Rebranding (cities)

The Top 50 U.S. City Slogans
Easier if American

1.What Happens Here, Stays Here.
Las Vegas, NV
2.So Very Virginia.
Charlottesville, VA
3.Always Turned On.
Atlantic City, NJ
4.Cleveland Rocks!
Cleveland, OH
5.The Sweetest Place on Earth.
Hershey, PA
6.Rare. Well Done.
Omaha, NE
7.The City Different.
Santa Fe, NM
8.Where Yee-Ha Meets Olé.
Eagle Pass, TX
9.City with Sol.
San Diego, CA
10.Where the Odds Are With You.
Peculiar, MO
11.Where Your Ship Comes In.
Gulfport, MS
12.Soul of the Southwest.
Taos, NM
13.Experience Our Sense of Yuma.
Yuma, AZ
14.The City Was So Nice They Named It Twice.
Walla Walla, WA
15.There’s More Than Meets the Arch.
St. Louis, MO
16.Keep Austin Weird.
Austin, TX
17.Where Chiefs Meet.
Meeteetse, WY
18.City with a Mission.
San Gabriel, CA
19.Where the Trails Start and the Buck Stops.
Independence, MO
20.The City That Never Sleeps.
New York City, NY
21.The Aliens Aren’t the Only Reason to Visit.
Roswell, NM


For more of this, and thanks to, the Tagline Guru City Survey

Today's view

Jan 6th 2005
Whistler and the Tower Blocks

Today's view (listing)

Jan 5, 2005
morning

Overheard and misunderstood

“Where you going, Viagra?”

59 Bus crossing the Thames

“Ok, I’ll give you £900 next week, for living expenses and the Messerschmitt.”

Two men, Russell square

"I don’t drink on Saturdays because I don’t work on Sundays.”

British Library attendants

“Rap rhythms are an emotional undercurrent for ballards.”

Patrick Swayze in The Times

Rebrand (very old, quite famous)

Today’s New Discovery is:

#1. Mary Wickham Bond, the wife of the bird watcher and author, James Bond, (whose name provided Ian Fleming with his licenced-to-kill hero) wrote a book about it in 1966.

How 007 Got His Name is a 62-page trip into pre pre-history:

“…And after reading Dr. No, my JB thought you’d been to Dirty Dick’s in Nassau and talked with old Farrington and got from him the story about the “Priscilla” and a wild trip about Jim’s collecting parrots on Abaco. That was the time spent several nights in a cave full of bats to get away from the mosquitoes…
…This is a hurried letter because we’re getting off to Yucatan and Cozumel this afternoon, thence back to Nassau where we’ll spend a few days with the Chaplins.
I tell my JB he could sue you for defamation of character but he regards the whole thing as a joke.
Sincerely yours…”

To which Fleming replied in a friendly letter:

“In return I can only offer your James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purpose he may think fit. Perhaps one day he will discover some particularly horrible species of bird he would like to christen in an insulting fashion…”

Today's view

London, Jan 4th, 2006

A gentle start from 55 years ago

There are always echoes to be heard in the reading rooms of the British Library

What is especially interesting about Longley-Cook’s* summer 1951 reflections is the extent to which he highlights the differences between British and American intelligence assessments of the Soviet threat. He had been alarmed during the combined US/UK intelligence conference in Washington in October 1950 by the degree to which the American equivalent of the JIC produced assessments that “tend to fit in with the prejudged conclusion that a shooting war with the Soviet Union at some time is inevitable…Although the Americans were eventually persuaded to endorse a combined appreciation of the Soviet threat, based on reason and factual intelligence, they were quick to alter it to fit their own preconceived ideas as soon as the London team had returned to this country.”

* Vice Admiral Eric Longley-Cook, Director of British Naval Intelligence, 1951.

From: The Secret State. Whitehall and the Cold War
Peter Hennessy. Penguin books, 2002.

The author (in tandem with a former Cabinet Secretary) was the best thing on television over Christmas - albeit after midnight on the BBC Parliament channel. Here, without the laughter from the stands (and members of the Public Administration Select Committee) is a transcript of a great old fashioned discussion about political memoirs.

