The Murdoch apology does not let us off the hook

Above is Rupert Murdoch’s apology for the actions of the News of the World, to run in the UK in the wake of the resignations of Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton.    They’re great words, and they’re straight out of the PR 101 playbook.    Some might say they’re a trifle too late, as was […]

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The dystopian future has arrived, and it’s called Ryanair

This was too priceless to share only with my Tumblr readers. It’s an excerpt from a review of Ryanair, sent to my friend Nadine Isler, who has since published (with permission) on her site: Entering the cabin, I was greeted by a blindingly bright yellow ceiling that would be more at home on the back […]

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As News of the World closes, we might be getting better at making business accountable

So James Murdoch has announced the end of the News of the World. It’s no biggie: as others have discovered, a domain name for The Sun on Sunday has been registered, and if this is by an agent of News International, it simply makes sense for the Murdoch Press to consolidate its tabloid brands and […]

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Saab to get €245 million if Pang Da and Youngman deal approved

Today, from Saab: Swedish Automobile N.V. (SWAN) and Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) today announced the signing of final agreements with Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd. (Pang Da) and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. (Youngman), thereby converting the non-binding memorandum of understanding relating to the equity investment of Pang Da and Youngman … […]

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Google organized the web, Facebook our social networks; what does Plus do?

I see the Google press machine has been switched on as the company pursues the Facebook social-networking market with Plus. Google, I’m betting, must hope that history will repeat itself. It wasn’t the first search engine, it simply did it better. Plus, in Googleland, it is a better proverbial mousetrap than Facebook.    I might […]

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Privacy Commissioner agrees with my 2009 thoughts: New Zealand Post breached your privacy

A Fairfax Press headline today: ‘“Large-scale breach” of privacy rules by NZ Post’. The Privacy Commissioner has found New Zealand Post breached privacy rules in a promotion in July 2009, which I thought would have been a juicy story back then.    The reporters write: The 2009 survey asked participants 57 multi-choice questions, ranging from […]

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A whinge about whinging

I’ve seen this lament on a few more places now: why bother having a comment box?    We’ve just had someone tell us at Lucire that there is no such person as Princess Catherine. Well done. We all know that technically there is no such person, if one is referring to the wife of Prince […]

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The land beyond Facebook

Stowe Boyd wrote (and I re-Tumbled) the big drop in US and Canadian Facebook traffic this week: Most prominently, the United States lost nearly 6 million users, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it. This is the first time the country has lost users in […]

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Facebook hates The Scotsman, and other xenophobic bugs

Some very interesting errors on the internet today.    Facebook blocked an innocent link about the price of electricity in Scotland, from The Scotsman, because it was deemed ‘abusive or spammy’. Maybe Scottish accents don’t go down well in California. Hang on, didn’t they import Craig Ferguson?    I am told by Colvin Inglis on […]

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Wellington Airport flip-flops again, but pennies drop more quickly in Queensland

Today, those of us on the anti-‘Wellywood’ sign page got some welcome news: that Wellington Airport would reconsider.    But, I had to point out, this is again déjà vu. Last time, the Airport flip-flopped as well, and said it would consult the public.    Given that the resource consent for ‘Wellywood’ was for nine […]

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