Posts Tagged ‘authenticity’
ACT: ‘Zero backing. Zilch, nil, nothing at all.’
John Armstrong attended the ACT Party conference over the weekend, with “80 or so party members present” … introducing his wrap up piece in the NZ Herald this morning like this: Act kicked off its annual conference on Saturday having just been kicked in the teeth. Delegates woke up to the news that the previous […]
An obituary for Facts
Read and enjoy: Rex Huppke’s Facts, 360 B.C. – A.D. 2012 – an obituary. To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official […]
Bank sugar coats price-fixing penalty as ‘rebate’
‘Spin’ (bending reality), is not a phenomenon just confined to politics. At the risk of being accused of ‘looking a gift horse in the mouth’, here’s a fine example: Yesterday I saw this letter which looks like a kind gesture from the BNZ — telling ‘small business owners’ who are credit card merchants about the […]
What you see depends on where you stand
Some respectful discussion today here about open-mindedness and degrees of perception. And so, this — flicked into my tweetstream this afternoon — seems appropriate …
On narrow social focus and moral taste buds
A wonderful book review in the NY Times ‘Why Won’t They Listen?’ sheds some light on the ‘my tribe is better than yours’ bias we discuss here from time to time. Reviewing The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, William Saletan describes how we acquire preferences for social values (liberal v conservative) over time, based on […]
A dark, cynical, political thrill
I saw this film ‘The Ides of March’ with a pal on Friday night and it was brilliant. Dark, sinister, awful, and brilliant. What is it about politics that provokes acts of treachery and intrigue? Why does it so often descend into the arena of personal destruction? Plutarch records the intrigue surrounding Brutus’ assassination of […]
Fabrications, lies, errors – and ‘dramatic licence’
A huge embarrassment for ‘This American Life’ … RETRACTING “MR. DAISEY AND THE APPLE FACTORY” 16 March 2012 Ira [Glass, Executive Producer and Host of This American Life] writes: I have difficult news. We’ve learned that Mike Daisey’s story about Apple in China – which we broadcast in January – contained significant fabrications. We’re retracting […]
Why I’m leaving …
Here’s a sensational way to resign from your job … which became an instant internet meme. Followed (very quickly) by a wonderful spoof… There’s no saying how much Greg Smith’s resignation-in-the-round was influenced by the very serious ‘Why I left Google’ blog post by James Whittaker … who’s gone to work for Microsoft (!) Wow. […]
Allegations without credibility
I heard New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association boss Heath Mills describe the allegations of (un-named) Kiwi cricketers being involved in match-fixing as not credible “whatsoever”. “These are unsubstantiated claims from people of ill repute — known criminals…” Reminds me of some bloggers. -P
Self-awareness is a precious thing
In the spirit of writer Philip K Dick, here’s an examination of sentience … more self-aware than most bloggers? “I’m a sort of merchandise, is that right?” via Kara Swisher Allthingsd with thanks. Made me think.
Politicians will say ANYTHING
Spotted this tonight … The sight of Mitt Romney trying to out-Conservative the religious right’s darling Rick Santorum is breathtaking. Poll-driven fruitcakes. It’s like that here in NZ (and everywhere I guess) when people throw up clichés and then pillory and demonize their ‘opponents’ — rather than argue or debate issues with them. Here’s a clip […]
@NZHerald puts its anti-Peters bias in plain sight
Can there be any doubt that the NZ Herald is taking an anti-Winston Peters editorial line? Here’s today’s story (by the intrepid Claire Trevett) about a recent dinner — gasp! — involving the NZ First leader and Labour Party leader David Shearer. Look at the photo of Peters. Distinctly unflattering, isn’t it? It’s also not […]
NOT taking their own ‘advice’ … for better outcomes
Last year I read an article called How Doctors Die which I highly recommend you also read. In a nutshell, and as a generalization, Ken Murray MD finds that doctors faced with their own terminal disease seek none of the high level medical interventions they might carry out or recommend to their patients, but rather […]
Of goose and ganders. ACT on Campus referred to police for breaching the law
I was idly checking the 2011 election results on the Electorial Commission’s website tonight, to doublecheck my basis for recently referring to fringe political party ACT as the one-point-one percenters … they got 1.07% of the vote … and look: Referral to the Police 2 February 2012 The Electoral Commission has referred the following matter […]
