DJR's gist: Germany, as a generalisation, dislikes the financial services sector that Britain and London took so lovingly to its very heart. "Products" such as derivatives and "positions" involving short selling and dubious financing were seen as being "like a plague of locusts over our companies, [they] devour everything, then fly on to the next one". So it was with some satisfaction that they must have watched short-sellers get bare-face raped by Volkswagen's spectacular stock price boom - gaining 95% in value and ending the day as the largest company in the world. The surprise of the announcement by Porsche (see article) has generated terrific losses, which for many people is absolutely hilarious. Not for hedge fund managers though... but they've got their work cut out if they want any sympathy over in the Motherland.
DJR's gist: The levels of early voting seen in this year's US Presidential elections is unprecedented, and will almost certainly change the concept of "election day" forever. The sheer volume of voters has left voting stations inundated for days - there is no way they'd be able to handle such demand if concentrated in one day. Consensus is that early voting helps Barack Obama, but a good point to consider is that if all the Democrats vote early, next Tuesday could be eerily quiet in terms of Democrat numbers.
DJR's gist: I couldn't agree more with Boulton about this. We, in Britain, sit watching the American political process with a mixture of condescension and disbelief. But while they're actually arguing over issues that will affect their future leader, we've got our two most important politicians talking about "some offensive and smutty phonecalls made a couple of vulgar celebrities" through the medium of the BBC. Sure, action needs to be taken (and has been), but involving the PM? Seriously?
DJR's gist:"Windows 7", the new version of Windows that is likely to be released by this time next year, is going to offer a lot more than a mere fine-tuning of Vista. With the product now in the hands of thousands of hardware developers, Microsoft are looking to iron out the strategic issues that caused Vista's slow start. It is also interesting to note that Microsoft is seemingly returning to its formula from the late 1990s, where new versions of Windows were successively released from 3.1 to 95, 98, Me and XP. After 7 years of XP as standard, it may come as a surprise to people who've recently bought Vista PCs to discover that they're OS is going to be old news very soon.
DJR's gist: This one comes from Chouders. A hotel in Sydney is being sued for up to A$1,000,000 for allegedly serving shit in a bowl to a family under the label of "chocolate ice cream". If true, it is potentially the worst bit of PR ever.
DJR's gist: There is one week left of campaigning before election day in the US, and things are not looking good for John McCain. Barack Obama has more money, more grass-roots activists, a lead in the polls and a running mate who is both vaguely competent and not an emblem of everything that is wrong with the US. This could, should, and hopefully will be the beginning of the end.
DJR's gist: An extremely thought-provoking piece by Moïse suggests that while Europe is literally desperate for an Obama victory, the powers-that-be in Asia may actually support McCain - albeit for wildly conflicting reasons. Japan, for example, support a hard-lined US to counter the power of China - a philosophy seemingly embodied by McCain. However, China want also want the status quo - the Republican administration has coincided with an increased view of China as a positive counter to the US, and they naturally worry that Obama will create a tide of positive US sentiment which, by extension, represents negative China sentiment. India, for what it's worth, has probably enjoyed the US' capitulation in terms of economic and political clout and international integrity and would like a few more years of the same to consolidate its position.
However, Moïse is purely analysing the views of the elites of Asia. If the common man was voting, it's fairly safe to assume that the world would be a tidal wave of blue.
DJR's gist: It looks like Barack Obama will win the Presidency. But even if US voters are somehow spooked into not voting for the only credible option, it is looking increasingly likely that they will still take the opportunity to give the Republican Party the kicking of their lives. And crucially, if the Democrats manage to get hold of over 60% of the seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, then it really doesn't matter who's in the White House - the power will be with Congress. Checks and balances...
DJR's gist:Quantum of Solace, the latest instalment in the multi-million pound James Bond 007 franchise, has its world premiere in Leicester Square on Thursday. And with its release is an opportunity to ask the question - is James Bond cool? Or is he representative or everything that's wrong. Obviously the answer is the former. But it's quite interesting to read the rants of feminists and killjoys.
