Financial Journalism module: Management

Yesterday was the last day of our financial journalism module at Westminster University. After we had the last three group presentations, Edward then discussed management.

Management is taught in universities by MBA's, (Master of Business Administration). These degrees are hugely popular. Twenty years ago around 24 universities in Britan offered MBA's. Now almost every university does.

Companies will be looking for any idea that helps them do better. There is a debate is to whether management is an art or a science, with many people in business thinking of it as a science.

In 1776 Adam Smith published "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (often shortened to "The Wealth of Nations").

This book was a call for the liberalisation of the market. Adam Smith also pointed out that a "mercantile system" only served the needs of the producers.

The Age of Mass Production began in the 1900's when Henry Ford began to mass produce cheap motor cars. Starting at $600, their price fell to $300. However, Ford failed to offer choice "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

General Motors was later to overtake Ford in sales when it offered any colour of car. Ford has never recovered. General Motors also created " A car for every person and purpose."

The first person to think of management as a science was Fredrick Winslow Taylor, who timed workers while he was a steelworker. Taylor designed shovels for moving coal, gravel and iron ore, having determined the most effective load was 21½ lb, and worked out it took 6½ seconds to screw a nut onto a bolt. He believed in the "One Best Way" to carry out a task. He published the book Principles of Scientific Management.

Peter Drucker is considered to be behind current management philosophy. He has been described as "up there with Darwin and Einstein as (the) creators of the modern age." He predicted many recent developments in business in his books and articles.

The Age of Marketing began in the 1950's with the realisation that the customer's needs were the most important.

Michael Porter was the first person to think about competition. There are three ways to compete: by selling the cheapest product, creating a unique product or filling a niche market. It is also important to focus on what a company is best at producing and marketing: the core competence. For example, Black and Decker focus on little electric motors. Honda focus on engines.

Of course, a business should also keep abreast of developments. Johnson and Johnson used to have 90% of the market for stents (pipes for hearts) when they were made of steel. When a plastic stent was introduced to the market, Johnson and Johnson were slow to react, and their market share of stents dropped to 8%.

Finally, we looked at the recent Blue Ocean Strategy, which suggests focusing on areas of the market where there is no competition. An example of this is the Cirque du Soleil's focus on adult circuses without animals

Retail Chain Media Markt Accused Of Racist Advertising

The German retail chain Media Markt has pulled adverts featuring Italian stereotypes after an outcry in Italy.

More here at the ever-excellent Spiegel Online.

It's not the first time the company has got into hot water for this kind of cheap stereotyping. In March 2006 the company ran an ad spot that featured Media Markt staff having their pants stolen by Poles, playing on a widespread prejudice in Germany that Poles steal anything not nailed down.

NGO director wins Russian Constitutional Court appeal over undeclared money

Former director of the Educated Media Foundation Manana Aslamazyan has had her appeal against a five year prison sentence for bringing in undeclared money above the legal limit to Russia in January 2007 upheld.

She will now face an an administrative case with a maximum possible fine of $100 (US).

The Educated Media Foundation has been under investigation by Russian police, and according to Article 19 has had its bank accounts frozen and computers seized following the charges. The foundation is funded by grants from a variety of international donors, including the United States.

Manana Aslamazyan told the International Herald Tribune in 2007 that she had borrowed the money for personal reasons and that she had not declared it because it had not occurred to her that it would amount to more than US$10,000. She also said that the case was personal and had nothing to do with the foundation.

Westminster Journalism student wins World Press Freedom Day competiton

My colleague Stuart James Ross has won the 2008 World Press Freedom Day Student Journalism Award with his radio documentary piece on "Is new media killing journalism?"

I was one of the people interviewed for this piece, and you can hear the entry here.

Stuart has also created a longer documentary on the subject as part of his course.

Daily Express: China to ban free plastic bags

I recently attended a debate hosted by Westminster University's China Media Centre, where Chinese students complained that the Western media only focused on negative news from China. This story on China banning plastic bags shows that this isn't always the case.

Current BBC blogs have seen growing audience:Reportr.net

More evidence that blogging is important for a news organisation. Professor Alfred Hermida at Reportr.net highlights the growth in audience for BBC blogs, while the audience for BBC message boards such as the popular Have Your Say series of topics for debate has remained pretty constant.

However, like me, Professor Herminda feels there is more to be done.

While blogs are providing a new way for the BBC to reach out to audiences, there are limits to this conversation. The BBC itself and my research has found that editors on the whole tend to regard blogs as a publishing platform, rather than as a way of engaging with audiences.

Professor Hermida was a founding member of the BBC News site and a former technology editor.

Support Shiv Malik's right to keep his sources confidental

Investigative reporter Shiv Malik is currently writing a book on Hassan Butt, a former Islamic extremist who is now trying to stop Muslim youths from joining terror networks.

Great Manchester Police are trying to use anti-terror powers to force him to release the research materials used to write this book, as well as the unfinished manuscript.

Brian Cathcart writes today about why we should support Shiv. Nick Cohen has also written a good article. Press Gazette also has an interview.

You can support Shiv here.

Brian Cathcart writes:

The message of this will be clear: anybody who has real information about the terrorism milieu will know that talking to a reporter is no different from talking directly to the police, with all that that implies.

Reporters, and thus newspapers and broadcasters, will be unable to gather first-hand information about one of the most important stories of our time. Because people who know things won't talk to them, reporters will be reduced to talking to people who don't really know things, and we will all plunge back into the ignorance from which Malik and company have been trying to rescue us.

TechCrunch: Facebook's Causes Application helps raise over $2.5 million

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch blogs on the sucesses of Facebook's Causes Application.

The company says they’ve registered 12 million users who are now supporting more than 80,000 non-profit causes worldwide. $2.5 million has been raised for 19,445 different 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.

More here.

Banking Regulation-something every financial journalist should understand

How does banking regulation differ between three of the world's largest economies: Britain, America and Japan?

Here are some thoughts I had for an essay for my short course at City University:

Financial regulation in Britain:

In Britain, regulation is governed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The FSA is an independent non-governing body , which means that its actions are not controlled by either government or industry.

While it is a private company, it is immune from being sued from action taken in its official duties.

The FSA reports to the Treasury , a government department run by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, and received its current powers through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 .

The FSA also needs to comply with legislation from the European Union. The EU itself has a regulatory framework, which is known as the Lamfalussy arrangements .

Alexander Davidson of The Times describes this process as a four-level approach to resolving shortcomings in the regulatory and legislative system for financial services in Europe .

Of course, as the USA and Japan are not in the European Union, they do not need to abide by EU financial regulation. The City of London Police also work with the Serious Fraud Office on fraud case.

There has been some criticism of the FSA from Private Eye magazine, which has nicknamed the FSA the Financially Supine Agency .

The FSA’s main objectives are to restore market confidence, protect consumers and reducing fraud . The agency also keeps the public aware about the financial system.

Financial regulation in America:

Financial regulation in the United States of America is governed by the Federal Reserve (Fed), which describes itself as “the central bank of the United States ”. The Fed also controls interest rates.

Unlike other countries, the USA has a fragmented bank regulatory system, with some banks being regulated by the Federal Reserve and some banks being regulated by the state regulatory agency of the state where they were chartered .

Each Federal Reserve bank is able to enforce laws and make sure banks “observe community reinvestment laws and try to meet the credit needs of their communities . American banks are also subject to heavy regulation from the US Government, including the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which requires “businesses to keep records and file reports that are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, and regulatory matters .”

These are then used by state and federal law enforcement agencies. Unlike the UK, the US system does not investigate financial crime. This is usually investigated by local police agencies or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Although the Fed has not been as controversial as the actions of the FSA, some, including Milton Friedman, have accused it of having caused inflation on the past .

Financial regulation in Japan:

Monetary policy in Japan is carried out by the Bank of Japan, which is the central bank of Japan and based on the Bank of Japan Law .

The Bank is in charge of setting interest rates, just like the Bank of England is in the UK.

The Bank describes itself as a juridical person, which means that it is an entity created by law.

Japan also has a Financial Services Agency, but unlike in Britain it reports directly to the Ministry of Finance. The FSA is in charge of banking regulation ever since a series of financial scandals in the 1990’s.

Banking regulation in Japan has therefore changed more drastically than in the UK, and certainly much more than in the US. Like the FSA in the UK, the FSA in Japan is accountable to the finance ministry, although the latter reports directly to the Minister of Financial Services.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) was established in Japan in July 1992 as the result of the same scandals . In 1998 it was split from the Ministry of Finance and it currently regulates fair transactions in the futures markets.

Recently there has been moves by the previous Japanese prime minister to relax regulations, although there are no plans to have a Uk-style universal banking regulation like the FSA .

There is a push towards US-style regulation. According to the Financial Times, the planned deregulation of banking and brokering would bring Japan into line with less regulated countries such as America and the UK.

Why the blogosphere is a threat to US not UK media outlets: The Future of News

Interesting post from Steve Boriss on The Future of News, on the different effects the blogosphere will have on British and American media outlets.

The Internet has caught American journalism flat-footed. Suddenly, there is a huge demand for opinion, and a newly resentful public realizing they have been deprived of it, if not lied to — that there is no such thing as an objective, right-down-the-middle way to look at things, and even if there were it would not be particularly helpful in a country purportedly driven by the will of the people. So while London’s Guardian is now publicly and brazenly declaring its goal to become “the leading global liberal voice,” US papers can only respond “huh?”, “they can’t do that”, and “we’re better than that.” But ultimately it will be what audiences think that will matter, and I suspect in this revolution Americans will side with the British.

More here.

10 things I would do if I were a researcher/multimedia assistant for BBC Radio 4

As a regular listener of the current affairs and comedy output of Radio Four (along with the rest of my family) I've been thinking about the station's interactivity.

BBC Listen Again, like the iplayer, is excellent. Unlike 4OnDemand, it requires no downloads and therefore can be used from any machine. I can use the iplayer while writing a blog post in the university library. I can't do that with 4OnDemand.

However, Radio Four needs to engage more with the blogosphere. The blogosphere will publicise programs for free- by writing about them on their blogs, which others can read and pass on. Blogs also allow the sharing of pictures and video, which radio cannot do. These blogs will be linked to by non-BBC blogs, which will increase the global awareness of BBC Radio 4.

Here are 10 things I would do if I were a researcher for BBC Radio 4.

1. I would create a blog for each Radio 4 programme, and would be able to teach presenters and producers how to write for the web and search engine optimisation.

2. The only blog that Radio 4 currently has, for PM, is not linked to PM's iplayer output. I would place a link to each blog under above the discussion board link on the "Now Playing" section.

3. Each edition of the BBC in-house magazine Ariel should have a column entitled "From the Blogosphere" where a staff member discuss the reactions to the BBC on both BBC and non-BBC blogs. I would be able to write this column as well as other duties.

4. Blog posts that are pertinent to a news story could be linked in current BBC blogs like the Editor's Blog. This would involve me keeping BBC Online staff informed about the content of the BBC Radio blogs via e-mail.

