More on Channel 5 sale - along with 'Are we the same person?'

I've mentioned it before but the sale of Richard Desmond's terrestrial channel 5  continues to intrigue, the latest story is that  Discovery has become frustrated with the negotiations and dropped out of the bidding.

Hardly a giveaway

 Apparently the Discovery/Sky bid has been un-tabled,  although  it seems that Sky might still be interested  in being involved in some part of a purchase.



The price for the sale was being put as high as £700m and there are some commentators who believe this was always unrealistic and others who are now saying that Desmond is more interested in raising further finance against that asset  than selling the channel.


In another twist is appears that BT the UK's largest  telco is not ruling itself out and Viacom is still thought to be a possible purchaser as is Sweden's MTG.

Thinking back

Despite the dominance of TV as the vehicle for 'working class' entertainment when I was a child the Cinema retained a certain allure, growing up in the Essex town of Chelmsford (now a City) we had 3 cinemas, The Odeon, The Regent and the single level Pavilion which used to show older films - I recall regularly seeing (and being part) of queues -big films for me where the Dr Who films as well as the Beatles  Help and Hard Days' Night .  I also recall seeing GiGi and high Society at the Pavillion.

the Ant and Dec of their day

Other highlights as a child were seeing Sooty and Sweep and vising the Circus (sponsored by PG Tips I think) .

Now you might think where am I going with this? Well I sometimes feel that the grown up me has little connection with the experiences I had many years ago but I recently received from my Solicitor a note asking me if I wanted to update my will (made over 20 years ago)- I then got a chance to look as the Will I had made and was surprised to see a bequest to The Samaritans who I now volunteer with.
I have thought on more than one occasion recently what is it that triggered my desire to become involved  and I sak myself again why did I choose to select this charity?

The idea of picturing the brain as functioning on two levels, one 'chain' almost instinctive the other more considered is now a method used in explaining human behaviour and this may play a part here. See Kahneman who won the Nobel Prize for his work)

Alain and Russell

Alain de Botton's Philosophers Mail is a brave experiment that uses (somewhat) the strategy of The Mail Online to engage an audience - I quite like the Edward Hopper reference here but feel that Hopper is being used a little, he (and his work) are so much more complex than this - de Botton fails to mention the fact that nearly always the woman depicted/the model is his wife and that he worked for a while at an advertising agency.

Here's a quite good video of Russell and Alain..