First 2006 prediction of the day

Google Crash Coming

By the end of 2005, Google's stock was closing at over $400, a flurry of new services had been released, and newly energized competitors AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! were playing catch-up. But 2005 also saw the beginning of the Google backlash. In 2006, Google will bypass Microsoft as the most hated (and feared) company in tech. The eerily accurate Mark Anderson, founder and publisher of the influential Strategic News Service newsletter, thinks Google is headed for a big fall. "If one Chinese (or MIT) guy comes up with a better search engine, they are out of business in 20 minutes… literally, the whole thing could just go poof."

From PC Mag Editor-in-Chief Jim Louderback

That's a great name too. More here

Corporation "street"

PlayStation Portable graffiti photographed in San Francisco's Warehouse District

The launch of the Sony Playstation portable was backed by a "controversial" graffiti based advertising campaign.

"We're really looking at our target as urban nomads," Sony spokeswoman Molly Smith said

in an interview with Reuters.

The Seattle Times considers the implications further. Of course Sony is not the first company to use such techniques.

Nike, Time magazine and even stodgy IBM are among the growing list of companies that have dabbled in street art to get their marketing messages out.

And it can have some impact, it is claimed

Time magazine marketing director Taylor Gray said the stunt was a success because it "cut through the clutter" of marketing messages to which New Yorkers are exposed every day.

Arianna wants to forget

A pretty interesting list

To my reader

Things past

Oh those late nights in Montenegro

Today's view

rebrand - competition

The owners of the Drunken Monkey are considering changing the controversial name of their bar - and they want the community to help.

Yes in Fort Collins rebranding is big for Christmas

rewrite, he said

Op-Eds for Sale
A columnist from a libertarian think tank admits accepting payments to promote an indicted lobbyist's clients. Will more examples follow?

In the continuing debate about where we find out our truths

from Business Week

rebranding special: "Dave" Cameron

In a revealing interview with The Observer, the new Tory leader jettisoned his party's hardline image on immigration, saying he welcomed those fleeing genuine persecution abroad. He also demanded greater social responsibility from business and offered new support for working parents.

For more on the great shift to the centre of British politics.

There will more of these, one feels sure

Because we want clarity, right?

The Yahoo! Search 2005 Overall Top 10 Searches:

1. Britney Spears
2. 50 Cent
3. Cartoon Network
4. Mariah Carey
5. Green Day
6. Jessica Simpson
7. Paris Hilton
8. Eminem
9. Ciara
10. Lindsay Lohan

Business Week has a take on this...
I guess we all do

rebrand two

SANTA MONICA, Calif. and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 15
The premier independent filmed entertainment production and distribution studio, Lions Gate, today announced that it has changed its name to "Lionsgate" and unveiled its new logo in kickoff ceremonies at the Lionsgate Screening Room in Santa Monica.

The simplification of the Lions Gate name into the single word "Lionsgate"represents the ongoing unification of the Company's diversified motion picture, television, home entertainment, family entertainment, documentary film, music publishing and video-on-demand businesses into a single, highly recognizable brand.

how men are

interesting survey analysis from Spike TV, an American channel aimed at men

according to research conducted by the upstart male-oriented network Spike TV, which interviewed thousands of young men to determine what that coveted and elusive demographic likes most in its television shows.

Spike found that men responded not only to brave and extremely competent leads but to a menagerie of characters with strikingly antisocial tendencies: Dr. Gregory House, a Vicodin-popping physician on Fox's "House"; Michael Scofield on "Prison Break," who is out to help his brother escape from jail; and Vic Mackey, played by Michael Chiklis on "The Shield," a tough-guy cop who won't hesitate to beat a suspect senseless. Tony Soprano is their patron saint, and like Tony, within the confines of their shows, they are all "good guys."

The code of such characters, said Brent Hoff, 36, a fan of "Lost," is: "Life is hard. Men gotta do what men gotta do, and if some people have to die in the process, so be it."

feeling marginalized yet?

remakes (classics)

From the Film Asylum

Variety reports that Warner Bros. will be releasing the company’s remake of The Wicker Man next year. Written and directed by Neil LaBute, the film stars Nicolas Cage as a sheriff who travels to a remote island in search of his missing daughter. There he discovers that the female residents are part of a cult who engage in strange sexual rituals.Nu Image/Millennium’s Boaz Davidson had this to say about the project:

“Because it was a remake, we spent a lot of time in developing the script. The original movie took place in another time and era, and we wanted to adapt it for a newer audience. So we went through a lot of stages—because it’s kind of a tricky script—working very closely with Neil. This was quite different from his other movies. He’s never done a remake before, and I don’t think that he’s really done a genre movie before, especially anything as scary as this.”