5. It's important to monitor the blogosphere. I would recommend that one staff member spends an hour each day finding out what other blogs have said about recent radio shows and BBC blogs.

6. I would make sure that the BBC blogs would allow people to receive posts by e-mail and use an RSS reader to follow the blog.

7. I would make sure that every BBC employee has a Google Reader full of blogs and news sites relevant to the area they are working in that they understand how to use.

8. I would film and upload a short video to Youtube explaining these changes, which bloggers could link to.

9. PM's blog is currently not mentioned on the programme. I would ask each presenter to mention their show's blog once per programme.

10. I would show any interested BBC staff how to set up their own blog using a Wordpress or Blogger template, enabling them to understand the mindset of a blogger.

slewfootsnoop on free sources for financial journalists

slewfootsnoop is an excellent blog offering tips for journalists doing online research. This post recommends some good sources for financial journalists , including IFAC, a search engine for accountants.

Feel free to post any not covered in the original post below.

The Apprentice Series Four Episode Ten: Life In The Fast Lane

Good to see Lucinda Ledgerwood making a complete fool of herself once again on last night's Apprentice. However, she was rivalled in the idiot stakes by Michael, who managed to choose terrible locations for the week's task-"all about cars" as Sir Alan put it standing between minders Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford.

Not only did Mr Sophocles choose a quiet sidestreet in Knightsbridge (although to be fair, it is a rich area) as his first location for selling glorified Ferrari rides, he then decided to drive down to Portobello Market. Apples 70p, Pears 40p, Ferrari rides £65 per hour. He chased the only person interested down the road.Helene Speight and Claire Young decided Michael was "sh*t".

Meanwhile Lee McQueen's gamble of choosing the car with the highest return paid off. He won the task, despite Sir Alan's vitriol directed at Lucinda. She kept undermining Lee and Alex Wotherspoon. "Just! It's so unjust."Easy to attack them-I've made mistakes-but sometimes they are so arrogant we cheer when the screw up. Michael and Lucinda fit that description.

Renaissance £2114
Alpha £11,000 (Lucinda sold £65 of that!). "I'll give you a shovel in a minute" said Sugar to her as he sneered her out of the room.Michael was sacked after Sugar decided to reprieve Claire and Helene. Sugar seemed very keen to fire Helene, and I don't know why he didn't fire both. He praised a smug Claire.

Below is Bolegbros' excellent Lego animation of Week 9, when Raef was fired:



Next week: scary but interesting job interviews.

Transport For London's Lost Property Finds

A stuffed puffer fish, human skulls and a lawnmower.

Not an inventory of the items in my garden shed, but some of the more unusual items handed in to Transport for London's lost property office, according to their press release.

I can just about understand why you'd take a lawnmower on the Underground-one presumes it wasn't the sit on type-but how do you lose it? Did it take on a life of its own like Herbie the Love Bug and jump out at West Harrow underground station, last seen heading towards the allotments for an amorous liaison with a Flymo?

Breast implants were also reported, although it is not known how many have been lost over the years. No number was given for the amount of human skulls either. For all we know, there could be so many human skulls on the Underground that they're being handed out as free gifts.

More mundane items included books (including naughty ones, no doubt) bags and gloves (useful for handling human skulls). Interestingly, the Transport for London computer programme used to log details is called Sherlock.

One wonders when the first violin will be lost on the Tube.

Financial news outlet v general news outlet: City University essay

Here are some thoughts I have had on how financial publications should differ from general media publications. They are part of one of the essays I wrote for my Introduction to the City and Financial Markets course.

A financial publication needs to inform a financial worker about the state of the marketplace that he will be working in. The Financial Times (FT), which proclaims itself to be a leading business publication, does this in two ways. Firstly, it has extensive news and features covering companies and the markets.

These enable business professionals to have a daily report that is not spun by public relations experts but instead has been written by journalists who manage to deal with all sorts of business contacts but stay unbiased towards any company or political viewpoint, although opinion columns such as the Economist’s leaders may be critical of any perceived political or social trend which might affect business as a whole.

An example of this is their comment on Barack Obama “We have been appalled by some of the anti-capitalist rhetoric he…has spouted .” The same leader also attacks perceived “crude economic populism ” from McCain and Clinton.

Secondly, the FT prints data showing the Financial Times London Share Service, comprising all UK listed shares by sector.

This enables shares to be tracked over a certain period, and also saves time. Instead of having to ring round companies to find out their share price, or doing an internet search to find this information, all a businessman or woman needs to do is consult the “Companies and Markets section”.

This content enables readers to decide which companies to invest in, or indeed when to sell their shares. The paper also shows foreign currency markets, to enable global transactions.

The Companies and Markets section also saves a businessman from having to scan through the main section of the paper. All the information is easily scannable in a table. Ease of use is key as financial professionals are often extremely busy, and therefore financial publications need to be as concise as they can.

It is also important that those relatively new to the markets are able to understand the information.

Other publications such as the Economist carry financial statistics such as a commodity price index and interest trades, although the Economist’s information has more of a foreign exchange focus, reflecting its more international theme.

Of course, the Financial Times does not only carry financial content. It also keeps its reader informed of events that might affect the City. An example is a front-page story on Tuesday May 6th, which reveals that an annual ethical audit has been advised for BAE systems.

This will affect not only the share price of BAE but also the share prices of competing companies such as Lockheed Martin UK INSYS Ltd. An ethical audit also goes against the recommendations of the Labour Government, which could mean that the Conservative Party will do will in the next General Election.

A change of government will have a huge effect on business due to the changes in policy proposed. For example, David Cameron’s environmental proposals will have a huge effect on supermarkets as he plans to limit their expansion.

Therefore, a Tory victory will see share prices dip for those investors.

A City audience will most likely be more global-minded and wealthier than most newspaper readers, and may also want to portray themselves as wealthy to impress others with their success.

Just as the Independent and Guardian review more expensive products than the Sun or Mirror do, the FT must target its readers through lifestyle columns. Everything but a drawbridge, a feature by Nicole Swengley, focuses in securing expensive penthouses rather than suburban flats, as an example.

It is essential that a financial publication reflects the aspirations as well as the working life of a businessman. Financial publications will also write about office life and the disciplines of management, usually in the analysis section.

The Financial Times is widely seen as the best source of daily business news. Indeed, Michael Brett says in his book “How To Read The Financial Pages: A Simple Guide To The Way Money Works And The Jargons” “On the rare days in the past when the FT’s pink pages have failed to appear the City has had a rudderless feel”.

Brett also makes the point that the FT deals in “fact rather than speculation ” however while this point is noteworthy it is scarcely shocking; most journalism either deals with comment (in opinion pages) or fact.

However a journalism publication cannot be respected unless it respects its readers. The best financial publications will understand the lifestyles as well as the day-to-day working life of their core readership: City workers.

The Apprentice: A reminder

Remember that because of the footy on Wednesday, The Apprentice will be on today (Tuesday) at 9pm.

Don't miss Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 beta released

Digital Inspiration blogs on the release of Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 as a public beta.

To download Dreamweaver CS4, you need a serial number of either Dreamweaver CS3 or any of the Adobe Creative Suite editions. If you don’t have a licensed copy, you only get a 2-day free trial.

This is an intelligent strategy from Adobe. They invite all existing customers into the beta cycle, some of them may get used to the new features and will therefore upgrade when the product gets released.

Video Journalism documentary: Birth of a station

Videojournalist and Westminster University tutor David Dunkley-Gyimah recommends Birth of a station, a documentary about the start of videojournalism.

It is the documentary about video journalism's entry into the UK in 1994.

How thirty video journalists came together and what they made of their new skills, the training and views of Michael Rosenblum, and how a station costing 50 million UK pounds was born.

You can see a clip here and more will arrive soon. Keep an eye on David's blog for more information on Videojournalism, as well as his Vimeo channel.

Randy Pausch addresses Carnegie Mellon graduates

I can never get enough of this man:


Excellent advice from Randy Pausch at the May 18 Commencement ceremony (an alternatvie name for graduation).

Click on the "Randy Pausch" label on this post to see Randy's Last Lecture and his lecture on time management.

One of my long-term dreams is to make a documentary on Carnegie Mellon University. I want to see what Randy found so special.

I'd also like to wish good luck to all the graduates featured in the Youtube.

And the man has good taste.

couple of links: Tokyo cannabis blunder and iphone earth demo

One techy and one strange news:

TechCrunch: Demo of iphone Earth

Want to see what the earth would look like in your iPhone? Watch the video below, which was shot by Frank Taylor of the Google Earth Blog. It shows a demo of the “coolest thing” he saw at the recent Where 2.0 conference from a Boulder-Colorado startup called Earthscape.

BBC: Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport

A customs officer hid a package of the banned narcotic in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Usually a training suitcase is used. According to AFP, the customs officer has been reprimanded.

Anyone who finds the cannabis has been asked to return it. Given the reported street value of almost $10000 (£5000), good luck on that.

Moist Monday: A wet bank holiday

Due to the horrible weather, I'm not up to much at the moment. Later I'll be researching my final project (4 feature articles).

I watched the film Chromophobia last night. I won the DVD in a competiton. Very kind of the Big Issue to pick me. However, I didn't think the film was very good. It was very flashy but I couldn't see much humour in it, and much of it was rambling. Cast was good but I'm glad I didn't pay for it!

More work on our magazine product tommorow. I'm chief sub-editor.

BBC News: Crackdown on fake business blogs

Robert Plummer reports on a recent EU ruling making fake business blogs illegal.

...there is still plenty of scope for company employees to post bogus evaluations on websites that solicit product ratings from consumers, using multiple aliases - known as "sock puppetry".

The EU's Directive on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices, a far-reaching attempt to regulate the whole relationship between firms and their customers, makes all these online tricks illegal.

More here.

Nice ruling by the EU- it's good for businesspeople to blog and every company should have a blog as well, but honesty, as with all other aspects of the media, is key.

Know of a good and honest corporate blog? Post below.

Audience podcasts: why not?

With TV shows desperate to fill out their audience, why not encourage a couple of them to report on their experience each week as a podcast?

For example, I have someone on my Facebook who was a contestant on Deal or No Deal, and clearly enjoyed it. A Deal Or No Deal audience member could record half an hour of audio each week explaining why he or she had sat in the audience of that show, as well as some banter with Noel Edmonds and a couple of the contestants. Perhaps even a jokey "Ooh, I think the Banker's in there...better not go to close" *sounds of a money counter*.

Those visiting the Deal or No Deal website could then listen to the audience podcast and sign up for a seat. The podcast could also be promoted during the competition. "And this week's audience podcast is from Jenny Harpingon of Milton Keynes. Step forward, Jenny, and tell us what's on your podcast."

The podcast could also be promoted on Deal or No Deal Facebook groups, such as the "Deal or No Deal Appreciation Society" and the Deal Or No Deal Facebook page.

Deal Or No Deal seems to be doing okay for audience members, as it's closed applications to be in the audience. Still, the example applies to any programme that has an audience.