DJR's gist: An interview, leave alone an exclusive one, is a rarity when the interviewee is Sir Alex Ferguson. But picking his mind provides some great insights into the thinking of Britain's most successful manager. Particularly on the brilliance of Eric Cantona, and the uselessness of Peter Kenyon.
DJR's gist: Lord Foster and Partners have revealed their plans for the new "Isle of Dogs" station that will connect the new £16bn Crossrail scheme to Canary Wharf and the thousands of financial employees working there. The plan involves a giant "green" bubble - an enclosed area of parkland combined with shops and restaurants, with the station itself accessed underground. Looks whacky... perfectly in tune with the area.
DJR's gist: Finkelstein was part of the Tory government when it so spectacularly disintegrated in May 1997, and has some insightful words of advice to Republicans as they gear up to blame each other over their seemingly imminent loss. The advice? No one will care. After Labour's 1997 landslide, there was euphoria and an overwhelming sentiment for change that transcended how the public actually voted, and meant that the only news was about the new people who would be the change. The losers were history, and until they realised that they were unable to grow out of it. Lets just hope the Republicans have the opportunity to decide whether "that realisation [is] more painful than the battles themselves."
DJR's gist: Securing the distinct honour of being the first journalist to feature in two consecutive issues of The Linkrod, Holly Watt's excellent account of her coast-to-coast-to-coast road-trip presently sees her in the traditionally red-as-a-tomato state of Indiana. The Republicans Presidential candidate has taken Indiana in every election since 1936, and 4 years ago Dubya winged it by a massive 20-point margin. So what the hell is she doing there? Well surprise, surprise, this state has been brought into play in the tide of pro-Obama sentiment. This has been aided by Obama's position as Senator of neighbouring Illinois, as well as Indiana's proximity to the urban sprawl and Democratic stronghold that is Chicago. If Indiana goes blue, there is surely little stopping an absolute rout.
DJR's gist: Heathrow is, without doubt, horrifically overcrowded with no capacity for growth without getting millions of West London residents crying like little girls. The hassle is just astronomic. I'm all for Boris' airport island, and if he can manage to push this one through then he will have, in one foul swoop, ensured that his legacy as Mayor of London is on a par, if not greater, than anything Red Ken achieved in his decade in the job.
DJR's gist: Despite the fact that we on the enlightened side of the Atlantic seem to have survived fine with small cars for... well, ever, your average American has always had to weigh up the environmental and economic benefits of a smaller car with a perception that driving a smaller car increases the likelihood that you and/or your family will meet with a messy, spine-crunching, face-shattering end as your runt of a vehicle is totalled by some 4x4 gas-guzzling behemoth. As Chambers reports, small cars are built tough. Particularly when they're Japanese. Or European. Or, apparently, if they're from pretty much anywhere that isn't Detroit.
DJR's gist: On the topic of Detroit, the technology world has its eyes on a Microsoft conference taking place in LA. What's the link? Well much like Microsoft now, once upon a time Detroit had massive market share and a dominant position in the US, and indeed global car market. But market power is useless if you stop making what consumers want, and as "cloud computing" begins to emerge as the future paradigm for technology, Microsoft has to make sure it doesn't replicate Detroit's mistakes. If it's any consolation, the likely beneficiaries should they fail will still be from the West Coast... namely Apple of Cupertino or Google of Mountain View.
DJR's gist: Last week's edition of Science - one of the world's two most prominent scientific journals (along with Nature) - included a study about how the temperature of different drinks can affect human emotions and actions. Namely, that cold drinks increase rationality and are thus ideal when making economic decisions, while warm drinks increase empathy and encourage emotional warmth. The crux is that hot chocolate is good on dates, but not so good when booking a holiday. Or something like that.
DJR's gist: Keynesian economics, whose prescription of government intervention to support full employment formed the basis of policy through the middle of the 20th century, seemingly died a natural death with Thatcher's monetarist policies of the 1980s. The "new economic paradigm" of low inflation, high growth and low unemployment seemed to have consigned Keynes to the scrapbook. How things change in a few years. The "new economic paradigm" is in tatters, "neo-classical" economics that minimised government intervention has resulted in a crisis caused by the market itself, and all the while Keynes had warned of the cheer uncertainty that could, would, and has caused carnage.
