When referring to ‘a techno-authoritarian surveillance state’ is not alarmist

If you watch one in-depth interview this week, it should be this one: Jon Stewart interviewing Carole Cadwalladr, on broligarchs, “AI”, and a techno-authoritarian surveillance state. And no, not a single component of that title is alarmist. We have been watching the world head to this point right through the 2010s, except now it’s accelerating […]

Read More… from When referring to ‘a techno-authoritarian surveillance state’ is not alarmist



No matter how bad you had it, someone had it worse

Two things: I did say “AI” programs would ultimately make up false stories about us all. And what happened to me in 2024 was not as bad as what happened to Arve Hjalmar Holmen in Norway. There are still a few disinformation stories left about me—about four more where companies who would normally enforce their […]

Read More… from No matter how bad you had it, someone had it worse



Exporting with intent

Watching the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest performance of 'Waterloo' at ABBA the Museum.

As it’s the 50th anniversary year of ABBA’s win at the Eurovision Song Contest, I checked out Channel 5’s documentary on the subject. There was a lot I already knew from having visited ABBA the Museum in the summer, where one exhibit celebrated the milestone. As I wrote in Lucire, the pre-ABBA world for the […]

Read More… from Exporting with intent



More disinformation sploggers point to Semrush

More disinformation sploggers have owned up and blamed Semrush, not that they are taking their posts down. The latest: Hope you are doing well. First of all we are extremely sorry for using the keyword related to your name. We only use this as a keyword. According to the semrush this keyword has potential of […]

Read More… from More disinformation sploggers point to Semrush



It would be nice to get my Amazon Associates money

This has been going on for between 10 and 20 years, and I think closer to the latter. Didn’t know Jeff was this hard up for cash. I didn’t record the dialogue last time, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but since I can’t trust the buggers, I will this time. Fed in to […]

Read More… from It would be nice to get my Amazon Associates money



Google can’t deal with YouTube code; and a farewell to Smugmug after 13 years

Once again, Google is full of bollocks. Its latest email to me says there’s a video on the Lucire website that’s ‘too tall’.     Here’s a screenshot of the offending video on the page it identified.     I checked the embed code, and the width is set to 300, the height to 169. […]

Read More… from Google can’t deal with YouTube code; and a farewell to Smugmug after 13 years



Remembering Nehemiah Persoff, 1919–2022

Nehemiah Persoff as a corrupt Latin American finance minister, Phillipe Pereda, in the Mission: Impossible episode, ‘The Vault’ (1969).   I read that the wonderful Palestinian-born character actor Nehemiah Persoff passed away this month last year, aged 102. I remember Nehemiah most from the third-season Mission: Impossible episode, ‘The Vault’, which is among the best […]

Read More… from Remembering Nehemiah Persoff, 1919–2022



Are hybrids better for the environment than pure EVs?

Shared by a family member. Hear out Dr Graham Conway, principal engineer in the Automotive Division at Southwest Research Institute, and why zero-emission vehicles are not truly zero-emission. It’s a point I’ve made way, way back (in the 2000s) when I cited a study which showed the Ford Fiesta Econetic, a diesel car, was the […]

Read More… from Are hybrids better for the environment than pure EVs?



A new video for the home page

Earlier today, Amanda and I had a wonderful time at Te Papa to celebrate the Chinese Languages in Aotearoa programme. My contribution was appearing in a video, that was on this blog last October. It dawned on me that despite being on YouTube, this really needs to be on the home page of this website, […]

Read More… from A new video for the home page



Facebook: the year in review

If you’d rather not read every Facebook entry I made on my blog this year, here’s a helpful video by Simon Caine on all the shitty things they’ve done over 2021. As we still have a couple of weeks of 2021 left to go, I’m betting they will still do something shitty that deserves to […]

Read More… from Facebook: the year in review