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You Okay Back There Gordon?
I read an article in Metro today saying that Gordon Brown’s later book wasn’t doing too well sales-wise: Meanwhile, sales of Gordon Brown’s latest book have flopped in the four months since it was released, leaving thousands of copies in bookstore bargain bins. The former prime minister’s speeches collection, Change We Choose, is ranked number…
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Swiming In British Seas: A Simple Guide
A generation or two ago, foreign holidays were for the rich only. Everyone else took their holidays on British beaches and swam in British seas. Then came the advent of cheap Mediterranean package holidays and somewhere along the way a particularly pernicious myth (which I’ve been encountering recently on Twitter) grew up among the people…
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Retarded? Mentally Disturbed? Evil?
These were the three thoughts that went through my mind when I read the following in a news report about Raoul Moat’s funeral in today’s Metro newspaper: One stranger was Theresa Bystram, 45, who travelled 480km (300 miles) from Weybridge, Surrey, on an overnight coach with three of her teenage sons to be at the…
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Wayfinding: The Borisbike Scheme’s Little Added Bonus
A while ago there was a series of very good articles on Slate by Julia Turner about signage, and a discipline known as “wayfinding”, which wikipedia defines thus: Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. That might sound a bit…
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Scrum: Great Methodology; Crap Name
At my work, we’re currently looking into adopting a project management / development methodology called Scrum. Scrum, which involves breaking work into two-week segments called “sprints”, is an example of what are known as “agile” methodologies for software development. As the name suggests, agile methodologies are designed to be quick and responsive to customer and…
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You Know, If Jesus Had Owned A Jesus Phone…
…he might have been able to think of a dish a little more imaginative than fish on bread. Last Saturday I downloaded, for the very reasonable sum of £1.79, a new app for my iPhone: Vegan Recipe Finder by VegWeb.com. (I found it by accident, by clicking on the “New Apps” page in the AppStore…
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Well I Guess He’s Being Honest
I’ve just started reading Frankie Boyle’s autobiography My Shit Life So Far. Wow. This is a list of all the people / things he’s managed to insult in just the *introduction*: Everyone who’s bought the book Ian Wright Tina Turner Michael Jackson Fidel Castro Paul McCartney England football team Michael Jackson (again) The British people…
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There’s Probably An App For That
Okay, I do at this point need to declare an interest. I’m an Apple fanboy. Not only have I got an iPad, an iPhone, a MacBook, and a MacBook Air, I have also in the past owned an iBook, a first-generation iMac, and even [drumroll please] a Newton. (Buying a Mustang or a Mondeo, say,…
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I Appear To Be Living In Advertland
I was on my way home last night, on the final stages of my walk from the station to our house, when I heard music. It was a folky tune, a woman’s voice floating above a simple acoustic guitar. There was something about the quality of the sound that immediately made me think: “That’s not a…
Jonny Nexus 