SOMETIMES THINGS GO THE RIGHT WAY

From the Independent:

As the fugitive businessman Asil Nadir flew back to Britain from his North Cyprus bolt-hole last week, Sean O'Neill, the crime editor of The Times, scooped Fleet Street by being the only print journalist on the plane. Yet those searching Google for the latest on the breaking story that morning would have found no sign of O'Neill's exclusive – only follow-up stories by rival news organisations such as The Guardian and ITN.

Two months after Rupert Murdoch's decision to erect a subscription paywall around the websites of The Times and The Sunday Times, thus removing their content from search engines, the bold experiment is having a marked effect on the rest of British media. There are many who still wish the 79-year-old mogul well, hopeful that he is at the vanguard of a cultural shift that will save newspapers. Yet elsewhere there is dismay among analysts, advertisers, publicists and even some reporters on the papers.

Faced with a collapse in traffic to thetimes.co.uk, some advertisers have simply abandoned the site. Rob Lynam, head of press trading at the media agency MEC, whose clients include Lloyds Banking Group, Orange, Morrisons and Chanel, says, "We are just not advertising on it. If there's no traffic on there, there's no point in advertising on there." Lynam says he has been told by News International insiders that traffic to The Times site has fallen by 90 per cent since the introduction of charges. "That was the same forecast they were giving us prior to registration and the paywall going up, so whether it's a reflection on reality or not, I don't know."

The move to put the newspaper's content behind a paywall seemed idiotic to me. The New York Times tried putting their opinion writers behind a paywall but abandoned the practice after several months, because not enough people would pay to read.

I sympathize with the staff who work for the papers, but, as for Murdoch, the result couldn't happen to a better person. Had Murdoch's scheme been successful, before long, the other papers would have followed suit in setting up paywalls.

Nevertheless, as the sub-headline says, Murdoch is digging in his heels:

Advertisers don't like it. Analysts are unconvinced. The paywall at News International may not be winning many fans, but the man behind it is determined to keep it standing.

H/T to Mark at News Corpse, who says:

This was entirely predictable. When there is an abundance of news available online, why would anyone pay to receive information that is not distinguishable from the free information available elsewhere? Especially when consumers are already “paying” as a result of their presence being sold to advertisers. That’s traditionally how media produces revenue.

In addition to the traffic almost disappearing from the The Times site, reporters are anxious about having lost their voice and their reach into the community. What journalist would want to see their readership decline by 90%? What’s more, publicists are avoiding The Times because they know that their stories will not be seen by very many people.

Thanks to Ann V. for sending the link.

IN ANTICIPATION OF THE POPE'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

From Reuter's:

The leader of the Catholics in England in Wales rejected accusations that Pope Benedict was fishing for converts and said "delicate and difficult" issues existed between his church and the Anglican Communion.

His comments come two weeks before Pope Benedict's four-day trip to England and Scotland, the first papal visit since John Paul II's pastoral visit in 1982 and the first-ever official papal visit to Britain.

Relations between the two churches have been tense since the pope offered disaffected Anglicans opposed to their church's ordination of women and homosexual bishops the chance to convert to Rome while keeping some of their traditions.

"There are delicate, difficult issues between our two churches at the moment," Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, head of the 5.2 million Catholics in England and Wales, told Reuters.(My emphasis)

That's about right, Abp. Nichols. As my correspondent who sent me the link said:

[N]ot fishing? It's that "ordinariate" bait bucket that gives him away.

That's about right, too.

Many Anglicans believe Williams was humiliated by last October's offer, which was made with little advance warning, while some Catholics are unhappy at the terms of the offer, which would allow married Anglican priests to convert.
....

It is not clear how many intend to convert, he said. The lack of financial provision is likely to be a stumbling block, but in July the traditionalist Anglican Bishop of Fulham, John Broadhurst, suggested several hundred clergy and many laity would leave in the next three years.(My emphasis)

For heaven's sake, why don't the folks contemplating departure to one of the ordinariates just convert to the Roman Catholic Church? They may call themselves Anglicans, but they will be Roman Catholic converts. The powers in the RC Church can change the rules any time down the road, and if the "Anglicans" in the ordinariates don't like the changes, what will they do?