David Smith on the blogging backlash

Interesting article by David Smith in today's Observer on the downsides of blogging

Gould was a star blogger with a glamorous career as a gossip journalist on the New York party circuit. Her job at a must-read website opened doors that old-school hacks had slammed in their face. Yet the blog that gave Gould such power would also burn her.

'I had made my existence so public in such a strange way, and I wanted to take it all back, but in order to do that I'd have to destroy the entire internet,' Gould writes.

Emily Gould wrote for Gawker.com. You can read their comments on the New York Times article here.

I'm not put off blogging by Emily Gould's story, and neither should you be. If you don't want your loved ones angry with you, don't blog them. If you feel awkward defending the company you work for, get another job.

Facebook panic buying craze continues

While a group has been set up for those who forgot to panic buy carrots, a group has been set up called "Panic buy deodourant on July 31st!" (their misspelling, not mine)

I think the timeframe is far too short.

The group only has 25 members and July 31st is just over two months away.

September would have been better.

There are also plans to panic buy apples in October (84 members)

Some originality, people! Panic buying for no reason was so last fortnight!

Orange Day on July 2nd (where everyone wears orange and congas around central London) sounds interesting.

We will partake in a Conga down Oxford Street, starting at Soho Square at 6pm, we shall bongo, shake and shimmy our way to Oxford Circus, then through to Bond Street, ending up at Marble Arch (circa 1 hour later methinks) for a (quick perry idea, ya with me?) = MASSIVE ORANGE PARTY IN HYDE PARK!?!?! WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!!!! spread the love people, its gonna be huge!

Alan Partridge: Youtube: Bank Holiday

Back to back Bond films:



I'm not killing time like Alan, I'm doing some subbing for the magazine my class are working on, as well as thinking about my final project, four feature articles.

I might go for a walk in Regent's Park on Monday, as well as a stroll down the Embankment. Good to have a short break.

What will you be doing? Will you be stuck in a hot car in a traffic jam with annoying children* or sitting in your garden with a magazine and a picnic?


*Presumably your own.

MP's expense claims are beyond belief

The Guardian carries the story that expense claims of fourteen MP's have been published.

While the Government is keen to crack down on benefit cheats (rightly) it doesn't seem to have any desire to crack down on lunatic expense claims.

Tony Blair, for example, spent £10,000 on a new kitchen. Obviously, one can't run the country with a worn-out oven or a rusting toaster. Staggeringly, £1,000 of this was on fitting a mantel shelf to his Aga cooker.

What did he use, screws made of gold? Was the shelf fitted by Peter Mandelson on overtime? Or did Tony have to pay to have his hands manicured in between each fitting. Even the most expensive shelf from Twyford Cookers is "only" £511, and they are hand crafted.

He also failed to pay his water bill, and had to be reminded by debt collectors. Thankfully, Blair was never Chancellor.

Of course, he managed to claim all his utility bills on expenses, because Labour Prime Ministers aren't going to be paying for their own electricity and water like the common folk. If they did, they might have to pay for clearing away their own garden waste as well. Which Blair didn't.

The present Prime Minister claimed £15 for light bulbs (and he needs them like Harrison Ford's career needed the latest Indiana Jones film), and the taxpayer also paid for his £33 a month Sky TV connection. No mention is made of any usage of HD channels or a Sky Plus upgrade. Gordon Brown, greedy, but not too greedy. Like Blair, he redid his kitchen, but for half the price.

The opposition parties fared no better. Menzies Campbell spent over £350 on taxis in two months, perhaps due to a lost Oyster card. David Cameron claimed mortgage interest on his second home. George Osbourne claimed £2300 for food. It's a rum do when the Shadow Chancellor can't even afford food. Has he been begging door to door for scraps as well as votes?

No wonder our MP's are seen as out of touch. They act like they are members of the Royal Family. If nothing is done to rein in these freebies, they'll start charging people for their time, noting that they had to miss out on a massage to meet their petrified constituents.

It's a shame the millions of hard-working taxpayers can't claim for oven gloves (thanks to Mark Oaten for that), Aga shelves and extending the base of her wheelie-bin store (Margaret Beckett). All that can be said in favour of the latter is at least Mrs Beckett did dispose of her rubbish correctly and didn't try and use taxpayer's money to hire poor people to eat it. What a money-grubbing lot.

Financial Journalism seminar

Yesterday we had our third financial journalism seminar with Edward Russell-Walling.

After Mark read out his article on whether the Euro will replace the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, we discussed the stock market further and started personal finance.

Countries hold some of the money saved through central banks in a foreign currency to influence the domestic exchange rate. This money is known as a reserve currency.

We then discussed the relationship between the markets, companies, banks and the retail market (you and me):

COMPANIES
|BANKS,INVESTMENT BANKS.
|
MARKETS
|BANKS,INVESTMENT BANKS,STOCKBROKERS, INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISORS
|
RETAIL MARKET

A stockbroker manages someone else's money, and unlike a bank has no conflict of interest.

All of us have three options regarding money.

1. We can save.
2. We can spend.
3. We can borrow.

All three involve financial products.

Savings involve accepting the relationship between risk and reward. The higher the risk, the higher the possible reward. This is the difference between a £20 bet on Onion Terror at the bookies and playing for high stakes at a casino.

We also looked at a risk ladder: I don't think the bars are very essential, so here is the ladder.

High risk

Commodities

Emerging Markets e.g Kenya

Blue chip companies

Corporate bonds

Government bonds

Cash

Low risk.

It should be noted that as bond prices go down, yields go up. So you want bond prices to go down!

Premium or savings bonds are another way of making money. While you don't get any interest, every month there is a lottery where you could win up to £100,000. If you wait long enough, you're predicted a 5% return. Numbers are drawn by a machine called ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment).

As Edward said, Personal Finance journalism is all about savings and investments.

Next week we will look at finance within companies. Edward pointed out that companies wish to keep their share prices high as this makes it easier for mergers to take place. It also makes it easier to deter unwanted transactions during a merger, enabling the company to reach the 51% mark needed for a takeover. This is when 51% of shares are owned by the company wanting to merge. If 90% of shares are owned by the company, they can force the other 10% to sell their shares.

This seems rather harsh, and I assume it's done so board meeting don't consist of a major corporation and Mrs Ethel Prunesqualor of 51 Parsons Green Crescent.

The Apprentice Episode Nine: Atishu, Atishu

Meeting the teams at the National Theatre, Sir Alan is greeted by the customary chorus of "good morning, suralan", before mixing the teams ONCE AGAIN. He's Sir-Mix-A-Lot.

Sir Alan tells them they have to produce a press and television advert for a tissue brand. They will then pitch to advertising agencies, who will give him feedback.

Raef and Michael get into thespian mode-both were in Guys in Dolls.

Both teams work on the branding of their tissue. Raef's team (Renaissance) come up with "I love my tissues" (with a heart symbol instead of love) while in Alpha's team "risk manager Lucinda suggests homosexuality as a "shock tactic" to team leader Alex Wotherspoon and Lee McQueen.

Lucinda is sent on location scouting and uses the task to carry on with Poor Me moaning

Michael gives an...unusual rendition of Oliver's I'm Reviewing The Situation, causing Raef to get all giggly and bouncy.

They decide to book Sian Lloyd as a mum in their advert, not knowing much more about her than she was once involved with Lembik Obek. Nick Hewer follows and ambles around like someone being shown around by an estate agent. Raef is still as keen as can be.

"I'm really looking forward to directing with Michael."

Incidentaly, Raef has his own Facebook fan group.

Lucinda Ledgerwood continues moaning through the auditions.\

Nicely dark scene with Michal and Raef, laughing about swearing at children. "Georgie, you've got yoghurt all over you face, you stupid little s**t".

Lucinda Ledgerwood moans about the girl blowing their nose, finding it repulsive. She also argues with Alex Wotherspoon in the car and talks to him like Joyce Grenfall "STOP IT!" "naughty naughty." She sends up swearing and being a diva.

Meanwhile Nick makes some very good points about how pointless it is hiring Sian Lloyd, who also remarks on the lack of weather symbolism, even alleging they haven't done their research. It's worth remembering the Apprentice contains lessons on how not to do various things, including branding.

Michael's ad is good but doesn't show the brand. they don't even have the logo at the end. Claire Young points this out. "I wouldn't show it to my family."

Both teams pitch to ad execs and Alan Sugar "surprise guest", except he isn't really, is he? Lord Lucan would be a surprise guest. I would be a surprise (and a surprised) guest.

The agency hate the Atishu ads but they win because of their direct shots of the product, while Sir Alan pans the I love my tissues box.

Lucinda carries on arguing with Lee in the boardroom!

Raef's team lose and have a postmortem while Alex's team strut around Harvey Nichols wearing horrible, horrible clothes. Lucinda and Lee pretend not to hate each other.

Meanwhile, Raef is fired. The popular chappie, whose online support is another sign that "the class war is over" after the win of bloody Boris Johnson, has left the show.

Better than last week!

Next week looks even better. Fast cars, crying Lucinda Ledgerwood and macho boys!

Claire young will "get her 500 rounds of bullshit out and stick it in her AK47"- nice quote form Sir Alan Sugar.

Google Sites now open to everyone

Google Sites, which allow you to set up a website on Google's domain, are now open to everyone.

Get started here.

Burmese junta accused of supressing effcts of cyclone

The Burmese military junta have been accused of attempting to suppress all information relating to the devastating cyclone on May 4.

Local media have been ordered not to publish stories showing the destruction caused by the cyclone, while youth leaders trying to raise awareness have been arrested by the Junta.

Relief agencies are still being prevented for accessing the affected areas.



Source: Article 19.

Tories take Crewe and Nantwich

Unsurprisingly, the Tories have won the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, with a majority of over 7,000.

Harriet Harman does not think Labour's campaign had anything to do with it.

I beg to differ.

One wonders how secure Gordon Brown's job is.

Maybe Frank Field will launch another offensive, although he did himself no favours apologising to Mr Brown.

Nick Robinson views the result as a sign David Cameron is on the up.

Some in Labour will comfort themselves with the memory that Neil Kinnock was pretty good at winning by-elections but still couldn't win a general election. It is not likely to comfort very many.

Faceparty.com tightens rules on registration: Over 36's banned and registration by invite

Social networking site Faceparty.com is only allowing new users to register if they have been invited by someone already using the site.

The site, which defines itself as "a community, which is the absolute opposite of a Social Network." (their words not mine: I disagree), explains the reasons why.

The site has also closed the accounts of those over 36, according to MarketingWeek.

Faceparty blames government legislation for the moves.

It says that new government legislation means such sites must check if older users appear on the government's sex offenders list. However, the legislation is based on checking addresses, and as Faceparty has not insisted on validated email addreses it cannot participate in the scheme.

Visual Editors: Chinese newspapers commence national days of mourning

From the excellent Visual Editors site.

Three national days of mourning began Monday in China, in memory of last week’s tragic earthquake that left a stunning 34,000 people dead.

My good friend and former intern Ji Qi — now of The Associated Press — tipped me off about an online roundup of Monday’s front pages of Chinese newspapers, commemorating the start of the days of mourning.

