The wife and I went on a RYA Day Skipper course in Falmouth last week.
We also had a sail about in one of these (Cornish Shrimper):
Note: sunny weather in October.
About two years ago I went to a CIPR event in which Carter Ruck, the well known libel lawyers, told us how they could stop a story breaking out through various legal procedures. I remember thinking, ‘ …gossip will out.’
Some oil firm, Trafugira, may have dumped some toxic waste off the coast of West Africa and poisoned some locals, perhaps even to death. The Guardian tried to report on the questions a MP asked in Parliament on the subject. Trafugira called in Carter Ruck to stop the Guardian’s article from being published.
Bad news for Trafugira and Carter Ruck, the story leaked out onto ‘The Internet’ and rapidly spread. Carter Ruck retreated, to whit see the Guardian’s front page story and, more amusingly, The Daily Mash’s take on Carter Ruck’s approach.
Trafugira’s reputation may have taken a blow, though I’m not sure how many people will be shocked by anything an oil firm does. Carter Ruck’s business model, on the other hand, is surely damaged. What’s the point in stopping up one hole in a dyke with a legal finger, if a hundred other holes immediately appear that are out of arms reach?
We don’t know what we don’t know, so it could be that Carter Ruck is very effective in getting rid of inconvenient stories. However, I suspect that, due to the Internet, using legal tools to stop stories is a hiding to not very much (while continuing to be massively expensive) . The best that can be said, is that Carter Ruck can slow the pace of gossip, to give perpetrators/victims just enough time to prepare what they are going to have to say or do. We found out about Harry in Afghanistan – thanks to Drudge. There are plenty of other things we found out, quickly or eventually, that we ‘weren’t supposed to’. Parties to those stories end up having to deal with them at some point. They could save themselves some money by dealing with them sooner rather than later.
If Carter Ruck is the loser, PR is the winner. First, PR is closely linked to CSR, which Trafugira could have used a bit of before they allegedly started tipping buckets of toxic sludge overboard. Secondly, PR can prepare companies for unanticipated issues so they at least have their chains of command and processes sorted out. Lastly, PR is good at understanding a company’s relationship with the public (the clue is in the name) and can recommend what it should do to make the best of perhaps a not too brilliant situation.
I wonder if Carter Ruck is tracking itself online and sends me a shirty letter about this?
The loudest and most embarassing bike ever created
I bought this bike in November 2008, just before starting a new job in London. Over the last ten months it’s developed an array of noises, any one of which could be mistaken for a death rattle.
It was immediately apparent that there was an issue with the seating arrangement, as it creaked every time I placed my finely chiselled buttocks on the saddle. I tightened and loosened the saddle fixings, but that wasn’t the issue. After a couple of weeks, I got cheesed off with it and had a better look. By putting pressure through the seat post, I replicated the noise. If I tightened up the quick release the noise got worse. If I loosened it, the noise went but the seat post slid all over the place. I lightly greased the seat post and tightened it up: the noise stayed pretty much the same and the seat post slid all over the place – wonderful.
Then the headset/handlebar area started to groan. I got the headset professionally serviced and that got rid of enough of the noises to be able to pinpoint the worst. The handlebars were the seat of the groaning. I tightened it all up, but it didn’t really work. Cycling along, I sound like a a galleon beating to windward in a gale.
Then the pedals started making little clicking noises (that problem on top of them acting like greased ballbearings underfoot anytime they got wet). I couldn’t really be bothered to try to fix that one.
The last noise for which I’ve positively identified the source is a rattling/banging noise made by the chain arm/back end locking lever bar everytime I cycle over the least little bump.
And the front brake caliper seizes up everytime the bike is folded. And the seat post gets my hands and work shirt dirty because the grease that I couldn’t fully clean off has gone skanky.
I believe most of these noises are due to the slightly futuristic geometry of the frame, i.e. it’s fundamentally a bad bike. If I could turn back time I would buy a Dahon or a Brompton.
The Swedish tourist board have been brave enough to make a viral that is actually funny:
http://www.visitsweden.com/davegoestoskane
I would like to thank the Swedes for making me laugh, point out that I have pushed out their viral through this highly influencial blog and suggest that an all-expenses paid fact-finding trip to Sweden is something that I could live with myself with for accepting.
That’s my first three months in the job dealt with – probation period passed.
It felt a bit like this:
I came across this statue in the Palais de Justice in Brussels yesterday. I interpret it’s Christian imagery thus, Mary, the bronze statue, is craddling the dead body of her son, the smurf and, um, innit:
Mother and Smurf, Palais de Justice, Brussels
Also, this little Flemmish boy tries a high risk new strategy to get his dad to give him extra pocket money.
I loved it.
Blood on the cobbles.
A serial murderer is at work in Victorian London, with the action centreing on the foggy streets of Limehouse, the music hall people and the British Museum’s Reading Room. A well paced yarn, with seemingly no on-purpose coded ‘deeper meaning’ to extract; what happens is also what it’s about. Ackroyd seems to be a big fan of the locations and the period and rifs on the book’s themes with vim. I enjoyed it and my brain didn’t hurt too much on the journey – well done, that author.
I start work at Hill & Knowlton in Soho Square on 19th November.
