Der Spiegel: India anger over ‘racist’ German magazine cartoon on population
Continue readingHumour
Be careful how you say
When you are a marketing executive it becomes you to ensure that any advertising you do will not raise the expectations of your customers and potential customers to an unsustainable level even if you write the most taxing spreadsheet in the world; are the best in the market place; everyone knows that and you always get AA ratings. So that, anecdotally, if you had bought a Rolls Royce, in the days when quality was quality and you had a problem with it, there would be no questions asked when you took it back to the showroom. A new vehicle would be provided. Coco has a suspicion that the one you returned was later rebranded as a Bentley, but that might be an apochryphal addition to the tale.
Continue readingThe use of alien languages
If Coco had written:
Gan nad yw rhywun yn disgwyl gweld Firenze mewn erthygl am Fflorens neu 臺北市 mewn erthygl am brifddinas y weriniaeth Tsieineaidd, pam mae disgwyl i un ddarllen Snowdon mewn erthygl Gymraeg am yr Wyddfa?
Trade Marks
My surprise is not so much in the way Lidl managed to win, but how they managed to gain a trademark for a yellow disk on a blue background in the first place.
Has no-one looked at the sky recently?
Continue readingSteak knives
Do not follow this link
Press on
On the first January 19891 Philip asked us whether we were ready for a new year as men count years, but recognising that we are creatures of times, pressed this home upon us, as we consider the old year and the new year, how things are and how they ought to be, are we considering the most important thing? Moses considered the most important thing when he asked Jehovah to show him his glory. This is the most important thing: God himself. Do we consider that?
Two and thirty years later on the eighth August 20212 he asked another almost equally important question, having in mind that it is God himself who is at work in us:
Continue readingEnd-to-end Encryption
How to distract your auditor’s comprehension
When the message is weak, what do you do?
The answer of the preacher is often: Shout! but there is a better way
Continue readingLetzte Hoffnung in der Wüste
Letzte Hoffnung in der Wüste
Having received visitors this last week, a small gift was tendered wrapped in newspaper. It was no insult to receive the gift in newspaper, for it is the gift that matters not the wrapping in which it comes, unless of course you are under three years old when you want to play with the wrapping and the boxes more than the gift. The newspaper was not the kind of newspaper that you would find in the chippie, it was actually quite good quality paper, it was crisp and pleasing to the touch, and certainly gave the impression that the ink would not soon be found on your hands if you handled it, so clearly it derived from a news outlet that thought rather more of its output than that it was merely ephemeral.
Continue reading