A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

 

 

Thought for the Week

“This is not the first defect of its kind and it certainly won’t be the last, but it is one of the more serious faults we’ve seen in recent internet history.” James Lyne, global head of research at web security giant Sophos, talking to BBC News about the recent revelations that one of the most widely used encryption standards- as employed by sites such as PayPal and Gmail- is susceptible to the ‘Heartbleed’ bug, meaning hackers could have access to a worrying amount of personal information. 

Weekly High

Although we are a bit late picking up on it this one is still worth pointing out. As China continues to try and tackle its pollution problem, marketers looking to promote tourism in the Laojunshan Mountain National Park region took to the streets of Zhengzhou, a city with one of the worst records for air quality in the country, and gave out bags of fresh air. Apparently the recipients were delighted.

Weekly Low

U.S. baseball pros Atlanta Braves decided to have a firework display to mark their first home game of the season against New York Mets. This isn’t the first time a team has thought to do so, but it’s the first time we’ve heard of the iconic national flag being set on fire by rogue pyrotechnics, which, in the Land of the Free, is something of a cardinal sin.

Stories to keep an eye on

*Nerves are wrangling over whatever is happening on the border between Ukraine and Russia following NATO images that reveal a sizeable build up of Russian forces.

*According to the findings of two separate developers, complaints about the iPhone’s battery life can be directly linked to the Facebook app’s constant location-based updates and requests for data.

*Twitter has unveiled its re-designed timeline, which will be available immediately to new users and rolled out to established account holders. As everyone has already picked up on, it looks a lot like Facebook. A lot of people aren’t happy.

Just in case you missed it…

Facebook could be set to introduce a small blue dinosaur icon, which will pop up when users are about to post publicly, politely reminding them to check their privacy settings. Read The Drum’s take on it here. 
If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!