Author Archive
Overcome the past by FACING it
This article (below) from The Guardian‘s ‘Comment is free’ site reminded me of the wonderful, uplifting movie The Lives of Others which featured the late Ulrich Mühe in the role of a world-worn East German secret policeman whose job it was to bug a playwright’s apartment and report on the goings on. I won’t spoil […]
Honest opinion
A brief extract from Bevan Marten’s thesis ‘A FAIRLY GENUINE COMMENT ON HONEST OPINION IN NEW ZEALAND’ … (Victoria University) [PDF 400k] III UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES Common to all such jurisdictions is the major tension in the law of defamation between freedom of expression and the individual’s right to reputation. The defence of honest opinion holds […]
Harvesting the ‘wisdom of the crowd’
I know I knock Wikipedia a little bit … but it is inescapable, whether it is completely ‘trustworthy’ or not. I go there all the time — and reference it. (It’s also top-of-the-pops in search results.) I listened to this fascinating BBC documentary ‘Wikipedia at 10‘ when it first came out earlier this year, and again […]
Nice logo, nice sentiment
This design appeals to me. Simple. Unified. Consistent. Good. I like it. And here’s their associated tagline which I like too … although I probably read something else into ‘media freedom‘ given my background — more John Pilger/Amnesty International/WikiLeaks than TV shows over wifi, huh? – P
The sort of spruiker who gives spruikers a bad name
My hero Neil Jenman shares his experience with an Australian spruiker … Interesting about the tie-up between Steven Fagan, his book ‘Accidental Millionaire’ and Carly Crutchfield. Have a read: Nick and Wendy are a delightful young couple. In 2004, after advice from Fagan’s property group, they purchased an apartment in the western Sydney suburb of […]
PropertyTalk, public criticism and the public good
An interesting discussion has started about discussion forum PropertyTalk in the comments thread of my post about Linking to sources and the Sean Wood case study. Two of my favourite PropertyTalk (ex) posters poormastery and exnzpat kicked it off last night in response to comments from Perry … with some pretty strong opinions… PT moderator […]
Linking to sources — why it’s vital for credibility (Case study: property spruiker Sean Wood)
I read a really interesting article I read this morning on The Guardian’s Comment is free website: ‘A case of never letting the source spoil a good story’ subtitle: Perhaps it’s too embarrassing for some writers to risk linking to primary sources that readers can check for themselves Wherein Ben Goldacre concludes: But more than […]
Bernard Whimp – another suck of the saveloy. No shame?
You may recall the general disregard in which low-ball share buyer Bernard Whimp is held by members of the local business community. My post earlier this year Low-ball share buyer Bernard Whimp in action was provoked by his [arguably] misleading offer to buy shares in big companies at a significant, some say unconscionable discount to […]
Exasperated Shaun Stenning Twa.lk and Sni.pr customers speak out about his ‘refund’ offer
The contentious matter of the ‘refund movement’ targeting ‘get-rich-through-internet-marketing’ salesman Shaun Stenning … and revealing how he and his associates deal with dissatisfied clients … is unfolding. The by-all-reports persuasive Australian spruiker Shaun Stenning and various members of his family and colleagues (including ‘Mr X’ Dean Letfus and Shaun Stenning’s former Geekversity confederate Ian Naylor) […]
More reasons to research ‘investments’
Con artists taking advantage of Facebook … “With any startup company, early-stage investors that are putting their capital and their belief and trust into the company are exposing themselves to a great deal of loss,” said Walsh. “The workers who often get stock options should the company ever go public, are putting in their sweat […]
When they pick up an iPad, they visibly relax
Pretty insightful review and commentary on the ‘tablet computer’ scene from ANDY IHNATKO … 1) You can’t compete with Apple by trying to copy the iPad. Seriously, people: Apple’s been designing and building iPads for a few years now and they’ve gotten really, really good at it. They’re certainly way better at building iPads than […]
Anyone could be a critic …
In the spirit of my recent post ‘Why am I doing this? Muckraking?‘ is this very worthwhile and thoughtful piece in the NY Times from Frank Rich: Confessions of a Recovering Op-Ed Columnist … For me, anyway, the point of opinion writing is less to try to shape events, a presumptuous and foolhardy ambition at […]
