"The small, ordinary freedoms of life are priceless." PJ O'Rourke
From Christopher Hitchens' review of the book Hubris:
"In the stylistic world where disclosures are gleaned and ironies underscored, the nullity of the prose obscures the fact that any irony here is only at the authors' expense."
I remember reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote in one sitting. I was old enough to babysit my little sisters and imaginative enough to frighten myself to pieces but too young to understand the psychological principles that applied.
David Aaronovitch has written a great article in today's Times - 'Violence in search of a cause: what a famous book tells us about terrorism'.
What makes us tick is still being worked out by psychologists and self help book authors. But the differences between "terrorists" and so-called "freedom fighters" is as clear as the difference between Mohammed Atta and Michael Collins.
Dr. Sanity uses the metaphor of 'brain as piano' in her great blog post 'Listening to music and tuning pianos'.
"There are some things that medication cannot fix. Some pianos that cannot be tuned--maybe because there is a crack in the baseboard; or the materials used in construction were warped; or even that those same materials were irreversibly changed by exposure to malignant environmental factors."
"Any piano repairman will also tell you that some pianos start out as lemons (just as some cars) and cannot produce the same sounds as their peers. Some are so broken that even after repair they are not much more than junk."
"It is possible we will never adequately be able to explain fully every aspect of human brain function--expecially what leads to good or evil--by resorting only to an appreciation of the chemicals and the electrical circuits."
From yesterday's Independent, edited highlights from "50 best jokes" from this year's festival:
1. Christmases were terrible, not like nowadays when kids get everything. My sister got a miniature set of perfumes called Ample. It was tiny, but even I could see where my dad had scraped off the S ... - Stephen K Amos
2. My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in customs. - Patrick Monahan
3. I've not seen such a guilty face since I finished my jigsaw of O J Simpson. - We are Klang (if.comeddies newcomer nominee)
4. Nobody thought Mel Gibson could play a Scot but look at him now! Alcoholic and a racist! - Frankie Boyle
5. I went to the JobCentre for an interview. I said: "I ain't got no qualifications, no skills and as for my customer service, sod off." She said: "You're exactly what they're after at Dixons". - Simon Brodkin
6. Edinburgh is the only city that I have walked completely around and only gone uphill. - Sean Collins
7. I've got no problem buying tampons. I'm a modern man. But apparently, they're not a "proper present". - Jimmy Carr
8. I was surprised how British Muslims reacted to the Danish cartoons. I thought: "How can you get this worked up about a cartoon?" But then I remembered how angry I was when they gave Scooby Doo a cousin. - Paul Sinha (if.comeddies nominee)
9. Two guys came knocking at my door once and said: "We want to talk to you about Jesus." I said: "Oh, no, what's he done now?" - Kevin McAleer
10. In the Bible, God made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. That's a pretty good summer for us in Wales. That's a hosepipe ban waiting to happen. I was eight before I realised you could take a kagoule off. - Rhod Gilbert
Every year artists submit their work to a committee at the Royal Academy. This year, over 100,000 pieces were judged and about 1,000 picked for display. Here are three paintings. Can you guess which one was on show at the exhibition? The other two were done by five year olds.
From the Times this morning:
"...there is a connection between the brain, hormones, the nervous system and the immune system. “Laughter produces all kinds of things that help our immune systems. Each immune cell has a receptor which looks like a satellite dish, and when substances such as endorphins or growth hormones are plugged in, cells are told to increase activity. Adversely, if cortisol generated from distress is plugged in, activity is decreased.”
"Dr Berk couldn’t agree more. “People think that the concept of getting together to laugh for no good reason is silly — but take going to the gym. Where are they all running to? Medical science needs to get serious about silliness — and the sooner it does so, the healthier we will be.”
It's all over the blogosphere. Everyone will have seen this great YouTube video, but I want to have a link to it on my blog.
Tea is better for you than water.
"Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health."
"These polyphenol antioxidants are found in many foods and plants, including tea leaves, and have been shown to help prevent cell damage."
"Dr Ruxton said: "Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so its got two things going for it." "
From Cynopsis.com:
"The total number of U.S. television households has increased by 1.1% from last year to 111.4 million."
"This includes Alaska and Hawaii and this number, projected to January 1, 2007, will be used for the full 2006-2007 television season."
"The latest report from Nielsen Media Research also revealed the national Universe Estimates of viewers aged 2+ has increased by 1.1% to 283.5 million."
