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Is it me being grumpy? Probably  Or are smartphones the biggest cause to pedestrian chaos and urban frustration?

Everywhere I go there seems to be slow moving waddling traffic, with someone staring intently and hunched over their screen whilst ambling along. From dropping the kids off at school with parents quickly checking gods knows what whilst walking at no speed per hour, to people walking across the Tescos car park in a world of their own and just missing my bonnet.

If you look around any town centre now, there seems to be a continual slow march of smartphone addicted zombies plodding round in a large circle. At least they are getting some exercise whilst digesting the latest gossip from the Daily Fail or searching for the next Groupon Voucher.

Apparently this has now been scientifically proven that average pedestrian speeds have decreased, making town planning models of the past irrelevant, with there now being a 2 speed pedestrian cycle. Slow moving smartphone shuffle traffic versus a smaller subset of fast moving people with a purpose traffic, who are listening to music from their smartphones. I'm sure we are all been secretly programmed by aliens or joining a cult via the app store.

I don't even know why it's called a phone, that's about the only thing no one actually uses it for. If you want to read the news or find out about Celebrity Love Island, get out of my way and sit down. 

I know we all have that built in moan mechanism that get's triggered, "I don't like change", when someone interferes with something we're used to. But after a couple of weeks listening to the new format Radio 2 Drivetime show, I've just don't like it 

I thought maybe it was just me, so happened to Google it today and couldn't believe the response! It seems a chunk of the audience has been very vocal across a variety of social media channels, complete with petitions:
Bring back Simon Mayo and the dream team

The backlash has got so bad that Chris Evans on his breakfast show was obviously asked to big the Drivetime show up and discredit the moaners. I normally quite like Chris Evans, I know he's a like him or loathe personality, but his Drivetime sales pitch was cringe worthy  He kept banging on about the "surge" when a format changes and how some people won't be happy, which is true. But I think they have misjudged how many people are unhappy.

Here is a link to Chris's bizarre ramblings this morning if you didn't hear it.

I quite like Jo Wiley with her own show and I loved the old Simon Mayo Drivetime format. But (I think) they are a weird and awkward combination. Bring back Matt the sports guy.

Apparently the reason for the programming changes is purely down to the Beeb knee jerking to the gender pay gap disputes earlier in the year and they want to push more women in to prime slots. Whilst the reasons are sound, the execution is awful and looking at the people moaning, I'd say it's split pretty equally between the sexes. Either have Jo host the show or Simon, but to co-present just for the sake of political correctness is the world truly going mad.

It was great listening to a bit of fun, humour on the way home form work, but now it feels like the fun has been sucked out of the show with awkward presenting. Even the confessions aren't the same without Matt's daft comments and laugh or Nigel's waffling.

Anyone else lament the passing of the old Drivetime show, prefer the new one or are you all Capital converts? (I'm doubting we have many Radio 1 fans based on our average demographics )

Blimey Andy, sounds like a close call!

Whats the latest on your nipper Rebecca? Is everything ok now?

Good to see you're doing alright Ave. Your twitter page is storming along!!

Your website has evolved as well. You've taken over a niche and are passionate about it, so keep going. If you can monetise it in the future, even better. If not, just have fun and keep being the bulldog collector go to person 

You're doing awesome Ave, can teach us a thing or to about marketing! 

The latest cover of Time:  time.com/magazine

I think they have it pretty much spot on. Don't know whether to laugh or weep.... 

I love this particular pearl of wisdom from Seth Godin. Great lesson in marketing a difficult to love product.

"The story goes that James Cook brought fermented German cabbage with him on a long voyage, an innovative way to combat scurvy.

He knew that getting his sailors to eat this strange and stinky food was going to be difficult, particularly since scurvy is a long-term problem, not something you want to try to solve after you get it.

His answer was based on recognizing the power of status roles and is widely applicable:

For the first two weeks of the journey, only the captain and the officers were allowed to eat sauerkraut.

Demand creation through status roles has a long history, apparently."

credit: Seths Blog

and that's the title and cover for your book... "12 penalty points" 

Great question. The short answer is no, but here is a good article that explains why:

Should You Use Instagram Bots? 

Oh no, don't tell me the world was subjected to the saturation we had to endure  

Good to see you back Legal Stop, quite a few old faces re-appearing