Which book took you the longest time to actually finish reading?

For me: Underworld. 17 years from buying it to actually getting around to reading it, and maybe 19 months on and off to make myself read it until the end.

Still, ticked it off the list ✔

It's now over half a century since 1970, and I'm starting to wonder if we should bring back its concept of gracious modern living...

You see we've grown so used to Swedish-style modernism that we've sort of forgotten that maximalism, rather than minimalism, was once the sign of a cultured abode.

The 1970s in many ways reached back to the rich ideas of Victorian decor: heavy, autumnal and cluttered. Home was meant to be a baroque and sensual experience, rather than a 'machine for living in.'

Gaudy was certainly in by 1970: colour choices for interior design were rich and varied, with every room becoming a boutique of signature design.

Experimentation and adventurism were also coming to the fore: now we had landed on the Moon surely we should start to live like astronauts on Earth.

Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 digital watches of distinction!

After all, why wear a Rolex nowadays?

At #10: the 1973 Seiko 06LC. This was Seiko's first LCD wristwatch: a field-effect liquid crystal display showed six digits of time continuously - you didn't need to press a button to see it either!

At #9: the 1976 Bulova Computron. The side mounted LED display meant you could sneak a peek at how long your meeting was taking without anyone else noticing. Very chic.

At #8: the 1989 Nelsonic Nintendo. This is The Legend Of Zelda version and it's perfect for letting others know you are a master of corporate strategy!

At #7: the 1975 Uranus Calculator watch. This natty number has its keypad on the bezel, which does increase its size. "How big is Uranus?" is a frequent question you'll get if you wear this.

Many readers have asked me "why do so many pulp covers feature women in ripped red blouses standing in swamps while a man fights off an unusual animal attack?"

The answer is artist Will Hulsey...

Will Hulsey was the undisputed king of the animal attack pulp cover. You name it, he'd paint it attacking you in a pool of stagnant water.

Very little is known about Will Hulsey, but he worked on a number of men's pulp magazines in the 1950s and early 1960s including Man's Life, True Men, Guilty, Trapped and Peril.

Their audience was ex-GIs: during WWII the US Council of Books in Wartime had given away over 122 million books to American servicemen to read; this led to a post-war surge in paperback and magazine sales amongst these newly enthusiastic readers.

As a result the 1950s saw a raft of men's pulp magazines being published to tap into this market - almost 200 different titles!

Today in pulp I look at the scandalous history of lady jeans!

Well there's a turn-up...

The denim jean and its predecessor the dungaree have a long history, and were traditionally seen as work wear for men.

But WWII changed all that...

As women headed for the factories and shipyards they found that a sturdy denim bib-n-brace, paired with a stout headscarf, was the way to go!

Coarse heavy 'jeens' were fine for riveting work, but 1940s women didn't take a shine to them as leisure wear. For one thing they were voluminous and shapeless.

Jeans were also seen as clothing for children. No adult wanted to be seen wearing kid's dungarees in public.

Or did they?

Happy #WorldEggDay everyone! Let's share a few egg facts to celebrate.

Did you know... a chicken's earlobes can predict what colour egg they will lay?

Fake chicken eggs are a problem in China. Manufactured false eggs made from resin, coagulent and starch in a counterfeit shell are being sold as real by fraudsters. #WorldEggDay

In 1806 con artist Mary Bateman scratched the words "Christ is coming" on numerous eggs before inserting then back up a chicken. She then charged people to see the 'miracle eggs' being laid. #WorldEggDay

The world record for eating hard boiled eggs is 65 swallowed in 6 mins 40 secs by Sonya Thomas. She could have eaten more but they ran out of eggs. #WorldEggDay

And finally... Canadian scientists concluded in 2008 that the egg did indeed come before the chicken: dinosaurs were laying them long before they evolved into birds.

Every day's a school day... #WorldEggDay

The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action film directed by Rob Cohen and starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, and Paul Walker. The Fast and the Furious is first film in the The Fast and the Furious franchise, distributed by Universal Pictures.

The film was released June 22, 2001 and grossed $207.3 million. In 2003, The Fast and the Furious was followed by the sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Brian O'Conner is an undercover Los Angeles copwho aspires to become a detective.

When he is tasked to stop hijackers led by Dominic Torettofrom stealing expensive electronics equipment off of trucks, Brian must choose between his obligation to the LAP and his friendship with Toretto after he becomes good friends with his family.

The film opens at a dockyard where a container is loaded onto the trailer of a semi-truck. The truck then departs the dockyard and one of the dock workers makes a phone call to an anonymous party on the other end, informing them on how to identify the truck.

(a thread)
My favorite tv show is Adventure Time. I am here to argue that if you look at the show from an angle of mental health and managing it, Finn and Jake are not the lead characters. Princess Bubblegum is. 1

The most compelling character on the show, to me anyway, is Lemongrab. He was created by PB, the first of the candy people she created to “go wrong”. Lemongrab has devastating anxiety. He doesn’t know and can’t learn how to interact with the world. 2

When he’s lonely, he sneaks into the castle to stare at people while they sleep. PB tries to teach him to cuddle and play with a candy person but he can only poke and slap. He screams, he calls things “unacceptable”, he sentences folks to the dungeon. 3

When given a castle of his own and a clone to keep him company, everything gets donked up. He and his clone make living messed-up people out of their food, they eat each other, it’s a horrifying place. 4

Lemongrab just CAN’T with other people. The more he tries, the more frustrating it gets, so the more he screams.
For the purpose of this thread, Lemongrab represents ANXIETY. 5

At age 24 Amazon let me manage 2500 employees and a $50,000,000 business unit

I learned that leadership at scale is simply about following this one framework

This is going to make you and I hundreds of millions of dollars

Culture is what your people say and do when you are not around

Becoming a master of influencing the behavior of others = becoming a master of culture

There are 3 pillars every leader should use in their language to crush influence

Values
MVP
Heuristics

values are the 5-10 things your company prioritizes as ‘must haves’

They are non negotiables

Individually, they aren’t unique

Together, they create a unique DNA called ‘your

Heuristics are a simple set of rules that drive complex behaviors

In nature, heuristics are what enable ants to build massive ant farms or bees to build huge bee hives

We want to create these in our agency to build something well beyond ourselves

MVP= mission, vision, purpose

The why behind the organization

Everyone, especially now, wants to strive for something more than a paycheck

Not having this in your business will make you obsolete real quick

1. This morning we looked at wills & will writing but that is not the only component of inheritance. You can either die with a will or without one. Those who die without die intestate. And intestate comes in 3 ways.

2. a) If a person dies quiet a valid will,
b) if the person appointed to benefit from a will dies first & no substitution of heir is made
c) if the person appointed cannot take under a will.
The law focuses on the rights of the surviving spouse and the child if there is no will.

3. 2 major things affect intestate succession and these are date of death and marital status. This is because the current law ONLY affects people who died after 1 Nov 1997 & there are different laws that affect married & single people at death. The type of marriage applies too.

4. If you are married in terms of general law or what was once called ‘-Chapter 37’ & now ‘Chapter 5:11 or are married under ‘Chapter 5:07’ which is a registered customary marriage (muchato wekamudzviti) the Deceased Estates Succession Act applies. It’s only for registered 💍

5. If you are married under an unregistered customary law union (UCLU) which means having the traditional wedding without registration, the Administration of Estates Act applies. I don’t want to labour you with the technicalities but the distinction is very important.