Taylor made for this time of the year
It’s that time of the year. After Thanksgiving, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and just before Christmas. The time to reflect on the year that passed. Not the terrible politics, fraudulent Wall Street schemes or unnecessary wars, but on the nice things – like the moment that ice cold beer went down like a fountain of blessings, that great baseball pitch, the memorable adventure ride you had on your Husky, a glimpse you caught of the new Mustang. Read more…
7 billion of us
12 years ago there were 6 billion of us. Today – exactly today, October 31st, 2011 – we welcomed the 7 billionth human being.
And we have the same questions as we had 12 years ago and when the world population reached 5 billion in 1987: is there enough food? Well, either we all soon are going to get really thin or we shall yet again trust that we humans tend to sort things out in the end. Read more…
Steve Jobs tributes
“Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is,” said Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPhone in 2007. Together with his buddy Steve Wozniak, Jobs reinvented not only the phone but a number of ways the whole world would communicate, from their first Apple computer in 1977 to iTunes and the iPad. As creative genius, Jobs turned Apple became the world’s most admired company. Read more…
Will and Kate’s billions
England’s Prince William and his new missus, Kate Middleton, have very wealthy parents. How much the kids themselves have is not exactly known but it’s most likely enough for more than two cups of afternoon tea and scones at Fortnums, where William’s mom, Princess Diana, use to hang out with sons William and Harry.
What William and Kate did have on their wedding day on April 29, 2011 is billions of television viewers. More than 2 billion people watched the royal wedding on television and another 400 million watched on the web. Speaking under correction, that is the biggest audience ever for any single event. Read more…
Lloyd Blankfein’s diapers
The guy who once said he was busy doing “God’s work” is finding himself in a hot spot… once again (horns et all). Lloyd Blankfein, ubermeister of Goldman Sachs, has found himself in the tight corner of a small world: facing the angry federal regulators of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a lawsuit alleging fraud against the company he steered through thick and thin. Thick for them, thin for their clients.
If you haven’t followed this amazing story a good place to start is the version of Goldman Sachs as the “Great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” It gets better (as an astounding insult) from there on. Mentioning the name “Blankfein” has become synonymous with Godwin’s Law. Read more…
Computer gender
A Spanish teacher was explaining to the class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
“House” for instance, is feminine: “la casa.”
“Pencil,” however, is masculine: “el lapiz.”
A student asked, “What gender is computer?”
Instead of giving the answer the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the feminine gender (la computadora) because: Read more…
Ron Mueck hyperrealistic sculptures
As creative director on the Australian children program Shirl’s Neighbourhood – televised from 1979 to 1984 – Ron Mueck not only made the puppets for the show but did the voices of a number of them. He also operated some of the puppets. He must have been an absolute natural because his parents were toy makers.
Ron Mueck (born 1958) moved to London where he made models for advertising at first and then, in 1996, moved on to fine art, working with his mother-in-law, the famous artist Paula Rego. Since, Mueck has created the hyperrealistic sculptures that made him world famous. Read more…
She makes even bad news sound good
Andrea Catherwood is an anchor presenter on Bloomberg TV. She enlightens looking at the numbing numbers during bear markets. She makes even bad news sound good. Her husky Irish accent smooths any stock shock. Just watching her makes any man more bullish. And the big plus is that she is a professional; she knows what she is talking about.
Andrea has a honors degree in law (yack, a la Shakespeare) but she fortunately came to her senses and focused on media, sharing her lovely presentation style on ITV, Five News and, since October 2009, on Bloomberg TV.
The stunning Andrea Catherwood is the August 2010 Woman of the month.
Latest Jennifer Aniston pictures
Was browsing Huffington Post over a glass (disclosure: a bottle, actually) of Tenuta Belguardo when I came across pics of the topless Jennifer Aniston posing for her new Lovalie perfume. Almost swallowed the wine glass. Oh my goodness, Miss Aniston looks absolutely gorgeous! Started comparing the two:
Tenuta Belguardo is made from the Sangiovese varietal, the latter name which derives from the Latin sanguis Jovis, the blood of Jove, according to Wikipedia. Jove is the other name for Jupiter, the king of the mythological gods. Not much to compare there with sweet Jennifer. Sangiovese is also a much cloned wine variety. Also no comparison since sweet Jen is rather unique. Read more…
Mandela: a man amongst men
Once in a lifetime the world is made a better place because of vision of a single man. Nelson Mandela is such a man. “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela, Long Walk To Freedom.
Throughout his career – in fact, throughout his lifetime – two themes drove Mandela’s vision: Freedom and Education. Freedom, not because he longed for it so much himself during his 27 years in prison but because – so true to himself – he wishes it for everyone. Upon his release from prison in 1990 he stunned the world with his generosity by ignoring his own imprisonment and immediately setting to work on the freedom of all; political and personal freedom. And he insisted that much of freedom can be attained though education: Read more…
