From Big Picture TV (www.big-picture.tv)…

Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean economist widely respected for his work on international development. In 1981 he wrote the book for which he is best known, “From the Outside Looking in: Experiences in Barefoot Economics.” It describes his experiences practising economics “as if people matter” among the poor in South America. In that same year he founded the Centre for Development Alternatives (CEPAUR). He is currently Rector of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. Read the rest of this entry »

Fresh off the BBC news site, Sony has announced that the European launch of their 3rd generation PlayStation games console will be delayed to March 2007!

The U.S. and Japan will still see the scheduled November launch.

More here…

… sort of! Following on from my post ‘Fear is the key‘ I wanted to take a look at why fear is such a dominant force in our everyday lives.

Where and when does it become such a strong part of our thought process that almost every action, for some, is linked to it?

For me, if I recall correctly, it all started when Read the rest of this entry »

Back when I was about 9 or 10 years old I read a book called ‘Fear is the key’ by Alistair Maclean. Although just a novel, the concept of how fear can be used as an effective weapon was well impressed upon me.

No better example than what happened at the UK airports over the last week or so. Kudos to the security services for foiling the plot but I think the psychological Read the rest of this entry »

I had a very interesting conversation/discussion with my Dad this past weekend. My parents are visiting from Kenya for a few weeks, and my Dad and I almost always get into some heavy debate on an issue or two when we meet up.

This particular debate spanned a number of issues but one in particular made me think long past the end of the discussion and that was “how do you define yourself?”

What I mean is we live in a pretty complicated world where we have a number of external forces that influence Read the rest of this entry »

2 engagements! Yup, 4 friends of ours got engaged a couple of weeks ago and to celebrate a bunch of us went to a picnic spot yesterday, in Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in the process of setting up a home cinema system and needed some information on various cables etc - info I’ve been out of sync with for the last few years while we watched our trusty little CRT tv.

Misco (UK) have put together a great site that gives you all the info you need to set up your HDTV and home cinema system.

Click here to visit the Misco site.

If you’re wondering, we have a 37″ Samsung lcd hdtv and a LG home cinema system.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

The tag-line on the cover of this book is “What the rich teach their kids - that you can learn too”

In this book, Robert Kiyosaki explains that he was raised, in terms of real-world education, by two fathers - his real father who was highly qualified but poor and his friend’s father who had never gotten past Read the rest of this entry »

S & I celebrate a very special day today - 5 years ago we emigrated to the UK from Kenya.

A big step for us, we made the decision to move soon after we married. Not many opportunities existed for web designers in Kenya back in 2001 so we thought we’d try our luck in the UK.

Although things were tough at first, we had a lot of people around to help us through the transition and get us up to speed - Nairobi and London run at a slightly different pace to one another.

Anyway, 5 years on, we’re both pretty well settled and loving London.

So, a big thank you to everyone that helped us settle in.

Tonight, ITV (UK) premiered their new dinosaur show called Prehistoric Park. It’s a cross between Jurassic Park and a natural history documentary by David Attenborough.

It’s the story of Nigel Marven, an adventurer, who goes back in time and captures various dinosaurs to bring them back to the 21st century where a place in Prehistoric Park awaits them, the idea being to prevent their extinction.

In the first episode, Nigel goes back in time to Montana, just before an asteroid strikes in the Yucatan Peninsula, a true event, Read the rest of this entry »