3pm: Finally, the transcript arrives of Senator Tom Carper's bizarre "questioning" of secret service director Mark Sullivan at the Senate homeland security committee this morning.Ladies and gentlemen of Delaware – this is your senior senator in action:Senator Carper: Those of us who serve in the Senate are privileged to serve with a retired Navy admiral. His name is Barry Black. He's a chief of chaplains for, formerly [INAUDIBLE] Marine Corps and now the chaplain for the US Senate. He oftentimes encourages those of us who are privileged to serve here to ask for wisdom in whatever our faith might be. And so we try to do that in different ways.And as I was thinking about this hearing and preparing for this hearing, I actually took ... Continue reading →
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 →
4.21pm: Michael Reagan – who has Ronald Reagan's blood flowing in his veins – is understandably upset that his father's blood should be for sale in an auction, as mentioned earlier.He told the Associated Press:Whatever's in the vial – could be mouse blood – it's certainly not Reagan blood. And what an outrageous thing to do to Nancy and the family. I hope the world calls on this organization to cease and desist because it's so bogus. Even if it were true, how dare they, how dare they do such a thing?Capitalism, eh? But it is a gruesome affair, and bidding has now reached £9,000, which is 90,000 yuan or roughly 500 Facebook shares in hard currency.4.10pm: Donald Trump – he's back and he wants ... Continue reading →