From the BBC’s Ryder Cup Blog…
Sign at the K Club: “Lost people should go to the information centre in the tented village.”
Er, if they’re lost, how will they know where to go? Or are they lost in the Biblical sense — i.e. beyond salvation?
Dunn falls on her sword
Patricia Dunn is stepping down as the H.P. bugging scandal gathers speed. New York Times report says:
The furor over Hewlett-Packard’s spying operation claimed its highest-ranking victim on Friday with the immediate resignation of its chairwoman, Patricia C. Dunn.
The move was announced by Mark V. Hurd, the chief executive, who will now succeed her. But even as he offered an account of an investigation gone awry, and offered apologies to those whose privacy was invaded, he made it clear that many questions had yet to be answered.
His voice shaking, Mr. Hurd said a review of the means used to trace leaks from the company’s board had produced “very disturbing” findings. He also conceded that “I could have, and I should have,” read a report prepared for him while the operation was under way…
eBay University
Did you know there is an “eBay University”? Neither did I. But there is. Mind you, it’s not Harvard, but then if you want to earn a living as an online trader, a Harvard degree won’t be much use. (Also, all the smart entrepreneurs seem to drop out of Harvard. Think of Bill Gates. Think of Mark Zuckerberg, the 22-year-old founder of FaceBook, now apparently worth $900.)
It’s over: get used to it
Terrific column by Martin Kettle.
Yesterday’s Guardian poll shot an arrow through the heart of the Labour party. It says that Labour is on course to lose the next election. It says that Gordon Brown hasn’t got what it takes to turn things around. It implies that no one else in the Labour party has, either. It crystallises everything anxious Labour activists have been saying to themselves on the eve of the party conference in Manchester – and then it adds some. It is hard to think of a more pivotal political opinion poll in recent times…
It’s a very perceptive piece — and I’m not saying that just because Kettle agrees with me. Here’s how it concludes:
Perceived likability unlocks electability. One of the reasons Blair dominated British politics for so long was that, where personality was concerned, he had it. It is equally clear that one of Cameron’s great strengths is that he has it too. The message of the poll is that the voters have sized Brown up and don’t like what they see. It may be miserably demeaning that modern politics has come to this. But if Brown hasn’t got it, how does he acquire it? And if he can’t acquire it, who else has Labour got?
Answer: nobody.
Top Gear
It is reported that doctors caring for Richard Hammond, the Petrolhead’s Friend and Top Gear presenter who was seriously injured when his car went out of control during a speed trial, have concerns about his brain function as a result of the accident. If the accident had happened to Hammond’s co-presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, the medics would at least not have had to worry on that score.
Top Gear is an interesting case of a curious condition — the worship of stupidity. It is filmed in a vast aircraft hangar filled with grinning, half-witted, twentysomething males and is dedicated solely to the fetishising of speed and the lampooning of any measure designed to protect society from dangerous driving. On the few occasions when I’ve watched it, what always came to mind was Randy Newman’s wonderful satirical song about American rednecks, the chorus of which goes:
We’re red-necks, red-necks,
We don’t know our ass from a hole in the ground.
We’re red-necks, red-necks,
Keepin’ the niggers down.
Britain’s egghead heir
There’s an hilarious Guardian story based on Jeremy Paxman’s forthcoming book about royalty.
According to Jeremy Paxman, …, the prince [of Wales, heir to the Coburg-Saxe-Gotha throne] is particularly fond of a boiled egg after a day’s hunting. “Because his staff are never quite sure whether the egg would be precisely to the satisfactory hardness, a series of eggs was cooked, and laid out in an ascending row of numbers. If the prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven”.
Dog days in Iraq
Rory Stewart, a youngish British soldier and diplomat, served as interim governor of a remote Iraqi province between September 2003 and June 2004. He’s written an account of his experiences which provides compelling evidence of the futility of the US’s ‘democratising’ mission in that benighted country. There’s a good review of the book by Robert Skidelsky in the current issue of the New York Review of Books. This deadpan passage in the review caught my eye:
An American expert on democracy came from Baghdad to do some “capacity building” with the new council. He drew an oblong box to represent the council, beneath it four boxes to represent its committees. “He is drawing a dog,” muttered one sheikh. “Welcome to your new democracy,” said the democracy expert. At this, “two of the sheikhs walked out”.
The boredom factor
Way back last December I did some musing about why Gordon Brown would be a liability as Labour leader. I wrote:
Boredom is the elephant in the room of British politics. The electorate is, in the main, entirely uninterested in politics. It complains about the government, of course, but in the main it is hard to stir up electors on ideological or policy grounds. They put up with the Tories, for example, for 18 years, and eventually threw them out not because the party was intellectually and morally bankrupt (as we pointy-headed intellectuals fondly imagine), but basically because people had become tired of seeing all those old faces trotting out the same old story.
