大象传媒

PARALLEL UNIVERSE?

There once was a blogger called Barrie
Who, movers and shakers, would harry.
He composed with delight
But by some oversight
The words that he wrote didn't tarry.

Not a good start that the only comment received under the new system can't be seen becasue it hasn't been moderated yet (and it was posted over 90 minutes ago) - but then I expect no one will be able to see this comment for the same reason!

Was Justin King right when he said that much of the plastic collected in recycling bins actually still ends up in landfill?

Dear Newsnight

Talking Point?

If senior civil servants are positively vetted, and the intelligence services of -all- countries target the Politicians and Leaders of others, is it wise to continue to exclude Members of the Government from similar security vetting and ongoing checks?

and why?

best wishes
Bob

Good start
My comment has been removed too
Asking if Michael Crick would be meeting the pontif ? and report back on a two-way ?

That must have offended Mr Barron already

THE BROWN SHAKES

Quite a subject. Brown's hands have a story to tell. In his late fifties he is still biting his nails to the elbow; his signature is fragmented, disjointed and differential - I can only wonder what his handshake is like, but suspect serious internal tremours from his earliest beginnings..
Why do we never seem to read the signs as voters? If you worked in the same office as Gordon, his weirdness would be well observed, commented upon, and certainly not espoused. I can only assume this is the power of Party Politics again. Party Politicians seem to be drawn from the ranks of the odd and aberrant. As Jeremy Hardy once observed (of Tories in this instance): "Put a bunch of them together in one place, and you would think there had been a nuclear accident!"

WHAT COULDN'T YOU BRING!

You ask: "What could we bring". . .
Well 大象传媒: you came close to answering your own question, just before Gilligan and a couple of other employees departed because "Those magnificent Men in Their Lying Machine" (aka honourable British governance) went on the offensive - and showed just how offensive "honourable" men can be.
So: bring the poor British voter truth, integrity, honour, dignity and justice please.
And bring those disgraceful ciphers in Westminster, routinely TO BOOK. No show-biz; just THE biz. Who knows - we might even start voting again!

CARTELS AND CAROSELS

Why shouldn鈥檛 construction companies collude for their own advantage? Honorable party politicians demonstrate collusion when it suits them 鈥� intra-party under the whip or inter-party as when IDS, dazzled by Blair, voted us into a dopy war that the people were against. National leaders also collude in high-profile back-scratching visits of bogus bolstering.
Incidentally, regarding bad examples: nightly my TV shows hero soldiers firing bullets at 鈥渢hem鈥� and today pellets were shot at children. Example taken?

There's a certain irony that, when I check the post yesterday on the new blogging system, it advises thus:

_______

Blog fix imminent
Newsnight16 Apr 08, 04:32 PM

This post is closed to new comments.
________

ANY would have been a good start. As there seem to be... zero.

Hence I do regret to advise that I am already having some problems with the new system. And maybe it is having some problems with itself?

I also suspect the time code is an hour out, too.

Just testing - course everyone says I'm very testing!

Despite the old 502 problems this new blog is not a patch on what we had before. I suspect that it will be more heavily censored.

Kudos on the fast moderating turnaround, however...

No more 502 Error so far, which is good, but there is no more preview, and the overt 'moderation' cloud now hangs even more darkly.

But what REALLY sucks is this new 'Closed to new comments' deal. What's that all about?

You can no longer ponder a day before posting? Catch the next day PC repeats for 24hrs? Or come back in rebuttal? And there is the slight suspicion that if things do not progress according to plan things will get 'pulled' on a whim.

Can't say I am that enthused thus far, and this goes beyond IT 'teething problems'.

Thu 18.05pm (on my clock)

Does anyone else read 大象传媒 fascination with Zimbabwe...oh sorry Mugabe?

To all posters,

Thanks very much for bearing with us. I understand the new system had some glitches in the first hour or so, but I hope it's working well now and will be a vast improvement on the old one

Peter Barron

To the blogger on plastic....

yes most of our good work we do in taking our recycling down to the recycling bins actually doesn't get recycled at all and just goes into filling up those huge disgusting landfills.

However, I feel this is all about to change BIG style, due to the sudden interest in actually making plastic bags a thing of the past.

Keep recycling though...oh and don't use plastic bags!

I watched the Lib-Dem party election broadcast tonight which concentrated on how good Lib-Dem's were for the planet. The following is an example of Lib-Dem transport and environment policy in action.

The Lib-Dem controlled Settle Town Council intend to impose a weight limit through the town centre, according to someone with local knowledge the extra pollution generated will be as follows.

" By diverting all hgvs via gigg will add 650000 miles a year, an extra 130000 galls of fuel,release hundreds of tonnes of carbon etc into the atmosphere, add 拢1.5 million extra expense to the economy whilst endangering hundreds of schoolkids lives. "

The proposed diversion route goes right past the main high school, the 拢1.5 million is false economic growth as far as the indigenous population is concerned, all the money will go to oil companies and other corporate interests.

Almost Settle's equivalent of the proposed new third runway at Heathrow.

The UK's PM gives new meaning to the term "brown nose" in his game of three card monte trying to cover all bets no matter who comes out on top in the American race to see who gets to put his finger on the magic button. Not very original, big corporations and other special interests have played the same game for many decades contributing heavily to all sides. Don't worry Britain, America will continue to carry you...as long as it doesn't have to carry the rest of the EU along with you. That's for you to decide. Right now, it's all President Bush can do to put a respectable spin on Britain's Battle of Basra where the UK's troops fought it out from the safety of their (Obama) Barracks.

14. At 6:59 pm on 17 Apr 2008, PeterBarron

The technical aspects of the new system seem, so far, to be excellent.

However, I am less impressed with the design and operational changes that have been introduced in 'complement'.

As the invitation was made at the end of the original post above this comment is still relevant in this thread, but I would have thought this and all others would have been much more appropriate under the preceding one, dedicated to Blog 'fixes'. And there was value in keeping it open for such debate, rather than being closed before any could be made.

It seems to me a few things were also 'fixed' that were not broke.

I also miss having the opportunity of checking via the top link other commenters' personal sites if they have made a good point and seem worth bookmarking. Now it appears to go nowhere... well, stays within the 大象传媒 fold. But I do notice a 'User Profile' option, but none so far seem to have one. Perhaps it's worth sharing how to upload one?

It's good to share, but without such an opportunity well-informed contributors may well see this now more as vanity publishing (in terms of personal benefits - the 大象传媒 does of course gain 'content') and the quality of input could suffer as a result. Certainly the quantity.

But them maybe that was/is the intention?

AS ABOVE SO BELOW.

Agree with Junkkmale. I see the "greengrocer's questionmark" is intruding here and there. Also had to fiddle about signing in although I did not sign out yesterday. Still, at least the thread was not closed for comment.

To summarise: the original structure and function was preferable - had it worked.