I love this TED lecture on classical music by the British director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander.
Zander’s clear enthusiasm and passion for music is inspiring and a delight to watch.
December 23, 2009
December 19, 2009
Apathy and Turnout at the General Election 2010
Next year will be a general election and the country will once again be asked to decide between the main parties on policy, personalities and in particular, the economy.
There’s more at stake in the next few years than in living history for many, but wasn’t that also the case in 2005?
Tony Blair had lied about the reasons for going to war, the unpopular Gordon Brown was publicly waiting in the wings for his moment, and anyone in business could see a recession looming, thanks to the Government’s short-term gains and long-term gambles. Oh, and Gordon had also sold off more than half of our gold reserves, costing the economy billions.
So why didn’t we stand up and act?
Having worked on one particular campaign, I was up all night in 2005, waiting for the result to come in.
As it happens, I was disappointed, and decided to take a stroll. To my amazement, there was only one other light on in the whole street. Clearly, nobody cared enough about who was going to be running our country, even to put the TV on.
So when did people stop caring?
I love this image, taken in Leicester Square, London, on 31st May 1929, as the results of the General Election were announced overhead on ticker tape.
At the time, Britain was on the brink of the Great Depression and the stock market crash, and unemployment was rising following the general strike of 1926. Sound familiar?
The election was also the first under the Representation of the People Act 1928, which widened suffrage by giving women under 30 electoral equality with men for the first time (it was called the Flapper election).
Turnout was 73.6% – and the result, a Hung Parliament.
December 14, 2009
BBC’s campaign to give UK wild animals a home for the winter
Made in 2008, anyone who didn’t see this last year, it’s back and doing the rounds again – it’s the viral video promoting BBC Breathing Places…
Don’t pull a funny face if there’s a chance you’ll be on TV: those who laughed at Susan Boyle
Remember this?
I’m sure that many people in the audience pulled funny face when Subo swung her hips and announced that she wanted to be the next Elaine Paige – but the camera picked up this girl and this woman.
And this weekend, Boyle actually sang with Elaine Paige on TV.
To date, 81m YouTubers have seen the clip of Subo’s first appearance on Britain’s Got Talent.
Are these women now in hiding? What do they do for a living? Or did they just shrivel up and die of shame when they realised how public their piss taking had become?
Answers on a postcard…
There’s a lesson to be learned here – and it’s Don’t Pull A Funny Face If You’re Likely To Be On TV.
December 5, 2009
Sean John – A Modern Immoral Brand?
Why do sales of Sean John clothing, perfumes and merchandise exceed $100 million a year when the immorality and inhumanity of the brand and the man behind it are so widely recognised?
It’s obvious that conscience has a price and the difference between a moral and immoral buying decision at every level can mean just a few pennies either way – millions of consumers continue to buy battery farm eggs and food manufacturers still use unsustainable palm oil when the sustainable variety is very little more.
But Sean John products are luxury items – profit margins for fat cat Sean Combs would not be greatly reduced if fake fur items were actually fake, rather than racoon dog, and if the clothing was not made in sweatshops.
For a year now, Sean “Puffy Daddy”, “P Diffy” or whatever Combs, has been advertising his eau de toilette brand in Times Square and on television, with a slogan that inspire that he is ‘King’, a slogan after which the perfume is named.
Here’s a man who has been arrested for assault, weapons violations (a gunfight in a nightclub), driving without a licence and assault (again) on a TV host. He’s even responsible for causing the death of 9 people by overselling a concert then trapping the crowd inside.
Lat time I checked, royalty stood for qualities including integrity, dedication to good causes, and leadership.
Am I missing something or this rapper/gangster/charlatan about as far from being royalty as you can possibly get?
December 3, 2009
To blog or not to blog
The last few months have been the busiest in my career’s history, I suspect.
With more client day-visits than ever before, an unplanned trip abroad and existing projects left, right and centre, every evening and weekend has been swallowed up with work, without exception.
Not that I’m alone – or for that matter, complaining. It’s nice to be busy and I’m sure my life would be a walk in the park for many. But I haven’t contributed to this blog in a month and daily visitor numbers to it have dropped off by about 40%.
