Public Address - Hard News (Home)

Losing the Bird | Mar 31, 2006 11:04

So does Sky's satellite service count as critical infrastructure? Those of us tracking news of the Optus B1 bird last night were looking at a fairly extraordinary prospect: that, as NBR's site had it, the satellite "may be missing without hope of recovery." Just before 8pm, a post to the Geekzone forums declared: "Unofficial word at the moment from several sources is that the Optus B1 satellite has lost all ground contact and is probably dead."

As it turns out, it's not that bad, and service, albeit a little patchy, is back this morning. But it seems obvious that there were genuine fears that Optus B1 was gone for good last night. The satellite has been vulnerable since its main satellite control processor (SCP) failed nearly a year ago. PA reader Lex Miller noted that on this site (which is now password-protected) the status of B1 is reported thus:

"[This satellite] Lost its primary SCP on 21 May 2005 causing an outage. The satellite now needs an urgent replacement."

Optus has two new satellites in preparation, but they're months away from commissioning. If B1 really had been lost, there would have been limited capacity on the Optus C1 bird, but the only Sky customers who would easily have been able to switch are those MySky customers who got a dual-LNB dish as part of their install.

The other services reportedly down last night - Fire Service in-fill paging, some air traffic control functions and some interbank transmissions- and the radio stations that use Sky to trunk their signal around the country, would presumably have made similar arrangements. But for most people, there would simply have been no Sky Digital. For months. Phew.

Well done to whoever was manning the NBR site, BTW. Desfinitely the best mainstream coverage.

Staying with television, I believe I predicted some time ago that C4 would pick The Daily Show. And, now, it has. The Daily Show will screen at 10pm on Thursday nights (after Little Britain) from April 18. So that's the weekly Daily Show … I've tried to find out if it's the "international" edition already tucked away on the CNN schedules, but I can't get anyone to call me back. It's a bit of a shame it's not the regular daily programme, which is a lot better, but it's nice that it's turning up in some form.

Bloggers! Struggling to really nail that wise but forthright post on the fucked-up mess/gradual march to freedom [tick one] in Iraq? The Chaser is here to help. See My Column on Iraq Kicks Your Column on Iraq's Ass!

Jordan Carter notes the new OECD report listing New Zealand as one of the countries which takes the least tax off the income of its citizens (again). Won't stop people claiming precisely the opposite, of course.

Mirage Media in complimenting-a-talkback-host shock! Justin du Fresne, that is. He also says a bundle about two other ignorant radio loudmouths:

Martin Devlin (Radio Live) and Leighton Smith (Newstalk ZB Auckland) launched into a tirade against people with mental health illnesses. This, in wake of the incident in Rotorua where a woman was viciously attacked by her mentally ill son. I'm not saying this story doesn't deserved to be aired. Like other crime stories however it doesn't deserve to be debated above important political issues.

The only people who have an interest in the case are those who personally knew the victim and perpetrator (like other crime stories). Instead, Smith and Devlin used this single case as an empirical example of the dangers associated with mental health patients and the failings of the mental health system.

Objective and intelligent debate on the issue of mental health was unfortunately absent from their discussions, as real data and statistics weren't even considered. (There is research to suggest for instance that people that suffer from mental health problems are no more likely to commit violent crime than anyone else, whereas they are far more likely to be victims of crime).

Smith and Devlin do this pluralistic democracy a great injustice by ignoring the evidence, whilst relying on single cases and individual prejudice to shape debate. The event was a single case and deserved no more airtime than any criminal case (very little). If the hosts want to discuss mental health issues, I suggest they consult objective academic research in the area.

Very cool United Church of Christ ad from America.

More ZAP stories. Lee Wilkinson had a magical time:

One of the weirdest things I've ever experienced was attending some ZAP lectures around 1980. The point: the lectures were on a theme called positive action and that guy John Dalhoff was the lecturer, he said I'm going to show an example of positive action next month and I thought, show me. Well the next month he pulls out two cheques and letters from the "Golden kiwi" for 1st AND 2nd prize. I saw it man!

