Catching breath

People have mentioned that there’s not been much in the way of themes so far, so with the benefit of a couple of weeks to catch up on, here’s a themetastic selection of ramblings on my posts from the first month.

Damn those pesky mobiles - Is it just me; or is CNN a little sensational? I thought the media reaction to the University of Utah research on mobiles and driving was bad enough, but inferring that they are to blame for children being molested by paedophiles at school takes it to a whole new level. If scare mongering and stupidly sensational reporting is the name of the game, then CNN has done itself proud with this one.

When grim means GRIM - As masters of the understatement on all things negative, The Chinese government rarely concedes that there could be a problem. So when reading about the current weather conditions and seeing a government statement advising citizens that the “situation remains grim”, I started think about what’s not being said. Figures currently available estimate that 100 million people have been seriously affected, but incredibly only 60 have died. Here’s hoping that’s true and things start to get better very soon, but like the BBC, I fear that it could be a lot worse.

Red pens at the ready - Have touched on a couple of language escque topics in previous posts to the point where one of my friends suggested I check out a weekly New York Times column called “On Language”. Makes interesting reading and along with a colleagues’ blog on improving our writing to convey clearer thoughts (btw I think makes a nice change from the usual tech PR blog focus), it should help me make these posts a little more snappy.       

Thought that might be popular - So I wasn’t the only one impressed by the Davos Question. TechCrunch seemed equally enamoured after spending time in what it called “The Super-Awesome YouTube Room At Davos”. Not sure about super and awesome being together,but guess if everyone from Bono to Tony Blair and Pervez Musharraf are calling past, good or average simply don’t cut the mustard. Going to echo Mr Arrington here, great move Google.   

Soap boxes at the ready

It’s all too easy to sit back and knock ideas, so when I heard about the Davos Question, I thought it merited a second look and a tip of the cap.

Bringing together the who’s who of leaders from business, government, the media, academia, the arts and society, the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos this week isn’t just your average tea party. As with topics like the environment, economic development, and energy security topping the bill, the guys really have their work cut out to secure public buy-in on decisions impacting both local and global issues. Not only that, but as with anything like the WEF, there is always the danger of it being perceived as distant and unrepresentative of the real issues, which is exactly why the whole Davos Question concept caught my eye.

Teaming with YouTube, the organizers have laid down the big one – What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008? – and asked people to post video responses, the best of which will be shared with the attendees. Now I know not everyone has the access or technology needed to get involved, but never the less, it’s a good move by the WEF big wigs. 

Been having a look through myself and watched videos on everything from setting up a think tank exploring a moneyless society to focusing on buying mosquito nets. Granted there were some weird ones, and with people like the Neotoy, there were certainly a few strange contributors, but by in large, I came away with the impression that people had really thought about it. What did you think, any good ones?

As I haven’t entered a video, I can’t see how the voting’s going – guess they didn’t get everything right – but lets keep an eye out later this week to see which ones get picked and whether it will be mosquito nets for all.