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August 2008 Blog Archive
28 August 2008 A Much Less “Fruitful” Liverpool
We said goodbye this week to Japanese artist, Taro Chiezo’s Superlambanana’s from Liverpool. Standing seventeen feet tall, the impressive original sculpture symbolized the dangers of genetically modified food, whileretaining its humorous façade for the people of Liverpool. Representing both the trade of Lambs and the import of bananas in Liverpool’s historic port, the sculpture quickly changed from a figure received with skepticism to one of affection in a time which sees Liverpool’s mass re-generation and change.
120 Lamb Bananas were scattered across the city 10 weeks ago to mark the beginning of the “Go Superlambananas” festival (hailed by some as the highlight to Liverpool’s capital of culture!), which finished last week as the sculptures were taken for repairs before being auctioned for charity.
I read this week that the man who wrote the international best seller and book that provoked a million (slightly different) replicas; “101 things to do before you die” died aged 47. While some of the suggestions are slightly unreasonable e.g “Play a part in your favourite TV show”, which I do think it’s unfair to make people believe they have to have achieved to have lived a fulfilled life, if you ask around I think you’d be surprised by peoples answers...
I would like to eat at one of Gordan Ramsey’s restaurants, Paul would like to meet his idol Jon Bon Jovi, Chris’s (like a true Sagittarian) are more travel orientated; go to Japan and live in New York again, Vicky would like to dye her hair red and Abi would like to be in feature film (shot preferably in New York).
Finally a cheery thought, according to researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield, Manchester is the second happiest place in Britain! Data collected from the British Household Panel Survey says that the Manchunian’s sense of well-being is greater than those in West Lothian and even Macclesfield!
22 August 2008 A British Summer: The facts.
Maybe not the most original topic but I felt I needed to get to be bottom of the weather and the excuse for what we Brits call “summer”. With terms such as “Monsoon seasons” now being haphazardly thrown around by meteorologists, I wanted to find out exactly why I am still wearing my winter wardrobe…
Firstly, the origin of the word monsoon lies in the Arabic word of “Seasonal”; the European Monsoon, which climatologists claim hits us in the early part of June, literally means the westerly winds, which are dormant for the winter months, blow in from the Atlantic (picking up moisture along the way!) therefore resulting in a wet period of about a month – six weeks afterwards (Professor Hurbert Lamb). The long, lazy summer days we all remember from youth are fabrications we made up to make ourselves feel better, Lamb’s studies, collected over 100 years, proved this has always been the case – Britain does not, in fact, have hot, dry summers – why else do you think people started holidaying abroad?!
The Rapport office has been subject to a re-vamp today which involved a lot of plugging and unplugging of wires (amongst other things!) but the new layout means we will all be able to communicate a lot easier and creates a much better working environment, meaning we can continue to build Rapport both in and out of the office.
Finally we just wanted to wish all the guys who work down the corridor at Manchester Pride HQ who have been working tirelessly all year all for the festivities this weekend – let’s hope it stays dry!
Happy bank holidays!
15 August 2008 Olympic Technologies
I’ll start off this week with some exciting news from within the Rapport camp; Rapport co-director Abi has been nominated for the prestigious “42 Under 42”, the North West Business Insider’s recognition of young business talents across the region. You can find Abi’s nomination in this month’s Insider and more information in our news page.
We are finding it refreshing to wake up in the mornings, turn on the TV and have an alternative to Lorraine Kelly in the form of the 2008 Olympic games, although it seems that they are not what they once were, or more specifically, the equipment used isn’t. While Medieval archery bows were carved from Yew with a hemp string to create the spring need to propel the arrow towards the impending tribe, in Beijing in 2008, things have clearly moved on.
Today’s “recurve” bow is designed so 'the limbs' curl back away from the archer, helping to increase the bowstring tension, they have sights and stabilisers and are made of carbon fibre or fibre-glass. According the Telegraph this week, the bowstring is synthetic and strung to a maximum of about 50lb pressure. When an arrow leaves the bow, its initial velocity can be as high as 240ft per second, or about 160 mph. Seems to take all of the fun out of it if you ask me!
It seems being crowned European Capital of Culture is not enough for Policy Exchange as the right-wing think tank, based (surprisingly) in London, stated this week that regeneration in Liverpool should be abandoned and residents should move south if they want to prosper. The report claims that ports like Liverpool’s are no longer needed, as today’s travel and imports are monopolised by freight and aviation. I think the regeneration of Liverpool can only be a good thing (although admittedly they could have started a little bit earlier!) and I highly doubt any Liverpudlian’s will swapping the Mersey for the Thames anyway!
Finally, it was an enlightening trip to the dentist this week for our designer Paul, who was informed that those of us who have all their wisdom teeth can no longer go around bragging as they are genetically less developed than those who don’t. It seems that humans no longer require wisdom teeth and therefore, as Darwin’s theory of evolution dictates, they are slowly being erased from the species, making those without more advanced – or was that just a tall tale to distract him from the drill?
8 August 2008 21st Century Etiquette
As a happy windows Vista user (although well aware of how much it annoys those in the office who don’t use it) it amused me this week to see that Microsoft, in a bid to improve Vista’s reputation, have launched a new commercial comparing the close minded views of the anti-vista population to “flat-earthers”, or those who still believe the earth is flat! Not sure that’s the best way to change people’s minds Bill.
Another topic which got us talking was from an article asking what is the correct etiquette for the use of mobile phones during meetings and lunches? One camp believes that digital communication should never be more important than face-to face and rarely will there be a reason so important that a users phone needs to be put out on the table, ready to be answered as soon as it vibrates. The opposing view suggests that this is the face of our changing world; that technology is constantly changing and developing so we therefore need to adapt. Whichever viewpoint you take this is a topic which looks set to rage on for the foreseeable future.
On Friday we enjoyed a bit of a team building exercise and if you were in Manchester City Centre you would probably have seen us trudging around, camera in hand asking passers-by to take pictures of us in front of seemingly strange companies and attractions; but there was a slight method to our madness and we all learned more about Rapport and some exciting future ideas which we can’t wait to get started on…
1 August 2008 Look after the Pennies…
In the week where Superdrug’s new make-up range for men “Taxi Man” hits the shelves (featuring both “guyliner” with an extra thick pencil so men can grip it easier and “Manscara”) and Japan launches its new eel flavoured fizzy drink, you begin to wonder, is the retail industry missing a trick or are people actually spending as ever before in spite of the all omnipotent “credit Crunch”? Damning evidence to the contrary, came from Sainsbury’s who claimed they are experiencing rising sales of Tupperware and sandwich bags as people attempt the “BYO” (bring your own) lunch!
Chris has been in London this week completing the final leg of a roadshow which started back in June and spanned five locations, while the rest of us held the fort in Manchester with one major problem in particular to overcome…
Along with the many joys of summer, comes the perils and we have definitely felt our fair share this week when the Rapport office was plagued by an infestation of Fruit Flies. The fruit fly is, as you may have guessed, is attracted to thrown away food, fruit in particular. This has therefore deemed our bins as unusable and caused the annoyance of having to keep taking rubbish outside. As well as to have a rant; I tell you this in order to help prevent such disasters striking in your office. Amongst the many tips out there, one which I think may be particularly effective is to put out a bowl of wine which, after firstly being attracted to, the flies will drown in – then it’s up to you what you do with the rest of the bottle!