Diane Colcord from Tillamook, Oregon, dropped me an email to say thanks for the link to watch the ad on the Honda site. She also sent me this article from 'The Oregonian', as Honda's Advertising Agency, Wieden+Kennedy, is based in Portland Oregon. One of the things it tells us is how lucky we are in the UK to see this. I was certain it would "Go Global" but it seems, maybe not. The following is condensed from an article by JEFF MANNING:

Devotees of Mousetrap know that the primary attraction of the children's board game was watching to see whether the contraption of gears, chutes and ramps would actually work and send the plastic trap descending over your toy mouse.

Imagine a supercharged Mousetrap designed by a team of engineers, sculptors and art directors on a $1 million budget, and you get the idea behind Wieden+Kennedy's new ad for Honda. The spot, dubbed "Cog," was introduced to raves earlier this month in the United Kingdom. "Cog" features 85 car parts linked in a beautifully synchronized dance that ends in the introduction of Honda's new Accord. No car careening along a mountain highway. No classic rock. No truck plowing through a bog in ultra-slow motion. Just a bunch of ball bearings, valve stems, flywheels and mufflers quietly smacking into one another in a chain reaction that would make Rube Goldberg smile.

Dan Wieden is also smiling . . . The "Cog" spot grew out of Wieden's efforts to portray Honda's engineering prowess. Although Honda is among the leading brands in the industry in the United States, it has fought an image problem in England, where its products are viewed as inferior to the elite European brands.

"We used the term 'warm engineering' to describe the feeling that we wanted to get across with the new Accord," said Kim Papworth, creative director of Wieden's London office. "It's a term to describe the very precise and intricate way of Honda engineering but in the typically human, plain-speaking way that is Honda's tone of voice." It took five months of production and design work before "Cog" was ready to shoot. Then the real work began. In the course of a week in a Paris studio, crews agonized through 605 takes. Every time, something went wrong -- a rolling gear missed its mark, the oil can poured too much or too little oil, the disembodied windshield wipers did not come to life with a squirt of liquid as planned. Finally, on the 606th take, the amazing assembly worked.

Wieden+Kennedy staffers swear that no trick photography was used and that the final successful run-through was filmed in real time. The only voice in the ad is from Garrison Keillor, who intones at the end, "Isn't it nice when things just ... work?"

Truly.

Honda was so taken with the finished product it paid for a two-minute debut showing of the ad during the Brazilian Grand Prix. The British press love the ad. " 'Cog' looks certain to become an advertising legend," wrote a reporter for the Telegraph of London. For now anyway, the only way for U.S. audiences to see the ad is on the Internet. Honda has a different ad agency in the United States, and the chance of the company showing "Cog" remains uncertain.

Jeff Manning can be contacted on: 503-294-7606 or jmanning@news.oregonian.com. I hope the Orgeonian will forgive my copying some of Jeff's article here, and thanks for sending it, Diane.

29 April - ABC News Australia reports that Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf (M.S.S.) has been at his aunt's house in Baghdad for the past four days, and has asked US troops to arrest him so he can be "protected". Adel Murad, of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, says US troops have refused because he is not on their "most wanted" deck of playing cards. Al-Arabiya satellite channel has allegedly offered M.S.S. a new job as a commentator and analyst. "We want to benefit from the experience of Mr Sahaf and his analysis of the current situation and the future of Iraq," said the station, without giving details of the job package. This is copied from www.We Love The Iraqi Information Minister.com this morning. Incidentally, there's a rumour that the Irish airline Ryanair is to release a new ad starring M.S.S., angering rival airline Easyjet. Allegedly, an Easyjet spokeman called the ad "insensitive"!

New: See this BBC News Item!

I had an email from my Web Host saying I had exceeded my allotted 50mb disk space for this site. There's just so many good things for you people on here now! Reluctantly, I removed the Aibo video ** - it was about 8mb - so if you want it, drop me an email and I'll put in on another server somewhere for the time being. The reason the disk space just tipped 'over the top' was the size of the log file! This many visitors brings with it, it's own problems I have discovered.

