BBC News - Why do we still buy calendars?

BBC News - Why do we still buy calendars?

The continued level of interest in this most analogue of devices is all the more remarkable given that it has, at least in theory, been superseded by technology. Now smartphones come equipped with personal diary planners and online calendars are available to all.
But wander through any shopping centre and it quickly becomes apparent that the traditional version remains popular.
...The genre continues to evolve. Since the ladies of Rylstone Women's Institute posed naked to raise money for leukaemia research - a venture immortalised in the 2003 film Calendar Girls - the charity sector has witnessed an explosion of similar nude collaborations.

Well, thanks for mentioning it.

Let's see here. We could get a smallish flat screen dedicated monitor and mount it on the kitchen wall near the refrigerator (I'm not brave enough to try to hang it on the fridge door). Define it as a secondary display to the nearest computer and show a browser window of Google Calendar. Update it with a nearby wireless keyboard. Download your favorite images from the Hubble and use them as wallpaper. The technology is up to it.

But is that really more efficient than a whiteboard and dry-erase marker? Or, if you're on a budget, a paper calendar and a 39 cent pen?

To a man with a hammer, the world looks like a nail. I love my computer, but I still have a calendar next to the back door.

Bare(ly) Fishing

Fisherman’s friends come together for naked charity calendar - Hunts PostA GROUP of fishermen friends have braved chilly waters, strange looks and plenty of ‘tackle’ and ‘rod’ innuendoes to strip off for a Huntingdon charity.
The group of nine anglers dispensed of their waterproofs and wellies, but kept their fishing lines close at hand for the ‘Calendar Girls’-inspired naked calendar in aid of Huntingdon MS Therapy Centre and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

I'm seeing no way to purchase the calendar other than in person at the MS Therapy Centre.

Irish Farmers

Back by popular demand Ireland’s naked Farmers Calendar | IrishCentralOnce again Irish farmers have shed their clothes in the name of charity and good fun for the Irish Farmers 2012 Calendar, 100% Beef. Already the calendar is selling like hot-cakes (or dare I say beef-cakes) in the UK and Germany.
The Irish organized calendar, now in its second year, continues to give a quarter of its profits to Bothar. This Irish charity has been sending livestock to the developing world since 1991.

Buy it here for €10 plus shipping.

The Irish Central reader response raises a valid point: Nobody's naked in this calendar. The word "naked" (and its near-synonym "nude") have been badly corrupted and devalued in common discourse. The article repeatedly mentions "naked Irish farmers" when they are nothing of the kind: They are shirtless only, and seeing as they're all men that shouldn't be a big deal. (The calendar itself doesn't use either word.)

I called this blog "Naked Charity" as a shorthand, but relatively few of these calendars actually feature unambiguously naked people. Am I contributing to the decay?

University of Portsmouth

Nude charity calender faces the axe after unedited pictures were posted online | Mail Online
Pictures of students from the University of Portsmouth's calendar have ended up on porn websites.
Photographs have also been posted on forums where they have been viewed and commented on thousands of times.
The pictures which went into the calendar were edited to preserve the girls' modesty, but the ones uploaded online were unedited.

I'm a little concerned that the Daily Mail doesn't know how to spell "calendar", but that's a minor issue here.

So, how did "unedited" pictures get out in the first place? The internet doesn't creep into your computer and suck things out of it.

Makers of the calendar believe a university student may be responsible for uploading the photos.

Gee, ya think? That's some mighty fine police work there, Lou.

The calendars have raised quite a bit of money over the years. I'm sorry to see the girls, the school, and the charity suffer for their good intentions.

See also University of Portsmouth Student Union.

See also Portsmouth News, Telegraph, Metro, TNT Magazine.