One Man's Notes

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

Somehow melancholy - and somewhat Sherlock Holmsian…

Just been clearing through my e-mail in-box, aiming for in-box zero sometime before the end of the summer, and I came across this. 

It's a photo from an old university mate, of the bedroom of his eldest son, my godson, and a poster I managed to bag for him. You see, this wee chap has a healthy obsession with tractors, as do the staff and readers of Farmers Weekly.

They kindly provided the poster, where it takes pride of place in the nursery room…

Anyone who knows anything about Twitter knows that it's all about what people had for their lunch. I eschew such conventional wisdom. I blog about my lunch instead, as I am defiantly old skool in social media. And this was my lunch yesterday:

Can you spot my schoolboy error?

Yes, in the absence of anyone to share lunch with in the fine QH canteen, I opted for lunch al desko, and the poor plastic fork just wasn't up to the job of holding the pork fillet in place.  Note to self: just eat in the canteen anyway, and save the environment the cost of the stupid plastic containers and cutlery. 

Interesting new road safety feature at the crossing near Holborn station:

It counts down the number fo seconds until the traffic starts flowing again.

I must admit, my first reaction to these, as I headed in search of a sandwich, was disbelief - do we actually need these countdowns? And then, I remembered the number of rather horrible accidents I've seen from the EG office, including watching the police setting up a tent over, presumably, a mangled body, while I was in a meeting in the publisher's office.

Maybe we do need them.

CAMPAIGNERS protesting over cuts to their jobs and services were branded “f**king idiots” and told to “get real” by a mayor last night.

Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock’s foul-mouthed outburst came after he was heckled by protestors at a Mayor and Cabinet meeting in Lewisham Town Hall.

via www.newsshopper.co.uk

*sniff* I'm so proud of my neighbourhood...

Research from University of Windsor in Canada showed the effect of music on the work performance of software developers. According to the study, without background music the designers’ quality of work was lowest and it took them more time to complete tasks. With background music, participants reported positive mood change and enhanced perception while working. Plus, the researchers noted that this positive change in mood correlated with increased curiosity — an excellent thing to have when doing creative work.

via webworkerdaily.com

Fire up your iTunes or Spotify - and get busy. :)

For the first time in 13 weeks, no Doctor Who, and there won’t be new episodes on television until Christmas. But if you’re not sure whether you’re going to cope, ask yourself if you need to see the Doctor, because you can listen to him courtesy of Big Finish.

via littlestorping.co.uk

Handy guide to enjoyable Doctor Who audio plays to keep you entertained until Christmas…

There's actually a much simpler approach for quitting apps, and that's to use your recent app list. Double-click the home button to display the recently accessed applications. Press and hold any of the icons shown, then navigate to the application you want to quit and tap the red circled minus button.

via www.tuaw.com

Useful to know - this had been bothering me since I struggled to get the TomTom app to go away once I arrived at my destination…

via www.youtube.com

I love trees, me.

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

via comment.rsablogs.org.uk

This is a really fascinating look into the psychology of time and the rough grouping people fall into.

There's a whole load of cultural and communication issues bound up in this stuff...

Given that superhero comics tend to be about beautiful people in skin-tight outfits engaging in rigorous physical activity, it's only natural that there's often a strong sexual undercurrent to their adventures, and every now and then, it bubbles up to the surface.

via www.comicsalliance.com

I'm guessing that the majority of people who read this blog aren't comics readers. The link above will confirm your every prejudice.

Enjoy!

Had a single day off yesterday, and spent it in Suffolk, for various reasons. Here are a few captures from an afternoon by the sea:

 Camping time is coming…
 

Ah, the Doctor Who season finale two parter looms close. The Pandorica will open and silence will fall...

I've been really enjoying Andrew Rilstone's Fish Custard series, which starts here:

Seasons 3 and 4 were so bad, and the End of Time was so jawdroppingly shameful, that one is tempted to rave about Steven Moffat on general principles – to give him the Nobel Peace Prize simply because he is not George W. Bush. On the other hand, the degeneration from Dalek and the Satan Pit (as good or better than anything in the Original Series) to, say, the Stolen Earth (literally beneath contempt) happened so quickly that one feels one should err on the side of caution.