I looked over the pages — none of which I could read, naturally — and picked out a few that really spoke to me. Ji was kind enough to share background information and to do a little headline translation.

Here’s a look at just a few:

You can see the rest of the post with newspaper front pages here here.

OssiUrlaub.de scraps nude flights

German travel company OssiUrlaub.de has scraped a special nude flight scheduled for July 5.

According to AFP, the company had second thoughts after "moral objects" by visitors and the media.

Anyone who has booked a nude flight will receive a full refund and a voucher for other projects, none of which involve nudism.

Seems a shame really, although I don't really want to be naked on a plane.

That could be the pornographic version of Snakes on a Plane: Buttocks on a Plane.

Another OCR Cock-Up: Music GCSE Exam Papers Have Answers On Back

Sky News:

Thousands of pupils sat exams on papers which mistakenly had the answers on the back - but astonishingly students will not have to resit the tests.

More

With thanks to the Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations board for that cock-up.

Why we don't have ONE state-run exam board I don't know.

BBC has details on the exam itself:

It was an exam where you have to listen to a piece of music from a CD and answer questions about it, such as the name of the composer and the style of the music.

"I was halfway through and having finished a question, I flicked through to the end to see what was coming. I couldn't believe it," he said.

"There was an acknowledgement for every piece of music, giving the composers' names. One gave the type of music too, a pavane, which was one of the questions."

No-one will need to retake the paper. OCR has responded:

OCR regrets that a printing error may have affected a small number of marks on one of the GCSE Music papers which was taken last Friday (16 May). A maximum of five per cent (5%) of the marks on this particular paper are potentially affected. In addition, this exam is only one of the four papers which make up the GCSE qualification.

All exam papers have a copyright statement dealing with source material on the back page. This one in particular had more detail than is usual in a music paper. Last week OCR received a handful of calls from schools querying the situation. Since there has been media comment, there are still only 20 queries from teachers that have been received. It is unlikely that any of the 12,000 students sitting the examination would have recognised the value of the information in the copyright statement and subsequently used it.

However, OCR is putting procedures in place to identify the effect, if any, this had on candidates and to make allowances accordingly to ensure that no candidate is disadvantaged. There will be no need for candidates to retake this component. OCR is confident that the procedures put in place will ensure that all candidates get the grades that their hard work deserves.

The BBC article shows that some students did realise the value of the information. No wonder there have been so many problems with the pathetic exam boards across the country. Myself and a few of my friends also had problems when we were sitting our GCSE's.

Digital Inspiration: Measure Area of your Home or a Football Stadium with Google Maps

How do you calculate area of that garden in the backyard of your home ? Or how do you measure size of an outdoor swimming pool or a football stadium?

Well that’s very easy if you have Google Maps. Using the built-in distance measurement tool of Google Maps, we can quickly (and fairly accurately) measure the circumference and area of pretty much any location on earth.

More here.

China Media Centre debate: The Tibet Story - Journalism Under Pressure

I attended a debate on the coverage of Tibet by Chinese and Western media yesterday evening at the University of Westminster's Cavendish campus.

It was was introduced by Sally Feldman, Dean of the Media, Arts and Design school (which my course is part of). Sally explained the purpose of the China Media Centre, which is to research the Chinese media, increase awareness of China and to help brief the Chinese media on the Uk media and other creative industries.

She then asked us to hold a minute's silence for the victims of the Chinese earthquake, before an introductory film that showed a CCTV report on the protests and also touched on the controversy sparked by CNN anchor Jack Cafferty, when he called the Chinese "goons and thugs" and described Chinese products, leading to lawsuits and a website called anticnn being set up. A song called "Don't behave like CNN" has also been written.

Chairing the panal was Isobel Hilton, the presenter of BBC Radio 3's Night Waves programme and the editor of China Dialogue, the world's first fully bilingual website devoted to the environment. She is also the editor of openDemocracy.

Speaking in support of the Chinese Media were Ma Guihua, London correspondent for the Xinhua News Agency and Wang Rujun, chief correspondent at the People's Daily UK Bureau, while Jonathan Fenby, a former editor of The Observer and The South China Post (and author of the Penguin History of Modern China) and BBC world news editor Jon Williams put the case for the British media.

Wang Rujun and Ma Guihua were very critical of the British media, with the former feeling it was not objective or impartial.

However, I did not feel that they answered their questions very well and despite the barracking of Jon Williams, I felt he put up a very good defence, making the point that many people in China were unable to watch the BBC as it was blocked. They are also unable to view this post, as Blogger is blocked in China.

One audience member replied that the clips could be seen on Youtube, which has also been blocked by China in the past.

I wasn't persuaded by the arguments of the Chinese journalists, but it was exciting to hear their views and both sides were respectful of each other.

One questioner had brought along a bunch of flowers for Channel Four reporter Lindsey Hilsum, who was not there. I have no idea what happened to the flowers.

The China Media Centre is holding a debate on the challenges facing the Chinese Media at the Regent Street Campus (nr Oxford Circus) on the 12th June. The cost is £10 for students and £25 for others. Contact Dr Jingrong Tong(j.tongREMOVETHESELETTERS@westminster.ac.uk) I've added REMOVETHESELETTERS to avoid spam. No doubt Dr Tong can also tell you of other events.

Age ratings to be introduced for internet downloads

Downloadable videos and video games will receive age ratings, according to the BBC.

I'm not sure how effective this will be. Parents can't stand by the computer every minute of every day.

Online retailers can't see who is purchasing their download either, unless they use a webcam. A child could easily borrow their parents' card and go pornography crazy.

Online Journalism blog survey: "Has blogging changed your journalism?"

Paul Bradshaw of the Online Journalism Blog is surveying blogging journalists to find out if and how their blogging has changed their journalistic work, as part of a book he is writing.

Here is the survey

It’s all anonymous, and the results will be published here as soon as I compile them, with an email notification to members of the Online Journalism Blog Facebook group.

More details

Something Awful Parody Ridiculous 2013 McCain Ad

The excellent Something Awful has parodied a utopian-themed ad by John McCain's campaign team.

Here is the original


Here is Something Awful's version.

What's the best newspaper freebie?

Today the Guardian is giving away a free Champions League guide (which is useful for the sport layman like me) and a free Dire Straits songbook.

I've done quite well out of the various free gifts from newspapers. The best was the Guardian Guide To Making Video, given away in January.

Over 2007, I also collected the Gaurdian's Great Speeches of the 20th Century, as well as the related CD introduced by Polly Toynbee.

The Telegraph also gave away some dvd's about Margaret Thatcher this April, which had some nice library footage.

Tips:
The less time it takes to collect the free gift, the better for the reader. It's a pain to collect a token each week, but it ensures people buy the paper who might normally not.

It's also important to balance cutting down on expensive and environmentally hostile packaging with the tendency of people to rifle through papers and steal the free gift without buying the paper. Then, of course, you get angry people returning papers without the free gift.

I have to admit I don't think I'll be using the Dire Straits songbook, as I don't play any musical instruments.

Guido Fawkes on the Crewe by-election

Some news from blogger Guido Fawkes on the Crewe-by election.

Labour have a tories soft on yobs logo, although the colour scheme makes no sense. the liquid dripping should be red, not black.

He also says that the Labour high command has condoned the campaign, despite denials from Labour ministers.

It would be nice if the Lib Dems won this seat, given Labour's vile campaigning.

Tougher guidelines promised for National Student Survey

Tougher guidelines have been promised for the next National Student Survey, but it seems there is a long way to go.

We were pressed by tutors to answer certain questions in a particular way, and were not left alone to write our answers. It does mean we became fearful to write the pure truth.... It is our one chance to say what we feel about the course and uni, but it is made very difficult with this feeling of guilt if we don't say only positive things.
Kazza, Bournemouth

You can read more of the comments at the BBC link above.

Students who don't trust the National Student Survey can opt out, but they need to inform Ipsos Mori by replying to the e-mail sent.

Kingston University has also responded to the complaints and plans to release an agreed script, according to Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Scott.

Gordon Brown to answer submitted questions via Youtube

The BBC reports that Gordon Brown will respond to video questions sent via the Downing Street website.

You can see some of the questions on the Downing Street Youtube site and by searching on Youtube.

One wonders how heavily the entries are filtered. One entrant has dubbed Brown "G.Bizzle" although given how poorly Labour are doing and the bickering, Fizzle might be a bit better.

You can see Gordon below:



However, some Youtubers are less sure of the prime minister's commitment to social networking



One wonders if this will be any more effective than the e-petitions.

International cluster ban treaty planned at Dublin Diplomatic Conference

Tomorrow sees the start of the Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, where world leaders will meet to attempt to ban the use of cluster bombs.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin tells delegates on the conference's site "I look forward to welcoming you to Dublin, and can assure you that the Irish Government will spare no effort in working with all participants to achieve a successful outcome."

Over 46 countries have committed themselves to find by 2008 a legally binding instrument to ban such cluster bombs. They have also committed to help survivors and clear areas still containing bombs. This follows the 2007 Oslo Declaration and the February 2008 Wellington Declaration.

Amnesty International says

Cluster bombs are dangerous and volatile explosives. They scatter hundreds of small-but-lethal bomblets over a wide area, many of which don’t explode on impact remaining deadly to the civilian population.

As a result they can have devastating consequences, particularly for children who pick up unexploded bomblets thinking that they are toys and then are severely injured or even killed as a result.

According to a poll commissioned anti-landmine charities, almost eight out of ten people in Great Britain think the government should support a worldwide ban on cluster bombs. Landmine Action's Director Simon Conway said:

'The polling is clear; people recognise that if Britain is to be a force for good in the world, the government should totally ban these weapons - no exemptions, no loopholes.'

Network Pages have now been removed from profiles (here's a link to all Network Pages)

What a shame.

I'm currently applying for jobs and I've just logged into my Facebook for a quick break to see that my networks no longer link to network pages. However, here's a link to all the network pages on Facebook. Have a browse.

You can join the group Against Facebook removing the Network Pages or sign this PetitionOnline.com petition.

More comments here.

Facebook say on the Help pages

You can still find almost all of the content on your Network pages in different locations on the site. If you are searching for users within one of your networks, we recommend that you use one of the Search features, by clicking on the word "Search" in the upper left hand corner of any page. You can find events in your networks by selecting "Browse Events" from the Events page. We also encourage you to use Groups to continue discussions that previously took place on Network pages. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

So without asking users for their views, Facebook simply delete the pages and tell us to wade through Facebook. Radio silence on the Facebook blog.

Now a nice way of sharing information, videos and groups has gone.

If this was done to get rid of spam, it's funny how poor Facebook has been at stopping spam on the walls of groups. I hate having to wade past posts on dodgy social marketing websites and links to pornographic Youtube videos from accounts obviously set up to spam about porn sites (a sure site of this is an account with no Facebook friends and a glamour photo). Yuwie spam is also extremely tedious, and I would have though Facebook would be racing to delete spam promoting a rival site!

Sad day for Facebook-but a good day for other social networking sites?

LinkedIn is mainly for professionals, Bebo is orientated at teenagers only, and Myspace is not cutting the networking mustard.

