Cheney Wants To Burn Books For Fuel!

A friend of mine was watching one of those Sunday Week in Politics shows and Vice President Dick Cheney was on talking about energy self-sufficiency, and Cheney says, and I can't believe this; a solution to the foreign oil problem

"..is shredding all the books and making them into ethanol. I mean, with the Internet we don't need them anymore..."

mh

Stephen Colbert interviewed by Bill O'Reilly on the O'Reilly Factor,

Bill O'Reilly plays Stephen Colberts' shtick and between the lines admits to being all about Hartred and War.

And then on Comedy Central later that night, confirms as much admitting the role playing had exposed his evil plan... "...this was a huge mistake, me comin' on here..".

Billy O'Reilly is a fascist. Yes. That's right, you heard me. I'm not listening. I can't hear you...

..lalala, lalala, lalala, lalala...



mh

6.4 billion digits of Pi

How long would it take to recite Pi
using the following Java applet?

Push to Start

Click on the Harpsichord version in the list - it's funny!

mh

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

A bit of interactive learning technology, produced by me!


Every letter of the English alphabet is used in this Pangram. Read the dot field from left to right, top to bottom; follow the dots up to the sentence to confirm.




This sentence is used to display typefaces and test equipment.



mh

'AS IT HAPPENS' must have Marshall McLuhan Spinning In His Grave.

Barbara Budd

I've been listening to CBC Radio's As It Happens for 30 years. Barbara Frum was weaving the story back then, with Al Maitland drawing the pictures with voice.

Over the years many great hosts have sat in those chairs; many great producers and writers have created magic behind the scenes.

"It takes a special talent to deliver a radio script..." says the current announcers biography. Barbara Budd does not have that talent.

Perhaps the writing staff can't compose; the narrative is usually so badly butchered I can't tell if the writing was good or not. The trips-ups, flubs and miss-takes of rhythm are too much to bear.

They say a great actor can't save a bad script - but a good script can save a bad actor; perhaps in this case it's a mixture of both the bads.











Carol Off

Carol Off doesn't help. The introduction to the production says, "As It Happens is like taking a trip around the world five nights a week." It has become one of those Red-Eyes you wish you'd never booked. The hour and a half used to fly by - when the people who worked on the show understood the reference in the introduction to Marshall McLuhan's Global Village.

Carol Off treats her role as "medium-intermediate" as if it's an old stale formula. Instead of taking us on a trip around the world, she convinces us with every burdensome, half-baked, lineal question that the show isn't really modern at all.

The guest is left telling the whole story from beginning to end while Carol waits for a pause where she can interject one of a list of questions the team came up in the pre-production meeting; trying to make apparent some pseudo-intellectual point.

Happily, there is a solution to all this. In August I heard two masters at work on the show: Helen Mann and C. David Johnson.

Really enjoyed their work this summer, a special team.

Hire them full time As It Happens, before someone else does.



mh

Super Bowl Marketing on DIGG

On January 16.2007 an article appeared on DIGG, the democratically edited news site.

This DIGG story placement was a carefully engineered piece; it was designed to create a buzz Diggers think they are joining.

This is a new type of marketing campaign developed by SEOmoz.org called a Viral Video Product Placement. This is how it works...

This is the piece that appeared on DIGG:

I'm Blogging! Pay Attention to Me!

Rand sent me the above comic strip and instructed me to let it inspire me (it seems he enjoys giving me the occasional homework assignment), and the first thing I thought of when I read it was, "Why do people blog?"

The Title of the piece draws you in; people like to read about themselves or connect with a group of people like themselves. The first line promises a cartoon by clicking on the story. Now your at SEOmoz.org and viola the Cartoon:


The site looks like an ordinary new-business blog site, inter-office chatter. The cartoon is funny, so you read the piece about blogging.

It turns out the community of people here are really nice. You find out that Someone knows Someone who's going to propose marriage during the Super Bowl! Clicking the link confirms JP is going to pop the question. Not only that, but there's some Buzz developing around this, a radio spot, an appearance on Good Morning America... ..and a marketing company is involved and "the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital will also benefit from the buzz"

The DIGG story placement was a carefully engineered piece of writing; it was designed to create the buzz they pretend you are now joining.

This is a new type of marketing campaign called a Viral Video Product Placement, according to Storybids.com the strategy plays out like this:

"the bride-to-be will be under the impression that her smart and wonderful boyfriend was able to win them and some friends a Super Bowl party (compliments of a major corporate sponsor)."

"the potential bride and groom-to-be, along with several of their closest friends, will be filmed by their corporate sponsor, enjoying the game and the product that has paid for their good time"

"suddenly the image of the groom-to-be appears on the (TV) screen (at the party). The venue filled with friends and the bride-to-be, as well as the rest of America, will be viewing the much anticipated proposal that has been building a media frenzy over the past several weeks"

"viewers will view the web address of where they can go to see the response video that was taped during and AFTER the television proposal."

To sum up the idea... the corporate and media savy 'average American guy' sets up a free corporate party during the Super Bowl , which is being filmed; then the proposal of marriage comes on the TV in the party venue - which the television audience is watching - them watch, - at the end of the spot a web address comes up. The television audience can't believe it and America rushes to their computers. The web site resolves the brides answer to the question - but not all the machinations of how it came about. The buzz could last days until we all figure out what happened around the water cooler at work.

Well, now you're ready, now you know, now you can be the smart hip one.



By the way - what is 'Super Bowl'?



mh

The Maltese Falcon, 1941. America In The World- A Review Of

This film is about a new consciousness that America has gleaned from it's collective experience in the First and now the impending reality of the Second World War.

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade plays the American, the democrat, a thread the world hangs on to, their only hope in a world plunging towards a Second Great War. As the Conscience of Humanity, he finds the himself at the centre of the power plays and greed of Empires and powerful interests, played in their various characters.

Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy an apparent love interest, but in the larger sense the British Empire; Kasper Gutman as the German Imperialist, not evil but logical, focusing on his ends, justifying his means; and Peter Lorre playing the French Colonial Interest as Joel Cairo the man "capable of Anything" in Gutman's opinion, he is amoral self interested.


Sam Spade returns to Gutman's Apartments for a discussion of the price to deliver the Falcon; in this scene Gutman promises a World in riches - he talks of the myth of the Knights Templar - perhaps contained with-in the shell of the Maltes Falcon. He's tempting Sam, as a metaphor for American Democracy, with the powers of World Empire. Drugged, something in his drink, Spade(America?) passes out; the tables have been turned, Gutman has milked Spade for information - and given nothing in return.

In the final scene of the movie at Spades Detective Office, Sam has covered all his bases. In the end his play wins, he can have the Falcon, the girl, anything he wants. Yet he knows, through his experience of real freedom, the there's only one option. He chooses the Democratic path, The Rule of Law and calls the cops.

As always in Hollywood, a happy ending... .



mh