Kayaking Vs Drugs (Virtual Communities at work)

I was trying to find my mate's email address today by searching the web, and ended up stumbling across an engaging discussion he was involved in a while back. It is an interesting case of how passionate people can get about different topics and how discussions, forums and communities bring people back to a website again and again....like nectar to the bee.

You have to read down a little bit before it gets good but essentially, the discussion centres around the sponsoring of a 'Kayak Drop off O'Connell Street Bridge' in Dublin, being sponsored by a pharmaceutical company called Novartis. It seems like some of the kayakers had a problem with the "big bad drugs company" sponsoring the event and the discussion went from there. Looks like its one of the most popular threads ever and its nothing to do with kayaking!!
The link to the discussion is http://www.irishfreestyle.com/node/957

I'll have to ask him what the end of the story was and post again.

Ten two letter words of confidence

I was watching The Open Golf Championship yesterday and the commentator alluded to a piece of advice which Butch Harmon recently gave to a golfer. The advice was "If it is to be, it is up to me". I checked around the web this morning and it seems to have been said originally by a guy called William Johnson, of whom there are about 20 famous enough to be on Wikipedia so who knows. Great quote though.

News travels fast...be it true, false or somewhere in between

Back in the 19th Century, Mark Twain said "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes". This quote is remarkably appropriate in this age of the Internet where, as something happens it can be on someone's computer halfway around the world in minutes or even seconds.

The problem arises not necessarily when an action is broadcast or reported on, but when it is broadcast or reported on with bias, prejudice or just out of context. Ironically, Twain also said "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please”, which sometime seems to be the way certain news organisations report certain issues.

Must add a few examples of this.