philmophlegm | Entries tagged with work

This article struck something of a chord. Actually that's an understatement.

If the article is TL:DR, here's the executive summary: Organisations recruit clever people, but then discourage them from using their intelligence. It could easily have been written about my former employer (one of the Big 4 global professional services firms). And it's one of the things that consistently bugged me the most.

The latest target of the PC police - Gilbert & Sullivan.

"Controversy as Chester Zoo opens 'Wrexham Scally Enclosure'". (I should point out that Homo Wrexhamius Scalliensis Chavus is pretty much confined to the southern part of Wrexham, not the nice bit where I’m from…)

Why Gandhi is such an asshole in Civilisation.

The Curious Case of the (Medieval) Weapon that Didn't Exist

Why you can't just have more quantitative easing to get rid of the national debt.

This is not a 512gb microSD card.

The worst football kits of all time. They’re all bad, but Colorado, seriously…?

This month's best headline is from an astronomy website.

"A lousy, stupid, no good, bad, law is being proposed."

Star Wars Episode IV in a single image. (OK, it’s a very big image, but still…)

Minimalist, anonymous rooms are probably not a good place to do teamwork.

"We all owe a significant debt to Richard Murphy." No, really.

I'm an only child, so I can't really relate to this. Nevertheless I thought it was a sweet film about growing up being “Player Two”.

Woman accidentally joins search party looking for herself.

Today's most widely misinterpreted piece of economics, from the IMF. There are two arguments put forward in the paper. The first is that there are risks associated with capital account liberalisation (allowing money into and out of the country with less regulation). The second is that although high public debt is bad for growth and welfare, for countries with excellent records of debt repayment, like the US, the UK and Germany, a “credible medium-term fiscal consolidation” makes more sense than a “fiscal noose today”. In other words, slowly bringing down debt as a percentage of GDP, not slashing everything to balance the budget as soon as possible. Now that’s pretty much what the UK’s current fiscal policy is. Still I suppose “IMF economists broadly agree with George Osborne” isn’t quite as good a headline as “You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within”. Seriously, this is a paper that says “There is much to cheer in the neoliberal agenda. The expansion of global trade has rescued millions from abject poverty. Foreign direct investment has often been a way to transfer technology and know-how to developing economies. Privatization of state-owned enterprises has in many instances led to more efficient provision of services and lowered the fiscal burden on governments”… and Facebook (and one of our less reputable newspapers) is full of idiots claiming that “we are witnessing the death of neoliberalism”.

Testing Godwin's Law

The McLaren F1 needs a 20 year old Compaq laptop

The pilot episode of Korgoth of Barbaria. Why didn’t this make it as a series? It’s great!

The Game of Thrones title sequence, done with slime moulds

Those Finns sure like their metal.

"Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented."

Kim Jong-Un's aunt runs a drycleaning business in the USA.

Why yes, I am a Mad Men fan. And why yes, I was tempted to bid on Harry Crane's Calculator or Don Draper's saucepan or Don Draper's Ray-Bans.

Kudos to Viking Direct's HR department.

Have you ever had a job interview that went really, really badly? There's always someone worse off than yourself...

"Stabbing victim pulls knife out of own neck, kills terrorist"

Celebrating "the diversity of world culture" is now racist, apparently.

Then and Now photos of my hometown of Wrexham

Recommending someone for an award is now a heinous crime, apparently.

A 1984 television programme shows us how to send an email.

Interesting article for those of you, like me, who are late sleepers. (I agree that the world of work seems to discriminate against late sleepers, but everything else works in our favour. Entertainment takes place at night, not first thing in the morning, for example. In fact, when you think about it, must fun things do.)

Apple was founded by three people. Here's an article about the one who wasn't called Steve.

"Socialism...really?"

How IBM managed to charge $1.4million for a coin-toss simulator.

Open plan offices are bad. There are two people in my workplace. I’m married to the other one. And we work in different rooms. Imagine how bad it is to work right next to people you don’t even like…

Ranking British universities for free speech.

If you needed body armour, why wouldn't you want it to look like Boba Fett's?

Male competitive athlete? Little chance of winning an Olympic medal? Here's what you need to do.

This is the best headline of 2016 so far. (I take no responsibility for any distress caused by your own imagination after reading this. Those mental images are all yours.)

Useful discussion on minimum wage laws. (Thank you ford_prefect42)

John Cleese on political correctness.

Denmark is not a socialist utopia.

Fair Trade coffee. Good idea? Let's ask some economists.

