Status-Q

I discovered how to make moonlight. Well, sort of... Set your camera's white balance to 'tungsten' and then use predominantly flash.

Quote for the day:

You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

The Great Gate, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

You can probably just make out the helix on the floor which is part of a new memorial to Francis Crick.

Here's a quick and simple recommendation. About three years ago I decided I needed a new all-in-one remote control, since my (splendid and extravagant) old Marantz RC2000 mk II was struggling to keep up with the latest innovations in infrared.

So, after some pondering, I looked at the Logitech Harmony series - which I'd first seen at a CES show long ago, before they were even part of Logitech. The basic idea is that you use a special website and utility to put in details of the hardware you've got - which models of TV, Amp, DVD, etc - and how they're connected together. It asks questions like "When you want to turn up the volume on the TV, do you use the TV or the amplifier?" Then you plug your remote in to a USB port and it gets programmed with all the appropriate codes and configuration. I went for a middle-of-the-range one, the Harmony One, and started thinking of all the ways I'd be able to customise it to make it do what I wanted.

And... I didn't need to. After I'd set it up with something pretty close to the default configuration, it just did what I wanted out of the box. And has done so ever since. I haven't gone back and fiddled with it once, which, knowing my propensity for such activities, is quite a recommendation.

When you live here, it sometimes can be easy to forget how lucky you are.

Spotted in the city centre this evenin’.

My friend Rose Goslinga has been working to create affordable insurance for African farmers. This is not only exceedingly good and valuable work, but I've just discovered this Poptech talk she gave about it a couple of years ago.

I think it's quite brilliant, because, while I haven't heard her give a talk before, I remember Rose as a quiet, humble lass who I wouldn't have considered a likely natural public speaker. But I can think of few if any talks I've ever seen which convey their message so simply and effectively in under five minutes. If you don't watch it because you're interested in how technology can help the poor, watch it as a lesson in public speaking done right.

More info about Kilimo Salama here.

Economically, there are two kinds of people/households in this world:

• Those who pay more taxes than they consume.
• Those who consume more taxes than they pay.

It's a fairly arbitrary line to draw, and I wouldn't want to make any value judgments based on it. It's tempting to call them 'wealth-generators' and 'wealth-consumers', for example, but that's too simple. Most teachers fall into the second group, but without them, we'd have fewer people able to be in the first group.

Those in the first group are typically creating value by selling products or services that people want directly. Many of those in the second are doing the same thing, but we buy their products and services via a distributor known as 'government'. That, to a large extent, is what taxes are.

But I just thought it was an interesting thought experiment, if nothing more. What's your family budget deficit? How much are you dependent on government subsidy?

And if you don't like the answer, comfort yourself with the thought that, thankfully, not everything revolves around taxation! How does your balance sheet look in other areas?

• Those who generate more happiness than they consume.
• Those who consume more happiness than they generate.

That's much more important.