Lines upon a predicted elevation

With acknowledgements to E J Thribb

So
It's Dame Jenny Abramsky;
For services
To broadcasting;
I called you Dame Jenny Abramsky
From the late eighties on -
But never
To your face.
Now I can.

Five to start with...

An essential element of blogging success is lists, according to "search optimisation" gurus. Top tens, etc. I might not manage ten by the end of the year, but here are five predictions for 2009.

• The Euro, coming up to its 10th birthday, will be an increasing topic of conversation in the UK
• People will buy more seeds
• We'll get really tired of Andrew Lloyd-Webber
• The second wave of IPhones, Storms and Androids will work better, and become essential
• Three million people out of work will be a key issue in a June election - but it's impossible to say who'll make the most of it...
  

If I don't see you before, Happy New Year.

British cheese monopoly

It needs a better name, but Cheese-opoly could be the board (ho ho) game for next Christmas, according to the Yorkshire Post. Stilton for Mayfair, and cottage cheese for the Old Kent Road, with 20 others in between.

Sweet Caroline

The New York Times offers insight and notes evasion in an interview with Caroline Kennedy, and learns that she thinks she's the best candidate. And "candidate" is a funny word in the political sphere when, technically, the vacancy as Senator left by Hilary Clinton will be filled by an appointment to be made by Governor David Paterson.

I know I should look this sort of thing up, but is there a style book or special person who decides which words take capitals in a NY Times headline ?

As a Candidate, Kennedy Is

Forceful but Elusive

In tune

A nice video from the Seattle Times about a micro-piano firm. They spend time on imported pianos from the Far East, tune them up and rebrand them. And the report explains exactly why.

Internet news news

Thanks to the Guardian for pointing to this under-played survey from the Pew Research Centre. According to their polling, the internet is now ahead of newspapers as the main source of national and international news for Americans - it went in front as top news source for the presidential campaign, but this move and the trend suggests the new lead is here to stay.

Paying for the party

The Presidential Inauguration Commmittee has just published a list of donors who are paying for the party. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of contributors are from New York, Washington and LA, but there's a good number from Chicago. If you tried to buy your way in to the gig from abroad, no go - no foreign donations accepted.

Green yogurt may not be what it seems...

This is a bit scary. The LA Times picks up an AP wire story about "amateurs" having a go at genetic engineering experiments at home.

"In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly".

Fishy

The LA Times says Chinese fish farmers may have been adding melamine to their feed mix.
China is the world's largest producer of farmed seafood - including shrimp, catfish, tilapia, and salmon.

Melamine, when digested rather than eaten off, can cause kidney stones and even kidney failure.

Use your loaf

The Western Mail says bread not cheese is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, the promotional theme of "A Matter of Loaf and Death", the new Wallace & Gromit offering on tv tomorrow. So Aaardman Animation have moved on from Wensleydale, and linked up with, amongst others, traditional flour millers, Bacheldre Watermill, based near Welshpool. On shelves soon - seven Wallace & Gromit packaged flours to celebrate the duo’s new baking credentials.

Fawkes off

Guido Fawkes, perhaps the UK's best-known individual blog brand outside Peston and Robinson, is moving away from "Blogger" to operate his burgeoning site - but isn't specific, yet, about what tools he's chosen, particularly for moderation.

He's kind about the free platform, which has copied with surges of interest around Guido's undoubted scoops, but argues "Google have until now been very resilient but at the end of the day they are not going to risk their corporate neck for Guido or his co-conspirators".

Old cheese

The Newcastle Journal proudly reports the work of local university scientists in identifying - and naming - eight microbes that make reblochon, a cheese from the French Alps, what it is.

Professor Michael Goodfellow and his team, funded by the EU, used DNA techniques, and the microbes are now officially clustered as "Mycetocola Reblochoni". "It has always been thought the bacteria cheese makers were putting in at the start of the process gave reblochon its distinctive flavour. What our research actually showed was this new group of bacteria were responsible for the ripening process, influencing the taste, texture and smell of the cheese."