"FYI, the number of A18-49 viewers has increased by 0.5% to 130.6 million."
I don't write my blog to change people's minds. I write because in the quiet of the day, that's what I've always done. Now with the free Blogger software, I can publish what I write in the ether where it lives forever, God help me, rather than piling up in the corner of the living room.
There is also a bit of "I told you so" about the whole thing. In 50 years time, the little kids running under my feet at parties can whisper to each other "there's mad aunt Carol, she thought sharia law was a bad idea" or whatever they'll be allowed to say without getting their hearts cut out.
Wherever these blogs end up stored, there will be Mark Steyn and Ben Stein and Theodore Dalrymple. Writers whose work dwarfs my own. Writers who try to explode facts underneath the chairs of the inert and clueless. I like the differences in their writing styles, a spectrum of world weariness.
When I was little, we'd sail on the lake, then sail into our neighbourhood marina, blasting a boat horn ahead of time to raise the bridges between points of land.
Sometimes I hear that sound in my sleep. Gabriel blowing his horn? Car crash in the high street?
Here's Mark Steyn on the latest BP ad:
".....I notice that in its commercials the oil company BP – that’s to say, British Petroleum – now says that BP stands for “Beyond Petroleum”: the ads are all about how it’s developing environmentally-friendly ways to conserve energy; in other words, it’s ashamed of the business it’s in. "
He ends his article with this quote:
"Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1870, “Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.” "
From Cilla,
"Hey just to say, if you guys are around on Saturday 9th Sep, Thank You Driver is doing a gig in Leonards, which is Islington by Angel Tube. We will send the details later, but I'm just saying now in case ya know, ya wanna come see us before we're really really famous."
Update - Springwise sends news of a new idea:
8. Bands funded by their fans: SellaBand has created a platform that enables fans to sponsor bands, and get a piece of the action in return.
www.springwise.com/weekly/2006-08-22.htm#sellaband
News of this odd donation by the "world's largest philanthropic organisation" is available from the internet news site Dudge:
"The GATES FOUNDATION loaned an unspecified amount to MEDIANEWS, along with GENERAL ELECTRIC."
"In April, MEDIANEWS agreed to buy four newspapers, including the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS and CONTRA COSTA TIMES, from MCCLATCHY CO. for $1 billion. MEDIANEWS also bought California's MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD and the ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS in Minnesota. It also own the DENVER POST."
Why not? The UK has the Scott Trust. New York has the New York Times.
He's probably read articles like this:
"While marketing prognosticators and technophiles rush into the future, raving about the next big content delivery system or ad model, the fact is most Americans -- notably adults with steady incomes -- still get their content the old-fashioned way.
The article quotes a typical American guy with no axe to grind whatsoever:
Or Barry Rosenberg, also 26, manager of publicity for A&E in New York. He surfs entertainment blogs ("they're well beyond fad phase," he said) and while he'll watch the occasional YouTube video, he prefers his TV on TV. He owns a video iPod, upgraded not for the video screen but for the additional memory. He thinks podcasts are "a buzzword that companies are using it to sell more virtual space." He considers reading the paper on the bus ride into Manhattan from New Jersey "a luxury."
This article in the Sunday Times is a wise signpost to the future of newspapers:
"Young people are a fickle bunch, but on one thing they agree: terrestrial television and commercial radio are about as cool as trendy dads getting down with the kids on MySpace. The “wired generation” of 16- to 24-year-olds is spurning the old media in favour of shinier pastures. Mobile phones, home computers and high-speed internet connections are the key to the virtual universe where the young hang out, entertain themselves and exercise their new-found media clout, 24/7."
I believe the future's bright, not especially orange, and blogs will continue to raise awareness that the MSM is not an objective source of information, but rather propaganda run by elitist do-gooders who think we're stupid if we don't think like them.
There is no guarantee that anyone's got the right answer. Free speech and the debate is all.
I've received a lot of submissions for this week's Carnival of Marketing. Some of them appear to be from businessey blogs, rather than personal, from the heart blogs.
The interesting businessey blog submissions
1. 'Money Net' submitted a post about spiders, then wrote a really good post explaining blog carnivals:
"One of the quickest ways to get noticed by search engines is getting relevant links to your site. The best way to get quality links is to submit your articles to Blog Carnival."
2. The 'Business Opportunities Blog', or should I say Bob, has a post about talking as a form of marketing.
3. Jack Yoest has a post on 'The Army's Marketing Campaign for Placing Women in Combat'. I don't see it as a bad idea as long as there are women only combat groups and the guys leave them alone to get on with it. Jack's got another post, 'Great Brands: High Love; High Respect' about Tom McMahon's 4-Block World.
