On Wellywood, Murdoch and English accents

31.03.2010/10.00

The good news today is that Wellington Airport is ofﬁcially in two minds about what type of sign it will put up on the Miramar cutting, which means that the ‘Wellywood’ sign protest has had a victory of sorts. I’m thrilled at the news because it shows people power—especially people like Anthony Lander who […]

Metro gives thumbs-up to Stefan Engeseth’s Unplugged Speeches

21.03.2010/03.20

This is rather heartening to see, from the Metro freebie in Stockholm (the below is copied from the online edition): What’s in: Stefan Engeseth’s Unplugged Speeches series at the Regina Stockholms Operamathus (where yours truly gave the ﬁrst edition). What’s out: the growing mounds of paper (rather appropriate in an eco-conscious nation). […]

Toyota’s recent “30-degree” scandal in China

16.03.2010/00.23

Sam Flemming in Advertising Age mentioned the scandal that Toyota has been embroiled in inside China, before a lot of the bad press it received in the occident over “unintended acceleration”. This involved a netizen, an owner of a Toyota Highlander Sport, ﬁlming that his SUV was unable to get up a 30-degree incline, […]

I need to listen to some Fred Dagg before I go on

11.03.2010/05.54

To be conﬁrmed is an interview with the BBC, in my politician guise. I have not been on radio in the other hemisphere for something like seven years, and that time it went to some of the most way-out places (it was UN Radio). I have one reservation only: my accent goes all over the […]

The ‘Wellywood’ sign: people power gets things done

10.03.2010/06.18

That was a very interesting 30 hours. I found out about the ‘Wellywood’ sign yesterday afternoon, through Twitter, and Tweeted to say I hated it. Little did I know then that there was a huge Facebook group—6,000 strong at the time of writing—where Wellingtonians were making their voices known. And when I got there […]

Wellington needs free wiﬁ and jobs, not a council that goes nuts with spending

02.03.2010/12.23

Funny how a media article can inspire you to send out a release, especially when you’re a ratepayer and you wonder if our City Council of élites understands how hard it was for us to make that money. In today’s case, it was Lindsay Shelton’s Scoop Wellington op-ed about Wellington City Council going nuts with […]

Eric Karjaluoto begins giving away his Speak Human book

26.02.2010/05.53

A few authors—and not crappy ones, but those who have proven they can sell books—have resorted to giving them away online. Stefan Engeseth gave away his The Fall of PR and the Rise of Advertising online at the time of launch, while I received word that Eric Karjaluoto is now doing the same today. […]

Embrace life

22.02.2010/11.43

I may be later than many in writing about this, but I only saw it in my Tweetstream today. What a welcome departure from the blood-and-gore approach of many road safety public announcements, from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership. You may also like Drivetribe will be a mecca for motorheads—Autocade readers welcome Funny how […]

Surprises on the press freedoms’ map

09.02.2010/05.37

This map (via pedroelrey on Tumblr) is food for thought, about international press freedoms: Those of us who enjoy a free press need to use it and not take it for granted. We might not always like what’s being said, but we should embrace the fact that we can say it at all. […]

Toyota’s troubles stem from forgetting its principles

06.02.2010/09.35

I was surprised to learn that Toyota still has not issued a worldwide recall of its troublesome Prius NHW30 model, even though one had gone out in New Zealand. In layman’s terms, the brakes allegedly don’t work when you want them to. In more complex terms, the software has trouble distinguishing between different types […]