I’m not a raving fan of Alan Hubbard, but I don’t have an intelligent basis to be a detractor, really, either.
This article from the NZ Herald’s Fran O’Sullivan What odds for a fair trial for Hubbard? makes some good points.
Worth a read.
– P
Getting around ad blockers …
We discuss web browser ad-blockers like Safari Adblock here from time to time, and since I use one routinely I enjoy a pretty much ad-free environment … so of course the heat is on to find ways to get around it. Here’s the Huffington Post’s latest attempt … ‘sponsor generated content‘:
Slipped through the Safari adblocker...
Still, without Safari Adblock look how much real estate is sacrificed to ads (Chrome) …
How is a ‘free’ web media service to operate with cheapskates like me eschewing the distraction of interruption marketing?
It’s a conundrum, huh?
– P
Another dose of financial hyperbole …
An occasional commenter here on ThePaepae.com, known as ‘Xav’ here and at PropertyTalk, did some homework on ‘bargain’ US properties being assiduously hawked by property spruiker Dean Letfus to his database and via the internet …
From Dean Letfus’s list of Atlanta properties:
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Price. . . . . Rent. . . . Yield (after costs)
4881 Amsler Rd, Ellenwood . . $85,000 . $1,100 . . 10.01%
From Google:
Thanks for the opportunity Dean, but I don’t think so .
If this is taken at face value: a USD$60,000 margin between what the property is selling for on Realtor.com (two listings at USD$25,000) versus Dean Letfus’s ‘hot off the press’ ‘Atlanta list’ @ USD $85,000 — it surely demolishes Dean Letfus’s supposed status as a ‘bargain property’ finder … that’s an amazing markup.
Do you think that $60,000 margin would go towards the ‘oh-no-that’s-not-a sales-commission-they’re-just-proprietary-fees‘ we discussed earlier?
[Looks like you can take the boy out of Richmastery but you can’t take Richmastery out of the boy. Jeez.]
I was struck by this tweet in my timeline tonight….
Brian Alvey sardonically explains that more made-up stuff is expressed on spreadsheets than novels ...
I download Dean Letfus’s ‘Atlanta list’ from his sales site to look for myself. In one case, as Xav highlighted, it apparently offers a house at USD $85,000 — USD $60,000 more than the USD$25,000 asking price for the same property elsewhere — but he describes the list like this:
“This is hot off the press so apologies for the formatting, but the numbers are all correct.”
What a coincidence. Dean Letfus supplied his 'Atlanta list' as an Excel document.
Oops, it’s an Excel document … Fiction?
If there’s been a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the details of this property, let me know please. Otherwise, 340% seems like a HUGE mark-up, don’t you think?
– P
Howick’s latest NIMBY hysteria
[NIMBY = Not in my back yard.]
You may recall my post about the forces of [small-c] conservatism seeking to block an expression of Maori culture in the heart of Howick (where I live) despite support for it and an enlightened, respectful approach being taken by local Maori, their supporters and the local authority. The end result of the trenchant, truculent, long-term campaign by opponents to the rebuilding of a small community-owned meeting house (whare) — used mainly for programmes for local school kids — saw Howick’s community so-called ‘leaders’ (cough) fairly regarded as indulging in ‘a full-blown race war’.
Now Howick is in the media again with local politicians (the usual suspects) threatening to use the same failed tactics trotted out to try to stop the whare reinstatement in the Garden of Memories.
This time, they’re protesting and agitating about what can fairly be seen as a ‘not-in-my-backyard’ (NIMBY) reaction to Ministry of Education plans to establish a special unit — Thurston Place College — helping school college-age kids from abusive backgrounds on the grounds of a site they formerly used for primary school kids with special needs.
Bucklands Beach residents make their point at the Howick Local Board meeting last night. (pic: TV3)
By Elizabeth Puranam TV3
Protests have continued tonight over a school for troubled children being built in an east Auckland suburb.
Residents of Bucklands Beach say the school poses a threat to their children and neighbourhood, and they’re planning on taking their fight to Parliament.
It was standing room only today as hundreds of Bucklands Beach residents met for the fourth time in less than two weeks to protest the building of Thurston Place College.
“New Zealand has a safe environment and a good education system,” says Yugen He. “That’s the main reason we moved here, but this college will create a lot of risk to our children.” Continue reading →
Jon Stewart on Fox News – Is this Crossfire Part 2?
This year’s version of Jon Stewart’s intelligent, robust examination of clichéd, reactive, shallow, artificially partisan media and, to a certain extent, a dollop of intellectual humiliation for its players (Think Crossfire’s Tucker Carlson in particular) occurred on Sunday.
