Salut!

Science and Salut!

An important day for Salut!, of which more in a minute, and an important evening for Roger Highfield, a valued former colleague who has just left The Daily Telegraph to become the editor of New Scientist.

As the Telegraph's science editor, Roger (seen above at his party at what seemed to be the bottom of a lift shaft at the Royal Institution HQ in Mayfair) was a class act.

He knew his stuff, and also how to make it accessible to a mainstream audience. If his explanations sometimes left news editors confused enough to disturb his Sundays for simplification of some story he'd left over for Monday's edition, that probably said more about the news editor's knowledge than anything else.

My own record as a student of science is a particularly sorry one. Once, my school inexplicably decided to mark the end-of-year General Science exam out of 45, then double each pupil's score and add on five to obtain a percentage.

With apologies to readers who may have heard this tale before, the school's bizarre marking strategy meant that no boy could get higher than 95 per cent. This was tough on the 45-out-of-45ers. It was no less tough, in the manner applied, on the one pupil who couldn't get beyond nought out of 45.

In with the old

Before Salut!, there was what I now call Old Salut!. Same blog, different home. The move from Blogspot to Typepad was intended as an upgrade, since I was persuaded by my friend and web guru Craig McGinty that it was worth paying a little for the enhanced presentation and additional features.

The idea was that everything posted at Old Salut!, from its inception in Oct 2006 until the changeover last year, would be transferred to this, the new site.

But not quite everything came with me, as I shall explain.

First let me remind you that Salut! mark two was born on April 16 2007, in my den in the south of France, located somewhere beneath what you see above. I had no way of knowing, incidentally, that a year to the day later, I'd be thousands of miles away, working on the first edition of a brand new newspaper, The National, in the Middle East.

This is how I announced the creation of the new site:

Welcome to Salut!'s new home.

I hope and believe that regular readers will quickly see the wisdom of this move. You will still find most, if not all, of what I do here back at its original location but this is where the site's development will be concentrated.

Your thoughts on the change are warmly invited. Until further notice, it is entirely up to you to post comments to either site, to both of them or to neither.

Making Salut!'s stats add up

No, Salut! has not just cheekily taken advantage of a break in the south of France and added 50,000 visitors to the Statcounter tally you see towards the foot of the lefthand sidebar.

The figure has simply been reset to reflect something closer to the correct number of visits paid to this site since it was launched in the wake of my departure from the Daily Telegraph in the autumn on 2006.

For some reason that I do not understand*the figure suddenly lost 50,000 to read 80,000+ whereas, behind the scenes at my Statcounter account, the total - when last I looked - stood at 132,460. Even that I know to be lower than the whole story since it took me a week or so to add the counter and traffic was particularly high in the first few days.

Back soon...........

* For "do not understand", read "did not understand". After a spot of spring cleaning, I see that the explanation is simple. The lower figure reflects only the traffic since I installed the nifty little country-by country chart. The truer figure is visible at last.

Salutland: new readers start here

A colleague who has lived in Moscow mentioned recently that the Russians officially regard any blogger who receives 1,000 or more hits a day as a media organisation.

Yesterday, Salut! - or rather the Salut! group of sites - got within a whisker of having to apply for our official status to whoever deals with such matters at the Kremlin. If you added the people who visited in today's small hours, the application would still be necessary.

100,000 not out

It is not an especially big deal, but it is nevertheless one we are a little bit proud of.

When last I looked, maybe a minute or two ago, Salut! was on 99,983 hits. The remaining 17 may take a few minutes longer but this is clearly the day it is going to happen, not least because while it may already be tonight in Abu Dhabi, it is still today where most of my readers find themselves.

Once again, I thank all who come here, as regular, casual or strays, for their interest. support and, rather less frequently, participation.

Please navigate the site for items that may be worth a look, whether in the archives of Salut! or at the various other locations to which the sidebar columns direct you. There is a lot of good reading out there on the net.

