member of Parliament to Disraeli: ‘Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.’ ‘That depends, Sir,’ said Disraeli, ‘whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.'
3) ‘He had delusions of adequacy.’ - Walter Kerr
The Allergists voted to scratch it, and the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve, and the Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.
The Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted; the Pathologists yelled, ‘Over my dead body!’ while the Pediatricians said, ‘Oh, Grow up!’
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the Radiologists could see right through it, and the Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
Another fine contribution from ‘The Onion’
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The Onion - America’s Finest News Source [Consumer Prices Fall Record Amount]
The Onion - got to love it ….
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A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. ‘House’ for instance, is feminine: ‘la casa.’ ‘Pencil,’ however, is masculine: ‘el lapiz.’ A student asked, ‘What gender is ‘computer’?’ Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun.
There are two sides of the balance sheet: the left side and the right side.
On the left side, there is nothing right.
And on the right side, there is nothing left.
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Origami Bank has folded. Sumo Bank has gone belly up.
Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song. Today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived. Samurai Bank are soldiering on following sharp cutbacks. Ninja Bank are reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.
It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named
after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot
coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee. You
remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it
between her knees while she was driving. Who would
ever think one could get burned doing that, right?
If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago they would now be worth £4.95.
With HBOS last week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50
£1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5.
BUT
If you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would be paid £214.
I am currently out of the office at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Please be prepared for my mood.
You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
Sorry to have missed you, but I’m at the doctor’s having my brain and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team.
JIB JAB - always very good with their political skewering and satire let loose their latest on the current US campaigns. Change the faces and it pretty much applies to the UK scene aswell - but that is a different story !
You might also like tocheck out some of the other links. Enjoy.
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At Penn State University , there were four sophomores taking chemistry and all of them had an “A” so far. These four friends were so confident that the weekend before finals, they decided to visit some friends and have a big party.
They had a great time but, after all the hearty partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn’t make it back to Penn State until early Monday morning.
Thanks to ‘Mike’ for these …
1. Two blondes walk into a building………. you’d think at least one of
them would have seen it.
2. Phone answering machine message - “…If you want to buy
marijuana, press the hash key…"
3. A guy walks into the psychiatrist wearing only Clingfilm for
shorts. The shrink says: “Well, I can clearly see you’re nuts."
4. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find
This test only has one question, but it’s a very important one.
By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.
Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line. THE SITUATION:
You are in England , York to be specific.
A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway. Nothing is moving.
Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, What’s going on?'
‘Terrorists down the road have kidnapped Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, David Miliband and Jack Straw. They’re asking for a £1 million ransom, otherwise they’re going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire. We’re going from car to car, taking up a collection.
While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and start making clockwise circles with it.
Now, while doing this, draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand.
Your foot will change direction and there’s nothing you can do about it.
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Texas
Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas …
If someone in a Lowe’s store offers you assistance and they don’t work there, you may live in Texas ;
If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Texas ;
If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas ;
Courtesy of Mike Klein …
A jewish boy goes home from school and says to his mum “guess what? I got a part in the school play!"
“Wonderful darling! What part did you get?"
“I’m playing the part of the Jewish Husband!"
The mother frowns and says
“Go back to your teacher and tell them you want a speaking part.”
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site.
A man walks into a bank, gets in line and when it is his turn he pulls out a gun … and robs the bank!!!
To make sure he leaves no witnesses, he turns around and asks the next customer in line: ‘Did you see me rob this bank?'
The customer replies: ‘YES!'
The bank robber raises his gun, POINTS IT & BANG!! SHOOTS HIM in THE HEAD AND KILLS HIM!
Love Love Love …
How to Change the World: April Fools' Stories You Shouldn’t Believe
passed on - with thanks to : Guy Kawasaki
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Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego , was visiting her in-laws, and while there went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her parked car with the windows rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head.One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car.
More fun with statistics ... (Via ... My Friend Kevin.)
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George Bush goes to a primary school to talk to the kids to get a little PR.
After his talk he offers question time
One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him his name.
“Stanley,” responds the little boy.
“And what is your question, Stanley?”