Reblochon is a "smear-ripened cheese" and it was previously thought that the washing of the rind with a salt solution produced brevibacterium linens, which was what made the cheeses particularly strong-smelling. You find that bacteria on human skin. Now it seems, the smell may becoming from inside rather than outside.

PS: If you're off shopping and feel driven to a little smear-ripened something for the Xmas cheeseboard, consider also Port Salut, Livarot, Taleggio, Limburger (one beloved by my mate Tim), and the Irish contribution to the genre, Gubbeen.

Posting without pain

Start-up Posterous is offering a very basic way to create your own blog, without a smell of templates, let alone html, for the new user. You just send it emails, photos etc, and the blog is "auto-created" . It launched in beta in June, and has now got some serious investment and around 200,000 users; Tech crunch reports that new tools include the ability to set up group blogs.

Right on radio

The New York Times says the New Year will see some new right-wing radio talk show hosts in place across the States, looking forward to barracking Obama - among them, Mike Huckabee and possibly Rudy Giuliani. The paper argues that some of the old stagers will also be on better, more confident form, happier in attack mode, rather than defending Bush.

A former ed on Ed....

In case you don't wade through all of the Sunday Times, an extract from Rod Liddle's all-too-detailed-but-probably-right-commentary on the career of Ed Stourton.

"Ed was foisted upon me when I was editor of the Today programme back in 1999. I wasn’t best pleased. He had just been sacked as the presenter of the BBC One O’Clock News because - so it was alleged - he was too “posh”. Some shadowy cabal of BBC executives gathered together and decided to give him the boot and sweeten the pill by awarding him a whole bunch of shifts presenting the Today programme, plus some other stuff".

The narrative misses the tension the move of Ed from tv to radio caused between Tony Hall and Jenny Abramsky at that time - and for some while afterwards.

Bribery with a budget line

The New York Times, working with PBS's Frontline, and an non-profit team from ProPublica, has done a major write-up of the bribery case against Siemens, which ended last week with a record $1.6 billion fine.

"What is striking .... is how entrenched corruption had become at a sprawling, sophisticated corporation that externally embraced the nostrums of a transparent global marketplace built on legitimate transactions"

Media centre and money

According to the Observer, who in turn quote John Arnitt of the ODA, the taxpayer will have to stump up for whatever media centre is finally built for the London Olypmpics - current cost estimate £300m, and, so far, no sign of private offers of funding.

The media centre is critical to the long-term reputation of the London games - if international hacks aren't well looked after, with quick and easy access to competitors, officials, and information, their gripes soon gets fed back around the world. In Beijing, the hacks had a much better time than the average paying visitor, with dedicated guides and special transport. So the Chinese won an important PR battle as soon as the columnists and reporters logged in.

It doesn't have to be a classy building, but it's pivotal to establishing the 2012 event in general as well-organised and fit for a modern, multi-media world.

Tube ads

Research for Motorola and General Motors Europe claims that recall and attribution for an ad watched on YouTube was up to 14% higher than watching the same ad on TV. I thought we all just blanked out or skipped. Spotted in New Media Age. Some of the research was done by the Online Testing Exchange.

We apologise to the people of Wales

Two Welsh Tories are being hounded by the Western Mail for buying IPods on expenses. One has previous form; according to the BBC, he bought a trouser press as well !

Bank on it

While the season may not be jolly for UK media workers who are losing their jobs, there's a little tinsel for the merchant banks. I was struck by this par from the Guardian Media pages....

"Channel 4 has hired the services of NM Rothschild to assess potential funding solutions, while the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is being advised by investment bank UBS. Meanwhile, the BBC has signed up Goldman Sachs to advise on the future of BBC Worldwide."

No unnecessary duplication there, then.

Over the (blossom) hill....

A selection of wine stories, all from the Telegraph this week.

UK drinkers bought more wine from the USA than from France in the year to November.


The USA has also overtaken France in the league table of production by volume.


Australia still leads the world in terms of volume of wine consumed, but France has fallen into 3rd place, behind the USA.


The average price for American wine in the UK stands at £4.15 a bottle, with French wine at £4.46.

