Public Address - Hard News (Home)

Icon Identities | Apr 07, 2008 10:04

Mitchell Pham, my main man from 'Nam, sent me this collection of icons that aim to capture the different ways in which significant concepts are perceived by Asians and Europeans.

They're the work of Yang Liu, a gifted graphic artist born in China and educated in Germany (apologies to those who saw them when they appeared late last year).

See also Parts II and III.

Mitchell's cover note was "Hi Russell, What do you think of these?" And I think that's what I like about them: they're concise, effective (you'll recognise the colour scheme) and they do actually make me think.

David Farrar has been at his number-wonking best digging through the New Zealand Electorate Profiles released by the Parliamentary Library. He wrote the Herald on Sunday a two-page feature which doesn't seem to be online (why, along with Keith Ng's Just the Facts, is the very content bloggers would like to link to not making it to the Herald website?). And he has now followed up with a list of "mosts" and "leasts" -- from "Most 50 – 64 year olds" (Coromandel) to "Least Catholics" (Nelson) and "Most residents born overseas" (Botany).

David gets marked down, however for taking up the silly claim that the One News' story on what appears to be a less than wholehearted personal commitment to climate change action by Maurice Williamson and Lockwood Smith is like "the Salem witch trials".

It was a thin lead story, but to claim that two senior MPs giving private briefings counter to their own party's official position is not news at all -- and is in fact evidence of collusion between One News and the government, as Matthew Hooton claimed yesterday -- is just silly.

David demands to know:

So why has One News not furiously chased down Labour MPs and asked them to all state on camera what their *personal* views are on reducing taxes?

Er, because no Labour spokespeople with relevant policy responsibility have been sharing those views with audiences in a private but official capacity and then playing sillybuggers when asked about it afterwards by a reporter? That'll be it …

It all seems to point to a remarkably sulky attitude from National's cheerleaders when the news doesn't run their way.

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Moments | Apr 04, 2008 09:52

Chatting with Kim Hill last Saturday about digital TV, when she, professing ignorance of technology, ventured, with full filthy intent, that she had a man around, "and he gave me digital". Eeew!

Downstairs, afterwards, popping in to the Fine Wine Delivery Company's sale, where people were trundling around swilling enormous, delicious tasting portions and hefting cases of wine onto trolleys already groaning under the weight of credit cards. Because, if there is a recession coming, you're going to want to drown your sorrows properly, aren't you?

The brief, inevitable "let's call the whole thing off" moment sitting at the shiny Media7 desk, soon followed by the odd calm of the "no more faffing about" moment as Leon counted me in and the red light blared on the camera, then the "not sure what to do with myself" moment after we wrapped a pretty smooth first recording. When I observed later that having all these people around was a little intimidating, friends thought I meant the audience. Not at all. I'm more than comfortable with an audience. It's the crew: all these people it takes to make a TV, show, all so experienced, and all helping. You feel a certain pressure to do your bit.

My cousin, Luke Saulbrey, coming around for dinner before the Media7 launch party. I don't often see Luke, and we almost instinctively fell to discussing our Grandpa, who Luke, with his raw, broad frame, resembles more than anyone else in the family. He was only five when Grandpa died, but he remembers the bountiful gardens at the house in Saulbrey Grove. We bonded over my herbed roast chicken and potatoes ("soul food", said Luke), then again at the party, where we got quite bonded indeed.

Falling asleep on the couch at home after the party and dimly surfacing to consciousness while an interminable infomercial featuring Lindsay Lohan played at 2am. Getting to bed, then waking up with a neck that won't turn more than 45 degrees to the right.

Battling the instinct to just chill through the morning and getting in to interview Darryn Harkness of New Telepathics for Public Address Radio. What a nice man, with, as Craig pointed out afterwards, a wonderfully relaxed voice.