4. Here's a "blog" called 'All Tips and Tricks' with a post about the ABCs of writing copy:
"I used to work in advertising and there I heard about a principle which works and it is called the ABC of communication: A=attention, B=branding and C=communication."
5. At a "blog" called 'N 2 Growth', here's a post about 'the pace at which business has to be conducted in order to remain competitive'.
6. At David Maister's blog, here's an interesting post about the business practice of adding a gatekeeper to the services buying process.
7. At 'Mine that Data', a post with the title 'Which Elements Of Business Strategy Truly Drive Top-Line Sales?' seems to raise a lot of questions.
Further interesting blog posts from last week
8. Noah from okdork is collecting a list of 'Eponyms ie. brands that OWN the market', like kleenex and fedex and sharpie. In England they're called brands that become the generic, for example hoover (or planningblog?). In the States "generics" are own label.
We are "separated by a common language" indeed.
9. Nedra Weinreich at Social Marketing had two great posts this past week. One inspired by a Red Cross email campaign, encouraging people to give blood and another with a link to 'Antfarm' explaining 'How to pitch the media'.
Great posts by and about account planners and researchers
10. Over at Diablogue, here's a link to 79 year old Peter's rant at YouTube.
11. Kevin Rothermel blogged about ghost stories a few weeks ago. I love ghost tours and ghost stories and have been known to tell a few myself.
12. Northern Planner has a post about a 'cunning ruse' and links to scampblog's 'the ten things a creative wants to know about their office'.
13. Mystery Pollster has an enlightening post about how procedure effects market research results.
14. John Griffiths is working with Mike Imms and Audrey Niven on a 29th September presentation to be held at the IPA offices. Read about it here.
"Entitled the debrief summit it is aimed predominantly at researchers who have to spend on average 90 minutes explaining what they have been doing with the client's money."
15. Russell Davies has collected links to over 100 account plannerey blogs and put them all together at? on? his ziki. Here's the original post that started that ball rolling and here's the post about plannr.net:
"So I added another thing to my ziki, pointed plannr.net at it and added all the RSS feeds for everyone on the list"
Next week the Carnival of Marketing is at Marketer's Studio.
Found this great article by Paul Boutin at slate.
"AOL researchers recently published the search logs of about 650,000 members—a total of 36,389,629 individual searches."
"AOL's search nerds intended the files to be an academic resource but didn't consider that users might be peeved to see their private queries become a research tool."
"Last weekend, the Internet service provider tried to pull back the data, but by that point it had leaked all over the Web. If you've ever wanted to see what other people type into search boxes, now's your chance."
He identifies seven typographies:
"The Pornhound. Big surprise, there are millions of searches for mind-bendingly kinky stuff."
"The Manhunter. The person who searches for other people."
"The Shopper......searches for 'coupon' are a lot more common."
"The Obsessive. The guy who searches for the same thing over and over and over."
"The Omnivore. Many users aren't obsessive—they're just online a lot."
"The Newbie. They just figured out how to turn on the computer."
"The Basket Case........queries like "i hate my job" and "why am i so ugly."
As with all these things, some people will be one thing one week, different the next. But assigning characteristics makes understanding their actions easier to imagine.
People are interesting. Hanging out with them, chatting to them about their lives, looking in the direction they're looking, seeing what amuses, engages, bores, annoys, is so much more interesting that any tv show.
It's also enlightening.
I was walking down the street with a 14 year old English girl a week ago. She pointed out a poster on a bus side and explained the message, why it was relevant to the product and described other posters in the series. She's not the target market because it was beer advertising. But I'm paying more attention to bus sides these days.
I spent the day with a 6 foot tall, 17 year old Italian guy on the weekend. He explained his thinking on why countries go to war, compared the drinking restrictions in Europe and the States and picked out the movie - Nacho Libre - which was funny and brilliant and not what I would have steered him into at all.
When research is conducted with people they're labelled 'respondents'. Respondents don't have to say anything though, they can throw you a look or beam proudly at their possessions or family. The message is clear.
They can also come to life when I'm looking at quantitative data. I don't know why I can look at numbers and see a soap opera but it's always been the case. Colleagues crack jokes about it and that's fine.
