Best Wishes, Dear George:
The BBC Trust has chosen George Entwistle as it’s new Director General. To thatwe say Huzzah!
Despite the many and varied challenges he will be facing, the Friday Fishwrap thinks this is a brilliant move on the trusts part. George is a BBC insider from the creative side of the house, but with plenty of business savvy… and we hope, the political skills he’ll need to navigate the icy waters of Parliament… from which flow the funds needed to produce quality programming.
… and speaking of Quality Programming…
As a long-time fan of Inspector Morse, I want to say thanks so very much to our friends at PBS, Masterpiece Theatre and to all involved in the brilliantly written, acted, produced and directed Endeavour.
I hope we’ll be seeing more of young Morse.
Meanwhile, The Heat Goes On:
Go almost anywhere in America these days and the only thing one can say is; it’s too hot.
Record temperatures have blasted the lower forty-eight for the past week, along with record electricity and water bills.
Lawns everywhere are, except for the weeds, turning brown… but emergency rooms are also seeing record numbers of patients suffering sunstroke and heat exhaustion.
Please, have fun and enjoy the summer, but use common sense. Stay in the shade, keep cool and stay hydrated… non-alcoholically.
In The News:
… From Andrei C at the Dice Blog Network
Had you been paying attention and not celebrating on July Fourth, you might have learned the European Parliament voted to refuse to ratify ACTA.
Though the outcome was expected, the numbers were telling: 478 to 39.
The popular sentiment against the bill has been running deep in Europe. Earlier in the year, hundreds of thousands marched against it while millions signed anti-treaty petitions.
In the end, the European Parliament concluded that ACTA cannot guarantee adequate privacy protection for citizens.
The vote against ACTA marks the first time the parliament used its powers under the Lisbon Treaty to reject an international trade agreement. Without Europe’s ratification, chances are ACTA will die as a global effort.
Still, its implementation is being debated in a number of nations, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Switzerland. If six countries ratify, it comes into force within their borders.
And unfortunately, the spirit of ACTA could return to life under another name and with different interpretations.
We at Pages For Small Wages hope wiser heads prevail.
Putting It On The Line, On-Line:
This autumn more than a million students are going to take part in an experiment 
that could re-invent the landscape of higher education. Some of the biggest powerhouses in US higher education are offering online courses – testing how their expertise and scholarship can be brought to a global audience.
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have formed a $60m (£38m) alliance to launch edX, a platform to deliver courses online – with the modest ambition of “revolutionising education around the world”.
edX will provide online interactive courses which can be studied by anyone, anywhere, with no admission requirements and, at least at present, without charge.
You can learn more about it here.
And last but not least for this edition of The Friday Fishwrap…
Here’s wishing you a swinging
Pages for Small Wages 