Friday, April 11, 2003

PR Tips for Mohammed Al-Sahhaf Professionals offer advice to Iraq's unhinged information minister. If there's anyone who could use a little professional advice today, it's Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. Even granting that the collapse of Saddam's regime is hard to put a positive spin on—hard, that is, if you speak for Saddam's regime—al-Sahhaf is making a serious hash of it. Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2081243/ 2:23:57 PM

What Warfighters Can Teach Business Leaders. Literally from it's earliest issue, Fast Company has looked to the best minds and most effective units in the military for lessons about strategy, tactics, and execution that can be applied to business. At a moment in which the attention of the world is focused on military conflict and its aftermath, we've assembled a collection of articles that may change how you run your company -- and shape how you behave as a leader. [Fast Company] 2:04:52 PM

Greece's Acropolis Museum - Now All It Needs Is The Art "Greece is rushing to build the $100 million New Acropolis Museum to house the Marbles for the 2004 Summer Olympics, locating it next to the rocky citadel in the heart of ancient Athens. The three-level museum will be topped with a glass-walled Parthenon Gallery to display the carvings in brilliant sunlight, just 800 feet from, and slightly below, the temple they once adorned. Innovative and earthquake-proof, the museum aims to rebut longtime British objections to the Elgin Marbles' return - that Greece lacked first-rate display space to assure the safety of the 480-foot-long section of the Parthenon frieze. British officials are also worried that a repatriation of the Marbles, even on loan, could set a precedent for other claims on antiquities removed from original sites." CNN.com 04/10/03 1:00:34 PM

What is ATOMIK? ATOMIK (Alphabetically Tuned and Optimized Mobile Interface Keyboard) is a highly optimized method, using touch keyboards, for entering data into handheld devices. It potentially allows typing of faster than 40 words per minute. ATOMIK uses the graffiti area of a PalmOS device as a touchscreen keyboard. The layout of this keyboard is specifically optimized for touchscreen applications. ATOMIK has three major features: Higher movement efficiency than any other existing touch keyboard. Alphabetically-tuned layout: Generally, letters from A to Z run from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the keyboard. This layout helps novice users find letters that are not yet memorized. Letter connectivity of common words: Many common words or comment fragments of words, such as "the" and "ing" are totally connected. 12:30:40 PM

A titanic effort in 3-D moviemaking James Cameron is trying to bring 3-D movies back into the mainstream with his latest Titanic tale, “Ghosts of the Abyss.” But this isn’t your father’s 3-D, with gimmicky plots and headache-inducing perspectives. Rather than reviving 1950s technology, “Ghosts of the Abyss” introduces 21st-century tricks that Cameron believes could well save Hollywood from its Internet nightmares. 12:27:02 PM

New Yorkers Face Off in Spam Spat  A new anti-spam law pending in New York would fine senders of unsolicited e-mail sales pitches up to $500 for each message. The insurance industry says the bill gives ISPs too much power, and could prevent insurers from sending "important e-mail" to their customers. 12:10:00 PM

Apple 'interested' in music giant Apple has faith in online music Apple Computer is in discussions to buy Universal Music, the world's biggest record company, according to media reports.  The computer maker is believed to be willing to pay $5bn-6bn for Universal, which has been put up for sale by its cash-strapped parent company, Vivendi.   Interesting twist in the music business. This would position Apple and Sony as content providers who make the majority of their money from hardware. Might be enough to sway the balance of the industry. 12:03:11 PM

Why we love the Iraqi information minister One unfortunate side effect of Gulf War II has been the complete disappearance of affable Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. We say unfortunate because al-Sahaf will go down in history as one of the most entertaining mouthpieces of tyranny ever to grace the international stage. So, while al-Sahaf's ancestor Josef Goebbels could only muster po-faced rantings about "total war" as Berlin burned around him, our man in Baghdad amazed the world with his up-beat optimism and cheery smile. Indeed, it takes a class act to declare that ""There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!", while laser-guided munitions whistle around your ears. And who can forget the immortal "No, I am not scared and neither should you be!" But, despite al-Sahaf's swift exit from the propaganda stage, we can rest assured that his performances will continue to entertain future generations thanks to www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com. The site is a celebration of all things al-Sahaf, who is "currently on administrative leave". As well as a comprehensive compendium of Sahafisms, readers might enjoy the section speculating as to what spin our hero might have applied to great battles of history. The D-Day landings? No problem: "Americans? What Americans? There are no American infidels in France, never!"  11:49:26 AM

Vibrating Nokia self-pleasure - yours for £1.50 Girls, are you tired of spending your evening staring at your mobile, waiting for a man to call? Guys, does your girlfriend wait up all night whilst you're out with the lads, waiting for you to call her? Well no longer, help is at hand! The Purring Kitty transforms Nokia mobile phones into discreet, vibrating massagers. Kitty is the ultimate companion, and can be downloaded straight to a phone! Its tender purring vibrations provide perfect company on even the loneliest winter nights! Reminds us of: Woman gets mobile phone stuck up back orifice A 20-year-old Taiwanese woman had to have a mobile phone surgically removed from her back passage after a sex game went horribly wrong. 11:31:16 AM

Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974 I found them while helping my parents clean out their basement a few years ago. They were neatly arranged in their own plastic file box. Plenty of the dishes seemed normal enough, but as I flipped through them, some of the recipes began to alarm me. And then I found the card for the "Rosy Perfection Salad." I fell over. Like I Iaughed so hard I started coughing and I fell back on the floor and I waved the card at my mom, who just rolled her eyes. "Can I please have these? Please?" I begged. "What do you want them for?" she asked. "To cook?" "No," I said. She let me have them. I think they might have been my grandma's, but she never copped to actually buying them. Nobody else did, either. These cards mystify me. None of them have calorie or nutrition information of any kind, and in some instances it's hard to tell what's dietetic about the recipes at all, except that they're unspeakably grim. And yet also, completely insane. They appear to be from a much kookier era of Weight Watchers. There's a certain serve-it-at- your-next-key-party freakiness to a lot of these dishes. 11:21:24 AM

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