skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Tube Talk
The talk of the web
ISSUE #5 - Tuesday, 30th September 2008- David Brooks, The New York Times
"Revolt of the Nihilists"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html
DJR's gist: Is this the end of the Republican Party as we know it? Brooks here displays a damning analysis of House Republicans, whose obsession with short-term populism is, in his view, not only going to come back and bite them in the arse, but potentially fracture their party in two. "[L]et us recognize above all the 228 who voted no — the authors of this revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed. They did the momentarily popular thing, and if the country slides into a deep recession, they will have the time and leisure to watch public opinion shift against them."
Brooks suggests that these people could "go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century" and, in the short-run, could well be damning for John McCain. Which means the Republicans can expect losses across the board come November, and in the medium-term expect very little political clout.
- Alan Cochrane, The Daily Telegraph
"Will Tory government hasten end of United Kingdom?"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/30/do3005.xml
DJR gist: The Tories are very much an English party. They have essentially zero presence in Scotland, and at best a fringe presence in Wales. With the SNP in power north of the border, the election of a Tory governement in Westminster could well give Alex Salmond the very firepower he needs to push through Scottish independence. Frankly, I'm all for it, and if I were David Cameron I'd be supporting it two. Eliminate Scottish MPs, and all of a sudden the Tories are looking even stronger in any Westminster election. Plus it'd be bye-bye Gordon Brown...
- Certain Ideas of Europe, The Economist
"Too soon to be smug"
http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2008/09/too_soon_to_be_smug.cfm
DJR gist: As is to be expected, critics of capitalism and the free market have emerged from the woodwork from all directions, claiming they told everyone so all along. The fact that a lot of them actually did still doesn't hide from the fact that lots of other commentators appear to have changed creed in the space of a week. Anyway, The Economist retains its usual angle on such matters and points out what is surely blindingly obvious - it is far too early to be making any sort of prediction about where this story is going.
- Robert Vamosi, CNET News
"How 'carders' trade your stolen personal info"
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-10053523-57.html
DJR gist: 'Carders' are the clowns who use hacking techniques to get hold of all sorts of personal information about internet users - most prominently credit and debit card details. While once upon a time this was done "for fun" and for the "glory" of it, things have taken a turn for the worst, with criminal organisations now funding hackers to get details for them. This CNET report illustrates how openly information can be obtained on various websites, how big a problem identity fraud is, and how important ID protection is in stopping it.
Tube Talk
Today's pick of the web
ISSUE #4 - Friday, 26th September 2008- Gerard Baker, The Times
"This is the election you wouldn't want to win"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4827820.ece
DJR's gist: The macroeconomic and geopolitical climate which the next President of the United States is going to find himself surrounded with cannot be something to fill them with hope. The economy is going down the tube, fiscal constraints and going out the window, and the Middle East is going up in smokes. Situations like this give rise to two times of President - ones who are rubbish, one-term failures (e.g. Carter), or ones who stand up to be counted and are remembered as greats (e.g. Reagan). It shall be very interesting to see which of these we have on our hands this time.
Though as an aside - it is surely worth pointing out that George W. Bush was a complete failure in the first term, but still managed a second. Never underestimate the stupidity of approximately 50% of Americans.
- Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
"Party of one"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122237691191376341.html
DJR gist: Neither John McCain or Barack Obama come from the traditional school of Democrat or Republican. Perhaps it's time they took a step back to engage their core voters and state, quite simply, "Why am I a Democrat?", or "Why am I a Republican?" Noonan's article makes But there's a pretty stark point to focus the Obama campaign on its goal: "The polls are dead even. This is astounding. The Democrat, after two wars and an unprecedented economic crisis, should be 10 or 20 points up right now. The polls say Mr. Obama is rising, but if he's not sweeping now, he's losing."
- BBC News
"Doctor's slang is a dying art"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3159813.stm
DJR's gist: The evil cloud that is the threat of litigation is, apparently, threatening to end doctors' ability to have some inter-clinic banter. Acroymns such as UBI (unexplained beer injury) or GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt) are becoming less common on patient reports, due to doctors' fear of having to explain their meaning at a later stage (possibly in a court). Which is a shame, in my view - I can think of plenty of people for whom "LOBNH" would be a perfect diagnosis...
- BBC News
"Pilot completes jetpack challenge"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7637327.stm
DJR's gist: Yves Rossy made history today by becoming the first person to fly across the channel using a jet-propelled wing. This has got to be the dream of so many people - I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who wanted to be able to fly like Superman - and now that someone has accomplished such a feat and achieved the publicity of this event, I hope/expect that we will see many more such activities, and possibly even a widescale commercialisation of the jet-wing as an "extreme sport".
- The Denver Channel
"Man Hit By Car, Then Train 6 Hours Later"
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17546518/detail.html
DJR gist: Occasionally you have days when everything goes wrong. I had one a couple of weeks ago. But getting hit by a train while on your way back from hospital after getting hit by a car has got to be up there with the worst days ever. And to top it off, the poor sod faces charges of trespass for attempting to take a shortcut on a train bridge that is off limits to pedestrians.
