December 2012

This Peter Oborne piece is being read as an insight into a power-struggle between George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith. I think it is more interesting to note that whatever the politics between them, both of them believe things that are completely impossible. This isn’t a fight between two men or two factions, it’s a…

Read More two madmen fighting over which one’s voices are right

In which the otherwise estimable Danny Dorling makes the mistake of arguing with someone on the basis of Nicholas Watt’s reporting of their words! The real segregation that Labour failed to tackle was economic. Rich people in rich parts of the country became richer. Poorer parts and poorer people saw far slower improvements in their…

Read More the problem isn’t that immigrants can’t read English, it’s the national press…

Here’s something interesting. Andrew Krepinevich is quoted by the AOL News (!) blog criticising various aspects of US strategy, which is what he does. But this quote popped out of the background for me: “The American military is losing some critical sources of advantage that it’s enjoyed over the last twenty years. One is the…

Read More Guided?

After the great success of his campaign against Obama RT @SultanAlQassemi Al Jazeera – Sheldon Adelson plans media campaign against Morsy — Tom Gara (@tomgara) December 21, 2012 At times like this it’s practically incumbent to set up as a political consultant/digital agency/constructor-class for wanktanks and take his money. We could hire James Delingpole as…

Read More The dumb money on tour: Cairo edition

So, there’s this from Mike Smithson and IPSOS-Mori: https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/279216069661564929/ There’s this, from the Indy and ComRes. There’s also this from Patrick “Unseasonably Mild” Wintour: tp://http://t.co/70Ce8csl seriously what is the point of the Conservative Party asking questions as loaded as these – to check messaging ? — Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) December 20, 2012 What’s going on?…

Read More Swing voters overwhelmingly picked cake over death

Pretty much everyone in the mobile business loves “m-health” these days. There are a couple of reasons for this – they imagine there’s money in it, it’s great CSR/public relations/lobby fodder, and it’s the sort of thing futurists chinstroke about. But I think we’re all barking up the wrong tree. Here’s the problem. The typical…

Read More M-Health apps that don’t suck.

Views on the new design, please. I especially want to know how many people are seeing which fonts. You should, ideally, be getting traditional Helvetica for titles, headings, and such, and Open Sans Book 300 for Harrowell Typed Entertainment content. You may be getting nowt but Open Sans, or some other thing Windows blecched over…

Read More Look and feel

Why is Donal Blaney’s unsold property named after Rupert Murdoch’s yacht? (via here). Seems an odd kind of coincidence. “Do you have McAfee antivirus on your computer?” He looked at me and put down his cigarette. “I take it off,” he said. “It’s too annoying.” “A Christmas Carol and Nineteen Eighty-Four are actually disturbingly similar…

Read More Links.