The People’s Manifesto
I’m delighted to see Mark Thomas new book “The People’s Manifesto” is now available from the publisher as a traditional paperback and an ebook. It’s as razor sharp as any of his previous books & TV shows, and stunningly diverse because each policy was suggested and voted on by the general public in shows all …
Harbinger of Doom
Every season has it’s harbinger. The first train service disrupted by leaves reminds us that autumn is on the way. Eddying drain pools tell us the leaves are now successfully clogging the sewers, and winter is near. These temporary blockages are swiftly removed, making a terrific compost that nurtures the first daffodils of spring, giving …
Sipping Socialism (via Podcast)
As a five year old in 1977, punks scared me. In the village where I grew up there were only two bits of graffiti that I can recall, one was the anarchy symbol, daubed large by the shoe shop, and the other was the word “sex pistols” enhancing the wall near the public toilets, just …
Customer Safety & Corporate Morality vs Commercial Viability
Is it wrong to gain commercial profit through somebody else’s law breaking? Perhaps its morally wrong, but its not necessarily unlawful: so every day, when the corner shop near us profits indirectly as its customers ignore parking laws, where does their responsibility end?
The Smoking Litter Police
Today at lunchtime I was alerted by a colleague, to an uncommon sight: a uniformed officer of the law, smoking. A smoking plod is probably just as likely as a smoking anybody, but I can’t remember ever seeing an officer smoking in uniform. This one wore little blue epaulettes and a bright yellow arm band …
United States of Emergency
In March, the US federal reserve made a 29 billion dollar investment bailing out the collapsing Bear-Stearns bank. Last month the behemoth mortgage lenders Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were underwritten to the tune of 200 billion dollars. Yesterday the seven hundred billion dollar bail-out bill on federal intervention in financial markets was rejected by …
Irony: Flame or Funny?
Please help! A comment just arrived on the “contact us” page, and it’s a work of art. I can’t decide if it’s a flame, or something intentionally funny. The irony is beautiful.
The £86888 Auction
As the largest food retailer in Britain, what Tesco does has a massive impact on the rest of the British food industry, however, Tesco are not a charity and their primary purpose is to make maximum profit (supposedly within ethical guidelines). The profit-vs-ethics problem is therefore one of ensuring that the right ethical guidelines are …
A few fairly well kitted stalls
One of our favourite TV Chefs (and surrogate conscience for Tesco) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has just announced a Summer Food Fair at River Cottage HQ, this summer, naturally. Now, normally the idea of a fair, replete with wicker cutlery and forced vegetables is not my idea of heaven, but factor in the fact that there will …
RFID Café
I couldn’t help but marvel at the efficiency of our local station café recently, as I watched the staff pipeline their customer orders. The busy morning rush was so great that they’d streamlined the operations; one person greeted customers, took orders from several of us at once, and processed the payments. This freed the second …
Commuter Alarm Clock
On a recent train journey I overheard a conversation about someone who’d enjoyed the first class wine so much on a recent intercity journey that they had difficulty staying awake so as not to miss their destination. Staying awake is a problem for many commuters and for those whose destination is not the terminating station, …
I just work here
This is a true story. Two staff in a small convenience store are chatting as the queue I’m in slowly moves forward towards their dual tills: Shopkeeper 1: These plastic bags get thinner and thinner! Shopkeeper 2: Yeah.
Bulk Buying Eco-Friendly Products
Since we’ve owned our own home we’ve tried to always use environmentally friendly products for all cleaning and laundry tasks. This has been surprisingly difficult because the big four supermarkets in the UK have had a pretty poor record of having more than one “eco” product in any section at any time.
Free Kareem
Meet Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer (Kareem on Wikipedia). Kareem used the web to write about his opinions on secularism and his concerns about what he perceived as religious extremism, political repression and discrimination against women by his law school. For this “crime” Kareem has been jailed for four years.
One million road petitioners can’t be wrong, can they?
The experimental petition system that Downing Street is running has generated it’s first 1,000,000 signature petition: it asks the PM to “scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” and it’s a great example of how public opinion is not necessarily good for the public.
Astronauts: The Focused and The Fragile
If you’re going to do something where you have just one shot, then you have to get it right first time, there can be no deviation. This is a very different requirement to just getting it right every time after a short teething period . Space exploration is full of one-shot right first time problems. …
Mr. Deity
Mr. Deity shows what can be achieved with a static camera, a simple script, minimalist set design and great acting. Episode 5 was released yesterday. By releasing an episode every 2 weeks the producers hope to garner enough interest to turn it into a full TV series.