Author Archive
Privacy? Not if you use Gmail
From Read Write Web … Google Hands Wikileaks Volunteer’s Gmail Data to U.S. Government Gmail users got a hefty dose of reality today when it was revealed that Google handed over one user’s private data to the U.S. government, who requested it without a search warrant. The contacts list and IP address data of Jacob […]
Bradbury: Martyr or moderated troll?
There’s been a reflexive kerfuffle about hard-left attack dog Martyn Bradbury being told his services will no longer be required as a ‘political commentator’ by NZ public radio after he read a billious scripted rant on a recent ‘discussion panel’. Let me be clear about my own opinion of Martyn: I think he is a […]
Getting to know your ‘targets’
Via Andrew Sullivan, via Cameron Slater over the weekend, this interesting New York Times essay by Stanley Fish on how public ‘enmity’ can be a precious thing, and ‘meeting your opponents’ puts you at a terrible risk of ending up liking those you criticize. Good writing. But how could Habermas ever be taken away from […]
No weasel words
Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll is an impressive man, even in defeat. Here’s how he responded to losing to Wales in last night’s Rugby World Cup quarter final. We failed to do ourselves justice. You have to earn everything you get in Test rugby and today we were off the pace – and we go […]
A rich Green comedy performance from Matthew Hooton
STAND UP COMIC Matthew Hooton — he works part-time as a political commentator — had me howling, breathless with laughter at his latest comedy routine on RadioLIVE earlier in the week. Under the deeply ironic title of ‘The Political Panel’, talkback radio hosts Willie Jackson and John Tamihere sometimes give a platform to budding comedians […]
World’s Shortest Fairy Tale
{snort!} (Thanks to Jeremy Parkinson.)
Be careful what you believe
I had a coffee with Cameron Slater this morning. I like to interact face to face with people whom I criticize — it’s far better to engage, in my opinion, than to reach for pistols at dawn dueling online personas. We discussed some of our recent disagreements (most recently noted in Cameron Slater’s defective moral calculus) in […]
Congratulations Kimbra
I spotted this artist as ‘one to watch’ a while back — sparking minor eye-rolls from my teenage daughter at my positive comments. But she admits I spotted The Tings Tings too, and Mark Ronson. Yeah, I’m a pop-culture genius. (Just put my Horlicks down over there, thanks Matron.) Anyway, good on Kimbra. She’s just […]
Steve Jobs RIP
Am so sad to hear this. – P
I’m not imagining it … John Key’s selective absence
Wow, you can see why some people might see this as avoidance behaviour. I said the other day If Mr Key and his colleagues were more confident of the news media I think you would see more willingness to appear in ‘hard’ interview situations (rather than the photo ops and stand ups) and less of […]
Eloquent Eliota Sapolu on Campbell Live
I saw this interview between TV3’s John Campbell and Eliota Sapolu — the Samoan rugby centre who faced a judiciary hearing following his angry tweets accusing an IRB ref of bias and racist decisions during the South African/Samoan pool game in the Rugby World Cup. It’s a fabulous interview which impressed me very much. See […]