The film will co-stars Ellen Burstyn, Leelee Sobieski, Molly Parker and Frances Conroy.

interesting stats 1

India contributes 28 per cent to the total talent pool of knowledge workers in the world.

But there is a problem

From Hindustan Times

guess the book, if there is one, and more

A narcissistic, self-pitying drug fiend gets a shot at redemption when movie star Jayne Dennis, an old flame, offers to marry him. The deal is that he must now connect with Robby, the son he has shunned for 11 years.

After a young woman loses her job as a radio disc jockey, she meets a stranger who promises her a steady income working for a high-society "escort" service. With thoughts of dodging the repo-man, past due bills, and an impending eviction, the woman decides she has no choice but to plunge into a world where the line that separates sex and money is blurred beyond recognition. But complications arise when she meets the man of her dreams.

A veteran covert operative, who seeks redemption for his dark deeds, quits a CIA-like agency and starts to look out for the little guy. He ads in the paper that read simply: "Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer." He takes on the cases for little or no money.

Actually, it's often much worse. These stories have all been sold to Hollywood, for this or that. One of these three is a novel, one an old TV series, and the other is just....

All from Scriptsales, the sort of site that makes writers wise up, and dumb down

this is the kind of exchange...

from New York, via London

more tales of early adoption

I spend 10 hours a week in the car. In the morning, I listen to the news. On the way back, I listen to a book. I probably go through about a book a week

Books next.

school's out

15 Indiana colleges have signed on with iParadigms, an Oakland, Calif., company that runs Turnitin.com, an Internet service that checks term papers against databases of online resources. Among the universities already using the software are Indiana, Notre Dame and Indiana State.

From the Indiana Star

And just to help

Examples of plagiarism
• Paraphrasing someone else's words too closely.

• Copying from another person's paper.

• Buying, stealing or downloading a paper from a Web site and claiming it as your own.

• Turning in your big sister's paper from last year.

• Using someone else's ideas or materials without acknowledging them or without crediting the other person.

• Cutting and pasting information from a Web site without saying where it came from.

Source: Purdue University Online Writing Lab

always interesting Rushkoff

Indeed, as my lectures bring me from industry to industry, I find myself amazed by just how little fun most people are having. Whether separated from one another by policy, competition, or cubicle, the last thing that seems to occur to people is to have fun together—when it should be the first priority. Instead, managers feel obligated to reign over employees; executives think they must hoodwink their shareholders; sales believe they must strong-arm their clients; and marketers assume they must manipulate the consumer. All for the life-or-death stakes of the next quarterly report.

From Get Back in the Box, Rushkoff's latest



And here's his blog

today's view

Busy weekend, Catskills

a mirror on the west?

Russia begins broadcasting a new 24-hour English language satellite TV news channel on Saturday, aimed at presenting a more positive image of Russia abroad. The channel, which is called Russia Today, can be seen throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. According to its directors, the channel will aim to reflect Russia's position on the main international issues of the day and seek to inform viewers about Russian life.

More here

And here

"When I talk to friends and they say, 'Hey John, what are you doing there? What's with the new project?' I usually describe it in English or in Russian as a propaganda tool for the Russian government," he says.

remakes (headlines)

From Salon

Friday, December 02, 2005

Headless insurgency found in topless war

more on books

I am convinced that we are only one device away from a digital publishing tsunami. Consider what happened when Apple launched the iPod in October of 2001. They provided an end-to-end solution that made downloading music easy, portable, and fun. Now, 30-plus million iPods later, iPods are everywhere.

From a publisher too, called Michael Hyatt

before google there was gutenberg

In a typical week, there are at least a million downloads. We get a lot of Thackeray downloads, a lot of James Joyce, a lot of Dickens. "Pride and Prejudice" is always up there. Sherlock Holmes is always up there. … There are always some you don't expect, like "Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During the Renaissance Period" by Paul Lacroix. …We also have reference material, which most people probably wouldn't think of - like Roget's Thesaurus. Plus, the Koran, along with the Bible.

Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart interviewed in the WSJ

another journalist

BEIRUT, Lebanon Dec 12, 2005 — A prominent anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker was killed by a car bomb Monday, a day after returning from France, where he had been staying periodically for fear of assassination.

From AP

book with booze, or booze with book?

A bonsai of sighs?