Chinese scientists are trying to accelerate the ageing of wine by pumping it through an electrical field. They believe it speeds up the chemical reactions that mellow wine, particularly reds.

An Australian doctor says that he's found a way to increase the amount of resveratrol, an anti-oxidant, in wine. He says it's tasteless, but by increasing its proportion, it could help clear arteries.

Colette takes a bow

If you're looking for some background on Colette Bowe, try this from the Guardian. If the BBC Trust evaporates in the next few years, with a view to reducing the costs and consequences of dual oversight of the Corporation, she will be a pivotal figure...

Ed case

Leader writers, columnists, diarists LOVE the BBC. The organisation serves up talking points on a bi-weekly basis. And they write, ruminate and rumble.

Ed Stourton had to phone in to find out his Today contract would not be renewed.

Daily Mail leader "No broadcasting organisation on earth has more overseers and personnel managers than the BBC. How do these people justify their keep, when they treat viewers (re Strictly Come Dancing votes) and staff alike with such contempt ?"

The Mail's gossip writer Ephraim Hardcastle notes that Craig Brown and A.N.Wilson, freelances as well, got the boot from the Telegraph without public fuss. "So stop moping, Ed. Why not use the "I was sacked" coverage to spring yourself out of this radio dead-end, and into something better ?"

Max Hastings, also in the Mail "Ed Stourton is a clever man who usually knows what he is talking about. It should not matter in the slightest degree that he possesses a 'posh' accent. If the BBC is in reality removing him from Today for other reasons, then it has only itself to blame for the row which has erupted".

Gillian Reynolds, doyenne of radio critics, in the Telegraph "Tactically, it's brilliant. Too bad Ed Stourton had to be the catalyst".

Tim Walker, "Mandrake" in the Telegraph: "When I asked Justin Webb what he wants to bring to the Radio 4 Today programme when he takes over from Ed Stourton, he could only reply limply: 'Let me get permission from my elders and get straight back.' The timid lamb never did and that is precisely why Mandrake will campaign in the weeks ahead to save Posh Ed, who is at least his own man."

Guardian leader: "Mr Stourton is right to make a public fuss. The BBC owes him both an apology and a job".

Jackie Ashley, commenting in the Guardian: "...class is back. I even fear poor Ed Stourton is collateral damage, losing his job on Today just when there's a kickback against genial coves with large tums and posh voices elsewhere in public life...."

Brian Groom in the FT; "Why does the BBC seem such a mean-spirited organisation ? Does the arrogance come from knowing its funding from the licence fee is assured ? The way Ed Stourton heard of his sacking from the Today programme - from a journalist checking out the rumour - was typical. He deserves an apology, at the least."

Twittering about redundancies

The New York Times alerted me to a Twitter feed that tries to be first with job loss news in the media - at least in the States. Comings, goings, rumours and more - all in under 140 characters a go - at Themediaisdying. Could it replace journalism ?

Plumb line

John Tusa, writing in the Guardian, thinks Ed Stourton has been poorly treated by the Today programme - with Justin Webb riding in from the Wild West to oust him. "There is, it should be noted, an unpleasant strain of populist inverted snobbery wafting around the whole affair – namely that Stourton is a bit, well, too "middle class".

That may be pitching it a bit low for Ed. Ampleforth (Head boy) and Trinity College, according to Wikipedia. A descendant of the 19th Baron Stourton. He first married Margaret McEwen in 1980 in Kensington, the daughter of Sir James Napier Finnie McEwen, a Baronet. Then Fiona Murch in 2002. Stourton's Eton/Cambridge educated son Ivo James Benedict, born 1982, has recently published his first book; his other two children are Thomas Edward Alexander (Eton) and Eleanor Mary Elizabeth, and a stepdaughter Rosy. Posh, I'd say.

Justin Webb: Sidcot School, a Friends' school, then LSE, where he edited student rag The Beaver. Well hard.

PS Mr Tusa (or it might be a Guardian sub) describes Ed's voice as "plumby". Not a word, as far as I can tell. Probably means "plummy". But surely that goes for both of them - and Mr Tusa ?

Board ?

