Blueprint Media

Who’s Counting?

Blueprint Media — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 15:37:53 +0000

The international assessment body Pisa discovered, alarmingly, that England was the only country in the developed world where those aged 55 to 64 had better literacy and numeracy than those aged 16 to 24.

Source: Jenni Russell, The Times – 29 May 2023

Blueprint brief – 5 June 2023

Party like it’s 1752!

Blueprint Media — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 15:37:56 +0000

“In Italian cities, as in much of medieval Europe, the new year used to be celebrated on 25 March, the feast day of the Annunciation, nine months before Christmas.

Also known as “Lady Day”, unlike Easter, it was fixed in the calendar.

In Britain, the new year began on 25 March until 1752, when our calendar changed from the Julian to the Gregorian and the dates were adjusted so that the new year started on 5 April which became an important feast day for accountants and tax lawyers.”

Source: The Spectator, 8 April 2023

blueprint brief

Chicken Dinner

Blueprint Media — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 12:58:06 +0000

“If you were to count individual birds on planet earth, two thirds of them are domestic chickens.”

Source: Dr Thomas Halliday on Sunday Brunch, Channel 4 on 19^th February 2023.

blueprint brief – February 2023

Millennial Maths

Blueprint Media — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 12:56:29 +0000

Built to celebrate the new Century, and now The O2 arena, the structure was built with a firm grasp of the numbers denoting the passage of time.

It has 12 towers, is 52 metres tall and has a diameter of 365 metres (months, weeks, and days of the year).

Its building site skirts the prime meridian (0° longitude) along the River Thames at the northern end of the Greenwich Peninsula.

Source: The Secrets of London by Post Code: SE (South East), The Spectator, 8 February 2023 and Wikipedia.

blueprint brief – February 2023

Russian Roulette

Blueprint Media — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 12:45:05 +0000

February 2023 marks the 80^th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, the turning point in Russia’s four-year war with Germany.

More Ukrainians died or were wounded fighting for Stalin and Russia, then the Soviet Union, than the combined WW2 losses of the United States, Great Britain, and France.

Source: Iain MacGregor, The Spectator, 21 February 2023.

blueprint brief – 24th February 2023

Monday 19th September 2022 – Bank Holiday

Blueprint Media — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 08:15:07 +0000

Blueprint Media will be observing the Bank Holiday and will be closed on Monday 19th September 2022.

Business will resume on Tuesday 20th September 2022.

Season’s Greetings

Blueprint Media — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 14:39:02 +0000

“Daffodils are one of the few flowers that can survive without water once they have been cut, meaning they can be transported using the same cold-chain network for foods.”

Source: Gus Carter, The Spectator, 5 February 2022.

blueprint brief – 21 February 2022

Fax Folk

Blueprint Media — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:28:50 +0000

Fax Folk

As German’s new Chancellor, Otto Scholz finally takes over from Angela Merkel, he has much work to do in modernising the German economy.

According to Wolfgang Munchau, a former co-editor of FT Deutschland, four out of ten German companies still use fax machines.

Source: The Spectator 4 December 2021

blueprint brief – 8th December 2021

Boomer Driver

Blueprint Media — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 15:25:47 +0000

More over seventies now hold a driving licence than 21-29 year olds.

Source: Department of Transport, The Spectator, 6 November 2021.

blueprint brief – 18th November 2021

Just Whistle

Blueprint Media — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 11:26:06 +0000

In 2012, the publication, Psychology Today asked “When and Why Did People Stop Whistling?”
Classical whistling seems to have been a much-sought-after accomplishment in pre-1914 Vienna.
“Hitler”, says historian, Paul Johnson, “was a superb whistler, especially of his favourite, The Merry Widow, by Lehar.
“Wittgenstein liked to whistle an entire symphony, by Schubert or Brahms, with descants and arpeggios, and digressions into the woodwind”.

Source: Cerebral Heroism: Ludwig Wittgenstein, an essay in Heroes by Paul Johnson.

blueprint brief – 21 July 2021