There’s a wonderful road which runs north to south through the Dingle Peninsula. Not for the faint-hearted (steep drops at one side), but the pay-off is a wonderful view as you come over the rise. This is what it was like this morning on the way to Inch.
… or just plain desperation? This appeared on ITV screens this morning after reports of the Hemel Hempstead oil depot fire.
Door to the cafe at Inch beach, Co Kerry, this morning. It’s run by a charming Iraqi who speaks with a broad Kerry accent. Lovely.
I’ve been following the arguments about the quality of Wikipedia entries and came on this thoughtful post by Ethan Zuckerman. Excerpt:
When I use Wikipedia to research technical topics, I generally have a positive experience, frequently finding information I would be unlikely to find in any other context, generally resolving my technical questions – “How does the GSM cellphone standard work?” with a single search. When I use Wikipedia to obtain information that I could find in a conventional encyclopedia, I often have a terrible experience, encountering articles that are unsatisfying at best and useless at worst. Generally, these experiences result from a search where I already know a little about a topic and am looking for additional, specific information, usually when I’m researching a city or a nation to provide context for a blog entry. My current operating hypothesis? Wikipedia is a fantastic reference work for stuff that doesn’t exist in other reference works, and a lousy knock-off of existing works when they do exist.
The most interesting question is not whether Friends Reunited will save ITV, but if ITV will destroy Friends Reunited. That depends on the extent to which Allen and his management team leave their acquisition alone.
Television people are constitutionally incapable of dealing with the web because they have been socially and professionally conditioned in the world of ‘push’ media with its attendant control freakery and inbuilt assumptions about the passivity and stupidity of audiences. Very little of their experience or skills are useful in a ‘pull’ medium like the web, where the consumer is active, fickle and informed, and history to date suggests that if they are put in charge of internet operations they screw up.
My guess is that Allen & Co will not be able to resist the temptation to meddle with their new toy…
Hmmm… One of those stories you don’t know whether to believe or not. The NYT is solemnly reporting that affluent online gamers who lack the time and patience to work their way up to the higher levels of gamedom are willing to pay young Chinese to play the early rounds for them. Excerpt:
Every day, in 12-hour shifts, they “play” computer games by killing onscreen monsters and winning battles, harvesting artificial gold coins and other virtual goods as rewards that, as it turns out, can be transformed into real cash…
“For 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, my colleagues and I are killing monsters,” said a 23-year-old gamer who works here in this makeshift factory and goes by the online code name Wandering. “I make about $250 a month, which is pretty good compared with the other jobs I’ve had. And I can play games all day.”
Great New Yorker piece by Seymour Hersh. The plan, he believes, is to pull out US ground forces but leave behind massive air-strike capability which the Iraqi ‘security’ forces can call on whenever they need to. If this is indeed the case then the Bushies are even more stupid than I had supposed.
Brought back by Imran from his sojourn at MIT.
Intriguing Flickr slideshow of a sabotage manual allegedly produced by the CIA in the 1980s for anyone interested in destabilising the Nicaraguan government. Helpful advice such as:
BURN THE LOCAL POLICE STATION!
1. Fill a narrow-necked bottle with petrol, kerosene or other burnable liquid. If possible, add shredded soap or sawdust…
It’s a bit dated, of course, but still….
Other suggestions include:
This last suggestion is clearly popular with disaffected Iraqis.
Er, it has to be a spoof — doesn’t it? After all the US government is committed to upholding the rule of law and spreading democracy everywhere.
After all, everyone else has a mobile phone nowadays. But wait! — help is on its way. Due for release in March 2006, apparently. I expect the cats will want them next. Sigh.
Photo shows our good friend Rolo, who labours under the delusion that phone calls can be made with a slipper.