What's amazing to me is the number of Account Planners who scoff at research, who denigrate researchers just because we're nerds and pontificate about brands when they don't know the first thing about how people live their lives. It's a puzzle.
Here's a great article about the changing world of advertising, exposing the way most advertising decisions get made. The author calls for more 'consultation' with 'the consumer'. I say, if you aren't doing that these days your advertising expenditure will be wasted, deservedly so.
You can tell the ads that are inspired by research. They touch you with their boldness and storyline. Not many of those around though.
An interesting article appeared in Campaign two weeks ago. Headlined "The Fight for Rights", it had this subtitle: "Use an image without clearing it properly and you could get sued for millions".
Here's a scan of the headline and here's the first part of the article. You need to subscribe to brandrepublic.com to read the whole thing.
What's prompted me to write about this is an article in Ad Age about PR for Stevia, a supplement that's used as a sweetener for people who are interested in eating low carb food.
"Sweetener to the Stars: Celebrity Tie-ins Boost Stevia Sales, Unapproved Herbal Sugar Substitute Cranks Up Heavy PR Campaign. -- Arianna Huffington uses it. Entertainment mogul Suzanne de Passe asks for it. And Hachette Filipacchi Media President-CEO Jack Kliger prefers it."
Describing Jack Kliger as a star and celebrity should give him a welcome boost. Especially as there is on-going anger in the blogosphere because Hachette Filipacchi did not obtain Michael Yon's authorisation before using his famous photograph on the front cover of the launch issue of Shock.
Thousands of retailers have refused to stock the magazine (yay Ralphs!) and Michael Yon's readers have called for a boycott of the entire oeuvre of HFM.
Using any unauthorised photograph is an odd thing for a magazine publisher to do. There are many examples of why this can be an expensive mistake to make:
"Last year, a California jury awarded one Russell Christoff $15.6 million for Nestle USA's unauthorised use of his face on the labels of its Taster's Choice instant coffee."
"...it's a loud wake-up call to clients and marketing agencies to make sure they keep on top of the rights of any photographic images that they use."
"Agencies are clearly wise to the potential pitfalls. In the US, where the stakes are generally higher and rights more complex, they will have more legal support."
The article quotes an ad agency art buyer:
"If you don't have the rights, you risk being sued...and we have a moral obligation to our suppliers."
The author of the article found some interesting information:
"...the Eiffel Tower, for example, requires permission if photographed by night, but not by day."
"....you might assume that if you're using stock shots, rights are cleared. But that's not always the case."
"In 2000, Lowe and Rex Features had to pay damages to the Cuban photographer Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, who snapped a famous picture of the revolutionary hero Che Guevara. He complained that an ad for a spicy vodka trivialised the historic importance of his photograph....his objection to its association with Smirnoff vodka led to a British court awarding him copyright protection as part of a financial settlement."
Insurance is offered by some image suppliers:
"Like other image banks, Corbis also offers all sorts of clearance services....The bottom line is that you need a publicity check for anyone who hasn't been dead for 100 years."
"...Getty Images.....also offers an insurance policy, called an image guarantee, which offers indemnity on rights issues to users of its images."
HFM has been in the press a bit recently.
In May:
The American brands include Elle, Woman's Day, Car and Driver, and Road & Track. Woman's Day, with a monthly circulation of nearly 5 million, is among the 10 top-selling magazines in America.
The most recent circulation figures are rather different. From the 2006 media kit:
WOMAN'S DAY PAID ADVERTISING RATE BASE 2006 Rate Base: 4,000,000
AVERAGE PAID CIRCULATION (for 6 months ended December 31, 2004) Total Average Paid Circulation: 4,209,130 Source: ABC Statement period ending December 31, 2004
Ad Age in February:
MEDIAWORKS: The average paid circulation at Woman's Day fell from 4,239,930 at the end of 2002 to 4,015,392 in its most recent statement. What's happening?
MS. CHESNUTT: That is, to me, a drop in the bucket. Woman's Day's female audience increased by 2.2% from 19,800,000 in Fall 2002 to 20,243,000 in Fall 2005, according to MRI.
The demise of Elle Girl in April, WSJ comments:
"...the latest sign of the brutal advertising environment that has affected the entire magazine category."
The advertising industry is changing dramatically. So is media use and the attitudes and behaviour of everyone. Every day there's another story about fraud in the media. The detective work exposing digital manipulation of images this past week has been astonishing.
The printed medium that positions itself as trustworthy and full of integrity AND DELIVERS will get my business and I'll bet there's a few bob in it for a brave, wise publisher.