“I have 4 questions:
First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN?
Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes?
When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her. Sacha Guitry
After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can’t face each other but still they stay together. Hemant Joshi
By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher. Socrates
Tower: “TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."
TWA 2341: “Centre, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"
Tower: “Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"
From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: “I’m f…ing bored!"
Ground Traffic Control: “Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
Unknown aircraft: “I said I was f…ing bored, not f…ing stupid!
If there is no self,
Whose arthritis is this?
»
Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
»
Drink tea and nourish life.
With the first sip… joy.
With the second… satisfaction.
With the third, peace.
With the fourth, a danish.
»
Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.
»
Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health or a life without problems.
For all of you who frequent restaurants and understand
the need for the service to be faster, this short
story is a timeless lesson on how consultants can make
a difference to an organization.
Last week, we took some friends out to a new
restaurant and noticed that the waiter who took our
order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.
It seemed a little strange. When another waiter
brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had
A letter recently received at a problems page …
Trevor the farmer was in the fertilised egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called ‘pullets’ and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilise the eggs. The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn’t perform went into the soup pot and was replaced.
That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.
… if he says something in the woods - and no woman is there to hear him ?
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
All too rarely, airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight
“safety lecture” and announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some
real examples that have been heard or reported:
On a Southwest flight (SW has no assigned seating, you just sit where you
want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight
attendant announced, “People, people we' re not picking out furniture here,
find a seat and get in it!
Being English is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, and then traveling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most English thing of all is suspicion of anything foreign.
Only in England ... can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. Mark Twain
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress…. But then I repeat myself. Mark Twain
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill
The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term. The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.
2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door
3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.
4. Then analyse the situation:
a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the accounting department.
b. If they are recounting them, put them in auditing.
c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in engineering.
Another nod of thanks to Mike …
Jewbilation (n.) Pride in finding out that one’s favorite celebrity is Jewish.
Torahfied (n.) Inability to remember one’s lines when called to read from the Torah at one’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah. (OR from the Hagadah at Passover)
Santa-shmanta (n.) The explanation Jewish children get for why they celebrate Hanukkah while the rest of the neighbors celebrate Christmas.
Matzilation (v.) Smashing a piece of matzo to bits while trying to butter it.
… thankyou Mr Kleinsome of you will remember the “Hollywood Squares” and its comics. Here are questions and answers from the days when “Hollywood Squares” game show responses were spontaneous, not scripted, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions.
Here we go:
Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.
Q. If you’re going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
Bono, the lead singer of the band, U2, is famous throughout the entertainment industry for being more than just a little self-righteous.At a recent U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland, he asked the audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, he started to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, he said into the microphone …
‘Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies.
Classic - Thanks Lou
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE Bamber Gascoigne: What was Ghandi's first name?Contestant: Goosey, Goosey? THE WEAKEST LINK Anne Robinson: In traffic, what "J" is where two roads meet?Contestant: Jool carriageway. Anne Robinson : Which Italian city is overlooked by Vesuvius?Contestant: Bombay. Anne Robinson: What insect is commonly found hovering above lakes?Contestant: Crocodiles. Anne Robinson : Wh...?Contestant (interrupting) : Pass! Anne Robinson : In olden times, what were minstrels, travellingentertainers or chocolate salesmen?
At the US War College, a General is a guest lecturer and tells the class of officers that the session will focus on potential problems and the resulting strategies.
One of the officers in the class begins by asking the first question,
“Will we have to fight in a World War Three, Sir?”
“Yes, gentlemen, it looks like you will,” answers the General.
“And who will be our enemy, General?” another officer asks.
OPENING CEREMONYThe flame will be ignited by a petrol bomb thrown by a native of the area, in the traditional dress of balaclava and shell suit. The flame will be contained in a large overturned Police van situated on the roof of the stadium.
THE EVENTS
In previous Olympic Games, East London’s competitors have not been particularly successful. In order to redress the balance, some of the events have been altered slightly to the advantage of local athletes.
🚧
An Irishman walks into a bar in Dublin, orders three pints of Guinness and sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finished all three, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.
