Stand and Deliver, Cashtags and Highwaymen

Tweeted

In the olden days, when men were real men and deodorant was unknown, highwaymen roamed the roads, holding up coaches and relieving victims of their wealth.  In those days the felons had to take real risks in order to run off with their booty but today the process is generally a lot simpler and involves a lot less horse power.

Such is the experience of the StockTwits platform which has just seen its $ stocktag idea pinched by Twitter in the form of cashtags, as the ubiquitous social network seeks to find new ways of justifying its eyewatering investment funding.  Of course, many highwaymen ended up swinging from a roadside gibbet, although perhaps being hoist by their own petards might be a better, albeit mixed, metaphor.

Read Full Post >>

The Curse Of Seven

I’d like you to memorise a number for me. The number is 111011101001101010010. Easy, huh? Now, read on.

Shouting at the Plastic

We humans have many unusual traits. We’re the only mammal that can’t swim when it's born, the only mammal whose male can’t tell when its female is fertile, we have large brains which we habitually attack with fermented grains, we walk upright other than in ongoing fermented grain situations, and, perhaps most importantly, we use language to communicate (even when fermented grains are involved).

Now language, of course, is a curious thing. Given the huge amount of brain space and energy it consumes it was clearly very important to our survival as a species. So it’s odd that many of us then use this gift to shout inanely at mobile phones in public spaces. That’s what we call an “unintended consequence” and it helps lead to a big investing problem, the issue of information overload.

Read Full Post >>