Author Archive
Very cool Macbeth school production poster
How cool is this?: Shepard Fairey’s Obama HOPE poster spawned a style, almost a language … the controversy over his deceit about source materials notwithstanding. – P Via my friend Dagmar.
Uncertainty vs certainty. Growing out of old beliefs.
“Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.” — attributed to Voltaire It can be useful and enlightening now and then to try seeing the world (or an issue, at least) from someone else’s point of view — a bit like taking a car for the proverbial “spin ’round the block to see how she handles”. Donald […]
Avoiding clichés like the plague
The NZ Listener‘s Toby Manhire makes an important announcement regarding the writer’s hazard: Occupational Overuse Syndrome (which I try to avoid — in fact, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot barge pole — despite being (ahem) cited in the article. 😉 @listenerlive Fair cop guv’nor.cc @toby_etc — Peter Aranyi (@onThePaepae) April 11, 2013 – […]
Proposed merger of the GCSB and the SIS?
‘OUTRAGE’ is an overused word, bit it fits in this instance. The GCSB has laws banning operations to engage in surveillance of NZ’ers or those who have been granted permanent residence. They have been doing so for years, as part of ‘agency assistance’ to the Security Intelligence Service. One of the ‘balancing’ questions I ask […]
Marilyn Monroe ‘selfie’
Hey, I know it’s faked. And based on this: But it still makes me smile. – P via the unfortunately-named macgasm.net reporting an equally unfortunate outage in Apple’s iMessage system, which I use every day: Update: Three hours later, iCloud is all back in working order. (Dedicated to S-R & L McQ.)
Our heroes are personal
Here are Judith Collins’ comments marking the death, at 87, of Margaret Thatcher. Good on her for laying out her thoughts and beliefs like this. Yes, some might see them as polarised and polarising. But they’re worth a read and convey an insight. Today, my facebook page will be devoted to Margaret Thatcher. I well […]
tl;dr … and an old joke from Cactus Kate
If you don’t already know, this pithy abbreviation tl;dr means ‘too long; didn’t read’. It’s sometimes used as a bitchy little put-down of someone else’s writing. Lawyer Timothy Tostais describes (PDF here) how the call to shorten (dumb down?) legal advice brings risks … TLDR may not be a new issue for lawyers in offering […]
Good on the NZ Herald for this
I appreciate the NZ Herald‘s use of an EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING flag on a court story with graphic details. Very sensible. Gives readers fair warning … and choice. Bravo. – P
Apropos the ‘reputation as a liar’ thing for John Key
More on the issue of the public perception (reputation) of the NZ prime minister and his veracity, here’s Otago University’s Bryce Edwards’ take on it, from TV3’s Frontline this morning: “As usual with these scandals, it’s not the so-called ‘crime’ in the first place… it’s the cover-up. It’s how the politician handles things, and he’s […]
John Key toughens up? “Forearmed is forewarned (sic), I’m going to change.”
I enjoy the rough and tumble of Radio LIVE’s duo Willie & JT. I’ve said before their ‘political hour’ is a highlight with its irreverent argy-bargy. Who can forget Willie Jackson’s rejoinder to Matthew Hooton “right wing fascist mongrels like you”? They’re an oasis. The show offers a refreshing, robust counterpoint to the earnest, often […]
John Key is getting a reputation as a liar
This, from Emmerson in the NZ Herald today is pretty sharp: The euphemisms — ‘economical with the truth’, ‘not forthcoming’, ‘selective’, ‘evasive’, ‘spin’, ‘telling porkies’ — continue to fly (like pigs?) but how long will it be before the media and others in the mainstream start to describe the New Zealand prime minister’s performance by shorter, sharper […]
Monochrome. I knew it!
From Andrew Sullivan … Yep. Makes perfect sense. – P You might be interested in reading this: Tribalism.
Top Posts – March 2013
Some of the most-viewed posts, in order, at ThePaepae.com in March … Calling our haters like Cameron Slater How do you spell phishing? A scam targeting Dropbox users Why has @TheNBR been so #slippery about their apology to Phil Kitchin and @DomPost? Judith Collins promotes her tame attack blogger Facebook as ‘digiphrenia’ or technology that […]
