Today is the 100th anniversary of Louis Prima, a legendary singer and musician from the swing era. He is one of my favourite artists, and first performed in the 1920s. But his career only really took off in the 1940s, and in 1949, his partnership with singer Keely Smith, later to become his second wife, [...]
Categories: Musical loves,The Odd Spot,Tributes
So David Cameron has outlined his plans today to create a “Happiness Index” to measure how happy people in the UK are. The government (through the Office of National Statistics) will spend £2m compiling the index which will first appear in publication in 2012. Best that the ONS takes some advice to improve the results: [...]
Categories: The Odd Spot,Viewpoint
Tagged: Happiness, Happiness index, ONS, politics
Ok, so I had a new look for this blog and then I decided I wanted to change it. Let’s be simple, really. I love minimalism (even for someone who has far too many possessions that clutter space). It’s almost a year since I last wrote on here and if I were to leave this [...]
Categories: Life,Random Facts,The Odd Spot,Tributes
Tagged: Benoit Mandlebrot, IgNobel, Mandlebrot, Nobel, Nobel Peace Prize
You learn new things every day. No really. Now the benefits of anti-bacteral gels have been touted for quite some time, given the spread of the H1N1 virus. But what we didn’t know is that they apparently are a good ingredient in cocktails. The BBC reports of a prison who have banned the alcoholic gels [...]
Categories: The Odd Spot
Tagged: Anti-bacterial gels, BBC News, hospitals, News, prisons, The Odd Spot
It’s nice occasionally to see some humanity in a world that can be as ruthless about things, particularly when it comes to doing business. Pixar has had some of that to contend with, as its head man, a certain Steve Jobs, who is also CEO of Apple, has recently revealed that he had a liver [...]
Categories: Life,The Odd Spot
Tagged: OCregister.com, Pixar, The Odd Spot, Up