Meanwhile, he said the cost of the pope's visit between September 16-19 was likely to rise above 9 million pounds ($13.92 million) -- higher than the initial estimate of 7 million pounds.

The state's share of the bill is likely to rise by 50 percent to 12 million pounds.

The cost is scandalous. What is the justification for such a high price? There is none. The powers in the English government should have nipped the plan for the pope's visit in the bud or required the Vatican to reimburse the taxpayers' money.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

STORY OF THE DAY

A lot of people have asked me how I got
to be so wise, she said, & I never had an
easy answer, so most of them left
convinced they'd made a mistake.

From StoryPeople.

Note: A slight edit with change of gender to make the post all about me. I hope the folks at StoryPeople don't mind.

OOPS!

Thanks to Ann.

QUALITIES IN LIFE

 

Thanks to wise man Doug.

ROSSLYN CHAPEL - MIDLOTHIAN

 

From the website of Rosslyn Chapel.

Dedicated in 1450 as the Collegiate Chapel of St. Matthew, William St. Clair founded the chapel for his family with a staff of a provost, six prebendaries and two choristers. Collegiate chapels like this were intended to pray for the soul of the founder and to spread intellectual and spiritual knowledge. Rosslyn's extraordinary architecture and carvings have also inspired generations and meant its fame has endured over the centuries.

 

The interior of the chapel is gorgeous. The chapel still serves as a place of worship for the congregation of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.

 

The carvings and, indeed, the entire structure are extraordinary. I don't know why I didn't take pictures of the exterior of the chapel, but photography was not allowed inside, which didn't stop others from snapping away.

 

Pendant keystone in the roof

The chapel was filled with tourists and the voice of the guide, which detracted some from the visit, but what can I say? I was one of the tourists. I'd much rather have experienced the chapel within the context of a worship service, but I realize that I can't have everything.

 

The Apprentice Pillar

The "Apprentice Pillar", or "Prentice Pillar", gets its name from an 18th century legend involving the master mason in charge of the stonework in the chapel and his young apprentice. According to the legend, the master mason did not believe that the apprentice could perform the complicated task of carving the column, without seeing the original which formed the inspiration for the design. The master mason travelled to see the original himself, but upon his return was enraged to find that the upstart apprentice had completed the column anyway. In a fit of jealous anger the mason took up his mallet and struck the apprentice on the head, killing him. As punishment for his crime, the master mason's face was carved into the opposite corner to forever gaze upon his apprentice's pillar.

What an enchanting place. I'm so pleased that MadChauffeur thought to take us to visit the lovely chapel. I never saw a centuries-old church that I didn't love, so far as I can remember.

View a panorama of the interior of Rosslyn Chapel.

Those of you who have read The Da Vinci Code (yawn) know that the chapel is featured in the book.

Pictures and Apprentice Pillar legend from Wikipedia.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

666 is the Number of the Beast

670 - Approximate number of the Beast

DCLXVI - Roman numeral of the Beast

666.0000000 - Number of the High Precision Beast

665.9999954 - Number of the Microsoft Beast

0.666 - Number of the Millibeast

/666 - Beast Common Denominator

666 x sq. rt (-1) - Imaginary number of the Beast

1010011010 - Binary number of the Beast

1-666 - Area code of the Beast

00666 - Zip code of the Beast

1-900-666-0666 - Live Beasts! One-on-one pacts! Call Now! Only
$6.66/minute.

$665.95 - Retail price of the Beast

$692.60 - Price of the Beast (including 4% Louisiana state sales tax)

$769.95 - Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul

$606.66 - Wal-Mart price of the Beast

$566.66 - Costco price of the Beast

Phillips 666 - Gasoline of the Beast

Route 666 - Way of the Beast

666 F - Oven temperature for roast Beast

666k - Retirement plan of the Beast

666 mg - Recommended Minimum Daily Requirement of Beast

6.66% - 5-year CD interest rate at First Beast of Hell National Bank, $666
minimum deposit.