Heralded with headlines like “Jon Stewart Eviscerates Fox News On Fox News“, “Stewart in the Lion’s Den” or “Jon Stewart LIVE On Fox News, Tells Host ‘You’re Insane’” Stewart’s interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace is fascinating — at least it is for those (like me) who consider matters like media bias and sensationalism and the very real ideological ‘game’ Fox News plays real issues …
Jon Stewart lifts the intellectual discussion on Fox News and calls them out for their relentless partisan ideological agenda and dishonesty (click to watch video)
Stewart is so much more than ‘a comedian’ … bravo.
Video (courtesy of Fox News) below the fold.
Continue reading →
Noted in passing
So Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned.
As Jon Stewart soul jammed:
“Look, Congressman, if you’re sending pictures of your penis as bait to young women who follow you on Twitter, then you’ve got to go.”
Yep. Bad judgement is bad. A cover up worse.
Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis):
Twitter didn’t do in Weiner. Sex didn’t. The coverup did. Ever thus.
Lying to Nancy Peolosi etc … also bad.
The medium is the message?
It’s hard to look past this from Jacob Wiesberg, perhaps responding to the meme that Anthony Weiner’s typo was responsible for his unfortunate exposure …
Another view of Pelosi’s involvement …
The Weiner Shot That Pushed Pelosi Over the Edge – The Atlanticwire’s John Hudson.
An ‘abiding distrust’ for anonymous speech
Here’s a really good article from Dan Gillmor defending the use of pseudonyms and anonymity on the web — even in the light of Tom MacMaster’s Amina ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ hoax…
Sounding real is not the same as being real. The fake Amina’s blog was especially well done, with details that sounded authentic even to native Syrians. Its unmasked author said he was telling larger truths, but we have a name for this technique: fiction.
We also have a name for the technique of identity in this case: pseudonym. This is a much-used method online – not revealing one’s own name but having a consistent identifier. It’s one step away from outright anonymity, where there is no accountability whatever. As I wrote last week, the lack of accountability in such cases puts more responsibility on the audience. It is up to us to cultivate an abiding distrust for speech when the speaker refuses to stand behind his or her own words – that is, by using one’s own name.
We should temper that scepticism, however, with the recognition that in places like Syria, where vicious dictators are ordering wholesale killings of dissidents and rebels, standing directly behind one’s own words can be literally life-threatening.
My own view is just as conflicted as Gillmor’s. I see a need for protection from reprisal and retribution for whistle blowers and ‘inconvenient truth-tellers’. Especially — and most of us have NO IDEA what it’s really like — if they live under a repressive, totalitarian regime that doesn’t brook dissidence …
But Tom MacMaster’s hoax, pretending to be a lesbian blogger (the irony that the editor of the lesbian discussion forum he frequented turned out to be another man pretending to be lesbian) shows up the effectiveness of deceit.
Despite the self-congratulatory glow that some of my Twitter pals seem to be feeling, a lot of good people were taken in, and the road just got harder for the real McCoy bloggers etc… credibility and safety are tied together.
So, we need to engage what Gillmor called ‘an abiding distrust’ for speech when the speaker refuses to stand behind his or her own words, in their own name.
That’s how I see it.
But it depends what they are saying, of course. Depends on their claims. Hyperbole is another warning sign, in my view.
– P
Assange … a right to scrutinise the state.
We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state. The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness.
Pretty hard to argue with that.
(via Cassie Findlay)
Let me not into temptation
This book on LBJ’s succession to John F Kennedy after the assassination was an eye-opener. I’m reading Nixonland by Rick Perlstein at the same time, and I can perceive the seeds of LBJ’s and the Democrats’ destruction in the character traits and deep suspicion and disunity Steven Gillon highlights in his book.
Certainly, the book conveys the panic and confusion and the horror of the event in Dallas.
One can almost, but only almost, forgive Johnson’s lies, ego, insecurity and manipulations (people management) in the extreme of trying circumstances. He sought to give the country a sense of immediate continuity in the aftermath, but that meant trampling on a few people’s feelings. Kennedy’s wife and his loyal aides had gut-wrenching adjustments to make — things we can only imagine.
As the reports about the assassin reached Johnson he asked about possible Soviet involvement. Was it a communist plot?
