Apple iPhone 4 — looks like they've done it again ... (click to read about the design - WATCH THE VIDEO)
Oh boy. They’ve made obsolete their own product … which was, if you ask me, the ‘secret’ of their success with the iPod: never resting on their own laurels, always pressing forward.
Well. I’ve just spent much of the holiday weekend devouring this book: Race of a Lifetime: How Obama Won the White House (Mark Halperin and John Heilemann)
The review extracts on the jacket promised me ‘Absolutely gripping’ and ‘Fantastically detailed …incendiary’ and ‘Sleazy, personal, intrusive, shocking — and compulsive.”
All true.
If you’re interested in US politics, and you haven’t yet, READ IT. Brilliant.
Here’s a review from the Observer which focuses on one aspect of the account, the political ‘love story’ between Obama and Hillary Clinton.
We construct the history of our wisdom
only by burying our foolishness in the endnotes.
From a very good essay sparked by the Gaza aid boat raids…
Chosen, but Not Special
By MICHAEL CHABON
NY Times | June 4, 2010“GAZA Flotilla Drives Israel Into a Sea of Stupidity” declared the Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday, as though announcing the discovery of some hitherto unknown body of water. Citizens of other nations have long since resigned themselves, of course, to sailing those crowded waters, but for Israelis — and, indeed, for Jews everywhere — this felt like headline news.
Of all the anthropomorphic hat-wearing cartoon bears who consistently overestimate their own intelligence, Yogi Bear is probably the one that deserves his own film the most. (image: hecklerspray.com - click for link)
We ALL see ourselves as clever, insightful, good drivers, more virtuous, smarter-than-the-average-bear … or in words of The News from Lake Woebegone: “… where all the children are above average.”
Chabon makes the point well that this overestimation is, at best, rooted in selective attention and memory. It reminds me of the in-group/out-group discussion we had last year about the sources of conflict …
A nice bit of (historical) perspective, and reminder just how truly corrupt the Nixon administration was …
Nixon — political combat to the point of crime ('If the President does it, it's not a crime.' Oh yeah?) image: thepunch.com.au
No, this isn’t “Watergate” (and never will be)
Republicans have fantasized about a Democratic “Watergate” for decades. Can they still remember the real thing?
by Joe Conason | Salon.com
As Conason points out, shallow comparisons are often trotted out by people who offer weak argument in the absence of facts. They try to group things together that don’t belong together, to equate people or organisations that are different. They sometimes use a misleading shorthand which, effectively, aims to deceive.
His final line is a hoot too:
So perhaps the time has come to amend or extend Godwin’s Law:
The first to cry ” Watergate” loses the argument.
image: http://images.flowers.vg
I know the spruikers I take aim at here now and then feel hard done by. So do some of their fans.
I’m sorry for their hurt feelings. I really am. But the way I see it, they make their own bed and lie in it (— or lie from it, one could say). Actions have consequences.
Some of those mentioned have made their feelings known privately and publicly, and their outrage about the outrage (to quote Lewis Black) and intimidatory behaviour and threats have seen some censorship and retraction lately. (Not here.)
Bullyboys will give it a try whenever they sense weakness — remember the Marshmallow Theory?
Sometimes, as we have discussed before, the targets of criticism will, instead of considering whether there’s any legitimacy to the points being made, or raising a fair and reasoned argument, simply try to thump or abuse their critics. Sometimes they, or their anonymous glovepuppets or secret alter-egos will merely make false allegations in an attempt to smear the critic. That happens a lot.
To demonstrate what I mean, here’s a recent example from the comment thread at interest.co.nz. (It followed Managing editor Bernard Hickey quoting from this post on ThePaepae.com which responded to comments prompted by Gareth Kiernan’s article.)
by Anonymous – 30 May 10, 3:27am
it’s interesting to see Peter Aranyi commenting on this blog (and in numerous of his own posts) about Dean being a “spruker” when his Empower Education business does exactly the same thing? now am i [sic] the only one to think that hypercritical? [sic] The only difference between Dean and Peter is that Dean can actually get people to his event and Peter couldn’t event [sic] get his own mum to come list [sic] to his event..
Charming, don’t you think? These poorly drafted and factually incorrect comments — anonymous, naturally, and posted at 3.27 am! — popped up as a Google alert a day or so later… so I replied thus — in my own name:
by Peter Aranyi – 02 Jun 10, 10:17pm
What a novelty: an anonymous commenter accusing me of being a bad ‘hypercritical’ person.Anonymous 3.27am, your tired old ‘Peter’s just the same as those he criticises’ schtick doesn’t cut it, I’m sorry to tell you. Empower Education doesn’t sell property — unlike your hero, property spruiker (note spelling) Dean Letfus.
