And a warm welcome to the United Kingdom for Sandra White, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow. She’s withdrawn and apologised for a press release describing the Union Jack as “soiled” and associated with concentration camps (er, Boer War, apparently). There was something about a “butcher’s apron”, too. Her original rant was a response to Gordon Brown’s appeal for Britons to embrace the flag. The Chancellor has clearly got his work cut out.
Internet users make up their mind about a website in less than half the time it takes the eye to blink, and they rate its appeal in the same moment, one-twentieth of a second. “If the first impression is negative, you’ll probably drive people off,” says Gitte Lindgaard, a Canadian psychology professor, in her study on reactions to web designs.
John Wayne carried one whenever he played a cowboy and the Winchester rifle was called the gun that won the West. But the factory that has made Winchesters in New Haven, Connecticut, since 1866 is to close in March, threatening an end to the iconic weapon. A slump in sales is blamed.
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Economists have come up with a graphic comparison for estimates on the hotly disputed cost of the war in Iraq. They suggest that America, alone, is spending nearly £2.5 billion a week — twice as much as Titanic, the highest-grossing movie, earned in total. The claim is made by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a former official in the Clinton Administration.
Evo Morales, President-elect of Bolivia, is to be inaugurated on Sunday. But what will he wear? His alpaca jumper has graced the election campaign and nearly all meetings with foreign leaders, even in sweltering South Africa, during a whirlwind tour to introduce himself and, doubtless, his enthusiasm for coca production. There’s a fierce debate in the South American media about whether he should be sworn in wearing a suit (provocatively Yankee) or poncho (proudly native) to signal conciliation or confrontation.
Sources: Daily Record, MSNBC.com, Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times, ABC News