And that begs a question – should those of us working in online marketing prioritise our own online marketing? Traditional wisdom says no, but then for those who write blogs and web content for a living, our personal web presence is our shop window. Would the sales girl at the makeup counter in a department store ever consider coming into work with any makeup on?
I’d recommend that a blog is updated at least twice a week. But I can’t even manage that myself. Something’s got to give. I suspect it will be sleep.
November 21, 2009
“Genuine” GCSE Answers
Sent these supposedly genuine answers to GCSE questions. Want to share them.
Q. Name the four seasons
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar
Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists
Q. How is dew formed
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire
Q. What causes the tides in the oceans
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight
Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed
Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections
A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election
Q. What are steroids
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs
Q. What happens to your body as you age
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental
Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery
Q Name a major disease associated with cigarettes
A. Premature death
Q. What is artificial insemination
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow
Q. How can you delay milk turning sour
A. Keep it in the cow
Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.g. The abdomen)
A. The body is consisted into 3 parts – the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E, I, O and U
Q. What is the fibula?
A. A small lie
Q. What does ‘varicose’ mean?
A. Nearby
Q. What is the most common form of birth control
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium
Q. Give the meaning of the term ‘Caesarean section’
A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome
Q. What is a seizure?
A. A Roman Emperor. (Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit)
Q. What is a terminal illness
A. When you are sick at the airport. (Irrefutable)
Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like umbrellas
Q. Use the word ‘judicious’ in a sentence to show you understand its meaning
A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face. (OMG)
Q. What does the word ‘benign’ mean?
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight
Q. What is a turbine?
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head
November 6, 2009
Foie Gras: Roger Moore campaigns for PETA outside Selfridges
Sir Roger Moore has paid for and appears in a new PETA bus stop ad appealing to Selfridges to stop selling foie gras, a “fancy food” that the revered British actor calls “tasteless”. Sir Roger, a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is fighting against foie gras sales because of the cruel methods that foie gras producers use to fatten birds’ livers. The ad – which is placed on Orchard Street directly outside Selfridges’ Foodhall – is designed to catch the eye of Christmas shoppers. The ad shows Sir Roger holding a protest sign and features the tagline “Force-Feeding Birds Is Cruel, Not Yule”. Sir Roger’s plan to pay for the placement of a different image showing the force-feeding of birds for foie gras was rejected by Clear Channel on the grounds that it “would be offensive to the general public”.
“The ad agency deemed the image of the force-feeding of birds for foie gras offensive because it is offensive, but as foie gras production is
too violent to show on an ad, surely this ‘torture in a tin’ is too violently produced for Selfridges to sell”, says Moore, who will not patronise Selfridges as long as it sells foie gras. “What I’m sure the public will find far more offensive is Selfridges’ refusal to stop selling foie gras, the production of which is so incredibly cruel that it is prohibited in Britain.”
To create foie gras – French for “fatty liver” – up to 2 kilograms of mash are pumped into the stomachs of ducks and geese through a pipe two or three times a day. As the birds’ livers expand to up to 10 times their normal size, the animals become too sick to move. The pipes sometimes puncture the birds’ throats, causing the animals to bleed to death.
Moore – who narrates PETA’s graphic video about foie gras production – is joined by the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, who will not shop at Selfridges if the company fails to end foie gras sales. In addition, Prince Charles has banned foie gras from all royal menus. A recent RSPCA poll shows that a majority of Britons want foie gras sales outlawed.
Moore sent his first letter to Selfridges in 2008 and never received a reply. He wrote again this year offering to buy all the foie gras the store had in stock if they would agree to then permanently stop selling the product but Selfridges did not take him up on the offer.
Eventually Selfridges Chief Executive Paul Kelly wrote to Sir Roger attempting to justify the company’s sale of foie gras to which Moore responded writing, “Respected veterinary experts from around the world agree that foie gras production is extremely inhumane. I mean no disrespect, but it is preposterous for a department store executive to hold out his own uninformed opinions in defiance of these findings.”