The bartender says to him, "You know, a pint goes flat after I draw it; it would taste better if you bought one at a time.
I can see your point, but I still think you’re full of sht.2. I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.
3. How about never? Is never good for you?
4. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.
5. I’m really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.
6. Who lit the fuse on your tampon?
GEORGE W. BUSH: We don’t care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either for us or against us. There is no middle ground.
TONY BLAIR: I agree with George.
HANS BLIX: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.
How to Make a Woman HappyIt’s not difficult to make a woman happy. A man only needs to be:
1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!
In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with their own Japanese haiku poetry:Oh, a file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
The Web site you seek
Cannot be located but
Countless more exist.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Aborted effort:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
Windows NT crashed.
The Ferrari Formula 1 Team fired their entire pit crew yesterday. The announcement followed Ferrari’s decision to take advantage of the British governments ‘Work for Benefits ' scheme and employ unemployed Scousers. The decision to hire them was brought on by a recent documentary on how unemployed Liverpool youths were able to remove a set of wheels in less than 6 seconds without proper equipment, whereas Ferrari’s existing crew can only do it in 8 seconds with millions-of-pounds-worth of high tech gear.
… and all that …
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European Heightened Security The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from MIFFED to PEEVED. Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to IRRITATED or even a BIT CROSS. Londoners have not been a BIT CROSS since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from TIRESOME to a BLOODY NUISANCE. The last time the British issued a BLOODY NUISANCE warning level was during the great fire of 1666.
A Muslim was seated next to an Australian on a flight from London to Sydney. After the plane was airborne, drink orders were taken. The Aussie asked for a rum and coke, which was brought and placed before him.
The flight attendant then asked the Muslim if he would like a drink.
He replied in disgust, “I’d rather be tied up and savagely raped by a dozen blonde whores than let liquor touch my lips.
Blessed Are The Non Smokers … is a piece by Oliver Pritchett of the Telegraph - tickled my bone- thanks Dad.
Somewhere there will be an equivalent piece - I am sure - that will discuss the fact that those of us who are living ‘at her majesties pleasure’ will soon have the right to request a non smoking cell … since this is where they live - meanwhile the warders will be asked to leave the building - since it is their place of work ….
More thanks to Mike Klein …
TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.
TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
______
TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell “crocodile?"
GLENN: “K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L
TEACHER: No, that’s wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
My thanks to Mike Klein - again …
<img style=“cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;” src=“http://bp0.blogger.com/_DXkFEAXUNnc/RkIpiaJn9XI/AAAAAAAAAEY/PGislRwdyqA/s320/OfficialAnnouncement.jpg" border=“0” alt=““id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062654602229839218” />
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Another Klein special …
You invented Tipp Ex, correct me if I’m wrong.
So I went to buy a watch.
The man in the shop said “Analogue.” I said “No, just a watch."
I went into a shop and I said, “Can someone sell me a kettle.” The bloke said “Kenwood” I said, “Where is he?"
So I went in to a pet shop. I said, “Can I buy a goldfish?
Sam died. His will provided $50,000 for an elaborate funeral.
As the last attendees left, Sam’s wife Rose turned to her oldest friend
Sadie and said:
“Well, I’m sure Sam would be pleased."
“I’m sure you’re right,” replied Sadie, who leaned in close and lowered her
voice to a whisper.
“Tell me, how much did it really cost ?"
“All of it,” said Rose. “Fifty thousand."
“No !” Sadie exclaimed. “I mean, it was very nice, but
Trevor the farmer was in the fertilised egg business.
He had several hundred young layers (hens), called “pullets” and eight or
ten roosters, whose job was to fertilise the eggs. The farmer kept records
and any rooster that didn’t perform went into the soup pot and was replaced.
That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and
attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could
Mike - I don’t know your source - but keep them coming …
WOMEN’S ENGLISH
1. Yes = No
2. No = Yes
3. Maybe = No
4. We need = I want
5. I am sorry = you’ll be sorry
6. We need to talk = you’re in trouble
7. Sure, go ahead = you better not
8. Do what you want = you will pay for this later
Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.