Btw, he was independently major wealthy inheritor of Dalhoff & King, the people distributing International Harvester machinery. Got no idea what happened to any of those dudes but those "both barrels bullseye" thickshakes from the doghouse rocked. I think for me I learned stuff from them that I've never seen disproved in life and I'm a sceptic/analyst type. I couldn't relate to their hard right ideology tho!

For the benefit of younger readers, the Golden Kiwi was the national lottery. In the days before we had a market economy, it was one of the most popular ways of getting rich (well, that and the ownership of import licences, as Alan Gibbs would attest) and Barry Crump even enshrined it in a book called The Odd Spot of Bother. But the fact that a number of the ZAPpers went bankrupt suggests that the special Johnny Ultimate magic was not a long-term thing. Damn right about the milkshakes, though. I recall one with icecream and an egg that was really very good.

Geoff Lealand was also in touch:

Interesting to read about ZAP after all this time. I thought (and hoped) that this mob of despicable people had died off long ago.

When I was a student at Canterbury in the late 70s, I wrote a one-off student guide to Christchurch, for the Student Union. I recommended avoiding places such The Dog House because of their association with unsavoury ZAP people. When the guide was published, I was warned several times that ZAP people were out to get me (in a dark alley, presumably) but, in the end, I was probably in greater danger of violence or death from The Dog House burgers!

There is probably a research essay- or dissertation- in investigating why Christchurch produces more than its share of right-wing lunatics!

And a little message:.

Dear Warner Music,

RB here. You sometimes gave me free CDs when I was in a different branch of journalism, way, way before you were owned by Edgar Bronfman Jnr. Good luck with that, by the way.

I'd just like you to know that the moment you can sell me a copy of the new Flaming Lips album At War With the Mystics, I'll buy one.

In the meantime, if you're going to let an "advance" copy fall into the hands of The People Who Upload Files, what's a guy supposed to do?

It takes maybe three listens to click, but, damn, this is a good Flaming Lips album. It's just as well that people can also preview it on the Flaming Lips website, by clicking the "audio" button.

I've been particularly enjoying the first single, 'The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song' which has more hooks than a tackle bag. Last Saturday night I helped my mates Andy and Dazza polish up their forthcoming documentary and there are pictures of us totally getting down to this bit while we worked:

It's a very dangerous thing
To do exactly what you want
Because you cannot really know yourself
Or what you really do
With all your power ...

Good old Wayne Coyne, eh?

Cheers,
RB

PS: Don't supposed you guys have any idea when we get iTunes in New Zealand?

And in conclusion, happy fortysomethingth birthday to Big Gay Paul. See you tonight, pal …

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The Big House | Mar 29, 2006 10:42

After yesterday's revelations, I feel the time has come for me to reveal my own past. Yes, people, 23 years ago, I lived in a house that harboured socialists, anarchists, feminists, lesbians, hippies, greenies, punks, junkies, prostitutes, musicians, poets, artists, lunatics, doctors and law students (although not necessarily all at the same time). A building whose floors have been walked by Jean Batten, Bruno Lawrence, Kerry Fox and Nandor Tanczos. The place that the New Zealand police long baton was first drawn in anger.

It was The Big House, 42 St George's Bay Road, Parnell, whose story I have told in the new issue of Metro magazine. The feature was a rewarding piece of work, and I'm quite pleased with it. I'm not sure whether to be delighted or disappointed that the editors chose not to use period photographs: the young folk definitely dress better these days.

This is really all by way of introduction to the fact that the current residents have made a Big House website, which will be the hub for a reunion at some point - probably next year, when the renovations are finished. In the meantime, former residents - and there will be many former residents of a house with 21 bedrooms - should check in. I'd also be delighted if you were to send me your own stories of living and partying at the Big House.