Although it doesn't deserve it, I think Facebook will still prosper.

Register your lack of support of Boris Johnson

The website I Didn't Vote For Boris allows people to send in photos of them with an "I Didn't" sign.

It's similar to Sorry Everybody,created after the 2004 American election to showcase people who did not vote for Bush.

Not many people are on I Didn't Vote For Boris so far. Maybe takeup will increase after the mention in yesterday's Guide magazine (part of the Guardian).

Online Journalism Blog: How social networking has transformed journalism

Paul Bradshaw of the excellent Online Journalism Blog answers via video how social networking has transformed journalism.

You can see more of Paul's videos about journalism at his Youtube page.

I also like this post on how journalists can master microblogging platform Twitter.

NB: You can follow this blog via Twitter. Just scroll down the left hand side until you reach Lijit. If I had time I would tweet, but I'll stick to blog posts until my workload lessens-which may be never.

Family Guy Spinoff "The Cleveland Show" will premiere on Fox in 2009

America's Fox network have commissioned a spin-off from Seth McFarlane's Family Guy, according to Zap2it.

The show will focus on Peter's friend Cleveland Brown.

According to Zap2it

"Peter Griffin's buddy Cleveland moves to Stoolbend, VA with his son, his high school sweetheart Donna and her daughter. The wacky neighbors include a loudmouth redneck couple, a British family seemingly stuck in the Victorian era and a family of bears in this "Family Guy" spin-off."

I never saw Cleveland as a very interesting character, compared to Mayor West or Quagmire (although I'm not sure anyone could stomach a whole show about that pervert), so here's hoping Fox flesh him out-and here's hoping it'll be better than the tedious American Dad.

Cleveland's son does look a lot like Peter, and the baby does look somewhat like Stewie. Is this intentional?

The "British as genteel" jokes are so outdated. How about poking fun at the British middle class's characteristics?

Introduction To The City And Financial Services, week three

Today was the last day of my Introduction To The City And Financial Services course at City University.

We covered derivatives (a term for financial instruments derived from other financial instruments, such as futures), commodities, hedge funds and the Financial Services Authority.

The latter is an independent non-governmental body charged with regulating finance in the United Kingdom. Rick also made clear the differences between options and futures (the latter is an obligation, and can be bought over the counter).

We also calculated our investment results from the past two weeks, including our equities and foreign exchanges. My team had "invested" in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, Sainsburys and Rolls Royce. The currencies we bought were the Polish zloty and the Japanese yen. We made £91,177 profit, although the other team made a bit more.

Handily for me, we also covered financial writing and outlets that a financial journalist may apply to, such as Finextra and the Economist.

Rick discussed the use of metaphor and analogy in writing for business, as well as the need to understand the use of tables and graphs.

I enjoyed the course and found the information very useful. It's handy to have a stack of clear notes to look over as well.

I am currently writing my personal development plan and two essays, which are due by June 14th.

New website launches for reporting homophobia in Oxfordshire

If, like me, you think not enough is done to tackle homophobia, here is some cheering news from The Oxford Times.

The website is Oxhault.

Sadly, the "I'm not gay so why should I care" brigade are already mocking.

?, ox on 2:27pm today
Surely there are more important issues in the city to be dealing with.......

Does ? symbolise this person's questionable judgement?

Financial Journalism Specialism

Last week on our financial journalism specialism, our group discussed with Edward Russell-Walling the stories we had chosen from the Financial Times. We also had a good introduction to financial journalism, including a diagram of the money flow.

This week we discussed the stories that we chose from the Economist.

I chose: a story that merges politics and business: Publish and be taxed, about Italian tax authorities putting the details of every Italian income-tax return on ebay. I suggested that the possible compensation of 520 euros per person was important, as it was from public money.

A story that could be followed up: Another setback for Gordon: on Scottish independence and Wendy Alexander. One angle could be what Scottish independence means for England and the City.

Myself and two other students then discussed the 800-word articles they had written. Mine was on what Tory environmental policies would mean for the economy and business.

We then had a chat about the difference between debt and equity, the two ways companies raise money. We finished off by focusing on the London Stock Exchange.

Tommorow at 10am is my last financial seminar at City Uni.

Mexican reporters attacked by Federal Police

Reporters from the Mexican newspaper El Debate have alleged they were assaulted by the Federal Police (PFP) while covering the installation of a security checkpoint in the city of Cuilacán, Sinaloa on May 6.

According to the journalists, the PFP reacted violently after one journalist took pictures, chasing him to the offices of El Debate.

While some officers searched the offices for the photographer, another group detained captured reporter Torivio Bueno.

Bueno told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was handcuffed, placed face down in the extended cab of the pick-up truck and kicked repeatedly. At least one agent pointed a rifle at him and threatened to shoot. He was then released. When other journalists arrived, the PFP left.

In a telephone interview with human rights organisation ARTICLE 19, one source pointed out that “there exists a latent fear among journalists. We don’t know how [the Federal Police] are going to react anyone could be the next victim.”

Two of the other three reporters have been named as Leo Espinoza and Giovanni Elizalde.

El Debate's managing director Rosario Oropoza told the CPJ a federal police spokesperson called him and said that the incident was an error, claiming the agents were agitated about the death of several colleagues over the past weekend.

According to the CPJ, Mexico is one of the most dangerous places for journalists in Latin America. "Three journalists and three media workers were murdered in 2007, while three reporters went missing. Drug trafficking and organized crime have both become greater problems there in the last couple of years, and reporters who cover these dangerous stories are threatened and killed." 

Always check out your local library

This morning I went into Harrow to pay in a cheque, and decided to visit the newly refurbished Gayton Central Lending Library.

They had a trolley full of withdrawn stock on the first floor, and for £1 I managed to pick up a book on Dreamweaver and a book on podcasting.

Journalism students should join their local libraries. Aside from cheap (sometimes) withdrawn stock, they are usually less crowded than university libraries during the day, and will often have books the university library doesn't.

If you're living on campus you may need to check what else to bring before you visit, but it's free to join.

Harrow's libraries are probably the best-run service in the borough.

Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival open

Registration is open for the Edinburgh International Television Festival, which runs from 22-24 August 2008.

Brilliant satirist, director, writer, producer and all-round good chap Armando Iannucci will deliver the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture, while Jamie Oliver will give the Richard Dunn Memorial Interview and show off his cooking skills live.

Director of Television at ITV and former BBC One Controller, Peter Fincham will give the MacTaggart Lecture.

This sounds rather novel:

The Festival is introducing its own Dragons' Den sessions, offering producers the chance to pitch for real development money. Once registered, delegates will be able to apply for one of the twelve slots with the best selected for a live pitch hosted by Evan Davis.

From the PR e-mail

It's £395 if you register before June 18, and £425 after that.

If I had the time and money I would go. Let me know how the day goes, if you're re-reading this in late August.

Register here.

Concerns over press freedom in Yemen

The Al-Wasat weekly newspaper in Yemen has alleged that the Ministry of Information has ordered publishing houses not to print the paper.

The human rights organisation Article 19 has as written to the Minister of Information urging the Yemeni Government to respect its commitment under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, as well as its pledges to freedom of expression under the National Reform Agenda.

Article 19 also demands the Ministry to ensure that former editor of Al-Shoura newspaper AbdelKarim Al-Khaiwani receives a fair trail. He has been imprisoned awaiting trial since July 2007.

The organisation also demands the release of comic Mr. Fahd Al-Qarni, who was arrested while heading to a festival in the coastal city of Aden last month.

A spokesperson at the political security office in Taiz told Marib Press “Fahd Al Qarni is accused of abusing the head of the state, and ridiculing his speeches and this is a clear violation of the law”.

Sixth series of Peep Show commisioned

Yay!

From British Sitcom Guide:

Darren Smith, Channel 4's Commissioning Editor for Comedy has announced that the broadcaster has ordered a sixth series of Peep Show from producers Objective Productions...Highly-praised creators Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain will continue to write the series, with Mitchell and Webb reprising their roles as Mark and Jeremy.

SightPoint offers The Photoshop Anthology book for free

Until June 13th SitePoint are allowing users to download Corrie Haffly’s The Photoshop Anthology for free.

All you do is give them your e-mail and they'll send you a link to the file.

The freebie is supported by 99designs

I've had a quick look at the book and it's really detailed-so I'd recommend a download.

The book is in PDF format.

The Apprentice Week 8: A Dressing-Down

An unusually dull episode of the Apprentice last night. It's been a good show so far.

Meeting in the church of St Bartholomew the Great, the candidates are told they have to represent manufacturers at the National Wedding Exhibition in Birmingham.

Once again, the teams are re-organised.

Helene Speight is project manager of Renaissance, which Lucinda Ledgerwood is Alpha's project manager.

Helene makes the mistakes of splitting the search for wedding dresses between four people, so no-one will see both choices.

Michael Sophocles "I feigned interest very well" when discussing wedding dresses.

Much of the program is taken up with people not buying wedding dresses and Alpha's wedding undies. Indeed, had Raef not dressed up as a mascot, I would have turned off and read Francis Spufford's excellent The Backroom Boys.

The Apprentice-and this is easy for a critic like me to say-needs to be innovative and exciting. It was last week in Morocco when the teams were abroad and facing different customs.

This week's program had a similar format to the photography challenge or flogging ice-cream, but unlike those two was not funny!

Still, the boardroom was passable. Alpha won £5752.99, while, Renaissance raised £1925.

Although Michael is told off, Sir Alan decides to fire Sara.

Lee McQueen is still a yob.

Next time-tissues. No, it's not an Apprentice porno shoot, but they're marketing tissues to Ogilvy London, an advertising agency

Carrot Panic Buying Day Today

So today is the day when across the country people are panic buying carrots...

From the group:

They are running out in my local veg shop some one asked me why did I want 10 kilos of carrots, 4 Soup i said

I did my bit, Tesco in Broadbridge Heath, Horsham now have 15 less...

Well Ive done my bit for Carrot day, went to Tesco in Ashford (M'sex) and bought a load of Large bags of carrots, left only 2 on the shelf! Other half took a load to work for a giggle. Kept two for home, a bag to eat and a bag for our son to paint with! We figured if you can do potato prints then carrot prints would work!

BBC News story here

Boris Johnson axes The Londoner

From the excellent Press Gazette:

"The newly-elected Conservative mayor described the move as the first attempt to cut “unnecessary funding” of the Mayor’s Office's publicity budget. Johnson's office claims the Mayor's Office would have spent £2.9 million on the newspaper this year had Ken Livingstone been re-elected. The new administration pledged to use some of the money saved — around £1 million per year — to plant 10,000 trees in London's most deprived areas by 2012."

More

Kingston University in National Student Survey controversy

Two Kingston University lecturers have been caught urging students to give their university a good report in the controversial National Student Survey.

Psychology lecturers Fiona Barlow-Brown and Fred Vallee-Tourangeau were recorded making comments that their degrees would be poor unless the university did well.

The recording was posted on Imperial University's Live! student news site and a Kingston University protest site.

