BBC suspends CTO after DMI failure
The BBC has suspended its chief technology officer and admitted wasting nearly £100m on a five-year project intended to make the corporation “tapeless”, saying that to continue with the project would be “throwing good money after bad”.
The Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was supposed to create a production system linked to the BBC’s huge broadcasting archive, but flaws in the system peaked in April when instead of streamlining access to old video footage, it caused chaos following Margaret Thatcher’s dea [...]
French army begins Mali withdrawal
25 May 2013
Last updated at 04:17 ET
France says troop numbers in Mali will be down to 1,000 by the end of the year
France has begun the first major stage of its military withdrawal from Mali, four months after sending troops to push Islamist rebels out the north.
A convoy of lorries left a French base outside the capital, Bamako, on its way south to Ivory Coast.
France began withdrawing some of its 4,000 troops from the country in April.
They plan to gradually hand over to the Malian army and a UN peacekeeping force, whi [...]
On the road: Kia pro_cee’d 1.6 CRDi S ISG
How do you turn a cee’d into a pro_cee’d? Take away two doors. No, it wasn’t supposed to be a joke. I was just explaining the difference, OK? This is just the coupe version. But because it’s Kia, they can’t simply call it a c’eed coupe – they have to commit further atrocities against language (having already inserted that apostrophe) by adding a prefix and an underscore. And – cleverly (they probably thought) – it kind of makes a new word: pro_cee’d, proceed, meaning move forward, which is sending [...]
The hottest French It girl of 2013: Julia Restoin Roitfeld
As a four-year-old, Julia Restoin Roitfeld would sit on her mother Carine Roitfeld‘s lap at fashion shows in Paris. At 10, she was photographed by Mario Testino for Vogue Bambini. In her 20s, she became an art director, muse, model and Parisian It girl, before moving to New York. The designer Tom Ford described her as “exactly what beauty is to me” and, when she gave birth last year, he gave her a pair of black suede kitten heels in baby size for her newborn daughter.
As the scion of a Paris fashion dynasty – her mother [...]
Internet users’ privacy concerns may mean cookies start to crumble
When the Cookie Directive, officially known as the EU e-Privacy Directive, was first drafted two years ago, tablets hadn’t been adopted in their millions, and smartphones had nothing like their present-day ubiquity.
Their rise in popularity raises a number of difficult issues for publishers and other website owners when it comes to the directive, which has now been in place for 12 months, not least because of the way mobile devices deal with cookies, those small bits of code left by web browsers on your computer or mobile devices th [...]
Pakistan bus fire kills 16 children
25 May 2013
Last updated at 03:54 ET
The fire broke out as the bus was taking the children to school
At least 16 children have been killed as their school bus caught fire in eastern Pakistan, police have said.
At least seven more children were taken to hospital after the incident on the outskirts of the city of Gujrat.
Initial reports said the bus’s gas cylinder had exploded, but a local police chief told AFP news agency it was later found intact.
He said a teacher also died in the blaze. Another police officer tol [...]
The future of media measurement should be people-based | David Gosen
When it comes to the development and distribution of content, the pace of innovation has been breathtaking. Today, people consume media on multiple platforms and devices and, with the rise of mobile technologies, they do it any time and in any place. So, how should this proliferating and diverse consumption be measured?
Some, such as Frédéric Filloux in his Monday Note post on 20 May, argue that a site-centric approach using server logs is required. At Nielsen, though, we believe this overlooks some of the essential aspects of media meas [...]
Deaths in Philippines militant clash
25 May 2013
Last updated at 03:15 ET
Seven marines and at least four militants were killed as troops fought Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines, the military says.
Nine other marines and a number of Abu Sayyaf fighters were wounded, a local military commander said.
A firefight broke out near the coastal town of Patikul in Sulu province as troops tracked the militants, he said.
Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist militant group, has carried out a series of recent kidnappings.
Kidnap for ransom
Military spokesman Brig [...]
Bafta event: games writing discussion and Games Journalism Prize presentation
With a new generation of games consoles on the way, the industry is going to be under huge scrutiny over the next five months. But are specialist journalists doing enough to really investigate the major publishers and manufacturers? And what are the skills needed to write compelling and revealing long-form features on the games industry?
These are two of the questions set to be tackled at a special Bafta event on Wednesday night. I’ll be chairing a discussion on games writing, talking to veteran journalists Jon Hicks (Official Xbox [...]
Why marathon productions are big among the YouTube generation | Kirsty Lang
Two artistic marathons are taking place this weekend. Theatregoers at the Norfolk and Norwich festival will sit through a 12-hour experimental play called Life and Times, which chronicles the life of an ordinary young woman in the US. And in Brighton, film fans will watch the final four-hour instalment of Berlin Alexanderplatz, Fassbinder’s 15-and-a-half-hour adaptation of one of Germany’s best-loved novels. Ticket sales for both events have been good.
Gatz, an eight-hour production in which every single word of The Great Gats [...]
Lackey shines as Red Sox crush Tribe
Boston, MA – Mike Carp hit a three-run homer to back seven strong innings from John Lackey, as the Boston Red Sox took down the Cleveland Indians, 8-1, in the second test of a four-game series.
Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury both knocked in two runs for the Red Sox,
who bounced back from a 12-3 loss in the series opener on Thursday. Mike
Napoli had an RBI and scored once.
Lackey (3-4) allowed just one unearned run on two hits while striking out
eight and walking three.
“John had some good intensity t [...]
Google and Facebook battle over Waze
The travel app company Waze is believed to be the subject of a billion-dollar bidding war between Google and Facebook, in a move apparently aimed at tying its social functions more closely into the rival firms’ networks.
A fortnight ago reports suggested that Facebook had bid $1bn for the business, in order to wrap the “social travel” element into its billion-strong social network. But those initial approaches seem to have been rebuffed – and now Google is said to have entered the fray.
Any buyout by Google or Facebook c [...]