Author Archive
Property market predictions … and damage control
Here’s my latest article on the Empower Education website … Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble (with apologies to Shakespeare)* … any comments welcome there. -P * Because in Macbeth Act 4 Scene 1, the witches actually chant: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Let’s get a little perspective on journalists and bloggers
On the eve of World Press Freedom Day 2014, the press freedom situation in Azerbaijan is worse than perhaps ever before. Journalists and bloggers who dare to criticize the authorities or cover risky topics such as human rights abuses and corruption face a range of pressures, including harassment, intimidation, threats, blackmail, violent attack, and imprisonment. […]
This caught my eye
I lived around the corner from this sign in Howick for a few years but don’t recall seeing any ducks — crossing or waiting to cross. Was it a joke?
Varying explanations
I had reason recently, in the context of discussion about a disingenuous lobby group peddling some of its “non-partisan” wares, to remember the quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.” —Upton Sinclair Here’s another twist on it from Russell Brand: Via @caffeine_addict on […]
I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus knows EXACTLY what she’s doing.
And bless her for invoking Rob Ford. Sad the NZ Herald doesn’t seem to get the reference and quotes her as if she was serious. see: Seinfeld star explains nude Rolling Stone cover: I was drunk. How dumb. – P
On (your own) government spies reading your email
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net Yeah, it ain’t right. You know? – P PS. The image file name is: imjustkiddingobamathisisonlyalittlejokedontputmeonanywatchlistswhosthatknockingonmydoor waitnonononohelloamericanothingtoseeherekeepconsumingkeepenjoyingthekardashians.png
“The more information partisans get, the deeper their disagreements become.”
From a must-read new article by Ezra Klein at Vox: How politics makes us stupid showing that often what conditions us to resist changing our minds in response to new information (i.e. learn) is partisanship … Imagine what would happen to, say, Sean Hannity if he decided tomorrow that climate change was the central threat […]
Glimpse the implications of globalisation, via Disney’s ‘Let It Go’ …
Wow. More to those language choices on the DVD than meets the eye, huh? (Excellent song too. Moving.) – P
Et tu, RTF? (WTF)
See this article by UK-based computer security specialist Graham Cluley Just previewing an Outlook email could infect your computer. Microsoft warns of zero-day flaw. Just previewing it? Gah! I remember when Microsoft Office macros were shown to be able to be exploited to infect computers. I ran my (since departed) MS Office suite with the […]
Edward Snowden TED Talk March 2014
via Robot … well worth watching: Pay attention to what he says about the risks of speaking out versus the risks of ‘exposure’ of the material (PRISM etc). Yet, without the courage to face those, where would we be? Remember, Daring — if there was no risk it wouldn’t take guts. “I did not do […]
Success is sometimes just a matter of ‘beating the averages’
From the Colliding Worlds department, here’s an article I just posted at the Empower Education website … Comments & discussion welcome there. – P
