Today’s question is:

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To some it was a surprise that an African American was elected to the US Presidency in 2008. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is leading the charge for the Republican nomination in 2012. As of Friday, Romney has 562 delegates, according to CNN estimates, nearly half of the 1,144 delegates necessary to clinch the GOP (Grand Old Party) nomination. Santorum has an estimated 249 delegates.

Will he succeed? Will he go all the way? Let me know what you think.

Thanks.

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It’s a buzzy space more suited to a table of friends than a table of two if you need to talk. The wine list continues the compact theme (fine with me) offering 6-8 options of red and white wine ($50-80 range) and Italian beers. We had a bottle of Alan Corkandale Sauvignon from Marlboro.

There are two sittings for dinner – 6 and 8pm. Council restrictions mean that the restaurant has to be cleared out by 10pm.

We started with Deep Fried Zuchini Flowers Stuffed with 5 Italians Cheeses and a Pan Fried Sardine Bruschettta with Pesto and Tomatoes. Both dishes were delicious – the combination of pesto and Sardines was genius.

I had Ossobuco for my main (for the first time as far as I can remember). It was amazing, slow cooked veal in a citrus and chili soup. My companion had Baby Chicken with a Mustard Style Dressing on Mash, which she also enjoyed. To accompany, we had a Wild Rocket Salad with Aged Balsanic and Pecorino Cheese.

The food was very good quality and reasonably priced. Entrees and mains ranged from 20-35 dollars. The Stuffed Zuchini Flowers were $5.50 each. The menu offered around ten choices for each course plus two specials options. Half of the main were pasta. Our mains were both specials.

If we had one complaint about the food then it was portion size. They were enormous, the food itself was fantastic as I mentioned, but large portions detract from the overall experience of eating out I think. Feeling overwhelmed by the volume of food in front of you takes away from the sense of satisfaction that should come from making a great discovery by going to a restaurant for the first time. It also feels wasteful.

The wait staff did advise that we had ordered ‘enough’ . A little more menu advice would have been appreciated but that’s not to fault our waiter who was great. My advice to a couple eating at Honeycomb would be to have an entree each and then share a main with a salad or side order. This might still leave some room for a dessert.

We had to pass; but the menu was fantastic – very indulgent options (e.g. Eton Mess) and again huge portions.

The overall experience was great. The service was excellent – warm, efficient and fast.

In summary, Honeycomb is all about the food, which is big in every way. Skip breakfast and lunch breakfast to enjoy a reasonably priced, high quality modern Italian meal in a relaxed and unpretentious environment.

Honeycomb at Darlinghurst.

]]> http://justanother24hours.com/sydney-reviews/sydney-restaurant-review-honeycomb-at-darlinghurst/feed/ 0 http://justanother24hours.com/politics/finger-pointing-at-china-wont-get-us-anywhere/ http://justanother24hours.com/politics/finger-pointing-at-china-wont-get-us-anywhere/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:13:13 +0000 Daniel Young http://justanother24hours.com/?p=1488

Are we Westerners in any position to lecture the Chinese on how they should run their economy?

I don’t think so.

Its a hot topic given the fact that the Chinese economy has a healthy growth outlook.

Western Europe is deep in the doldrums, the UK is about to go into its third recession in five years or something.

It’s like we Westerners were all gung-ho to take advantage of globalisation when it suited us.

But now the tables have turned.

And power is shifting.

China gets criticised for not balancing the books when it comes to trade.

The countries leveling this charge against the Chinese should be looking at the opportunities to export to China.

That’s the only solution to a trade deficit. They have to make their economy and its output attractive to what will soon by the biggest economy in the world.

There’s also the constant back stabbing about China’s human rights policies.

As if the West has that sorted.

Western systems have concentrated wealth into the hands of the 1 per cent during the last 50 years while the Chinese lifted 600million people out of poverty.

The powers that be in the UK and other Westerns economies should be providing creative solutions that will drive economic growth over the long term.

Not pointing the finger at China and being all holier than thou.

I’m ashamed by the hypocrisy of the West.  Short termism and diversionary tactics will get us nowhere.

