links for 2009-10-13

"On Saturday November 7th 2009, artist Simon Pope will be filmed walking a 26 mile route around the five Host Boroughs surrounding the Olympic Park. Over 100 people will accompany him along short sections of the route, sharing their standout personal memories of the Olympic or Paralympic Games". I will be amongst the 100.

Every now and then, something comes along to remind you that whatever new media vs print media, paywall versus free, or hyperlocal versus global arguments we might be having, as an industry we should be constantly reminding people what they will lose without free and independent sources of journalism of all political spectrums.

"The BBC, which struck an 11th-hour deal for highlights but was not allowed to advertise the fact until after the match as Kentaro tried to maximise subscription revenue, attracted a peak audience of 4.3m. The corporation had bid in excess of £1m for the live rights but Kentaro, which was believed to be seeking around £3m, deemed it too low and opted to pursue an internet-only broadcast instead". It is the 'not allowed to advertise it' bit that annoys me. Licence fee payers may well have decided to pay the £12 at the last minute on the basis there were no terrestrial highlights, only to find they were already paying for BBC coverage after all.

Shiny

"I’ve been reading a lot about the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine and the risk of serious side effects and even death. I thought I would seek out the numbers and put them in context. Especially given headlines claiming the HPV jab is “as deadly as the cancer” it seeks to prevent". Genius information diagram.