… in 1912, the Titanic sank off the coast of Newfoundland. When I was growing up in Ireland, there was an urban legend that the Cork Examiner, a relentlessly provincial publication, carried a huge headline in 96-point type saying, “Corkman Drowns” and below it, in smaller type, “Titanic sinks on maiden voyage”. As the Italians say, if it isn’t true then it ought to be.
Apple’s results
In the last quarter, Apple sold 5.3 million iPods, a 558 percent increase from a year ago. More astonishing though is the news that the company sold 1 million Macs — 43 percent more than in the same period last year. And 40 percent of those were sold to customers who had never owned a Mac before. Wow! Something’s up.
Sistine chapelcam?
The conclave of cardinals to elect the next pope assembles in the Sistine Chapel next Monday. Wonder if any enterprising media organisation has thought about bugging the building? A wireless webcam would be just the ticket. This one, for example, can be remotely controlled.
Quote of the day
The first two television election broadcasts by the two main parties concentrate not on throwing mud at each other but on hosing the manure off their own reputations.
Mark Lawson, the Guardian, April 12 , 2005.
Rip, mix, burn, laugh
The Ed Matts story gets better and better. The Guardian solicited further creative photoshopping from readers. The results are hilarious. This one by James Smith is my favourite.
Photoshopping, dog-whistles and the election
Wonderful story in the Guardian about Ed Matts, the Tory candidate for South Devon, after the right-hand photograph appeared on his campaign literature showing him and another prominent Tory, Ann Widdecombe (aka Doris Karloff), holding placards which apparently parrot the new Tory ‘tough’ line on immigration (code for xenophobia). The only problem is that the pic is a photoshopped version of an earlier picture (the left-hand one) in which the two politicos are shown campaigning in support of a local failed asylum seeker and her family who faced deportation. Verily, you couldn’t make this stuff up.
An innovative use of Google
From today’s New York Times…
It seems that Kenneth L. Lay, the former Enron chairman who faces trial next January on fraud charges, has paid Google, the online search service, to place ads next to or above searches about Enron and related topics and direct people to a site that gives his side of the story.
The links also appear in searches involving the bylines of some reporters, like Mary Flood of The Houston Chronicle and Kurt Eichenwald of The New York Times. A quick check of the Google “AdWords” site suggests that Mr. Lay pays about $25 a day for linking ads to the searches. Every time someone uses Google to search for sites about “Ken Lay” or “Enron,” among other terms, and then clicks on the link to the kenlayinfo.com site, that click costs Mr. Lay a little less than a dime. His case hasn’t yet gone to trial, but he’s trying to score points in the court of public opinion, and he’s willing to pay for it.
The Net and the election
My musings in the Observer about how the Net might affect the election are here.
Correction: AA points out that Howard Dean self-destructed in Iowa, not (as I had stated) Ohio. Doesn’t affect the argument, but I should have double-checked.
Blogrunner
BlogRunner.com first launched in late 2003 and then went offline last year. Now it’s back offering links to news stories and the Web logs that mention them, plus a new special section called “The New York Times Annotated”, which monitors blog postings referring to articles in the Times. Very interesting idea.
Thanks to Gerard for the link.
Quote of the day
The [Rover] story is one of an unviable company, a gullible workforce and a spineless government taken for a ride by entrepreneurs who succeeded only in enriching themselves… Phoenix [the company with bought Rover] failed, but not before its directors enriched themselves as efficiently as any private equity investor. BMW’s £427 million could have funded a £50,000-plus payoff for each departing employee. Now they will get a fraction of this in statutory redundancy payments. They, like BMW and the government, must feel like mugs… The four Phoenix partners were able to award themselves a £10 million loan note, gain personal control of a lucrative financing business and fund a £16.5 million directors pension pot. They also transferred valuable assets from Rover to the parent Phoenix. This is capitalism at its ugliest.
Financial Times editorial, “A Tale of Greed and Gullibility”, Saturday, April 9, 2005