Still Laugh Out Loud Hilarious….

I am sure most people have heard these at some point, but I defy you not to laugh out loud at the sheer genius the human mind can come up with under pressure.

http://www.businessballs.com/familyfortunesanswers.htm

Rule Britannia….

“Social networks are more popular in the UK than in any other European country, with 24.9m Britons, or 78% of the UK online population, visiting a social network, according to comScore. The research firm estimates that UK social network users spent more time on them on average more than any other major European nation. The average UK visitor to a social networking site spent 5.8 hours in 23.3 visits social networking in Aug. This was much higher than in France, where the average was 2 hours in 16.8 visits during the month, and Germany, where social network users spent 3.1 hours in 13.8 visits on social networks in Aug. comScore warned that the averages could be misleading for marketers as it estimates that 80% of activity on social networks, including page viewing, can be attributed to only 20% of users.” With thanks to Marketclusters.

All hail the return of Radiohead….

Genius

Bubbly

“Goofy names, retread startup ideas, inexperienced entrepreneurs, free food—the WSJ does a nice job this morning laying out the gestalt evidence that we are in the midst of a second Silicon Valley bubble. Capping off the list of exhibits is none other than last month’s TechCrunch40 conference, which drew about 1,000 people (not counting the random booth babes).There is no question that we are seeing a lot of froth out there, which Mike’s been warning about for quite some time. You should see some of the unsolicited Website launches that get submitted to us every day here. Yesterday alone we received 17 submissions, including one for Hide Pink Shirt Guy. I’m not even sure what that is, but it is not a business.

But are we seeing a financial bubble here,or is there something else going on? There is certainly not as much money being thrown around (yet) as the last time around. While talk of a $10 billion or $15 billion valuation for Facebook feeds into the bubble theory, Facebook seems more like a lone exception. There are convincing arguments that it truly does represent a major new platform and thus deserves a platform-like valuation (there are also convincing arguments against that theory). Nevertheless, the clearest sign of a financial bubble in Silicon Valley would be if valuations across the board began to become divorced from reality. While valuations are certainly up, they are not yet in wacko territory.

Maybe Paul Graham has it right. It’s so cheap to create Web startups these days that we are going to be seeing a whole lot more of them. Many will be inane, redundant, or half-baked. But a few will rise up from the froth and create something lasting. Bubble or not, it’s worth keeping an eye out for those game-changers. We just might have to wade through a lot of junk to find them. “

Too good not to share……

I implore everyone to read World War Z by Max Brooks. This is the best book about war and survival I have ever read; it just coincidentally happens to be about Zombies. Do not let the science fiction aspect deter you from a visceral tale of global conflict and the fightback, it is conveyed through an on the scene reporter’s interview notes and the style really draws you in to the widespread nature of the war. It also has really good bits about shooting people in the Brain.

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/

Walls Come Tumbling Down….

Radiohead once more strike a critical blow into the cold dark heart of the record industry. You can only get there new album on download only and you decide how much to pay. I still paid £5, this shows how conditioned I have become by overpricing, I actually felt guilty about paying 5p. Hopefully this will drive the industry into an even further lowering of music prices; mind you does anyone actually buy CD’s anymore?

Things We Like….

 

www.mobiluck.com

The site is currently undergoing an update to take away the impression that this is purely a Bluetooth solution, but having downloaded the platform I can confirm it appears to be a really good social network tool that moves the network away from the desktop to the mobile. The profiling tools really open a lot of opportunity for tie in to many different social networks and applications which should give the solution a wide appeal to operators and communities alike.