But what's most striking is the extra mini-cover that conceals the lower 1/4 of the book. It's an advertisement for a green drink you get from a plastic bottle that gives one, if I'm reading the marketing correctly, enlightenment. Witness:


Now, maybe my cultural radar is all whacked, and perhaps I'm having a Koontz moment, but if you look at this gentleman's collar, does he not look like a Buddhist monk? And that expression--is he not in the later stages of enlightenment, staring directly into nirvana?

forget spying, this is affair land

A services offering Mission Impossible-style text messages that "self-destruct" after they have been read has been launched.

From a British company, via Silicon.com

Staellium said it has already had interest from financial services companies, the Ministry of Defence and celebrity agents.

now reading 1

The Last Thing He Wanted
Joan Didion
1996

Safety is to be found only in swimming
pools and air-conditioned rooms.

"Some real things have happened lately.
For a while we felt rich and then we didn't. For
a while we thought time was money, find the time
and the money comes with it."

A decade old, but right on the money when it
comes to crime, politics and identity.

It might be compared to The Tailor of Panama.
Better though

rooms with a view 7

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless

Philip Larkin

theatre plus politics = discomfort

The world premiere in London of Peace Mom, a new play by Dario Fo, the 79-year-old Nobel laureate, based on the writings of Cindy Sheehan brought this reponse from the Guardian.

Filing into the chilly school hall, with its rows of austere polypropylene chairs and a pair of flaccid white balloons hanging glumly from a rafter, one was reminded of Linda in Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love: "The worst of being a Communist is that the parties you may go to are awfully funny and touching, but not very gay, and they're always in such gloomy places."

And the Dolby sound?

Terrible

the return of the stakeholder...

From new Conservative Leader, David Cameron, in Leeds today.

From now on, Conservative-held and target seats will be expected to involve non-party members in their choice of candidates. I don't want to be too prescriptive about how constituencies do this. So we will be offering them a choice.

Option one is for constituencies to set up a panel of local community stakeholders, for example members of local voluntary groups, GPs, school governors and head teachers, local business leaders, and local police officers.

These community panels will interview the candidates from the priority list chosen by the local association, and will report to the association on the relative strengths of each candidate.

New Labour buzzword circa 1995.

history lessons 1

The Democratic Party and the endeavor of writing American history have a problem in common.

From Slate.

In a recent article, "Reconsidering Bush's Ancestors," published in the New York Times Magazine, [Sean] Wilentz makes explicit the implicit politics of his historical interpretation. Reading history backward, he defines today's Republicans as the direct descendants of the now long-forgotten Whig Party of the 1830s and 1840s. The alternative to the Democrats in the years before the Civil War and the creation of the Republican Party, the Whigs—like today's GOP—clashed sharply with the Democrats on both the size of government and the shape of American foreign policy. For Wilentz, "the blend of businessmen's aversion to government regulation, down-home cultural populism and Christian moralism that sustains today's" Bush Republicans is but a continuation of the political formulas first laid out by the Whigs.

metamorph 1

Church creative director Mike Robertson describes the goals as "radical" and "audacious," a set of initiatives that will use storefront satellite spaces, artistic events and small groups to foster relationships with the unchurched and establish Riverbend as an integral part of Austin.

"I want to get out in the community because of the hope we have to offer," says Carlton Dillard, associate pastor of creative arts. "In the culture we live in, I firmly believe a lot of folks won't come into the four walls of the church."

From Austin

Riverbend leaders are planning a 40-day vision kickoff in January with billboards, bumper stickers and T-shirts promoting the efforts and the new church logo.

after the jump, rebrands 3

A competition has been launched in Australia to find a new way of describing kangaroo meat.

Organisers want to find a name less offensive to diners sensitive about eating a national symbol.

Really.

today's view

I've come to the conclusion that what's inside a person
doesn't count because nobody can see it

Dogbert

rebrands 2

Liberace is not only a Las Vegas legend: his humour and rightful title as the original king of bling place him squarely in 21st-century pop culture. Replace macho men with Liberace to pitch beer and a marketer has struck a demographic goldmine.

Icons to sell things?

No.

Einstein was one of the first "celebrities" to use his fame for social good. Marketers have a rich cultural and social legacy to draw upon.

well maybe a little trend

Retro invites us to curb—nay, nail firmly to the ground—every sophisticated, urban, cosmopolitan impulse we have. Retro food delights with its anachronistic humour. It reminds us of Aunt Mabel, polyester, poodle skirts, and fake blue Christmas trees. It works because it strokes the bones of humour. And Lord knows, where is the humour in food anymore?

