Here’s an interesting video showing the growth of Wal-Mart since it’s founding in 1962. It’s interesting to see the population distribution of the US (roughly) reflected in retail.
Here’s an interesting video showing the growth of Wal-Mart since it’s founding in 1962. It’s interesting to see the population distribution of the US (roughly) reflected in retail.
I’ve been using a newish (at least for the latest beta) note taking and crap collecting app called Evernote recently. Among its cool features are a decent Mac client (or a Windows one if you must), syncing to an online client, OCR for pictures you insert, various mobile clients, and publishing of any items you want to a web page (so you can make notes of your shopping needs during the week, then browse to your shopping list on your phone at the weekend).
Anyway, I’ve been rather impressed. Take a look, and if you’d like an invite to the beta let me know (verloren at Google’s excellent email service).
Apparently the American Mortgage Bankers Association is having problems paying its mortgage.
I’d been thinking that I was a potential future victim of the crisis. The mortgage we have cost £195 to set up, and gets us 1.5% off the standard rate for the life of the mortgage. The current equivalent deal costs £795, and only gets you 1.25% off. And that’s with a very traditional lender, who cover at least 90% of their lending from their own savers.
But then I realized (and oh how this will make a capitalist reader’s heart soar) that there’s no ‘right’ level for such deals. I think it’s pretty clear that mortgages at the moment are a little expensive, but the one we got was probably a little cheap, depending as it did on an inflated lending market. Hopefully by the time we’re looking to move again things will have evened up some.
Oh yes, I took a little time off from blogging accidentally – work, life, that sort of thing – but I’m back now.
Here’s the text of a message I sent to ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart, bringing their aesthetic but sticking with UK ideas of low prices, not the US version):
I’ve just returned from a visit to your Fareham store. As I was checking out a transvestite walked past, presumably having finished his own shopping. The person serving me, her colleagues, and assorted passing staff members then spent the next five minutes laughing at the man in make-up and a dress who “walks like a navy”.
I was raised not to publicly question the behaviour of people older than me, so said nothing at the time. I’m deeply disappointed that the same standards of civility aren’t held by your employees. They remain entirely free to think whatever they want of someone who doesn’t conform to their expectations, but if I wanted to hear such opinions I’d hang out with a bunch of 13 year olds. I certainly wouldn’t expect it from a group of adults who are supposed to be thinking about their customers.
There’s a new movie just starting to do the rounds called ‘Expelled’. It’s a stunning behind-the-scenes expose of how scientists are essentially nazis who think good Christian folk are intellectually no better than shaved monkeys. It’s possible I may have over-simplified a little there, but not by much. It features science luminaries such as Richard Dawkins talking about science and creationism. You may be surprised to learn that the interviewees on the ‘pro-science’ side were initially told it was going to be a balanced examination of the conflict between science and religion. If you were surprised then you may need to familiarize yourself some more with the tactics of the creationist movement.
Anyway, one of the people who tried to get into what appears to have been a private screening of the movie was PZ Myers, a biologist from Morris, MN who is a stern opponent of creationism. His rhetoric knows no bounds, but physically he is every inch the gentleman professor that cliche demands, and immeasurably unlikely to cause a ruckus in public. He wasn’t trying to sneak in, didn’t hide who he was in any way, and was peaceable at all times.
Nonetheless he was removed from the line at the movie theater when waiting to get into the movie, at the request of the producer and, subsequently, the theater manager. I object to banning people in this way because of ideological objections, but it was a private screening so they were entirely within their rights so to do (they got a policeman involved, however, which seems plain wrong). Myers left peaceably, stopping only to tell his family where he would be.
Now for the ironies. The first is that Myers is actually in the movie, and is even thanked at the end for his contribution. That alone would be rich enough, but it pales in comparison to the fact that the rest of Myers’ party was allowed in. Along with his wife and daughter were Richard Dawkins and the entire staff of the Richard Dawkins Foundation. They were not, it appears, too impressed with the film.