I have also removed the Blog Hot or Not rating from the site because it's been very slow to load recently (if at all) and it was holding up the whole site, which should be really quick now. I tried the main website and it was giving 404 errors, so maybe that particular service has stopped. "Hot or Not" seems to be going strong though. Whilst at it, I also very reluctantly removed the comments facility from beneath each Blog entry. It was a recent addition, but because of my "Antidote to Pictures of People Fighting" picture series to do with the Iraq war, (see the last Archive page) I had a couple of four-letter comments in there. I am not prepared to have them there for even a short time (until I am notified of a new entry and delete it) so sorry, but a couple of stupid people sounding off about George Bush have removed that facility from all you good people who wouldn't do such things. If you do have comments, please do email me and I'll cheerfully post them in the main Blog for all to see!

(Added December 2003) I notice people are still coming here in large numbers looking for the Aibo Video, so I've uploaded it to another site I own. The link above now works again. Enjoy it!

Not, not my life, but more people daily are saying this. Not since the PalmPilot debuted in 1996 has a new electronic contraption sparked a cultlike following and so many zealous proselytizers. Type the phrase "TiVo changed my life" into Google, and you will summon an afternoon's worth of reading (including the observation that there are "as many TiVo-praise Web sites out there as there are hairs on Robin Williams"). I've mentioned TiVo several times before in the Blog as being something I want! Michael Powell, the chairman of the USA Federal Communications Commission, once called TiVo "God's machine." TiVo has around 700,000 subscribers — a tiny fraction of American television viewers, 70 percent of whom have never even heard of TiVo, according to Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. But, Mr. Bernoff said, TiVo's fans are a vocal minority. "A cult implies a small group of enthusiasts and a large number of people who don't know what it is," he said. "That's exactly what we have here." For those who have not yet run into one of the cult followers, think about this, the company hasn't advertised since the year 2000, which is interesting to me, being a Marketer! Some of the above comes from an article in the New York Times. Click Here to read it all.

Not maybe what the headline sounds like. Anarchy Online is an web-based role playing game. Joey Manley's Web Show Guide rates it highly. Not because of the game however, but for the very well done 3D-rendered movie series produced by game developer Funcom to promote this online multiplayer role-playing game. There are four (quite long by web show standards) episodes so far, and each episode consists of from three to five separate downloadable movies. I haven't been tempted to join in the game yet, that is not really my thing, but I have enjoyed watching the movies. You don't have to be an Anarchy Online player, or a gamer at all, to watch. But if like me, you've got the scifi/fantasy bug, you should maybe give them a try. The movies are sent by FTP so you'll need an FTP client set up. Broadband would help.

Sorry about this, but I'm just going to have to mention that this site had over eleven hundred visitors last week. That's a record. I know I have a certain number of regular readers, but it's amazing what the odd combination of the new Honda TV commercial and the Iraqi Information Minister can do to one's ratings!

I never put things on this site with a view to deliberately increasing the hits. Rather, the number of visits shows that some people at least, are interested in the same things as me. Hopefully, all those people who came here from a search engine, will have found a pointer to what interested them. The only one who won't have, is whomever arrived looking for information on the Spiders to be found in Kuwait. I can understand why that search ended up here, because I have mentioned Kuwait (in the Antodites to Pictures of People Fighting) and "spiders" in the visiting Web Spider list. My apologies to you, anyway. Now, if I could only think of a way to make money from this . . . I know, here's a banner for a company I work with . . .

