Links to the best chat on the web
ISSUE #12 - Saturday, 18th October 2008
- William Bradley, The Huffington Post
"Inside the "Bradley effect""
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/inside-the-bradley-effect_b_135592.html
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.
- Chris Nuttall, FT Technology Blog
"Doom without gloom - Tech prospers but makes cuts"
http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2008/10/doom-without-gloom-tech-prospers-but-makes-cuts/
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.
- Holly Watt, US Election blog, The Sunday Times
"Offense in Nevada"
http://timesonline.typepad.com/uselections/2008/10/offense-in-neva.html
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.
- Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight
"Scrap the squigglys"
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/scrap-squigglys.html
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.
- Greg Winter, HHblog
"Choose your next words wisely"
http://www.hhcc.com/?p=535
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...
- Richard Alleyne, The Daily Telegraph
"Obese people get less satisfaction from food"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/16/sciobese116.xml
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.
- Graham C, FAIL blog
"Mascot Fail"
http://failblog.org/2008/10/17/mascot-fail-2/
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.
- Ed Gorman, The Times
"Lewis Hamilton will "throw world title away""
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article4965343.ece
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.
