There’s an excellent blog post over on the BBC Writersroom by Dan Tetsell, with some sage advice from some great scribes. Of particular interest is this graph, prepared by Gareth Gwynn, breaking down the suitability of Newsjack submissions.
Click to embiggen
There should be another episode of Bashing Keys in the near future, so keep ‘em peeled.
Thanks to Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, comes this unexpected piece of televisual brilliance.
It’s unexpected because it’s from the US Canadian* version of Dragon’s Den, and the Evil Corporate Suits™ are thumbing their noses at pure profit here in order to school the shit out of someone hocking a natural remedy.
(*apologies)
Apologies for the absence of posts. Hopefully this will make up for it, via my friend Sam.
Click the image to see the short film
And if that’s not entertaining enough, have a peek at some rare photos of famous people, via Mark Evanier.
Mmm, blaspemylicious:
We book ourselves a on-way ticket to hell this episode. Most of it will make no sense unless you know what a Sarlacc is. So here’s a picture of one from Return Of The Jedi.
Where do you imagine our grubby minds go with this?
In to the rubble and destruction of a disaster zone, steps the naked profiteer. As ever, the Evil Corporate Man™ is attempting to make a buck from the survivors in Haiti, and maybe sign them up as loyal consumers for the future.
A credit based shopping company has sent 600 catalogues to Port Au Prince, hoping that leafing through idyllic images of cardigans and cafetieres will bring some comfort and relief to the survivors.
But these aren’t ordinary catalogues; oh no. They’re solar-powered audio ones. And they can play digital quality Haitian Creole to up to 300 people at a time.
A spokesman for the company said, “We’re providing hope and love through consumerism, and all in glorious audio.”
Now, if any of this were true, there would be righteous indignation, and a bit of an uproar that such an organisation was basically attempting to recruit future customers at such a hideously inappropriate time.
But in a very real sense, this is ACTUALLY happening. A US Faith-based group has sent 600 solar-powered audio Bibles to Haiti.
To what end? I’d argue that the organising principle of any religion is to secure money in order to propagate that religion.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s fabulous that this group is sending supplies, water and volunteers, but if Nike did this and began handing out adverts for their sneakers at the same time, it would stink, and everyone would be pointing at the smell.
Donate to the Disaster Relief Appeal here.
