Interesting Links for 18-11-2013

[andrewducker]

• Common misconceptions about publishing: "Why do you use Microsoft Word?"
  (tags: publishing technology writing )
• Denmark surpasses 100 percent wind power
  (tags: germany denmark windpower renewables )
• A Day In the Life of An Empowered Female Character
  (tags: feminism satire writing )
• Jon Hamm interview: 'Don Draper is dismal and despicable'
  (tags:

Comments

[momentsmusicaux]

Credit on the Lothian Buses app will expire after 90 days, it says. That's a total fuck-up. My Oyster card remembers I have money pretty much for ever.

[andrewducker]

That's particularly rubbish. Julie buys books of tickets and they _never_ go out of date (so far as I can tell).

[octopoid_horror]

I think the tickets do go out of date, or used to? I'm sure Meredith had some that went out of date.

[andrewducker]

Also, if you're doing the "tickets" electronically then there's no reason to not go with a simplified system whereby you pay £1.50 per ticket up to a maximum of £3.50/day, £17/week, and £51/month. That way you don't have to worry about "Do I get a day ticket" - you just wave your phone at the driver.

[coughingbear]

I miss my G1 keyboard phone so much.

[naath]

If you are commuting, you are not spending quality time with your loved ones. You are not exercising, doing challenging work, having sex, petting your dog, or playing with your kids (or your Wii)

Well when *I'm* commuting I'm getting exercise ;-p

(I don't commute >45mins; but my main motivation for not having a long commute is that I really like sleep)

[momentsmusicaux]

Some time back I read an article about how commuting time is a bad thing, but it had the caveat, 'unless you walk or cycle'. In which case you are out in the fresh air getting exercise, which is a valuable use of your time.

As much as I love working from home, it's quite nice to have a reason to leave the house. I think a pretty good commute would be about 15-20 minutes on the bike, but with a bus route for days when the weather's awful.

[naath]

yeah, it's quite nice. A bit of gentle exercise and fresh air to wake me up. British weather is rarely so bad as to make cycling impossible, good waterproofs go a long way to enhance comfort. (there is a bus; it's even a usually reliable every-10-min bus; but I get bus-sick so blech to that).

[bart_calendar]

With the exception of the cigarette ads why would the rest of them be banned today?

They are offensive and if used to advertise a mainstream product they would turn off a fair amount of customers but they wouldn't be banned.

Heck, I bet I've written more offensive ads than those.

For a dating site for gay men who enjoy unprotected sex I came up with the tagline "Condoms Are For Pussies" - which is on par with some of those and it didn't get banned. And for a site for gay men who were hot for Iraqi soldiers at the start of the current gulf war I came up with "They Already Hate Bush. Make Them Love Dick."

Unless you are selling cigarettes you really have to push the envelope to get an ad banned.

[andrewducker]

I agree. I should have rewritten the headline. They wouldn't be banned - they just wouldn't get very far through the process nowadays!

[bart_calendar]

You never know. I see some pretty offensive mainstream ads in France.

There's an ad for Magnum chocolate ice cream bars that has a naked blonde girl eating the bar as though she's sucking dick with a black guy with his hand pushing down on her shoulders and the tagline "moi et mon magnum" - and the anti cigarette campaigns actually have 13 year old boys and girls simulating sucking dick.

[andrewducker]

The French seem to be altogether more relaxed about sex than the British, and waaaaaay more relaxed than Americans.

[artkouros]

I'm going to start wearing a tie to bed. And moon walking.