Lotus 6-6-6 - Spreadsheet of the Beast

Word 6.66 - Word Processor of the Beast

i66686 - CPU of the Beast

666i - BMW of the Beast

DSM-666 (revised) - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast

668 - Next-door neighbor of the Beast

- Number of the Blonde Beast . . . uh . . . what was that number again?


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

Paul (A.) must not have had much lawyering to do today.

ON THE ROAD TO SCOTLAND

 

Pictured above on the right is the flag of Northumberland and on the left, Scotland's flag, the flag of St Andrew, at Carter Bar, where the Mad Three (MadChauffeur, Cathy, and me) crossed the border from England into Scotland.

Note: The following commentary does not match up with the pictures, which were all taken after we crossed the border into Scotland.

 

Even after the final plans for the trip were arranged, I told my travel companions that I would not really believe that the trip would happen until we were on the road to Scotland. Not until we crossed the border, did I became a true believer. Before that time, I feared that someone would get sick, or die, or back out, or some other roadblock or tragedy would get in the way. But finally, we were there, in the fast lane, making our way to Oban.

 

The evening before we left, we had dinner at La Tasca in Newcastle, MadChauffeur having made the arrangements in quite a satisfactory manner. Gathered around the table were the Mad Three, Mrs MadChauffeur, Themethatisme, his wife, Petty Witter, their German houseguest, a lovely 14 year old girl, Lisa, and a friend of MadChauffeur and his missus. As arranged, we ordered dishes we liked, and we all passed the dishes around, each of us serving ourselves whatever foods we liked. Thus, we had the opportunity to sample a large variety of very tasty Spanish food. After the meal, we took a walk along the River Tyne and across the Millennium Bridge.

If anyone took pictures at the gathering, I don't remember. I did not, because I was too busy enjoying myself.

 

The following morning, we left Newcastle, but not as early as MadChauffeur would have liked. There were ongoing negotiations each evening over the time we'd start out in the morning, because neither Cathy nor I is a morning person, and I believe that most days the negotiations went our way. We were two against one, after all. Of course, MadChauffeur may take a different view.



My fellow travelers, MadChauffeur and Cathy (with her seemingly ever-present shopping bag), headed, I believe, toward a ferry which we never caught, because it was not running that day. The memories of what we did on which day begin to run together.

More to come, of course, continuing in helter-skelter order with regard to the timetable.

UPDATE: By popular demand, another picture of MadChauffeur by Cathy. That's him on the right and Mimi (or is it Mimo?) on the left.

BUTTERFLIES ARE COMING!

 

The big picture. All the caterpillars which will become beautiful Swallowtail butterflies are in the big picture. Scroll down to see the close-ups. We plant the parsley for ourselves and for the Swallowtails. The sad news is that there are only four. We've had the plants covered with caterpillars in years past.

 

No. 1

 

No. 2

 

Nos. 3 and 4



Here's what the caterpillars will become if all four make it. Beautiful!


Bottom photo from Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Here's a photo of the latest edition to the caterpillar family. Click on the picture to enlarge and look at the bottom and a little to the left, and you will see a small black and white critter. The others looked like that day before yesterday. Now we have five caterpillars feeding on the parsley.



And then there were eight!


Word has gone out in Caterpillar Land that Grandpère and Grandmère have parsley, and the caterpillars are a-comin'. We should plant a whole plot of parsley next year. I'll suggest just that to the gardener, who is GP.

CONSECRATION OF BISHOP JOHN SMYLIE FOR THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF WYOMING

Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop John Smylie



Bishop Smylie presiding at the Eucharist



Our own Ann Fontaine at the podium



Our Ann again giving out orders. She practically ran the whole show, you know, with a little help from her friends. See how attentively the others listen.

Thanks to Dr. Richard Schori for these.

Thanks to Ann for the link. View the rest of the photos here.