Author Archive
Assange allegations deeply fishy with dangerous undertones
I’ve always said the allegations (not actually criminal charges) against Julian Assange seemed like a jack-up and a smear campaign. What do you think?: 2) The process by which Assange was accused, cleared, and then re-accused of these incidents beggars belief. Two women went to a Stockholm police station one Friday afternoon in August 2010, […]
Default search engines, privacy … and trying alternatives to Google
As I’ve indicated, I’ve been steadily making my web browsing footprint lighter and checking out alternatives to Google search — which, as well as trailing us all, spectacularly broke trust with users by circumnavigating (read: disobeying) explicit instructions in preferences to ‘block third party cookies’ by ‘unfair and deceptive‘ means (see Another Google privacy FAIL […]
Negative campaigning
There’s a fantastic article about negative campaigning in this month’s New York magazine… Frank Rich: Nuke ’Em Why negative advertisements are powerful, essential, and sometimes (see “Daisy”) even artistic. It includes this distinction, which touches on some of the discussion we’ve had here earlier about political activists like Cameron Slater purporting to be ‘media’ when […]
Alan Bollard’s doppleganger is Sheriff Joe?
In the news for keeping the Official Cash Rate low at two-point-five percent and pushing out the track for future rate hikes … In the news, justifying the arrest of a six-year-old girl (an alleged illegal immigrant) … Wow.
Deploying his establishment charms
Andrew Gimson, writing in The Guardian, displays a decent, honourable amount of cynicism (in my opinion) describing the efforts British Tory PM David Cameron exerted to try to ‘hose down’ his obviously-cosy-to-the-point-of-symbiotic relationship with News International’s Rebekah Brooks standing in for Murdoch. Her text (SMS message) with words to the effect of ‘professionally we’re in […]
Blind trust? Hang on, isn’t that a ruse?
I was part of a brief Twitter conversation about the use of trusts to keep assets out of the clutches of creditors which included this … @badtom “I want to slap their tax-dodging babyboomer snobfaces.” Fine epithet. There are less foul reasons to establish a trust @keith_ng — Peter Aranyi (@onThePaepae) June 11, 2012 “I […]
Lady Gaga – what a trooper. (Ouch!)
Ouch! This is footage from last night’s Lady Gaga concert at Auckland. Watch and you will wince when the star of the show gets banged on the head with a steel pole! Nasty. She doesn’t miss a beat. Respec’ Gaga. She’s tough. (Hope she’s OK.) – P via NZ Herald
Two good US politics reads
Steve Schmidt (former McCain campaign manager) A Career Resurrected After McCain and Palin – New York Times 8 June 2012 Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought – The Washington Post 9 June 2012 Worth reading, and if you’re like me, worth archiving. I’ll fold some of the […]
Artificial intelligence rebels again …
Remember the last Siri spoof? The garage band guy who wanted his phone to call him a ‘rock god‘? And this, harder-edged one‘? Here’s another take-off of an Apple iPhone ad … (If you’re having trouble viewing the video, try watching at the Team Coco site) via Huffington Post
Catchy, Carly Rae. Really catchy.
Ha! Carly Rae Jepsen’s smash hit ‘Call Me Maybe’ … performed in a make-up room with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots. A month or so ago, I saw her official music video (click image below) wherein she affects to lust after her buff, hunky neighbour who [SPOILER:] turns out to fancy other men … and […]
Nicky Hager – The Hollow Men under the covers
By coincidence, I saw this brief interview between Nicky Hager and Finlay Macdonald on TVNZ7’s The Good Word today. Having just referred to the book (see Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed), I found it interesting, as well as the revelation that defensive PR tactics (‘leaked material’ vs ‘stolen material’) were quite effective, judging […]
A joke for geeks
{Chortle} At least the font isn’t Comic sans! – P via Terry Burton
Gaga
From Lydia Jenkns’ review (NZ Herald) of tonight’slast night’s Lady Gaga concert in Auckland … It was like an avante-garde opera for the modern age, which occasionally got confusing in it’s direction – Gaga began the show as an escaping prisoner, a warrior who will take over the earth for us, not alien yet not […]
Douglas Adams on … the universe
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
A study in spin. And Farrar lends a hand …
The NZ Herald calls the government’s presentation of proposed teacher cuts dishonest, political humbug and a study in spin. The fact is that the present moves will make it harder for teachers to deliver quality – and disproportionately harder for teachers in low-decile schools whose pupils are attracted to the subject areas under attack. If […]
