View From the Editor: "Spam, spam, spam, spam!" - September 2006  

Readers, blogging is now so ‘early 2006’ dahlings. According to CBS Sportsline in the US, ‘glogging’ is now where it’s at. That’s glogging as in ‘live game commentary’ for those of you who aren’t up with the kids. If you have to pay for it, does that make it ‘plogging’? At ArkSports Towers, we fear that the world is going ‘og’ crazy and would like to propose an end to this madness now. The world, quite frankly, is getting clogged up with new terms. Darn, did we say clogged? That’s another one to add to the log. Argh, there we go again. We must try harder. More doggedly. (Or should that be dloggedly?)

Serbian promise

This month’s column was supposed to have been about sport and technology in Serbia, on account of S&T being at new trade show kid on the block, SportWin in Belgrade. Unfortunately we were unable to attend in the end due to a mishap on the flight booking front, but were delighted to get feedback from speaker and delegate Will Muirhead, CEO of Sportev, who said: “This event served as an excellent introduction to the Eastern European market, which is showing significant opportunities for sport. Belgrade itself has a well-supported team in the guise of Red Star, and there are seemingly numerous opportunities for ambitious sports organisations to assist in the development of everything from club specific television channels to advanced new media offerings. Set against the backdrop of millions of Eastern Europeans heading for employment in the major Western European capitals, investment in these areas could also evolve into international products fairly rapidly.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves, although we probably could have filled this column to the brim with rib-tickling Eastern European anecdotes and the like. Oh well, next time.

Spamtastic

Instead, this month S&T has decided to give you lucky readers our (brief) mumblings on a subject that naffs us off (if you’ll pardon the vernacular) big time. That subject is spam. Before we start ranting and potentially breaking a fingernail, S&T decided to muster all the research tools at our disposal at 7am on a rainy Tuesday morning and large it up on spam titbits at online encyclopedia Wikipedia. After all, if anyone was going to know where the term ‘spam’ came from and how it is defined, then Wikipedia would know. And if they didn’t, someone would have made it up anyway.
Unsurprisingly, the term ‘spam’ – referring to unsolicited e-mail messages in its purest sense - derives from the Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ comedy sketch ‘Spam’. This was the final sketch of the 25th show of Monty Python, and was first aired on 15 December, 1970 don't you know. The word ‘spam’ is uttered at least 132 times apparently. (S&T loves the thought of someone sitting there counting 'spam' utterances).
As well as referring to your hourly dose of PHAjjmRMACY, V1agr@ and C1@l1s special offers, spam can also (according to Wikipedia) be taken to mean a set of ‘humorous’ English acronyms (oxymoron?), including: Short/Stupid/Silly Particularly/Pointless/People's Annoying Messages, Self-Promotional Advertising Material, Self Propelled Automatic Mail, Send Post All Members and Sending Persistently Annoying Mail. (Excuse S&T for one moment while we stitch our sides back up).
Talking of humour, do messages count as unsolicited or spam when they come from people you know, but you didn't ask to receive them - such as forwarded 'jokes' - or even worse, baby photos? S&T usually receives several ‘funnies’ per day from less-grumpy people in our address book than ourselves, but usually deletes them without reading them. Particularly as they often arrive with a potentially virus-ridden attachment. Shudder. That's enough to prompt another dose of obsessive hand-washing. (Now where did we put our anti-MRSA skin-scrub?)
One 'missive amusent' did catch our eye recently though that we thought we would share with you lucky readers. The headline was ‘Button in horrific F1 accident’, and being in the sports industry, S&T felt compelled to open the jpeg attachment. We publish the picture here, both as a reminder that for every 99% of dross you might receive by e-mail, 1% may make you smile.
Anyway, that reminds us, we have to send S&T out now to all your inboxes, so we had better sign off. As you probably aren’t reading this unless you have subscribed, or ‘opted in’, then by definition, S&T can’t be spam. Can it? As this column has been akined to a blog however, perhaps S&T’s View from the Editor is ‘Splog’?
Right, on that ‘you read that new term here first note’, we’re off for an exciting surf around the Incredible Spam Museum. It’s true! We couldn’t make this stuff up. (Besides, it’s on Wikipedia). Adieu!

Rachael Church
Editor

Do you think spam is a nuisance or should it be left to linger on the shelves of second-rate supermarkets in peace? If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com. Or watch television instead. S&T is currently enjoying Midsomer Murders; you know, that programme where people die every 10 minutes with Bergerac in it.

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