Just a note to myself regarding another vinyard to explore in the future:
Domaine de Rimauresq near Pignans, north-east of Toulon.
Paper and the square root of 2
Did you know that in the ISO paper size system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of two (1.4142 : 1)? I had no idea, but it explains a lot; particularly why folding a sheet of A4 in half produces two sheets of A5, etc. Believe it or not, such a convenient format was not established arbitrarily, but has in fact a mathematical basis.
Markus Kuhn has an interesting site that tells you everything you were wondering about international standard paper sizes.
Obese City
Obesity has become a hot topic in recent months. The latest fat news came yesterday and again today when the UK media reported extensively on the recommendations of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, which has just published its concerns about the increasing number of obese children in Britain.
This change seems like yet another about-turn from the situation 20 years ago. When I graduated from university (the first time) the fashionable eating disorders of the day where those that made you thin: anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Remember all the fuss surrounding Princess Diana’s and the Duchess of York’s weight/eating problems? These days the disadvantages of fat are à la mode.
So Morgan Spurlock’s award-winning movie Super Size Me is perfectly timed. Spurlock filmed the effects of eating all his meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner — for 30 consequtive days at McDonald’s. He gained 25 pounds — that’s not far off a pound a day — but luckily he lived to tell the tale.
I’m looking forward to seeing the film when it opens in the UK, but in the meantime I can’t help thinking that with people like Michael Moore and Spurlock around, it’s not a good time to be running anything big in the USA. No wonder Krispy Kreme has just reported its first loss.
Plant of the week
Tecolote ranunculus – click above
I’ve decided that Tecolote ranunculus is the plant of the week; at least it is in my garden. Apparently there are 50 acres of fields of these flowers near San Diego, California, which must be spectacular when they’re in bloom.
Latest maternity wear
Julia Laderman makes the latest thing in haute couture for mothers-to-be. The only problem is her outifts tend not to survive beyond the first wash.
Woodland wonders
Last weekend Kew Gardens held its sixth annual Woodland Wonders Festival, and fortunately we chose the best day weather-wise to visit.
Bluebells behind Queen Charlotte’s Cottage
This festival is the one event in the year when Kew opens Queen Charlotte’s Cottage to the public, and so we toured the interior of this former royal garden shed along with thousands of others. It turns out that the building is deceptively narrow; really just wide enough for one room plus connecting hallway. It contains two spacious, opposing staircases (very impractical; not even the royals need two ways to go up and down in such a small space), and upstairs the wallpaper of the largest room was designed by one of the Victorian princesses. Apart from a collection of 18th century framed prints (reproductions) which decorate some of the rooms, the cottage is largely unfurnished. All in all it was pretty underwhelming.
Morris dancing at Kew – what’s with those handkerchiefs?
On the other hand the rest of the festival was impressive. Many skilled, woodsy folk had set up tents in which they displayed ecologically-friendly activites: bee-keeping, wood carving, archery, etc. A troop of kooky Morris dancers put on several shows, and swings for children were hung from some of Kew’s enormous trees, while free samples of Kew Brew (a premium ale brewed with hops grown at Kew) were handed out to their parents.
Some azaleas were in full bloom
The plants and flowers were brilliant as usual. Not only were the bluebells all out, but a few of the azaleas and rhododendrons were also in full bloom (many will need another week I think). By far the most spectacular display, however, was put on by the lilacs, most of which were clearly at their fragrant peak; and in the process of admiring them I discovered a strong Canadian connection.
The lilacs were at their peak
British-born Isabella Preston (1881 – 1964) immigrated to Canada at the age of 31 and became one of the world’s foremost lilac hybridists. Working in Guelph, Ontario, she developed lilacs ideally suited to northern climes – late flowering shrubs with prolific blooms. Kew now has several specimens of these eponymous Syringa xprestoniae.
All in all, it was an excellent day out.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
We’ve just returned from seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I have to admit that I was really impressed.
I won’t bother explaining the plot, which can easily be found (if not easily described) elsewhere on the web, but it’s one of the most profound, thought-provoking movies I have seen in a very long time.
In places it’s quite scary. It forces you to remember (!) that everything good about you, everything bad about you, everything you love and everything you hate is contained in the fragile space between your ears. Everything, including you, is in your head; and there’s no escape. I came out thinking about the fragility of even “normal” mental health, never mind the additional difficulties posed by abnormal psychology.
I really need to view it again. All three critics on last night’s edition of Newsnight Review had seen it twice and even the New Yorker admitted that “On the eighth viewing, say, the damn thing might even make sense”. Even if it doesn’t make sense, go see it. It’ll make you think.
‘T aint what you do
Last week I read two independent descriptions of the importance of business processes. As a former business analyst they were music to my ears.
The first was in an article on business innovation published by the Economist (see Companies and innovation – Less glamour, more profit subscription required):
Likewise, in the past few decades most of the companies that have created truly extraordinary amounts of wealth have done so by inventing great processes, not great products. Dell, Toyota and Wal-Mart, for example, have risen to the top of their respective industries by coming up with amazingly efficient ways of getting quite ordinary products into the hands of consumers more cheaply than their rivals.
The second was a review of The Future of Work by Thomas Malone in the Financial Times (see Corporate culture on the cusp subscription required):
There are also sections on “business process outsourcing”, “process architectures for interchangeable organisations” and “the deep structure of business processes”. Why is there this obsession with process? Strip any company of hierarchy and you are left with nothing but processes – the flow of work. In the flat, decentralised organisations of the future, it is argued, the ability to configure and reconfigure processes will be an important source of competitive advantage.
As Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra pointed out in 1939:
When I was a kid about half past three
My ma said “Daughter, come here to me”
Said things may come, and things may go
But this is one thing you ought to know…Oh ‘t ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
‘T ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
‘T ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
That’s what gets results
Lunceford should be the patron saint of business analysts. Now, repeat after me …
Import workers or export jobs?
The topic for the 2004 Shell Economist Writing Prize has been announced, and it’s all about migration:
This year’s competition poses the question: Import workers or export jobs? Should developing nations be allowed to ‘poach’ skilled professional labour from countries who have helped pay for this expertise? Or is the influx of immigrants, whether skilled or unskilled, a positive force, bringing either expertise or ambition and hard work to the host nation?
The history of the movement of people and populations shows how dynamically immigrants can change or benefit host countries. But when and how does it go wrong? Is it a question of balance? Or (and) of matching skills and needs?
The debate on movement of people ranges from the rational to the emotional. What clarity can you contribute to mankind’s choices over the freedom to move? What may it mean for the way we work? What may it mean for our sense of place, of residence, of identity and of local and global belonging?
Write 2,000 words by 20 August, 2004, and you might win $20,000.
Google AdSense
I registered for and implemented Google AdSense on this website today. So certain pages will now display advertisements related to the page content, or at least that’s the theory. In practice I’m not too sure how successful it will be. Within seconds of adding the relevant code to my carbon paper essay, Google chose to display two ads for quill pens (the essay does mention the quill pen, but I’d no idea you could still buy them).
I decided to sign up for AdSense because every few weeks someone writes to me via email and enquires about purchasing some carbon paper. Just today I received a request for a box of 500 sheets from someone in Alexandria, Egypt. Egypt was also the source of another request a few months ago, but that one was for 15,000 tons of the stuff!
As much as I’d like to help these people, I’m not in the carbon paper business. So I thought that the relevant ads from Google might prove useful to anyone searching for carbon paper who stumbles across my site. And who knows? It might even generate sufficient revenue eventually to cover the cost of this site.
So if you’re ever in the market for a new quill pen, you know where to come.