October 2007

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And they still get a vote…

31 October 2007 in Ecology, Human Nature, Politics by Stilgherrian | 7 comments

Global warming — no, I won’t cave into the Neo-Con’s re-branding of “climate change” — may be an important election issue. But, as with so many big issues, most voters wouldn’t have a clue.

Yesterday the Daily Telegraph asked people a multiple-choice question to see whether they knew what the Kyoto Protocol was. Nearly half got it right.

Respondents were asked to select a description of Kyoto from a set of multiple options: (a) A Korean car, (b) The treaty that ended WWII, (c) An agreement on carbon emissions and (d) A Japanese banquet dish.

Almost half of the people surveyed answered correctly… But close to half of those who answered correctly admitted guessing the response.

38% thought it was the treaty ending WWII.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Back when I was working for ABC Radio I did a vox pop the morning after a state cabinet re-shuffle, asking people to name any cabinet member, old or new. 80% didn’t know what a “cabinet” was, let alone any names.

PodCamp Perth 2007: Social Media and the Federal Election

31 October 2007 in Internet, Personal, Politics by Stilgherrian | 4 comments

Here’s a video of my presentation from PodCamp Perth 2007.

Thanks to Stewart Greenhill for the video work. As Stephen says:

I’ve put them on Viddler because it supports long videos and has some nifty tagging and commenting features. Feel free to be social: if you see something fun or interesting just click on the green “+” button and add a comment. That way, if people don’t have time to watch the whole thing at least we can check out the highlights. If you see the word “PROGRESSIVE” in the bottom left, click on it to switch to STREAMING mode. You can skip to any point in the movie by clicking in the seek bar, or on a comment point.

Alas, the very end is missing thanks to a flat camera battery. Mind you, Stephen wasn’t the only one to “experience technical difficulties”.

[Update 15 January 2007: I believe I have a complete audio recording of the session. If there's enough interest I'll combine it with my slides and this video, and/or generate a transcript.]

Global Warming: analysing the risk

31 October 2007 in Ecology by Stilgherrian | No comments

Frame grab from Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See

Yesterday Crikey reminded me about this video. I’d seen it before, but it’s worth seeing it again — particularly during the election campaign — and showing it to as many people as possible.

The message is simple. Perhaps we can never be 100% sure that global warming is primarily caused by human activity. However the risk of this being the case and us doing nothing about it far outweighs the risk of changing our behaviour and then finding out it wasn’t necessary.

Yielding to Temptation

30 October 2007 in Human Nature, Photography by Stilgherrian | No comments

Photograph of poster quoting Oscar Wilde: The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it

Spotted at Perth’s Belgian Beer Cafe on Sunday afternoon, some excellent philosophy from Oscar Wilde.

The crappy pimple-cam photo is made moderately acceptable by converting it to black and white.

2007: The (Second) Last TV Election

30 October 2007 in Internet, Media, Politics by Stilgherrian | 3 comments

The next time someone says we’re experiencing Australia’s “first Internet election” or our “first YouTube election”, slap them. Slap them very hard.

Our politicians only see the Internet and the emerging social media as a different kind of TV. YouTube is a place to post commercials, MySpace and Facebook for media releases. Their use of social media is so clueless that geeks attending PodCamp in Perth this Saturday were laughing.

Far from this being the “first Internet election”, it’s more like the The Last Television Election. Maybe the second-last.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I posted my Meditation at 11,700 metres, 719km/h I was no longer on the aircraft. I back-dated the post to the time I wrote it, not when I posted it. Is that the right thing to do?

30 October 2007 by Stilgherrian | No comments

As I pack to return to Sydney, here’s a quick thank-you to everyone I met in Perth over the weekend — especially the organisers of PodCamp and everyone who had comments on my presentation. I’ll name names later, and post some more reflective thoughts as well as links to all the books and essays I mentioned over beers. I’m sure 5 hours on an aircraft will give me plenty of thinking time. Meanwhile, feel free to add me on Facebook.

29 October 2007 by Stilgherrian | No comments

Ride the Sex Train Gerbil!

29 October 2007 in Human Nature, Marketing, Photography by Stilgherrian | 5 comments

Photograph of billboard showing caption: Ride the Sex Train Gerbil

As dusk fell on Perth last night, I noticed this billboard advertising Sexpo with the odd imperative: Ride the Sex Train Gerbil! Erm, OK.

PodCamp Perth 2007: first comments

28 October 2007 in Blogging, Internet, Personal by Stilgherrian | 13 comments

Photograph of Leslie Nassar presenting at PodCamp Perth 2007

Beer. Yes, it needs to be said. Beer. More precisely, beer and geeks. Many of both. This is my clearest memory of yesterday’s PodCamp in Perth. Other memories may return shortly, once coffee and udon work their magic. Many brain cells will not. I bid them a fond farewell.

Nick Hodge has posted a much better lead photo for PodCamp Perth, showing Cameron Reilly’s passionate opening keynote, replete with a vast image of Che Guevara. It helped me feel more comfortable using an image of Joseph Goebbels in my own session.

I’ll explain the Goebbels reference when I post a version of my presentation. I’d prefer to post something of lasting value, not a raw dump, so it might take a couple of days. Plus I want to continue the dialogue I started about social media and the federal election.

I’m also writing a piece for Crikey tomorrow, and I’ll post a version here too.

I won’t bother listing the sessions. Nick and others have already written their initial impressions, including Cameron Reilly and Simone van Hattem and Michael Minutillo… I’ll complete all the linkage later too.

But for now, a rest and a read before catching up with people at the Belgian Beer Cafe. Yes, beer. Again.

Ah, beautiful Perth!

27 October 2007 in Personal, Photography by Stilgherrian | 1 comment

Photograph of a building site in Perth

I arrived after dark last night, had a bite to eat with friends and checked into the hotel very late. So I didn’t really see Perth until I opened the curtains this morning and saw… this! Glamorous, eh?

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