DJR's gist: The Queen, the ever apolitical face of the United Kingdom (and some other countries that claim her as their Queen) has been on another state visit (adding to a tally that already has over 60 visits under its belt). This time it was Slovakia and Slovenia, where she has been greeted in the same vein as The Beatles. Which is some feat, and certainly good to see from the UK-standpoint. And as this report describes, it's always good to see that even in the most meticulously organised events, the BBC manage to put a spanner in the works.
DJR's gist: The US election may not be over yet, but Republicans are already beginning the post-mortem into how and why they've lost this election. Hopefully they will conclude that it's because their policies are anchored in a stone age view of society and a global perspective on a par with a 4 year old. The most obvious conclusion regards Sarah Palin - "a fatal cancer on the party", and the very "symptom and expression of a new vulgarisation in American politics". If she's still considered a viable candidate in 2012, then it's fair to say Barack Obama will have failed in 4 years as President.
DJR's gist: Casting your mind back to January and the caucus held in Iowa - Barack Obama secured a major and significant victory over Hilary Clinton in the very blue-collar state that Hilary should have been taking for granted. Meanwhile, John McCain largely ignored Iowa to focus on the primaries in other states such as New Hampshire. Fast forward to the present, and Barack Obama's seeds have been planted all over a state that looks set to reverse its colours for 2008.
DJR's gist: It's always good to see a Conservative supporting a Democrat candidate in the US (it's really not that surprising given that the Democratic Party would probably be more right-wing than the Tories if their policies were translated into a UK context). In this case, it's none other than London's legendary mayor and general source of amusement, Boris Johnson. It takes him just three lines to point out that "Unlike the current occupant of the White House, [Obama] has no difficulty in orally extemporising a series of grammatical English sentences, each containing a main verb". That's exactly the kind of sentence I want to see British politicians using on a much more regular basis.
DJR's gist: Marxism is back in vogue. As the global economy collapses further and further every day, people are bailing on capitalism like rats from a sinking ship. 40,000 "pilgrims" have made a trip to Trier in Germany, the town of Marx's birth, are definitely such people, and the internet is full of clowns who seem to think half the world has adopted Das Kapital as their Bible. But as this article points out, for every bit of sensible stuff prescribed by Marx, there are equal measure of crap about "centralised communications and transport" and "elimination of inheritance" etc. etc.. That kind of chat is never going to fly with the Home Counties.
DJR's gist: This blog has long established that Sarah Palin is complete idiot who should never be near the reigns of power of a household, leave alone a state or, God-forbid, a country. But questions have to be asked about what, exactly, she is doing criticising the same robocalls that John McCain was defending the previous day. If she's manoeuvring for her political future, she's doing a damned bad job of it. But then this is Palin we're talking about...
DJR's gist: The latest figures of internet search usage in the UK suggests that Google command just under 90% of the market, with Yahoo!, Microsoft Live and Ask! fighting over second place. So Microsoft have pulled out a classic move to get new customers - bribery! People who use their new search page have the chance of winning one of 24 prizes (John Lewis vouchers) every day up till Christmas. First place in the market is out the window, but the race for second could be very interesting.
DJR's gist: This is great fun. I don't want to ruin it by saying anything about it. Just make sure you have your speakers on and have some American friends you can call on speakerphone.
DJR's gist: If you're not interested in cricket, you should be. This is significant not just because it's the largest margin of victory ever recorded by India, but because it's only the second Test match Australia have lost in 3 years since the 2005 Ashes. There is every chance that India will win this series - making it 3 out of 4 at home against the Aussies, and with England touring India immediately afterward there will be obvious psychological games at work ahead of next summer's Ashes in England.
