Category: Commentary

From U.tv

An exhibit in the new Giants’ Causeway Visitors’ Centre acknowledges the creationist view of how the world-famous stones were formed.
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The National Trust worked alongside the Caleb Foundation, which represents mainstream evangelical Christians in Northern Ireland, during the development of the centre.
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“We have worked closely with the National Trust over many months with a view to ensuring that the new Causeway Visitor Centre includes an acknowledgement both of the legitimacy of the creationist position on the origins of the unique Causeway stones and of the ongoing debate around this,” Mr Thompson said.

I think it’s appropriate to investigate what has been presented rather than going off half-cocked without viewing the evidence. Because the latter is what a Creationist would do.

And, if it is found to be promoting mythology over science, then we can begin the laborious task of making sure that the National Trust and DCMS are informed that opinion does not trump science. Ever.

You don’t need me to wax on about the Nexus 7. The Internet is on fire with reviews on how this one tablet will kill the Kindle Fire and cause schools across the globe to abscond from their iPad deployments.

I have a single concern. While the device seems lovely, Andy Rubin is quoted as saying the device as zero margins. It’s my guess this is a $300 device being sold for $200. That’s a problem for two reasons:

1. Devices which do not make money give the maker no incentive to continue.
2. It really sticks a knife in the back of other hardware manufacturers

Google is eating the development cost on the device and they’re swallowing the marketing costs. And what happens in a year? It ships with Jelly Bean (remember that the previous OS, Ice Cream Sandwich managed a 7% market share of Android handsets) which will receive what level of support. I just see an ever reducing market share for devices. It just seems the whole market is anti-consumer. Is it enough to aim for the alpha geeks and hope they’ll act as unpaid support personnel for the device?

Will Google make a Nexus 7 v2? Will it continue to support the device in the next OS revision? And the next?

From GreaterGreaterWashington:

DC has grown its private sector by investing in urban amenities that attract a 21st century workforce. Other states simply give companies direct subsidies to attract them instead, providing little external benefit.

[A location subsidy] means they don’t have to grow, they just have to stay here. DC could use this money to invest in more development that attracts “creative class” workers like better retail, arts, transportation, and the actual growth of tech companies.

I said as much to Belfast City Council recently. You have to make Belfast the best place to do the stuff you want people to do in a city. If you want to entertain them, you have to have the best venues. If you want to feed them, you need to encourage the best cuisine. If you want them to cycle or walk to work then you need amazing public transport and safe cycle lanes. If you want them to cop a squat in city parks during their lunch hour, then you have to make beautiful spaces.

You shouldn’t need to pay a company to locate in your city. They should want to locate there because the people love it there, because it’s renowned as a great city.

I love it here. But no city in Northern Ireland compares to Paris or Florence, Bruges or Venice, Barcelona or Talinn. And we need to think about how to better them as an entire city strategy and not how to build a new building that would not look out of place in these beautiful cities.

These developments have to be considered now because we are going to be building for a 22nd Century Citizen. Buildings we erect now may stand the test of time and still be in use in 88 years at the turn of the century. We already have a lot of buildings that are over 100 years old, it’s not crazy to consider these landmarks when they celebrate their second centenary.

I really like this Generation Innovation trailer.

If I had one criticism, it is that it looks at the young to sort out the problems of the current and past generations.

That’s not fair.

There are people in work today, more than 20 years from retirement, who can still make a massive difference. And they’re not doing it. They’re sitting on their laurels, managing vast empires of paper.

As the video says, we have turned into property developers, lawyers and accountants: a public sector paradise. But these people are the people with the power to change things.

Our streets are decked with the flags of banned paramilitary organisations. Their murals deface our walls. They’re the barnacles growing on the gleaming hulls of our ships – dragging us down, making us look old, slow us down.

Our politicians are sessile; concerned with the petty rivalries of party politics rather than making a difference.

We have plenty of jobs, but parents are not educating children to choose the careers of tomorrow. They want their children to follow them into the civil service, into law, medicine – careers for which we already train four times as many people as we need.

I’ve got more than 30 years of work/career before national retirement age (assuming it moves up again 🙂 ) and that’s plenty of time to change the world.