January 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Social Change
A BBC journalist asks; If “social change” was a song, would it be a Coldplay tear-jerker or a Katy Perry floor-filler?
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Alternative Political Economy Lesson#1
Over there they die because of lack and over here because of excess. This is dis-equilibrium.
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In a game of monopoly, China would be the...
December 2010
1 post
2 tags
if i have anything intelligent to say
I actually have a job that pays me to put it down on paper. Not everything mind, just stuff to do with energy. But this is still good.
November 2010
3 posts
5 tags
"Paying for peace negotiations in fighter planes... →
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Alternative Development Indices
Is thinking about writing a travel book with a heart and a brain. Instead of simply talking about ice cream cone mountain peaks, the world’s undiscovered eigth wonder and other cliches, how about a common sense, untrained-economist’s perspective on developing and developed countires? Instead of GDP, inflation and literacy levels I’ll come up with my own measures. Here are some of...
when all that is left of us is love
October 2010
6 posts
4 tags
The Ladybug Effect →
Feeling a little sorry for Christine O’Donnell. Pretty bad luck when an almost-one-night-stand you had 3 years ago was actually with a celebrity columnist with no qualms about putting the details in print. Something of an unfortunate chain of events.
6 tags
At Lowe's Home Improvement Center
Standing in aisle 16, the hammer and anchor aisle, I bust a 50 pound box of double-headed nails open by accident, their oily bright shanks and diamond points like firing pins from M-4s and M-16s. In a steady stream they pour onto the tile floor, constant as shells falling south of Baghdad last night, where Bosch kneeled under the chain guns of helicopters...
3 tags
glass completely full (aka likes)
Phoenix band
Practising the guitar
The Oil & The Glory blog
pay day…7 days away.
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Marathon Man...
Took me way too long, but I completed the 32nd Annual Istanbul Marathon on Oct 17th, the only marathon to route from one continent to another apparently.
My thanks to the 78 year old man who was happy for me to use him as a pace-maker - could not have done it without ya.
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"Sure democracy makes some things more difficult... →
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glass completely full (aka likes)
the instrumental bit at the end of ‘death and all of his friends’, ‘The Escapist’ I think it’s called
going to Ankara by road, 4 hours - maybe in a couple of weeks
learning the geography of Europe. Today; bay of biscay. Tomorrow; Orkney Islands
September 2010
6 posts
5 tags
The danger of referential definitions..
…the danger of referential definitions is that they are liable to change when the position of the reference does, or perhaps when the reference is no longer relevant.
I have this thought mainly with regard to the whole business of the UK Labour Party leadership elections. The task for any candidate in such a situation is to differentiate their position from other members’ positions...
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Whatever you do... →
…don’t mention the War.
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Istanbul..Day 14
Turkey qualified for the final of the Internatinoal Basketball Championships tonight. They are also hosting the event in their country. I was in a bar watching the game when they scored the winning basket with 4seconds to go. You can imagine the mood on the streets. Tomorrow is the final against the USA, as well as being referendum day (there have been heated campaigns on the streets for the past...
3 tags
"The battle of France is over...
…I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/battle_of_britain
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glass completely full (aka likes)
working in an empty office
3 tags
frenemy
So someone you’ve known and liked you’re whole life (let’s call him James) all of a sudden falls in love with someone you’ve known and disliked you’re whole life (let’s call her Beatrice). The logic is simple enough…or is it.
My friend’s friend is a friend - So I should make peace with Beatrice and bring her into the circle of trust. But...
August 2010
9 posts
2 tags
Day 2 - Istanbul
Learned some Turkish today. I know how to say German consulate, ‘Alman Consulugu’, phonetically speaking. Yet to master more useful phrases. I’ve also learned in 2days that turkish cab drivers DO NOT know where anything is. They just nod to your instruction and then drive around and get lost. They then ask other cab drivers, who also don’t know any better. Once they have done enough...
2 tags
Mama tried...
As my mother always used to say; ‘in movies, as in life, son, mountains don’t taste the way they smell’.
I think she was making a point about taking a chance on life and tackling your fears head on. Either way it doesn’t make much sense. But mama tried.
3 tags
Scene II. Capulet's Orchard
Juliet:
Good night, good night! parting is such
sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be ‘morrow.
completely full (aka 'likes')
writing 3,000 words in a single day
Time Will Tell - Art Blakey modern and sophisticated, heart out and compelling you to hum along
the irreverence of a confident picking hand
The Class/Entre les murs, 2008
The English Premier League
5 tags
3 tags
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Marx was almost right... →
In a week in which Britain sent her PM, cap in hand, to the Asian subcontinent, and (meanwhile) one of India’s very own capitalists acquired the rights to the famous East India Company, I am left wondering whether it’s not symmetry, rather than repetition, which we observe in history…
click on the title to follow the link
July 2010
8 posts
4 tags
4 tags
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Sino-American Express...credit limit, $2 trillion →
You’ve heard the phrase “If you owe someone a thousand pounds, you’ve got a problem. If you owe someone a million pounds, he’s got a problem.” Now, the US owes China two trillion dollars. Who’s got the problem?
Dreamer-Achiever
…in that order.
completely full (aka 'likes')
playing football in the park…you can be in your mid-20s and feel like you’re back in the school playground. I love the game. We lost today, but it was hard fought and there was respect there at the end…and serious thirst.
3 tags
completely full (aka 'likes')
the smell of rain
telling the time at the bus stop by overhearing a radio4 programme in car passing by
David Krumholtz in Sidewalks of New York (and Brittany Murphy looks yummy)
"you wear nothing but you wear it so well" →
Dave Matthews at their lyrical, melodic, cinematic best.