Munich

There has been a lot in the media about the Munich aircrash which devastated the Manchester United football team fifty years ago. I have read several articles in the press, and there is a programme about it on tv at the moment. (BBC Scotland; I think it was on Wednesday in England).

I have found it all very affecting; it is very moving hearing people hear how they felt, listening to the stories the survivors, and the fans, too.

It is very sad - what was lost, what they could have been.

I am not a Man United fan - indeed, most weekends I hope they get beaten. (I am most confused when Arsenal play Man U, obviously). But I think I will the minutes silence tomorrow, too.

And it seems fitting that it is City that United face tomorrow; some of the most moving stories have been how City rallied round to help their rivals in the aftermath of the crash.

Munich

There has been a lot in the media about the Munich aircrash which devastated the Manchester United football team fifty years ago. I have read several articles in the press, and there is a programme about it on tv at the moment. (BBC Scotland; I think it was on Wednesday in England).

I have found it all very affecting; it is very moving hearing people hear how they felt, listening to the stories the survivors, and the fans, too.

It is very sad - what was lost, what they could have been.

I am not a Man United fan - indeed, most weekends I hope they get beaten. (I am most confused when Arsenal play Man U, obviously). But I think I will the minutes silence tomorrow, too.

And it seems fitting that it is City that United face tomorrow; some of the most moving stories have been how City rallied round to help their rivals in the aftermath of the crash.

Chatham House

I went to a lecture this week, which I fully intend to write about later; it was a fascinating account of an organisation in crisis.

The thing is, at the end of the talk and before questions were taken, the chairman - he was professor of investment or something - said "of course, this lecture takes place under Chatham House rules".

He hadn't said this at the beginning; may may have meant to, but he didn't.

This was happening in Edinburgh University Management School; it was a full lecture theatre; there were many people who had been typing into their laptops throughout the whole meeting, whilst all this interesting, and suddenly possibly confidential, stuff was being talked about.

I couldn't work out if the professor was ignorant of the modern world, or just stupid. True, all these people could have been looking at their webmail, or downloading tunes or arranging their social lives. Or sitting on their blogs, writing what the CEO of a FTSE100 was telling us.

This just annoyed me; I had been taking notes (and trusting in prudence) and suddenly I felt I had been doing something wrong.

Happily, I ignored the professor. I don't believe anything I noted isn't in the public domain, but fuck it, if it is, not my fault: I was listening, not talking.

Chatham House

I went to a lecture this week, which I fully intend to write about later; it was a fascinating account of an organisation in crisis.

The thing is, at the end of the talk and before questions were taken, the chairman - he was professor of investment or something - said "of course, this lecture takes place under Chatham House rules".

He hadn't said this at the beginning; may may have meant to, but he didn't.

This was happening in Edinburgh University Management School; it was a full lecture theatre; there were many people who had been typing into their laptops throughout the whole meeting, whilst all this interesting, and suddenly possibly confidential, stuff was being talked about.

I couldn't work out if the professor was ignorant of the modern world, or just stupid. True, all these people could have been looking at their webmail, or downloading tunes or arranging their social lives. Or sitting on their blogs, writing what the CEO of a FTSE100 was telling us.

This just annoyed me; I had been taking notes (and trusting in prudence) and suddenly I felt I had been doing something wrong.

Happily, I ignored the professor. I don't believe anything I noted isn't in the public domain, but fuck it, if it is, not my fault: I was listening, not talking.