Yes Rupert Even The Best Drop The Occasional Clanger

Rupert's MySpace mea culpa

Everybody else's fault, actually
By Natalie Apostolou
23rd October 2011

War-weary News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch made one concession at the company’s high drama AGM on Friday, stating the MySpace acquisition was a “huge mistake.”

The sorry tale of the social network’s digital demise at the hands of NewsCorp began with the purchase of MySpace for $US580 million in 2005. “We paid $US600 million. We could have sold it for $US6 billion a month later,” Murdoch told shareholders.

“I made a huge mistake. We then proceeded to mismanage it in every possible way,” he said. But Murdoch then threw in the caustic barb, “all of the people concerned with it are no longer with the company.”

This isn’t strictly true as former AOL CEO Jon Miller, who joined News Corp in March 2009 as its great digital savant, is still apparently in Camp Murdoch as CEO of digital media and chief digital officer.

He was brought in to - among other digital super charging duties - turn the ailing fortunes of MySpace around. Despite ousting a lot of bodies and a couple of CEOs, it was pretty clear that this feat wasn’t going to happen. He then helped shift the asset into the hands of Justin Timberlake and Specific Media for $US35 million earlier this year.

Miller also spearheaded News Corp's foray into its iPad only newspaper, The Daily, and is also in charge of Hulu, which was pulled out of serious sale discussions earlier this month.

Perhaps Murdoch was pointing the finger at former MySpace CEO (and Miller oustee) Owen Van Natta who is now at Zynga as EVP and earned $US43 million last year; or Mike Lang, one of the architects of the MySpace acquisition when he was an EVP at News Corp, who is now the freshly installed CEO of Miramax; or former MySpace CEO Mike Jones who has recently started a Los Angeles-based incubator? The Register

By some strange coincidence my other great clanger (mistake/error) story involves a railway.

And as clangers go, they don't come better than this. Isobard Kingdom Brunel's Atmospheric Railway.





Links

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_events/atmospheric_railway.php

http://www.gkweb.net/myheroes/brunel/railways/atmospheric.php

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Ray Mears Bushcraft - Britain - America - Sweden

And a couple of other places as well. And I do have to say, a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. Before heading off that is, to Talladega for some, buggity buggity buggity, let's go racing boys. Buggity

I do like Ray Mears, he's quiet and unpretentious and he 'does' there's none of the ''Here's one I made earlier'' kind of thing.

Episodes 1 of the various programs, all in HD courtesy of, and a tip of the hat to, Ritchie Powell.

The Barren Lands, not in HD.




Ray Mears - Bushcraft Survival Series 1 - ABORIGINAL BRITAIN
Ray shows how our ancestors used the resources around them to feed and clothe themselves.




Ray Mears - Bushcraft Survival Series 2 - AMERICA - Ray takes a journey into America's past as he travels in the footsteps of Jim Bridger, one of the mountain men who opened up the route to the Pacific Coast of America. Ray makes a bull boat using willow and buffalo skin and spends time with the Shoshone.



SWEDEN One country where the acient skills of bushcraft are alive and in daily use. Lars Falt joins Ray by the campfire to discuss some of the Swedish traditions and cook a salmon. He shows how pine tar is made and used on traditional skis before spending time with the Sami people and Swedish singer Yana.



RAY MEARS WILD FOOD - COAST - Ray finds out just what Britain's coast had to offer our ancestors, as he continues to explore the wild food that tickled the taste buds of Stone Age man. The coastline of Stone Age Britain was rather different than it is today, as Britain was yet to become an island.



RAY MEARS WILD FOOD - Australia - Ray travels to the other side of the planet to hear from Australian Aboriginals about what food means to a hunter-gatherer and the role it plays in their culture as well as their society. Along with many other discoveries, the trip sees Ray sample that most iconic of 'bush tucker' - the witchetty grub, a huge maggot that lives in the roots of the witchetty bush.




The Barren Lands: Ray Mears
Ray learns the finer points of fishing in Labrador, Canada, and visits the native Innu people at a winter hunting camp where porcupine figures high on the menu and the brains of unfortunate caribou are used to tan their hides for buckskin

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Spag Bol

Makes a big big potful. Half all the ingredients and it will fill a pressure cooker pan.

Bolognaise.

4/6Lb Best Mince

6 good size carrots diced very fine

6 green peppers diced medium + red/yellow optional

4 medium/large onions diced medium

6 sticks celery diced fine

6 handfuls mushrooms diced in chunky slices

2 whole bulbs fresh garlic crushed

2 large glasses red wine

4 beef oxo cubes

12 good shakes Worcester sauce

4 level teaspoons crushed chillies or + to taste

8 level tablespoons mixed Italian herbs

A good few turns of black pepper

12/16 Bay leaves

4/6 tins/tubes tomato puree

2/4 tins diced tomatoes (with herbs if available)

2 Large jars Dolmio/other bolognaise sauce

Don’t miss out any ingredients.

