Author Archive
Good values, positively expressed
I briefly mentioned the challenges someone advocating for ‘better’ can face, with other ‘crabs in the bucket’ pulling them back as ‘sanctimonious and hypocritical’ (see Choking on one’s own sanctimony …) Here’s nice model from Bennetts Bookshops … pointing to their ‘Core Values‘. Bennetts exists to serve students and the campus communities of which they […]
What a strange coincidence [Updated]
Let’s just put a pin in this and come back to it later … Ms Boag, as well as all recipients of the email – including Ms Collins, ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and Mr Judge – have denied leaking the email. But Ms Collins told the Herald last night that the email from Ms […]
How do you spell phishing? A scam targeting Dropbox users
Update: Looks like it’s a legitimate email from Dropbox. I’m wrong (won’t be the last time): From TUAW.com Dropbox sends password change notification to some users In the meantime, some Dropbox users who have never changed their password or who have an easily crackable password will be getting email reminders to change their password. These […]
John Banks ‘absolutely’ supports campaign donation law reform. With a straight face!
Following up on Laughing all the way to the Banks …
National MP Jami-Lee Ross is just left of Hell
I don’t know local National MP Jami-Lee Ross’s position on gay marriage or the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill but I surely can’t be the first to notice that his taxpayer-funded electorate office shares a frontage (and what else???) with HELL … Hmmm. Not a good sign, d’ya think? 🙂 – P pic: Barfoot […]
Can we learn WITHOUT the experience?
A wee media brushfire was sparked by mother-of-one MP Maggie Barry’s silly interjection that MP Jacinda Ardern’s not having children somehow reduced her credibility when discussing laws aimed at supporting parents. The kerfuffle sparked a hilarious twitter trend #maggiebarrystandingorders which merrily mocked the dumb idea that MPs need direct experience of whatever it was they […]
Choking on one’s own sanctimony (I think Juana has ‘issues’ with me)
On harsh criticism “[A]t its worst, the show chokes on its own sanctimony,” Thus wrote a New York Times TV critic, Allesandra Stanley, responding (negatively) to The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin’s latest TV series. The opening line of her review, ‘So Sayeth the Anchorman‘ reads: It’s not enough to be right; everyone else must be wrong. That’s […]
Attention to detail and credit where it’s due
Apparently some TV commentators made fools of themselves in the eyes of the geek community by not recognizing Tim Berners-Lee (who invented the hypertext transfer protocol, and with it the basis for hypertext markup language, thus the world wide web) when he appeared in the London Olympics opening ceremony. I grinned in recognition (he’s still […]
Loving the Olympics
Like millions of others, I eagerly watched the Olympics opening ceremony and enjoyed the spectacle. I love the Olympics, and revel in the celebration of elite sports men and women — the best in the world in their field — pushing boundaries and ‘going for gold’. Doping scandals and steroids aside, the Olympic spirit encapsulates […]
The Simon Lusk stigma?
In defence of the National Party’s right to determine WHO holds positions of influence in the Party, and to exclude those it sees as ‘negative’… It seems the judgement by those in the National Party higher echelons that Hawkes Bay’s Simon Lusk is a Danger To The Party persists. I mentioned earlier that leaked National […]
Laughing all the way to the Banks
‘Insufficient evidence’ From one Banksy to another — Police have decided they won’t prosecute ACT Party leader and sole MP John Banks for [alleged] electoral law offences relating to him improperly declaring tens of thousands of dollars of campaign donations as ‘anonymous’ when he’d personally solicited those very donations … because they can’t prove he […]
London Olympics. Of course Banksy will contribute
Subversive graffiti artist, thought-provoker and social commentator Banksy appears to be, erm, making his mark … With this: … and this: So far. via Fast Company.
Margaret Mahy lived the dream. And then some.
What an inspiration she was. Making a living from her wits. And so much more. Haere ra Margaret Mahy. Thank you. – P
Ask Jay Rosen …
I mentioned recently in ‘Declaring where you’re coming from‘ how thought-provoking I find some of what NYU journalism prof Jay Rosen has to say about the present and unfolding future of news media journalism. Here, via Andrew Sullivan is a link to a work-in-progress: Ask Jay Rosen Anything It’s also worth following some of Andrew’s […]
When celebrity stalking becomes something else
Some of us of have heard of the email tracking service ReadNotify. Former National Party insider and ACC claimant-whistleblower-conversation recorder-lightning rod Bronwyn Pullar used it or something like it to ‘trace’ her emails to ACC (and who knows whom or where else?) and demonstrate, at least to her own satisfaction, that they’d been opened. Repeatedly. Here’s […]
