The team approach

31.03.2020/23.13

At the end of the last century, the National Government announced its Bright Future programme. Their research had identified that one thing holding back our national competitiveness was our devotion to the team rather than the individual, when in fact there have been many times New Zealand individuals have made immeasurable contributions and had not […]

Boris Johnson is hardly Churchillian

29.03.2020/21.16

I’ve heard world leaders describe the fight against COVID-19 as a war, and there are some parallels. As any student of history knows, there was such a thing as the Munich Agreement before World War II. I’ve managed to secure the summarized English translation below. For those wondering why the UK initially thought […]

Is there a type that works from home more easily?

27.03.2020/07.45

Olivia St Redfern has featured yours truly in her lockdown day 2, part 1 podcast, so I decided to record another response. It brings to mind something Steve McQueen once said. ‘I’m not an actor. I’m a reactor.’ As in, he could react to a line from another actor. Anyone who has seen […]

Responding to Leisure Lounge

26.03.2020/11.06

During the 2011 ‘snowpocalypse’, my friend, the drag queen Olivia St Redfern, produced a series of streamed video programmes called Leisure Lounge. If I recall correctly, the intent was to give people, who had not experienced snow in our city (it’s a once-in-70-year event), some light entertainment. I called in as ‘Charlie’ (with apologies to […]

A quick look at COVID-19 on a per capita basis

24.03.2020/08.34

Virusncov.com I don’t think it’s easy for most of us to make sense of the number of COVID-19 infections, especially as we’re recording more new infections daily. This website has some useful stats, and I was interested to see how we compared per capita. I know others might get more utility seeing how we […]

The FT covers lawsuit alleging Facebook knew about inflated metrics

21.03.2020/08.38

I’ll be interested to read the judgement, should it get to that point: Facebook is being sued over allegedly inflating its audience numbers, and COO Sheryl Sandberg and financial officer David Wehner are also named. The plaintiff alleges that Facebook has known this for years. The suit dates from 2018 but there are new […]

Twelve things I do to keep balanced while working from home

17.03.2020/23.08

When I was 13, my father became self-employed after being made redundant at his work. By choice, my mother did the same when I was in my early 20s. They both loved the lifestyle and I imagine it was inevitable I would do the same in my career, beginning at a time when I was […]

Don’t rely on an algorithm to choose your brand ambassadors

14.03.2020/23.23

Here’s a cautionary tale found by Lucire travel editor Stanley Moss. His words: ‘Photographer Dmitry Kostyukov recently experienced a rich dialogue with an algorithm belonging to a Scandinavian swimwear company. He’d been auto-mistaken for a Y chromosome, and digitally invited to become a brand ambassador. Dmitry accepted, and received the sample suit of his choice, […]

The British approach to coronavirus: by Grabthar’s hammer, what a savings

/09.29

Still from AFP video I’d far rather have the action taken by our government than the UK’s when it comes to flattening the curve on coronavirus, and the British response reminds me of this 2018 post. Just because the chief scientific adviser there has a knighthood and talks posh isn’t a reason to trust […]

Roger Nichols performs the original Hart to Hart theme

13.03.2020/06.56

In 2013, I wrote a small note on my Tumblog about Roger Nichols’ theme to the TV series Hart to Hart. The music was played as the opening and closing themes in the pilot, and as an incidental theme to many episodes later, but few remember it. I’ve even seen websites proclaim that the Mark […]