Back in November, I grappled with the fact that online display ads in general, and banner ads in particular, are clearly not working very well; my suggested alternative was for brand advertisers to embrace the power of the external link. That was one suggestion; there are many, many more. But what they all have in common is that they’re attempts to go beyond the ad, and to leverage the interactive power of the internet. Over at Tumblr, David Karp is being characteristically vague about what he’s offering to potential advertisers: all we know for the time being is that he “wants brands and marketers to use Tumblr as a way to tell stories that they can’t otherwise tell on other social networks”. Which sounds great, ... Continue reading →
A tiger in India's Corbett national park. Photograph: AP A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching, allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight to curb attacks on tigers, elephants and other wildlife.The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.Forest guards should not be "booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers", the Maharashtra forest minister, Patangrao Kadam, said on Tuesday. The state will also send more rangers and jeeps into forests, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.India has about half of the world's estimated 3,200 tigers in dozens of wildlife reserves set up since the 1970s. But ... Continue reading →
Victorians Smiling June 15th, 2010 If you like this, check out: Colour hi-res photographs of London, 1949Collodion Iron ManConstruction of the Eiffel TowerGhosts of WWIIMiniature ApocalypsLast Meals on Death RowColour photographs of the Hindenburg interior, 1930sThe Cafe From HellTypewriter Erotica, 1920sShoe Design, 1939Vintage Exercise MachinesColour photographs of New York, 1940s, by Charles CushmanConstruction of DisneylandThe Landship 'Recruit', 1917Miniature Hell in 3D, 1860sRetronautic WTF IVCorner Portraits, by Irving PennFashion, 1940s - 1960s, by Lillian Bassman'Man's Life' Magazine, 1950sVictorian Photocollage, 1860s-1880sSnapshots of Perthshire Victorians, 1885-1910 Continue reading →
Declaring that "life must always be protected", a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church's decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil. Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that although the girl fell pregnant after apparently being abused by her stepfather, her twins had, "the right to live, and could not be eliminated". In an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, the cardinal added: "It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons. Life must always be protected." Police believe the girl was sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather, possibly since she was ... Continue reading →