Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[RED-DOG]

I do a nice line in skidmarks...

[RED-DOG]

The alleged transcript between the Coastguard & the Captain.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/627323-coastguard-tells-captain-to-return-to-ship#t=1m50s

Feel free to pop over to my diary if you feel the need to pilfer more topics. 
 

fmp

[Laxie]

I do a nice line in skidmarks...

And merkins...

[tikay]

Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang resigned overnight, & has left the Company.

He & David Filo founded Yahoo! the best part of 20 years ago, it was originally named "David & Jerry's guide to the World Wide Web", & as that name suggests, the internet seems to have come a long way since then.

Quite a ride, too, with the company being valued at $120 billion within 5 or 6 years. Today, I think its worth about a fifth of that, maybe less.

2 years ago, Microsoft offered $33 per share, which Yang curtly dismissed as "opportunist". The shares now trade at about $15.

With several readers of this Diary emerging recently to show great insight - probably far more than mine - into stocks, shares, or investing, perhaps they would like to speculate on where the Yahoo! share price will go now, & will Microsoft come back & make another offer. If it were worth $45 billion to Microsoft 2 years ago, & they can get it for $25 billion now - loose change to Microsoft - you'd think it was a given. Possibly.

Personally, even as a punt, I think I'd swerve the Company, which seems to have lost its way.

PS - Post created without the invaluable assistance of Wiki, which is "on strike" today. Come back soon Wiki.

[tikay]

The exclamation mark after "Yahoo!" is included in the official name of the company, "Yahoo! Incorporated" I believe.

Anyone think of another multi-national which has an official name that ends with an exclamation mark?

[tikay]

In the West of England sits a sleepy seaside town named "Westward Ho!". Note the exclamation mark.

I have no idea how it became so oddly named, & I cannot think of another Town which "officially" has its name ending with an exclamation mark, though Skeggy in the winter is often described as "Skeggy!" (= you must be mad) or even "Skeggy?" ( = you are mad).

[tikay]

To celebrate 25 years of publication, the iconic "Vanity Fair" magazine - huge in America - has published what it calls "Top 25 News Photographs", though the photos cover a much longer period.

I would think that almost everyone has seen most of them - Tonji could probably even name the photographers - but photos, as they age, tell a remarkable story, look different with the benefit of time, & lead us to think about how life has changed.

A few of those photos will follow, & I would be surprised if anyone could resist being amazed by how different life looked then & now.

[tikay]

We mostly - the EDL excepted, I suppose - are reviled by racism, & we have a way to go before it is cured, but it is a lot better than it was 80 years ago.

Look at the glee on the faces of some of these guys. It's almost certain that before the lynching, both the black guys were beaten up, too. This was in 1930.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

30 years later - 1957 - this photo made the front pages, as the young lady - Dorothy Counts - became the first black student at a college in North Carolina. Look at the taunting she is getting from those lads.

I think such thoughts still occur to a few, mostly not too bright, folks, but at least political correctness means it gets, for the most part supressed. We can never know what it must have felt to be black, back in the day.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Celebrating victory after a ground battle in Japan, 1945, a picture I grew up with & loved - Americans, in my youth, were deemed the good guys, & everyone else the bad boys.

Quite recently, it emerged that several versions of this photo exist, & allegations & suggestions of photo-shopping arose. Rather sad in a way, as I can no longer view the photo with such admiration & innocence.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Berlin was blockaded by the Soviets in 1948, & the famous "Berlin Airlift" ("The Berlin Air Bridge") took place. Can you imagine a blockade of berlin in this day & age?

I believe, in a roundabout way, that it was due to this airlift that Sir Freddie Laker first started to make money out of aviation. Later, he pioneered low cost Atlantic air travel, with "SkyTrain", (what a great name!) & it was very successful. Within 2 years, though, he was busto. Quite a story to Sir Freddie & Laker Airways, actually, & I may bore you with it one day.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

You really must believe to do this.

In what was a new word to me - "immolate" - this was described as "self-immolation".

Click to see full-size image.

[DaveShoelace]

The first two pictures are disgusting, in particular with the way familes & children appear to have come out to rejoice in it.

I must say, the overriding thought that comes into my head, and I have no idea whether it is justified, is - only in America.  

Not saying for one second that such ignorance was/is not prominent in England, I just could not imagine the lynchings and the manner in which they seem to have been socially approved happening anywhere but the States.

[tikay]

The first two pictures are disgusting, in particular with the way familes & children appear to have come out to rejoice in it.

I must say, the overriding thought that comes into my head, and I have no idea whether it is justified, is - only in America.  

Not saying for one second that such ignorance was/is not prominent in England, I just could not imagine the lynchings and the manner in which they seem to have been socially approved happening anywhere but the States.

Perhaps, in those days, South Africa, too?

[tikay]

Was there ever a more famous dream? Did that speech really become the turning point?

Click to see full-size image.