Is Facebook Going Belly Up?
This article in the Guardian, quotes researchers at Princeton University, saying that Facebook will lose 80% of its members by 2017.
They’ve compared the growth of the social networking site to an infectious disease.
I think it will have died, as something else will replace it.
Are Things Getting Better?
There has been a lot of discussion about whether things are getting better, with the government that things are on the up and Milliband saying they’re not. This article gives both views, with David Cameron being quoted in this way.
Most British workers have seen their take-home pay rise in real terms in the past year, the government claims.
It has produced figures showing all except the richest 10% saw their take-home wages rise by at least 2.5% once tax cuts were taken into account.
The article says this about Ed Milliband.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the figures were “dodgy” and ministers were out of touch with people’s lives.
I’m not going to take sides, but as I travel around the country, I see many things.
If I look at my situation, I think it has got marginally better compared to what it was twelve months ago.
I’m getting a slightly higher rate on my savings in Zopa, my energy is slightly cheaper since I moved my energy supplier to Ovo and running my household seems to be cheaper, as I’ve organised myself better. The latter is not down to the economy, but partly due to individuals and companies, launching new products and services.
One thing that hasn’t hit me, is the cost of motoring! Because I don’t!
I’ve just had February’s edition of Modern Railways and as in the last few months, there are quite a few articles about new stations and lines. There’s also been a few examples of new and refurbished trains being built or modified in the UK. But go to places like Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester and the transport infrastructure is much better than it was three or four years ago. Other places like Blackburn have got new stations. And there are quite a few new British-built buses too.
If the experience of the introduction into North London of the Overground, is anything to go by, where people have told me it has allowed them to get to new or better jobs, this new transport infrastructure can only be a good thing.
But if I go to places outside of London, it all seems much better. Surprisingly, there are quite a few bright, new shopping centres.
But then some politicians don’t want to be positive!
Barney Curley Does It Again!
There are gamblers, successful gamblers and Barney Curley. In a betting coup a couple of days ago, the BBC is reporting that he made about two million pounds.
It certainly isn’t the first time! A late friend was a Newmarket bookmaker and was always on the look-out for any of Barney’s money. He managed to avoid any serious damage, but that was more by luck than judgement.
Wikipedia gives a detailed account of the Yellow Sam betting coup.
The major bookmakers thought they had protected themselves against coups from the likes of Barney Curley. But they were wrong!
Farewell To Christopher Chataway
Sir Christopher Chataway was one of my heroes and he has been mentioned regularly in this blog.
But now he has died and I suspect the world will be a duller place.
I can still see the pictures of him in white defeating Vladimir Kuts at the White City. This is the BBC’s description of the feat.
His career in international athletics lasted only five years with the pinnacle being in 1954 when he set a new 5,000m world record of 13 minutes 51.6 seconds in a televised race at White City.
Chataway beat Russia’s Vladimir Kuts by 0.1 secs – the man who he had finished second behind in the 5,000m European Championships final two weeks earlier.
He might not have been a great athlete, but he was one of those rarer beings; a great all round talent.
The Problems Of Twitter
We have had a lot of stories in the past few years about people being abused on Twitter and similar sites, such as this report about Stan Collimore.
I have been involved in a few studies about malicious calls in the past with BT and have a small amount of knowledge. For instance, those that abuse usually target someone specific like an ex partner or employer or they might do the opposite and tend to target a range of people.
But there is always a pattern, as people are creatures of habit!
I also did some work years ago with project management software to see, if it were possible to fill in the blanks on an activity, based on other activities in a project and the words in the description. Techniques of language recognition, weren’t that good in the 1980s, but I believe that it is now possible to make a better fist of it.
Twitter messages are a string of a few words and I believe that computers can now get the flavour of what is said with a bit of help. After all Google often gives you what you want in a search, that is full of spelling and typing mistakes.
So let’s say you get an abusive Twitter message. By flagging it to Twitter, they should be able to automatically determine if the contents fits a typical abusive pattern, based on the words and the tweeting profile of the sender.
An automatic warning would then ensue if it was deemed necessary, followed by deletion of the account, if the abuser persisted.
I obviously don’t know the thoughts of Twitter, but I’m absolutely certain, that an automatic system could be developed based on technology that works well in other areas.
