The talk of the web
ISSUE #7 - Thursday, 2nd October 2008
- James Carney and Michael Scherer, TIME Magazine
"McCain's Nosedive: Short-Term Tactics, Long-Term Problems"
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846413,00.html
DJR's gist: When looking back at John McCain's campaign tactics over the last couple of months, you begin to see an increasingly obvious pattern of manoevres seemingly desgined to "win the week", week after week, with a particular attention-grabbing act. Thankfully, it appears that many people have woken up to smell the bacon - largely thanks to McCain taking campaign gimmicks a step to far with his attempt to postpone last week's debate. His campaign appears to be, step by step, slipping downhill, and with a bit of luck Ms. Palin will have accelerated that slide in the next 24 hours.
- Robert Shrimsley, Financial Times - Notebook
"Notes for a prince putting politics aside"
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a5333ec0-8fe6-11dd-9890-0000779fd18c.html
DJR's gist: Who doesn't love an extended analogy? Especially when said analogy is not only in reference to the jostling for political advantage that is currently all the rage over on the gun-toting side of the Atlantic, but somehow manages to extend it to cover the young Davy C (David Cameron to the common man) and his shenanigans with Big Gord (The Prime Minister). Aside from the metaphorical beauty of this piece, it is also an excellent analysis of the game theory at work between Cameron and Brown.
- Certain Ideas of Europe, The Economist
"The embarrassment of being gassy"
http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2008/10/the_embarrassment_of_being_gas.cfm
DJR gist: When it comes to minimising our carbon footprint, the Government are notionally supposed to lead by example. Isn't it ironic, then, that their new system of grading the energy efficiency of buildings has ranked the Palace of Westminster and the Bank of England - the heart of Britian's political and economic decision-making respectively - as the two least 'green' buildings in the country. Put in context, "the Palace of Westminster produces as much carbon dioxide in a year as 14,000 people flying from London to New York."
- Fran Yeoman and Joanna Sugden, The Times
"'Bride' arrested on wedding day"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4862681.ece
DJR gist: In a swoop of impeccable timing by the pigs, a 21-year-old Portuguese woman was apprehended in her wedding dress as she was driving away from the ceremony. Strangely, her new 'husband' - a 37-year-old Nigerian - was not with her after the wedding. Reason being? The marriage was a sham to give the man, an illegal immigrant, illegal entry into the UK. He was also arrested and awaits deportation.
- Chris Nuttall, Financial Times - Tech Blog
"WirelessHD means widespread boxes"
http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2008/10/wirelesshd-means-widespread-boxes/
DJR gist: A new technology is being pioneered by WirelessHD which, surprisingly enough, consists of making high-definiton TV connections without the wires. Given the multitude of HDMI ports that the average TV has plugged into it these days (or even bog-standard cables for that matter), the freedom from wire spaghetti would be truly welcome. And, not only will this get rid of the wires - they strength of the wireless connection is such that the component boxes/consoles can be anywhere in the room and still function without issues. AND, with a potential capacity of up to 25Gbps (given that the best current HD - 1080p - functions at 3.5Gbps), it is designed to be future proof. Great stuff.
- Nicholas Graham, The Huffington Post
"Lamborghini Hybrid? 'New World' Estoque Could Be One"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/02/lamborghini-hybrid-new-wo_n_131107.html
DJR gist: I don't think many people have given much thought to the idea of a green supercar. But as the images in this article illustrate, the desginers at Lambo certainly have. Just like any Lambo, what's on the inside is pretty much irrelevant when a car looks just so beautiful. But in this case, it's also got a hybrid engine to go with the looks, meaning you can get all the driving pleasure you desire safe in the knowledge that you're not damaging the Earth quite as much as you might have been...
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