Consider the homely Jell-O salad. Now there is a creation bent on amusement. The thing moves. It jiggles. It attempts to ensconce earthy vegetables in sugary gelatinous suspension. There is nothing serious about a Jell-O salad. To serve one, in this day and age, is to keep one’s tongue planted firmly in one’s cheek.

Live from Vancouver.

As it were.

a trend?

Not really

When it comes to collecting retro holiday decorations, one buzz word could be the one whispered into the ear of a confused young man in "The Graduate" - plastics.

From Herald Today

remakes (news)

During the holiday season, moviegoers can catch remakes of films like "Fun with Dick and Jane," "King Kong" and "Pride and Prejudice." Now, fans of the small screen can watch a remake too, of a television commercial widely considered one of the funniest ever made.

Ok.

Bayer and its agency, BBDO Worldwide, have re-created a 1972 spot for Alka-Seltzer known as "I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing," for the plaintive cry from a gourmand husband that opens the commercial. The phrase, and a variant, "The whole thing," went on to enter the baby-boomer vernacular.

Yup.

A campaign in early 2006 will include packages of Alka-Seltzer with a "retro" design

From the New York Times

Integrity too

Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, where readers currently number around 80,000. We serve about 60,000 readers in the Pacific, where we have published a daily paper since 1945.*

Stars and Stripes maintains news bureaus in Europe, Pacific and the Middle East to provide first-hand reporting on events in those theaters. In addition to news and sports, our daily paper contains all the elements of the hometown paper our service members left behind, from "Dear Abby" to coupons, comics and crossword puzzles. In all, we publish five editions: Mideast, Europe, Japan, Korea and Okinawa.

From Stars and Stripes Saturday:

Iraq's National Integrity Day suggests new era after years of corruption

By Anita Powell, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, December 10, 2005

BAGHDAD — After decades of being forced to celebrate a deeply corrupt regime, national officials have declared a new national observance: National Integrity Day.

As the name suggests, the holiday, set for Dec. 9, celebrates integrity but also the achievements of the Iraq Commission on Public Integrity, an independent government organization that seeks out and investigates government corruption.

National officials ushered in the new holiday Thursday with a lively celebration at the Baghdad Convention Center, a place once off-limits to all but Saddam Hussein’s closest cronies.

make a political film...

...and in Hungary.

And trouble starts:

"Jews pioneered Hollywood. If, as our enemies say, we own Hollywood, well, here's the plot twist - we have lost Hollywood, and we have lost Spielberg. Spielberg is no friend of Israel. Spielberg is no friend of truth. His Munich may just as well have been scripted by George Galloway."

Jack Engelhard, the author of the best-selling novel and film, Indecent Proposal, on the Tel-Aviv-based website, ynetnews.com.

From The Guardian

harry flashman and margaret thatcher? no?

But there is a connection between Flashman and Thatcher, and it may surprise you to learn that the connection is me. Here, I think, is how it came about.

In the summer of 1982, when Margaret Thatcher had been in power three years, I wrote a review of the then latest Flashman novel, Flashman and the Redskins, for the weekly journal New Society - now, alas no more.

In it, I pointed out that one of the explanations for the appeal of the Flashman books was that they subverted 19th-century pretensions in our own day as successfully as Lytton Strachey had subverted them in his time with Eminent Victorians, published in 1918.

Ah hun.

And?

In depicting the 19th Century in this way, I suggested the Flashman saga "took the lid off Victorian values", and it was under that very headline that the review was eventually run.

A few weeks afterwards, I received a letter from Matthew Parris, who told me that Margaret Thatcher had greatly enjoyed reading my essay. Six months later, in January 1983, she began talking publicly and admiringly about Victorian values, and about what she meant by them, and she continued to do so until the general election that was held in May of that year, which, of course, she triumphantly won.

And they say there are no political novelists any more.

palimpsest or grand tour? 1

London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many traveled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy.

From the Metropolitan Museum

The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as some leisure time, some means, and some interest in art.

London: Art collector Charles Saatchi's new London gallery will open with Tessa Farmer's "Swarm" -- an exhibit of miniature skeletons and dead insects.

The fake tiny human skeletons sitting on the back of a dead dragonfly will hang from the ceiling of Saatchi's new gallery at the Duke of York headquarters building.