If this horrifies you, (and I can think of at least three regular readers who won't be pleased) I apologogise in advance. Here's a joke:

Q: How many Al-Sahaf's (Iraqi Information Minister) does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: "There is no need to change the lightbulb! It glows brilliantly still! - basking in the glorious power of the wholly intact and fully functional power stations! The room is not dark! There is no bruise on your knee from the furniture you didn't walk into - Allah be Praised!"
This comes from (seriously) www.We Love The Iraqi Information Minister.com (without spaces). It's apparently getting 500,000 hits a day, so it's not all me! One of the dozens of quotes on the site reads, "It has been rumored that we have fired Scud missiles into Kuwait. I am here now to tell you, we do not have any Scud missiles - and I don't know why they were fired into Kuwait." Go have a look and yes, you can even buy the T-Shirt - well actually the barbecue apron!

I've found out more about the Honda ad. It's called "Honda Cog". It was directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet at Partizan Midi Minuit. The 2 minute spot first broke on April 6th. It's first showing was for the entire ad break, during the coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix. (Giving away the "plot" now) the commercial is a based around a single cog that sets off a chain reaction across a selection of new Honda Accord components. On the set in Paris, director Bardou-Jacquet and his production team worked for 5 months on the pre-production stages of the commercial! The aim was to achieve everything in camera. Here are the details: Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Production Company: Partizan Midi Minuit, Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Agency Producer: Rob Steiner, Agency Creatives: Matt Gooden & Ben Walker, Post Production: The Mill, Producer: Fi Kilroe, Flame: Barnsley, Flame Assistant: Dave Birkill. So now you know. :-) You can also view the commercial on Beam TV's Site.

Regular readers will know I talk about advertising and marketing from time to time. This is one of those times. Have you seen the new Honda Accord TV ad' yet? In my humble opinion, (being in Marketing and having had a passing connection with TV in the past) this rates as one of the great TV commercials of all time. I'm talking about ranking alongside the 1984 Apple Superbowl commercial!

I caught the second half of it last night, but saw this commercial in full for the first time this evening. I made a few enquiries, because I was certain some of it must have been computer generated but apparently, not. I am told it took 606 takes to get this to work! All this is hearsay at the moment, but I shall certainly investigate and bring you more of the story. I'm impressed because it's a brilliant concept that makes it's point with the 'indispensible' single 2 minute shot and the voice-over at the end superbly. The shoot is flawlessly executed, and if it really did consume all those takes (which I can believe) imagine it working on the 606th time and the cameraman saying "sorry the focus pull went wrong" or "the track was late here", etc. Imagine the concentration needed to do this over and over 606 times? Hats off to you guys. I can't believe screenings are being limited to the UK. Honda would be mad no to go global with this. So watch out for it.

In the meantime, you can watch it right now on the Honda Website, HERE. I had a look at the source code for the page (sorry Honda - but it's a compliment) and the actual Flash .swf file that runs the movie appears to be HERE. Try that link as well. If the second link does not run first time, try it after you've downloaded the whole page - with luck, the movie will run full-screen. Give it a go anyway, and let me know it if works for you. This will take a while to download on a 56k line, but it's worth it I reckon. Go and make a coffee, or dinner, or something, and come back later. I deliberately haven't described what happens in the ad', because if you haven't seen it, you need to see it unaware of what happens.

OK. Rave over. Does something give you the impression I am very impressed? If this ad' does not pick up every award going, then, as one of my favourite authors once put it, "TANJ!" (There Ain't No Justice.)

On a website this morning, I saw a banner containing details of Great USA Flags.com. I don't often click on banners, in fact I'd say never. But today I made an exception. For want of a better word, this US site sells "Patriotism". For example, they have a "Patriot Pack", that for $59.95 contains the following:

• Extra Large 4'x6' Polyster American Flag
• Hand Held Extra Large All-Weather USA Flag
• USA Car/Truck Window Flag
• USA Flag Extra Large Vinyl Decal (12" x18")
• 2 American Flag Window Clings
• USA Flag Brass Key Tag
• USA Flag Mug
• Remembrance & Support Pin
• USA Flag Antenna Ball

We've all seen the flags on American homes and cars, and the lapel badges and pins in the news reports and I guess this is one of the places they come from. On an impluse, I had a quick look to see if there was a UK equivalent. I found quite a few flag manufacturers, but none were promoting anything like a "Patriot Pack". Do we not care as much in the UK? Or did I not find it? Or is this simply an opportunity nobody in the UK has latched onto yet? Does anyone out there know of a similar UK site? If you have I'd like to know what the address is - not because I necessarily want to buy a UK "Patriot Pack", but because I'd like to think I could if I wanted to!