Some people are like Slinkies…not really good for anything, but you still can’t help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, “Well, that’s not going to happen.
… my thanks to Mike Klein for this …
A short poem created entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush. These have been arranged, only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share. It should make you sad - and happy - all at the same time ;)
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
I think we all agree, the past is over.
BLONDE LOGIC
Two blondes living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking and one blonde says to the other, “Which do you think is farther away…Florida or the moon?” The other blonde turns and says “Helloooooooooo, can you SEE Florida..?????”
CAR TROUBLE
A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died… After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly.
… once more - my thanks to Mike Klein
NICKNAMES
If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah. * If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.
EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in £50, even though it’s only for £115.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
… thanks to Mike Klein
Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:
1. The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
2. The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus."
3. Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.
… thanks to Mike Klein
DAMNITOL
Take 2 and the rest of the world can go to hell for up to 8 full hours
EMPTYNESTROGEN
Suppository that eliminates melancholy and loneliness by reminding you of how awful they were as teenagers and how you couldn’t wait till they moved out.
ST. MOMMA’S WORT
Plant extract that treats mom’s depression by rendering preschoolers unconscious for up to two days
PEPTOBIMBO
Liquid silicone drink for single women.
.. thanks to my Dad - and his friends at Probus - for these great one liners.
1. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.
2. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, “Doctor, doctor, I can’t feel my legs’” The doctor replied, I know you can’t - I’ve cut off your arms.
3. I went to a seafood disco last week…and pulled a mussel.
Don’t know if any of the following is accurate, but it sounds good!
In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted.
… with thanks to Dinesh ….
1. Pat Glenn, weightlifting commentator - “And this is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing!"
2. New Zealand Rugby Commentator - “Andrew Mehrtens loves it when Daryl Gibson comes inside of him."
3. Ted Walsh - Horse Racing Commentator - “This is a really a lovely horse. I once rode her mother."
4. Harry Carpenter at the Oxford-Cambridge boat race 1977 - “Ah, isn’t that nice.
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROO M
PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES: ! When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE :
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS
SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters:
New Mitchell and Webb Spins on US Apple Ads … very - VERY funny.
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Thankyou Graham …
These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
A father passing by his son's bedroom, was astonished to see the bed was nicely made, and everything was picked up. Then, he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, "Dad." With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter, with trembling hands.
<snip><snip>
Dear, Dad. It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend, because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.
A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. "House" for instance, is feminine: "la casa."
"Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lapiz." A student asked, "What gender is ‘computer’?"
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun.
Mac Spoofs .. just enjoy
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
milaadesign.com :. professional flash designer … fun in a kind of funny way ..
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Zidane Headbutt Outrage: new video evidence | The Register … very clever in terms of humour - AND video manipulation.
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.. A frozen beer cures everything
OK - a new email signature if ever I saw one !
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In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (excepting Kansas, which she does not fancy). Your new prime minister, Tony Blair, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections.
1. THINGY
Female...... Any part under a car's hood.
Male..... The strap fastener on a woman's bra.
2. VULNERABLE
Female.... Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another.
Male....Playing cricket without a box.
3. COMMUNICATION
Female... The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner.
Male... Leaving a note before taking off on a fishing trip with the boys.
4. COMMITMENT
Female.... A desire to get married and raise a family.
Dear Mr Addison,
I am writing to you to express our thanks for your more than prompt reply to our latest communication, and also to answer some of the points you raise. I will address them, as ever, in order.
Firstly, I must take issue with your description of our last as a "begging letter". It might perhaps more properly be referred to as a "tax demand".
This is how we at the Inland Revenue have always, for reasons of accuracy, traditionally referred to such documents.
A new priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak. After mass he asked the monsignor how he had done. The monsignor replied, “When I am worried about getting nervous in the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip.”
So next Sunday he took the monsignor’s advice. At the beginning of the sermon, he got nervous and took a drink.
1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of ***.
2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.
3. How about never? Is never good for you?
4. I see you've set aside this special time to publicly humiliate yourself.
5. I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.
6. Who lit the fuse on your tampon?
...She told me we couldn't afford beer anymore and I'd have to quit.