The reality would turn out to be less troubling, but no one knew it at the time. Oswald was a self-absorbed loner who had failed miserably at everything he had ever attempted in his life except assassinate the president of the United States. A troubled and belligerent child, Oswald underwent a psychological evaluation at age thirteen. Asked whether he preferred the company of boys or girls, Oswald told the psychiatrist, “I dislike everybody.” After dropping out of school at sixteen, he developed a fascination with Marxism, believing capitalism was the cause of his discontent …
Good book. I recommend it.
– P
* I mean to say ‘let’ in the title.
More fakery on the internet. (So what’s new?)
A part of me wasn’t surprised this morning to discover the ‘lesbian’ ‘Syrian’ pro-democracy blogger supposedly ‘abducted’ by ‘security forces’ last week was actually a 40 year old American man called Tom MacMaster living in Scotland.
What a fake
My Twitter feed this morning was full of vitriol and disappointment about this imposter Tom MacMaster who provoked support from many posing online as ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ blog. His posting as the girl’s ‘cousin’ reporting she’d been ‘abducted’ fooled sincere journalists and gained attention. Now it’s revealed as a hoax.
His mealy-mouthed ‘apology to readers’ is worth a read and to sample the outrage check Twitter trend #Amina Tom MacMaster — why would we believe anything you say? Shades of the fantasy life of ‘Facebook predator’ Natalia Burgess )
These are sleazy moves by Tom MacMaster, in my opinion. This liar-in-denial constructed and used this Amina ‘alias’ or alter-ego for years, communicating with people and organisations, misappropriating hundreds of photos from other people to bolster and buttress Amina’s profile (sound familiar?) then when confronted, he denied it. Typical.
In telephone interviews and e-mail exchanges with The [Washington] Post over the past three days, MacMaster initially denied any connection to Amina. He insisted he had never heard of her or the blog before the news of the arrest broke.
“Look, if I was the genius who had pulled this off, I would say, ‘Yeah,’ and write a book,” he said Friday, reached in Istanbul, where he is vacationing with his wife, a graduate student working on a PhD in international relations.
News organizations around the world, including The Washington Post, reported on the blogger’s disappearance Tuesday. As the story spread, three Syrian sources contacted Andy Carvin of NPR with their doubts; he, in turn, asked the more than 48,000 people who follow him on Twitter whether anyone had met Amina or spoken to her on the phone. None said they had.
— Washington Post: ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ comes clean
Best wry comment I saw on Twitter was:
Will Yamato sums it up.
I personally wouldn’t hire this guy Tom MacMaster or put him in any position of trust. I wouldn’t trust him to buy my lunch.
– P
Nothing to hide but NOT nothing to fear
image: ebookrat.com
Here’s a good article on privacy by Daniel J Solove, who I last referred to when sharing some thoughts in my post Is it worth dishonestly defending a reputation? No.
Solove’s article is called Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’ — it’s a preview of his next book, and it’s a worthwhile read… including this distinction about what privacy is and isn’t:
The deeper problem with the nothing-to-hide argument is that it myopically views privacy as a form of secrecy. In contrast, understanding privacy as a plurality of related issues demonstrates that the disclosure of bad things is just one among many difficulties caused by government security measures.
A saying I use sometimes is, ‘You’re as healthy as your secrets’… but I completely agree with Solove, privacy isn’t just about protecting your ‘deep dark secrets’ — it’s the freedom to go about your life/business without intrusive observation or ‘data gathering’ by government agencies, corporates (or bloody Facebook!)
Seriously, read his article. He does a good job of unpacking and dismantling the ‘my life is an open book, if I’m doing nothing wrong, I have nothing to fear’ argument.
– P
PS I don’t know what it is, but people seem to want to tell me things — surprising things. It was like that when I worked as a journalist, it was like that before, and it’s still like that. I don’t pry, they just tell me. Dunno why. Something about my face? It’s a mystery.
Harsh criticism? Or Fair?
Spotted this from Glenn Greenwald re TV personality Chris Matthews …
Fairly strident? Well, yes.
Now, as I replied, some might see such a strident comment about a fellow ‘peer in the industry’ as ill-motivated unprofessional. Not me. I think someone paying attention to the ‘industry’ (like, in this case Greenwald) is obliged to highlight what you see as failings by ‘peers’.
To which I would only add:
The case is made weaker, however, not stronger, by comments that resemble personal abuse. To be fair to @ggreenwald, and anyone else trying to express an opinion in 140 characters or less (my own comment back to him took TWO tweets, after all) it’s sometimes easier to say ‘I think So-and-so is a dirty ratfink liar’ than it is to lay out your case (as we discussed briefly in Linking to sources…) — but not as convincing.
Sometimes, as others have said, the bile rises … and instead of just shouting at the TV in the privacy of your own home (while we still have that commodity) one expresses in a social/social media context with what can (strongly) resemble ad hominem attacks.