Stock Photo University

Finding Boshek - The Man Who Could Have Gone to Alderaan

The best business schools now recruit people with both experience of industry and teaching ability. (…and so does my university, which is how I’m there. However, since the business school is only in its second year, it might be a while before we catch up with Harvard…)

Japan is more low-tech than you might think.

...and Sony has just finished making Betamax cassettes. (I bet there are still fanboys out there arguing that the picture quality is better than VHS.)

Not for the first time, I thought we'd reached Peak Guardian, but no!

The sad tale of the man who designed the Diamond Jubilee Barge.

Visiting every Toby Carvey in Britain with a blind photographer.

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding (Actually, they’re more things you might like to avoid than really appalling sins, but hey.)

A really nice map of Expert D&D Module X1: The Isle of Dread

'Virtue signalling' is not virtue. Good point. (And I am aware of the irony of linking to this post using social media.)

Accenture to scrap the annual performance review. I worked for a similar big professional services firm for 15 years. I’ve been an appraiser and obviously an appraisee. Nothing was more harmful to performance, morale and bottom line profitability than the annual performance review system.

When Jeremy Paxman repeatedly asks an evasive politician the same question, he's a "tough interviewer". When Kay Burley does the same, she's "confused" or "loopy" or a "bossy bitch".

This is how I imagine all comic and SF conventions.

Doubly eclipsing quintuple low-mass star system

Pakistani immigrants are 13 times more likely to have disabled children because of intermarriage.

21 people who 100% did not meet a celebrity. (But how cool is it that the real Maisie Williams took the time to point out to number 2 that he hadn’t actually met her?)

Of course the budget was regressive.

The Ku Klux Klan is on the rise.

In mid-2014, Greece was the fastest growing economy in the Eurozone and even had a budget surplus if you ignored debt servicing. Then they elected Syriza.

This Warhammer player is quite upset about the rules changes in the new Age of Sigmar edition.

Making air travel even less pleasant.

"Panini launches 2015 FIFA Corruption Scandal sticker album."

Raped in a playground at 11, abused by seven men a night aged 12, her sister was murdered - one of the 1,400 victims of the Rotherham muslim paedophile ring.

"Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prize" says Vladimir Putin.

The Complete Blake's 7 Costume Index

Total respect to the owner of this Porsche 918 Spyder.

Really nicely done Star Trek fanvid set to William Shatner singing* Pulp's 'Common People'. (* Maybe singing isn’t quite the right word. If you’re familiar with Mr Shatner’s musical career, you know what I mean.)

Milton Friedman was right, part 865.

Apparently it's now politically incorrect to describe an immigrant who came into the country illegally as an "illegal immigrant".

After more than 6,000 episodes of Countdown, this happens.

Air conditioning is "sexist".

If Malcolm Tucker did motivational posters.

I wonder which particular service this government whip from the Heath government was called upon to provide...

Not only did the Conservative Party give Britain its first female Prime Minister, it apparently (allegedly) also gave us our first homosexual and paedophile one too.

Really, really bad eyebrows.

Social Justice Warios

How to get rich from tidal energy.

How come Jeremy Paxman is allowed to ask tough questions but Kay Burley isn't?

The Pecking Disorder

Tblisi flooded. Zoo animals escape. Hilarity (and some terror) ensues.

Remember last month when New York was underwater? No?

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission is confused between correlation and causation.

What causes inequality?

Good questions to ask in a job interview.

The hell of being born trans class.

61 deaths in "Game of Thrones" plus percentage chance to return for each. (This is spectacularly wrong for at least one person.)

American Gothic 2015

If Peanuts featured Game of Thrones quotes.

I haven’t done a Phligm Phlagm post since April. (Sorry, I’ve been really busy…) We have some catching up to do. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and / or are informed by these links:

The maths (and beauty) behind a perfect 147. Make sure you watch Ronnie O’Sullivan’s five minutes and 20 seconds 147 – one of the all time greatest accomplishments in any sport.

This is the sort of thing that should be in that Alanis Morrisette song instead of "rain on your wedding day".

Few people regularly make me as angry as this incompetent, ill-informed, hypocritical, leftard.

Great myths of British politics, number 745: "The NHS is the most efficient health system in the world". (According to the OECD, only Ireland and Greece could make greater savings from more efficient healthcare systems.)

Even among countries with similar healthcare systems, the UK's is "below average". (So can we please stop this “envy of the world” bollocks?)

"My obsession with a fictional Football Manager megastar." (I had to put this in quotation marks to make it clear that this wasn't me...)