For those of you who feel the Wii is insufficiently participatory, the San Francisco Chronicle has reviewed 36 board games, most of them new, available this year.

Shoeless

To save you a search in Wikipedia: In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. In Baghdad, when US forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein, some Iraqis threw their shoes at it on the ground.

It may go way back - Psalms 60.8, talking about traditional enemies of Judah, says "Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe". Showing the bottom of one's feet or shoes (eg putting your feet up on a desk or table) is considered an extreme insult in Arab cultures.

Al-Baghdadiya TV, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, quotes it mission ""We do our utmost to bring down tragedy to sadness and then we bring down sadness to joy so that the Iraqi nation, our nation can return to us in one piece and so that our people will return to it with compassion. That is the mark of Al-Baghdadiyah in its programming and its goal in the satellite world and in reality. Al-Baghdadiyah is Iraq's window to the world and the world's window to Iraq." Available on the internet via Jumptv, it seems to promote itself as an entertainment channel.

Block watching: The sequel

Last week I picked up on a San Francisco Chronicle story about adamsblock.com - a site consisting of two cameras pointing out of an apartment window at a crossroads, with associated chat room. Adam Jackson, it seems, has now had real trouble, from people who don't like being watched.

"Today, we tell you how it all went wrong, from a flurry of death threats to being targeted by cyberbullies. But just when it looked like the thugs had bullied Jackson into taking down his site, the community rallied behind the concept of neighborhood cameras. In fact, the interest may be stronger than ever"

adamsblock is now ourblock.com.

Ads off

France's National Assembly has voted to back Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to remove advertising from "state" tv channels. From January France2 and France3 will carry no ads after 8pm at night. All ads go by the end of 2011.

But the debate was a grumpy Friday session, with only 48 out of 477 there to decide the issue. One comment on the Le Monde website: "Now let's have a ban on 'publicite' for Mr and Mrs Sarkozy".

University terms for car makers

Vauxhall in Liverpool are looking for volunteers to take an eight-month sabbatical on 30% pay before, hopefully, coming back in September to produce a new Astra. Our national news sites more interested in the USA again...... Thanks to the Liverpool Echo.

Justin time

Justin Webb is (slowly) to replace Ed Stourton on the Today rota. David Vance of Biased BBC will be pleased; he has a special tag for Justin - The Legend.

The power of footfalls

Yesterday, the revolving door that powers its own lights. Now the power floor that generates electricity to keep the barriers opening and shutting on Tokyo railways. Via Engadget.

The road ahead

Not quite 3-d, but Mercedes Benz are proposing to use a display screen where (one hopes) the driver can watch important control information, and co-driver sees something else from the same screen. Is it me, or does this car seem to be driving into oncoming traffic ?

Sign of the times

One of a range of twisted logos reflecting the global recession. More available at businesspundit.

Art imitates sport

"Shane Warne - The Musical" has opened in Melbourne.

Greg Baum writes in the Sydney Morning Herald "... it was, as you would expect, theatre with extra spin".

Picture by Michael Clayton-Jones.

Many hands make light work

Free energy from visitors, in this revolving door from Boon Edam. Well, at least enough to run the lights inside the door. Which is better than nothing. Via Gizmodo.

Attempting to board....

When The Times (prop R Murdoch) writes "Channel 4 could be merged with the profitable BBC Worldwide to prevent it going bankrupt", it means "Channel 4 would like to take over the profitable, etc etc".

I can't see why on earth they should be allowed to manage it. Maybe let them have a teeny-weeny stake, and see what sales maestro John Smith can do with C4 product; let C4 take some rights in indie formats, which has hamstrung ex-sales maestro Andy Duncan.

Meanwhile I suspect the BBC needs more help from Worldwide assets than it would like to admit...

End of the line

The Press Gazette reports forecasts from media research firm Enders Analysis that a third of the UK's regional newspapers, two national newspapers and half of the jobs in the regional media will disappear in the next five years.