The trouble is, any system like this is against the American rules on Free Speech. But it probably would be acceptable to many of those who have suffered abuse.
The Unseemly Row About Lord Rennard
Whether or not Lord Rennard did anything wrong, has not been decided in a Court of Law, but it does seem to me, that the two sides in the argument are immoveable and won’t reach a solution acceptable to everyone.
It seems to me, that anybody at the centre of a row like this, should do the honourable thing and probably give up this job and do something else!
Isn’t that what John Profumo did all those years ago and he died a respected man?
Certainly, the Lib Dems are proving that many in the party, still haven’t learnt how to run a whelk stall!
Is Gay Marriage The Reason For Floods And Storms?
According to this story from the BBC, a UKIP councillor thinks it is.
A UKIP councillor has blamed the recent storms and heavy floods across Britain on the Government’s decision to legalise gay marriage.
David Silvester said the Prime Minister had acted “arrogantly against the Gospel”.
He is wrong. The best explanation was from my late son, when he was about ten. He said it was God allowing his bathwater to overflow again.
The Last Word On Hollande
I picked this paragraph up from The Times.
Christine Boutin, a Roman Catholic who served as a minister under President Sarkozy, accused Mr Hollande of “treating his concubine like a Kleenex”.
It would appear that he’s running out of powerful women to take to bed. One wag also said last week, that he looked like a middle-aged provincial dentist.
i know the French expect different things from their politicians, but there can’t be many countries where Hollande’s behaviour would be tolerated without redicule.
Robert Peston On Milliband’s Plan For The Banks
Now that Milliband has actually spoken it is interesting to see what heavyweight commentators are saying. The speech is reported here on the BBC and it also contains these comments from Robert Peston on what would happen if banks were limited as to market share.
Bankers have said to me this would lead to what they call a perverse outcome, that as they approached the maximum size they would dump customers they deemed low quality or loss-making.
It is unclear whether these customers would be able to bank elsewhere.
I wonder how many banks would want me as a customer, given that all I want is a money transfer company. And I don’t buy any other services from my bank, like insurance.
And I don’t see why I should pay for my banking!
Why Milliband’s Bank Plan Won’t Work
Ed Milliband’s plan to cut the Big Banks down to size described here, may be admirable, but it won’t work!
In fact I have a feeling that in a couple of years, it won’t be needed as the Big Banks will be a shadow of their former self.
Take myself, who is increasingly becoming a type of person common in this country.
I only use my bank account for one main purpose and that is to accept and receive money transfers and manage regular payments. They do provide me with a credit card, but it is not one I use daily.
My savings are stored in a separate account, which happens to be a peer-to-peer-lender, but could be a Savings Account anywhere. But more of us, are using innovative ways to keep our savings and this will increase.
I never write cheques and only ever go into a bank branch to use a cash machine, if I want to sit down to organise my money after withdrawing it.
I don’t know what percentage of the population are like me, who effectively use the bank as a money transfer company and possibly an overdraft source, whilst waiting for a payment to clear.
But it must be quite a high figure these days!
We don’t need banks at all and it is a market that people will target in an innovative way. Certainly, if a company, can give me a much better computer system for on-line banking, I’d join them like a shot.
But then banks and innovation are two words that rarely go together!
On the whole I suspect this group of customers, are probably pretty sanguine about banking and in most cases wouldn’t want the hassle of moving. I sometimes think about moving from Nationwide, but what I want is a better computer and support system and how do I find out if it’s what I want? With very great difficulty I suspect!
So Milliband’s banker bashing doesn’t impress, as we probably feel that any new bank would be more of the same grey product.
And anyway, I choose my bank, not politicians.
But a better innovative on-line bank, with a proper computer system, programmed in the UK, supported totally by the Internet and a UK call centre, with no branch premises will come.
Done properly, I’d transfer my business to it and I suspect many others would.
The other thing that would shoot Milliband’s fox, is if regulators made it possible to transfer our bank account overnight or at least in a couple of days, keeping the same account number.
One of the troubles about the next election, is that many of the people who vote will be up to their neck in Wonga and other loans and are the sort of people, a decent bank wouldn’t touch.
The Anonymous Widower 