Most Americans can’t get their heads around cricket. In return, like many British people, I’ve never managed to get my head around American football (NFL). However, I do like one aspect of that otherwise arcane game. I like the bit where one side is attacking (offence) and the defending side …
The weight of expectation is generally perceived to be a bad thing. It implies a negative form of pressure to succeed that acts to impair performance rather than improve it. The weight of expectation is something you suffer rather than benefit from – just ask successive England managers. But when …
A couple of things that I’ve posted on the Blonde blog over the last few days. THE TAIL-END CHARLIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA A post that draws an analogy between being exposed in a glass bubble at the back of a Second World War bomber and being the public face of …
Twitter went nuts over the last few days about the full-length-feature-version Nike World Cup ad. This one. But I just don’t get it. It’s the same old Nike formula. Yes it’s an epic. But it’s not “epic”. Yes I smiled at the Homer Simpson / Ronaldo vignette. Yes (big fucking …
I want someone to mock me, to kick my ass, to make me feel stupid. So said Jasper Westaway of Onedrum.com at TechCrunch Edinburgh on Wednesday last week. He was talking about the value that good product marketing people bring to tech businesses, and how difficult they are to find. …
I fell head over heels in love with each of my children from the moment they were born. They were beautiful because they were mine. But other people’s babies have never really done it for me. Babies per se are not beautiful. I can empathise with the cocktail of emotions …
God I was looking forward to reading this again. I don’t know how many years it is since I first read it but my abiding memory was of general originality and awesomeness and a vague recollection of a surprising twist in the tail that I just didn’t see coming, the …
Hats off to the BBC for its series The Story Of Science. I stumbled upon it tonight and ended up a happy licence fee payer. Tonight’s first episode, presented in a passionate and accessible way by Michael Mosley, looked at the history of our understanding of the physical machinations of …
I am indebted to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought Of That blog for posting a leaving speech from a guy I’d never heard of. Chris Pullman was “design visionary” at Boston based public broadcast service WGBH in Boston. This, Point 7, from his What I’ve Learned speech really resonated …
On my last trip to the Netherlands I took the train from Schipol into Amsterdam. If my kids had been there, they’d have been all excited about the double-decker train carriages. But what I like best about Dutch trains is the lack of gratuitous, pseudo-service announcements. The Dutch treat you …
