Just thought this might be a good way of starting the weekend.
The World Bank Doctor
If, like me, you’re puzzled about why Barack Obama has nominated a medic to head up the World Bank, then John Cassidy of the New Yorker has a characteristically thoughtful explanation.
Hmmm… The guy has only been President of Dartmouth since last July. Bet they’re pissed off to be losing him.
Boyd Harris
Boyd is not only a thoughtful reader of this blog, but also a blogger, a long-distance cyclist, a mountaineer, a local historian and very knowledgeable (and good) photographer, so it was nice to meet up with him and put a face to the blog for the first time. He’s currently on an astonishing cycling odyssey from Yorkshire to Sutton Hoo, and Cambridge was on his route, so we met for breakfast at the Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester, where I discovered that he is also very sound on the subject of scones.
Banksy in Bristol
How to see round corners
Daffodils
The emotional computer
Fascinating video by Peter Robinson about his research into communicating emotion to machines — and vice versa.
Thanks to Quentin (who was one of Peter’s students) for the link.
Smoke signals
No, he’s not on fire. Just having a smoke.
Lost — or gained? — in translation?
Another one for the you-couldn’t-make-it-up department. According to today’s Guardian, the Russian translation of a pirated version of The Iron Lady puts a new gloss on recent British history.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters, Margaret Thatcher, as played by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, explains what she would do as prime minister: “Crush the working class, crush the scum, the yobs.”
At least that is a scene from a pirated version of the film in Russia, which has been inadvertently reviewed by one of the country’s top film critics without realising that some rather pointed changes to the script had been made.
The pirated Russian translation of the film, voiced over in a monotone by one man, depicts Thatcher as a bloodthirsty, Hitler-admiring leader, whose fondest desire is to destroy the working class. While some of her critics might say this is an accurate representation of her plans, even her fiercest enemy would concede the Russian version takes it too far.
The translation, no matter how over the top, has fooled at least one film critic on the Russian newspaper Kommersant, who quoted parts of the pirated version in a generally positive review.
I think the Russians got that wrong: that particular quote sounds more like Denis Thatcher.
Apple’s cash mountain
Apple currently has $100 billion in cash, which is probably more than the US government holds at any given moment. The company has scheduled a conference call for 9am EST today, which many observers think is going to be about its plans for that cash mountain. Here are Henry Blodget’s musings on the subject.
LATER: The FT reports that “Tim Cook has made his first major break from the legacy of Steve Jobs by choosing to return billions of dollars to shareholders in dividends and a share buyback programme.”