Now spool forward four years to 2009. In the Labour corner will be dull, monotonic, dark-suited, Homburg-hatted Brown rabbitting on about the timing of the economic cycle, the importance of means-tested benefits and how he was right about pensions all along. Yawn, zzzzz…. For the Tories, there will be a young, smooth-talking snake-oil salesman named Cameron. Could this be the nightmare scenario that Blair foresees, and is determined to avoid?
Now comes this report of a survey commissioned by the Guardian in advance of next week’s Labour party Conference.
The scale of the challenge facing Gordon Brown as Labour’s likely next leader is revealed today by a Guardian/ICM poll showing that voters believe David Cameron would make a more effective prime minister and that Britain will be better off if Labour loses the next election.
As activists prepare to head to Manchester for the party’s annual conference, beginning on Sunday, the poll suggests voters may be tired of Labour: 70% said they agreed with the phrase it was “time for change”, if there were a general election tomorrow, and only 23% agreed with the phrase “continuity is important, stick with Labour”.
‘Social networking’ madness continues
The New York Times today has a story claiming that Mark Zuckerberg, the 22-year-old founder of Facebook.com, turned down a $750 million offer for the company from Viacom last January, and is now being offered $900 million by Yahoo.
To woo Mr. Zuckerberg, Yahoo has offered about $900 million for Facebook and says it will keep the company somewhat independent, with Mr. Zuckerberg in charge. This has been its model with other acquisitions like Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and Del.icio.us, a social bookmarking service that lets members share lists of their favorite Web sites.
“A lot of people say there are problems with having a 22-year-old C.E.O., but one thing that is good about it is that he doesn’t remember the boom and the bust that followed,” said an adviser to Facebook. “That has distorted the thinking of a lot of people. If they have a good product or service, they sell way too early and they don’t stick with it.”
The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of continuing negotiations.
Mr. Zuckerberg, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on any potential acquisition offers.
Money, at least so far, does not seem to draw him. He lives in a barren apartment in Palo Alto, Calif., a short walk from Facebook’s office. He only bought a stereo recently at the request of his girlfriend.
“Mark is the kind of guy you worry needs to get other things in his life,” said David Sze, a partner with Greylock Partners, one of Facebook’s venture capital investors.
The (un)reliability of business journalism (contd.)
David Pogue had the neat idea of looking up the Lexis-Nexis newspaper database to see how Apple was being covered a decade ago. Here’s a selection of what he found:
- Fortune, 2/19/1996: “By the time you read this story, the quirky cult company…will end its wild ride as an independent enterprise.” * Time Magazine, 2/5/96: “One day Apple was a major technology company with assets to make any self respecting techno-conglomerate salivate. The next day Apple was a chaotic mess without a strategic vision and certainly no future.” * BusinessWeek, 10/16/95: “Having underforecast demand, the company has a $1 billion-plus order backlog…. Apart from some ideas, the only and best alternative: to merge with a company with the marketing and financial clout to help Apple survive the switch to a software-based company. The most likely candidate, many think, is IBM Corp.” * A Forrester Research analyst, 1/25/96 (quoted in, of all places, The New York Times): “Whether they stand alone or are acquired, Apple as we know it is cooked. It’s so classic. It’s so sad.” * Nathan Myhrvold (Microsoft’s chief technology officer, 6/97: “The NeXT purchase is too little too late. Apple is already dead.” * Wired, “101 Ways to Save Apple,” 6/97: “1. Admit it. You’re out of the hardware game.” * BusinessWeek, 2/5/96: “There was so much magic in Apple Computer in the early ’80s that it is hard to believe that it may fade away. Apple went from hip to has-been in just 19 years.” * Fortune, 2/19/1996: “Apple’s erratic performance has given it the reputation on Wall Street of a stock a long-term investor would probably avoid.” * The Economist, 2/23/95: “Apple could hang on for years, gamely trying to slow the decline, but few expect it to make such a mistake. Instead it seems to have two options. The first is to break itself up, selling the hardware side. The second is to sell the company outright.” * The Financial Times, 7/11/97: “Apple no longer plays a leading role in the $200 billion personal computer industry. ‘The idea that they’re going to go back to the past to hit a big home run…is delusional,’ says Dave Winer, a software developer.” David Pogue’s conclusion: “When anyone asks me what the future of technology holds, or what kids will be bringing to school in 2016, I politely decline to answer.” Amen.