Spend Hours Here

You could literally spend hours on Mike Skinner’s Soundcloud page.
As with all things Skinner, tracks will come and go, but at the time of writing, I can’t get enough of this version of How We All Lie.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mike-skinner/how-we-all-lie-mikes-sour-trap[/soundcloud]

Some wonderful juxtaposition of hardcore electronica and simply-delivered lyrics. And because I have personally bought this version of the track, it can officially go in the 6000 recommends section of the blog.

Layout disasters

More blogging by other people, and to be honest, this sort of thing would be better shared on the 6000 miles… Facebook page, but then it would be harder to go back to in the future (that’s not quite a film title, no). So it’s going on here:

Please enjoy to be beholding Buzzfeed’s Top 28 Newspaper And Magazine Layout Disasters:

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With 28 of these on offer, you’d surely have to expect that some may have been conveniently ignored rather than slipping under the metaphorical radar. But they are entertaining and I was entertained. You should click through and be entertained too. And then share the entertainment with your friends and neighbours.

Now: Go Home

Since the latest software upgrade on my gorgeous Sony Xperia T, I have been treated to Google Now each time I use the search bar.
It’s a fairly amazing feature – it detects where I am, what’s around me and uses information I have searched for previously to work out what information might help me… well… now. It then displays that information on little ‘cards’ before I’ve even asked for it.
Now is wow.

Thus, I am treated to weather information, local restaurant reviews, even local news. It keeps me up to date with the latest on Sheffield United. It reads my next calendar appointment and offers directions. If I book a flight, it’ll keep me informed of delays, gate numbers, seat numbers and issue a digital boarding card. If I’m at a train station, details of the next trains to pass through will be displayed.

But I’m not often at train stations, so mainly, it just tells me how long it’s going to take for me to get home.

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Yep. Wherever I go, once I have been stationary for about 5 minutes, Now thinks I’ve probably had enough already and tells me how long it’s going to take me to get home. Tap that little blue arrowhead and it’ll even talk me through it turn by turn. Right now, in the middle of the day, things are looking pretty cool for a quick trip back to Chez 6000. Sadly, I have plenty more to do here before I set off.

This could be seen as all somewhat sinister since I’ve never actually told my phone where I live. It has worked that out for itself. It also now knows where I work and warns me of traffic issues along the way as soon as I set off from home each morning. Again, I’ve never actually told it where I work either. The Sheffield United thing was also a bit of a surprise when it first popped up. It’s ever so clever.

The more paranoid among you will now be wailing and gnashing your teeth over privacy concerns, and if I was a secret agent then I too would be wailing and gnashing (quietly though, so as not to attract attention). But I’m not.

And it’s actually rather comforting to constantly know how long it’s going to take me to get home.

Your Man Reminder

I know I posted a video yesterday too, but this – via my wife’s facebook page (and, bearing in mind that it’s 2½ years old already, probably several other places too) – tickled my fancy. (Not in that way, you understand, but my fancy did indeed find itself tickled).

There will be those who will cry out about the stereotyping of women as individuals psychologically susceptible to the sight of a male model’s body and there will be those who will be aghast at the objectification of male body (ja, right).

There will be those who wonder about the true nature of my fancy and what on earth I am doing posting this on 6000 miles…

Me? I reckon that the ends justify the means in this case. If the message gets across to just one more woman because of this or if one more life is saved, then it’s a winner and its detractors must sit down

Well done, RethinkBreastCancer.com.

Here’s a link to the app and a helpful QR code for Android users.

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And, because it’s for a good cause, an iTunes Store link as well.

Sheffield is my planet

This is… odd. But strangely interesting and rather revealing too.

It’s an autocomplete map of the UK – what Google thinks you’re about to ask when you put in “Manchester is…” or “People from Birmingham are…”. This shows us the stereotype of each city in the UK:

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Of the places I’ve lived, Sheffield is my planet (ok), Newcastle is a hole (I disagree) and Oxford is hellish (it had its moments).

Have a look around, but a couple of highlights include “Swansea is the graveyard of ambition” (allegedly a Dylan Thomas line), “Worcester is the Paris of the ’80s” (apparently a T-shirt slogan from Worcester, Massachusetts) and, in the words of Hugh MacDiarmid, “Edinburgh is a mad god’s dream”.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Cape Town has the disappointingly predictable responses, “Cape Town is it safe” and “Cape Town is a racist city” – the latter just like Aberdeen. Maybe it’s something to do with granite.

As for the title of this post, Sheffield is my planet is revealed to be a city council initiative to combat climate change.
How exciting.