Amen (or your secular affirmation of choice)
So it seems we know too little to commit to strict atheism, and too much to commit to any religion. Given this, I am often surprised by the number of people who seem to possess total certainty about their position. I know a lot of atheists who seethe at the idea of religion, and religious followers who seethe at the idea of atheism - but neither group is bothering with more interesting ideas. They make their impassioned arguments as though the God versus no-God dichotomy were enough for a modern discussion.
Debenhams Matures…
This got a huge thumbs-up from my (fashion-obsessed) mother-in-law over the weekend. Debenhams is using older models in some of its adverts.
She actually felt she could identify more with the people on display. Goes to show that "aspirational" doesn't always need to mean "aspiring to look 18"…
Hints of that double dip
Our food costs have increased frighteningly since last year. Just to take a few examples from Le Manoir's own provisioning: our blueberries have gone up by 16% since 2009, butter 4.5%, flour nearly 12%, Jabugo ham 15%, Manuka honey 11.5% and milk by more than 8%.
That's the chef Raymond Blanc blogging about the business challenges of the current economy. Base materials and energy costs up. Interest rates are going to have to rise at some point. Many public sector cuts to come.
Anyone nervous yet?
Pre-requisite for modern media?
We firmly believe that you can't build a modern media company without having a platform, and TypePad is our platform for doing that.
Interesting choice of words.
Living in the UK - not so great
The UK and Ireland have been named as the worst places to live in Europe for quality of life, according to research published today.
I'm not sure how and why the UK went so wrong, but this article actually sums up what we've been feeling for a while. Unless you're in a certain income bracket, the UK isn't a great place to be right now.
Where now for Movable Type and Typepad? - a post on my "work" blog about the Say Media news. I suspect several people reading this know way more than I do about the future, but I wanted to put an alternative spin on it to some of the predictions of doom circulating...
Thieves jamming car-locks?
Surrey police are exploring the theory that a gang of car thieves are jamming central locking systems to make it easier to steal goods from cars.
The theory arose after one a witness reported that a man used an electronic device to prevent doors from locking when he parked his Lexus at a local Sainsbury's.
That's a little worrying. I was in the Waitrose (how middle-aged am I?) car park on the way home from work a couple of weeks ago, and my car resolutely wouldn't open.
A couple drove up and told me that this was a common problem, and that I should go and see the manager about it. I said that it wasn't a problem, I could manually open the car, and they drove off. Just before I pulled off the manual open cover, I tried the fob lock once more, and it worked. Now I'm suspicious of that couple's motivations…
This Week in iPhone Pictures: 12th September 2010
Let's be honest. I rarely go anywhere without my iPhone. And, on occasion, I'm so taken by something that I grab a photo and upload it straight to Flickr. And for the last four days, I've done that consistently. Now, the challenge I'm setting myself is to try to do that every day from now on, aggregating them all here every Sunday. Here's the first four days' worth:
This is the pic that started it - it was such a lovely morning that I couldn't resist grabbing a pic as I got in my car.
Changing at London Bridge, on my way to a meeting on Friday, I loved this view of the under-construction Shard.
A dummy on a stall in St Nicholas' Market made for a striking shot on Saturday.
And a rose in my mother-in-law's garden caught my eye on a lazy Sunday.
Blog Unleashes Cliché in Headline
Katie Holmes unleashes her wild side in leopard print
Oh, dear God. Is there no end to the clichés? How long have print media journalists been using "wild side" for anything to do with leopard print? It's dull, it's predictable, there's precisely nothing wild about Katie Holmes in that photo and do blogs really need to use the same clichés?
grumblegrumblegrumble
On the death of Vox
Last Thursday, I opened Safari, and found a death notice. Vox, a blogging platform I've used for four years, was on death row. At the end of this month, it dies.
I used to love Vox. Up until mid-2008 I was an enthusiastic Voxer, posting there as least as much as I do here. But my activity had petered off in recent years, and I think there are some lessons worth learning in the demise of this once-promising platform.
For anyone who has followed me over from Vox, I've blogged my thoughts on its end over on my "work" blog.