I didn’t watch Live8 at the weekend. Unlike Live Aid, I didn’t get caught up in the moment. I am too cynical now and while I believe it was set up for all the right reasons it was hijacked. If every one of those performers had given up all the revenue from increased record sales in the next 6 months then I would have been less cynical. If the ‘Multi-millionaire rock stars performing in Philadelphia’ gave back their free gifts worth $12,000 (£6,800) [Source] I would have been even less cynical. Alexis Petridis, in The Guardian, says, “even the most cynical observer would be forced to admit that, even judged on music alone, Live 8 has been a remarkable day” but, unfortunately, I heard very little. Still, I have higher hopes for the today’s G8 Summit. Really, I do.

On this day…

2005: A Few Moments Of Reflection
2005: 12:46
2005: Preliminary Vote
2005: What Have You Done Today?
2004: The Day F1 Came To London
2004: Formula One Comes To Regent Street
2002: Beer

Olympic Countdown: The Prime Minister has arrived in Singapore to join the London team ahead of the crucial vote to elect the Host City for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games [Source] and England Football captain David Beckham has arrived in Singapore to join the London team hoping to secure the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games [Source]. The BBC has a summary of the final push to the big announcement.

On this day…

2005: Silverstone Circuit Weather
2002: Cows & Clothes

The editors of ten national newspapers have united to sign a good luck message to London 2012.

The message, which is running as a half-page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, wishes the bid team good luck just two days before the result of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games race.

The unprecedented statement has been signed by editors of broadsheet and tabloid papers with a combined daily circulation of more than 12 million.

So, while counting down to Silverstone, there’s another countdown that I am watching now – the London Olympic bid. I’ve mentioned before that it would be brilliant for London to win the Olympics. I’d think I might volunteer if we win and I’ll say that now so that it doesn’t look like I am jumping on any bandwagon! Watch the videos and hold your breath! In the meantime it’s time for some bid news as I watch the countdown: The editors of ten national newspapers have united to sign a good luck message to London 2012 [source]. Has that ever happened before?

 

On this day…

2005: God Is Bored Of You
2005: Countdown is Progressing
2005: Powered By Rotting Fruit
2002: Did They Make It Up?
2002: It’s All Queens on 4th July!
2002: Amazon A-Go-Go
2002: Finally – CSS

Last week (or was it this week, time flies you see) Tom wrote about: Supernova ’05: “Apps. for a Mobile, Connected World” in which he noted Mena – of Six Apart fame – talking about memories,

Mena really brought memories to the fore. She stated that she wished she had a record of everything that had happened in the first twenty-seven years of her life like she has since she first started weblogging

(source)

Occasionally I realise that this site has a similar effect on me. I wonder how much more I will recall of the turn of the century than I will of my years at the end of the last simply because of this site? The On This Day link for 26 June sent me back to watching the Olympic Torch crossed south London on its way to Athens. I’d totally forgotten that. What’s more, I didn’t recall Flickr the pictures so I have not seen them for a long time; I’m not too sure where I filed them. Fickr needs an On This Day app so you can see pictures to took on this day in history. It would really help the memory!

And while I am on the subject of Flickr, does anybody else find it annoying that the default sort and ordering is by upload date rather than taken? You often upload when you get back from a trip, like I did last Monday for Zaragoza. All the picture carried the right time stamps but they were uploaded in a sightly different order so I had to play with them to get them displayed correctly. Am I missing something?

On this day…

2002: Scooby Thoughts

Last week I got asked to provide a reference for a friend who I used to work with and, perhaps, don’t get to see as much as I would like to. I have no problem giving him the reference. From the sound of it the job he is after is right up his street and I know he will throw himself into it in a way that he’ll be great at it. I have no doubt he will be an asset to the company that’s looking to employ him. I just have one issue and that’s the reference questionnaire I was asked to fill in. It has some pretty standard questions asking how long I had know him and in what capacity. Then it also asked me to state his strengths (ok, no problem) but then asks me for his weaknesses and a number of other questions that encourage me to rank the individual (although on what sort of scale I am not told).

And therein was the problem. If I were representing his current employer (and I am not) I would have to be careful as, under UK law (if I am not mistaken) an employer providing a reference to a prospective employer owes a duty of care to the employee and criticisms can be taken as libel etc. or, at the very least, leave you open to damages. Now, I appreciate this is more of a personal reference but that’s not the point. There was so much I was being asked to fill in that I was beginning to think that the company in question could not trust their own judgement in any way as to his character.

The thing is I had nothing negative to say. I am certain we could all say something negative about everybody we know. You know, we could find some small personal trait that irritated but it’s not relevant in this case. When I worked with him he was diligent and performed as you would expect. So, I didn’t answer the question.

And, of course, by not answering the question there is a perspective employer who is wondering what I left out. I didn’t leave anything out I just had nothing to say in that box that I thought anywhere near relevant to the reference I was writing. Reference-reading is all about the unsaid not the said.

So, what should I have done?

On this day…

2003: Call God Now