The Higher Education Funding Council say they are aware of the incident and was taking it very seriously. A spokesman told The Times “If evidence of this is formally brought to us we may either request an explanation or require an investigation to be carried out."

If you are a Kingston student or member of staff, how have you found the university?

I had a dream about Boris Johnson

I really want to record my dreams. I have the weirdest ones.

When I was younger, I used to have nightmares about how I might get lost from my family. I remember one where I was trapped in the middle of a rubbish tip, and another where I fell through the hole in roadworks.

I always had dreams about school a few days into the holidays.

Last night I dreamt that I was in a huge pub with a large group of people (some of whom looked like peasants) when Boris Johnson walked in and exited via a back door.

Then I was standing next to someone who was using a massive trebuchet (medieval catapult) to fire what was either marble or meat at Johnson. I couldn't see him but in dreams sometime you "know" things. It took place in the middle of a forest.

And then I woke up, with my alarm going off, at 8:20am.

And here I am.

Magazine talk from Marie Dawson

We've had a good talk from journalist Marie Dawson, who has written for a number of magazine in North America.

She has also written a book entitled In The Light Of The Sun,about a woman who encounters a mysterious stranger on a deserted island.

Marie made the point that the most important part of the magazine after the cover is the centrefold.

That's where most people turn (for some reason) while they flick through them in newsagents-unless the newsagent is a real dragon, like one in Cornwall I had the misfortune of meeting several years ago.

Marie also gave us a handout with the main magazine publishers, including EMAP and Conde Nast.

She told us to make sure we drew the reader in with a unique, friendly voice.

Sussex town to print own currency

The Sussex town of Lewes is considering printing its own local money.

Last year Totnes in Devon launched its own currency.

More

German men cause sausage disaster

Two Kaiserslautern residents in SW Germany used petrol to light a barbecue, torching two cars.

Wonderful caption with the story.

More here.

Sky News Unplugged to launch this Wednesday

This Wednesday sees the launch of Sky News Unplugged, which is described as "taking a sideways look at the week's news".

The show will be presented by Martin Stanford, who also presents Sky.com news.

You can watch the show at 12:45pm here and on Sky News Active.

Afterwards the show can be seen on demand here and it will be rebroadcast on Active.

This week's program will have Nick Pope, who used to run the British Government's UFO Project as well as Olly Mann and Helen Zaltzman from the Answer Me This podcasts.

Feedback can be given via the editor's blog.

Research

We have started our magazine project features. I am writing one on skin cancer

Against Facebook removing the Network Pages update

The original group, which had 8 members yesterday evening, now has 342.

A Spanish version, petición: No al cierre de las páginas de redes!! , has been created.
It has 8 members so far.

No word from Facebook.

Dying Hobbit Fan's Last Wish

From TheMovieBlog.com

Melissa, age 34 and known to her friends as Fiver, is an avid Lord of the Rings fans and she was more excited than most to find out about the Hobbit Prequels. But then she was more than disappointed that she is unlikely to live to see them completed. She has Lou Gerig’s disease and the average person lives 3-5 years after diagnosis. She has had the disease for a year now.

Her husband has put together a petition online to hopefully reach out to NewLine and Peter Jackson (and now DelToro if that helps) to get her a gig as an extra in the film.

More here

Petition link

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Lou Gerig's disease

Dailyshow.com: Blogwars author David Perlmutter on blogs' effect on elections

Blogwars: The New Political Battleground looks at blogs' growing prevalence within American media as well as the history of the blog. I must read it sometime. £7 on Amazon.co.uk, published on June 6th 2008.

Dom Joly takes on APCOA Parking

Comedian Dom Joly details the experiences he has had with APCOA Parking after he fell ill with pneumonia while his car was parked in Kemble station (near Swindon).

I got one of those horrible, impersonal letters telling me that my appeal had been "considered' and "rejected". There was no reason given, no human element – there never is with parking Nazis. I sent them another letter threatening to take the matter all the way to court and I also sent a (mildly abusive) email to their press office informing them that I was going to write about this as an example of what was going wrong with the UK right now.

I got an email back from the office manager. After chastising me for the "bullying tone and vulgar language contained within your email", she announced that "given your public profile, and the fact that we do not believe that anything we say to you will be reflected fairly by you, we are cancelling both of your parking tickets".

Read more

Wow it's hot!

It's really hot today and I would love to be out with friends or lazing in the sunshine with a book, but I've got lots of work to do.

Lovely blue skies and green trees also.

Facebook To Remove Network Pages: A Bad Move

This appears at the top of my network pages in a yellow box

Network Pages will be discontinued soon

Facebook will soon be removing Network Pages from the site. Please keep this in mind when communicating with others on the Wall and on the discussion board. You can use Groups to connect with the people around you.

No reason is given by Facebook, nor is it mentioned on the Facebook blog.

A bad move by Facebook-Pages for universities and schools only allow people with a relevant e-mail address to join. Pages allow users to gauge how popular links are and share events.

Many Facebook Groups are tedious in-jokes "Dave wet his bed this morning,lol!!!!" or poorly worded nonsense. I'd hate to have to search through all that guff.

A group has already been created to protest the change.

Labour Party continue to be hopeless: Dog Whistles and Hypocrisy

Spitting Image had a sketch where then shadow cabinet members Michael Foot, Roy Hattersley, Neil Kinnock and Denis Healey sing about how "hopeless" and "p*sspoor" they are.

I was reminded of this sketch when I read a post by Guido Fawkes about the Labour Party's Crewe by-election leaflet, which is also on the Crewe Labour candidate Tamisn Dunwoody's website.

The website says

Local residents are asking the question - who is Edward Timpson? Apparently he has been a candidate for 12 months, but no one in the town has heard much from him.

All we know about his is he waffles lots, wants to cut the funding going to our schools, has no idea how to tackle crime and lives in a big mansion house on the other side of Tarporley.

1. Which local residents are asking this?
2. What evidence to you have he waffles? Is Gordon Brown the lovechild of Cicero and Virgina Woolf then, judging by the Labour Party's sudden drive for oratorical wonder.
3. If Edward Timpson should be judged by the actions of his party, shouldn't this apply to Tamsin Dunwoody too? Tamsin Dunwoody's party has done nothing about cheap booze and supermarket alcopops. Tamsin Dunwoody's party has presided over a chaotic prison system and a justice system where paedophiles get light sentences.

Home Office Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: "Their risk to the public was acceptable. "They had served the period of imprisonment necessary for the purposes of retribution and deterrence."

4. Doesn't former Labour Party leader Tony Blair have rather a lot of houses?

You can see the original sketch below. It starts 40s in.



I assume any "local residents" unsure who Edward Timpson is don't read the local Crewe Guardian or use Wikipedia.

One wonders how much further the party that once gave us Harold Wilson and Clement Attlee can decline.

Introduction To The City And Financial Services Week Two

Today was the second Saturday of my Introduction To The City And Financial Services course. Taught by Rick Payne, the course is run by City University in Islington, near the City of London.

We covered banking-the largest City employer-and how banks create money. Using the case study of "Barry's Bangers" a fictional company, we explored loans, bonds, leasing and forward foreign exchange.

The latter involves buying foreign currency now for settlement at a later time.

We also learnt about banking careers including graduate recruitment, and watched a clip from Rogue Trader, about former derivatives trader Nick Leeson, who made unauthorized speculative trades while at Barings Bank.

Rick told us about the trading stereotypes and how trading has changed over the last two decades, as well as "pump and dump" where one buys shares, spreads good news about them and then sells them.

Some of the session dealt with interview practice and networking, two important skills to learn for any career dealing with the City. One of our group had a practice interview with Rick.

We were told by Rick to prepare well, and make your first impression good. That means a firm handshake and eye contact. Confident but not arrogant.

We also chose some options (which provide the right, without obligation, to buy or sell) to add to our team investment portfolios. We'll be following these using the FT Companies and Markets section over the next seven days. Rick showed us how useful a Yahoo account is for following the markets using Yahoo Finance.

I have chosen the titles for my two essays and am halfway through the first one. I also have a Personal Development Plan to finish.

Rick also gave us examples of share certificates with "Barry's Bangers" on them as well as "Barry's Bangers" fake bonds with coupons (which signify the interest attached).

Tombstones are certificates encased in perspex which bank managers etc keep to show the transactions they have been involved in. Like mounted animal heads on walls of hunters but more discreet.

For my Westminster University business module I am analysing the Economist, which I purchased this morning. I have also written a 800 word feature on what the Conservatives' environmental plans will mean for the economy.

Very hot on the Metropolitan Line when I left Barbican, and it was full of Torquay United fans between Northwick Park and Wembley Park: a very family-friendly crowd, seemed like a nice bunch, just like Torquay residents often are when I visit, apart from the "boy racers".

Strike 2.0: Nic Paton on how social networking has changed industrial disputes

From the Guardian's work section

Last autumn, in a dispute over pay, IBM workers in Italy organised a picket outside their company headquarters. They marched and waved banners, gate-crashed a staff meeting and forced the company to close its business centre to visitors. They were joined by more than a thousand supporters, among them a range of geometric shapes, "sentient" fruit and even a stack of square discs shaped like a human holding a banner with the somewhat cryptic message, "seriously guys what has Korea ever done for us".

Welcome to the world of 21st-century strike action. The protest, by more than 9,000 workers and 1,850 supporting "avatars" from 30 countries, was carried out in the virtual environment Second Life, where IBM operates a "corporate campus". In a world where workers are physically more disparate, yet ever more closely linked through their computers, the days of pickets gathered around flaming braziers are, if not numbered, then certainly changing.

More

Facebook responds to MySpace Data Availability by launching Facebook Connect

Following the May 8th launch of MySpace Data Availability, which allows users to add their Myspace information to other sites, Facebook has launched Facebook Connect.

It will launch in a few weeks. Sounds interesting.

Source: TechCrunch

Youtube: Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham

Little gem from the 1970's.

BBC Radio 4 Site says:

In the late 1970s, several of the UK's major cities were the stars of B-movies the so-called 'Quota Quickies'...One such classic is called Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham. It has the American actor extolling the virtues and history of Birmingham.

His narration is unintentionally funny and wonderfully kitsch...The director of these quota quickies, the late Harold Baim, seemed to have an obsession with multi-storey car parks, concrete shopping centres and motorways in his attempt to catapult the city into the 21st century.

Others in the Harold Baim series include Telly Savalas Looks At Aberdeen and Telly Savalas Looks At Portsmouth.

The Quota Quickies were shown in cinemas before the main feature because of a law which meant that cinemas had to show a British film for every American film.

Thanks Radio 4.

What good does this lawsuit do?

Litigation UK is hearing its head again with the recent news that the parents of 13 year old Sam Harris are suing Timothy and Catherine Perry for not providing enough supervision while hosting a party.

Harris was kicked in the head by an older child, causing a broken skull and brain damage.

The lawsuit is expected to be over a million pounds, according to the BBC.

