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.
- John Timpane, Philadelphia Inquirer
"‘Viral video’ melds Obama, McCain, Letterman, Palin & Couric into cyber-soup"
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20080925_Viral_video_melds_Obama__McCain__Letterman__Palin___Couric_into_cyber-soup.html
DJR gist: People often talk about how much the media can sway the result of elections. But 2008, particularly States-side, is heralding a new dawn - thanks to the speed and agility of the internet, the media is no longer the source of all media. Blogosphere, vlogosphore and YouTube clips are now playing as big an, if not bigger role in dictating public opinions than what people get from TV or the printed press. My two cents? It's certainly for the best.
- Rufus McNeil, The Times
"How we got a 200-tonne turbine past the Taleban"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4820197.ece
DJR's gist: This was a military exercise that had failure written all over it, and somehow ended up a success with flying colours. Rufus McNeil is the Commanding Officer of the British Army division responsible for this most cataclysmic of missions, and he tells a compelling tale of how they outsmarted the Barbarians that are the Taleban.
- Mike Harvey, The Times
"Father of the internet: 'web is running out of addresses'"
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4819803.ece
DJR's gist: Apparently there are only 16% of the 4.2 billion IP addresses in the IPv4 series left to be claimed. IPv6 is somewhere on the horizon, but if it's not universally taken up then... well then we'll probably have another Millennium Bug. And we all know how much trouble that ended up causing.
- Josh Quittner, TIME Magazine
"Google vs. iPhone: Is Steve Jobs Reliving Past Mistakes?"
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1843813,00.html
DJR gist: Many of us know the tragic tale of how Apple's arrogance cost them the computer market in the 1980s and almost brought the company to its knees. Once again it finds itself the earlier mover in a burgeoning market - could it be about to make the same mistake again? This observer certainly hopes so.
- 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".
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