Passion is the new Amazing

I have got heartily sick of how amazing things are these days. However, the word passion is now being even more widely over used.

Every now and again I like to watch cookery programmes; but I am wary now because I find the number people who are passionate about cheese, meat, frying ... is, well, amazing.

The same with anything to do with football. The amount of passion in football is astonishing.

How about a bit of variety? Let's think of new words for amazing and passion.

Amazing: _________

Passion: _________


DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Rachmaninov's Vespers

A long time ago I went to a performance of Rachmaninov's Vespers in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. It was a magnificent evening. Glorious music and song in a perfect setting. Three encores I think.

I bought a CD of the Vespers a little while later and it is a marvellous thing.

Now, I have transferred Vespers to my iPod and it is heavenly to listen to. I especially like Blazhen Muzh and Bogoroditsye Devo

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Using ‘power curves’ to assess industry dynamics

This just came in via my inbox from The McKinsey Quarterly:

Plotting the structure of industries across markets and geographies reveals a startling and increasing inequality in size and performance among even the largest companies.
What emerges is a “power curve” pattern characterized by a short “head,” comprising a few companies with extremely large incomes and quickly dropping off to a long “tail” of significantly smaller competitors.
These power curves can be a useful diagnostic tool for understanding the structural dynamics of an industry and a company’s role and options in its evolution.

Now, I am the first to admit that I am not McKinsey calibre but I am way ahead of this one as I have been analysing and presenting such curves for years.

DW

They’re Dead

I have just read the ghastly news in the FT (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1/28face8a-b22e-11dd-bbc9-0000779fd18c.html) that you can have someone’s ashes turned into an artificial diamond once they have been cremated.

What on earth will they think of next?

DW

Condensation

The condensation on the windows in Kuala Lumpur forms on the outside of the windows, not indoors. The same on cars, too

How about that?

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Credit Card Companies

I warned people about the problems that would follow if the credit card companies started to suffer.

Well, some CC companies are converting to banks to get access to certain forms of finance.

I keep warning you!

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Snotus!

In the Low Yat Centre in Kuala Lumpur last night in a veggie restaurant when I spotted a packet of flowery/herbal tea. It was the name, however, that really caught my eye so I couldn’t resist taking its photo:

You might be able to work out that the name SNOTUS seems to come from one of its ingredients: SNOw loTUS … it could be fine in Malay and Chinese but …

 

DW

Jack … is it amazing?

I just read that the name Jack has been the top boy’s name for babies born in the UK for all of the last 13 years to the end of 2007. I find that interesting.

I read that fact in a booklet from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) where they say it is “amazing” that Jack has been number one for so long. Do YOU think it’s amazing? Are you really amazed by that?

I know some of you think I am barking mad in this respect but I wrote to the ONS asking them why they thought it was so amazing. If they reply I’ll let you know what they say!

DW

Japan Goes Bananas

Did you know that Japan is suffering from a banana crisis, according to Time magazine. Read on, then:

Japanese consumers eager to try the latest fad diet to sweep the country, the Morning Banana Diet, are finding it difficult to buy the fruit that gives the diet its name. Invented by a pharmacist to help her husband, Hitoshi, to lose weight, the Morning Banana Diet took off when he discussed his weight loss of 37 pounds on www.mixi.jp, a Japanese social networking site. When a TV show profiled an opera singer who lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks on the diet, a banana shortage was born.
Life Corporation, which runs 201supermarkets throughout Japan, has seen a 70% - 80% increase in weekly sales and Dole Japan, a leading importer, has boosted imports by 25%; and still can't keep up with demand. Books about the diet have so far sold about 730,000 copies.

Source:
"Japan Goes Bananas for a New Diet," Time magazine, October 17, 2008.

Odd that!

DW

iPod Inconsistencies or is it the BBC?

Now you know I don’t like to moan but even the iPod touch seems to have Microsoft like inconsistencies. I’ve told you the story of how I can’t download some software because I am away from home.

Well, today I downloaded a podcast from the good old BBC of the Chelsea v Sunderland goals. I clicked on play and the posh chappie from the BBC pronounced that for copyright reasons I wasn’t allowed to see the goals.

SO WHY DID YOU LET ME DOWNLOAD THE FRICKING THING THEN?

Who are these wasters?

DW

iPod Woes

I can’t half pick ‘em.

You know I just bought an iPod touch. I have transferred loads of music and photos etc onto it. It’s a good thing.

It tells me to update the software so I try. It tells me it cannot reach the server. Over and over again.