DJR's gist: Tomasky is editor of Guardian America, and can therefore be assumed to view the world through glasses that are more than a little liberal-tinted. However, his description and analysis of the sheer lunacy and hypocrisy of the political and social positions being increasingly adopted by Republicans. "Anti-American"? Don't even get me started on the number of ways in which that's horsecrap.
DJR's gist: Europe, led by Sarko with GB alongside, has managed to bring about a global economy summit dubbed "Bretton Woods II". But as Mallaby points out, the analogy is at best erroneous - Europe is not recovering from the Second World War, and fixed exchange rates are anything but the order of the day. So what can this summit actually achieve? Well as this American columnist is keen to point out, a big step would be for "declining powers" like Britain and France to cede some of their power over institutions like the IMF to the growing powers of the developing world. Likely? I think not.
DJR's gist: The Middle East doesn't like Joe Biden. That's the crux of this article, which essentially voices the opinion that because Joe Biden was in favour of a proposal to split Iraq into three sections - one for each of its ethnic groups - and thus avoid a civil war - he is not a popular figure in the Middle East. Ironically, John McCain and Sarah Palin are not disliked, because no one knows anything about them. Which begs the question - why hasn't Sarah Palin said anything about Iraq? Probably because she doesn't know where it is. Or even that it exists.
DJR's gist: Fresh from become a Nobel Laureate, Professor Paul Krugman takes this opportunity to point out that, amongst other things, Joe the Plumber would definitely be better off under Obama than McCain, John McCain's policies would essentially continue those of George W. Bush - which has already proven to be disasterous, and that whatever today’s G.O.P. is, it isn’t the party of working Americans".
DJR's gist: Dom Joly, star of the great television show that was Trigger Happy TV, takes this great opportunity to illustrate how hockey discriminates against left-handers. What's more, hockey seems to be doing the exact opposite of football - on the other side of the Atlantic, the former is very much a male sport, while the latter is for girls. In the UK, football is, obviously, for men, while hockey becomes increasingly grouped with netball and lacrosse in the category of "female sports". Interesting, but totally useless article.
DJR's gist: Terry Tate is a hero - a trailblazer of the managerial philosophy that employs the "stick" over the carrot. This is his latest contribution to the world.
DJR's gist: William Bradley was part Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's campaign team in the 1982 elections to become Governor of California. This is the election where the "Bradley effect" has its roots - a Field Poll suggested that Tom Bradley had the vote in the bag and would become the first ever African-American State Governor. Something went wrong, and he ended up losing. Why? Well despite general consensus towards inherent racism affecting people's votes once they are out of public (the Bradley effect), William Bradley argues that race did not play a factor. This argument is based on one crucial factor - the same Poll predicted comfortable victory in the Senate elections which were also lost be the predicted winner. And crucially, he wasn't black.
DJR's gist: The main reason for linking this blog entry is the reference to an excellent presentation by Sequoia Capital that has been doing the rounds in technology circles. One particular diagram (see slide 49) is particularly significant - it illustrates how technology firms that pre-emptively cut costs and expenses are the ones who are able to ride the storm in the longer run, while those who hope for the best end up in a "spiral of doom". It's almost like a first-mover advantage, but in terms of cost-cutting.
DJR's gist: Having reached California in her coast-to-coast-to-coast trip across the US, Holly is heading eastward once more back through the battleground state of Nevada. While its rural areas are, unsurprisingly, very much Republican red, the urban colossus of Las Vegas is overwhelmingly blue and has left the state and its precious Electoral College votes on a tenterhook. To the extent that votes are being decided by four-year olds.
DJR's gist: The vogue in the US at present is to attach these squiggly line graphs alongside/under/on top of footage from Presidential debates. While CNN gained first-mover advantage from using it in the first of the 2008 season, it has now been used across networks in various manners. But is it a good thing? There's certainly an argument that a dynamic opinion poll of such few people, with a margin for error SO large, can have a disproportionate effect on national opinion.