In 2008 we've lost The Derby Trader, The Ilkeston Trader, The Ripley Trader, Peterborough Herald and Post, Stamford Herald and Post, The Whittlesey Standard, Deepings Standard, Belper Bugle, The Long Eaton Advertiser, The Long Eaton Trader, The Abergele Visitor, The Rhyl and Prestatyn Visitor, Your Vale, The Huyton & Roby Star, The Congleton Guardian, The Macclesfield Community News, The Hale Community News, The Knutsford Community News, The Wilmslow and Bramhall Community New, The Glasgow East News, The Ayrshire Extra.

They may not have all been good, but we haven't seen a cull of nostalgic names like this since Dr Beeching. Any more for the roll call ?

Save on transmitters.....

RAJAR has published its latest snapshot of online listening, from a MORI/Ipsos survey conducted in October. Snippets....

• Almost one third (31.7%) of UK adults have listened to some form of audio programming via the internet - live or later....
• Most listening is at home (89%).
• 2.9 million people are estimated to have used "Personalised Online Radio" - I presume they mean Last FM, Musicovery etc...
• 75% of users of "listen again" services said they hadn't changed their live listening habits. But almost half said they are now listening to radio programmes they hadn't tried before
• An estimated 7.2 million people have downloaded a podcast (up from 6 million in May ‘08)
• iTunes remains the software of choice, used by almost 70% of podcast users, while 17% simply download directly from the website. 75% listen to podcasts on their home computer and 66% listen via a portable audio/mp3 player.

Full report here.

Point missed

I've been belatedly pointed to a letter in the Guardian from BBC Trustee Diane Coyle about the the Trust's decision to block BBC management plans for a local broadband service. She says " The major reason for our decision was the evidence that such a service would not meet the demand for better local news. The public mainly want this news on radio and TV, not via the internet, and we have asked BBC management to bring forward new proposals to meet that demand". This seems naive. 400 extra staff working around the UK, the bulk of them video journalists, would have massively improved the content of existing BBC output, giving local and regional editors much more stuff to choose from, rather than living in a world where everything you decide to cover HAS to run.

Behind every great man...

The Chicago Tribune lays into Patricia Blagojevich, wife of under-arrest Governor Rod. Partly, it seems because she wanted Tribune writers fired. Their web headline: "First Lady: an unflattering portrait emerges".

Michelle Malkin uses stronger language about Patty.

Dating and mating

Oh those Frenchies ! The theme for "LeWeb08", an high-class annual geek fest in Paris, starting today, is "L'Amour". And apparently, we use the web to find it.....

Nice figure

According to the free Website Grader, things are still on the up for this blog....

Blog Ranking: Top 6.72 %

Technorati is a popular blog directory service. It measures the popularity of a given blog as compared to all other sites that have been submitted to its system.

This blog currently has a Technorati rank of 4,703,747, which puts it in the top 6.72% of blogs tracked by Technorati.

Earlier Tonight

Went for a look at the Chicago Tribune site (flagship of the Tribune group, which is in financial trouble) and found rumours that Jay Leno could be moving to tv prime time, five nights a week, in the autumn/fall.

His show currently runs from 11.35pm on the east coast - a move to 10pm would not pit him against Letterman, but against prime dramas - which his network, NBC has been struggling to produce. Conan O'Brien, a puzzle to most Brits, has been promised Jay Leno's late night slot - but it now looks like they'll be competing for guests.

Letting it all hang out

David Miliband, on his FO blog, complains that the performance for the Queen at Buckingham Palace, led by his wife Louise Shackleton and Condoleeza Rice was not a recital, but a "jamming session". I think he ought ought to get out more...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7759872.stm

Do the maths....

The Independent’s £1 price tag appears to have cost it dearly in terms of sales – which dropped 13.8 per cent year-on-year in November. However, by another analysis, it's better off. If you take away bulk sales, the paper sold an average of 182,397 copies a day in September, at 80p each - income before costs £145,917.60p. In November it sold, rather than gave away, 165,222 copies - income before costs, at a £1 a throw - £165,222.

All that glitters

Columnist J Patrick Coolican, writing in the Las Vegas Sun, ruminates on a gloomy prospect for Glitter Gulch.

"Risk and risk-takers have been celebrated, fetishized, apotheosized in the American economy and culture for two decades......and now it’s come to an end, at least for the time being.

