Author Archive
I hope this site was helpful
A search string someone used recently to find their way to ThePaepae.com: “How many times should I turn a blind eye to dodgy practices before I blow the whistle?” Great question! I hope you found something on this site that was helpful.
A rose by any other name
Well, that was quick. Rupert Murdoch’s campaign (what’s the opposite of ‘charm offensive’?) calling news aggregators ‘parasites’ and ‘thieves’ for their activities harvesting News websites’ internal organs material has had rather quick pay-off. We discussed the widely-reported/hyped ‘discussions’ News Corp was supposedly having with Microsoft Bing about ‘de-listing’ News Corp sites from Google (yeah right) […]
Congratulations, boys.
NZ rocket launches into space NZ Herald | Monday Nov 30, 2009 New Zealand’s first space rocket has launched this afternoon. The Atea-1 took off from its launch site at Great Mercury Island just before 3pm, after technical problems delayed this morning’s planned launch. The launch company, Rocket Lab Ltd, started up three years ago […]
Did they jump or were they pushed?
Heads must roll… Fallout from last week’s blinding flash of the obvious, which I described as classic ‘provider capture’. Kneecapper and straightshooter Dame Margaret Bazley found that the Legal Services Agency was being routinely rorted by lawyers and that lawyers were effectively asserting control over the legal aid system. Four resign over scathing legal aid […]
Unhappy BOTH ways?
German publishers criticize new Google Books deal Frankfurt – German book publishers – angered at being included in the Google Books Settlement without being consulted – voiced concern Sunday that they had now been excluded. The US search giant and US publishers announced Friday that the revolutionary plan to put every out-of-print book in the […]
Pun competition: Dubai’s financial woes
The puns are coming thick and fast in news reports and discussion about Dubai’s financial woes: “Dubai’s economic miracle built on foundations of sand.” “It was all a mirage.” “When the sh*t hits the sand” Any more?
Oh, this is funny…
Poor Simon Edhouse. If this isn’t viral yet, it will be. IMO. “If deal goes ahead there will be some good money in it for you.” — How many times have publishing and design professionals heard this line? “The project I am working on will be more successful than twitter within a year. When I […]
Blinding flash of the obvious
Well, who’da thunk it? Doh! A classic case of Chicago School of Economics ‘public choice theory’ or ‘provider capture’. Read the full story for tales of (shock, horror) crooked lawyers playing the system. (Never!) Breathless reportage from the NZ Herald: A damning review of legal aid says a sea change is needed to fix a […]
Why journalists shouldn’t be defending Fox News
I didn’t see this article at the time, but Dan Froomkin makes a good case. I dislike the hypocrisy of this ‘channel’ — the apparent willingness to distort, their naked manipulation of the ‘issues’ (far beyond a ‘slant’, Fox misleads … in short, like some people I know: a total lack of self-awareness Sure, Fox […]
The overblown role of religion in conflict
I heard a good radio interview today: Radio NZ’s Kathryn Ryan interviewing Rabbi David Rosen — a conversation which opened with the question whether the long running Israel/Palestine conflict is in any way a religious issue. In essence certainly not. It’s a territorial conflict … a conflict between two national liberation movements: The Jewish national […]
Microsoft helping ‘de-list’ news sites from Google?
Wow. Can this be the future? Microsoft paying News sites to BLOCK their content from Google? (… while, presumably, allowing it to show up on MS Bing)? OK, it’s still just a rumour. Here’s the CNN story and this quote from Lance Ulanoff in PC Mag‘s “online news ice age” what-are-they-thinking?’ reaction — which resonates […]
A discredited profession? — Financial advisors.
About time!
The backlash against the alarmingly greedy pigs on Wall St (“Bail Out People, Not Banks”) was long overdue. Self-inflicted wounds. We’re also familiar with the loathing of the corporate fat cats who showered excess on themselves even as the punctured airship foundered — and, more scandalously, even in receipt of taxpayer-funded bailouts. But now I […]
Nothing ‘new’ under the sun
Great minds think alike?
Plagiarism stigma …
‘Uni needs to address plagiarism’ | Stuff.co.nz: University dean of arts, Associate Professor Jan Crosthwaite, said while concerning, Ihimaera’s actions were not deliberate. Ihimaera said the offending passages amounted to less than half a per cent of the novel, but respected author CK Stead said that was beside the point. ‘It’s really like saying `well […]