DJR's gist: Hank Paulson did not name his proposal when he put forward plans to use $700bn of US taxpayers money to support the US financial system. So the media gave it a name for him: "The Bailout". Bad marketing. No surprises, then, that it wasn't long before the bill was rejected from fears of "bailing out the Wall St fat cats". However, if he'd branded it early with something along the lines of "rescue package", things could have been very different...
DJR's gist: Explaining that fat people are fat because they are fat has never, for some reason, been a satisfactory answer. Scientists have now discovered a marginally more satisfying one, with research suggesting that obesity arises from a lower appreciation of tasty food, resulting in obese people having to eat more in order to achieve the hormonal level of pleasure that normal people gain from a good meal.
Hat tip for this link goes to Chouders, but his full 'title' shall not be mentioned again until he can be bothered to post something worth reading.
DJR's gist: This is the first of what will probably be many links to the FAIL blog - this particular example illustrates a cataclysmic failure to choose a suitable mascot. Classic.
DJR's gist: After a ridiculous outburst by his ridiculous driver yesterday (see Linkrod Issue #11), Flavio Briatore, the head of Renault F1, has got his grubby mits involved in issues that don't concern him once again, claiming that Lewis Hamilton is "like a striker who hits the post a lot but can't score" (or words to that effect). If Renault were half decent, he may be in a position to make such a comment. More likely, he's probably just a jealous, possibly racist, idiot. Much like his lead driver.
DJR's gist:The Times' US Politics blog provides video footage of both Barack Obama and John McCain "roasting" each other at the Al Smith Memorial dinner in NYC. Great speeches by both - a favourite from Obama saying "My name, Barack, is actually Swahili for 'that one'. My middle name came from someone who never thought I'd run for President". McCain made use of the Clintons, saying "Even here among all you proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't help thinking some of you may be supporting me. Good to see you Hilary!"
DJR's gist: The Washington Post comes out in support of Barack Obama, highlighting both the successes of his campaign and the failures of John McCain's. Single most important factor? Surprise, surprise, it begins with a P, ends in 'alin' and makes George W. Bush look like a well-rounded intelligent politician.
DJR's gist: Apparently Whitehall are getting worried about anonymity on the internet. In fact, a "Whitehall source" has gone as far as saying "“People have many accounts and sign up as Mickey Mouse and no one knows who they are... We have to do something." Yes, that's right - the quote came from a "Whitehall source". Double standards, anyone?
DJR's gist: Sky News' Adam Boulton gets credit for fashion spot of the day, noting how Westminster's penchant for sky blue ties earlier in 2008 has evolved into one of deep violet. The PM, the Chancellor, and now the Foreign Secretary are all at it. New Parliamentary year, new fashions... obviously.
DJR's gist: Being fashionably late has always been a dictum for anyone attempting for fit the vogue of "cool". However, evidence suggests that the ubiquity of mobile phones in modern culture now mean that so long as you let the host know you're on the way, it no longer counts as "late". Bad news for all those people obsessed with people keeping to time...
DJR's gist: Depending on whether you read the Telegraph article above, or the Times linked below, this story is either very suspicious and should be treated with utmost scepticism, or absolutely amazing are potentially revolutionary in teaching tricks to pets. A kid in Hawaii has produced photos of his rat surfing a tube. You decide.
DJR's gist: John Oliver, hero of The Bugle podcast and member of The Daily Show's team of satirists, produced this classic clip from outside the home of America's newest and possibly worst celebrity. Just to emphasise that point, "he's already done more interviews than Sarah Palin".
DJR's gist: Ground-breaking research on the "Environmental Security Hypothesis" has studied the essentials of Playboy Playmates over the last couple of decades, and compared the results with the economic climate of the day. There is a striking correlation - during good times men want smaller, more curvaceous girls. During lean times, they want taller, larger, and slimmer girls. Serious news, this one.
DJR's gist: After a year where he has managed to brush away a lot of the darkness that surrounded his image after a horrific 2007, the greasy swine that lives inside Fernando Alonso is back out again in the Press Conference before the penultimate GP of the 2008 season in China. It was here last year that the tragedy of tragedies befell Lewis Hamilton, and being the conniving swine that he is, there is little doubt Alonso will do everything in his power to attempt to achieve a similar result. Hopefully he'll blow up after 20 metres, and take out Massa in the process.