The sky is gray, it's in the low 60s, it's Monday morning, so why are there so many things to be cheerful about?
No jokes about pushing please (link from Drudge):
"A French clothier is testing the limits of the maxim that sex sells with online commercials that use hard-core pornography to hawk $100 T-shirts."
"What is important is that this is not a 'push' campaign," Cretin said, referring to advertising that is imposed on the audience. "Every person seeing this is willing to see it. We would never have done this on TV, because on TV you push the message to people."
"Many people have decided to take a look. More than 2 million visitors from 117 countries have come to the site in the last four months....but the company has yet to sell many shirts, pants, skirts or blazers."
Lots good in the Sunday Times yesterday:
Here's an article about how wiping your hard drive is nigh on impossible:
"Will reformatting a computer's hard drive prevent it from later divulging your secrets? Not necessarily - even free utilities, downloaded from the internet, can dig up old files from a reformatted machine..."
"In the end, experts advise, the only way to be absolutely certain that your hard disk won’t betray your secrets once you’ve handed the machine on is to put it through a grinder. A waste, don’t you think?"
"So, here’s a challenge for Bill Gates: instead of wasting time on designing flashy see-through menus in Vista, the next version of Windows, ensure that pressing the delete button does what it says. Until that is the case, anything you drop into your computer’s Recycle Bin really could be recycled."
Must be why the British Security services took away all the computers in those internet cafes last week.
"Later in the day police raided three internet cafes, one in Reading and two in Slough, taking away computer hard drives."
Then this paragraph jumped out at me from the Terror in the Skies report in the first section:
"The operation was regarded as so sensitive that when The Sunday Times hinted at it in an article published earlier this year, it was threatened with legal action by the Treasury solicitors."
Yay! We need this kind of security in the States, as American newspapers are losing circulation and advertising dollars so dramatically that they will publish anything even if it helps terrorists kill thousands of innocent plane travellers.
---hello? New York Times? Yes my dear I agree, it's only good for lining the kitty litter tray, lol.
There's been a lot on the internet about the mum with a six month old baby who was in on the terror plot. I don't see why it's hard to imagine that she would blow herself and her baby up. These women are subjugated and oppressed and not allowed an education or to grow up believing they have the right to life, libery or the pursuit of happiness.
I went to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition on Friday with a group that included a lady who had a phd in Islamic Art. She was fascinating to talk to and said some things about the Muslin religion not allowing anything to be depicted, not Mohammed, no family snaps, so many images were off limits. She said creativity blossomed when artists' minds could range freely.
I've thought about this since and I'll bet it affects one's imagination and ability to empathise, which is what suicide bombing is all about, the total inability to imagine what happens after, all the feelings involved.
Saturday I picked up some dry cleaning from a local shop. The owner was there, back from holiday. "Where did you go?" "Home to Afghanistan to see my family." "Do you have some holiday photos?" "NO!!!" he recoiled and stopped talking to me. I've felt so guilty since, thinking - how could I be so insensitive, obviously he's concerned for his loved ones' security and isn't going to bandy personal photos around. Then I realised his religion doesn't allow him to have photos of his loved ones. I like him too. It's really sad.
There's an experiment that's been done with photos. Saliva was tested, then people were shown neutral photographs like trees and their saliva was tested again, no change in hormones. When they looked at photographs of loved ones, immune system supporting hormones were found in their saliva. We are designed to be healthier when we look at depictions of people we love.
The Summer Exhibition had works that ran the gamut, some stupendous, some embarrassing.
As soon as Blogger allows me to upload images I've got a few to share.
Great customer service:
My sister flew from London to Detroit this past Saturday. They took away her biro and chapstick and patted her down twice. You're not allowed to carry on much but she talked to someone at WHSmith who said she might be able to get a book through. He advised her to show the book and receipt at security, proving it had been bought in duty free and if they refused to let her take it on, he would give her a refund.
She was full of stories of having her passport scanned a few times and being asked unusual questions and she said the pilot made jokes over the tannoy.
Everyone is rising magnificently to the occasion.
Interesting headline for an article by Rance Crain in Ad Age:
Good Reporters Don't Buy Into Source Bias -- On or Off the Record
Since they do, I was intrigued, and clicked through to see this sub-heading:
A Few Thoughts About 'The New York Times' New Policies
I got rather excited, thinking the writer was going to out the New York Times in spectacular fashion. I was disappointed.