Farmer, 27, uses tree roots to make the skeletons of her "evil fairies," which have wings along with three fingers and four toes each.

Paris: is buzzing

It was 25 years ago that Mr. Paucton got the idea of keeping bees on the roof of the Opera, where he worked in props, after talking to a member of the in-house fire brigade who was raising fish in the basement (don't ask ...).

Rome: Tomb Raider not a computer game.

"This is one of the most brutalized digs in Italy. The tomb raiders are here almost every day," he said, looking across the arid site in the Puglia region in Italy‘s heel.

rooms with a view 6

Then I see a fair-haired, dark-eyed lady
In old-fashioned costume, at a tall window
Whom perhaps I have already seen somewhere
In another life. .. and whom I remember!

Gerard de Nerval
Fantasy

life after politics 1

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder landed a job Friday as board chairman for a Russian-German gas pipeline that he championed while in office, a post that deepens his already close relationship with the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin.

From the Washington Post

A Gazprom official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the job was not a quid pro quo. "This position is not related to any kind of favor on our part," the official said, saying that Schroeder was such an important figure that he was never going to have trouble finding a job.

rebrands 1

Indian Airlines

"The name has been changed to `Indian'. Signifying continuity with change, the new look communicates a bold, striking, progressive and distinctive image for the airline,"

from Chennai Online

Putting the wheel of Sun temple at Konark on the body of aircraft, symbolising timeless motion, Indian Airlines today changed its half-a-century old name and identity

remakes, surely 7

Made in 1945, this love story, half myth, half documentary is technically "propaganda" as it was made under the aegis of Winston Churchill's wartime Ministry of Information. (He usually hated Powell and Presburger's war films, particularly A Canterbury Tale). It was supposed to make us rejoice in Britishness. Instead we rejoice in the power of great film making.

A point of trivia: the key sequence of I Know Where I'm Going takes place close to the Corryvreckan, a lethal whirlpool. This can be seen from the top of the island of Jura, where of course

dvds: the future of politics

"Films are far better at bringing people together than elections, which people approach like medicine," Werbach said on the phone from his San Francisco office. "Instead of being preachy and didactic, however, they must, first of all, be entertaining."

from the Charlotte Observer

DVDs, it appears, are:

"regarded as a way of sidestepping a risk-averse Hollywood establishment and getting the message out."

death to spies, I guess

Palo Alto-based SRI International Inc. has won a $8.6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to help develop the next-generation language translation software that can quickly and accurately translate and sort print, radio and television programs coming from the Middle East and China into useful data for the various American intelligence agencies.

From the Silicon Valley San Jose Business Journal

I wonder what the software will make of the programs written by the Lincoln Group?

or Lost in the Translations

santa in Arabic means wart, arse in Turkish means violin bow, and purr in Scottish Gaelic means to headbutt.

From the Sydney Morning Herald's review and author profile of The Meaning of Tingo.

The Meaning of Tingo, which is shaping up to be this year's essential stocking filler. It's brilliant in its simplicity, being nothing more than a collection of odd and interesting words from around the world, such as gorrero (Spanish, Central America) meaning a person who always allows others to pay, or pu'ukaula (Hawaiian) meaning to set up one's wife as a stake in gambling, or koro (Japanese) the hysterical belief that one's penis is shrinking into one's body.

remakes, surely (Lost in Translation)

Beijing - An extract from a speech by US President George W Bush is being used by authorities in the Chinese capital Beijing to test the English of leading officials in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, state media said on Sunday.

From News 24

"This exam tests not only the language level but also everyone's international perspective," said Zhang Tiedao, deputy director of the city's research department into science and education.

after the world cup draw, the useful phrases

The British embassy in Germany has launched a new website for the 2006 World Cup that includes translations of football phrases such as "he was sick as a parrot" for English fans travelling to the tournament next summer.

From Reuters.

Some of the translated phrases include "Ihm war kotzuebel" (He was sick as a parrot), "Er kotzte wie ein Reiher" (He puked his guts up) and "Wembley-tor" (Wembley goal), which refers to the controversial 1966 World Cup final extra time goal by Geoff Hurst when England beat West Germany.

What about other newspapers?

At the San Francisco Chronicle, there are problems

As more consumers get their news from electronic sources and advertising follows them, analysts warn that newspapers elsewhere — already losing an average of more than 2% of their subscribers yearly — might join the Chronicle in a steepening fall.