Lefties on fire
The best of twitter from the weekend.
Media
internet
The left bites back
A little bit of feel good for a Sunday morning (plus a very clever cat!).
Barclay/English cartooned
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
Dirty Politics done in the Netsafe style.
I just got sent a notice of complaint from Netsafe under the HDCA (Harmful Digital Communications Act). It appears to me that Netsafe still either hasn’t read the act or that they are cooperating with the perpetrators of Dirty Politics. Either way, I don’t have time to deal with people who don’t put in the information required by the act for me and the unknown author to make a decision. Updated
Watching the journalists
“The obligation of a journalist is to serve the public”
Wikileaks unravels
In the space of a day Wikileaks managed to complain about another entity leaking information, threaten to dox pretty well every reporter, delete the tweet and then sound like Donald Trump.
Netsafe finally gets its act together on the HDCA – sort of… and inadequately
Apparently today, Netsafe will start acting as the “Approved Agency” of the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015. This is an act that is meant to deal with some of the excessive online abuse and bullying. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to me that Netsafe is currently capable of dealing with the task. Instead they look like incompetent monkeys.
Beware of Spin Doctors and Spin Professors
On the same day that the pollsters in the world’s most advanced democracy were shown to have got things terribly wrong a Professor in New Zealand says that National will win next year because of polling data.
Chloe Swarbrick steps up for 2017
“The world is changing, people are angry, and more than ever, we need open minds and compassionate action. I’m joining the @NZGreens”
Kiwi Treason
Vegemite and marmite taste the same, rugby is naff, John Clarke’s an Australian. What?
Hollywood should try a different model
Piracy is shifting from peer-to-peer to streaming. Big Entertainment isn’t shifting it’s attitudes at all – still stuck in the dark ages.
The death of comments
RNZ and The Spinoff both turned off the ability to comment this week. Many other sites have done the same. It’s not really a very cheerful landscape.
Is Democracy peaking?
Has traditional democracy’s power peaked and will it be replaced by a social media generated consciousness?
Technology and democracy
Preliminary evidence shows how social media giants like Facebook and Google could influence elections. Should we be worried?
Key on cyberbullying
Any campaign against cyberbullying is going to need a more plausible figurehead than Key.
Your Favourite Conspiracy Sucks
The return of the X Files has got me thinking. Just how hard is it to keep a big conspiracy secret? Happily, a British scientist has the answer; it’s bloody hard. More or less impossible, actually, according to his new formula. It seems the truth really is out there.
Herald Bingo
Can be used either as a bingo card or as a drinking game.
Really David Farrar?
David Farrar has criticised AUSA for refusing to publicly endorse a Pro Life Auckland offer of assistance to solo mother students and thereby stopping assistance occurring. There is one problem though, AUSA did nothing of the sort.
★
Te Reo Putake spins the black circle and has a listen to Bowie’s final album, Blackstar.
Sir Lynton Crosby and Dame Paula Rebstock
The British Conservative Government and the New Zealand National Government have both rewarded their friends with titles.
Judge scammed by a legal idiot and his pet pest
Thank the deity of your choice for that. Judge Harrison has found and courageously, in a timely manner, corrected his mistake of granting an interim court order under s18 of the incredibly badly written Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015. The problem for a judge being requested to give any injunctive order is that they only hear one side of the argument – that of the plaintiff. And in this case the plaintiff and his associates seemed to have deliberately lied to the judge.
Allahu Quackbar!
4chan bombs Isis. Now that’s the way to hurt them!
TPP aims to kill filesharing
According to the EFF “The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared”…
Government by Twitter
We have passed an interesting milestone in the evolution of NZ politics. Key’s poll-driven pandering has just been taken to the next level. Political / media dinosaurs will never be able to dismiss “The Twitterati” again.
Scientists remind dickheads of their inadequecies
Ever imagine what a bull elephant’s penis looks like? Well wonder no more. Biologists kicked off a #junkoff today with this challenge. I have to say that the local trolls waving their dicks about on this site look poorly endowed and rather unimaginative.
Hosking, Henry and Media Bias
Yesterday a debate that has occurred on the Standard about how main stream media has a right wing bias became mainstream when Winston Peters accused Mike Hosking of being a National Party Stooge. An online poll provided overwhelming support for his statement. And recently Steven Joyce attacked Rod Oram because his analytical thoughtful analysis critical of the Government displayed evidence of left wing bias.
Only ACT standing up for free speech?
ACT has withdrawn support for the Harmful Digital Communications Bill. Bravo. Labour, Greens – where do you stand on this badly drafted and damaging bill?
Global mode killed off
CallPlus folds and kills global mode to avoid legal action. We are not amused.
Effective political communication
Richard Harman concluded his presentation to the recent Fabian “Destination Next Progressive Majority” event by quoting the noted political scientist Bob Chapman’s remark that he had “reluctantly come to the conclusion that it was far more important for a political party to have a communication strategy than an economic policy.” I’m inclined to agree.
The unusual case of the disappearing blog
Giovanni Tiso has discovered that Cactus Kate’s blog is slowly disappearing from the Internet.
PM’s social media advisor lashes out on Twitter
PM’s staff threatening people on Twitter. Such a good look.
What do you reckon?
Video clip to make you all chuckle
The end is near for IE
Internet Explorer is now less than 15% of the sessions on this site. However it accounts fro nearly half of the development and testing time for the legacy variants. Microsoft has a replacement in the works, which should get released soonish. But I’m tired of wasting time on a crap browser. I’m dumping it now.
Massive illicit bust of Edward Snowden erected in Brooklyn
A group of unidentified artists have erected a bronze patina bust of Eric Snowden on a stone column in Brooklyn. The authorities are investigating.
Open Internet and New Zealand media companies
Spark, MediaWorks, Sky TV and TVNZ are threatening to take Callplus to Court because it, like many overseas companies, offers the ability to locals to obtain an American IP address.
Defining the truth
Changes being considered at Google have far reaching implications. Who gets to decide what is true?