Photo by Tim Montgomerie. Click on the image to see the grisly detail.
Portrait of the artist with two cats
Flickr version here.
PR explained
The strangest thing about this clip is how old it is. It comes from the 1980s. To think that we’re still arguing about this stuff — and that there is no guarantee that, even now, we’ll get any reform of our electoral system. Bah!
Oops!
A huge fall in the Dow appears to have been caused after a trader inputting details hit the button for billion not million.
The Dow’s overall rate fell by nearly a thousand points in an anomalous pattern that had the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange announcing they would cancel all trades more than 60 percent above or below market that occurred between 2:40 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. New York time.
According to CNBC the problem came when a deal involving Proctor and Gamble shares was incorrectly entered.
“We, along with the rest of the financial industry, are investigating to find the source of today’s market volatility,” Citigroup said in a statement.
“At this point we have no evidence that Citi was involved in any erroneous transaction.”
Proctor and Gamble shares fell by over a third on the day’s trading.
“We don’t know what caused it,” said Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Jennifer Chelune.
“We know that that was an electronic trade…and we’re looking into it with Nasdaq and the other major electronic exchanges.”
[Source]
Putin’s web
Moscow by night — seen from space.
Famous last words (or why experts know nothing)
“Children just aren’t interested in Witches and Wizards anymore.” – Anonymous publishing executive to J.K. Rowling, 1996. “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” – H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Bros. 1927. “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olson, Founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977. “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” – Decca Records executives rejecting the Beatles, 1962. “You better get secretarial work or get married.” – Emmeline Snively, Director, Blue Book Modelling Modelling Agency, to Marilyn Monroe in 1944. “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.” – The President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903. “I would say that this does not belong to the art which I am in the habit of considering: music.” – Alexandre Oulibicheff, reviewing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” – The San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a submission by Rudyard Kipling in 1889. “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” – Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878. “A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” – Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies. The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.” – IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959.
[Source]
Gordon Brown waits for Birnam Wood
Nice Guardian piece by Jonathan Freedland.
As for personal ambition, the virus that brought down Macbeth, those looking kindly on Brown said he was cured of it. "I'm past caring," he mused privately on Friday, when asked about his own position. They point to his statement accepting that Clegg talk to Cameron first, all statesmanlike and above the fray, as if he had made the emotional shift from combatant to referee.
Others see the weekend’s events rather differently. The less charitable version pictures Brown in the No 10 bunker, scheming to cling on. It cites the late-night calls to Clegg – although those who heard them insist they were calm and businesslike – imagining a fevered Brown stabbing jotting pads with his thick pen, totting up the assorted minor parties to see if he could somehow reach the magic number that spelled power.
That the PM saw Clegg again today, in a clandestine meeting at the Foreign Office, confirmed Brown was far from ready to surrender. Instead, this man of uncanny resilience was clearly planning one more resurrection.
Which version is true? Is Brown now the becalmed statesman, planning his exit, or the bloodied survivor, determined to fight on? The likelihood is that, when it comes to Brown – the most psychologically complex figure to inhabit Downing Street since Winston Churchill – the answer is both.
It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.
Everything you need to know about the British electoral system in two easy charts
First of all: the number of votes cast for the three main political parties.
Then the number of seats obtained by those votes:
Check the “Multiple Axes” box if you want the numbers.
Thanks to Michael for alerting me to Timetric.
Quote of the day
“The voting system and the electorate have botched this election. Reality, as it sometimes helpfully does, offers a metaphor for what we’ve done. In Chingford, an Independent candidate decided to do something frightfully amusing and changed his name to ‘None of the Above’. But because of the way names were presented, he appeared as ‘Above, None of the’ – at the top of the ballot.”
John Lanchester, writing in the London Review Blog.
The ‘Sage on the Stage’ challenges the idea of the sage on the stage
Nice, thoughtful, provocative TED talk by Jeff Jarvis.