So Capello walks from the FA, in a serendipitous sequence of events in which Our ‘Arry, until a few hours earlier about to get banged up good and proper, rises majestically to become the people’s favourite to manage England to a glorious footballing summer expedition to the lands between the Baltic and Black Sea.Continue reading “Capello: single-minded success, social awareness failure”
Category Archives: All Over The World
Some laughs for my birthday – Mitt Romney, by Bad Lip-Reading
For those who like their comedy Pythonesque and find US politicians generally absurd, this is too good not to share. Mitt Romney on the campaign trail and what it looks like he’s saying … I’ve watched this about eight times and I’m still laughing at lines like “Thanks for the bench”. It’s by the brilliantContinue reading “Some laughs for my birthday – Mitt Romney, by Bad Lip-Reading”
How you can visualise data with an MIT research budget – wow
If you can stop him talking about his kids, he can be quite interesting. Thanks to Dutch social media expert Jaap den Dulk (twitter: @dulk) for the link to this talk from MIT Media Lab researcher Deb Roy earlier in 2011. Jaap gave a talk this morning as part of the ICG webinar on socialContinue reading “How you can visualise data with an MIT research budget – wow”
Highlight of the week: Soviet-era posters on the dangers of alcohol, in Creative Review
I’ve been a sucker for Soviet-era Russian posters ever since seeing a Stenberg Brothers exhibition of Russian film posters in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 1998. Imagine my delight then this week when Creative Review tweeted (@CreativeReview) a series of public information posters mainly from the 30s, 40s and 50s on the perils of boozeContinue reading “Highlight of the week: Soviet-era posters on the dangers of alcohol, in Creative Review”
Everybody will be doing behavioural economics in qual
Do you see what I did there? The title’s speculative, but no more so than the communication to the American public by Barack Obama’s team two weeks before the 2008 Presidential Election, to get the vote out: “A Record Turnout Is Expected.” The Obama campaign realised that, at that stage in the campaign, detailed messagesContinue reading “Everybody will be doing behavioural economics in qual”
A 21st Century one man band does Pixies
I don’t think one man can replace the Pixies – but this punter’s made a pretty good fist of it. Where Is My Mind? is a great song anyway and this guy does something amazing with it: a masterclass in human beatbox looping. Sorry if I got the jargon wrong, kids. When I was aContinue reading “A 21st Century one man band does Pixies”
Choice as a barrier to change – from RSA Animate
Just passing this one on, really: it’s one of those lovely RSA Animate illustrated talks, with Prof Renata Saleci’s views on how the proliferation of individual choice keeps us all from asking bigger questions (or at least, from doing anything about the answers). It’s the other side of the coin of personal empowerment – personalContinue reading “Choice as a barrier to change – from RSA Animate”
Man of Aran: A Story For Our Times
I started off thinking I’d post on this because it was a thing of beauty, even though it’s not very current – and then I realised, it sort of is current, in a funny kind of way. (And anyway, why need we always privilege novelty over substance? Shore isn’t the News of the World.) There’sContinue reading “Man of Aran: A Story For Our Times”
Organ Freeman: Thaler on Nudge
Professor Richard Thaler, co-author of Nudge, is one of the most sought-after people in the world at the moment. His behavioural economics (BE) snowball is now well down the hill, has taken out some skiiers and is about to roll along the valley, chasing people around like that giant bubble thing from The Prisoner. HisContinue reading “Organ Freeman: Thaler on Nudge”
Ancestry: taboos eroded by science
Branding gets into the tiniest nooks and crannies, doesn’t it? Including our own biology. For £340 you can buy the “Matriline and Y-Clan DNA Combo” pack from Oxford Ancestry Limited, run by Prof. Brian Sykes of Oxford University (whom you may remember from BBC’s Blood of the Vikings series). You send a DNA sample toContinue reading “Ancestry: taboos eroded by science”
Strangers on the Shore 