...Then I caught her spending $65.00 on make-up.
...And I asked how come I had to give up stuff and not her.
...She said she needed the make-up to look pretty for me.
...I told her that was what the beer was for.
I don't think she's coming back..........
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The Washington Post published its yearly contest in which readers are asked
to supply alternate word meanings.
1. Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly
A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote New Zealand pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW X5 four wheel drive advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window as he slid to a halt by the shepherd. “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock” the young man asked, “will you give me one?
DEMOCRATIC You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you
REPUBLICANISM You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
SOCIALIST You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw a most beautiful woman boarding the plane.
He soon realized she was heading straight towards his seat.
As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his.
Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out, “Business trip or pleasure?"
She turned, smiled and said, “Business. I’m going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention in Chicago.
A Washington, DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of why our (I think they mean the US) country is in trouble!
1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)
2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to
Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport
Some reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
… seen as a major step in the war on software theft - but the real question (according to the BBC this morning) … is it just ‘Window’ Dressing?
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway. Nothing is moving and suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks “What’s going on ?"
“Terrorists have kidnapped Tony Blair, John Prescott, Gordon Brown and Jack Straw. They’re asking for a £310 million ransom. Otherwise they’re going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire. We’re going from car to car, taking up a collection.
Princess Diana’s death represents the truest definition of globalisation …
An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, (check the bottle before you change the spelling) followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.
This is originally written (ed - sorry - I don’t know who) by an Englishman, in France, using Bill Gates’s technology, and you’re probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Moroccans.
It’s important to have a woman who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up and has a job.
2. It’s important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It’s important to have a woman who you can trust and who doesn’t lie to you.
4. It’s important to have a woman who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.
cut and paste away …
For My Attorney Friends:
“Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a “gripe sheet,” which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.
Corporate Lesson 1: A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you £1000 to drop that towel.” After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob.
Best Ads On TV
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Understanding Engineers - Take One
Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said,
“Where did you get such a great bike?"
The second engineer replied, “Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, “Take what you want."
The second engineer nodded approvingly and said, “Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn’t have fitted you anyway.
Hats off to the England cricketers for their achievements in the Ashes this summer, Which rightly earned Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff BBC Sports personality of the Year. Winning a two-team tournament against a nation with a much smaller population once in every ten attempts, then never shutting up about it makes me proud to be British.
Ben Hunt
The government tells us that we are eating too many pies and dying of heart disease, then in the next breath they’re telling us we are living too long and there’ll be no more pension money left for us.
Alternatively, for those born before 1986 (Part One can be found here on the Webservations Blog).
According to today’s regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s probably shouldn’t have survived,because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water."
The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus."
Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
A statistician is someone who loves to work with numbers but doesn’t have the personality to be an accountant.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C.
The Russians used a pencil.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site.
The guy in the lower left is Bill Gates worth $80 billion. Paul Allen, the co-owner with a net worth around $40 billion is on the bottom right.
But who are the others … other than nameless billionaires ?
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From the humour,philpin.com archive - now deprecated - but lives on here.
Not the best track ever, not a dog, but not the best. Even so. make sure your speakers are plugged in, the volume is cranked and take 4 minutes and 27 seconds of time out …..
The Juggling Final
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My thanks to Mike K …
It doesn’t hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time, and this should help get you started. During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.
“Well,” said the Director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.
From the humour,philpin.com archive - now deprecated - but lives on here.
From the humour,philpin.com archive - now deprecated - but lives on here.
… thanks to Mike Klein for this one.
Click on the image to see a larger rendition.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Dear Mr Addison,
I am writing to you to express our thanks for your more than prompt reply to our latest communication, and also to answer some of the points you raise. I will address them, as ever, in order.
Firstly, I must take issue with your description of our last as a "begging letter". It might perhaps more properly be referred to as a "tax demand". This is how we at the Inland Revenue have always, for reasons of accuracy, traditionally referred to such documents.
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked,"How heavy is this glass of water?"