I'm not sure how the parents would have prevented Harris being kicked even if they had stood in front of the castle without taking their eyes away, given that the kick appears to be accidental. A BBC Online story for April 22 says

Sam suffered a depressed skull fracture and "serious and traumatic brain injury" after a taller 15-year-old caught the side of his head with a heel while they somersaulted.

Unless the boy was wearing trainers or had feet made of metal, I really don't see how this can be viewed as anything other than a tragic accident.

It seems accidents don't happen any more. Everything is somebody's fault.

Mark Jerram of the The British Inflatable Hirers Alliance told BBC News Online the case was symptomatic of a "blame culture" and I agree.

I wonder how the Perrys' child feels, that his parents are being sued because of something that happened at his party.

The Last Lecture (in hardback) by Jeffrey Zaslow and Randy Pausch

During his Last Lecture at Carneige Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Professor Randy Pausch joked "For the freshmen, this is paper" when discussing the World Book Encyclopedia.

Now he's brought out his Last Lecture in this classic format. Even if you've watched Randy on Youtube, it's still worth your money.

Dictated to Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow by Pausch during the latter's daily bike ride, the book shows how Pausch could not have made it without the help of so many people in his life, including his parents "My parents knew what it took to really help people", football Coach Graham "He gave me a feedback loop for life" and his college mentor Andy van Dam.

We also learn about how he dealt with complications during the birth of his children and the news that his cancer was terminal.

Pausch as family man is much more evident than in the lectures.

While it's a loss to his children that they'll grow up without him, it's clear they'll have the knowledge in life for them to succeed, thanks to their father.

Life-affirming advice from both the Last Lecture and Time Management is given throughout the book.

Pausch focuses on the positive, telling us how he overcame obstacles and how you can too. It's a book for your bedside table, not just your bookcase.

The book is now a New York Times number one bestseller. UK viewers can get it from Waterstones for £8.

BBC great tits story second most popular

I wonder why "Great tits cope well with warming" is the most e-mailed and the third most read story on BBC News online!

It's about birds, actually.

At least one of Britain's birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food.

Photos of burnt-out Harrow High School minibus, Kenton Road, 12:40pm

Walking to a charity shop from uni, I chanced upon this taped-off and burnt-out minibus in Kenton Road.

Sorry this has been the first post with photos in ages-time and photo upload problems have been responsible.

No word yet from police if it was arson. If it was, the people responsible are total scumbags.

One passer-by said to me "Looks like a proper burnt-out."

McAfee Internet Security Warning: Don't install PLAY_MP3 codec

Internet security company McAfee are warning that a codec asked for by spoof .mp3 files with names such as "girls aloud st trinnians.mp3" and "heartbroken fast t2 ft jodie.mp3" will install a large bundle of adware (software that displays advertisements and po-ups on your computer.

Do not download or run PLAY_MP3.exe. If you do, it will install the Downloader-UA.h trojan.

McAfee Avert Labs Blog has a list of some of the .mp3's to avoid.

If you already have PLAY_MP3, try uninstalling it using Add/Remove Programs.

Then download Spybot-Search And Destroy and Ad-aware.

You can download a free firewall from ZoneAlarm and a free virus scanner from AVG.

Web 2.0 News

Rodney Rumford on Facebook's profile changes:

Cha… Cha… Changes are coming very soon to facebook profiles. Facebook has been talking about making some significant changes to the profile pages and how they look and feel and interact with applications.

More here.

Slate on political ringtones:

Already got a dozen Barack Obama headbands? Worn out your "Hot for Hillary" T-shirt? It's time for a new campaign accessory: Slate's political ring tones.

More here

Digital Inspiration: Creating 360 degree panoramas:

Enter Magtoo Panorama Show, a web based tool for creating 360° panoramas from photographs captured using any digital camera.

More here.

Can "Bojo" keep his Mojo? Boris Johnson already has problems

Boris Johnson's first major policy announcement, to ban alcohol consumption on the London Underground, has brought criticism from the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow told the Times today

Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done, and maybe tell a crowd of Liverpool supporters that they can’t drink on the train.

Transport for London workers and British Transport Police will not be able to take any action other than "ejection" until a bylaw changing travel rules comes in in 2009.

So why not bring the policy in then? Why this two-stage horror?

It also seems a Tube strike may be happening soon after the unions refused to agree to Johnson's no-strike deal.

Which will be really helpful for me while I travel to write articles and attend internships. Thanks Team Boris. Thanks Boris voters, who elected this muppet on a bike.

The number of "Vote Boris Johnson" groups makes me think most of his supporters aren't that bright, include the six people who want "Boris Johnson for mayor of Manchester."

If people can't drink on the Tube, they'll simply stand outside the station drinking, whack their Oyster on the yellow circle and stagger onto the train/fall onto the track/lie on the stone floor peeing themselves.

Why we need more police community support officers I do not know. There are loads wandering around Harrow each evening, a visible police presence but a limited one. We need more POLICE OFFICERS-which means improving conditions and pay so they don't move abroad. What does Boris Johnson care about the police brain drain?

There is a demonstration against Boris Johnson this Sunday in Trafalgar Square. More info. I don't have time to go, but I sympathise.

Why do the British people-who I'll defend against many charges-elect complete fools year on year on year?

Harold Wilson, Frank Field and Tony Benn being three of few exceptions.

The Apprentice Episode Seven: Moroccan Business

This week the ten remaining candidates have been sent to Marrakesh, Morocco.

They've been sent to buy ten items from local merchants, using all their haggling skills.

Morocco is a francophone country.

On Lee's team, Lucinda shoots down Raef's suggestion they dress like locals. Lee is not happy about being with Lucinda and Sara.

The huge five-mile souks will present the competitors with a real challenge.

"For a million pounds, even if Sir Alan said touch that snake or kiss that snake, I couldn't."

Alex and Claire only get £1 off a juicer, with too many people involved in negotiating.

Meanwhile Jenny's team manage to get a cow hide (with tail) at one third of asking price.

Jenny and Michael also try to get merchants to pretend they cannot help the other team, but no luck there.

Result:

Alpha(Lee): all items, £413.61-private air ballon
Renaissance (jenny C): £449.60, two disallowed, two penalties (£603.59 instead)

The team annoy Sir Alan by saying "Bonjour" to him instead of "hello". He then dishes out a bollocking "Are you 'aving a laugh?" "If you're not sure you can always drop your trousers" when Micheal talks about his Jewish faith.

Jenny is shown up as a liar and briber.


Sir Alan does not follow the usual format, and instead sacks both Jennies.

It's easy to attack the contestants, but would we do any better?

PS: A good point from ozziechef on Cookd and Bombd

Margaret and Nick are really coming to the fore this series - some great moments with them again this week - Margaret's sunglasses and the Edinburgh put-down. I also love it when they snitch on the contestants in the boardroom, I'm surprised the contestants lie when they must realise these two will happily tell Suralan the truth at the appropriate time.

Next time: The National Wedding Show, where they sell wedding gear.

Barton Abbey Cricket Club Match in memory of David Brunton

Some nice news from Oxfordshire: a cricket match is to be played on June 22 in memory of my friend and mentor David Brunton.

I will sadly not be able to attend, as I will be on a work placement in London, however as always I will be thinking about David.

The match will raise money for the David Brunton Bursary.

His wife Jenny Liddiard says in the letter

"For those of us who knew David, I hope the day will also provide an opportunity to remember him, and especially to remember the humour and sense of fun he brought into our lives.

Let's face it, the closest David would have come to cricket would have been to quote Geoffrey Boycott on Brass Eye ("I didn't get runs by slacking" or "Did I walk out to bat when I was half out of bed, no!") but that would have kept us more than entertained at half-time."


You can read more about David Brunton under the "Online Resume and Dedication" link at the top right. Donations to the David Brunton Bursary can be made using the above link.

I hope everyone has a good match.

Subbing test with Andrew Grant-Adamson

Today we had a talk on subbing from our tutor and former sub-editor Andrew Grant-Adamson. We then completed a three-part subbing test, despite printer problems.

The function of a sub-editor is a gatekeeper that can identify legal problems and badly written copy. I should unlock my "inner pedant" and be "a stickler for language" (Not a tickler, or a tickler stickler). Having just destroyed a joke, I might add that puns should be avoided and that place names must be checked.

My Sky News Online placement also helped me write my own headlines and picture captions. Hopefully, these should come in useful in my role as chief sub.

As chief sub-editor for our magazine, it is particularly important for me to master the art of subbing. Andrew pointed out that it is important not to switch between articles and to follow the house style.

One part of the test was subbing down InDesign copy to fit, while we also had to use proofreading symbols on a passage about financial news. The third part was rewriting an intro.

It is also important to have a dictionary and thesaurus to hand. I have one of each from my BA English Literature degree, but they are the size of a cement slab. I'll bring them in in a carrier.

Be interesting to see how I did in the test!

Indian edition of Youtube launches today

As mentioned at the constantly excellent Digital Inspiration, Youtube has today launched a localised version for India.

Looking at the most popular videos, many of them seem to feature children performing, including "Lingo Kid", with over 100,000 views.

The top video, PariandHarvin.com's Crank Dat Curry Sauce Music Video, has over 800,000 views!

Here is Lingo Kid selling his peacock fans:



I must say the Kid Singing Britney Spears Scared video in "related videos" looks rather fun. Maybe next time he'll sing better music.

Oxfordshire Police To Get Blackberries

No, it's not a healthy eating drive. The smartphone is being given out to all neighbourhood policing officers to enable them to access information while on the beat.

This follows the introduction of head cameras in Chipping Norton and East Oxford.

According to the Oxford Times, the phones are part of a £50m plan to provide 10,000 police officers around the United Kingdom with hand-held computers.

More details here.

James Whale sacked from Talksport

Presenter James Whale has been sacked from leading radio broadcaster talkSPORT for urging listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the 2008 London Mayoral Elections.

Whale had been at talkSPORT for 13 years, hosting a phone-in show.

The heat is on...unlike people's thinking caps

Why does summertime always bring out the idiots?

Two people this past fortnight have really annoyed me. The first is someone who keeps trying to contact me, despite the fact I've told him I don't want to hear from him again. Ravi, if you are reading this I DO NOT WANT you to telephone me or e-mail me again. I'm sure you will find other people to help you, but I cannot.

The second is an imbecile undergraduate student who sprayed me with water and then sneered at me "Cheer up mate, it's summer".

I was worried that Sainsburys would close and I didn't have the energy for verbals so I walked on by, but I wanted to ask the little tick if he would be smiling after completing several hours of good hard work on a magazine concept instead of two hours in a lecture and then the rest of the day spent watching Friends and trying to be as cliched a student as possible.

It's May. I'm tired, as are most of my class. I don't need student "wackiness" or people trying to harass me.

Rant over...for now. We started our second Indesign magazine project today. I am chief subeditor/staff writer.

Now what about that airline food?

Ooh Betty! Spam gets clever

I received this an hour ago

"Attention: Respectable Recipient,Based on our findings in this
investigation, we wish to warn you against some Miscreants, Hoodlums and Touts
who go about frauding innocent people by claiming to be who they are
not and thereby tarnishing the image of this wonderful country, NIGERIA.