Incidentally, this link came courtesy of Chouders the Vicissitudinous Ayatollah of Misogyny. There's a chance you'll be hearing from him in person in the near future...
- Stephen J. Dubner - "Freakonomics", The New York Times
"Wall Street Jokes, Please"
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/wall-street-jokes-please/
DJR's gist: Considering how unfunny most business-related jokes are, there are some classics in the comments to Dubner's latest blog entry. The one about the broker and trader is brilliant, but I've heard it before. My favourite new one has got to be about Dubya:
"George Bush has said that he is saddened to hear about the demise of Lehman Brothers. His thoughts at this time go out to their mother - losing one son is hard, but losing two is a real tragedy."
Tube Talk
Today's pick of the web
ISSUE #3 - Thursday, 25th September 2008 - Anatole Kaletsky, The Times
"Save the world? Hank just didn't have a clue"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article4820549.ece
DJR's gist: This is the first of several articles from today's Times, but this one is without doubt the most important. Kaletsky has always had strong opinions about economic issues, and generally he's right. This time, he's hit the nail on the head: "Henry Paulson is to finance what Donald Rumsfeld was to military strategy, Dick Cheney to geopolitics and Michael Chertoff to flood defence." He goes on, "As the cross-examination rolled on...the terrible truth dawned. There was no such thing as a Paulson plan. Not only did Mr Paulson not know what he was doing. He did not know what he was talking about." The Bush administration will surely go down as the worst Presidency in at least a century. I'm fairly sure even Nixon came out of his better than this.
- The Economist - Certain Ideas of Europe
"Bon appetit"
http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2008/09/bon_appetit.cfm
DJR's gist: I'm not gonna beat around the bush. I don't like the French, or France, or Paris, or Air France, or La Revolutione, or French bureaucracy or French socialism. However, their food is amazing - so good, in fact, that I'm almost willing to forget all the above for it. Almost. Unfortunately, they then take it upon themselves to somehow combine their cuisine with everything I can't stand about them, leaving me in a state of limbo. While French cuisine is great, giving it - an abstract concept - UNESCO World Heritage status is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Alongside declaring war on "Terror".
Tube TalkToday's pick of the web
ISSUE #2 - Wednesday, 24th September 2008 - Lionel Beehner, The Guardian
"Why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is smiling"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/23/mahmoud.ahmadinejad.united.nations
DJR gist: Ahmadinejad has got to be one of the world's biggest comedians, albeit one whose jokes allegedly threaten the lives of millions of people. But like all entertainers, they are only relevant when they have an audience. Ahmadinejad is literally living of America's abuse towards him - his popularity in Islamic circles is, Beehner suggests, a function America's perceived hatred of him rather than anything intrinsically positive in himself. So long as he keeps making the headlines, the comedy will go on.
- Ben Smith, Politico - Ben Smith's Blog
"McCain's gambit"
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/McCains_gambit.html
DJR's gist: Smith's reaction was pretty similar to mine - McCain, who is notoriously weak when it comes to economic policy, has all of a sudden jumped on the "save the economy" bandwagon several days after it may have been a good idea to do so. As Smith puts it, "the only thing that has changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling".
- Google - "Doodle for Google"
http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/doodle4google/vote.html
DJR's gist: Every year Google invite kids across the UK to draw their own "Google Doodle", the winner of which gets to feature on the Google UK homepage on the 1st October. This years entries, as always, feature some really impressive efforts (particularly in the older age groups), but what really caught my eye was the description of "Google City" - the effort by Lorna Kerr in the age 5-7 category. Describing her community, she says "We have things that can help us, trees, rivers, teachers, RSPCA, police, hospitals, doctors and Tesco".
Whoever's behind Tesco's marketing to children deserves a pay rise.
Tube TalkToday's pick of the web
EDITION #1 - Tuesday, 23rd September 2008
- Robert Peston (BBC Business Editor) - "Peston's Picks", BBC News Online
"The next accident"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/the_next_accident.html
DJR's gist: Robert Peston has got to be one of the best writers out there on the web, with all his blogs featuring top-drawer one liners that beautifully summarise his point. A classic from this blog, which analyses plans to tackle the credit-default-swaps market, suggested that plans are "yet another attempt to close the stable door after a galloping herd has not only bolted, but has already crossed the state line".
- M.J. Stephey - TIME Magazine
Sarah Palin's E-Mail Hacked
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842097,00.html
DJR's gist: Once again on the topic of the US elections, an article on Gawker, which is linked in this TIME article, exposes Sarah Palin's use of her personal address for emails related to her position as Governor - which is obviously against the rules. Of course, the discovery is a gross invasion of Palin's privacy, but serves to place many more question marks over the already questionable integrity of the "gun-toting hockey mum".
- Andrew Benson - BBC Sport
Justice evades Hamilton
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7631230.stm
DJR's gist: The travesty of sport that is Formula One's internal politics has spawned itself one more time - presently over the 25-second penalty handed to Lewis Hamilton for his manoevre on Kimi Raikonnen at the epic Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago. The whole escapade stunk to high heaven, and I couldn't agree more with the opening lines to this article: "No-one in Formula One will be surprised at the decision...but that does not mean it was the right one."
