Chris Curry on social media and networking

Posted by on Feb 28, 2012 in Blog | 7 comments If you have asked technology innovator Chris Curry to join you on LinkedIn or Facebook and not heard back, you are not alone, and the reason is because he is not signed up to either. These are his thoughts about social media and networking: What do you think of social media? I can’t stand it. Obviously it’s a huge drug and a habit for a lot of people, but I’m not a user. I keep refusing...
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The Daily Mail and our sepsis case study

Posted by on Feb 28, 2012 in Blog | 2 comments Thank you to the Daily Mail for today giving a whole page to a story about sepsis which I pitched to them at the end of last year while campaigning with UK Sepsis. It describes how a young father of four died after his eczema became infected a year ago. The tragic story is highlighted in the paper’s Good Health supplement under the heading, “Within a day of his eczema being infected,...
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Cambridge to trial latest telecare technology

Posted by on Feb 27, 2012 in Blog | 1 comment This is my third report following my interview with Chris Curry and describes an innovative telecare scheme which his company, Critical Data Ltd, will soon be launching  – Care with Canary: Cambridge is to trial the very latest sensory telecare technology which will enable our elderly population to live independently at home by detecting any change in their regular routine which might...
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Raspberry Pi will launch this week

Posted by on Feb 26, 2012 in Blog | 2 comments Britain could be heading for a new generation of young creative computer progammers – thanks to the launch of Raspberry Pi, a mini computer board which is hoped will help revitalise computer science in schools. The very same day that I met Chris Curry, joint founder of Acorn Computers, when he sang the praises of Raspberry Pi, which has drawn inspiration from his BBC Micro, I then...
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Chris Curry on suing IBM, that Micro Men drama and the Brighton bombing

Posted by on Feb 25, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments This is the second in a series of anecdotal stories told to me by Chris Curry, and I find them absolutely riveting. Chris and the Acorn days are at the very heart of the Cambridge Phenomenon, a term first coined by Peta Levi in a Financial Times article in November 1980, to describe the incredible explosion of technology, life sciences and service companies that has occurred in the city since...
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How Olivetti stitched up Acorn

Posted by on Feb 24, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments I bumped into Chris Curry last week, a Cambridge legend and visionary innovator who, along with Hermann Hauser, founded Acorn Computers in 1978, an era which still holds a fascination for many.  Acorn dominated the Cambridge technology scene in the 1980s and 90s, and was estimated to make half of the computers used in schools. With the imminent launch of a new book highlighting the 50 year...
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The death of a heroine, Marie Colvin

Posted by on Feb 23, 2012 in Blog | 4 comments I was stunned to learn of the death of Marie Colvin, whose war reports I avidly read in awe, always thinking about the risks she took to tell us about the terrible atrocities she witnessed in war zones. Fearless journalists, men and women alike, pay the ultimate price to bring us the truth about despotic regimes; their lives far removed from their phone hacking counterparts whose reputation...
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Cambs police withhold migrant crime figures

Posted by on Feb 20, 2012 in Blog | 5 comments What are the migrant crime figures for Cambridgeshire? You would expect our police force to have this answer at their fingertips. Apparently not. So how, I wonder, can they strategise their crime busting operations for the county – and Wisbech, in particular? I’ve read their police priorities for 20111/14 which states at the top of its list, “studying current and emerging crime...
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Abcodia announces collaboration with VolitionRx

Posted by on Feb 17, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 1 comment Congratulations to my client Abcodia following the announcement today of its collaboration with VolitionRx to advance the discovery of blood based biomarkers for cancer. The partnership will discover and develop nucleosome-based diagnostic tests for lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancer by using the latest ground breaking technology. It is hoped that through global collaborations such as this,...
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Why impersonating a barrister became an offence

Posted by on Feb 17, 2012 in Blog | 7 comments I sadly went to the funeral of an old boyfriend this week where he was regaled for being a witty raconteur, for his joie de vivre and his talent for mimicry – especially those with a pomposity. There were so many crazy anecdotes about Martin’s life that his friends printed off an eight page booklet about them, and this story about when Martin impersonated a barrister amused me the...
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Research within the NHS – life science companies invited to share their thoughts and experiences

Posted by on Feb 15, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 1 comment I’m planning to attend a fascinating One Nucleus  Bench to Boardroom event in Newmarket on 6 March which will scrutinise how life science companies can can work successfully within the NHS, an increasing developing market, for example, the recent collaboration of the Virgin Health Bank at Cambridge University Hospitals. A workshop on this theme, entitled “The NHS – Virgin...
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A message for workaholics – make time for love

Posted by on Feb 14, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments This Valentine’s Day post is a message to all workaholics – work less hours and make time for love in your life, otherwise you could end up regretting it on your deathbed, according to a nurse who recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard’. Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years...
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How should we treat stalkers?

Posted by on Feb 8, 2012 in Blog | 19 comments The beautiful young daughter of my friend’s friend was murdered by a stalker. She had befriended a Holocaust survivor who she was photographing for an assignment and he developed an obsession about her. Stalking is currently in the news following the publication of  a parliamentary inquiry which concluded that the laws on harassment and stalking are not “fit for purpose” 15...
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Charles Dickens and Cambridgeshire

Posted by on Feb 7, 2012 in Blog | 4 comments Many thanks to Cambridgeshire’s library service for highlighting connections between our much loved author Charles Dickens with our county to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth. The county’s Literature Development Officer, Helen Taylor, has chosen some very appropriate text to remind us why his writing is as relevant today as it was in Victorian England.  This is the...
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To patent or not to patent, that is the question…

Posted by on Feb 6, 2012 in Blog | 6 comments Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and producer of the terrific Teslar electric car, is also the brains behind SpaceX, the world’s fastest-growing launch services provider with more than 40 space missions under its belt, including a £1.6 billion deal from Nasa to resupply the International Space Station. I imagined Musk would want to patent and protect his sensational spacecraft designs,...
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In support of World Cancer Day

Posted by on Feb 4, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 2 comments Today is World Cancer Day, and it is hard to find a family whose lives have not been affected by this killer disease. I have signed its Declaration in support of their campaign, along with molecular diagnostics company Abcodia,who work with innovative global collaborators to provide earlier diagnosis of cancer. World Cancer Day is using today to unite the world in the fight against cancer by...
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Irish election faces quotas for women – or funding cuts for political parties

Posted by on Feb 1, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments The next general election could see quotas for women candidates introduced in the Republic of Ireland – and political parties have been warned they could lose half of their state funding if they fail to comply. The clause is included in the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011, which says that political parties will face a cut of half their State political funding if they do...
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