Lest it be thought that I am in any way trying to destroy the Act Party, I humbly submit that this is a political party eminently capable of tearing itself apart, without any help. Former party member Robin Booth, guesting on The Whig blog, sounds off about the party's new president in a post headed Is Act A Goer or a Goner? :

Upon refusing to resign as an elected ACT Board Member and thus facing expulsion from the Party (all thanks to Gary Mallet) I approached various ACT MP's asking for their help to resolve this situation. Sadly the only MP who wanted to make the effort to even listen to my case was Rodney Hide. While talking to Rodney about this matter, his office manager Chris Diack asked who on ACT's Board had passed this crazy motion. When I said it was Gary Mallet, Chris snickered and said they'd concluded a long time ago that Gary Mallet was mad, barking mad.

"What mad as in being a little hot under the collar or psychologically mad?" I asked.

"Psychologically mad." came the reply.

"Yeah our nick name for Garry Mallet around here is "Mad Mallet," added Rodney Hide completely supportive of Chris Diack's assessment of the guy.

So if Rodney Hide really thinks his new Party President is a sandwich short of a picnic, and mad Gary Mallet is now in charge of running (or ruining) Rodney Hides political life, this could prove to be a very horrible relationship indeed. Almost as bad as having President Catherine Judd emotionally tell the ACT Board at its 2002 List Selection meeting that she thought Rodney Hide was a detestable man and that she would rather resign from the Party than see him become it's leader.

It should be noted that in a reply, Diack strongly denies saying or doing anything of the kind. In an earlier thread there's much wailing, gnashing, kicking, biting and scratching amongst the commenters.

Although it might not seem that way, I'm actually not trying to gloat here. But Act has had identity problems since its founding conference; in part because it attracts certain people who have nothing in common but their zealotry: conservatives, conspiracists and just plain angry people. I'm wondering - again - if it's time to pack up and start again, with a real economic and social liberal party. I'd keep Rodney Hide - and he'd certainly want to keep Epsom. But perhaps he wants to think about exactly what he's doing on Dancing With the Stars ...

Meanwhile, Trevor Loudon has a boy's own adventure with the communist enemy.

And reader Jonathan Maze has ZAP memories:

Interesting to hear about ZAP again. I'm from Christchurch originally also and remember the profile they had locally. I used to work at the Arts Centre where one of the weekend stall holders was a devotee, he was an unfriendly intense beady eyed fellow who ran a fast food stall (no hippy/ethnic food for him). One day I peered into his car and saw the handwritten note to himself that he had sellotaped in the centre of his steering wheel: "THINK DON'T FEEL!"

David McLoughlin noted that he was in fact the author of the un-bylined 1983 Herald story about the ZAPpers being chucked out of the fascist New Force party.

Mirage Media catches NewstalkZB slipping the sponsor's name into news bulletins.

No Right Turn posts from the climate change conference.

RobO opines on the surprising productivity statistics - and reads the label on Chinese toothpaste. Eyewinker!

Interesting post about the "good news from Iraq" meme, with quotes from an actual serving infantryman and some good links - especially the Olberman video.

Bush allegedly tells the Iraqi Prime Minister he's surplus to requirements.

Speaking of Iraq, congratulations to Riverbend.

On the Public Address Virtual Super 14 leader board, the amazing Nic Jones clears out with a 45-point score. I'm hanging on just above the cut …

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Anyone more normal? | Mar 28, 2006 10:48

There's plenty on the wires to be going on with as regards the weekend's Act Party conference; and not just the part about attracting no votes at all in the latest One News poll, or even the broadside about muckraking from party founder Roger Douglas.

Scoop highlights the rather odd spectacle of Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia turning up to be the sweetie at the conference of the party whose leader last year compared her party to the National Front. All okay now, then?

The party went on to elect a president who felt it appropriate to make a vomiting gesture when talking about gay men at a candidate's meeting in Hamilton last year.