Following the protest from your government, International Community,
World Bank and IMF as well as our President instructing us to investigate
and make payment of all outstanding debts due for payment which your
name has been boldly indicated in our records as submitted from all
parastatal of government, banks in Nigeria."

Not bad: but they fell down on the old old problem: if Dr. Kenedy Erez of Unity Bank was real, would he have a Yahoo.fr e-mail?

Pete Doherty is released early from prison

Alongside the continuing problems on Britain's railways, with a signal failure causing replacement bus services to be brought in between Euston and Bletchley, and the crumbling of the Labour Government into dust, we have now been blighted by the return of Babyshambles singer and headline-hogger Pete Doherty.

He has been released 29 days into a 98 day sentence for possession of "crack cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis" which only leaves an After Eight mint to ensure that there ain't no party like a Doherty party.

He was also charged with driving uninsured and with no MOT, something a wealthy man like Doherty should have been able to sort out before he got nicked. Why this moron got early release I have no idea. He's a repeat offender who needs sorting out. You can see a picture gallery of his offences here.

When he left Wormwood Scrubs, the Babyshambles singer told reporters he was looking forward to drinking a rum and coke and spending time with his cats-I assume the feline variety is what's being referred to here.

Next time Mr Doherty is up before the judge, he should be sentenced to cleaning the streets of litter for the next three months. Working from 5am until 5pm each day, he should be ideal for major networks on a slow news day. They can shout questions between his picking up of drink cartons and copies of thelondonpaper (which, like its enemy LondonLite, is good for news on the capital). Being chained to a series of burly Group Four officers for the next few weeks might cause him to reconsider his criminal and above all tedious ways.

BBC 3's The Wall: Facebloke

Social networking is a good subject for comedy. BBC3's comedy show The Wall takes off "Facebooking with real life."

I'd like to work on a social media comedy show

Good book for business journalism students

Tony Cleaver's "The Basics: Economics" provides a good grounding in economics and economic philosophy.

I read the chapter on inflation and unemployment last night, including the Phillips Curve and Friedman's values.

£10 new or cheaper online.

Small world

I bought the Islington Gazette for the first time in ages on Saturday.

I was reading a nice feature in the Trends magazine section and saw the name Emma Youle, which rang a bell.

Emma was a student on the MA Journalism course here last year- I was reading the blogs of MA Journalism students in the months after I applied, so must have seen hers as well. Good luck to her.

Latest tedious spam to crawl into my Hotmail inbox

Why do you bother? Still, this one at least shows a scintilla of flair.

"Dear Sir/Ma

My name is John Perez and I am an artist. I live in United Kingdom,with my two kids and the love of my life. I have been doing artwork since I was a child. That gives me about 23 years of experience. I majored in art in high school and took a few college art courses. Most of my work is done in either pencil or airbrush mixed with color pencils. I have recently added designing and creating artwork on the computer...I have sold in galleries and to private collectors from all around the world. I am always facing serious difficulties when it comes to selling my art works to Americans, they are always offering to pay with a US POSTAL MONEY ORDER or TRAVELER'S CHECK, which is difficult for me to cash here in United Kingdom.
I am looking for a representative in the states who will be working for me as a part time worker and I will be willing to pay 10% for every transaction, which wouldn?t affect your present state of work, someone who would help me receive payments from my customers in the states. I mean someone that is responsible and reliable, because the cost of coming to the state and getting payments is very expensive."

It would have helped if the spammer had checked where I was from first. And someone from the UK would not say "high school" either!

I see no chance of your bright new tommorow: Can Gordon Brown regain his momentum?

With Boris Johnson the first Conservative Mayor of London, and heavy local election losses, is Gordon Brown prepared to fight to the finish? Will he risk going down with the ship at the next election or will he resign?

The Prime Minister should start by taking heed of those in the job before him-and not just Tony Blair. He should remember how badly Callaghan's Labour Government fared in 1979, and not delay the election until the last possible moment.

Having read Tony Benn's diaries for the period, as well as commentators at the time, it seems the rot really set in just before the Winter of Discontent. Labour might not have won a spring 1978 election, but it would have been a closer fight. He should not underestimate Charles Clarke or Frank Field; his two loudest critics are also dangerous, particular the clever Field.

How to become more interesting without needing to spin further? Develop a hinterland. Never mind writing books about brave people, take up gardening (Michael Heseltine), sailing (Edward Heath) or teddy bears (Gyles Brandreth). Sooner or later the media will cover it and it will look far more real than "Courage."

Brown should also get to grips with why the party is losing money. He needs to win back paying members and cut down on expensive spin merchants. Advertising is over-rated.

Good performances on television and on podcasts will do far more than tedious banners by roadsides proclaiming guff like "Not Flash. Just Gordon." That slogan will be on the minds of every Labour Party member this Bank Holiday.

When it comes to getting rid of dead wood-something New Labour are often reluctant to do- Jacqui Smith should be the first to go.

Brown needs to end the tradition that New Labour Home Secretaries have of annoying both the police and liberal opinion.

If Gordon Brown can do this and ditch his more ludicrous policies (ID cards and removal of the 10p income tax rate are two examples), he might win the next election. But it's a big if and a big might.

Harrow bucks the trend

News from my current "back yard", where Labour has won Brent and Harrow's Assembly seat from the Tories.

Navin Shah providing some comfort for Gordon Brown.

Blogger to allow post scheduling

For those of you new to blogging, Blogger is the platform I am using to blog.

Recently it has been announced that one will be able to write posts and schedule them to appear at a later date.

Good news if one is in an Internet-free part of the globe, or if the day ahead is simply very hectic.

Introduction To The City And Financial Services short course, week 1

To City University's Northampton Square campus, where I attended the first of my three sessions for a short course I am studying alongside my Westminster module, Introduction To The City And Financial Services.

Taught by Richard Payne, this course will enable me to understand more about Britain's financial heartland, something that is essential for a financial journalist.

To pass the course, I will write two essays on themes I choose and complete a personal development plan.

This week we covered the history of London, the development of the City of London as a financial centre, and the City's geography.

The City has 15,150 businesses and 350,000 employees, according to a video by the City of London Corporation.

To become more knowledgeable of the City we played a game, where we matched up photos of institutions such as the Baltic Exchange with their descriptions and their location- I must confess some of the latter were new to me.

We also studied fund management,primary and secondary markets, foreign exchange transactions and derivatives (financial instruments derived from other financial assets).

During the last hour and a half, we covered how to read the financial pages (which overlapped nicely with some of my business journalism seminar yesterday) and chose a bank's shares to invest a fake one million pounds in. We will follow the progress of this fake one million pounds over the next two sessions.

This was done using the Financial Times London Share Service, which has all UK listed shares by sector, including the Price Earnings ratio.

The Price Earnings ratio is simply the price of the share divided by the annual earnings per share. A high P/E is generally a sign of a good investment.

You can also use Yahoo to do this, which I may try tomorrow if I make headway with my business article for Westminster University.

Next week includes banking products, networking and hedge funds*.

Always nice to hear the word scrivener. A scrivener drew up legal documents.


*not to be confused with hedgehogs, although both can be prickly.

Johnson

I was going to parody Boris Johnson using Neil Kinnock's speech, but it got a bit dodgy in places.

Is he really going to win?

I don't think there is much I can say about Boris that hasn't been said by the Guardian or Compass, except that his Have I Got News For You persona is an act- he's a clever man pretending to be a stupid man.

Winter For Labour and Brown: United Kingdom Local Elections 2008

So far, 104 of 159 councils have declared. It's a bad night for Labour, an okay night for the Lib Dems and a great night for the Tories.

Labour have lost 177 councillors, while the Tories have gained 166.

They are on 24% of the vote, as opposed to the Tories 44% and Lib Dems 25%.

Unfortunately, the British National Party gained 8 councillors.

I watched local election coverage on Sky News and BBC One until 1:30. Sky provided lots of interviews at polls around the country, while the BBC had the bloggers in.

Labour have blamed the economy and 10p tax rate abolition as reasons why they did badly.

It looks like Boris Johnson will become Mayor, and like some floppy-haired Godzlla, will destroy London.

Some comfort for Gordon Brown- Nick Robinson doesn't think Labour MP's want a change of leader.

There have been problems with ballot papers in London.

Randy Pausch speakes about Time Management at the University of Virginia

Professor Randy Pausch, who gave a famous lecture on "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", speaks about time management at University of Virginia, November 2007.

It's really good.


Time Management:

Just voted in Northwick Park Social Club

No-one there apart from me and the two people in charge, although I did see someone earlier walking past with a polling card. I think it's obvious from earlier posts who I voted for as my first choice!

Election results on BBC 1 from 11:35, which I assume includes mayoral results.

I really don't want Boris Johnson to win. He's the lolcat-lover's candidate, the student who thinks he is wacky. His no-strike deal will NOT be accepted by the unions. He'll turn London into a laughing stock.

I was thinking about Ken Livingstone and to be honest, while I don't want him as mayor he's not as bad as Boris, plus he has had a few good ideas. So, although I wasn't happy about it, Ken got my second choice.

I hate being a pragmatist. I feel all New Labourish now, voting for someone I really dislike to keep out someone worse.

COME ON BRIAN!

BBC's Click exposes Facebook flaw

The BBC's Click program has found that applications can be created to mine data from Facebook users.

Advice from Click.

The Apprentice Episode Six: Carded In The Boardroom

One of the funnier episodes of the Apprentice this week.

The contestants were summoned to Hackney Town Hall to be told their task was to market greetings cards.

Kevin Shaw was told to lead Renaissance, while Michael Sophocles was told to lead Alpha.

Kevin told us how rich his life has been "By the age of 23, I had my second house...Now I want a Ferrari."

Claire Young said Kevin suffered from "short man syndrome" and that the animal he was most like was a pitbull.

His team choose an environment theme, while Alpha choose the idea of a singles' day.

If the position of the apostrophe in that sentence is worrying you, it vexed Michael, who spent three hours ringing round institutions such as the British Library and the Daily Telegraph to find out, in an arrogant manner.

The team also had to find models for their cards, with the marvellous Margaret Mountford raising an eyebrow when one of Kevin's models was told to show a buttock.

Both teams then had to pitch to Clintons, Tesco and the Celebrations Group. Despite Jenny having come up with the idea and Claire being a retail buyer, Kevin decided to pitch-not a good idea.

Back in the boardroom and an angry Sir Alan Sugar reveals that Michael's team sold 1,500 to Tesco's and Clinton's, and 19,500 to the Celebrations Group. Kevin's team sold 6,000 to Tesco.


While Mylenne Klass plays piano for Alpha in a private recital, Kevin is torn apart by his team in the boardroom. Sugar suggests a better theme would be "Sorry to hear that your 11 year old beautiful child got shot." He also attacked the idea of sending a card to raise environmental awareness.

Having brought Claire and scapegoat Sara Dhada back with him, Kevin is fired, which leads to angry criticism from the others back at the house. Raef Bjayou reminds the others that Sir Alan's choice is final.

Next week the lucky blighters get to go to Morroco and have to haggle with local merchants.