Owner: paulcanning URL:http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:24:41 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: web stuff and other ramblings Site statistics:Click here
The most racist article of the year 2008-03-20 10:06:00 Survival - which works tirelessly for ignored indigenous people around the world - has issued a new international award for 'The most racist article of the year’.The winner will receive a certificate inscribed with a quotation from Lakota Sioux author Luther Standing Bear: ‘All the years of calling the Indian a savage has never made him one.’The article, published in the Paraguayan newspaper La Nacion, compared Paraguayan Indians to cancer and described them as 'Neolithic', 'out-of-date' and 'filthy'.The award marks March 21, the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.The award is part of Survival's 'Stamp it Out' campaign which aims to challenge racist descriptions of tribal people in the world's media.Stamp it Out is supported by prominent journalists suc
Postscript: Obama addresses race: hear the whole speech, not the BBC's meme 2008-03-20 07:34:00 Fox Attacks, which documents and organises against the lie machine that is Murdoch's US News channel, has produced this video. It links up Fox-originating anti-Obama
memes with the rest of the MainStreamMedia.Jon Stewart had some comments on the Obama speech MSM response as well ...Huckebee defended Obama and put Rev. Wright's comments in context: "I may be the only conservative to say this".The whole speech is #1 viral video:Viral sharing of this video: Spreading across the interweb like Wildfire! Discovered 18 Mar 2008 2,184,642 views 1 duplicate videos 1,351 blog posts 4,534 comments And here's Virtual Vantage Points monitoring of blog reaction:Text clouds from March 17 for U.S.-based Conservatives and U.S.-based Liberals: Read more:addresses
Postscript: BBC video embedding 2008-03-20 06:09:00 Oh yey of little faith ... my comments on the BBC Internet blog about embedding video
have (had) appeared. I took the '502' error to mean failure but, natch, there's the comment after all as I think 'I wonder if anyone else got through with this point ... ' And there's the response from John O'Donovan to my point, and the same from others:You will be able to embed video on other sites but we need to work out some issues with how this will work. In particular, you may not be aware that the player has to support advertising when someone is using it outside the UK and also has to restrict some content to UK users only. This causes a few complications, but rest assured, it will be possible to link to and embed video directly. We will take on feedback about how this user journey works to ensure
Embedding video: why isn't it obvious to the MSM? 2008-03-19 14:46:00 I blogged a few days ago about the BBC's new use of Flash video
across the news website — my main question was to ask just why they won't allow embedding by others of their content. Or rather, why they will allow it when that content is nicked, republished on YouTube etc. (they aren't policing this with take-down notices) but won't enable it.As I commented, this makes even less sense when much of that content - yes, news content - would be of interest to exactly the audiences they are desperate to appeal to. Start with teenagers embedding news about climate change on Bebo/MySpace and think on. It's hard to see where the negatives are but presumably they think there are some.Of course, I tried to comment but actually gave up after re-hitting the button periodically over about eight hours.
Obama addresses race: hear the whole speech, not the BBC's meme 2008-03-19 11:20:00 I'm posting the whole of Obama
's truly great speech yesterday addressing race. It has been filtered and cropped, so watch the whole thing (it's 27 minutes).Mainly the cropping by our media is in terms of how it will affect the election and mainly, it has to be said, by BBC journalists who simply cannot relate to black experience. The BBC's Justin Webb posted the following, which illustrates this:I can well understand that the black folk memory of America is hugely different to the white version but is this what black people really think? Is that what they were thinking five days after 9/11?So he knows it's there but doesn't understand why? Which American history did he study? This ignorance is blatant and pathetic from someone paid a lot by our lead broadcaster to cover America.Matt Frei Read more:addresses
Tibet and boycotts 2008-03-23 08:53:00 Jack P has blogged about Tibet
, writing that people should boycott Chinese-made goods and suggested that:If you know of anyone who was due to compete in the Beijing Olympics this year, ask them to consider what is more important: taking a stand against ethnic cleansing, or their own personal achievement.Now I can remember the only really successful boycotts, of Moscow and then Los Angeles in 1980 and 1984, over Afghanistan. People said much the same about British athletes who went to Moscow, one of whom was Sebastian Coe.This time though, the Tibetans, through the Dalai Lama and the Free Tibet Campaign, aren't calling for a boycott.This year, the Chinese people are proudly and eagerly awaiting the opening of the Olympic Games. I have, from the very beginning, supported the idea that China
Free our bills 2008-03-25 19:14:00 If you haven't seen this and you're British, go and sign up for MySociety's Free Our Bills Campaign.It's about getting Parliament to produce Bills in a way that others can reuse the content online, rather than having to retype from parchment or whatever they do currently. i.e. It's 2008 FFS!This is because TheyWorkForYou cannot currently do things like:We can’t give you email alerts to tell you when a bill mentions something you might be interested in.We can’t tell you what amendments your own MP is asking for, or voting on.We can’t help people who know about bills annotate them to explain what they’re really going on about for everyone else.We can’t build services that would help MPs and their staff notice when they were being asked to vote on dumb or dubious things.We can’t r
Guido is pathetic 2008-03-25 15:22:00 Paul Staines aka Guido
Fawkes shows his true colours in today's bigoted attack on Chris Bryant. Lots of lovely undeleted comments follow on.Gives me a chance to run the video again of when Michael White casually exposed him on Newsnight.What a pathetic
little man he is.
