Things of note for the week ending Friday 24th June, 2016.
On with the things.
1. THE DIGITAL DRIVER’S LICENCE
Kicking off this week with a fantastic ‘Did you know?’
Ahem.
Did you know that
If this blog is The Young Ones then Terence Eden is Alexei Sayle – such is the regularity of his appearance here. But, just like the anarchic Liverpudlian against whom I am drawing such an odd comparison, his presence is welcomed and is often as amusing as it is informative.
As a demonstration of this fact, please fine below the opening section of one of Terence’s latest posts:
Thing is, the man in the hire car office was wrong.
Terence knew (something that I did not know) that the DVLA has online portal that exists for just this kind of occasion. Far be it from me to steal Terence’s Thunder, mind.
Go read about it from the man himself.
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2. EVACUATING THE SOUTH POLE
“Evacuation [of the South Pole] is exceedingly uncommon.The brutal cold and near-total darkness that blankets Antarctica during the austral winter make flights in and out of the station all but impossible. In 1999, a doctor who discovered a cancerous lump in her right breast treated herself — even performing her own biopsy and administering her own chemotherapy — for almost six months until the weather thawed enough for a rescue plane to arrive. A decade later, when a manager for the station suffered a stroke in August, the question of whether an airlift was possible led to a tense standoff. She was ultimately flown out in mid October.”
Earlier this week, the South Pole Station had such a situation. Two people fell so ill that the onsite facilities were not able to provide the medical support needed.
The Washington Post has an incredible write up of exactly the kind of effort that goes into reaching the South Pole. Even more harrowing when you have a medical emergency.
The National Science Foundation’s Facebook page also has further details.
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3. NAOMI CAMPBELL
This week, in lol-worthy cock-ups (no, not that one – we’ll get to that) – this happened.
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
Apart from the obvious formatting, can you spot the major difference?
Lolz.
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4. WHO WHAT WHERE
This is interesting: Twitter has quietly launched ‘location feeds’, powered by Foursquare. Yes, that’s right – FOURSQUARE. And it looks a little something like this –
Techcrunch has not only the scoop but also some good ideas on what and how the partnership could work (for both parties).
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5. HOME
An old friend of mine, Cate Sevilla, left her position as Managing Editor at Buzzfeed UK this week and, as her final post, publishing this post entitled ‘7 things that happen when you live in a different country for 10 years‘ – it is an excellent read.
Poignant on a day like today, when perhaps many of you are reconsidering home as a concept.
This is the best long read in this entire rundown.
And my favourite piece of the week.
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Bonuses this week are many:
- Two Young Ones references in one post? You lucky beggars. Did you know about the fifth housemate? Ben Elton didn’t.
- Here’s a trailer for ‘The girl with all the gifts‘. Looks suitably watchable. Zombies with a twist. Lovely. Bonus bonus: I’m reliably informed that the book of the same name is pretty darn good too.
- This story about Arnold Schwarzenegger is great. What’s better is the highest upvoted comment underneath…
- Things that make you go BLERGH.
- Superhero shelves? Yeah, go on then.
- This write up of Operation Croissant is excellent.
- Everything is interesting.
- Rory Sutherland on Cannes is the best thing on YouTube this week.
- Everything wrong with advertising in one handy tweet.
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And here we are.
Done.
Living in a post-EURef world.
“The country is split in two on this referendum. Whichever way it goes, I sincerely hope that the same amount of passion and effort that went into the campaigning gets poured into how much work it’s going to take to patch us back together again afterwards.”
And I meant it.
I’m giving myself a day to grieve but then, over the weekend, I’m going to spend some time thinking about how to put some positives in the world.
As my friend Robbie said to me a little past 7am this morning (FAR TOO SOON IF YOU ASK ME):
“I’m really saddened to see so many disappointed people vocalising their dissatisfaction by seemingly turning their back on Britain (e.g. posts/tweets decrying the country has gone/dead/over). That makes me more sad than the result.
As I said in the last couple of days, this vote was won on desperation. People are angry and disillusioned and can’t see a way out. The fact so many who’ve made the intellectual decision to remain are so surprised at the way this has played out IS the problem (the fact some of these people work in marketing is its own oddness).
There is only space for a positive reaction.
Anything else just strikes me as acceptance and resignation.
I hope it the tone will change over the weekend.”
It is sad. And I am sad.
But I’ll get over it. And, like Robbie, I too hope the tone will change. We have to deal with the cards that we’ve been dealt (by ourselves) and hold up those responsible thereafter.
As always: the real hard work starts on Monday.
In the mean time, go find a person and hug them.
Whatley out.
