Author Archive
Nicky Hager – The Hollow Men under the covers
By coincidence, I saw this brief interview between Nicky Hager and Finlay Macdonald on TVNZ7’s The Good Word today. Having just referred to the book (see Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed), I found it interesting, as well as the revelation that defensive PR tactics (‘leaked material’ vs ‘stolen material’) were quite effective, judging […]
A joke for geeks
{Chortle} At least the font isn’t Comic sans! – P via Terry Burton
Gaga
From Lydia Jenkns’ review (NZ Herald) of tonight’slast night’s Lady Gaga concert in Auckland … It was like an avante-garde opera for the modern age, which occasionally got confusing in it’s direction – Gaga began the show as an escaping prisoner, a warrior who will take over the earth for us, not alien yet not […]
Douglas Adams on … the universe
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
A study in spin. And Farrar lends a hand …
The NZ Herald calls the government’s presentation of proposed teacher cuts dishonest, political humbug and a study in spin. The fact is that the present moves will make it harder for teachers to deliver quality – and disproportionately harder for teachers in low-decile schools whose pupils are attracted to the subject areas under attack. If […]
Ambition, self-selection and brainless tribalism. Bleurgh!
I’ve been thinking about the subject of deceit in politics and the sad idea that the voting public ‘expects’ a certain amount of spin and marketing (BS) in its political diet. I posted this comment in discussion about my musings about tribalism ‘National’s desperados get perfervid about Peters‘ before last year’s election: I usually enjoy […]
‘Earning’ your enemies
Earlier, I quoted from Margaret Pope’s elegant book At The Turning Point: My political life with David Lange. I heard the author interviewed by Radio NZ National’s erudite Kathyrn Ryan when the book was published 1 where Ms Pope answered (beautifully) a query about the enmity she’d attracted from Michael Bassett: …There are some things […]
Hollow Man Matthew Hooton recites his creed
Featuring extensive quotes from National Party sources, Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men: A study in the politics of deception exposed and excoriated a cynical, deceptive team of politicians, spin doctors, professional deceivers and behind-the-scenes, shadowy political donors seeking political influence and ‘policy for sale’ — some of whom, judging by results, are still very much […]
‘Look it up’ as a put-down. I approve.
There’s apparently a little controversy about Madonna (the singer-songwriter) feeling that Lady Gaga (the singer-songwriter) has strayed a little too close imitation with respect to Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’ worldwide hit and Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’. The last one of these I paid attention to was a fairly plausible Joe Satriani allegation that Cold Play had […]
Facebook price droops. Hands up if you’re surprised
See Facebook Stock Collapse Contributes To Mistrust Of Wall Street (Huffington Post) if you care. … the Facebook IPO had examples of pretty much everything that is wrong with the stock market today. Media and analyst cheerleading? Check. The destructive influence of high-speed trading? Check. A system built for insiders to profit while retail investors […]
Greed? On the sharemarket? Never!
Obvious Otis headline of the morning goes to the NZ Herald for this AFP story … The sell-off sparked more finger pointing and anger from those who had expected the price to zoom to massive gains like the immediate doubling of career-oriented social network LinkedIn’s IPO price last year. “Investors are searching for someone to […]
Rodney Hide, boy genius.
I knew Rodney Hide back when he was still using a Cassiopeia and I was using Psion Series 3a. (We used to compare features.) While he’s a pleasant man, and I personally like him, he’s never struck me as an intellectual powerhouse… So it was intriguing recently to read in the NBR online his vapid […]