The coming 'tracking' storm 2008-03-24 15:30:00 Greg Sterling has an excellent analysis of the coming storm over online tracking by advertisers - prompted by a first legal move in the New York State Assembly:Here’s where we are today:Traditional media are less and less effective because of audience fragmentation Agencies are still largely clinging to traditional media because of “inertia” and familiarity The Internet is where huge audiences are today but they’re harder to effectively reach Arguably search is the most effective online ad medium Brands generally don’t want to spend money on searchTaking the lessons of search to heart, display advertising — where most of the brand advertising is seeking to go online — is tapping behavioral targeting (BT) and other, similar strategies to make display more “relevant”
MPs: We're afraid of embarrasment on YouTube 2008-03-24 14:33:00 This actually made me laugh.Parliament's youngest MP (and that's relevant), Jo Swinson, has called for an end to the ban on reuse of clips of Parliament on YouTube
.. and blogs ... and news sites - it's about a lot more than YouTube.Parliament should be embracing new technology as a way to reconnect with the public, so isn't it about time we ditched the ridiculous ban on Parliamentary clips being shown on YouTube?If there is a copyright issue, will the House authorities review the current contracts and bring Parliament into the 21st century?Video clips of debates in Parliament can be hosted on MPs' personal websites, but the rules currently ban their use on YouTube and other video streaming sites.I personally think that the more people see what goes on in Parliament, the better, which is w Read more:afraid
Michael Moore gem 2008-03-24 13:34:00 Cheney spent Wednesday, the 5th anniversary of the war, not mourning the dead he killed, but fishing off the Sultan of Oman's royal yachtMore Moore Read more:Michael
, Michael Moore
Spitzer twister: He was after GW Bush 2008-03-24 12:29:00 Greg Palast has an interesting twist to the Spitzer
-hooker scandal.While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an ‘escort’ $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush’s new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there’s a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush’s man Bernanke was using ours.Three weeks before the FBI leaked information to the New York Times, Spitzer wrote a Washington Post piece titled:Predatory Lenders' Partner in CrimeHow the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help ConsumersSpitzer was after how Bush was stopping States Attorneys General who want
Tesco: Brilliant SEO but Satan in disguise 2008-03-24 11:43:00 Owh, they're good, but evil... you have to get past the tenth (standard) Tesco
Google hit before you get Tesco critics cited on (even) the BBC and Guardian. Mega-tricks. Don't know whether to raise my hat or let loose a blast ...Let's try a blast.Tesco offers Sheringham £1.2millionCOUNCIL coffers will get £1.2m (sounds like Shirley Porter's hairdressing bill) from super-market giant Tesco if the controversial store at Sheringham gets the go-ahead. But North Norfolk District Council has stressed that the deal does not affect the long-running planning saga - which is due to come to a head at an inquiry, which will take place in July.Sheringham is a North Norfolk small town I have connections to (and love). It and it's small selection of, albeit slightly 1950s (some close for lunch but 'sel Read more:Brilliant
, SEO
, Satan
More Obama speech reaction - it's positive but you won't read about it 2008-03-23 21:44:00 I've been following the reaction
to Obama
's speech on race (which you can watch in full in this previous blog post).The only polling done that I can find (for CBS) gave 69% of Americans who had heard or read about it giving it a positive reaction.63% agree with Obama's views on race relations. Seventy-one percent say he did a good job explaining his relationship with Rev. Wright - the pastor of his church whose sermons have been edited and received blanket news coverage.The only negative was when people were asked if Obama would unite the country 52% said yes. This is down from 67% last month.Most voters following the events say they will make no difference in their vote.Nearly a quarter of Democrats say the events have made them more likely to back Obama, while a similar number of Republi
