Clare and I are in bed, feeling somewhat sorry for ourselves after a particularly festive Saturday night...Clare sent me this PM on Skype which pretty much sums up the two of us (yes, we message each other whilst lying side-by-side...).
According to the new 'computational knowledge engine' Wolfram Alpha:
Fascinating article from this week's Economist on the future of media...what impact will the internet have on not only traditional newspapers, news and advertising, but also democracy...
...Technological change has destroyed all sorts of once-popular products, from the handloom to the Walkman, and the world has mostly been better for it. But news is not just a product: the press is the fourth estate, a pillar of the polity. Journalists investigate and criticise governments, thus helping voters decide whether to keep them or sack them. Autocracies can function perfectly well without news, but democracies cannot. Will the death of the daily newspaper—the main source of information for most educated people for at least the past century, the scourge of corrupt politicians, the conscience of nations — damage democracy?...Read the full article here.
A couple of snaps from our place here in Bangkok!
There's a terrific little French place up the road from my work that makes arguably the best sandwiches in Bangkok. Good bread is hard to find in this part of the world, theirs is excellent.
Anyway, went in there today for lunch, feeling like something a little different. After sitting down, a young waiter brings across the specials board - I notice the Chicken Niçoise salad.
Not entirely sure what I'm getting myself into, I ask the waiter, "can you please tell me what's in the Chicken Niçoise salad?" To which he replied nervously, "um, chicken and salad".
I couldn't help but smile.
Good on the bloke though for having a go at another language - I'd have no hope in describing the ingredients of a complex curry paste in Thai language.
I ended up enjoying their delicious potato and leek soup, along with a selection of fresh crusty bread on the side. Reminded me of watching the Brumbies play in 1996 on a Canberra winter night - Mum used to pack a couple of thermoses full of soup, along with enough other treats to feed us until Monday.
Is this the most random video clip you’ve ever seen? Awesome song, classic clip.
I just enjoyed a delicious spag bol lunch and an inquisitive article from a recent edition of Fortune magazine.
Interviewing Facebook’s majority owner and the company CEO, the article asks a few questions about the business viability of Facebook, how marketers are currently using the site as a new consumer channel, and alludes to where Facebook will be in a couple of years time.
For those with no idea of how Facebook works, the article also provides a bit of a cheat sheet on the different components of the social networking site.
Check it out here!
Have a go at this bloke…
(From SMH online, courtesy of Clare)
'Ninja' kangaroo terrorises family in bed
Not a bird, nor a plane, but a kangaroo has crashed through the bedroom window of a Canberra family's home before terrorising its unsuspecting occupants.
The family, from the suburb of Garran in Canberra's south, were awoken in the early hours of Sunday morning when their pet dog began barking from the garden.
Moments later, a kangaroo burst through a three-metre high window of the house's master bedroom and onto the bed where Beat Ettlin, his partner Verity Beman and their nine-year-old
daughter, Beatrix, lay.
"My initial thought when I was half awake was [that] it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window," Mr Ettlin told The Associated Press.
"It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in."
While the family took refuge under the blankets, the injured animal proceeded to jump on top of them, gouging holes in the furniture and smearing blood all over the walls.
The next thing Mr Ettlin heard was his 10-year-old son Leighton screaming from his bed: "There's a 'roo in my room!"
"I thought, this can be really dangerous for the whole family now," the 42-year-old said.
A chef, originally from the Swiss city of Stans, Mr Ettlin followed the thrashing and bleeding two-metre tall marsupial and wrestled it into a headlock before dragging it down the hallway and out the front door.
Left wearing just his shredded underpants and with scratch marks on his leg and buttocks, Mr Ettlin described himself as "lucky".
"I had just my Bonds undies on. I felt vulnerable," he said.
I’m helping my main banking client reposition and redesign their website at the moment. It’s a bit of a mess - tough to navigate, overcomplicated language and expression, has no metrics and is cumbersome to update with new information.
On top of that, we need to do it in two very different languages and cultures.
It’s a tough job, as the bank is pretty conservative in its views, so ideas on how they can really smash the industry here from a web perspective are often difficult to get through. In a Buddhist country, it looks like I’ll have to be content with ‘the middle way’. It’s part of my job I really enjoy, and I can see some good things coming for the client…eventually!