Blowing trumpets

Salut! and its offshots, Salut Live! and Salut! Sunderland, have no special rule book about the separation of editorial and advertising.

These site take a lot of time to maintain, and have no obvious source of proper income. They are, on the other hand very rewarding in other ways and I love the exchanges, many of them sharp or funny orilluminating, that my postings sometimes inspire.

A lot of you have said you like at least some of what you find here. Some, as I have admitted before, will arrive by chance, recoil in horror or yawn and scarper as fast as their cyber legs will carry them.

But if you are in the first category, please do not be offended if I occasionally draw your attention to small ways in which, absolutely according to your own choice, you can help me keep the sites going and keep looking as enthusiastically as now for interesting material to share.

The book and music links are obvious examples. If you come here, and then find out about something you might like to read or hear, please use the links down the right hand column to make such purchases from Amazon.

If you like a flutter, and are at Salut! Sunderland, look up the Boylesports link (the Irish bookmakers are, for unsuspecting folkies and francophiles, the new sponsors of Sunderland AFC.

And if it's a visit to Cornwall that appeals, visit the site of my old friend and former colleague Mike Fleet, whose B&B near Lostwithiel makes an appearance from today. I have not been there and will offer no personal recommendation save to say that Mike's a grand lad, despite being a Plymouth supporter, and is rather proud of his fry-ups.

Salutary tale

What is Salut!? What is it for?

Leaving aside the small matter of how someone who criticises Bernie Taupin's lyrics can then have the gall to follow an exclamation mark with a question mark, it occurs to me that a few words of welcome may be in order.

The reason is simple. After a slightly lonely spell - did I become unreadable, was I a casualty of the Telegraph's blog mania or have people been enjoying the sun, or coping with floods, too much to bother? - a glance at the statistics reveals a gratifying upturn in "hits".

Visits to the site include many from first-timers. Not all will have the time or inclination to look into the archives or check out the various links to learn more.

People arrive here by different routes. Some followed me from the Telegraph, because they liked my blog for that newspaper or were outraged by my sacking after nearly 30 years on the paper. That is not meant to be self-serving; my Telegraph blog attracted more than its fair share of brickbats, too, and criticism of my dismissal was, oddly enough, given much more of an airing at the Telegraph's own site than here.

Other visitors find me when looking on the internet for something else. I naturally hope some of these like what they see and come back for more, but many will naturally stamp their feet and resume their original search.

My friend and web guru Craig McGinty has rebuked me for the puns and levity in my headlines. Search engines have no sense of humour, he points out, and you are therefore losing out on potential readers/visitors.

I have taken some notice of that, while every so often insisting on my quota of self indulgence. The Elton John heading may be a case in point. If it had read "Sir Elton John victorious", more people might well have strayed my way. Sometimes, though, temptation just cannot be resisted.

Back to the opening questions. For answers, you must read on........

Nowt so queer as folk

Gradually, bits of Salut! are being privatised.

Cara Dillon at Cambridge Folk Festival
Picture: ice.in.the.cider

Sunderland has gone, of course, except when I cannot contain myself. Now it's the turn of folk music.

I have launched Salut! Live which will slowly, very slowly I suspect, build into another flourishing outpost of the Salut! empire - and spare readers of the main site being reminded of my obscure musical tastes.

You are naturally welcome over there. But it's a good place to avoid if you share the outlook of the burglars who stole all my valuables (that wouldn't have got them far), and even a rack of very uncool ties but left all the CDs.

Everyone at work understood the burglars.

Bienvenue a Salut! II

New home
Picture: sammo371

Welcome to Salut!'s new home.

I hope and believe that regular readers will quickly see the wisdom of this move. You will still find most, if not all, of what I do here back at its original location but this is where the site's development will be concentrated.

Your thoughts on the change are warmly invited. Until further notice, it is entirely up to you to post comments to either site, to both of them or to neither.