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I was looking in our pond today and discovered a 2″ long baby fish, which was darting about at high speed. The more I looked in pond the more I noticed. Over a period of about 15 minutes watching we spotted another fish that size, a couple of this year’s fry and dozens of perfect, […][...] read more » Getting your eye in

I read two interesting and contrasting articles today talking about two corporate giants, Microsoft & Google.  They both have very strong cultures and it is interesting to examine the impact of them.  I’m not pretending this is an in-depth analysis, just an interesting raising of the corporate veil to give a glimpse at what lies […][...] read more » A tale of two cultures…

In 1979 China legislated to stop families having more than one child.  It was hailed as a success and reportedly stopped the birth of 250 million children between 1980 & 2000, paving the way for China’s current prosperity. However, it is now possible to see some of the other, unintended fruits of this decision.  Families […][...] read more » The Law of Unexpected Consequences or the Little Emperor Syndrome

It is really worth taking the time to watch this video.  It is a beautifully edited, wonderfully shot film.  It shows some of the most beautiful places and some incredible people who show just how inventive and indomitable we can be as a species. I guess that sometimes the latter is a threat to the […][...] read more » Some things just shouldn’t change!

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, yesterday appointed Mark Carey as the new governor of the Bank of England. He was previously the governor the Canadian central bank, but also worked in the private sector for Goldman Sachs.  So he is a man with a serious background in the banking but also an outsider.  […][...] read more » Radical change at the Bank of England

The other night I happened to discover the Animals… yes the original 1960’s pop band were playing not far away, so I thought it might be interesting to check them out.  I was pretty apprehensive that it would not be the ‘real’ band, I knew that Eric Burden, their singer and frontman, was not with […][...] read more » The Animals… a different spin on change

An Israeli inventor, Izhar Gafni, has succeeded in making a bike out of the very thing that normal bikes come in… the box!  The bike is not just theoretical either, it will begin production in the next month or so.  It will cost around $9 to make and can be bought for around $20, which […][...] read more » A bike made out of… cardboard?!?

It isn’t like me to watch opening or closing ceremonies (indeed, to be honest, I can’t say I usually engage with the Olympics) but London 2012 managed to grab me, and many of my fellow countrymen.  I was moved by last nights closing ceremony, especially when John Lennon’s voice joined the World with his rendition […][...] read more » Olympic Reflections 2012

We were in the the woods this morning, and as I mentioned in a previous blog, they now tend to leave dead trees standing or where they fall and this wood seems to have more than its fair share of trees that were damaged in the hurricane or just dead.  This tree has been converted […][...] read more » Change lessons from Woody Woodpecker

It occurred to me today that in the graveyard the memorials refer to people in terms of their relations, “Beloved Mother”, “Father”, “Son” etc.  I don’t recall ever seeing someone remembered as MD of Such-and-Such Corp, or HR Manager.  I think it is because these relationships place us in a context and to some degree […][...] read more » What defines you?