Triangular Kiwi

Here is a cross section of one of the kiwis I bought today:

A triangular kiwi.  Hmm…   Genetic modification?  Seems unlikely, especially since the packet said that they were organic.  I don’t know much about kiwis, so perhaps this is just a variety I’ve never come across before in Albert Heijn.  (Wait a minute?  According to Latin, shouldn’t kiwi be the plural?  That would make the singular ‘kiwus’.  Perhaps not…)

I recently joined twitter and what struck me most about the site was something which also struck me about vimeo.com.  Far from exhibiting the predilection for point 9 font in the name of elegance, both these sites have clean, elegant, appealing designs, with a large font sizes.  This makes them much easier to read and significantly more user-friendly.  Furthermore, the skillful use of colour really helps in improving usability in both cases.  Contrast these two sites, then, with myspace.com, which is the embodiment of unnavigable clutter.

Meanwhile: the BBC has discovered that Gordon Brown personally telephones people who send him letters.  That must have been difficult for Downing Street to own up to.  (Stand clear of the copious sarcasm.)  Especially as the government is currently trying to promote the idea that Brown ‘listens to the people’.  Wow!  What a coincidence that this comes out so close to the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.  You could almost suggest it was more than a coincidence.  Nah!  That’s about as unlikely as coming across a triangular kiwi.  Oh… So… that would be ‘quite likely’ then.

Ceci n’est pas un blog post

Finally: the opportunity to post returns once again. On Wednesday, I completed my final examination for the International Baccalaureate Diploma, meaning I have now (theoretically) finished my secondary education. I do not, though, recieve the results until early July.

I was listening to a podcast today called New Kids on the Blog, originally broadcast in December last year on BBC Radio 4, about the revolution taking place in the news media due to the power of the internet and ‘user generated content’. The whole programme was generally interesting, but perhaps the best quote was a comment at the end of the programme made by ABC’s Charles Gibson. Warning of the dangers which arise as a result of the media and bloggers attempting to grab attention and distinguish themselves from the crowd by providing opinion and being “shrill” rather than providing journalistic reporting, he said “it leads to people being sort of spring-loaded in the pissed-off position”.

With that in mind, let me now turn to another podcast, but one which moderately annoyed me at times. A couple of years ago, the BBC broadcast a programme called Humphrys in Search of God, in which John Humphrys (BBC Radio 4 presenter) interviewed three prominent religious figures on the subject of faith and the existence of God. It was a really interesting programme, but was, at times, bemusing. Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) had the first go at converting Humphrys from agnosticism to religion. The following is an extract from the interview, with my emphasis added (the full text is available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/misc/scripts/humphryswilliams.html)

…

Rowan Williams: Putting myself in that position, it’s a very difficult question, actually. I think I might say maybe you should ask somebody who does believe in God, and see what it sounds like. Not, I think, entirely irrelevant, as belief in God appears to come more naturally to children than to adults. And you can take that in one of two ways, can’t you? You can take it as saying belief in God is one of those things like belief in Santa Claus that every sensible person…

John Humphrys: Just what I was about to say.

Rowan Williams: Indeed. Or you can say there’s something instinctive about belief in God which life educates out of some of us in ways that are not always positive or constructive.

…

BBC Radio 4. “Dr Rowan Williams – broadcast interview.” 31.10.06. Humphrys in Search of God. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/misc/scripts/humphryswilliams.html] (23.05.08).

Eh? Clearly, this is not a case of Rowan Williams having missed the obvious, since he acknowledges that there is an opposing view to the belief that children possess an innate understanding of the existence of God (the opposing view being that they are effectively “indoctrinated” with a belief which eventually fades away), but then simply presents it as an inferior explanation. (This is clear from the context of the quote as well. See the full text for the interview). Rowan Williams’ explanation of how suffering in the world can be reconciled with the existence of an omnipotent (and, perhaps more importantly, benevolent) god is also rather unimpressive (to me at least).

Also today, I would like to point any travellers within the blogsphere who may pass this way towards the BBC blog of Mark Kermode (BBC film critic, whose weekly film review radio programme bears almost religious importance to me). This week he has posted a daily video diary from the Cannes Film Festival, which are all the more entertaining given his intense dislike of the festival itself. However, although site visitor numbers are not readily available, judging from the number of comments, it looks like his blog could do with more search traffic. Perhaps, to this end, he should take a leaf out of this blogger’s book and replicate his humourous (but apparently effective) tactics designed to increase site traffic. As for as my posts are concerned though, I’ll probably just stick with the short, vaguely obscure titles I have always given my posts, even if it is at the expense of my popularity amongst the gullible-link-clicker demographic.