Post and Media developments .... #48 Good

TNT is Going Postal in West London 

Over the last 3 months I've become conscious first of getting two daily postal deliveries to our home  and subsequently that one of these deliveries (generally the earlier one) has been made by TNT.
Now I know that things change and that the postal monopoly which served the UK well for many years is no longer in force (in part because of EU rulings) but I'm not yet clear in my mind if the arrival of a TNT service improves the situation long term or not. It is worth noting that the area I live in is probably one that can be profitable/subsidise the more geographically spaced out housing and office premises in other parts of the UK.

Local TV

The evolving evidence of Jeremy Hunt's tenure at the DCMS is manifested in the local TV licence award of Channel 8 to the owners of the London Evening Standard.

The fact that the operator is already a successful media company may lead one to believe that the new entity has a chance of surviving the challenging times but it does little to promote new enterprises and the diverse voices that can fulfil the potential of the idea of promoting this great city.
The ESTV bid includes a commitment to Ultra local TV delivered (I presume) by IP, be interesting to see how this addition is manifested, created and monetised.
The commitment of Evgeny Lebedev (The Russian born Evening Standard proprietor) to plurality and a positive reflection of London to date perhaps augurs well for the enterprise.

Virgin Media as takeover target will have enormous ramification in UK Telco business



Virgin has its liberty taken

News in the city (financial bit) is that Liberty Media has agreed a  bid for Virgin Media (which perhaps surprisingly  has as its biggest shareholders  Capital World Investors which own 14.6 percent and Capital Research Global Investors which has 10.9 percent).

Virgin Media reports 2012 results on Wednesday. The Press are seeing the story as a battle between Malone and Murdoch (as the obvious personalisation of a very complicated structural business deal), it may also be worth considering how significant the deal is for the former state monopoly Telco BT.

Big Idea 48 is Good

Good (or value) in Philosophy is a term that can be challenging to define.

Plato (as you might expect) had a fair amount to say about Good.

Wikipedia has a nice, concise example to help show what 'Good' is for a philosopher.

an economist may say that the Mona Lisa is a very valuable economic good because it can be sold for a lot of money. A philosopher may say that the painting is good because of how it is painted. The economist sees relative good, because people may later not want to pay for it. The philosopher sees absolute good, because it will always be painted well.

I guess these 10 virtues from the School of Life tie in with a good life (I'd add Moderation if there was an 11th)  and a rather insightful video here (below).