Michael Clarke takes pictures of Tokyo. He's a Canadian living in the city and as he says, the locals think he's a tourist and the Japanese are a non-confonrtational people anyway. The result is he gets great pictures and posts them almost every day on his website. There's a link in the left hand column, do have a look occasionally. Today though, he's come up with a gem. Have a look. Everything's come together to make an interesting study of a woman on a cell phone. Is that all? Look at the textures, the colours, the lighting on the woman's face, the concentration of the subject that makes her completely unaware of the camera. Do follow the Hunkabutta link every so often.

For the first time in ages last night, I succumbed to a computer game. Written in Shockwave and available for download, free, on the Shockwave site, it's quite fun - depending on what sort of games you enjoy. This is an Adventure style game with puzzles, although there's nothing too taxing. It took me about an hour or so to complete. I "won" with a final score of 90.7%. let me know if you do better! Click the picture to be transported.

It's interesting to note how many people are coming to this website looking for high definition pictures of Iraq. I've updated last week's statistics in the left hand column and it shows we had well over 700 unique visitors last week. The majority of these were looking for picures, so I can do no better than reiterate you should look at The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. Lots of people have moved on from here to there, so hopefully they found what they were looking for.

Let's also hope the civilian police being reformed today in Baghdad will help to curb the Iraqi people's own destruction of their capital city and some sort of normality will return soon for these people. We're still watching for Raed to return of course. I'm surprised, given the amount of internatonal interest in him and the impartial way he wrote, that the Americans have not sought him out and got him to a military internet connection.

Well . . . it will be a surprise for anyone who has been here before! Funnily enough, about six weeks after redesigning this site, I said I wanted to do it again. Now I have, and if you've seen the previous version this will come as something of a shock. The problem was, as it became more complex, the previous version was becoming time consuming to download and on the Web, download time is the enemy! So here's the new version completed over the last two evenings. It's actually close to a layout I did for someone else. A friend wanted a revamp of his site, so I produced a couple of very different ideas. He liked the other one. I thought this one, with it 'cutesy' icons, was quite fun and efficient to download, so when it became time to do this site again, I resurrected the idea. The original is still on the other pages, so let me know which you like - I can always put the old one back. Otherwise I've given myself another job of course!

Events have rather overtaken me, so I'll cease this series of pictures at this point. You must have seen the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down dozens of times, so I won't repeat it here. Instead, I'll stick with my theme and post just one more picture of a happy Iraqi face. I had several lined up, but this is my favourite. So, here's the final picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. Children greet a military team from 16 Air Assault Brigade distributing humanitarian aid. Click the picture for a screen size version, or the link above for lots more, including the high-definition versions.

Judging by the number of people who have clicked the links to see more and the search phrases that have been finding this site recently, it seems you have been enjoying these pictures. The British Ministry of Defence will keep publishing them of course, so I'd encourage you to save the address in your favourites and visit their site every so often. They also have high definition maps of Iraq and so on.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. This patrol was welcomed by local children in Zubayr. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden-away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the picture for a screen size version, or the link above for lots more, including the high-definition versions. Judging by the number of people who have clicked the links to see more and the search phrases that have been finding this site recently, it seems you like these pictures, so I will continue to post one a day, for the time being at least. Go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

