2014 — 17 July: Thursday
My lunch companion for today1 has suggested I might like to consider a new monitor:
It has 1,267,200 more pixels than each of my present pair of 27" 'WQHD' screens, and a 34" diagonal. But I've already pointed out that my desk simply isn't large enough to allow me to sit two of them side-by-side.
"Spontaneity" has...
... never been my middle name, nor my defining characteristic.
The wise folk who design the nudges are pleased to call themselves "choice architects". As we are led unsuspectingly along their mazy garden path, on which what they consider the "right" choices are the easiest ones for us
to make — the healthy meal is at eye level; we are automatically enrolled as organ donors unless we can be bothered to opt out — we casually make the decisions that they have already chosen for us...
The British government's Behavioural Insights Team, aka the Nudge Unit,2 was part-privatised this year, and hopes to profit from advising foreign governments, local authorities and
commercial interests, now that it is immune from Freedom of Information requests from ordinary citizens who might wish to scrutinise its methods.
Having fixed the worst...
... of the current set of gaping holes in Mother Hubbard's cupboard earlier this morning I've now just got back (from lunch) in time to find, in no particular order:
- a "Something for you" card that means a trip out to Mr Postie's local lair to pick up two parcels
- the news that I'm using 121 litres of water per day — I must be washing more often — but still paying £44/month less than in my pre-metered days
- the first (and last, until they next pester me in a couple of years) credit card bill having just used that particular card3 for the first time in about 15 months to keep it "ticking over"
And back again...
... gasping from the heat, cursing the bad manners of Mercedes drivers, and clutching the two Lost Sheep about five minutes before they rolled a giant stone in front of the entrance to the lair:
Had you asked me to name a film with both Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen, I think I would have been stumped. "Sugar Man" is a marvellous documentary voyage of musical discovery, and I gather this is the swan song of those in the Thick of It. Personally, I'm not certain it's possible to satirise our splendid coalition guvmint, so that will be interesting.