I’d be curious to see any evidence or justification for your comment that EE does ‘exactly the same thing’. Your claim is nonsense.
Here are just three easy to find examples of offers Dean Letfus made to his ‘students’ (source: his website):
Dean Letfus selling sections in Fiji:
Coral Lagoon ~ Last Chance!!
Hi there.
I promised you one final chance to get in on this Fiji development. Well here is the info. Continue reading →
From a review of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ appearance at a recent tech Q&A:
Jobs acknowledged that the next-generation iPhone photographed by Gizmodo was circulating as a part of the normal testing of wireless products. “To make a wireless product work well you need to test it. You have to carry them outside. One of our employees was carrying one. There’s a debate about whether he left it in a bar, or it was stolen out of his bag,” he said. “This is a story that’s amazing — it’s got theft, it’s got buying stolen property, it’s got extortion, I’m sure there’s some sex in there… the whole thing is very colorful. Somebody should make a movie out of this.”
Jobs said that although he was advised to lay off Gizmodo in the aftermath of the story’s publication, he decided to pursue the matter out of principle. “When this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got a lot of advice from people that said you’ve got to just let it slide. ‘You shouldn’t go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.’
And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can’t do that. I’d rather quit.”
— Full review by Jason Snell at MacWorld
Not that I am comparing myself with Steve Jobs, but — I relate to that about core values.
Sometimes one feels compelled to make a stand, pursue a point, stick with exposing an important issue — despite a chorus of “Let it slide” from well-intentioned advisors (or gatekeepers, in the case of PropertyTalk). But, as Jobs points out, caving in is actually the worst thing you can do — it compromises your core values, damages your integrity.
Enough said.
* Video below the fold from AllThingsDigital Continue reading →
Samuel Langhorne Clemens 'Mark Twain' (1835-1910)
image: http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in
“There is a perception that Twain spent his final years basking in the adoration of fans. The autobiography will perhaps show that it wasn’t such a happy time. He spent six months of the last year of his life writing a manuscript full of vitriol, saying things that he’d never said about anyone in print before. It really is 400 pages of bile.” — historian Laura Trombley.
I reckon he’d have been better getting it off his chest earlier — telling the truth (as he saw it) as he went along.
What do you think?
by DANNY SULLIVAN on JUNE 1, 2010
http://daggle.com/mainstream-media-stole-news-story-credit-1906
Thanks to Bernard Hickey who tweeted it this morning.
Return to the Rental…
Well, it is done; safe or not. If I can get this over and done with before June and I’ll be back in the Hamptons just as the summer begins – only a few important parties missed. In June, the real party season begins, boating, drinking, mingling and women. If I’m to be successful in my new life (living off exnzpat’s money) I’ll need to make the right acquaintances with the right connections – to do otherwise – well, that would be foolish. I must take the opportunity while I have it.
There was a little more wrangling than I had expected but with the last signature from exnzpat’s physiatrist in hand I made an appointment with a judge and my little excursion with exnzpat was approved.
Leaving the judicial chambers behind me I walked across the park to the Council offices to secure a deputy to guard exnzpat while we did our business at the rental. Entering the building I ran right smack-dab into Becky. Her long brown hair was pulled back behind her head in an untidy pony tail. She was wearing a garishly colored dress with fish on it. She was, as I remembered, striking.
“Hi… where have you been? I haven’t seen you for months.” While she said it sweetly enough a frown of concern creased her pretty forehead. Not waiting for me to answer she burst out, “you look so thin – are you eating right?”
“Sure, I’ve been working out – on a regular basis.” I boasted. Continue reading →
Google to employees: ‘Mac or Linux, but no more Windows’
by Michael Rose | TUAW on May 31st, 2010 [US time]
We first heard rumors of this policy change a couple of months ago, but now it’s made the papers: the Financial Times is reporting that Google is phasing out the use of Windows internally, as employees are migrated to either Linux or Mac OS X on machine turnovers or new hires. The policy change was precipitated in large part by the security breach attributed to Chinese hackers; Google’s IT leaders apparently feel that Microsoft’s OS represents too great a risk across the enterprise to leave it in place.
The story says that in January, subsequent to the security breaches, Windows installations on desktop computers were no longer allowed, although laptops were still eligible for Windows at the employee’s discretion. Many Google staffers, however, were already heading for the Mac as a security measure, and at this point things have been pretty well laid down in stone: “Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval,” according to one anonymous Googler quoted by the FT.
Watch out for an official denial/clarification any minute. (But I think it’s true, and based on experience. Bad experience.)
I agree with this:
“The kind of people who say swearing is the sign of a poor vocabulary,
usually have a pretty poor vocabulary themselves.” — Stephen Fry.