However, it says something when the industry's trade magazine stands up for this kind of integrity.
I can usually think of something to say, or type, but I'm at a loss for words after watching this deeply disturbing film footage from YouTube.
Found at Little Green Footballs, check out what can be achieved using photoshop at The Dissident Frogman, tagline - "time to take sides":
Can't read the copy? "Smoke billows from the Reuters building as the board of "editors" incinerates hundreds of "news" pictures found to have their dust marks "removed".
Another day, another bomb scare. Today there's chaos at Heathrow and the other London airports because some suicide bombers had plans to smuggle "liquid" materials in their hand luggage to do the deed.
We're so used to that here.
My hypothesis? The plot was foiled because someone reported these young guys.
Terrorist Hotline:
0800 789 321
No one should be embarrassed or frightened to call this number. I've done it a couple of times. Friends and neighbours have too. The person who answers the phone always has a great phone manner, is sharp and respectful. The way to foil the bad guys is to be one step ahead, they're not rocket scientists after all, just sad, brainwashed, sexually frustrated young guys with no imagination and no empathy for their victims and their victims loved ones.
The Queen of CGi sends me this link to very silly animated cats.
Thank you, ma'am, for calling from your towncar with words of wisdom:
"There's no truth once you're into pixels."
"Once you're in the world of film...everything can be altered in digital."
"Be careful what you write, offices are so different nowadays, they're really quiet, no one needs to fax or photocopy documents, everyone's im-ing so phones aren't going. What's interesting is offices are really quiet now and everyone's reading stuff on the internet."
I do try to write with a reasonable tone of voice but I'll try to avoid negative categorisations as much as possible. Good night from London.
Statistics, can't make head nor tail of them sometimes.
8 photos on a BBC website, none showing Hissbullies shooting rockets even though they started it. Ah but there is one of the IDF shooting rockets, so what's that? 100% more rockets being shot by the Israelis? Or just one to zero? Or one to eight? Can we define that as Disproportionate?
Trust the BBC to put their usual spin on things:
A BBC photo display entitled "In pictures: Conflict impact," made up of eight images, uses six out of eight pictures to illustrate damages in Lebanon."
The photographs show images of Lebanese civilians and bombed out buildings and Beirut, and carry captions such as: "A woman in Beirut cries amid the destruction."
Luckily it's not the scar faced woman from the AP photos who seems to cry about the destruction of so many of her homes. The BBC pulled her photo from their website yesterday.
The seventh photograph in the succession shows an image of an Israeli woman mourning at a funeral, with the caption "Israelis are also counting their losses."
The last picture in the series is of an Israeli in an air raid shelter, but the person in the photo is made black by shadows, and appears to be a silhouette of a human figure. The person's age, sex, or any human features are impossible to make out – an odd choice by the BBC considering the large number of available photographs of Israeli children and families in bomb shelters.
Faking war damage photos or staging war destruction photos is no big deal by the way. People smarter than you say so and you MUST take THEIR word for it because they're so trustworthy:
The BBC's website photo editor, Phil Commes, has also taken a neutral line on the faked photographs from Beirut supplied by Reuters , saying: "One man's color balancing is another man's grounds for dismissal."
I'm going to go out on a limb here with my opinion:
I think faking news photographs is wrong.
Save the CGi magic for advertising and movies.
From Ad Age, this book sounds interesting:
"New Book Reports 37% of All Advertising is Wasted
Five-Year Research Project Tracked $1 Billion in Spending by 36 Major Marketers"
"The bold proclamations in "What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds," to be released next month by Kaplan Publishing, are the result of five years of research on campaigns from 36 of the nation's top advertisers. The book, penned by Rex Briggs, a veteran market researcher and founder of the firm Marketing Evolution, and Greg Stuart, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, may well be the most important advertising research since the "How Advertising Works" study of the early 1990s."
"...They reveal how frequently marketers disregard research when it doesn't jibe with their own opinions -- or seek out research that does."
"Ad agencies, the target of nearly nonstop flagellation both self-inflicted and otherwise in the past decade, may find some solace in the book. It pins much of the blame for marketing's woes on marketers and their failure to even define success for campaigns at the outset -- much less measure it properly on the back end. Of the 36 marketers the authors researched, only two -- P&G and Cingular -- had a clear definition of success for each marketing effort at the outset, Mr. Briggs said in an interview."
