Today'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.
- Isambard Wilkinson, The Daily Telegraph
"A question of trust in Pakistan, the land of the conspiracy theory"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/24/do2406.xml
DJR's gist: As Wilkinson so correctly suggests, most people in the West thought that the horrific bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday, which killed over 50 people, would have awoken ambivalent Pakistanis to the carnage and villainy that surrounds them, leading to increased support of the government's attempts to weed out fundamentalist terrorists. Unfortunately, this was a gross simplification of the national psyche in what remains one of the most complex cultures in the world.
- 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".
- Ed Gorman - Times Online, Formula One Blog
"McLaren's secret weapon for night driving in Singapore"
http://timesonline.typepad.com/formula_one/2008/09/mclarens-secret.html
DJR's gist: A rare piece of light-heartedness from the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team... you've got to wait for the end of the video to get it.
- 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.
