Translators never have an easy task, but Orange’s new tagline translators surely must have argued with the phone company’s powers-that-be over the final UK version of the French line, “”La vie change avec Orange”. Telecom TV has a delightful time rubbing Orange’s nose in the dirt over this one, and I’m with Telecom TV. How about “Orange: time for a change”? Of course, someone might get the wrong message. That’s the trouble with translations.

I can’t count the number of people from other countries (outside the US) who have told me they just don’t understand the US bankruptcy system. I occasionally make a stab at explaining it, saying that the idea behind Chapter 11 is that you don’t kill off the business, but help it get back on its feet. Trying to explain why this isn’t unfair to people owed money by the company that is in difficulty is something I do less well. I still get riled when I think about the $650 I was owed by Robert Maxell, once Rupert Murdoch’s rival, when Maxwell fell overboard at sea. The lawyers hired to sort out his unhealthy financial situation wrote to me at least twice a year for five or more years to tell me I was unlikely to get any money, but they were trying. No comment.

So here is a living, breathing example of how the system works. The Minneapolis Star & Tribune, one of the top 20 US newspapers for decades, filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2008. It was suffering, like everyone else in the media industry, from weaker business, fading advertising revenue and problems specific to its own financial history. The Star (actually known locally as the Strib) will soon rise, it seems. Read all about it!

Gizmodo shows us Amnesty International’s ad against domestic abuse and it’s a real eye opener, so to speak – but as they point out, a one-off ad campaign in Hamburg, Germany has its limits.