Market research is a tool to aid the process of marketing. I believe just about everything I do is research, from chatting to friends, to sitting on the tube or bus listening and looking, to shopping and attending cultural events. Focus groups are just about the least useful research tool, but they can yield extraordinary bits of enlightenment.
Reuters "withdrew" 920 photographs by Adnan Hajj from it's database yesterday. Thank goodness Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs established that this photographer is corrupt. Wonder how much was paid to Reuters staff who approved? passed for publication? the nine hundred odd other photos by this rascal.
Over at Michael Yon's there is this great link to YouTube humour. Ch ch ch check it out now.
But watch both. The guy who is looking for wives 14 to 19 is good, but I love the Beatles so much so especially appreciated the great new lyrics for "You've got to hide your love away".
The Queen of CGi sends me two links.
One to the BBC webpage:
"Stressed out and Anxious in Beirut" - indeed.
Funny, at the blog 'Drinking from Home' we find the same woman appearing in various "bombed home" shots, see her photos here.
From Drinking from Home:
"Extreme Makeover - Beirut Edition
Either this woman is the unluckiest multiple home-owner in Beirut, or something isn't quite right."
Found this cartoon at Little Green Footballs. If you click here you go to Cox and Forkum's compendium of editorial cartoons.
Also from Little Green Footballs:
"LGF reader humblegunner emailed what seems to be Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj’s first attempt to remove the dust from his Beirut photograph."
No surprise to read that bloggers have outed another fraudulent "news source".
No surprise that photos of Beirut are being photo shopped. It's easy although doing it really well is expensive. Computer Generated Imagery. What, you thought the balls in the Sony Bravia ad were real?
Check out the headline of the advisory - "Picture Kill". That's the way Reuters informs all the trusting tv producers and newspaper editors who used the photo that they've made a teeny mistake.
Check out the name of the photographer!
"Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana – which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged."
Psychological weapons are important armaments. I will remember the photographs of the "rescue worker" holding a broken child in the midst of ruins. I knew at the time I was being manipulated because the source I was reading showed the series of photos of that particular "rescue worker" with his photogenic "victim", all taken over a two hour period at various angles, in various settings.
Little Green Footballs does it again, yay Charles!
Gatekeepers - in the news, in the financial sector (Enron anyone?), if you don't know them personally I'd suggest not relying on them.
TARA: "You think you know ... what's to come ... "
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Restless, Season Four
There's no contest.
One gives you considered, intelligent analysis of world events and one shows the most dramatic photographic images it can get its hands on and raps out biased soundbites as percussion.
I found this at normblog. Not in any US or UK paper, certainly not on the tv news which doesn't get a look in round here, and not on the radio. Nope. I learned long ago that old fashioned sources of news just don't satisfy me.
Here's what caught my eye:
"Louise Arbour is the High Commissioner of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, whose members include such beacons of democracy and human rights as Zimbabwe, China, Sudan and Congo.
The UN General Assembly Resolution 48/141 of Dec. 20, 1993, which established the position and responsibilities of the high commissioner, does not mandate the threatening of criminal prosecutions for heads of state or their military. So that is why no high commissioner has threatened criminal prosecution of Russian leaders for torture and killings in Chechnya, or of China's rulers for their continuous violent crackdown against dissidents and violent suppression of the Falun Gong.
Nevertheless, the current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights exceeded her mandate when she threatened Israeli leaders, political and military, with criminal prosecution. In a remarkable and disturbing move, Ms. Arbour issued a press release on July 19 dealing with what she called the "alarming" situation in southern Lebanon."
She exceeded her mandate on the Israel issue. Not a bloody peep on Zimbabwe, China, Sudan, Congo, Russia/Chechnya, USA/Gitmo. Whatever could be the reason?
I have my suspicions.
Via Drudge, another reason to turn the tv off:
"The BBC has been urged to pull a 'sick' new comedy show which features spoof news reports of Tony Blair being assassinated and a 9/11-style video of terrorists crashing an airliner into the Houses of Parliament."
"A BBC spokeswoman yesterday defended Time Trumpet, saying the sketches needed to be seen 'in the context of the whole series.' 'It is a satire set in the year 2031, looking back at the events and people of today,' he said. "
An MP is quoted and gets it wrong:
'The BBC receives a large amount of taxpayers' money and has a duty to use it responsibly. I can't see much comedy value in this at a time when all of us are at risk from terrorism.' The 'Terrorism Award' sketch features in episode three of the six-part series which starts tonight."
Actually, the amount the BBC receives is huge, over £3 billion pounds sterling (five and a half billion US dollars) every year from the tv tax called the tv licence.
