Charles on… anything that comes along

From RTE News, 28 March 2007:

Tests carried out in laboratories in Wales have also established that the strain of cryptosporidium parasite which has been found in water reservoirs and treatment plants can be transmitted from human to human.

The Health Service Executive says the situation remains a very serious one and it is of the utmost importance that all water is boiled before use. Experts have told RTÉ News it could be up to six months before tap water is safe to drink in parts of Galway affected by pollution.

Up to 90,000 householders and businesses are affected, and today the number of cases of the cryptosporidium illness in the country rose to 125.

And now let’s compare..

“Did you go down to the beach?”

“Who’d want to?”

“Exactly. Who’d want to? Masochists with a yen for pharyngitis and bowel upsets! Who goes swimming anymore except in a private pool? It isn’t safe. Hell, I know girls who won’t wash their faces except with bottled water, in case it runs into their mouths.”

-The Sheep Look Up, John Brunner, p130 (first publ. 1972).

Brunner’s (science fiction) book is about the collapse of American civilisation… (You know what I mean..) Link to the RTE stuff from John Naughton’s Memex.

Part of the plot of Brunner’s book assumes that bees have become extinct in the US. I think it was science fiction.. this is also the writer, by the way, who wrote a book including the internet some years before it had been invented. Scary.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Any John Brunner experts out there? (23 August 2004; score: 93.01%)
• If we were all like Cuba.. well, we'll have probably have to be in a few decades (26 March 2007; score: 55.56%)
• In a spirit of condescension (16 July 2004; score: 30.22%)

Chris Edwards dissects, in truly remarkable detail, the many ways in which embargoes can screw journalists, PRs and companies up. Very well worth reading; he reckons there are four sorts of embargoes - including the “psychically transmitted”:

the story was the result of a more general interview which was, apparently, to have been issued on a release some time later. There is a belief among some PRs that journalists are unwilling to write some stories, even from face-to-face interviews, without some form of release. Do not believe them. They are misguided, even if experience does suggest to them otherwise. Similarly, some PRs believe you can impose an embargo unilaterally. Don’t try that at home. You might be dismayed by the results.

And then there was the other, worse time..

The one that is truly burned into my memory is the launch of some vapourware that involved a trek to Berkshire to a startup’s offices. I can’t remember why I agreed to it as the product was vapourware of the purest form - it did finally arrive, but it took a while and what finally appeared had a rather vague connection to the original plan. On arrival at the office, the PR presented me with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). I handed it straight back and asked for her to call for a cab. She was a bit surprised - presumably expecting a bit of grumble but, ultimately, compliance. She asked, why? “Because there’s no point in me staying here, is there?” I replied. “I’m not signing it.”

I too hate NDAs (non-disclosure agreemnts). I think I shan’t sign another; these days, with embargoes and NDAs getting exploded all over the web by the fact that loads of people are discussing everything and putting them together, there just isn’t any point. You’ll probably find it out somewhere else anyway.

That’s the trouble with embargoes: they’re almost always artificial, unless they’re something to do with finance, in which case are you sure you should be briefing people anyway? Product launches, oh, sure, except shipping dates can slip. And really you have to have used a product for about a month before you really know what its benefits and drawbacks are.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Michael Arrington and the broken embargoes: welcome to journalism, Mikey boy (19 December 2008; score: 43.34%)
• How much coffee can a bunch of hacks drink? A lot, if you're paying (10 September 2004; score: 42.95%)
• Bad Pitch blog explains how not to make bad pitches to journalists (21 August 2006; score: 42.55%)