Anyway, I’ve been checking out what other companies are doing with their websites. In my web travels, I came across ad agency Leo Burnett’s website. I may be well behind the eightball on this one, but with its unique and intuitive pencil navigation, this site is very engaging and underlines pretty much exactly what they want to tell prospective clients (and brag to their competitors about)…“We’re cool, creative, energetic people who work on big brands”.
So simple, but creative agencies so often overcomplicate their creds docs, alienating and losing the confidence of potential clients with fluff!
Cool. Obviously not something I'll be looking to do for the bank!
Good news through about a rugby law that many readers of this blog won’t recognize, nor really give much of a ping ding.
For me, it’s great news – the rolling maul* looks like it will stay in its traditional form and won't be able to be pulled down. It takes skill and specialist pressure to build and sustain a well-formed maul, a team skill that should be rewarded. It also encourages more men to take up place in the set piece, opening up space out wide for the attacking side.
Read about it on the IRB's website here.
* Where players bind together in an impromptu fashion, keeping the ball above the ground and driving forward and around the opposition forward pack.
Clare and I were mooting a possible conversation she will likely be having as she goes to her bank to try and establish an internet banking account:“Hello, I’m wondering if I could please register here for internet banking. I have all the relevant documentation and…”
“What? You want to be able to access your bank account online? CAN NOT.”
“Why?”
“CAN NOT” *smile*
“But it says on your website…”
“CAN NOT” *smile*
“But you’re the second-largest bank in Asia, you must be able to…”
“CAN NOT” *smile*
“But I thought being a multi-continental bank, with branches across the world, you’d have the technology to…”
“CAN NOT” *smile*
“Can you give any reasons for why…”
“CAN NOT” *smile*
“…or at least point me in the right direction?”
“CAN NOT” *smile*
So Thailand has safely secured 61st position in the IRB world rankings, beating us 40-12 on Wednesday night. An enjoyable game, still feeling sore.
A report sent via email to my Dad earlier in the week...WARNING: tune out now if you're bored by rugby chat...
Picture above - the team after the game.Ran all bloody night. Didn’t really feel like a game of rugby, spent a lot of time either in a scrum or defending. They were very good at turning over ball from our centres in the tackle (excellent back row), so I’d pop my head out of a dominant scrum, only to find the ball to be in their hands again!
Their backs we’re really good. Not big blokes, but amazing ball skills and ran some terrific broken play support angles. Also played a good territory game, so we tended to spend a lot of time in our own half.
Smashed their scrum, technically they were OK, but may not have the strength and size that we had. Their tighthead was not bad and was working a little angular curry, but my loosehead is pretty handy and we were able to split them a bit on their feed and win some ball as the game moved on.
Their lineout wasn’t too bad, a couple of uncharacteristically tall Thai blokes standing at 2 and 5, so made it a little tough with a slippery ball. I played OK, got a few good hits in, but didn’t play much forward stuff with so much defending to do.
I'm playing against Thailand's national rugby side tonight.
They're preparing for their Asian 5-Nations tournament and 2011 Rugby World Cup qualifier matches to take place next month on the Arabian Gulf.
Thailand is currently sitting in 61st place in the IRB world rankings list. That means if (when) we beat them tonight, we can viably say that we can own the 61st position, snuggled right behind the rugby powerhouses of the Niue Islands (buggered if I know where they are) and Slovenia (aren’t they still practicing socialism??).
And I don’t think it would be too far-fetched to request the IRB organize some other internationals in the lead-up to the World Cup. England, for example, clearly look like they need some Southerners schooling.
I'm rabidly trying to get through today...itching to get onto the paddock and smash some Thai national blokes.
It will be an epic match!
| Thun-dercats! "Thunder, thunder, thunder, Thundercats...HO!" Thun-der-cats are, on the move Thun-der-cats are loose! Feel the magic, hear the roar, Thun-der-cats are loose! Thunder, thunder, thunder, thun-der-catsssss! Thunder, thunder, thunder, thun-der-catsssss! *Queue guitar riff* Thunder, thunder, thunder, thun-der-catsssss! Thunder, thunder, thunder, thun-der-catsssss! "RRRrraaaaaaaaa" *Whispered* Thundercats! |
An excellent article from this morning's SMH online.
Peter Hartcher discusses the diplomatic wrestling between the US and China and the influence their differing economic and political ideologies are having on their respective superpower statuses.
See it here: China flexes, and the US catches a chilly reminder