Click to watch video after the jump or 'more..'
That said, I’ve seen the real ‘shock’ effect an outburst of hot, emphatic ‘foul’ language can have on people, including kids — but it’s the intent and tone, I think, rather than the words themselves that can have that impact, in my view. Nasty, cutting remarks or bullying abuse are quite a separate thing to using ‘naughty words’.
My wife tells me there’s research that indicated swearing increases one’s tolerance for pain — women in childbirth etc. I don’t know about that, but it sounds right. Continue reading →
Film director Merata Mita also acted — here in 'The Piano' (image: stuff.co.nz)
Her film Patu! about the civil disobedience protests around the 1981 Springbok Tour and was filmed and compiled in the face of awful opposition — almost like a war — from many sides, some unexpected, but also with the support of many brave souls who shared her vision.
Likewise, her film about the occupation of Bastion Point — which, as a Wellingtonian I first heard about in a song from the Topp Twins — “Bastion Point is Maori Land…”.
She will be remembered by us for these and many other achievements — and as a contemporary of Tungia’s and, with her, part of the cutting edge of NZ filmmakers, Maori filmmakers, and ‘activists’ … when there was real risk in being so labelled.
Farewell, Merata. RIP Continue reading →
image: South Florida blog (click for link)
Disgrace insurance? I didn’t even know such a thing existed! Live and learn, I guess.
From this article in the Herald on Sunday:
The documents revealed a year after [Comedian Mike] King was recruited as the face of pork in New Zealand, officials became nervous when the comedian left an obscene phone message* for the writers of Eating Media Lunch after they lampooned his show Mike King Live.
King said, in part of the expletive-filled message: “You have f***** with the wrong person, you f****** jumped up little s*** head”.
NZ Pork chief executive Sam McIvor confirmed that “death, disability and disgrace” insurance was sought as a direct result of the adverse publicity from this incident.
The policy cost NZ Pork $29,000 a year, but insurers refused to cover obscene phone calls under the “disgrace” portion of the policy.
A representative of underwriters Marsh wrote in December 2003: “The NZ Pork industry is aware at the time of buying the insurance that Mike King is liable to make similar outbursts in the future.”
King said, in hindsight, insuring against the possibility of disgrace was a wise move by his former employers: “I was pretty out there in those days.”
Food for thought. (And how typical — don’t you think? — that the insurers would refuse to cover the very thing that prompted the policy to be sought!)
I like Mike King and enjoyed his latest on-stage persona at the Gala opening of the recent Auckland Comedy Festival. The guy’s had a journey. Good on him.
* I received a live-and-in-person phone call much like that last year from an excitable (strictly amateur) comedian who, apparently, also does celebrity impressions as part of his routine at his umm, ‘seminar’ appearances. He’d be a good candidate for Disgrace Insurance — along with some of the other operators I write about here.
A friend and I were shootin’ the breeze earlier about more songs that are the soundtrack of our lives. (In the last little while we’ve discussed James Taylor, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan here at The Paepae — who all easily make the list.)
Graeme and I recently went with our wives to dinner and the James Taylor & Carole King concert along with muso and living treasure Dave Dobbyn and his wife and some other friends. Dave’s music makes the list, too, of course, and he’s great company as well. My student flat in Willis St used to rock to DD Smash: Outlook for Thursday and The Devil You Know. (I think Dave’s lyric, ‘The best of the worst you can handle’ is brilliant!)
Anyway, this song is another one of mine … Chris Rea’s On the Beach — classic!
On the Beach (click for the video below the fold)
Click more to watch… Continue reading →
Hilarious! A few hours after I set up ThePaepae.com’s new Facebook page yesterday, overnight we had a sudden surge of email… with a lot of ‘Please confirm your subscription to our mailing list’ messages.
It seems someone (who? I wonder) had a bit of time on their hands and submitted ThePaepae.com’s email address (not disclosed on the Facebook page, so no ‘leak’ there) to a bunch of mail list subscription pages.
Like a lot of ‘internet marketing’ ruses, these juvenile tricks might have worked in the past, but fortunately they’re pretty easy to spot. See the message (click thumbnail) from the robot gatekeeper administering the Boulder County list server which — as well as shutting down the silly game — gives some insight into the possible motivations for such spoofing tactics:
This is usually done in retribution for having posted something on a public forum which made the perpetrator lose face. …
… in most cases this person will be a technically skilled individual who will know what steps need to be taken in order to hide one’s track. It is usually much easier to identify the perpetrator using traditional investigative methods, such as looking for technically skilled individuals that the victim has recently angered.
Gee, what a hoot. It’s almost like reading someone’s horoscope.