As the recession deepens, economists and psychologists say Americans are cleaving to security. Risk has taken a holiday, and nowhere is it being felt more broadly than in Las Vegas. From Iowans who aren’t dropping as much money into slots, to Nevadans who aren’t buying homes, to casino companies that can’t find financing, Las Vegas is suffering at every level."

Illustrated neatly by Chris Morris.

Open Windows

The New York Times leads with a pull-together that suggests that the bad guys are beating the good guys in the battle to keep computers and the web clean, tidy and safe... "Microsoft has monitored a 43 percent jump in malware removed from Windows computers just in the last half year".

Block watching

The San Francisco Chronicle highlights what it calls "one of the greatest at-work time-killers ever to pop up on your monitor". Adamsblock is just two web cams pointed at an SF crossroads, out of an apartment window - now with high quality pictures, and a real-time chat room with upwards of 50,000 users.

Beards

Is it possible to combine long-term success as a football manager with a beard ? The Roy Keane experience suggests the growth was a cry for help; as an Everton fan, I'd argue that Rafa is as consistent about facial hair as he is about team selection. Anyone else remember top-flight bearded managers ?

PS For me, Prince Michael of Kent went down the royal league table of esteem when that beard - strangely Keane-like - started to flourish.

Fast move

The Guardian says its move into new offices in King's Cross will take just three weeks. 1,700 staff. Not bad - hope all the technology works.

Google slides

French consulting firm FaberNovel's analysis of Google's growth strategies -which makes the organisation look rather scary. Buying satellites and all sorts !


Found via BuzzMachine, who credits TechCrunch

All about Google

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: google about)
.

Moving targets

The Guardian says it's adding "targetted" ads to its podcasts, which will vary according to where in the world you download them, and could vary according to the time of day you download them. Reported in Press Gazette and New Media Age.

Bookcase

An extendable bookcase from Rotterdam-based designer Reinier De Jong:











"The zigzag shaped parts slide in and out of each other, providing as much space as needed. With REK there will be no silly sights of half an empty bookcase anymore because REK will always be full. Also with the different spaces that appear you can arrange your books according to their size". Not sure I go with de Jong entirely there - it's nice to have space in a bookcase.... Found via dezeen and gizmodo.

No sweat

The new visitor centre just opened beneath the front of the Capitol in Washington DC is five acres of construction on three levels, fifty-foot underground, four years late, costing $621m, rather than the budgeted $261m. For me, it has the style of a mausoleum - but, for the Senators, the air-conditioning means lower levels of aroma from sweaty tourists - enjoy this CBS report, if can you bear the advert.


Watch CBS Videos Online



Officially, it's the work of the Architect of the Capitol, a government role - but the designers are RTKL Associates - who have done enormous projects around the world, including a fistful of Ritz-Carltons, and unbuilt designs for Liverpool's Central Station.

Another "Brit" connection: the structural work was by Balfour Beatty, who brought you the unloved BBC White City office block, on a design and build contract.

Shiny

Building Design has revealed how Sony Europe and designers Freestate created a vast hall of mirrors for a trade show in Berlin - at less than traditional cost. Not mirrors, but a highly reflective, metallised polyester film, produced by German company Alluvial, and mounted on aluminium frames. There was some damage from curious fingers making dents, but overnight cleaners with hair dryers could usually make it good again. The panels are to be re-used in a Berlin night club....

Hoist anchor

Further to allegations of ageism at Countryfile (below), the New York Times points to a new issue in local tv output in the States -wageism. It argues that "a generation of local tv anchors is signing off" because of a recession-driven move to younger, cheaper hosts.

Oogedy-boogedy

Thoughtful yet rather scary article in the LA Times ponders on the future for Republicans post-McCain, reaching the conclusion that they're heading in the direction of an "evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy" party.

Author Neal Gabler concludes, "There may be assorted intellectuals and ideologues in the party, maybe even a few centrists, but there is no longer an intellectual or even ideological wing. The party belongs to McCarthy and his heirs -- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Palin. It's in the genes."