Issue #8

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ISSUE #8 - Friday, 3rd October 2008

• Justin Webb, The Times
  "The day America was born again"
  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4735147.ece
  
  DJR's gist: There are some controversial topics discussed in this article that I have no desire to state an opinion on, but at its core is a very interesting analysis of how the driving force of US politics and the American national psyche has fundamentally shifted over the last few years. As such, this election is likely to merely represent a front of more fundamental pscho-structural changes in the USA.

• Edmund S. Phelps, Wall Street Journal
  "We Need to Recapitalise the Banks"
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282719885793047.html
  
  DJR's gist: Phelps won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Economics, and argues with one of the fundamental ideals of capitalism - Adam Smith's "invisible hand". Financial markets, he argues, are distorted by the bounded rationality of bankers, fund managers, investors and the rest of them - none of whom has the availability of perfect information that underpins the market model. Information is the key, as he suggests that "what has occurred is not just an old-fashioned banking crisis but also a banking scandal". Crucially, the markets are so crippled that any thought of them rescuing themselves is decidedly unlikely. Government-led remidial surgery is required to provide the institutions necessary to allow some sort of rebirth.

• Daniel Finkelstein, Comment Central blog, The Times
  "By not winning, Sarah Palin lost"
  http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/10/the-conventiona.html
  
  DJR's gist: Short and sweet, Fink goes against general consensus that Sarah Palin didn't lose last night's debate, by arguing that in the present electoral environment, anything short of an outright victory equates to failure and loss. Barack Obama's lead now appears to be decisive - much like it became in the primaries against Hilary Clinton - and it will take something spectacular from McCain to bring it back. It would seem that the only opportunities left for this to happen would be the two remaining Presidential debates... let's just hope it goes down like his credit crisis stunt.

• BBC News
  "BBC nuclear bomb script released"
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7648042.stm
  
  DJR's gist: New documents released by the National Archives include the transcript of a pre-recorded message from the 1970s that the BBC were to broadcast across the UK in the event that a nuclear bomb knocked it off the air. Reading the transcript that is linked in the report not only represents a chilling reminded of how close the world was to nuclear annihilation, but how limited any potential response could have been. Chilling stuff.

• Anne Ashworth, The Times
  "Locals happy to bid farewell to bollards of Fort Grosvenor"
  http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4870815.ece
  
  DJR's gist: The announcement that after the best part of 200 years in one of the most exclusive locations in London - surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate in the world - the US Embassy will be moving to an area of London famed for its hardcore gay scene will no doubt bring delight to residents of the surrounding Mayfair streets. The Embassy is presently a fortress, with ugly concrete bollards all over the place and cars banned from roads. New tennants will almost certainly see an end to this, and probably going to be much more likely to pay the Congestion Charge.

• London 2012
  "New Olympic Park cameras give public front-row seats"
  http://www.london2012.com/news/archive/2008-10/new-olympic-park-cameras-give-public-front-row-seats.php
  
  DJR's gist: An awesome new addition to the London 2012 website, you can now see auto-refreshed images of all the major construction sites in the Olympic Park. Hopefully they'll add an archive of photos over a period of time so that you can see the progression of development, but judging by what is currently on show it is clear that things are still running very much ahead of schedule. Let's hope it stays that way for the next 3 years...

Issue #7

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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...