Xperthr

Maybe there's a future for paper after all...

We are currently experiencing difficulties with the Xperthr database, but you can access it by going directly to the site and using these passwords :

www.xperthr.co.uk

• xperthr
• conduct
• Well worth it once you get access. There's a good current debate about blogging in Human Resources.
  

Breakfast demand boosts Wetherspoons

As well as the offers of cheap beer and food Wetherspoons Pub chain is now one of the biggest coffee chains in the UK.
There has been a 40% rise in sales since the chain started opening at 7pm recently.

Other good news for the pub chain

• Profits up 7%
• 2,400 new jobs
• 47 new outlets ( total is now 775)

In fact I wish I had some shares.....

Anon (2010) Breakfast demand boosts Wetherspoons, Yorkshire Post, 10th September [accessed via Newsbank Database] on 15th September 2010

Mary Portas on Easyjet's Inflight Shopping

Portas, M (2010) Shop! Mary Portas turns her nose up at easyjet's inflight shopping experience Daily Telegraph magazine 4th September, 2010 p.13

Ever since I've been following this excellent column I have been waiting for Mary Portas to get around to a review of easyJet ( don't tell me that you didn't recognise the logo ! )

Her verdict in brief 6/10 - good customer service, terrible food and overpriced inflight catering.

There is also a paragraph in Mary's article about easyJet's website ( and I'm sure most people will have used that ). The 'Help' function bumps you into a frequently irrelevant page of FAQ's. Better than the telephone support, which Mary claims is "hopeless, just hopeless"

I am quoting all the above from my printed copy of saturday's paper. The Telegraph website of this column

www.telegraph.co.uk/maryportas

has not been updated since the end of July.

Neither can I find this article on the Newsbank database, which includes the content of the paper, but not the glossy magazine maybe ?

Maybe there are some advantages to the old-fashioned print sources after all !

Is the Internet making us stupid ?

Harris, John ( 2010 ) Is the Internet rewiring our brains ? Guardian G2 Supplement, 02/08/10

Carr, Nicholas (2010 ) The Shallows, Atlantic Books

The Guardian article quotes extensively from Carr whose book is published in the UK next month. It has already caused quite a stir in the US.Because of the finite amount of time at our disposal we are gathering small chunks of information rather than undertanding the larger picture. ( Wikipedis entries vs biographies )

Moreover online multi-tasking is destroying our capacity for reflection, contemplation and patience.Too much information a "cacophony of stimuli", encourages "cursory reading", hurried and distracted reading and superficial learning"And even more worryingly ... it's all addictive.

This is easy to measure by counting the number of times we open our e-mail inbox to find ( surprise, surprise ) that nothing new has appeared there...There are bound to be more reports of this naure when Carr's book is published I anticipate...

Karren Brady on Entrepreneurship....

Clinton, J (2010) Football boss Karren : university is no place for an entrepreneur

Express on Sunday, Aug 22nd

Retrieved on Newsbank database ( library.beds.ac.uk ) on 1st Sept 2010

Adding to the debate, Karren Brady, vice chair of West Ham who is particularly critical of universities who teach courses such as Musical Theatre which she doesn't feel worthy or suitable for academic study...

In the article she also lists some other entrepreneurs who didn't go to Uni ( I think we get the idea ).....Sir Philip Green, David Gold and inevitably....Lord Alan Sugar.