Tomorrow, it will be one month since the Christchurch ’quake. It’s tempting to argue scale—the Japanese earthquake and tsunami versus our own—but at the end of the day, people are people, and our nations have both been hurting. We have become united, through disasters that emphasized that we live in an emerging global community. […]
Read More… from Some positive news a month on from the Christchurch ’quake
Earlier this month, I gave a workshop talk to the Leadership and Development Conference for the New Zealand Chinese Association in Auckland. I’ve just uploaded the speech notes, and as I did so, I wanted to append a few more thoughts. The topic was identity—not just branding, but personal identity. My self-critique […]
I’m not enough of a bastard to only dis Google, because they have made a pretty good move today. Google’s new algorithm, it is claimed, will weed out content farms, one type of site that has annoyed us here regularly. These are sites that just pinch others’ content automatically. Because search engines pick […]
Read More… from Google’s new algorithm will likely weed out content mills
As jobs are vital to any economy, there is, at least, a glimmer of good news from Christchurch’s manufacturing sector. Tait, Sanitarium, and Steel & Tube appear to have escaped major damage, says The New Zealand Herald. It’s not much solace to those who have lost everything from homes to limbs to family […]
Read More… from Glimmers of hope for the people of Christchurch
Above Good Living, November 11, 2009, with Angela Stone and Megan Banks. Or, the day I met Donna Manning, who produced the show. I drove in a total daze today. The last time I felt like this was September 12, 2001,* the day of the World Trade Center attacks. And then I learned a […]
It was with great sadness that I wrote an obit about my favourite composer, John Barry, today, and published it on the Lucire website. While Barry didn’t have to do with fashion per se, his music was often fitting themes to each era. Who can write a complete history of 1960s’ music without some […]
Monika Flückiger/Creative Commons And people thought I was de-Googling my life or being mean to Google. What about Mr Murdoch and his entire firm? We all know his comments about how he wanted to block Google News’s bot and had spoken out against that. While little happened on that front with the exception of […]
Read More… from Rupert Murdoch has it in for Google more than I ever could
Normally I think Piers Morgan is a plonker, and the time Jeremy Clarkson punched him at the BAFTAs remains one of entertainment’s best stories. However, I have enjoyed Life Stories, and he has been a worthy successor, in my mind, to Larry King. Of course it’s not the same show, but the important thing […]
Read More… from Ricky Gervais offends … actually, I don’t know whom
Initially I was disappointed to lose the foreign channels on Ziln, the New Zealand service that was broadcasting DW-TV, TV5 Monde, al-Jazeera English, etc. When I wrote to them, one of its bosses replied—on Christmas Day! He explained to me that Ziln’s focus had changed to promoting New Zealand content, so if I knew […]
I found it very odd that Antiques Roadshow and Mythbusters were nominated for the reality TV category at the Emmy Awards. Based on the vocabulary I grew up with, these are not ‘reality TV’. I doubt many of us over a certain age would think of The Gong Show or New Zealand’s Top Town […]