Author Archive
Nothing new under the sun…
Apparently Scarlett Johansson is playing ‘Black Widow’ in the movie sequel to Iron Man. Cool. Of course, she’s very Emma Peel from The Avengers isn’t she? All good clean fun.
Slave to ‘consistency’
One of my favourite ‘let me off the hook’ quotes expressing wisdom is this: Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) ‘Song of Myself’ — Walt Whitman, US poet (1819 – 1892) I have at various times, to my cost, roasted myself on a bed of […]
Google grows some
“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn” A new approach to China 1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from […]
Cosmos
I post this as a response to some of the wonderful imagery of the cosmos contained in Chowbok’s post on death: Beyond the planets — the blackness is not an empty void — but a sea of trillions and trillions of cosmic particles bouncing and playing their special dance across the expanse of time. Lit […]
How bloody awful
Bob Drogin in the LA Times wrote a ghastly true crime story about the [alleged] murder of a scientist who suffered from panic attacks and paranoia. Whatever the opposite of edifying is, this story is that. Nasty. It’s bad to know such cold people walk the streets. Read it here, if you want. (You have […]
This week’s panic
Reading an article in the latest Audi magazine in a chocolate factory cafe yesterday, I came across a quote from Audi chairman Rupert Stadler talking about his time working for the firm as head of Finance & HR in Spain: “And that was during the crisis of the 90s.” Reading it, I wasn’t sure exactly […]
W. Eugene Smith
The legacy of W. Eugene Smith… W. Eugene Smith learned the hard way that photography could be too easy, a matter of making expert images of interesting subjects. He set himself to learn the truth – about himself as well as his subjects. In the process, he produced a series of photographic essays, for LIFE […]
‘Bounced around like dragonflies’ – Internet addiction & Writing
One of my heroes, Garrison Keillor had some more good and insightful things to say about writing, including the benefits of solitude and the malison of the ‘always-connected’ data-overloaded life: The Internet and Google have their usefulness, God knows. I mean, how would we live without them? But you know, for young people with tremendously […]
Rising ape or fallen angel? – Terry Pratchett on religion
A nice answer to a straight question about his belief in god(s)… ‘I’d rather be a rising ape than a fallen angel’ Watch the 8 minute video at guardian.co.uk
free?
Quite a good interview with Andrew The-internet-is-making-us-dumber-and-less-informed Keen: Andrew Keen talking to Bryan Crump Radio NZ National (mp3 20 mins) Some of the best lines: “It’s turning the knowledge business into a church” and “I don’t think a knowledge worker should be altruistic … shouldn’t give away their labour for free”…. as well as his […]
Good move: recognize inevitability
On a hiding to nothing Sometimes a party to a lawsuit has to recognize they’re holding a losing hand, and put an end to the dispute. Certainly, in my experience, it can take a while for reality to sink in to your opponent’s cranium. A long dispute means both parties are wrong, said Voltaire, which […]
Free Trial Scam!
A friend of mine got caught in this ‘free trial’ scam. Never thought I would EVER get scammed online….but DID! RealFreeSamples – a link on Facebook got me good..have cancelled my credit card but am out by $450..so annoyed at myself…. That means the fine print says they’ll keep sending you shipments until you jump […]
The French Resistance and Google
I must say I like the absence of inevitability the French demonstrate towards the mega-Google. Their ‘keep your hands off our culture’ approach, (despite Euro Disney and the laughable but well-patronised McDonalds and Disney store on the Champs Elysees) is refreshing and worthwhile. The hopeless shrug of the shoulders so many meet Google’s apparent dominance […]
Cor!
Anyone who ever felt intimidated by a border crossing can be thankful they didn’t get this treatment. Lily Sussman’s story interests me for two reasons beyond the Midnight Express/travel horror story aspects. 1) Wow! The hard drive still works! 2) Look at the discussion on Lily Sussman’s blog about the Israel/Occupied Palestine issue. It gets […]
A novel explanation of copyright and IP
© kiwiright from nu4mz on Vimeo. Worth watching and mostly good. But a specious argument (starts about 1.50) reveals a mindset: Do you know if you walk around town with a camera you’d be filming a lot of trademarked signs, You might have to get a permit for that. You might have to pay a […]