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
Ponderisms … funny things these - Carlin-esque … in in some ways.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
1. Save the whales. Collect the whole set.
2. A day without sunshine is like, night.
3. On the other hand, you have different fingers.
4. I just got lost in thought. It wasn't familiar territory.
5. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
7. I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe
It’s time once again to review the winners of the Annual “Stella Awards."
The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck of New Mexico who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year’s winners:
7th Place: Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store.
TESTICULATING. Waving your arms around and talking Bollocks.
BLAMESTORMING. Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER. A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles.
MEERKATTING - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube
farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.
In an attempt to thwart the spread of bird flu, George W. Bush has bombed the Canary Islands …
…. thanks Andrew :)
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Thanks to John (two Jags.) Prestcott there is so much building going on everywhere else, on Sailsbury plain, nothing. Hasn’t been any building there for, ooh, 4,000 years, I suppose. Even then I dare say back in neolithic times there was some stone-age man standing in the observation platform watching what was going on, I dare say he didn’t care for it much
either. Imagine if you will the following conversation 4000 years ago on Salisbury plain!
.. to be passed on to your mum, your daughters, grandaughters, nieces, aunts, girlfriends …
1. Don’t imagine you can change a man - unless he’s in nappies.
2. What do you do if your boyfriend walks out? You shut the door.
3. If they put a man on the moon - they should be able to put them all up there.
4. Never let your man’s mind wander - it’s too little to be out alone.
Never Copped A Feel
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“In pharmacology, all drugs have two names - a trade name and a generic name. For example, the trade name TylenolR is acetaminophen. AleveR is known as naproxen, AmoxilR is amoxicillin, and AdvilR is ibuprofen”. The (American) FDA has been looking for a generic name for ViagraR. After consideration by a team of experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of mycoxafloppin. Also considered were mycoxafailin, mydixadrupin, mydixarizin, mydixadud, dixafix and, of course, ibepokin.
Colo(u)r Test<hr>
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…. is a play on a well known Queen track - enjoy
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
Muppets.com – Gonzo Stunt Game - boring after a 100 tries - but the first 50 keeps you laffin' …. :)
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site. I moved the content here for posterity. The date of this post is the date that it was originally published on that site.
The eBay Song .. click the link - sit back and enjoy ;)
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My thanks to Mr. Potter’s mum :) A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her Altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.” The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air Balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level.
There is a new study out about women and how they feel about their arses.
The results were pretty interesting :-
85% of women think their arse is too big.
10% of women think their arse is too little.
The other 5% say that they don’t care, they love him, he’s a good man and they would have married him anyway.
ITS.A.JOKE.PEOPLE Originally Posted On Humor.Philpin.com - a now defunct site.
JibJab.com is where you will find the info from the previous post - I was specifically thinking of ‘Second Term’ and ‘This Land!’ - but there are some other classics - enjoy ….
It’s A Joke People - https://documents.philpin.com/micro-blog/humour"Find Out More
GBjab … I will see if I can find the original Bush one that was published for the US election.
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.. or as it is known in the trade : BU__SH__ !!! … during the last election in the US - I compiled some of the humorous things that I found on Dubbya - put up this site - and sat back. It has been off line until today - b but now as I start out capturing the humour of the net on this blog - I thought … why not - so here it is again.
The response : First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
A sign in the bank lobby reads: “Please note that this bank is installing new Drive-through teller machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts. After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE procedures have been developed. Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender.” MALE PROCEDURE: 1. Drive up to the cash machine.
TESTICULATING - Waving your arms around and talking bllocks. BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves. ASSMOSIS - The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.
It's hopelessly incurable and a very cruel disease.
This is how it manifests: I decided to wash my car.
As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I sort the bills from the junk mail and decide to pay my bills.
I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the trashcan under the table, and notice that the trashcan is full.
ONE-POINT DARES
1. Ignore the first five people who say ‘good morning’ to you.
2. To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears and grimace.
3. Leave your fly open for one hour. If anyone points it out, say, “Sorry, I really prefer it this way”.
4. Walk sideways to the photocopier.
5. While going in an elevator, gasp dramatically each time the doors open.