Author Archive
The mathematics of surveillance
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, January 22nd, 2015 - 30 comments
Mass surveillance cannot accomplish its stated goals, and it’s likely that many within the security / government system understand this full well.
Beneficiaries falling
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, January 21st, 2015 - 12 comments
Falling numbers yes, but falling through the cracks.
The price of the club
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, January 21st, 2015 - 179 comments
Yesterday Key justified our likely military intervention in Iraq as “the price” of being in “the club” with other Five Eyes countries.
An interesting milestone
Written By: - Date published: 4:22 pm, January 19th, 2015 - 37 comments
An interesting milestone in inequality is about to be passed.
War Begets War
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, January 19th, 2015 - 75 comments
We’re not good at learning from history.
2014 hottest year – a good thing!
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, January 18th, 2015 - 161 comments
As widely reported, 2014 was the hottest year on record. And that’s a good thing!
A discussion on the media
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, January 18th, 2015 - 24 comments
The team at Scoop are running a series called “The State of the NZ News Media – A Public Conversation”.
Free Raif Badawi
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, January 17th, 2015 - 7 comments
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1000 lashes. The international outrage is growing.
No quick fix for diseases of poverty
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, January 16th, 2015 - 136 comments
The continued rise of rheumatic fever is an indictment of our society.
New figures show that there is no quick fix for diseases of poverty.
Your move, National.
Exploiting the Charlie Hebdo attack
Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, January 15th, 2015 - 52 comments
How many governments are using the Paris / Charlie Hebdo attack as an excuse to increase surveillance or otherwise remove civil protections? The UK and Australia for starters…
The Key dynasty
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, January 14th, 2015 - 63 comments
What is with the paparazzi-like obsession with Max Key?
Dame Anne Salmond: Erosion of democratic rights
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, January 14th, 2015 - 27 comments
An excellent piece by Dame Anne Salmond in the Dominion Post yesterday. Salmond reviews the government’s attacks on journalists, institutions and privacy.
Advertisements pretending to be news
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, January 13th, 2015 - 25 comments
No surprises to find that The Herald is sliding in to the muddy waters of “advertorials”.
SkyCity a nightmare for the Nats
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, January 12th, 2015 - 76 comments
Far from fading away into the Christmas haze, SkyCity looks likely to be one of the defining political issues for 2015.
Summer rerun: Deserted cities
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, January 11th, 2015 - 50 comments
I think it is a pity that the currently dominant country / culture in the world, America, has had such a short history.
Free speech and surveillance online
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, January 7th, 2015 - 46 comments
A long, fascinating piece by Glenn Greenwald on The Intercept this morning.
A little place by the beach
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, January 6th, 2015 - 120 comments
2014 has been confirmed as the hottest year on record. If you own a little place by the beach you might want to ponder the implications…
Steady on
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, January 5th, 2015 - 27 comments
Starring John Key as Winston Churchill.
On the economy and tax cut bribes
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, December 18th, 2014 - 9 comments
National are not responsible for the eventual recovery, they are responsible for delaying it.
Terrorist attack in Pakistan
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, December 17th, 2014 - 192 comments
Condolences feel pretty meaningless in cases like this, but they are all that one can offer.
Surplus sunk
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, December 16th, 2014 - 73 comments
The Nats are going to miss the only target they ever cared about hitting – the mythical surplus. Seven wasted years and counting…
Another failure at Lima
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, December 14th, 2014 - 70 comments
While I have come to expect nothing from the annual climate change talks, this years’ failure is particularly galling because of the active role that NZ played in it.
Christmas at the extremes
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, December 13th, 2014 - 65 comments
Two New Zealands will shortly celebrate Christmas, the poor and the rich. Here’s a crazy thought…
Rushing in to Freed?
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, December 13th, 2014 - 28 comments
Herald journo John Drinnan seems all excited about Freed. That’s the dirty politics model that you’re celebrating John. You really want journalists to become pawns to paid attack politics? WTF?
None so blind
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, December 12th, 2014 - 181 comments
Message to today’s anonymous Herald editorialist – competition doesn’t close the inequality gap, it widens it. In other news, black is black not white, and water is wet. How can you write such drivel?
Denying the truth no way to run a country
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, December 10th, 2014 - 16 comments
Right-wingers recently got all hot and bothered about the idea of “recall elections”. Perhaps we do need them, not for the scandal of a Mayor having a bathroom, but for governments that systematically and cynically deny the truth, to the detriment of us all.
Climate change is too important to lie about
Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, December 8th, 2014 - 150 comments
First instinct, lie. When caught, trivialise and try to deny the science. When pushed, argue that we have to wait for others. When cornered, plead that it’s all about the economy, and promise to act later. Groser is as bad as Key.
NZ Media and blogs vs blogs
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, December 6th, 2014 - 42 comments
Snippets from a detailed and interesting report on the ownership of NZ media, media trends and issues, and the role of blogs post dirty politics. One major quibble – not all blogs are created equal, no more than all TV is game shows, than all radio is talkback, or than all websites are porn.
Police neutrality
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, December 5th, 2014 - 113 comments
If anyone thought that David Parker was content to fade quietly into obscurity, they been proven thoroughly wrong. Parker has confronted one of politics’ sacred cows – police neutrality.
Brownlee catches Key’s thirdtermitis
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, December 4th, 2014 - 34 comments
What could possibly have Gerry behaving so erratically?
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
Recent Comments