April 2007 Archives
ARMED AMERICA Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes
In the 48 hours since the Virginia Tech massacre I have heard several radio reports in which different witnesses described their experiences. Not a single journalist or interviewer has felt it necessary to define the word "clip", which strikes me as significant.
I don't think I have ever seen a "clip", and yet I too know what it is. Clearly, America's gun culture has had a significant influence on everyone. Thanks are due to Hollywood, I suppose.
To get a sense of how wide-spread guns have become in American culture, visit ARMED AMERICA Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes. It's a promotional web site for a forthcoming book of photographs by Kyle Cassidy. I personally found it terrifying.
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In the last few months I have been working on a project based in Brighton, and so occasionally commuting there from London. I was just beginning to relate to this interesting article about commuting in The New Yorker, when I read the following lines: "The next morning, she caught the six-fifty-four out of Port Jervis. The train was nearly empty. The conductor sat in the row in front of her, looking through a catalogue advertising semi-automatic weapons." Once again America proves that it's unlike anywhere else in my world.
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Great headline in the Globe and Mail this morning.
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"Despite the apology, there was little sign of embarrassment from CBS or [Katie] Couric at the revelation that she has little to do with the Notebook items". Business has hijacked the weblog format, but missed the point completely. Here's an important broadcast journalist (one of the world's most influential people according to Time magazine) who is happy to have someone else put words in her mouth. Unbelievable. And that's precisely what Couric has now become. — I keep forgetting that US news is really just part of the Entertainment industry.
It's been a fairly glorious Easter weekend here in the UK, with the temperature reaching 17°C yesterday afternoon. Easter is still an important event in the British calendar. It's the only official, four-day weekend, and very many people plan extended holidays around it. Apparently, Heathrow airport served 212,000 passengers on Thursday alone (see Easter getaway congestion begins), which is equivalent to evacuating the entire population of Kitchener, Ontario, in a single day (and Heathrow is just one of four airports serving London).
This weekend also happens to be the best time to find a bargain on the UK version of the popular online auction web site eBay. The reason is quite simple. Fewer people are at their computers on the longest non-familial holiday of the year, particularly if the weather is nice, which means fewer bids get placed and prices are correspondingly lower. So this weekend I purchased a new digital camera, and I'm pleased to report that it was indeed a bargain.
I purchased a black Canon EOS 400D digital SLR (single lens reflex) with an 18-55mm zoom lens for £396.51 from the Canon Outlet shop on eBay.co.uk, which was 5.6% less than the cheapest version of this model sold by Canon in the preceeding 16 days (there were 15 such cameras sold during the period).
Of course, it's often difficult to know if price comparisons are valid on eBay because you can't be certain that the purchased items are all equivalent. Are they all in the same condition, for example? In this case, however, the cameras are all sold by a single vendor, the manufacturer Canon, and they all come with a one-year manufacturer's warranty. They are described as "refurbished" which Canon defines as follows:
Refurbished products are 100% OK and therefore we can offer them with a 1 year manufacturer's warranty. There is nothing wrong with these products! All refurbished products are sealed with an authentic Canon seal!
We just can't sell a refurbished item as new because:
- it was used as demo product (at trade fairs etc.), or
- the outside carton box was slightly damaged during transportation (and then replaced by a neutral brown packaging), or
- it was sold and the box was opened. Then the item got returned to Canon.
Upon return to our facility, a product of this type is put through a full set of functional test procedures, cleaned, repaired (if needed), and refreshed with a set of in-box materials (manuals, accessories, cables...) and sealed. The packaging of the product may either be the original Canon packaging or a neutral (brown) packaging. The core product itself may (exceptionally) contain minor cosmetic blemishes.
Given the single vendor and the one-year warranty, I think it's fair to assume that we are comparing as close to "like for like" as it's possible to get on eBay.
In recent weeks, Canon has sold two versions of the EOS 400D, one in black and one in silver, at least six days a week (black-bodied cameras currently demand a premium, see Black vs. Silver for some possible explanations). In the precceding 16 days before I purchased my camera, there was an average of 11 bids placed on each black 400D for an average price of £452.34. The range went from a low of £420 to a high of £500. In my case, there were only 5 bids and my winning bid was £396.51.
So how did I achieve my new minimum price for a black EOS 400D? Here are my tips for buying successfully on eBay:
- Research the market on eBay by searching for historical prices. Identify the maximum and minimum prices achieved and calculate the average.
- Establish a budget and stick to it.
- If you really want a bargain, never bid more than the average price that you calculated in step 1.
- Don't forget to consider the shipping charges. Many vendors offer items with a lower reserve/starting price in order to encourage you to bid, and then charge you a premium for shipping. They are making money on the shipping, so beware.
- If possible, bid on items where the auction ends at an unpopular time (in my case it was 7:15 PM on a Sunday night in the middle of a glorious bank holiday long-weekend).
- Know your competing bidders by viewing their bidding history. Some may be professional retailers using eBay to stock their business inventory. Others may be buying strictly for personal use. It's easier to predict how the professionals will behave. They have fixed costs and margins that will force them to drop out of the bidding sooner rather than later. Avoid bidding against the rogue personal users if possible (pick that unpopular time). They are unpredictable.
- Bid the maximum amount you are prepared to pay in the last 10 to 5 minutes of the auction. Don't be tempted to make incremental bids repeatedly. If you do, you may not reach your maximum before the auction ends. The professional buyers will all be bidding at the last minute too, and you or your computer may not be able to respond quickly enough.
- Don't be tempted to increase your maximum bid while you are currently the highest bidder. If you do, eBay will execute another bid at the next bidding increment on your behalf, which effectively means you will be bidding against yourself — a very stupid thing to do.
Hmmm... I guess working for a real, bricks-and-mortar auction house for six years had some benefits after all.
Tyler Brûlé is a famous Manitoban (one of 45 apparently, if you exclude the less well known members of Bachman Turner Overdrive, but include Winnie-the-Pooh) who has just launched a new magazine on the world.
Prior to launching this latest advertising vehicle, he wrote (among other things) a weekly column for the Financial Times titled Fast Lane. For reasons that are unclear, he left the FT at the end of 2006, and moved his column to the International Herald Tribune, but the content remains the same. In fact, the following comment placed by Philip Rowell of Bangkok, Thailand, on the online version of Brûlé's latest IHT column (see Tyler Brûlé on the unthinkable: A seamless flight) sums up the Manitoban's stock in trade rather well:
I have nothing but the utmost respect for Brule. Anyone who can convince two major global newspapers (first the FT, now the IHT) to pay him for writing exactly the same article week in week out for years on end has to be a genius.
Airports, Heathrow terrible, Japan good, three countries in four days, first class, my beloved assistant, a couple of glasses of champagne then sleep until landing, list of suitable luggage suppliers... Brule, please, we get it already. We know you spend your life on airplanes, and we're really very impressed - honestly. But how about trying to write about something you experience after you land, rather than regaling us with mind-numbingly tedious tales of security clearances and check-ins. We have all flown before, you know.
Stop it. Please.
The problem for Brûlé is that he evolved from a young, striving journalist into an ambitious, successful editor, but is now rapidly becoming a middle-aged business man. Consequently, his personal routine has become just that — a routine that's unfit for public consumption more than once.
PS — You can read Robert Fulford's comments on the new magazine in All style, with just a dash of substance.
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This week's From Our Own Correspondent included a report on longevity in the Caribbean island of Dominica. Apparently, there are 3 times as many people over 100 years old as there are in most developed countries. The Dominica report begins at 16:43 into t