I write to Apple for help. They reply, I do what they say and it doesn’t work. I write back and they ignore me. I write again and TWO people reply: different solutions.

New solution one also fails.

Solution two tells me not to bother trying to update anything because the system knows that I am travelling away from home. It doesn’t like me travelling away from home. It throws a hissy fit and stops my downloads.

I write and thank them both: properly, of course, as they are only doing their jobs.

I add, though,that iPods are built to allow us to enjoy music and films etc on the move so they shouldn’t be surprised when we move around with our iPods and stuff!

In 12 day’s time I will get back home and see what might happen then!

DW

An Impressive Advertising Budget

This is all I will say about the US Presidential election result.

Give me

• two years
• $1,600,000,000 to spend on advertising/campaigning

and I will become President of the USA.

You have to be desperate and excessively wasteful to spend that amount of money just to pass a job interview.

Don’t forget, also, that McCain only spent $924,000,000 on himself.

DW

Gusset Trauma and Manchester University's Toilets

Gusset Trauma

How about this? I have just been told that there is a sign at the top of the Jumeirah Sheikher water slide at Wild Wadi in Dubai that says this:

"Keep legs crossed to prevent gusset trauma."

Doesn't bear thinking about does it?

Manchester University's Toilets

I have come late to this story I think but I was told this evening that the signs on ALL Manky Uni's toilets were changed to say

• Either non urinal toilet (women)
• Or urinal toilet (men)

This cost the Uni GBP70,000.

Who are these people who wasted this money? Which managers allowed themselves to get involved in such a stupid, peurile discussion?

DW

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

I am touched

I have dragged myself one step nearer to the rest of the human race and bought an iPod touch. It's kept me awake most of the night. Firstly because it took over two hours to download the iTunes software via the hotel's "High Speed Internet". Secondly, it's magical innit?

It's got my music already and now it's grabbing my photos. Just wait till I get home and give it ALL of my photos and music.

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Overheard ...

Standing in the queue at Starbucks in Manchester Airport, the lady in front of me asked if her Latte had any milk in it.

The young lady behind the counter was very kind and with a slight smile on her face said that it was made with milk!

Well done that young lady!!

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The Phone Rang Twice

I live in a mobile world and most of my communication is done by email. The phone rings infrequently!

Today, though, I received a call at 05:53 and then another one from another person at 06:35. One call came from foreign lands and the other from the UK!

How about that?

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Oil price Speculation, the Cat is out of the bag

I have written before about the relationship between speculation and oil prices over the last 12 months or so. We have read in the newspapers that speculation was not to blame for the rapid rise of oil prices to around $150 per barrel. Here is a quotation taken from The Times newspaper dated Tuesday, 28 October 2008, the speaker is Abdulla al Badri who is a senior executive at OPEC:

We just want to balance the market, he said. He blamed speculators for the spike in prices this year to a high of $147 a barrel on 11^th July. Hedge funds were using oil as an asset class, he said. The paper market was out of control will. Nobody was controlling it. We want to see a price that is driven by fundamentals not by speculators, he said.

Mister al Badri said he was not concerned about the risk that high oil prices could ultimately harm OPEC by undermining demand.

So now you know the truth … exactly what I have been saying all along.

DW

Happily Brassed off!

I spent the day in Liverpool for the first time in many years and I came home brassed off!

In a good way, of course.

What happened was that I spent an hour or so in the HMV shop in Liverpool where I found and bought the DVD of the fantastic film starring Pete Postlethwaite, Brassed off!

There are two main themes in this film:

• the closure of over 100 coal mines in the UK thanks to Thatcher and Major; and
• the fantastic brass band music played throughout

A good but simple story with some very fine acting and some excellent brass band music, courtesy of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

Brassed off and happy.

DW

Liverpool and M&S

In general I like the centre of Liverpool and have spent today walking around and shopping in it.

The black spot was the entrance to M&S: the word sepulchral came to mind. Sir Stuart Rose probably designed this one himself after seeing how badly he has managed the company's share price.

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Christmas Cake for 2008

Every year since 1975, with only one exception, I have made a Christmas Cake. This year is not an exception and as proof of that here is the cake that I have just made:

Of course, the recipe I use is the Be-Ro Recipe: there is no finer Christmas cake.

As a matter of interest, what does Be-Ro or BeRo stand for?

Look at the picture above and you might just spot that there is a second cake on the right of the main cake. Every time I make a Christmas cake I make what I call a tester. The mixture that is left over having made the main cake goes into making a smaller cake for immediate consumption.

The main cake will be stored as it matures ready for Christmas Day. I will, of course, decorate it for the big day!

DW