DJR's gist: Amid a collapsing global economy, almost unnoticed has been the manner in which Gordon Brown overturned his political position. Not long ago, he was a political catastrophe biding his time before the approaching and inevitable capitulation of his Government to the resurgent Tories. Now, he is a trail-blazing visionary taking a global lead in attempts to bring the credit crunch under control, with other world leaders seemingly following his every command and his actions gaining plaudits from Nobel Laureate economists. What's the story? Bagehot explains...
DJR's gist: All that needs to be said about this is quoting the opening sentence: "In ninety minutes of crisply-moderated tedium, we learned exactly one interesting thing: That Barack Obama is almost eager to talk about Bill Ayers, and John McCain can barely bring himself to grind out the syllables necessary to make something vaguely approximating a point on the subject.
DJR's gist: The "Bradley Effect" is a supposed trait in US elections involving African-American candidates where polls overestimate support for the Black candidate, due to voter intentions not matching their outward statements. That is to say, people say they'll vote for the black candidate in public, but in the privacy of the voting booth, they can't bring themselves to do it and bail. Democrats are hoping that evidence of this effect gradually fading proves correct, or else the world could be in for a very nasty surprise come 4th November.
DJR's gist: So some chap called Joe Wurzelbacher is now famous across America and hero-worshipped by the same kind of nutcases who think Sarah Palin is a good idea for a Vice President, going by the name as "Joe the Plumber". His fame has come as a result of his name being mentioned a staggering 23 times in last night's final Presidential debate, as John McCain made a last-ditch effort to connect with the independent voters who are deserting his campaign. To the credit of Joe, this interview with him shows that he has a degree of substance behind his scepticism of Obama - it's just a shame that his name is already being seized upon by Sarah Palin - calling out to "Joe and Jane the Plumber". Probably "Sixpack" as well.
DJR's gist: A review of the new "Android"-powered "Google phone" compares it to Apple's iPhone. Conclusion? The GPhone is probably better and technogeeks will love it... but the average "Joe Sixpack" will probably stick to the good looks of the iPhone... at least until Google's open-sourced software platform really begins to register with phone manufacturers.
DJR's gist: Despite being one of the most closely followed, widely participated and eagerly awaited Presidential campaigns of recent times, the average Yankee apparently still finds debates boring. CRACKED presents its ideas for how the format could be improved for entertainment purposes... (courtesy of Chouders the Vicissitudinous Ayatollah of Misogyny)
DJR's gist: Invoking memories of Richard Nixon's rating capitulation following JFK's dazzling appearance in the first Presidential debate in 1960, the advent of HDTV could well add salt into the already open wounds of John McCain's presidential campaign
DJR's gist: Colin Powell, one of the few members of the Bush administration to gain some semblance of respect in the eyes of the world, managed to catapult himself from "respected" to "cool" with a cameo appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in a hip-hop act. Apparently, he was pretty damn good, although he looks like an absolute plonker in the photos.
DJR's gist: With western Anglo-Saxon economies seemingly descending into a pit of self-induced catastrophe, it comes as no surprise that our Continental European counterparts are taking the opportunity to brush up on the Socialism. Apparently sales of German issues of Karl Marx's works are soaring, fuelled by demand from "those of a young academic generation, who have come to recognise that the neoliberal promises of happiness have not proved to be true." I assume such a category includes yours truly?
DJR's gist: The ubiquitous convenience store 7-eleven is operating its usual "7-election" polling system, offering customers the opportunity to purchase their coffee in mugs declaring their support of either Obama or McCain. Historically, it has been a very accurate measure of national preferences, and presently puts Obama 18 percentage points clear of McCain. Hopefully its accuracy won't fail this time.
DJR's gist: Pretty self explanatory. If he's stupid enough to think Palin is a good idea, then it's really not that surprising that he's willing to ruin his kid's life before she can even roll over.
