Author Archive

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 [...]

Entering the ‘monolithic, exclusionary, activist liberal media’ lion’s den

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Good Morning Real America www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook “Oooh, [Sarah Palin is] ‘infiltrating’ the Today Show. I think it means [Palin] is cynically exploiting a manufactured notion of herself as a crusader [...]

Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ panorama

Following my own recent humble stumblings in time-lapse photography, here … Via Jason Kottke, this stitched together time-lapse panorama of the scene outside the window of Hitchcock’s classic film is, apparently, accurate. Wow. Follow the link on Jason’s site to the ‘how this was made’ page. Extraordinary. -P

For the record: Teapot tapes media audit clears ‘pond scum’

Herald on Sunday journo Jonathan Milne’s narrative of how the ‘cup of tea’ media stunt got recorded and the actions following is a must-read (if you care). See: Findings not quite Key’s cup of tea (NZ Herald) Read it. Seriously. (Ignore the 1 April dateline.) In the same paper, I noted that broadcaster Mike Hosking [...]

Richard Nixon’s resignation letter

I had not seen this image before. A little piece of political history. via Reg Braithwaite (It seems genuine.) See my quote of Hunter S Thompson’s Nixon obit in this post: Gonzo – P

Loyalty, engagement and criticism

Andrew Sullivan is a writer I respect. And that’s for a lot of reasons, whether I agree with everything he says or not. Elements of his ‘The Daily Dish‘ blog have been widely copied by the less imaginative* (Mental Health Break, Face of the Day, Quote of the Day, Tweet of the Week, blog ‘awards’) [...]

Obama skates

Ha! I know I pointed, affectionately, to our PM skiting about his recent ‘pull aside’ with President Obama (see: ‘Regular bloke’ John Key … skites). Look what some clever dick has put together. It must be true, I saw it on the interwebs… Obama skating: – P (via Tim Carmody)

Warnings of militancy. Not just an ultra-right thaang.

Yeah, I know these ‘White Pride’ types have been around for awhile, and will always be with us, but it still strikes me when I’m reminded about them, and sample their thinking … in today’s Sunday Star Times at the stuff.co.nz website… Joining Right Wing Resistance on the streets were also stalwarts to the white [...]

Obama’s birth certificate ‘lemonade’

Funny! From the Barack Obama campaign store Made in the USA. (I wonder if the mug is?) – P

Killer whale submarine

From Mashable, number 1 on their list of things you could buy if you won the lottery … Made me chuckle. 1. Personal Killer Whale Submarine Price: $100,000 What does it do?: If you won the lottery, why not jump into a 17-foot watercraft that resembles a killer whale? The submarine can travel underwater at [...]