And then there's the new vice-president, Trevor Loudon, who still actively "studies" with the quasi-religious capitalism cult Zenith Applied Philosophy, which supposedly schismed away from Scientology early on (it's now on the notorious Church of Scientology "fair game" list, along with the Universal Church of Eternal Phetan, the Institute of Advanced Perception, and what seems like a million other flaky, cultish outfits).

ZAP was big news in Christchurch when I was a lad there. Its leader called himself Johnny Ultimate and appeared to have special powers. ZAP members would distribute recruiting leaflets by bus stops in the square, and also circulate books from the John Birch Society, a far-right American organisation which held that both the US and Soviet governments were controlled by a conspiracy of greedy bankers and corrupt politicians. (This archived thread from nz.politics has some more observations.)

ZAP owned a lot of commercial property in the city, including the old Dog House burger bar in Cathedral Square. We went to the Dog House for the milkshakes and the spacies, but one time there I found a copy of the infamous conspiracy tract None Dare Call It Conspiracy, which has long been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League as anti-semitic (the book dismisses the ADL as "Jewish members of the conspiracy"). It was a strange thing to leave lying around for the kids.

The Australian anti-fascist site Fight Dem Back says that in the 1980s ZAP was associated with the neo-Nazi Nationalist Workers Party - but provides no source for the claim. There are further claims to the same effect in this Kiwiblog thread. The link is emphatically denied by Loudon in answer to a series of questions from the Green Party's Russel Norman about his past, on his blog:

There never have been any such links. I am willing to bet my membership and position in ACT against your membership and position in the Green Party, that you have no credible proof of such allegations. I suggest that if you have no proof, you withdraw your question on this subject from your Frogblog post now and post a statement confirming that you were merely "flying a kite" or were misinformed.

Oddly enough, I have a copy of a New Zealand Herald story from June 20, 1983, headed 'Nazis, Zap and Trim Out'. It contains the news that New Force, a party founded by the notorious local fascist and occultist Kerry Bolton had expelled "nazi elements" and "sympathisers of two Christchurch-based organizations, Zenith Applied Philosophy and Trim, the Tax Reduction Integrity Movement."

New Force had been formed by Bolton in 1981 and stood Mr B.W. Zandbergen as a candidate in Western Hutt in that year's general election. It joined the Springbok Tour debate with a pro-apartheid stance, and called for the repatriation of Pacific Islanders.

In 1983 the ZAP and Trim contingent of New Force had demanded that New Force swing in behind their free-market laissez-faire philosophies, and threatened to join Bob Jones' new party if this didn't happen. It didn't, they were chucked out, and after that, New Force became the Nationalist Workers Party. You may look at this and think Loudon is playing semantics here. Perhaps this is simply a case of a cult that attracted the kind of losers and weirdos who independently decided it would be a good idea to try and take over a fascist organisation, but there clearly were "links".

In the same post, Loudon pleads good old youthful indiscretion to questions about a piece in his 1980s magazine New Zeal, which alleged that the Business Roundtable was a communist front organisation ("I did endorse it and am ashamed of doing so").

And it might seem mean to start citing the man's past now he has entered (relatively) mainstream politics. Well, it would be if Loudon hadn't distinguished himself as the local blogosphere's leading ideological underwear-sniffer over the past year or so.

Loudon has obsessively researched the political histories of various New Zealanders, citing their past activities (often as students) in an apparent attempt to imply that they are some sort of covert communist threat. The results, as ProgBlog noted in a post yesterday, can be asinine. (Disclosure: I have not only heard of Joss Debreceny, I have met him in a professional context. He is a nice man who has worked for a number of corporations and I'm really pretty sure he's not a Marxist sleeper.)

Most of Loudon's attention, however, has been directed at Green Party development co-ordinator Russel Norman. His allegations about Norman are discussed here. It all seems a bit sad (if not out of character - this is a man who used to run after Lada drivers and harangue them in the street), especially when, as noted in this interesting Kiwiblog thread, Loudon has been known to launch his conspiracies on dead people.

So far, so weird. Can't Act find anyone more … normal?