This BBC podcast (The Forum) provides an excellent example of the sort of sermons that Western experts are pumping out without providing anything constructive on the home front.

]]> http://justanother24hours.com/politics/finger-pointing-at-china-wont-get-us-anywhere/feed/ 0 http://justanother24hours.com/social-media/could-facebook-drop-96k-sydneysiders-in-a-week/ http://justanother24hours.com/social-media/could-facebook-drop-96k-sydneysiders-in-a-week/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:27:20 +0000 Daniel Young http://justanother24hours.com/?p=1486 I checked the Facebook numbers for 18-24 year olds in Sydney again today.

(OK yeah I need to get a life – fair cop)

But the startling thing is that there is another drop in users – just five days after I last checked.

Down by 96,500!

Here are the figures:

• November 11: 1,979,840
• December 11: 1,149,060
• December 18: 1,059,700
• December 23: 963,200

Facebook’s advertising platform estimations can’t be that volatile – can they…

WTF is going on.

On December 18, I thought I would double check these numbers against other cap cities. Today’s numbers are in red.

• Adelaide: 250,000 –> 250,100
• Melbourne: 915,160 –> 915,160
• Perth: 379,420 –> 379,400
• Brisbane: 507,400 –> 507,400

Basically flat in a week – so why is Sydney trending down over 6 weeks?

Here is my first post in this startling series.

Firstly with this post on November 11 and then this update on December 11.

There was one really notable thing about the numbers that Facebook’s own advertising platform produced.

Within a month, Facebook told me that the number of 18-24 years olds in Sydney had fallen by 830k.

Such a massive drop that it didn’t sound right. Surely, enough people would have heard anecdotally about a shift like that.

So I checked in again today and the numbers suggest another step down.

Here are the numbers for that specific segment again:

• November 11: 1,979,840
• December 11: 1,149,060
• December 18: 1,059,700

Down by an additional 89,360 in a week!!

I have consistently included ‘cities within 80kms’.

Could this suggest that Facebook’s user profile is ageing and fewer 18 years old are signing up to the service or growing into it?  Would that explain these numbers, I don’t think so.

Looks like a trend – could it be?

Here are the numbers today for the m/f 18-24 age groups in following cities:

• Adelaide: 250,000
• Melbourne: 915,160
• Perth: 379,420
• Brisbane: 507,400

The notable thing is that the sixth segment (the youngest group that I looked at) has declined significantly.

Nov 11: Australia – age 18 to 64 male and female = 9,290,380
Dec 11: 9,290,380 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 18-24 male = 2,048,140
Dec 11: 2,048,140 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 18-24 female = 2,096,240
Dec 11: 2,096,240 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 25-45 male = 3,091,620
Dec 11: 3,091,620 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 24-45 female = 3,560,300
Dec 11: 3,563,300 Up by 3,000

Nov 11: Sydney – age 18-24 = 1,979,840
Dec 11: 1,149,060 Down by circa 800k

Either I mucked up my search the first time around or something weird is happening.  Facebook couldn’t lose 800,000 Sydney users in one month could it?

Facebook does include the caveat that numbers are estimations only but still it seems strange that four out of six numbers are exactly the same.  Obviously the social network can’t grow exponentially for ever. How would Facebook handle the PR around a user exodus do you think… that would be an interesting comms challenge?

Back in one month.

]]> http://justanother24hours.com/social-media/is-facebook-flat-lining-in-australia-or-even-worse-losing-users/feed/ 0 http://justanother24hours.com/technology/1453/ http://justanother24hours.com/technology/1453/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:47:46 +0000 Daniel Young http://justanother24hours.com/?p=1453 You can visit the Google 3D Warehouse here.

Today – 11 November 2001

Australia – age 18 to 64 male and female = 9,290,380

Australia – age 18-24 male = 2,048,140

Australia – age 18-24 female = 2,096,240

Australia – age 25-45 male = 3,091,620

Australia – age 24-45 female = 3,560,300

Sydney – age 18-24 = 1,979,840

Watch this space – back in a month.