Category: politics
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The Photo Police
All too often we hear stories of over-zealous security officials hassling innocent photographers doing what comes naturally: taking photos of beautiful structures in the public domain. It appears this is now happing in Dubai with people with SLRs being prevented from photographing the awe-inspiring Burj Al Arab hotel (in order to “protect the hotel’s image”).…
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Jonathan Franzen on Shanghai
The novelist Jonathan Franzen is skilled at describing the rich and colourful dreams we have about our futures, whilst still managing to portray the bleak reality of life for society at large (I loved The Corrections). Shanghai seems like a great place for this style to really shine, as a recent audio story in The…
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Ze Frank’s ‘The Show’
I first came across Ze Frank in August 2006 when I watched his TED Talk, What’s so funny about the Web? Since then I hear of Ze sporadically, but have never really looked into any of his work. Well, that was until this morning when I came across The Show. produced monday through friday for…
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Sir Arthur C Clarke’s Final Message – Peace and Climate Change
By now everyone knows that Sir Arthur C Clarke recently passed away – a truly sad event. However, you may not have watched his ‘final message to earth‘. Communication technologies are necessary, but not sufficient, for us humans to get along with each other. This is why we still have many disputes and conflicts in…
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Screenwipe with Bill O’Reilly and Adam Curtis
I’ve just finished watching S4E3 of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe with its hilarious commentary on modern news reporting… I didn’t realise how completely insane Bill O’Reilly is! Part two of the episode also shows a short film created by the exceptional Adam Curtis – creator of such incredible documentaries as The Century of the Self and…
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The Worrying State of ‘World’ News
Alisa Miller of Public Radio International is speaking at TED 2008 – for her talk she posted a background video depicting the shocking state of U.S. cable and network news organisations’ reportage. “The US accounted for 79% of the total news coverage” on American news outlets dedicated to international news stories in 2006! I’d love…
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Tragedies ‘Warping Government Policy’
Good to see someone in power and in the public eye stating this for the record. Government policy is often badly formed because it is drawn up in response to tragedies and problems, the Government’s new head of risk management has said (Sam Coates writes). Rick Haythornthwaite, head of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council,…
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London Underground – Brought to You in Conjunction with Hugo Chavez
…Londoners on Income Support can get a card to allow travel on London buses and trams for half price. At the bottom of the [advertisement] are the proud logos of Mayor of London, Transport for London, and, incongruously, the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela. I presume that this is the fruit of Hugo Chavez’ visit to…
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Black President = World’s Complete Annihalation
The Onion does it again with ‘Do We Really Want Another Black President After The Events Of Deep Impact?‘ Have we learned nothing from the tragic events of 1998, when, under the watch of President Morgan Freeman, this nation was plunged into chaos, and hundreds of millions of people died at the hands of the…