And in the spirit of these pictures, there's a story today as well. I read it on Lani Schwalbe's Twenty Minutes, but she checked it with The Washington Post, so it could well be true. There's a story that's been making the rounds about an Iraqi lawyer whose wife worked at a hospital in Naseriah. He saw American POW Jessica Lynch lying prisoner in the hospital, being slapped by an Iraqi soldier. He sneaked into the hospital at night, told her not to worry, that he would help her. He then walked six miles across the desert to where he'd heard there were Marines. He drew maps for them. When they had questions he couldn't answer, he walked the six miles back to the hospital, got the information, and then walked again, through the desert, another six miles to get to the Marines. Then he returned to Naseriah to be with his wife. He walked twenty four miles through the desert, risking his life with Marines who might not know he was on their side, and his own people who would kill him on the spot if they knew what he was doing, to save an "enemy" he didn't even know.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. Medical Personnel also provide health checks - especially for children. Click the picture for a screen size version, or the link above for more.

It seems you like these pictures, judging by the number of people who have clicked the links to see more, so I will continue to post one a day, for the time being at least. Go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. Medical supplies hoarded at a Ba'ath Party headquarters, and captured during a raid by British troops, are handed over to a civilian health centre. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden-away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the pic for a screen size version, or the link above for more.

I will continue to post one a day, for the time being at least. If you like them, drop me a note from the feedback page, or just go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. A pod of dolphins passes HSM Ocean in the Gulf. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden-away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the pic for a screen size version, or the link above for more.

I will continue to try and post one a day for a while. If you like them, drop me a note from the feedback page, or just go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. A British RAF Gunner shares his sweets with an Iraqi child. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden-away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the pic for a screen size version, or the link above for more.

I will continue to post one a day for a while. If you like them, drop me a note from the feedback page, or just go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. Children demonstrate their friendliness to a Royal Marine foot patrol from 40 Commando at Umm Qasr. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden-away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the pic for a screen size version, or the link above for more.

I will continue to try and post one a day for a while. If you like them, drop me a note from the feedback page, or just go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

Here's today's picture from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. Brigadier Jim Dutton of 3 Commando Brigade talks with a young Iraqi on a patrol in Umm Qasr. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden-away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the pic for a screen size version, or the link above for more.

I will continue to try and post one a day for a while. If you like them, drop me a note from the feedback page, or just go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

Incidentally, it's now ten days since we've heard from Raed but with the bombing of telephone exchanges we've been seeing, I doubt if restoring the internet in Baghdad is Iraqui priority number one.

In the spirit of the picture below, here's another of today's pictures from The British Ministry of Defence Picture Gallery. It features a Fijian member of 1st Battalion, The Black Watch with some of the children of Al Zubayr. These are superb pictures and deserve a wider audience than they'll get on this hidden away British Ministry of Defence website. Click the pic for a screen-size version or the link above for more.

I may try and post one a day for a while. If you like them, drop me a note from the feedback page, or just go and have a look at the collection for yourself.

I doubt you'll see thus in the newspapers on on TV (I haven't) partly for the reasons below, and also because it's not about people fighting. I happened across this, this morning, whilst looking for eGovernment information for work.

The Ministry of Defence say that a 6-month old Iraqi baby, Mareyam Ailan, suffering from burns sustained in a domestic house fire, has been flown to the UK to receive hospital treatment. Her injuries, which are unrelated to the conflict, required urgent life saving treatment which could not be provided locally. A flight was leaving to bring casualties back to the UK, and a decision was made to include Mareyam on the flight.

Mareyam and her parents were flown to Cyprus by the RAF and onto the UK arriving in Liverpool this morning. She was transferred to Alder Hey, Liverpool's children's hospital, where she will receive specialist medical care. No further details will be released at this time and the family will not be giving interviews.

Well, there at least is one good thing to come from the UK being in Iraq. Let's hope Mareyam recovers well.

I hadn't seen this MOD site before and it's quite interesting. You can find it here.

Check out the hi-res photographs, some of them are strangely beautiful, like this one of a British Chinook helicopter ferrying supplies ashore. Just click through the Photos menus. There are small, screen size and print-definition versions of each picture.

Incidentally, it's now seven days since we've heard from Raed!