'The bloggin' bosses' 2008-03-27 08:34:00 No, not another insult to throw on the picket lines, Paul Caplan has an interesting update about which CEOs are blogging and how they're getting on.Not that many are, Paul calls it:imagine the leap of faith needed by a Boss. Like King Theoden in Lord of the Rings, they have their own (usually paid) Wormtongues whispering in their ears.But the ones doing it are enthusiastic. Hardly surprising because CEOs tend to like to, well, speak and give their opinions!And as Steve says:They make it easier for those of us who are talking to the frontline troops in the public sector and saying: “Yes it’s OK to get out there and have conversations. Yes it’s OK to talk like a human being and tell stories.” Because now we can add: “… because look, your Boss is doing it!”He has lots of links t Read more:bosses
Google: like to-tally white, dude 2008-03-26 17:24:00 Secret's out. Or should be.There are no black people at Google
. I saw one throughout my entire tour, (other than the man I mentioned outside of the elevator,) and he might have been visiting too. Indians, Asians, Canadians: yes. African Americans: no. Really. Forget about China. Somebody call Al Sharpton.Asked about this in Congress today, Laszlo Bock, Google's white vice president of 'people operations', was asked:"How many [of Google's employees] are African-American?""I don't actually have that data at my fingertips," was Bock's reply. "I apologize."You have to be, like, shitting me man.Someone tell Trevor Phillips. Seriously.
Five years on: rare American TV Iraq debate 2008-03-26 13:56:00 It's been reported that when 4,000 US soldiers had died, only two US newspapers put it on their front page.Surprise, coverage is biased. Which makes this debate with Iraq
is Sinan Antoon and Ali Fadhil, hosted by Charlie Rose on PBS, of particular, rare, interest.Well worth 18' of your time.Hat-tip: Glenn Greenwald, who comments:In the American
media's discussions of Iraq, when are the perspectives expressed here about our ongoing occupation -- views extremely common among Iraqis of all types and grounded in clear, indisputable facts -- ever heard by the average American news consumer? The answer is: "virtually never."You could say the same of the UK.
AdBlock shock: still no threat there 2008-03-26 11:07:00 Back in September, Nicholas Carr posted a long, highly combustible diatribe invoking Geezuz against AdBlock Plus: the Firefox extension which will stop practically all those revolving, screaming ads (that's one way, my way, of looking at it). Much online advertising is still stuck in the throw-mud-at-wall stage and, sorry, but I can't read when I have intense visual or auditory distraction. So, like a few other useful extensions (list in right-hand column), AdBlock saves my time and energy.I explained, at length, how Carr was plain wrong and more than a tad hysterical (although he was timid compared to some hysterics who think it's all about Marxism in disguise). This was simply because it remained and would remain largely a geeky thing. At that point, the only numbers which anyone could s Read more:threat
How piracy helps business 2008-03-26 09:40:00 Karen Croxson, a Junior Research Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford, gave a lecture at the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference explaining how software and music piracy
can actually help businesses.While piracy may harm sales, it can also serve to provide free marketing, helping to create ‘buzz’ about a product.This is product specific and may explain certain protections: console games vs. office software for example.The unauthorised copying of digital goods such as software, music and films – a practice referred to as ‘digital piracy’ – has been claimed to place in peril the viability of whole industries. With perceived losses running so high, one might expect to see all sellers moving mountains to safeguard their intellectual property technologically. In fact the
Think before you blog! 2008-03-26 05:44:00 Object lesson for bloggers in the story of the Medway Tory Councillor, John Ward, now resigned, who posted about sterilising so-called 'welfare mothers' on his blog:"A pushy cold caller at the door got me so irate and upset that I didn't finish what I was doing correctly".Despite his rather Nazi-like sympathies (Lynne Fetherstone gave a good example of where this thinking would lead), I actually felt sorry for him. He can think what he likes (and one look at the Mail's comments shows just how prevalent this type of thinking actually is) — it helps no-one if he blogs it without thinking through and in anger (or blaming someone else who's trying to make a probably very small living).There are lots of resources and support for blogging councillors and many have now been doing it for ages: a
Mehdi Kazemi update: April 1st - may be back in UK Monday 2008-04-01 17:37:00 News from the Netherlands that Mehdi
- the 19 year old gay Iranian under threat of deportation to likely execution - may be returned to the UK on Monday