As I've said before, I see great value in a classical liberal party in Parliament, playing the same role on the right as the Greens do on the left. The media debate at the moment is about whether it's going to be Rodney Hide's Act or Roger Douglas's Act. Frankly, I think it's looking more like Muriel Newman's Act.

Elsewhere on the weirdo right, an academic celebrated, invited to New Zealand and published by the Maxim Institute has made some unfortunate headlines in Britain. In an interview with a student paper, Frank Ellis expressed his belief that the white male is genetically superior to any other race and also to white women, and praised the racist British National Party - and has now been suspended from his post at Leeds University. The anti-fascist organisation Searchlight told the Guardian that Ellis had been touting such views for 15 years. Quite where a lecturer in Russian gets off making creepy pronouncements about genetics I'm not sure, but, as we have seen, scientific robustness has never really been a strong suit for Maxim.

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Scientology is retarded | Mar 24, 2006 10:21

Has TV3 felt the pain of Catholic anger after all? And will the Church of Scientology be next? Rick Friesen insisted yesterday that the broadcaster's apology and undertaking not to screen the 'Bloody Mary' episode of South Park again was not was about ratings or money, but "the genuine offence that we have caused to people that we had not expected." Huh?

TV3's claim to have "reviewed our internal processes for dealing with religious programmes, particularly in relation to religious satire," is a bit bizarre too. It wasn't an internal process, it was a public stance; one it appears to now have reversed.

The background here gets interesting. Months ago, Comedy Central also dropped 'Bloody Mary' from its re-run schedule, an action that earned footnotes rather than news headlines. There has been rather more of a new storm about it doing the same thing with 'Trapped in the Closet', an episode that featured Tom Cruise and borrowed narrative elements from R Kelly's infamous song cycle to highlight the absurdity of Scientology doctrine. If you're familiar with the various strands of popular culture involved, you might well find it screamingly funny. I know I did.

Comedy Central's action follows a public statement by Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, announcing his departure on account of the show's disrespectful treatment of Scientology, to which he subscribes. But the smarter money is on the motive being pressure applied by Cruise: did he threaten to refuse to do publicity on a movie in which Comedy Central's owner, Viacom, has an interest?

The irony is that Comedy Central hasn't exactly skulked off to a corner over this one. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have responded to events with an episode called 'The Return of Chef', which is nicely summed up here.

The entire plot line of this episode is an obvious stab at Isaac Hayes's recent departure and against Scientology in general. Using pre-recorded audio clips, they dubbed over Chef's voice to make him say horrible things about molesting children, which the boys discover is the result of Chef having joined some "fruity little club." It even goes so far as to have the club leader explain why they believe in molesting children, an explanation which in it of itself is a reference to the show's explanation of Scientology in the episode "Trapped in the Closet." (The same episode that caused Isaac Hayes to leave the show in the first place.)

I watched 'The Return of Chef' last night. It's wildly offensive, both in general and more particularly to the Church of Scientology itself. It is also, as is the way of Stone and Parker, thoughtful and even touching.

At one point, the Super Adventure Club's Head Adventurer William P. Connelly Esq explains to the kids the Super Adventure club's gospel, which is not dissimilar to the story of Xenu, the founding myth of Scientology written by L. Rob Hubbard in the late 60s:

Kyle: "Do you realise how retarded that sounds?

Connelly: "Is it any more retarded than the idea of God sending his son to die for our sins? Is it any more retarded than Buddha sitting beneath a tree for 20 years?"

Kyle: "Yeah. It's way, way more retarded."

Stone and Parker seem to think so too. I don't happen to believe in the founding myths of the major religions (and there's a decent case for saying Jesus never existed as a single individual), but at least they have some stature and grace. Scientology's story is just astonishingly bad science fiction.

Anyway, if you like to keep up with cultural controversy in real time, there are good torrents for Trapped in the Closet and The Return of Chef. You can't really watch one without the other. They're in Real format, so the files are relatively small.