But the alternative, keeping a ‘professional silence’ when observing shortcomings or misstatements or, in Matthews’ case, what sometimes looks like a go-with-the-flow kind of collusion, isn’t acceptable practice.
When people who are twisting the narrative, or bending reality to within an inch of its life, or downright lying-and-getting-away-with-it — because of a lazy or gutless press — do that, it is infuriating to those observers who want more, expect more, DEMAND more.
So, go for it Glenn Greenwald. Don’t hold back.
—
“What’s your beef?” = a dumb question, sometimes
Of interest to me on another level completely is the argy-bargy between the AOL-property Huffington Post and the NY Times re comparative web traffic. Quite a bit of spin and FUD is being spread … and it surprises me how many people buy the ‘cheeky upstart topples crusty old-timer from its perch’ narrative. Continue reading →
Start spamming young…
Now, look, I know Twitter meant this image as a joke …
Does this remind you of anyone *cough* Shaun Stenning?
… but the line “I’m a 7 year old SEO GURU!” just soooo reminded me of the Geekversity Instant Expert Shaun Stenning so breathlessly promoted by down-on-their-luck ‘property experts‘.
I needed to visit Twitter’s how to respond to spammy mentions page after I posted a comment on Twitter (@onThePaepae) and copped a bunch of distasteful spambot ‘love’.
I find humour everywhere. It’s a good thing.
– P
‘Frivolous’ Palin won’t be meeting Margaret Thatcher
Instinct magazine (click)
Litmus test/IQ test Little Miss Polarising Sarah Palin faced a wee knock-back in her [alleged] efforts to ride The Iron Lady’s coat-tails …
Margaret Thatcher to Sarah Palin: don’t bother dropping by — The Guardian, Wintour and Watt blog:
It would appear that the reasons go deeper than Thatcher’s frail health. Her allies believe that Palin is a frivolous figure who is unworthy of an audience with the Iron Lady. This is what one ally tells me:
Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.
Thatcher will show the level she punches at when she attends the unveiling of a statue of Ronald Reagan outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square on Independence day on 4 July. This is what her ally told me:
Margaret is focusing on Ronald Reagan and will attend the unveiling of the statue. That is her level.
The next day, apparently, Rush Limbaugh came to Sarah Palin’s defence… denouncing The Guardian while claiming(?) ‘personal knowledge’ of Margaret Thatcher’s decision-making … and, appropriately, provoking even more damaging comments about Sarah Palin’s ‘stature’ … like this from Alex Massie, who writes for the Spectator, who ‘supported the decision of the Thatcher circle’ in an article for the Daily Beast – Sarah Palin’s delusions of grandeur…: Continue reading →
Negative credibility
Ha! I like this concept …
Writing on The Guardian‘s Comment is free website — Andrew Breitbart and the unwilling suspension of disbelief about the right wing web maven who ‘exposed’ Rep. Weiner — Dan Gillmor referred to his model of ‘negative credibility‘ and included this neat graphic:
Dan Gillmor's credibility scale (or 'BS meter'). Personally I'd put some of the spruikers I discuss here as somewhere left of Anonymous Comments.
Gillmor’s article is worth reading, as, like the erudite j-school prof Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis), he pipes up and admits he misjudged the newsworthiness of the Weiner/twitter/junk shot ‘scandal’. [BTW, admissions of ‘error’ like this (‘I got it wrong‘) actually enhance credibility, in my view. Good on both of them.]
I like Gillmor’s concept: negative credibility — I see it as a state of expectation that someone’s claims are probably false … before they actually make them.
I’m certainly that way — personally — with some of the spruikers I discuss here on www.ThePaepae.com from time to time: remember Sean Wood‘s pose as his own satisfied customer MUFFIT?, or Steve Goodey‘s claim to be ‘a NZ property investing icon‘? (Crikey!) or Sean Stenning‘s hyperbole … don’t get me started, or Dean Letfus … again, just too many ‘Instant Expert’ examples to mention.
Like Gillmor, I feel I can be persuaded that a particular, specific claim has veracity (possibly accidentally?) even from a let’s say ‘dubious‘ source. I try NOT to adopt a ‘no good thing can come from Nazareth’/’poison fruit from a poison tree’ model. But (and it’s a significant but) in my personal view, some people have by their demonstrated track record proven themselves to be … unreliable.
Of course, spelling that conclusion out as I do might hurt their feelings, and while I sympathise at one level, I think that’s just a case of natural consequences or feedback. How do you see it?
– P