.He has said to visitors and his Dutch lawyer that he would rather remain in Holland - and for very obvious reasons.Despite Jacqui Smith's forced statement, he does not trust the British Government and is very scared. Here, there is precedent with the case of the Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakhsh. A major campaign last year involving Romano Prodi and offers of refuge by two Italian cities have not stopped the Home Office making continuing efforts to deport her.This all just underlines that Mehdi is not safe yet and won't be until the final end game is played out and he actually has asylum. Please continue to sign the international petition Read more:April
Number Ten, rollingstones, upyerbrum! 2008-04-01 17:07:00 The Number
Ten website has just started a Twitter feed - which egov Minister Tom Watson says is already invaluable (as you might imagine).It's claimed to be the first by a Great Leader but there are existing ones for both GW Bush and Aussie PM Kevin Rudd (I think they mightn't be your actual leaders though ... ).They've also launched a Flickr account and the early set of tags made me laugh out loud and think of William Burroughs and cut-ups, yet again ...
Leadership in egov: what's missing? 2008-04-01 13:30:00 Compared to what we're used to, egov Minister Tom Watson is a breath of fresh air.A number of people have examined today's speech by him and interim report on last year's landmark The Power of Information report.Simon Dickson is struck by Tom's call for:more use of techniques commonplace now in the wider world, internal blogs, wikis, discussion forums, shared workspaces, all still quite rare within the machine.And in the report it's amusing claim thatThe government supported a Barcamp initiated by the Ministry of Justice.Well at least they didn't claim 'initiated' ...Simon Wheatley:It’s very heartening stuff and Tom hits many buzzwords, let’s hope he has the power and gets the support to deliver on some of these ideas.SimonR:The problem is they are playing catchup, which is a long way Read more:Leadership
Gore's $300m Pres. campaign intervention for the earth 2008-04-01 13:20:00 Al Gore launched a huge multi-million dollar advertising campaign on 60 Minutes (US Primetime current affairs) on Sunday. He calls climate-change deniers 'flat-earthers'. Here's the report:Having previously posted 'Climate Change nowhere in US Elections and the world should worry' all I can say is thank g*d.Here's their first advert, which is going on American Idol amongst others:And here's the website where you can find out more about it - and one big reason why it's needed:Urge the Press to Ask About Global WarmingThe press has been asking the presidential candidates hundreds of questions on a range of issues, but seldom asks about the greatest threat to our planet: the climate crisis. I want to know how the next President -- Democrat, Republican or Independent -- is going to address th Read more:intervention
What's getting worse for British gay people? 2008-04-01 12:04:00 A couple of new reports show how life for many gay people
in Britain is actually getting worse.A landmark poll commissioned by Stonewall says school bullying is worse than twenty years ago - this ruins life chancesMore gay men are acquiring HIV than ever before - ruining life expectancy.Both of these run against the grain of assumptions: pass some laws and life improves. It's notable that Stonewall make a point of criticising 'smugness' over discrimination. It's certainly my experience than many people think that life for gay people isn't like 'what it used to be'. This isn't a 'glass half empty' argument, here's some numbers:The YouGov poll of 1,658 gay adults found homophobic bullying in schools is more prevalent now than in previous decades. Two-thirds of lesbian and gay people under 19 Read more:British
BBC News redesign: Can someone powerful please yell at them? 2008-04-01 08:28:00 The BBC News
website is extremely popular, so it's not surprising that yesterday's BBC Internet blog post about it's redesign
attracted over 1000 comments - this must be a record?The News Website Editor, Steve Herrmann, explains the changes in terms of doing some research and asking people what they wanted changing (and heard what it appears they wanted to hear):But it was also clear from the feedback we got that there were others who thought the site design could do with a bit of a revamp – something we’d been thinking about doing for a while.The specific changes he focuses on are:the changed width - because 95% of screens are widermore open design - to make it easier to scannew masthead - which is about cross-site brandingbigger images - from user feedback and 'the power of pictures
Recommend Site To A Friend
