The Weekly Poll about the relevance of Australian of the Year looks decidedly out of date now. I should replace it. But with what?
A train ride to London
John Naughton’s diary Memex 1.1 is one of my must-read blogs. While I usually point to his essays, today I find his delightful, personal post about an early-morning train journey into London. A taste: “Park car and wait for idiotic meter to dispense ticket while making loud buzzing noises after swallowing coins to the value of the Gross National Product of Ecuador. Join throng of furtive, hurrying figures, coat-collars turned up against the biting East Anglian wind. I have entered, albeit temporarily, the world of The Commuter.”
Another storm approaches… now!
As I type this, it’s just beginning to rain, and I can hear the sound of thunder in the background. But 20 minutes ago I took this photo of the gathering storm clouds over Enmore in Sydney.
Rebranding America with Obama
When your business’ reputation sucks, what do you do? Re-brand it!
Jon Taplin reckons American business is hoping to revive “Brand USA” by supporting Barack Obama as a presidential candidate. In Reviving Brand America, he says:
It is getting very hard to be an American company in much of the world (see photo). Whenever they are pissed off in Karachi, they burn down the KFC. George Bush’s War has made competing against European and Chinese manufacturers like wrestling with one arm tied behind your back. So like any smart CEO, the elite has decided we need a re-branding of America with a charismatic man of colour at the front.
Exhibit A is the New York Post’s endorsement of Obama this morning. I would take it as a given, that Rupert Murdoch saw this editorial before it was published. Exhibit B is MSNBC. I promise you, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann would not be given the free rein to criticize both Hillary and Republican hypocrisy, unless Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE had not given the OK. I obviously think this is a rational move on the part of American business — and I know its not like they all met at some private club to decide this. I just think this is the consensus vision, well outlined by Andrew Sullivan a couple of months ago.
But is American business that concerned with their nation’s international image? Or is Taplin spot on?
Indeed, was the success of Kevin Rudd in Australia’s 2007 election partially the result of our stagnant image overseas?
Heath Ledger spikes my website, Day 8
Given that there’s quite a bit of fluctuation in web traffic from day to day anyway — for all manner of reasons — I’m going to say that it’s been relatively steady through the week so far.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Heath Ledger jokes page is now sustaining itself on Google search results. I think I’ll do a more detailed end-of week analysis tomorrow. I just wanted to publish something about this Experiment today because I know every single reader is awaiting my every word on this important global issue.
Quote of the Day, 31 January 2008
Why is Facebook so popular? Sunrise presenter Pete Blasina has the explanation: “It’s because of the Internet.” Gotcha, Pete. Note, this man is paid to present this segment on technology. Obviously Channel 7 have scoured teh internetz for only the best of the best. Hat-tip to Cameron Reilly.