August 2009 Archives

There's a pretty strong case for nominative determinism. The theory that a person's name exerts an influential role on their life might sound far-fetched, but consider the example from Computer Weekly stablemate, New Scientist, which drew attention to the article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology (vol 49, pp 173-176, 1977) by J. W. Splatt and D. Weedon.

Nor is this an isolated example. Downtime calls to the witness stand Cardinal Sin, former Archbishop of Manila; peer of the realm and leading neurologist, Lord Brain; Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal FC; Mark Avery, conservation director of the RSPB; and Igor Judge, or Lord Justice Judge as he is known these days, being the current Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

So perhaps it should come as little surprise that Hewlett-Packard's ex-CEO, Carly Fiorina, is looking to California to start her career in US politics. She had better watch out though: the current Democrat incumbent of that Senate seat is none other than Barbara Boxer. Perhaps it would have been safer had Carly's parents instead christened her Virginia.

Downtime was delighted to hear that Nokia's Ovi Mail service, basically mobile phone-based email for people who don't have PCs, has attracted over one million sign-ups.

The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Downtime can't wait for Nigeria to join up. There are a few emails he'd like to respond to.