Sail boats are great, gliding across the sea, the wind in your sails. Unless of course mother nature decides to get the wobblies and there’s no wind. Then you are what is known as dead in the water, because unless you also have a motor on board you ain’t going nowhere. That’s the doldrums.
By looking around some news sites this morning I would say we officially have doldrums season everywhere. You would think that since Friday basically nothing has happened, around the entire world, according to our up to the minute must have instant knowledge of everything interwebz. Today marks the day digital television is supposed to start with extra channels in our fair country, but given the woeful offerings on that these days, I can’t see that proving to be the ground breaking, stop the presses kind of item of the day.
The most shock, horror, thing in the news in Queensland is that the government might have been a bit naughty in a couple of things. Given the fact I grew up in this state when a certain peanut farmer was in charge, along with his numerous peanut sized brain mates, this is not the ground breaking news event of the century for me. Oh, the Ekka is on again. Oh yippee. Hold me down. I am waiting with baited breath for the flood of leaky inflatable novelties and badly made stuffed animals to hit the flea markets in about a weeks time.
One thing that has caught my eye was one article about a news group deciding that we should be paying for their view on the world of news.
Firstly, I always thought you had to have something the people want, before you try and sell it. Recycling Friday’s news on a Sunday morning, adding a couple of minor bits into the mix, then asking me to pay for it? Not likely in my lifetime. Secondly, news sites are littered with advertisements, you can barely get through the headlines sometimes without some annoying ad, proclaiming the good of the product they are flogging. What, the news sites give this space away for free? I get invited to pay for this rehash, plus the pleasure of getting bombarded with advertising as well? Lucky me.
Sadly the good ship Daze is in the doldrums today, only time will tell if the breeze picks up. The other option is her getting bored, and finding something to amuse herself with, given the way that has ended once or twice, I am hoping for the traditional August westerly’s to kick in, soon, and in a big way.
2 comments:
With a lot of Online news sites the "News" bit seems to be an oxymoron.
It was interesting read the following in an article about subscription news:
"Last month, News Ltd chief executive John Hartigan berated bloggers for leeching off mainstream news reports and criticised them for their lack of original reporting and professional standards."
I have news for you Mr Chief Executive. These days it is usually the Blogs, Facebook or Twitter that breaks the news first. There has been more than a few professional news reports that have quoted a blog or twitter as its source.
The New York Times tried a subscription service only to return to free access after a short time.
At lest with printed newspapers, after you have finished reading it you can reuse it. Shredded for Kitty Litter. Keeping the homeless warm in winter. Starting a BBQ.
Poor Mr Rich Newspaper person. The recent financial crisis must be really putting the bite into all his millions. Who else better to top up the solid gold toilet roll holder fund than the Average Mr & Mrs Rear End out of their pants to pay for it.
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