Archive for October, 2014 | Monthly archive page
Taylor Swift NOT entertaining misogyny, even for laughs
I saw this on Graham Norton’s show last night and was impressed with Taylor Swift’s deft ‘warning’ to comedian John Cleese … to not engage in comic misogyny – not even as a joke. Good on her. Here’s a short clip of the show. Watch as Taylor Swift considers her response to Cleese’s sexist tease. […]
Blinding Flash of the Obvious re composing encrypted emails – Avoid auto-saved drafts
I recently reviewed Edward Snowden’s instructions for setting up and using PGP/encrypted email available on Vimeo: GPG for Journalists – Windows edition | Encryption for Journalists | Anonymous 2013. It’s a good tutorial. One of the points it makes about keeping your communications secure is a very important one: Don’t compose your message (pre-encryption) in […]
Read Nicky Hager’s search warrant
How we want it to be: How it sometimes is (click to read documents): Documents from New Zealand cops raided home of reporter working on Snowden documents by Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher (The Intercept). Worth reading to see how our government’s actions are perceived. – P
Why privacy matters: a TED talk by Glenn Greenwald
Comments about Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerburg — actions speak louder than their words. – P
Fran O’Sullivan calls for a wider inquiry into Dirty Politics allegations
Worth reading. Fran O’Sullivan says she told Cathy Odgers she was “damn angry about being drawn into a MH [Mark Hotchin] sting.” Well, well, well. I’ll put some comments up later. (It’s just too nice a Saturday morning to be blogging.) – P
The escape of exnzpat, Part 25
The Hive Mound of the Chora Lester’s Eidolon looked at the golem and said, “Down!” She pulled him into a crouching position in the deep snow, though why she did it she did not know. The boy stared at her and whistled softly. “What?” Lester asked annoyed, for she felt the boy’s attention hotly […]
Eric Clapton’s ‘Edge of Darkness’
Some Twitter buddies discussed a movie of Dirty Politics … … which reminded me of the spooky music Eric Clapton composed/performed for the tv series ‘Edge of Darkness’.
Let’s remember the real victims here
It looks like Nicky Hager is digging in for a fight with the police about access to the material they took from his house. An effort is being made to raise funds for his legal fighting fund. For details, and to donate, see: http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/NickyHager For reference, and because it’s interesting, here’s the audio (below) of […]
Dirty Politics author’s house raided. Ten hour search by five detectives. Police say he’s ‘a witness’.
This is a sobering development. Police raiding journalists who publish material which is politically embarrassing to the ruling party. Is this New Zealand? Not Russia or Zimbabwe? The timing of the raid (leave aside ‘after the election’) when Hager was away in Auckland, suggests to me he may have been under surveillance. At one level that […]
Dirty Politics: John Key confesses to secret relationship with campaign worker
In the aftermath of the National Party’s emphatic re-election to lead a coalition government in New Zealand, surprisingly little has been made of Party Leader John Key’s confession to a secret relationship. It was contact John Key admitted he was warned not to engage in. “I was told not to … I know I shouldn’t […]
Yellow Flicker Beat – live
This is impressive. One impressive ‘Australasian’. 🙂 Has Lorde got any imitators yet? Seems to me she is a hard act to ‘follow’. So distinctive. – P
There goes the majority
Proportional representation, New Zealand style.
A good discussion about interviewing politicians
I heard this on BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Media Show’ this morning, and thought, “That’s worth sharing” — and not just because it features my sole remaining favourite right wing vixen Louise Mensch. (Best line: ‘blood on the carpet’.) Sparked by a recent changing of the guard at BBC’s Newsnight programme, the discussion traverses various […]