Suffice it to say that he gets a lot more positive as the Fish Custard flows on, right up until some interesting speculation about the finale. 

And this look at disability in the current series of Who is worth a read, too:

I don’t mind telling you that I’ve spent a lot of time watching the new series and cringing, waiting for something to go terribly, horribly wrong. We’ve had two characters show up on the screen with a disability, and neither of them have been evil or horrible, and neither has died valiantly so that more worthy folks can live. It’s been kinda awesome.

Yes, I know this isn't going to fill much of the week's wait, but it's a start...

This was the view from our back garden in Dollar, around 1987 - September or October, I'd guess. I can't claim any credit for the photo, as it was Mum's work.

I could have shared a photo of my brother in a very mid-80s Miami Vice-style outfit.

But any jury in the country would acquit him of my murder if I did so…  

I'm spending some time scanning my way through a big bag of negatives, and this morning I was working on a film from the early to mis-80s. This is my brother, on holiday, in very 80s mirror shades - with me very clearly reflected in them. 

I'd have been pleased to have taken this shot today, let alone 25 years ago.

Caucasian blondes are usually slightly higher in oestrogen than brunettes and are likely to exhibit other infantile sexually selected traits (indicating low levels of testosterone) that are considered desirable by males, for example finer facial features, smaller nose, smaller jaw, pointed chin, narrow shoulders, smooth skin and less body hair, and infantile behaviour such as higher energy levels and playfulness

via www.guardian.co.uk

Science doesn't do political correctness very well. ;-)

That said, I married a redhead...

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Long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine is to be axed after 37 years, the BBC has announced.

via news.bbc.co.uk

I've 'fessed up to my deeply unfashionable love of Last of the Summer Wine before.

This news makes me sad - but I can't help but think that 37 years is a pretty good innings for a TV show...

The building itself is tucked behind high security fencing around the back of Olympia and looks like it was once a rambling Victorian mental hospital.

Access is through full-height turn-styles which are electronically operated once your name has been verified on the intercom. I kid you not. They must have some valuable stuff in there somewhere.

Reception is access by fire-escape-style external metal steps and once you've signed in and been given a security pass you are escorted to the reading room through a card activated turn style, and two card activated doors down a long, silent corridor. Once at the equally quiet reading room you have to deposit your bag in a locker and only pencils are allowed.

via theatre.revstan.com

Rev Stan passes through the endless security of the V&A's little-known theatrical archive.

How many people outside academia even know that this exists?

Still trying to figure out where to live next…

via londonist.com

The picture above represents the most photographed areas of London, based on the geotagging data found on images in Flickr and Picasa. (More here.)

Now, we have to introduce some caveats here. This image is shaped by the combination of people who have cameras that automatically geotag photos, and those who can be bothered to do it later. But, given the density and distribution, I think it's pretty accurate.

And this is something the archiving nerd in me finds interesting. Here, a whole agglomeration of data (or photos, if you like) has been used to create something else simply through analysis of the metadata associated with them.

We geeks get excited about tagging the things we create - but my experience suggests that explicit tagging (where people choose to apply the metadata) is a minority support at best. Automated tagging, where metadata is applied at the moment of creation (like geotagging) or as the image passes through software (face recognition)opens up far more opportunity for us to analyse and understand the world, through our join creative endeavours.

Isn't that cool? :)

There was a small debate on Twitter this morning, possibly triggered by Glynn, about the relationship between hemlines and the economic conditions. He found this reference:

Almost anything can be an economic indicator. Back in the 1920s, the economist George Taylor conceived the hemline index, finding that skirts got longer as the economy slowed. These days, there's been talk of a haircut index, with short locks signaling a market drop.

Double dip recession anyone?

Never. Darn kids should stay off my virtual lawn.

When I was a kid we had to network using a 28.8k baud modem… (etc, etc, etc)

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        Never. Darn kids should stay off my virtual lawn.<br />

I've found the idea of tribalism to be increasingly useful in understanding political behaviour. Faced with the need to make a decision based on incomplete information, people may often attempt to understand how others like them are behaving and behave in that fashion. This isn't really a new insight; politicians have been playing to group identities forever.

via www.economist.com

Perhaps this is one of the reasons I've always been so uncomfortable with tribalism, particularly in politics. It's so open to manipulation and abuse by the unscrupulous.