From the department of potentially rather apropos metaphors
This statement is of course full of nonsense, but "1+1=11" is really just the same species of empty boosterism that has people giving 110%. Rather, this bit caught my eye:
Far from changing our editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, this moment will be for HuffPost like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet. We're still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we're now going to get there much, much faster.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Huffington Post/AOL merger. A supersonic jet, piloted by a train driver.
Update: AB, in comments, points out that this supersonic jet, with its untrained pilot is still heading for the original destination, ie a train station (yes, there are lots of airports which have train stations but these are typically served by normal local services rather than high-speed rail). Frankly this is sounding a lot more like a terrorist attack than any normal journey.
Unary is the new binary though, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think most people's reaction would have been the same as mine - "AOL are still in business?"
ReplyDeleteOld people like them.
ReplyDeleteJoyce Grenfell didn't like Arianna Stassinopoulos when they appeared on Face the Music - she (Joyce) reckoned that she (Arianna) used to listen to other panellists' muttered, provisional, shared thoughts and then blurt them out as her own.
ReplyDeleteSee old TV shows? See insight?
Well, Cian, it would apparently be more accurate to say that old people don't realise that they can get internet access without them. The AOL business model depends on chiselling $20 a month out of not-very-technically-minded US pensioners.
ReplyDeleteI worked at AOL Time Warner around the time of the merger. That was a warning sign; they should never, ever have given me as much responsibility as they did. (Not that I abused my position.)
Tangential AOL fact: as far as I can see, Steve Case is the CEO of any company ever to have created the most shareholder value (by exchanging worthless AOL shares 50/50 for shares in real, profitable Time Warner)
ReplyDeleteDvB - Unary hasn't really taken off yet in that case. The Romans got it up to 3(arabic decimal); clockmakers as far as 4(a.d.). Then you're into tallies I reckon - which is kind of unary, then base five, then back to unary for the second emergent 'digit', i.e. the gate-like sign. Don't know if there are further emergent signs made by grouping the gates together.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should get on with my work.
Ajay I used to think that was the case, but it turns out they just like them.
ReplyDeleteCian: an alternative view...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-cancel-aol?slop=1#slideshow-start
Yeah I know about that. It was my failure to persuade certain elder people of my acquaintance to cancel with AOL that led to my (slightly sarcastic) comment.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry.
ReplyDeletelike stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty horrific image to anyone who knows the meaning of words like "train", "step" and "supersonic". Would they even find any recognisable body parts afterwards?
"...to the same destination."
ReplyDeleteI'm picturing the scene at Penn Station or St Pancras or Gare du Nord when the supersonic jet lands on platform 1.
I find AOL useful. I believe an AIM account is pretty much still needed to operate iChat video on Macs (I think?).
ReplyDelete(And I meant the continued existence of AOL...not AOL itself).
ReplyDelete"We will do what Britons have always done when our backs are to the wall - turn round and fight."
ReplyDelete-- John Major
Now now, it's mean to pick on John Major, of all people, for malapropisms.
ReplyDelete'at the wheel'?
ReplyDelete