It's just like a Planner's DREAM!

In search for the anti-matter and the elusive Higgs Boson...



The scientist in me is secretly (or not so) excited about today. Already as I write this, 100m underground on the Franco-Swiss border, some of the best Physicists in the World are pacing the corridors, waiting for one of the most long awaited experiments to begin....controlled particle collisions to emulate the immediate moments after the 'Big Bang'.

The aim is to discover whether concepts such as dark (or anti)-matter, extra dimensions and even the elusive Higgs boson (God's particle) actually exist.

The Planner in me also loves today as it demonstrates (in a much larger scale) the approach and role planning takes within the agency; taking ideas, historical theory, known fact and putting them into new situations to postulate, plan, test and observe the outcome. The digital landscape is of course, a series of 1s or 0s and therefore a great space to observe behaviours (be it consumers or Brands) and for planning, this gives us this amazing goldfish bowl to sit and watch what really happens.

I love the fact that even the biggest brains in the Science World are showing signs of not knowing the outcome. Professor Stephen Hawking is known to have placed a bet of only £50 that God's Particle would elude even today's massive experiment. Asked why he placed this, he responded by saying "It will be more exciting if we don't find the Higgs (Boson). That will show we need to think again!"

Another classic quote comes from Professor Brian Cox (another CERN boffin)...."Anyone who thinks that the LHC will destroy the World is a t**t." Now that's saying it like it is eh?!

Black on white

There's been a fair bit of debate lately in blogland over whether white text on a black background is more legible and comfortable for the eyes to gaze at (not to mention energy-saving to monitors) than vice-versa. The debate culminated in the rather-silly Blackle - a 'black Google' which claimed to be more environmentally-friendly than its white counterpart.

Ironic Sans has made the very good point that as the majority of sites - and printed text - set black text on white, it's jarring to suddenly face a black page with white text. Visit their test page to see for yourself. So for now it's probably best to stick with convention.

Collective Culture Shocks*

*err, culture? Really?

This week we’re ...
... Having one last desperate attempt to win a Blue Peter badge (see above).
…All going to Sicily, apparently.
…highly recommending Man on Wire
… Dressing up like sea creatures for Bestival
…seriously considering a: 'bring back Top Deck Shandy campaign'.

Collective Guess Who
Ooh-ooh-ooh I wanna be like you-oo-oo (Answer to be posted in comments)

1. Who would you invite to a dinner party?
David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Frankie Boyle and Russel Brand

2. Which two things could you not live without?
Tomatoes and tea bags

3. If you were an animal which animal would you be?
A dog

4. What is your earliest memory?
Zipping around the garden on my tricycle wearing a crash helmet and using an empty bottle of Lenor as my petrol can.

5. What was your first ever album?
The soundtrack to Mary Poppins. That’s when it all started.

The walls have ears …

Michael: “You mean, no one ever burnt down anything at your school?.”

£1 sandwiches no more

It's a sad day for Collective lunchers, and not just because of the rain. The delightful Harlequin pub announced to us it's shutting at lunchtimes, taking with it its wonderful £1 sandwich offer. Particularly distraught were those whose loyalty cards were nearly full. The free sandwich will never be!

Google release 'Chrome' browser

Google today announced that it is launching Chrome, its own open-source browser. Their thinking behind the new browser is that the internet is used much differently to how it used to be. People use the web for content-(and processor-) rich media like video and interactive Flash, and older browsers simply can't keep up. They are unstable and crash, or incompatible.



Chrome aims to solve the problem by using independent tabs as a means of viewing content. So if one tab overloads and crashes, Chrome will just close that tab, not crash completely. The user will also be able to see all processes and plugins that are running on a page, and be able to see which tabs are using up the most CPU.



While these advances sound excellent, it will be interesting to see how Chrome fares in terms of compliance with web design standards such as CSS, java and other plugins. I'm also a little wary of switching over to tabbed browsing - I've been a committed 'window opener' ever since I started using the web and it will be a hard habit to break.

Further reading:
Wikipedia
Google comic

A Bientot, Danny

Collective's resident be-afroed rockstar Danny B has headed off on a whipstop UK tour with band Ex-lovers. You can follow their tour exploits and check if they're coming to a town near you on their blog.

Steve Jobs is NOT dead....Technology gets premature!

The Bloomberg financial newswire decided to update its 17-page Steve Jobs obituary yesterday — and inadvertently published it in the process.

Some investors were undoubtedly rattled to see the Apple CEO's obit cross the wire and then suddenly disappear. Jobs's battle with pancreatic cancer, and speculation over his health, jarred Wall Street earlier this year and continues to be the subject of speculation. The Times weighed in on the matter as recently as last month, when columnist Joe Nocera spoke with the secretive tech executive.

But news organizations routinely prepare obituaries in advance, even for the healthy. And if Bloomberg readers had seen the internal story slug, "testjobs," their jitters might have abated.

The Battle of the Boarding Brands Continues!

Finally the UK has been hit by the ongoing battle between Mattel (the owner of the game) and the developers of the online version Scrabulous.

Today, we'll witness the chaos & fallout of those who have turned on their computers, logged into Facebook and realised that little icon is no longer in their 'applications' menu. Confused and frustrated with not being able to get their daily fix of the game, office workers will wander the floors aimlessly, rock in their chairs Arthur Fowler-style and forever wonder what their next rack of words would have been (and if they could have in fact got a triple score with Q, U, Z and X!

For those of you who are true Scrabulous gamers, there are a few countries left where the game is not banned...but heading out to India to get a triple score is possibly too much for most of us, especially after a bank holiday weekend!

Collective Tennis

A troupe of sporty Collectivites blew off the cobwebs this Wednesday with some tennis in the park. Some took it more seriously than others, with Omar and James setting the bar high with some intense rallies.



While Petter and Emma went for style points.



Joe was a fantastic ballboy (until he got tired)



And the crowd went wild...



Bring it on again next Wednesday. Well, we need to work off all the jam tarts and sweeties somehow.

Diet tips

Need to lose a few pounds? Get some sound and practical diet advice from our very own 'skinny-fat' Office Manager Leila.*



*Don't really follow her diet; unless you have her metabolism you'll probably get pretty fat.

Having said that, the Collective office diet as a whole is going to the dogs. Despite a lovely healthy fruit box being delivered every week...



...we still revert to our inner five-year olds at the sight of old-skool candy.



It's all Leila's fault for pushing her awful diet on us. Don't tell our mums.