Qed

Smiths Alternative (re)opens

david — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:35:30 +0000

Cutting the chord

Civic was bustling with the usual crowd of public servants queuing their subarus on Northbourne while the chic young crowd pedalled serenely along the broad walkways that surround the Sydney and Melbourne building, themselves a gentle reminder of a different era. Outside April’s caravan sat on some plastic grass while the Moochers [...]

Australia: The costs are spiralling

david — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:20:59 +0000

Adele is quick to blame “high wages, high input costs including energy and rental costs’ for the high cost of living in Oz without any mention of the fundamental cost of having a roof over your head.

Adele’s analysis is overly simplistic but dangerously prescient. According to Adele something has to give if we are to [...]

Facebook – charging you to message someone

david — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:33:12 +0000

I read it here but then it happened! Up popped the little ‘friendly’ facebook window with the added option of paying a $1 to send my message…wtf? You have to be fucking kidding me, an sms cost me a few cents, a phone call costs me 25 but a dollar for a facebook message ??? [...]

Facebook ‘erodes any idea of privacy’

david — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:26:22 +0000

Fortunately there is a simple fix, don’t put facebook on your phone. While it probably won’t make a lot of difference to your privacy in the real world, since the government can tap your mobile device on just about any whim and the telcos collect plenty of data, not to mention what Google, Apple and [...]

Tweet ping – wtf

david — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:57:18 +0000

A fan of Twitter? The cacophony of inane one liners and official media savvy utterances generated by self made new media experts in the employ of those who can afford such things…well here’s a way of visualising it

As a matter of disclosure, I did get the link from a page that I got in my [...]

HSBC, too big to jail, is the new poster child for US two-tiered justice system

david — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:10:20 +0000

Glenn Greenwald writes in the Guardian

It has become a virtual consensus among the elites that their members are so indispensable to the running of American society that vesting them with immunity from prosecution – even for the most egregious crimes – is not only in their interest but in our interest, too.

So if money [...]

ABC murders Jack Irish

david — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 08:31:59 +0000

The first telemovie production based on Peter Temple’s brilliant book is just short of appalling. Forget about the bastardisation of the plot because that’s the least of the problems. The biggest problem and one Peter Temple himself must have been conscious of when he publicly stated Pearce had a lot to offer in the role [...]

Creating a giant trap for pollution

david — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:58:12 +0000

I know it’s the silly season and maybe the Grimes needs to publish stuff just to stay alive but really this “story” is so lame I feel compelled to point out the bleeding obvious, a point the author avoided possibly because it might offend the very readers the Grimes is trying to cultivate, namely the [...]

Nick Feik | Green movement has been an abject failure

david — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:21:03 +0000

Nick’s question: “why (has) a political and social movement failed to convert scientific consensus into action” seems to attribute failure to the green movement yet the rhetorical question ending his article does have a rather straightforward answer.

Let’s reassess Nick’s question. Firstly it is premised on the belief that a scientific consensus should be sufficient for [...]

Currying favour with the Sydney elite

david — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 06:51:43 +0000

While Mr Mordant’s credentials as a patron of the arts seem impeccable and his public position as philanthropist make it difficult to criticise his appointment to the board of the ABC one has to wonder if this isn’t just a case of the ALP doing a bit of bridge building with the jewish community.

It also [...]