Gently brown mince (you can leave it a bit chunky) pour off any fat, add to pan

In a good amount of olive oil sauté and stir (5mins) all veg, add both oil and veg to pan.
(Sauté each veg separately) leave mushrooms raw and add very last or next day.

Add everything to pan and bring up to bubbling SLOWLY (pressure cooker pans are best, thick bottomed)
Turn down heat and simmer for at least 2 hours, stir the sauce periodically.
Leave to stand overnight.

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George Carlin - On Language

I know just where you're coming from old lad, but you missed out the best bit of Americanese ever.

When some disingenuous pol is caught lying his (or her) arse off, they weren't lying like a bastard, no not at all, they just ''Misspoke.''

Well that's alright then.

I didn't create this world of ours. I merely recorded it.

I write of the great, eternal truths that bind together all mankind. The whole world over, we eat, we shit, we fuck, we kill and we die. Marquis de Sade

I heard the other day that the Marquis de Sade's old château was on the market for fifteen million Euros. The masochists offered twenty million, and the sadists turned 'em down.

Drive on.

George Carlin - On Language

"You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason it just keeps getting worse.

I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum, can't take any more input. The nervous system has either snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. Shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was 70 years ago. Then a whole generation went by. And the second world war came along and the very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to be as hard to say. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock...battle fatigue.

Then we had the war in Korea in 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time. And the very same combat condition was called Operational Exhaustion. Hey we're up to 8 syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase now. It's totally sterile now. Operational Exhaustion: sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course came the war in Vietnam, which has only been over for about 16 or 17 years. And thanks to the lies and deceit surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still 8 syllables, but we've added a hyphen. And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I bet you, if we'd still been calling it shell shock, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I bet you that.

But it didn't happen. And one of the reasons is because we were using that soft language, that language that takes out the life out of life. And it is a function of time it does keep getting worse.

Give you another example. Sometime during my life toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the land fill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy became partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest room dining. Constipation became occasional irregularity.

When I was a little kid if I got sick they wanted me to go to a hospital and see the doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization. Or a wellness center to consult a health care delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy sub-standard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke. They don't have a negative cash flow position. They're f--kin' broke! Because a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. Management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area. So many people are no longer viable members of the work force. Smug, greedy well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill people anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they?

And some of this stuff is just silly. We know that. Like when the airlines tell us to pre-board. What the hell is pre-board? What does that mean? To get on before you get on?

They say they're going to pre-board those passengers in need of special assistance ...cripples! Simple honest direct language. There's no shame attached to the word cripple I can find in any dictionary. In fact it's a word used in Bible translations. "Jesus healed the cripples." Doesn't take seven words to describe that condition. But we don't have cripples in this country anymore. We have the physically challenged. Is that a grotesque enough evasion for you? How about differently-abled? I've heard them called that. Differently-abled! You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They say: "We're not handicapped, we're handy capable!" These poor people have been bullsh-tted by the system into believing that if you change the name of the condition somehow you'll change the condition. Well hey cousin ... doesn't happen!

We have no more deaf people in this country. Hearing impaired. No more blind people. Partially sighted or visually impaired. No more stupid people, everyone has a learning disorder. Or he's minimally exceptional. How would you like to told that about your child? 'He's minimally exceptional.' Psychologists have actually started calling ugly people those with severe appearance deficits. It's getting so bad that any day now I expect to hear a rape victim referred to as an unwilling sperm recipient!

And we have no more old people in this country. No more old people. We shipped them all away and we brought in these senior citizens. Isn't that a typically American twentieth century phrase? Bloodless. Lifeless. No pulse in one of them. A senior citizen. But I've accepted that one. I've come to terms with it. I know it's here to stay. We'll never get rid of it. But the one I do resist, the one I keep resisting, is when they look at an old guy and say, "Look at him Dan, he's ninety years young." Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word old to describe someone. To have to use an antonym.

And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started conning myself when I got in my forties. I'd look in the mirror and say, "Well...I guess I'm getting ...older." Older sounds a little better than old, doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. I'm getting old. And it's okay. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die. I'll pass away. Or I'll expire, like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a terminal episode. The insurance company will refer to it as negative patient care outcome. And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a therapeutic misadventure.

I'm telling ya, some of this language makes me want to vomit. Well, maybe not vomit ...makes me want to engage in an involuntary personal protein spill. scribd.com

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