It's also a great example of that British phenomenon, taxation without representation. If the BBC thinks it's hilarious using expensive cgi to show passenger planes flying into the Houses of Parliament, guess what, that's what is going to get made and broadcast.
It is illegal to refuse to pay the tv licence. It is not illegal to refuse to watch such drivel. The BBC track their audience figures. I hope they are dire.
As you've probably figured by now, I like intellectual challenges and really smart people. Brainy types don't daunt me a bit. But not all of them can explain their thinking clearly and concisely. So when I have the time, I grab a cup of coffee and devote myself to reading and thinking about what smart people have to say.
When I started studying Irish history I got frustrated with what was published so signed up for a National Archive ticket in Dublin. I got to sit by the same fireplace James Joyce would have when he applied for his reader's ticket. The guy interviewing me told a story about holding a notebook of Michael Collins's. When he opened it, on the back of the front cover were all these doodles.
He looked at me and I looked at him and we sighed. Michael's doodles. A badly maligned historic figure with a reputation for inspiring modern mayhem has left behind something so intimate.
What is the point of that story? I've learned there's a lot of information in archives that goes against current received wisdom. Memoirs are being published and information is being smuggled out of closed archives. Antony Beever (Stalingrad, Berlin 1945) hand copied Russian archive documents and hid them in his trousers. Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security advisor, stuffed original documents down his trousers at the US National Archives. Don't you wish those documents had instantly been published, at least on the web? I firmly believe most of the truth about things will come out eventually. I also believe I can spot people who won't let facts persuade them to change their mind. Arrogant much?
This morning I got a link (thanks Liz) and the first line is:
"Americans have never really understood ideological warfare."
Note: Probably because of their non cynical paradigm.
However, I've lived in cynical London for ages and there are tons of people here who don't understand it either.
That's because it's based on psychology which is still linked to mumbo-jumbo and pretentiousness.
Here's a list from a great blog post of memetic weapons used by the Soviet Union:
Note: after each one, imagine the opposite.
There is no truth, only competing agendas.
All Western (and especially American) claims to moral superiority over Communism/Fascism/Islam are vitiated by the West's history of racism and colonialism.
There are no objective standards by which we may judge one culture to be better than another. Anyone who claims that there are such standards is an evil oppressor.
The prosperity of the West is built on ruthless exploitation of the Third World; therefore Westerners actually deserve to be impoverished and miserable.
Crime is the fault of society, not the individual criminal. Poor criminals are entitled to what they take. Submitting to criminal predation is more virtuous than resisting it.
The poor are victims. Criminals are victims. And only victims are virtuous. Therefore only the poor and criminals are virtuous. (Rich people can borrow some virtue by identifying with poor people and criminals.)
For a virtuous person, violence and war are never justified. It is always better to be a victim than to fight, or even to defend oneself. But 'oppressed' people are allowed to use violence anyway; they are merely reflecting the evil of their oppressors.
(I would fight ANYONE who tried to harm one of my little nephews. Bad guys take note.)
When confronted with terror, the only moral course for a Westerner is to apologize for past sins, understand the terrorist's point of view, and make concessions.
I'm going to end with my favourite tagline, used by Electronic Arts:
Challenge everything.
I'm off to read the work of fiction know as the morning paper.
From Cynopsis.com:
"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." Those were the first words heard on MTV when the network launched 25 years ago today, August 1, 1981. MTV's first videos were Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles and You Better Run by Pat Benatar.
There's a magazine in the States called 'College Bound Teen'? That it's been around since 1987? I love magazine racks and always buy the quirky stuff, but I've never seen that one.
CBS has to pay a fine of $550,000 because Janet Jackson took her top off during her performance at the Super Bowl over a year ago. Wish there was a fine for people f-ing and blinding over loudspeakers in public spaces in London and yes Harold Pinter I mean you. Sunday lunchtime in Trafalgar Square is a family destination. But any wise parent would have steered clear of the place this weekend.
Anne of Cleves is buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Katherine Howard's body was put under the altar at St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London and quick lime was sprinkled on it as Henry the Eighth wanted every trace of her gone from the planet. Bloody Mary refused to sit in the Coronation chair when she was crowned. Before Queen Elizabeth knighted Francis Drake on the deck of the Golden Hind she pretended she was going to slice his head off with the sword she was holding. The history during the time of the Tudors is stupendous, action packed and soap opera-ey. And it all happened right here.
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