There were quite a few great articles in the Sunday Times……
“Clicking the recession away” highlighted the rise in searches for luxury items according to figures compiled using Google’s Insight for Search software, which counts the number of times a particular word is searched for online. So despite the recession luxury brands (Gucci are 8% higher), luxury cars Aston Martin and Mercedes (10% and 29% respectively). Plus foreign holidays, treats and indulgent therapies have soared since January. Limousine hire searches have risen by 50% and even the search for restaurants is up 16%
But even though the data is suggesting the worst of it is over senior figures in finance are still urging caution and tell us not to get too excited by it all. They probably have a few more repossessed houses they want to buy up for their property portfolio.
Shops have enjoyed their best April for years according to the British Retail Consortium, the stock market rose by more than 25% early March, the Royal Institution of Chattered Surveyors reported that inquiries from potential buyers were at their best for nearly 10 years and the Council of Mortgage lenders said that the number of new mortgages had jumped by 29% between Feb and March.
Its not the world wide web its a world wide delusion
The web is 20 years old (1989) and I guess next year being its 21st birthday we should see how we celebrate that!
Anyway…. after the dotcom crash “web 2.0 emerged as a place of freedom, personal expression, letting it all hang out and making shedloads of wonga” but according to David Edgerton professor of the history of technology at Imperial College London the internet is “rather passe”
It is the intense focus on us as individuals by Google and also the opportunities for the individual to express their thoughts that the writer of this article Bryan Appleyard seems to have taken a dislike to, the fact that some of us ordinary folk may have something to say worth reading.
Of course there is a lot of rubbish out there on the internet but isn’t that the same in everything in life, great schools and under performing schools, people who follow the rules and those who break them, givers and thieves, great journalists and the ones that write for the daily star…… the good and the bad all rolled into one.
“Blogging, tweeting and Facebooking all give the individual the unprecedented opportunity to blather to the entire world”
Yeah……. Good isn’t it 
It seems not, the problem with that is “institutions – publishers, newspapers, universities” those that exist because they can do more than the individual suffer!
I think what he’s saying here is that if you listen to me by reading my blog he don’t get no work and that’s not fair, you get me…
plus he speaks and writes better English than what I do so allowing me to express myself with the potential to have more readers is unfair innit!
The New Capitalism
Mike Moritz is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the world’s most astute investor for picking winners such as Google and YouTube and amassing an estimated fortune of £500m and Steve Bicknell is located in West Sussex and spent £200,000 in a new children’s publishing company. The two men are united on a very important opinion
“For all the apocalyptic warnings of a global depression, a collapse into permanent stagnation and a replay of the worst of the 1930s this is a great time to be creating the future of capitalism. “In dark times, even though none of us probably lived through anything quite as difficult as what we are meant to be going through now, the kinds of people who are setting up a business for the right reasons are still out there” said Moritz
I learnt a long time ago that setting up a business for money would lead to disaster which is why I definitely focus my mind of how I can provide value to the people I support.
A blogger defying “big brother”
Yoani Sanchez is out there proving the power of the blog and it’s ability to build an audience.
“Sanchez, a 33 year old philologist, has attracted a loyal fan base with her gentle mockery of the regime in Havana, which seems to be at a loss over how to rein in “cyber-space rebels” “
Her blog Generation Y is a great example of how easy it is to do this when you have something interesting to say. People will find you!
The government has even gone so far as to create new rules that forbids Cubans from logging on to the internet from hotels! But she has said she can find “other ways”
And now for something completely different……
House of Frauds (I loved that title!)
There is definitely space for a satirical political blog reporting on the expenses scandal! A Baroness with a luxury mansion in Indian the floors of which are covered with imported Italian marble claims £185,000 between 2001-2005 and is living in low rent social housing meant for people who really need it like nurses (“oh but its not mine me laud… it’s my husbands!” – whatever happened to what’s mine is yours?)
£115 expense claim to have 25 light bulbs changed in a house by a conservative MP – This is comedy in the making… !)
Peter Andre is available again girls…. from what I have seen on TV (and yes I do confess to catching reruns of Pete & Katie in the wee hours of the morning when I need something to help me sleep – which just gives Mr Appleyard more amunition to prove his point!) he’s a decent guy, a real sweety who loves to cuddle. He deserves a woman that recognises a good heart when she has one in front of her. Of course that’s only based on what I see on TV, but he’s always hugging people! Maybe he’s a wife beating, control freak when the camera goes off….. who knows!
And finally I will end with a Ali Hussain interview. Alis Hussain is an online Dragon worth £48m who has bought a couple of internet related investments in the past few months (hello Mr Hussain….. I’m over here….!!!!)
I loved the fact that he didn’t want his kids to think they could have “everything they want” because there is nothing worse than a child that turns into an adult that expects without giving! And also the very last questions……
Q “What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money?”
A “If bad things don’t happen, you don’t appreciate the good things that come along afterwards.”
I am pretty sure that answer was especially for me and I’m ready for my “aftwerwards” to start now!
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