The full Brash interview from 95bFM yesterday is up online. I did hear right: he described the prosectutions of his MPs Shane Ardern and Nick Smith as "spurious and rather trivial". He might have a point with Ardern - but Smith? Feel free to have another look at what he did and what the court thought of his evidence under oath.

Brash also claimed, absurdly, that Parliament was in the process of amending the laws on reporting on the Family Court in a way that would have made Nick Smith's actions legal. Parliament subsequently did, indeed, open the Family Court to reporting under clear and careful conditions. It most certainly did not change the law to allow MPs to make pressuring phone calls to litigants and attempt to influence decisions by making wild and inflammatory public statements about cases in progress.

Brash needs to calm down. Lawyer and Public Address reader Anthony Trenwith thinks so too:

Clearly Don Brash should at least try to learn something about contempt of court. It takes a fair bit of doing to be held in contempt for a start - it's not something you can really do inadvertently (or at least not do and be proceeded against for).

Also, the police have nothing to do with contempt of court. The "charge" is actually brought by the Solicitor-General - an independent civil servant. Of course, as any politician knows, the facts should never be allowed to get in the way of a decent story!

Wheat really irks me though is the use of the term "prima facie case" in relation to the police decision to prosecute. Properly (with jury trials at least) it's not the police's call to decide if there's a prima facie case, that's the purpose of a depositions hearing. Even in summary jurisdiction, a decision to prosecute means very little on an evidentiary level.

The charge can still be withdrawn by police prosecutions (a quasi-separate entity from the rest of the thin blue line with their own hierarchy) who can (and do) make their own decisions about whether or not to proceed with a case.

I do wish that our MPs would grow up and at least try not to act like a bunch of 10 year olds. The police made their decision - end of story. If it really gets up Brash's skirt that much then he should feel free to take a private prosecution against every single member of the Labour caucus!

Helen Clark probably needs to calm down too. Given the disgraceful nonsense Investigate magazine has published about her alleged personal life, she has every right to consider Ian Wishart a "creep". I'd personally be tempted towards saying or doing more than that if it happened to me. But, of course, the moment she says so, Wishart becomes the injured party.

Anyway, a couple more thoughts on the Ponsonby Road shunt, as covered yesterday. Craig Ranapia asks, justifiably, why it took the PM's office six weeks to come up with a minimum-possible written answer to Rodney Hide's question. Were they just trying to piss him off? Or, as another tipster suggested to me yesterday, is the real story that official drivers have been involved in more than one minor traffic whoopsie? So was a matter of, so to speak, a right old bunch of shunts?

Whatever. I hope the voters of Epsom feel well-served by Hide's latest diversion, because it seems his own party is getting pretty fed up with the muck-raking.

And finally, here's something we don't usually see. New Zealand-born mathematician Professor Vaughan Jones, recipient of his discipline's top gong, the Fields Medal (and a Distinguished Companion of the Order of New Zealand), is back here from Berkley and giving lectures at the Auckland and Palmerston North campuses of Massey University next week.

Jones is reckoned to be a brilliant, informal lecturer and the events have been mounted by the Institute of Fundamental Sciences at Massey as part of its mission to bring science to the general public. His lecture, Romancing the Commutator, being the tale, from prehistory to the twenty first century, of the stormy relationship between PQ and QP apparently incorporates sex, envy, Descartes and rugby football. (Jones famously wore an All Black jersey when he accepted his Fields Medal.)

The Auckland leg is at LT300 at the Massey campus in Albany, 6pm, on Monday. I was going to flick some invites to Public Address readers, but arrangements have changed and you can just bowl up on the night. It's free. More details here. He'll also deliver the lecture at the Palmy campus on the 30th.

PS: Harmeet Sooden. Armed rescue - or face-saving cover story for a negotiated settlement? I'm inclining towards the latter, given that the rescue team was able to stroll into a house where the only occupants were the hostages. Where were the bad guys? Had they popped down to the dairy for fags and a pint of milk?

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