Diane "divide and rule" Abbott tutting that the "Tories harp on about Mid-Staffs". (Yeah, cos it’s not as if 1,200 people dying because of neglect in a state-run hospital is something politicians should be concerned about…)

"We're a class project."

A Greek God Family Tree

Student union backs excluding white people from 'anti-racism' events.

RIP Yeoman Rand.

PwC is going to ignore graduates' A-level results when recruiting. (This surprises me. When I was being recruited as a trainee chartered accountant, and when I was recruiting trainee chartered accountants, it was generally accepted that A-level grades were the best indication of future success in ACA exams, far more so than class of degree.)

George Digweed, the greatest British sportsman you've never heard of.

You know those really expensive very large Lego Super Star Destroyers? What if you dropped one from a great height? And filmed it. At 1000fps.

10 typographic mistakes everyone makes (and which life is far, far too short to care about.)

Want to play in the NFL? How good is your memory? It’s very rare for people not directly involved in the game to ever get access to pro playbooks. This copy of the Oakland Raiders’ 1998 June mini-camp (a sort of short training camp before the main one) playbook was leaked / released recently. Yes, it’s a bit old (dating back to when the Raiders were good…), but it gives you some idea of the intellectual pressures placed on NFL players. 216 pages, thousands of formations and audibles and routes and options. Quarterbacks will have to learn every single permutation. Other positions will need to learn large parts.

Oxford rape and trafficking: Who were the abusers? Not long after political correctness was shown to have led to the gang rape of 1,400 young girls by muslim gangs in Rotherham, we have this. The names of the Oxford gang were Mohammed Karrar, Bassam Karrar, Akhtar Dogar, Anjum Dogar, Kamar Jamil, Assad Hussain and Zeeshan Ahmed. Yet, at no point in this BBC article, even though it is clearly relevant to the story, are these men referred to as ‘muslims’. When someone tells you that political correctness does not exist or that it isn’t anything to be ashamed of, show them this.

Question: How vain is Cristiano Ronaldo? Answer: Very, very vain.

"Fewer large companies are run by women than by men named John." Well, yes, but there's a good reason for that.

The racist and eugenicist history of the American minimum wage.

239 years of 'The Wealth of Nations'. Smith’s “greatest breakthrough was the realisation that we do not have to conquer people or make things in order to increase our wealth. We can also increase it by simply exchanging things.”

5 Economic Myths That Just Won't Die

Great image of the same supernova appearing four times because of the gravitational lens effect. (Thanks to louisedennis.)

The British charity that named the murdered Charlie Hebdo staff "Islamaphobes of the Year". Makes you proud to be British…not.

Worried that you might avoid tax? This helpful guide shows you how to avoid avoiding tax.

Does going to court to change your dead millionaire father's will so you pay less inheritance tax count as "avoiding tax"?

Interesting reviews of all the Gollancz SF Masterworks so far.

5 Misconceptions About #GamerGate and the Truth Behind the Myths

Five Actors Who Almost Played Aragorn (Russell Crowe?)

Whatever happened to Football Manager legend Freddy Adu?

No, unemployment is not the "underlying cause" of ISIS.

"Why are people in Scotland saying I murdered someone called Lucy?"

UKIP Cornwall's website gives Cornish web designers a bad name.

The latest SJW idiocy in SF / Fantasy literature.

I miss 'The Thick of It'. Luckily Green Party leader Natalie Bennett can easily fill the 'incompetent politician gives car crash interview' hole...

The appalling compensation for those people imprisoned through a miscarriage of justice.

It's really cold in New York at the moment.

Evidence used by Henry VIII to support the break with Rome turns up in a library not far from us.

Why we shouldn't clamp down on zero-hour contracts.

I came across this article on Linkedin. If you’re on Linkedin, here’s the link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/horrible-hr-policies-nuke-2015-liz-ryan If you aren’t, well sorry but I couldn’t find it anywhere else (including the author’s blog) so I assume it’s a Linkedin exclusive.

Clearly I’m not going to copy it, but I think it’s reasonable to discuss it here.

Basically, it’s a list of terrible HR policies that are nevertheless common. One of the best things about being your own boss is not having HR policies. And I suspect that these, despite being terrible, are very common, especially among larger organisations. Put it this way, my previous employer, the giant professional services firm referred to on these pages (for reasons that are sort of apparent to anyone who has seen or read ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’) as ‘JOLF’ was regularly in the top five in the Sunday Times ‘Best Big Company to Work For’ Survey. And I’ve encountered maybe nine of the ten practices listed here at that paragon employer.

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