Getting up from dinner to answer the door to a neighbour whose abusive relationship had finally come to a brief physical assault. Another of our neighbours was with her, and they'd come to ask advice "because you're in that TV ad". We agreed it needed to reported, and the police came later. She's out, she's strong and it's going to be alright. It was the surge in reported family violence in action, and it's a great thing, because really, It's Not OK.

Sometimes, I thought, being on TV does do some proper good.

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Episode One | Apr 03, 2008 12:37

Well, I think the first recording of Media7 went really well on Tuesday night, and it looked good on screen last night too. I need to loosen up in front of the autocue, but you get that. the video is up on TVNZ ondemand via our TVNZ mini-site, and a podcast version and a new YouTube channel (so you can embed the clips in your blog)will come online this afternoon.

The mini-site also features a Media7 blog that might be of interest, and there are discussion forums too. Go have a look …

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Psst! Got any Earl Grey? | Apr 03, 2008 10:31

If you were wondering, the secret magic ingredient in Stargate's new party pills, Hummer, Vegas Nights and Comet is synephrine, as also seen in dodgy diet supplements since US authorities banned ephedrine. Like ephedrine, it seems to be relatively harmless for occasional use -- unless you have high blood pressure or other cardiovascular problems -- but it's probably not something you want people gobbling all the time. (Neither, for that matter, was BZP.)

It is, as Matt Bowden said in a somewhat evasive interview on Campbell Live, naturally-derived: it's present as an extract of Citrus aurantium, or bitter orange, which is used in various cuisines and in traditional Chinese medicine. One variety of the orange, Bergamot, provides the oil that flavours Earl Grey tea.

Bowden has patented the particular mix of extracts in the pills as Floradrene, which I don't think is particularly helpful. People should know precisely what they're taking, and botanical names don't quite do it. There are a couple of user reports on this British site.

Interestingly, it appears that a revamp of the Misuse of Drugs Act to allow for testing and approval of novel recreational drugs is still on the cards -- and, indeed, is the subject of active discussion between the industry and the relevant ministries. Stargate customers have been told that Ease (that is, methylone, or "ecstasy for grown-ups") will be properly trialled later in the year. This is interesting new territory. And David Herkt will be happy.

Meanwhile, big ups to TV3's David Farrier for the excellent April Fool's Day report (well, I hope that's what it was) on jenkem that aired on Tuesday evening. It doesn't look like anyone bit, though.

PS: The video from last night's first Media7 show has been encoded and will be uploaded later this morning. I'll let you know in a separate post as soon as that happens.

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Ya rly | Apr 01, 2008 12:51

I know I said I wouldn't post … but if I promise not to give out stock tips, could Bruce Shepherd of the Shareholders' Association consider refraining from commenting on technology he clearly doesn't understand?

Shepherd declared in his Morning Report interview that Telecom only has a monopoly on "copper wire" which will only last 10 years before it is "killed" by the "cellular network". Ya rly.

Apart from anything else, Telecom's monopoly is not only on the copper in the ground but on the ducting through which some of it runs -- the same ducting that brought the fibre all the way to our new cabinets in Pt Chev. The cost and disruption, and the time it would take, of replicating that run would truly constitute the "waste" that Shepherd was blathering about.

Having spoken to some of the people from newly-separated Telecom Wholesale, my impression is that they are not "mindless paper shufflers", and that they are just a bit excited at the prospect that they are now not constrained from offering products that Telecom's retail division doesn't want in the market.

Shepherd also predicted that Telecom would "stop investing" in response to the separation. Which was, oddly enough, the same prediction he made before Telecom announced an unprecedented $1.4 billion campaign of capital investment.

I, too, hope that what Paul Reynolds described as the "new, open Telecom" will be a reality, and that no further regulation will be required. (Does anyone have any insight as to whether the separation of Telecom Networks might resolve the stand-off over peering?) I'm certainly prepared to give the company a chance. And, unlike Shepherd, I do think I have some idea what I'm talking about.

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